Alumni Services

Sharing stories through media

Vicki relishes her role as Media Producer that sees her filming and recording the people and places that make up the University community. She's also been working on the new Sharing things podcast that brings together students, staff and alumni for conversation and storytelling.

Vicki Bell

My background

I grew up in Edinburgh and wanted to stay here to study at Edinburgh College of Art. I completed the first year foundation course as I love art and experimenting creatively in different mediums. I always wanted to specialise in Film and TV as I’ve had a love of cinema since a young age. I originally specialised in drama: writing, directing, producing and editing my own work but through editing fellow students' documentaries I found an interest for real peoples’ stories. Several of the films I worked on as either director/writer or editor during University have been screened at festivals throughout Europe.

After graduating, I completed an internship at BBC Scotland working on a documentary series about British Pathé. I also worked freelance at several independent production companies. I started at the University a year after graduation as an archivist and video assistant before moving into my current Media Producer role.

At Edinburgh

There are so many amazing things happening in Edinburgh and around the world with links to the University and I want to share these stories in video.

I have learnt so much during my time within the University. I work as a Media Producer in the Video Production team within Comms and Marketing and my role covers all aspects of production from planning, through filming on location or in our studio, to editing and colour grading. The huge variety of projects that come through our department is amazing and I have been lucky to work with people from across the University collaborating and filming wonderful teachers, researchers, students, alumni and visitors! Every project is different and I’ve had the opportunity to film all sorts from an event with Bill Gates, to interviewing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, filming JK Rowling’s honorary degree (my first month at the University!), to Peter Higgs' Nobel Prize win response, to Midge Ure performing in the McEwan Hall! I also had a wonderful experience filming at the Venice Biennale art festival when alumna Rachel Maclean was representing Scotland with her film 'Spite Your Face'.

My aim for the future is to work on more projects exploring individuals within the University community. There are so many amazing things happening in Edinburgh and around the world with links to the University and I want to share these stories in video.

Sharing Things - a new podcast

This summer I worked on 'Sharing things', a new podcast produced by the Development and Alumni department along with student producer Amalie Sortland. I have really loved working on this project! I worked behind the scenes setting up the TV studio for the podcast and mixed the audio for the recordings. It was a pleasure to work with Amalie and it was fantastic to meet the diverse group involved in the series. It was so much fun recording the podcasts and I consider myself lucky that a lot of my job is fun and exciting!

Something I know...

A lot of creativity as well as technical skill go into planning, filming and editing. Often you will spend a lot longer finding the right angle (best perspective) for a shot than actually filming the shot. And editing can take a lot of trial and error before the video is finished – you can spend days editing a 1 minute video depending on the content.

Related links

Subscribe to Sharing things on Buzzsprout (trailer available now  - episodes released 26 September)

Sharing things website

Video Production