Read Marc Harvey’s guest blog below on his experience of rad2021. rad2021 began in April 2021 and will complete in December 2021.
If you were to ask me if the last 3 weeks that I have spent on location with Hello Halo filming the third season of River Hunters was easy, I’d love nothing more than to say it was. However, if I did that – I’d be lying. I’ve stayed in 4 different hotels, managed to lock myself out my room in every single one of them, multiple times. I’ve easily spent at least a full day in the car travelling on every type of road imaginable from various motorways to the narrowest, winding, terrifying country roads. I’ve had long days and the occasional sleepless night, and I doubted if I was cut out for this industry more than once.
That being said, if you were to ask me if the experience was enjoyable – you would receive a very quick and emphatic yes as a reply. These last 3 weeks; I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Leeds, Stirling, Inverness, and the North of Wales while stopping off at home in Glasgow in between each one of them. At least 1750 miles on the road seeing the most beautiful locations and meeting the most incredible crew I could have hoped to work with.
From running around Leeds city centre on a very hot Sunday hoping I’d put enough sun cream on, to being made to sit in my car in a field as our set had been invaded by cows – again hoping I’d put enough sun cream on. Being a part of such a big production will no doubt be one of the highlights of my time on the RAD programme.
It was a very busy three weeks filled with coffee orders, bad cups of tea made with a camping stove, driving down long roads being watched by drones (that was part of the filming, I’m not just paranoid!). My time out on location was career affirming in so many ways. And the fact that I am currently writing this while wanting to do it all over again should cast aside any of the doubts I was feeling.
This experience has only heightened my desire to keep pushing in this industry, and I can’t thank TRC and Hello Halo enough for giving me such a unique and remarkable opportunity.
rad2021 is a paid eight month traineeship within a Scottish independent television production company which includes full training throughout the placement.