contacting the BBC

Through some thought I thought there was no harm in contacting the BBC to see if anyone would help record a line for my animation, and who other better to voice the news reporter than an actual news reporter! So here was my email to the BBC.

I am currently studying BA(Hons) Animation at Leeds College of Art and am in my final year at university which leads me to want to go out with a bang, in terms of my final animation, so I was enquiring as to whether or not you talented people at the BBC would consider recording one of your news reporters read out a short paragraph from my script.

This was a fairly easy process but it wasn't going directly to anyone, it was an automated response system that told me someone would get in touch so already I had my doubts. But here was the email I received about 5 days after my query:

Hello Elliot,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

I am sorry to have to inform you that the BBC is unable to assist with this. Because of the unique way the BBC is funded, through the licence fee, we need to ensure that as much of our income as possible is spent on the television, radio and online programmes and services the BBC provides. It would not be appropriate use of our licence payers' money to help in individual projects such as yours however worthwhile. As the BBC receives many such requests I am sure you will appreciate that we cannot make exceptions to this.

Alternatively, the only other option I can think of would be to contact a presenter or reporter directly. This might be via their Twitter or if their Email address is available publically.

You could also contact your local BBC broadcasting house and ask to speak to a journalist to see if they could be of any further assistance.

Good luck with your college work!

Kindest Regards,

Michael Smith

BBC Enquiries Team

This was completely understandable after it was explained to me, so the only other way to go from here was to contact a journalist directly!

I chose to contact Mr Tim Wallcox as my character design was based around him and would be perfect if I could get him on board!

Elliot Gascoigne‏@ElliotAnimation

@BBCTimWillcox Hi Tim, I am currently studying BA(Hons) Animation LCA and was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me with my Final Major!

Being as though I couldn't contact him directly the only way was through tweeting him. This process has been beneficial to my module as contacting people is much harder than I thought due to privacy concerns and such but with the increase in social media hopefully this will supply an ease into direct contact with him.