Focus
Presenter and correct
An interview with Gia Milinovich
Gia has presented childrens' TV, sports channels, and reality TV shows but has developed a speciality in fronting technology and internet themed programmes. She's also a web designer, a film reviewer, and a technology consultant, as well as producing a number of programmes - from comedy to film. We prised her away from the gadgetry for a moment to give us an interview.
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Photo © Vincent Connare
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As I tend to research and write a lot of my own things, I actually I prefer the term 'Broadcast Journalist'. I think the name 'presenter' means that you just stand there, say what someone else wants you to say and you don't really get to add anything to the programme.
Obviously, all you tv producers out there, I'm perfectly capable of just being a 'presenter' as well. *Ahem*
How long have you been a presenter?
My first presenting job was in 1992. When all this used to be fields.
How did you get into presenting?
I had left school unsure of whether I wanted to go into journalism or acting. In the end I decided to study acting. After a couple years I realized that I wasn't really 'hungry' enough and was never going to ever earn the kind of living I wanted out of acting. About two weeks after I decided to pack in the acting, I went for an open audition for presenters for a new teenage entertainment programme... Out of almost 1,000 people, I ended up getting the job.
How did you find out about the open audition?
There was an ad for the open audition in Time Out and in Smash Hits, I believe. I saw it in Time Out. I decided to try it because I just decided that I wasn't going to earn a living as an actress and thought that I could probably present a TV programme very easily...
Can you tell us more about when you studied acting?
I studied Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota in the US and 'The Method' under Anna Strasberg (amongst others). At first I found the Method a completely bizarre experience - I remember spending about 3 days drinking an imaginary cup of coffee after doing this bizarre relaxation technique for 90 minutes a day... After about a month it suddenly 'clicked' and I started to really enjoy it actually. Shall I tell you what 'clicked'? This is embarrassing. I had to eat a lemon, an imaginary lemon. The night before I thought, 'I've never eaten a whole lemon before' so I went out to the green grocers, bought one, took it home and ate it. It made me feel incredibly ill. The next day I went in, did my 90 minutes of relaxation, then had to eat this bloody (imaginary) lemon. I sat there for about half an hour completely unable to eat this stupid lemon that only existed in my mind. I went up to my teacher, David, to tell him I was having a problem with the lemon and as soon as I opened my mouth to tell him I burst into floods of tears. He took me out of the room and was practically dancing around squealing, 'You've had a break through! You've had a break through! Oh, sweetie, you've had a break through!'
Has it helped you in your current field of employment?
When I think back to my childhood I realise that, though my mother thought I was just a lazy sod, my obsession with watching television was actually 'research'. I never sang pop songs into my hairbrush, I always played 'TV Presenter'. I used to make my own 'tv' programmes on my cassette recorder. Sometimes I was 'the host' of a music programme or an entertainment programme or often was 'the reporter' interviewing my mother, my friends or my sister who were playing various roles. I'd write the scripts, the jingles, the ads even and direct everyone - even telling them exactly what to say in response to my questions...
Throughout my teenage years I wrote and edited my school newspaper. I was lucky enough to have an inspiring Journalism teacher. He gave me a real love of writing that has stuck with me throughout my life.
Those two things - 'playing' tv presenter and an interesting in 'finding the story' - more than any subsequent training, really shaped my career.
Do you actively learn new skills or train regularly?
All of my presenting skills have come from actually doing the job. I'm an extremely harsh critic of myself and have never once been satisfied with anything I've done. Every job I do is a chance for me to improve in some way.
Have you ever done a presenter course?
No and I wouldn't recommend just taking any old course either. Most courses don't have the time to really teach you anything important. They also just tend to churn out fairly rubbish showreels that end up being tossed into the bins of producers and agents all across the country.
The best thing to do is to get a friend with a miniDV camera to go out with you for a day and do some pieces to camera and some vox pops. Make sure that you look and sound absolutely amazing, that you are comfortable and confident on camera and then get 100 copies done and send it out to everyone.
And cross your fingers.
How did you get your first agent?
I had done a few presenting jobs and thought it might be time for an agent. I made up a reel and then went to Spotlight's office to look through their books. Every time I came to a presenter who was doing the kinds of programmes I'd like to do I made a note of their agent's details. I sent out about 15 reels, three agents got back to me and I ended up going with the one who had the most successful presenters.
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| Gia Milinovich with Gareth Jones
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My first presenting job was on a teenage entertainment programme co-hosting with Gareth Jones who is best known for How2.
About a half an hour before going into the studio I was absolutely terrified sitting in my dressing room thinking that I had no idea whatsoever what to do. I was convinced that they had made a mistake hiring me, and that I was going to disappoint everyone.
I knocked on Gareth's door, went in, told him that I had no idea how to present a live, unscripted programme and that I really needed help. He spent the next 15 minutes telling me everything I ever needed to know about presenting. He's my best friend to this day.
How do you usually find work - is it all though your agent?
It's a bit of both really- sometimes things come through my contacts, sometimes through my agent. Just because you get an agent doesn't mean the work is suddenly going to start rolling in, both of you together and separately still need to work very hard building relationships with producers and commissioners.
What do you look for (and what would you avoid) when you're looking for an agent?
My agent, Susan Rider, works harder than anyone I know, agent or not, and really is one of the 'good guys'. I can talk to her honestly about anything and she really understands exactly what I want to do and where I should be heading with my career. She's part of my family, really.
I think it's very important that you can talk to your agent, that they understand what you want and, most importantly, that they have experience and real relationships with producers and commissioners.
Avoid any agent who seems really eager to sign you up immediately especially if you don't have any experience. Avoid anyone who wants you to pay them anything. Avoid anyone who doesn't have a single successful presenter on their books.
Is it important to have a specialist agent who deals in presenters?
Absolutely. They need to have strong relationships with producers and commissioners throughout the whole business. Acting agents don't always deal with the right people within television in order to get presenting jobs.
How old were you when you realised this is what you wanted to do? and has it gone according to plan or have you been surprised the route it's taken you?
It wasn't a career I had ever thought of despite my 'playing TV presenter' as a kid. I've also never really had a grand plan about my career so I've really, in many ways, let it take me along to places I never expected to be... Which is a good thing in some ways.
What interests you (or puts you off) in a job offer? - What would you avoid and what sort of things generally appeal?
What interests me? Money. Ha! No. Seriously. I need to actually be able to earn a living and have occasionally turned things down because they didn't pay well enough. The worst offer I ever had was £10 an hour. That's what I pay my cleaner.
I have an idea of what I'd like to be doing in 10 years' time, so I would avoid doing anything that might veer me off course, but generally if the programme is interesting, the production values are high enough and the people are good fun, then I'm up for anything.
Ever been asked to do something you objected to?
Yes. A director once wanted me to do a piece to camera with a really stupid hat on my head. It made me look and feel like a prat and I just didn't want to wear it. He kept insisting and kept insisting. In the end I said, 'OK, how about I do one take without it on and one take with it on and you can choose the best one in the edit.' He agreed. So I did a good take without the hat on and the just did a really rubbish one- I kept looking slightly off camera- with it on. The director only had one option.
What sort of person, in your opinion, makes a good presenter? And What sort of skills are generally needed to be a presenter?
A good presenter is someone who is interested in imparting information. They are a conduit through which questions the audience want asked and information about the subject pass through. I really don't believe it's 'all about the presenter' at all. You need to be able to ask the right questions in order to find out the right information and to keep the flow of the programme going. You need to be interested in people. You need to be friendly, open, interested and interesting. You need to be able to remain calm when everything around you is failing and you've got at least 3 people screaming madly in your ear.
Do you think the specialist 'presenter' courses that there are out there would offer anything to a budding presenter?
I'm not a fan of presenting courses generally. I only know of one presenter who has gone on one of those courses who is working. He is an expert in a subject, had already had some presenting experience and the channel he was working for decided to send him to Pozitiv Productions for a bit of extra training before starting a live programme.
Most courses don't have the time to really give you the help you need to learn anything useful.
What do you wish you'd been told by a presenter before you started? Or what WERE you told by 'those in the know' and how much of that has been helpful to you?
I wish I'd been told how difficult it is. My agent says it's 99% rejection and if you don't have an agent then you have to deal with that rejection day in and day out entirely on your own. You need to have an incredibly thick skin and you can't be upset when after auditioning and auditioning several times for one job, the producer phones you up to tell you that she really wants you to do it, but she just needs to run it by the commissioner... only for her to come back and tell you that the commissioner wants someone else. Again and again.
Being second choice doesn't pay the bills.
A couple years after I started presenting I had some very big disappointments and I have to admit that it really did upset me. I'm a delicate little flower underneath my bravado...
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| Ed Sanders and Gia Milinovich on the set of Demolition Day for Channel 4
Photo © Bob Hobbs / Anglia Television |
I certainly wouldn't say it's glamorous, but it can definitely be exciting... and pretty boring as well. One day you can be in New York City interviewing a band, a director, a film star... and a couple days later you can be in Grantham talking to people about their local supermarket...
It's certainly a varied job.
Was it easy, after having the first job to move on and find further work?
I was very lucky when I started out because the channel I was working for hired me to start a new series immediately. When that finished I was hired by someone else to write and present a travel series... then the producer of that hired me to write and co-produce a history series for kids... and then... nothing... for about 9 months. During that time I worked as an Assistant Producer and an Assistant Director on several different things that allowed me to learn much more about the whole process of making programmes than I ever could as a presenter. I remember, however, spending £100 or so paying for my first Spotlight entry and wondering if it was a silly waste of my quickly dwindling money. The first day it came out I was asked in for an audition at Sky Sport... they had seen me in Spotlight.
You've fallen into a very specialised field - was that intentional or did you just find it easier to talk about topics which interested you?
In 1994 I was asked to write a piece on technology for a BBC Radio 5 computer, technology and internet programme called 'The Big Byte' as a kind of audition piece. The producer liked it and hired me as the 'Computer Culture Correspondent'. I didn't really know much about the Internet or computers at all. I had had a ZX-81 when I was a kid and messed around on the nascent 'net with friends as a teenager, but I certainly wasn't a geek...
After that I did the odd computer and technology programme, mainly because at that time there weren't many women who had heard of the Internet let alone who had used it, were interested in it and could talk about it.
While I was talking time off after having my son in the mid-90s I decided to specialise as a computer, technology and science presenter. There are hundreds, if not thousands of competent jobbing presenters out there. Anyone can tell you what a beach resort is like or talk to an interior designer about blinds... but not everyone knows or cares about bandwidth, GRID computing, artificial intelligence, Higg's Bozons, Feynman or alternate reality gaming.
When my baby son was sleeping I'd devour general science books on physics and astronomy, I taught myself Photoshop and HTML coding, I got online and learned everything I could about it...
When I decided to go back to work in the late-90s, I was hired to present 'The Kit' a technology/internet programme on BBC Knowledge and have been doing science and technology programmes ever since.
I am now 'an expert' in the field. So much so that I have worked as a Youth and Technology Consultant for the mobile phone industry, a Web Producer for both TV networks and universities and even sat on a DTI working group aiming to raise the media profile of women in IT... and my husband is a high-energy particle physicist who works at CERN in Geneva... the place where the World Wide Web was invented.
Does it pay to be versatile? Is there such a thing as 'just' a presenter?
It pays to be versatile and be able to handle pretty much anything that thrown at you- from being able to interview a Hollywood film star to standing in front of an audience of 50,000 and broadcasting live to millions of people around the world to interviewing a volunteer fireman who enjoys fishing... all of which I've done. But there are a lot of 'just presenters' out there... a lot of under-employed 'just presenters'.
I never started presenting because I want to be famous. I always wanted to have a long career in it because I genuinely enjoy programme-making. I saw relatively early on that by not becoming an expert there was a real chance that as soon as someone younger, newer, cheaper came along I'd be tossed aside. Now, because of my knowledge and experience, I am valuable... albeit to a much smaller number of programmes... but my chances of being hired have gone from 1 in 100 to maybe 1 in 4 or 5.
How much unpaid work do you have to do?
I won't do unpaid presenting work any more. I don't even do low-paid presenting work any more. I figure that after 13 years I'm past that now.
What's the hardest aspect of doing what you do?
The uncertainty and the inability to plan ahead. I have no idea what I'm doing in two weeks' time. I might be working, I might not. It's very, very difficult to get cheap flights to go on holiday, that's for sure.
You've worked in kids TV and sports presenting too. Were there different demands made on you, did you find you needed different skills?
Kids' tv is a really great place to start because it's fun, you don't have to be serious and the interviews aren't exactly heavy. It gives you a good basic grounding in presenting, but it can be very difficult for people to move out of it. Though I'm not a massive sport fan, I learned so much during my time at Sky Sports. I presented a studio programme and live outside broadcasts from stadiums filled with tens of thousands of people. After that everything else has been relatively easy.
What do you prefer - writing, presenting, scripting, producing - or do you prefer the all-round approach?
Ideally, I'd like to write, produce, present, direct, edit, commission and hand myself my BAFTA. Not really (well....). I have a lot to say about a lot of things and though I'm happy doing the odd day here or there of just 'stand there, say that' presenting, I am most happy when I can take an active role in programme making.
You seem to have had quite a hand in producing - what does that usually involve for you and how did you become involved in that side of things?
I'm not very good at sitting around and hoping that someone else will come up with an idea for a programme that I'd be interested in working on and offer me a job... so I just started doing it myself.
I've always felt that my role as a presenter has been to impart information and producing is the natural step for me to take.
What sort of work do you do between presenting jobs?
I mainly do New Media work. I'm currently working on the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention. They are going to be looking at New Media this year... and they've hired me as the New Media consultant. The convention is attended by the top 300 people in telly. So, if I'm feeling bold, I might bug Michael Grade for a job... Also, just this morning I was hired to produce all the web stuff for the new Alex Garland/Danny Boyle film starring Cillian Murphy.... See? The 'expert thing' does have its advantages.
How hard is it to be taken seriously as a female presenter who specialises in technology?
Not very difficult at all... because I know my stuff. I'm an expert, remember? :)
Is it a very competitive area? Do you find you have more prejudice for being a woman, for being a 'presenter', or being American?
TV production people don't like presenters. You are generally seen as an airhead with nothing to add to the world at all. It can get a little tiring to be tarred with that brush time and again.
I most definitely have a hard time because of my American accent. Even though I've lived in the UK for more than half my life and honestly feel British, the way I pronounce my vowels seems to preclude me from presenting certain programmes... apparently.
How much unpaid work does a presenter have to do to get the ball rolling so production companies start approaching you for work?
I would say 'none'. Let's be honest here, people are making money out of television programmes whether it's Big Brother or some piddly little gambling channel on cable. As the face of that programme you should not ever be expected to work for nothing just because you want to break in to the business. I feel very strongly about this on the production side of television as well. Too many people are being exploited in this business- working illegally long hours for illegally low wages just to get their foot in the door... yet the top execs are still raking in the big money. I just feel that's wrong. I don't understand how they think people are supposed to live and eat unless they have some money.
How often do you update your showreel? How important is a showreel for a presenter?
You absolutely have to have a showreel. I update my fairly regularly, but then I've got a computer and editing software and can do it all myself. I'd do it considerably less often if I had to pay for it or blag it. But, yes, you really do need a showreel.
Do you prefer working with scripts, autocue or ear pieces? Have you done much live work? Is there anything that differs between that style of work and pre-recorded?
They all require completely different skills so it's like comparing apples with oranges. Doing a recorded studio programme with autocue is like a walk in the park- easy and relaxing... doing a live, unscripted outside broadcast with an audience is like driving a Formula One racing car- you have to be absolutely on the ball and entirely focused or you will crash, big time.
Have you ever had problems coming to terms with any technology you've had to use as a presenter on a show? Do you try to keep up to date with new technology or do you usually involve yourself in research before a job?
I've been lucky enough not to have had any Tomorrow's World disasters.
Have you ever had do pieces about topics you have no interest or knowledge in, and is that a harder task than those you could talk about for hours?
I can't even count the number of times I've had to do things that I'm not personally interested in... but then my job isn't about what I like or what might interest me. At this point I think I'm able to talk about just about anything for, well, long enough at least. Because I make sure I'm well prepared before doing anything, I tend to absorb enough information to get me by for the few minutes of the item.
What are the sorts of things you've had to do deal with on set which no one warned you about? Are things like the weather the presenter's greatest enemy?
I've experienced just about everything one can imagine - from a tape not being cued up or the autocue going down on a live programme to stressed out directors screaming in my ear whilst I'm in the middle of interviewing someone to the person I was interviewing live on air starting to spew out a string of swear words to someone else libeling another person and having to deal with that... so a bit of wind messing up my hair has been the least of my worries.
Have you discovered any benefits to promoting yourself online - particularly as a presenter known for being interested in technology?
I'm not entirely sure I've noticed any real benefits to be honest. Maybe I've had thousands more people look at my CV or watch my reels, but I've got no way of knowing who is a producer and who is just a freak...
Would you recommend having your own blog or website to other performers? Does it generate you any work?
Website? Yes. Photos, reels and CVs should be as readily available online as possible. Blog? No. Unless you are obsessed with writing, have lots of time to spend on it and have something interesting to talk about. Just because you blog doesn't mean the world is suddenly going to turn up, think you're wonderful and make you a star.
Are there any downsides to being so available on the internet as an artist?
I have general 'stalker' fears like any woman who has been on TV, but then I also want to be myself... and being myself means being a geek I'm afraid and being a geek means being online and available.
Is being a presenter a 24 hour on-call job and if so, how do you manage that with your other work and family life?
It's very difficult to be honest. I have a son and my husband works out of the country. Commissioners seem entirely unable to make decisions so everything is left to the very last minute and everyone is expected to drop everything and move up to Leeds for 3 months for the shoot. That's extremely difficult for me to organise in a matter of days...
Any advice to those who want to 'be a presenter'?
Don't quit your day job.
You can keep up to date with Gia's current projects via her agent, Sue Rider Management.
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