Suzanne Bliss

What’s your career highlight so far?

My favourite production to work on was ‘Asia’ - it was an ambitious, interesting production with a huge team and the longest time I’ve spent on a single show. I was proud to work on a series for primetime BBC One that was seen by an audience of millions, including my friends and family.

I gained experience that you don’t get on many productions, including watching the BBC Wales Orchestra record some of the specially composed music for the series, and then sitting in over Zoom as David Attenborough recorded the voiceover for one of the episodes!

What did you most like about studying at Solent?

Life was really fun as a Solent student and I had a good balance between studies and social life. I joined Sonar TV as Head of Post Production and we filmed events and matches with Solent sports teams and other societies, which gave me further editing practice and enabled me to hone my skills.

I also liked that Solent was based in the centre of the city and not on a campus, so we had everything like shops, clubs and attractions all within walking distance. Because Southampton isn’t a huge city it has everything you need but isn’t as expensive as other cities, and didn’t feel overwhelming.

How did your degree prepare you for work?

My lecturers gave us all help and career advice, and in my third year, we had a unit that was focused on preparing us for life beyond University. We were taught how to look for work, how to write our CV and we made a showreel of our future plans and goals.

Guest speakers often came in to talk to us, editors including Walter Murch, Mark Sanger and Mick Audsley; they spoke to us about their experiences and showed us their edit timelines, which was interesting to see. Mick even joined us in one of our seminars and gave us feedback on our edits!

We also had a guest speaker come in from Envy post-production, and following that I signed up for work experience at Envy during the summer holidays, shadowing the runners and sitting in with editors working on The Chase and Top Gear. Additionally, I worked for one of Solent’s in-house agencies, Solent Productions, as a data wrangler and an editor at summer festivals such as Glastonbury and Blissfields, creating news stories from around the festivals.

I also had the opportunity to attend the Royal Television Society’s Meet the Professionals event in Bournemouth and got to chat to industry professionals from a range of careers, getting helpful advice about my CV and how to apply for jobs. A couple of years after graduating I went back as a professional with Woodcut Media to help inspire the students coming up behind me.

Take any opportunity to attend talks with guests speakers, or opportunities to network - meeting and connecting with people could lead to a job down the line if you make a good impression

What were the facilities like?

The resources at Solent were really good – I remember coming for an open day and seeing all the studio spaces and that is what drew me to the university. Getting the opportunity to work within the studios was great experience and on top of this, there were edit suites with all the relevant software available to use, cameras/sound/lighting available to rent from the hatch - it was all at our fingertips to try out.