What Exactly Is A...Deputy Creative Director?
23 Aug 07
As part of our ongoing series of articles looking at the varied roles and people that work in television, we talk to David Flynn, Deputy Creative Director at Endemol.
Job title: Deputy Creative Director
Department: Creative Unit
Company: Endemol UK
Describe your job in one sentence
Creating new TV formats and pitching the ideas to commissioning editors at all the channels.
What would your average day comprise?
Every day is spent trying to develop new ideas. So I’ll organise brainstorms around specific briefs with different groups of people from the company, organise runthroughs of new gameshows, and meet different commissioning editors from different channels to pitch ideas to them.
Do you need/use any particular qualifications?
The great thing about this job is that you don’t need any qualifications to do it. In fact when we employ new creatives their qualifications are the last thing we look at.
What skills do you think are important for your job?
You need to have lots of ideas. Most people have one or two ideas they think would make a great TV show. But we need to be generating probably around ten a week. You need to not be too precious about your idea. The best formats are created by taking an idea, tearing it to pieces, and putting it back together again. This isn’t helped by people being over protective of what they’ve come up with. And you need to be able to pitch. There’s a lot of mystique around this but in fact there’s only two things you need to be able to do to pitch well – firstly you need to get on with people, be able to strike an instant rapport, and secondly you need to be able to think on your feet and respond to their feedback.
What were you doing 3 years ago?
Three years ago I was Joint Head of Two Rooms, an innovative creative set up at Endemol where two creative teams competed against each other on the same briefs.
What do you want to be doing in 3 years time?
One of the great things about our industry is that you don’t know where you’ll be working next. But whatever I’m doing if I can be the man behind the next big global hit format I’ll be fairly happy.
Which other departments/people do you work with?
I work with our other Execs when we get a commission and we’re trying to deliver the show to the broadcaster.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
Every day is different. One day you might be devising a big factual event, the next creating a new daytime gameshow.
What do you enjoy least?
When a great idea is rejected it’s one of the most demoralising things in the world. You need real resilience to pick yourself up and rejoin the fray.
What’s the most exciting thing you’ve been involved in?
Creating Goldenballs with the team and then being involved in seeing this format go from a game we played around the table to a big daytime hit was incredibly satisfying.
How varied is your work day to day, week to week, month to month?
Because we work across Endemol’s output every day is different and brings a different challenge.
Is there an expected career path in your field?
Having full time creatives is a relatively new aspect of our industry, so there is no easy career path. In fact until my latest job, I suggested and forged my own jobs within the company. However, get your name on a good successful idea and everyone will want to give you a job.
What advice do you wish you’d been given when you were 18?
Get a haircut.
Do you have a dream job?
I’m doing it.
Did you always want to work in this field?
No, when I was a student I was quite puritanical and liked ‘difficult’ films. But once I joined the real world I learnt to take myself less seriously.
Which television program do you wish you’d worked on?
The first series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The atmosphere must have been amazing.
Desert Island Discs: One album, one book, one television series, one luxury item
Album – Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Book – New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
TV Series – The Sopranos
What was your ‘big break’?
I got accepted on the Endemol Creative Interns scheme in 1999.
Thanks David!
