An independent television production company is always juggling several projects at the one time and at the moment for the company I manage, ShinaWiL it's Popstars, a budget broadcast for Fianna Fβil later this week and pre-production for the Esat Young Scientist Exhibition, which is in January.
My days always start in pretty much the same way - bringing two of my four children to national school. I like to do that because chances are they'll be in bed by the time I get home.
As Popstars is currently in production, we have two offices at the moment - the Popstars office in Windmill Lane and ShinaWiL's office in town. I move between the two of them during the day. We've filmed up to programme nine of the series and have edited up to programme five, so we are ahead of what you actually see on television.
On Monday, the first thing that happens in the Popstars office is a production meeting where the team of 12 sit down and plan for the coming week. If there has been any filming over the weekend, which there usually is, we review how that went.
Now that the programme is on air, the first thing that I will do is check the ratings - they were very good for the first programme, so it's up to us to make sure we build on that and keep the public hooked.
Popstars is an international format and we're the 25th country to produce it. No country to date has produced a group that has made it internationally, so that's what we're trying to achieve with the Irish programme.
Lunch is usually a sandwich on the go and the afternoon can be spent juggling several things. There are meetings with the commissioning editor at RT╔ when we show the next couple of Popstars programmes. The feedback is usually very positive, but there might be some things that need to be changed, so after the meeting I'll go back and brief the team.
Then it's back to the ShinaWiL office to look at the graphics that have been worked up for the Budget programme. After that, there's a meeting at Esat to discuss the Young Scientists programme. We're now at the stage when we've started to discuss who should present it, so I hope that we'll firm that up soon.
Then I need to spend some time assembling a production team to work on the programme.
I'll also try to make some time to work on new programme ideas. Independent television companies go from production to production and Popstars ends in February, so you always have to think and plan ahead.
One of the ideas is a documentary following the group that emerges out of Popstars.
The plan will be to take our ideas to the international television festivals, to see if can we sell them.
I've been in this business for 20 years and started ShinaWiL in 1999. It's a tough business in many ways. The hours are long and uncertain, so I'm always amazed at the huge amount of CVs we get in from young people wanting a job.
I get home between 8.30 and 9 p.m. and by then I'll usually have switched off from business and be ready to relax.
In conversation with Bernice Harrison
