One Man, Ten Bow Ties
James Page was quite relaxed on his last day at FITV. By mid afternoon, he had presented his last ‘Falklands In Focus’ and had recorded his final 60 Second News.
He describes his nine month internship at FITV as “wild and hilariously fun”. It was way back in May 2016 when James arrived to start his internship with the local television station after graduating with a degree in TV and Film Production from Bournemouth University.
Part of a new crew of three interns, James wasn’t alone in finding his way around the town. Federica De Caria had been on the same flight to start a six month internship and they joined Traighana Smith who was a few weeks into her one year stint.
It is rather a long flight and James arrived dazed and rather disorientated, “I was hungry, very hungry. I remember thinking ‘I hope they have Oreos here’.” Other than that, his first thoughts were of the vastness of the place, “I felt like I was in Middle Earth, only rather than majestically riding a horse I was majestically sitting in a 4x4.”
“It was clear from James’s first news broadcast that he wasn’t going to be wearing a tie,” Station Manager Paula Fowmes reflects, “He seemed to have quite a collection of bow-ties and so that became his signature.”
It wasn’t long before the new recruits were thrown into not one, but two massive wildlife stories. First a sei whale had been found beached on Cape Dolphin. Traighana and Federica were dispatched to report on the scientists taking samples that weekend. Then later that day reports started to emerge that there were masses of penguins dead at Saunders Island. It wasn’t the best introduction to Falklands wildlife, but James threw himself into Saunders Island and, despite the awful storyline he was following, enjoyed his time there. “I am so incredibly grateful to the Pole-Evans family for letting me share their home in both winter and summer, and especially Suzan who allowed me to film her constantly for an entire weekend.”
Day-to-day work at FITV was busy for James as he took on the role of updating the station’s social media output leading to FITV’s first delve into Instagram. Following the success of this, James explored the excitement surrounding the mobile sensation that was Pokemon Go. He managed to find several Pokemons including one in front of the Cathedral and successfully captured a Zubat on the jetty.
There were times when he was working until the early hours to get a story finished before the deadline but, “I was able to film incredible wildlife and landscapes, meet lovely people, develop and plan my own ideas into reality and eat endless amounts of cake.”
James does plan to come back at some stage, particularly if he can squeeze in a trip down to South Georgia or Antarctica, “The Falkland Islands were my home for nine months and I will always feel connected to them in some way.”
