Gemma Nunn visited a class to discuss her job working on the BBC show Peaky Blinders. Her role involved creating character profiles to help the production team and cast understand each character's traits. She researched props and costumes to further describe the characters and setting of the period drama. Gemma explained how character profiles are crucial for filmmakers to share a consistent vision of each character. She then discussed her career path, starting with studying media locally and in London, followed by work experience placements on film sets. This experience led to her role casting extras and creating character profiles for Peaky Blinders. Gemma advised the class on audience research and challenging conventions to engage viewers in their short films.

1. Lucy Clarke
CASE STUDY-JOBS IN MEDIA

2. To help us with our case study, the class had a visitor called Gemma Nunn
who worked on the team of BBC two’s Peaky Blinders. It was Gemma’s job to
cast certain roles and make character profiles for the production team and
cast, so they understood the programmes characters more and detailed each
characters traits. She also looked into props and costumes for each character
to help describe them and detail them. This helped the programme as the
costume and make up may have made the representation of the characters era
more obvious, as peaky blinders in not set in the modern day, meaning
Gemma will have had to research when the programme “Peaky Blinders” was
set. She also had a lot of responsibility, as she had to find the appropriate cast
to play the parts of extras, who suit the role.
GEMMA NUNN

3. Character profiles are a crucial point for any film maker to consider, and just
like Gemma, there are set jobs in the media industry to make character
profiles for films and shows. Character profiles are important, as when making
a show like peaky blinders, there are many people working alongside the
narrative, who may all have different perceptions of a certain character and
people may visualise the characters traits differently. By having a character
profile, which describes the character thoroughly, each person can share the
same perception for this character and the characters traits and characteristics
become more clear. This also helps the cast know who how to play the certain
character as they understand their point of view. The character profiles should
explain the following, their nationality, characteristics and traits, strengths and
weaknesses, costume, history, inner presence and outer presence. Because of
character profiles it can help producers make the characters seem vivid, real,
alive. I could consider this as I start to make my short film.
CHARACTER PROFILES

4. Gemma Nunn then spoke to us about how she got to do her job she does
now. She was an inspiration to us, as she studied media at our school, then
moved to a university in London, to study it further, in which she took part in
many work experience placements, with in media, such as on set, doing jobs
like fetching equipment and sorting last minute costumes. She said “this
helped me as I first hand witnessed the work that goes behind making all
these television programmes” After this she received the job of working on
set for Peaky Blinders to cast certain people/character roles of extras. She is
also put in charge of making the character brief and finding the right person
to fit the role and style them. “Looking outside of the box and having a
creative flare lead me to success and not giving up. Hard work and
determination pays off in the long run.”
HOW SHE GOT HERE

5. We then got the change to individually talk to Gemma and to discuss our short films
before we told her our ideas, she told us “as a producer, you must stick to the codes and
conventions to a short film, but challenging these codes could lead to the audience
excitement as it is away from their comfort zone.” this gave me the want to do something
different from what I would normally do. “making a short film is difficult, but the
research behind it matters as it develops your understanding of what should be included
in a short film” Gemma told us that it was crucial to understand how a short film
differentiates from a normal full length film, as more information needs to be packed
into a smaller time gap and there still needs to be a clear narrative structure. Another
good piece of advice I received from Gemma, was “audience theory will help you
understand the audience you wish to target your film to. By understanding your audience,
you will know what they expect and appreciate, creating enjoyment as they watch the
short film. Also, by researching your audience, you can make your film relate to them
more. This should be done before planning filming as you can research into what
audience enjoy which kind of film./narratives.” “you would want to start distributing
questionnaires to different age groups to find your target audience and reading through
their feedback, as they will indicate what narrative structures they like, which helps you
decide a genre for your film and could give you hints as to what to do.”
ADVICE