GET ME THE PRODUCER!

PROGRAMME 1

ACTIVITIES

Guidance

Students can be split into pairs/small groups for initial discussions and brought back together to compare answers. For some classes, whole-group discussion may be appropriate. Students will need paper, pens, and flip-chart paper.

Before viewing

In their smaller groups, ask the students to discuss who they think is the most important person in a TV show. Collect the answers.

Ask students to list in priority order what they think leadership skills and qualities are. What makes a good leader? What makes a bad leader? What motivates them as team members? Again, retain answers.

After viewing

To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.

The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.

The challenge
Clip 1: 08.20 – 09.10

• Opens with the narrator saying, 'For the first week, Greg has set the challenge of…'
• Closes with the narrator saying, '…must include a cooking Item and a demonstration.'

Think of programme ideas that would cover a 'cooking item' and a 'demonstration'. Can you link them together in some way?

The producers
Clip 2: 08.50 – 11.20

• Opens with the narrator saying, 'Forty-two-year-old property developer, Karen Seeberg…'
• Closes with Johnathan saying, 'Are youse all in agreement?'

Ask students whose team they would rather be in? For whom would they prefer to work? Are these answers the same? Why? (These questions can be asked at various points during the programme(s) as answers may change and that can give rise to further discussion.)

The verdict
Clip 3: 40.18 – 45.40

• Opens with the narrator saying, 'It will be up to the editors to deliver the verdict to the teams.'
• Closes with Greg Dyke saying, 'Overall, it looked a bit like student telly.'

Ask students to comment on Greg's decision. Would they have made the same decision? Why/why not? If they were to send someone home, who would it be?

Ask students to imagine they are giving professional counselling or careers advice to Johnathan and Karen about their leadership skills and management styles. What advice would they give each of them? How could students help their respective team members cope?

Ask students what could the two teams have done differently to have produced improved results? Get them to fold a piece of paper in half, or draw a line down the centre. On the left-hand side write a list of 'What they did' and on the right their suggestions to improve matters, 'What they should have done'. The lists can include both Producers' and team members' actions/decisions/comments.

The right mix
Clip 4: 45.19 – 47.10

• Opens with the narrator saying, 'As well as having an endless supply of ideas…'
• Closes with Greg Dyke saying, '…where was the leadership?'

Greg says that production is a combination of ideas and leadership. What else is 'a combination of ideas and leadership'? Are these the two most important work skills? What other skills do students think are important in the world of work?

Karen agreed to stay on in the lowly runner role. Did the students think Karen would agree to this? What would they have done in her place?

Predictions

Ask students, either individually or in their groups if appropriate, who they think at this stage a) should win (ie, their choice) and b) will win (ie, Greg Dyke's choice). Retain answers, labelled 'Programme 1 – Selection'. Repeat after each programme for comparison and to see how the students' attitudes change as the series (and their understanding of the issues and personalities involved) develops. Can any student select the eventual winner at this stage?

Further activities

Rob was concerned that one of the actresses they were interviewing 'sounded German' (21.29 – 22.49). Would there be an 'issue' if a German-sounding actress was asked to do a piece on wartime food rationing?

Ask students to draw up outlines for further programme items for either 'Mind the Generation Gap' or 'Re-Fresh' (38.37).

Return to the questions asked before the programme (Who is the most important person in a TV show? List in priority order what they think leadership skills and qualities are. What makes a good leader? What makes a bad leader? What motivates them as team members?) Now ask students to answer those questions again. Compare their second responses to the first ones. What have they learned from this?

Students could discuss the following points in pairs or threes and then feed their responses into a class matrix on the board or a flip chart.

• Should your main loyalty be to yourself, your team or your leader, or to the task itself? Why? What are the implications of your choices here?
• Should you always show loyalty to your leader/boss in public (despite what you may actually think of him or her in private)?
• Is it acceptable to work for someone for whom you feel no loyalty?
• What do you feel about the levels of loyalty shown in the programme, both from team members and from the two leaders (the producers)?