The studio assistant, sometimes known as a runner, supports the studio manager and studio coordinator by taking on many of the day-to-day jobs that come up all the time in a busy studio facility.
The studio assistant, sometimes known as a runner, supports the studio manager and studio coordinator by taking on many of the day-to-day jobs that come up all the time in a busy studio facility. This could be providing admin support, greeting the cast and crew, printing timesheets or rate cards, answering the phone, ordering taxis, or making sure there is enough tea and coffee and ordering the lunch for meetings.
Being a studio assistant is the perfect opportunity to see how a studio operation runs and to learn the pace and rhythm of programme production. For example, studio assistants quickly become aware of how many days it takes to build a studio set, or to rehearse and record a sitcom, or how many cameras are needed for a chat show. If a studio assistant is keen to learn, they will soon start to understand how to run a production effectively and how the simplest things can hold up a production and waste valuable time – the main presenter not being able to find their dressing room, for example, or the transport failing to meet them at the agreed time.
If they are good, a studio assistant could go on to become a studio coordinator or perhaps a studio manager, or they might choose to take what they have learnt in the studio facility and move into production management and perhaps, one day, produce their own programmes. If they have the right personality, they will soon become known throughout the whole facility and a part of the studio’s success. It’s a wonderful place to take your first steps in the world of broadcasting.