Hi, I’m Olumide. I grew up in Berkshire, but I also lived in Nigeria for 3 years from 13 to 16. I came back to England for 6th form and finally came to Bristol to go to university. My friends would describe me as being joyful, creative, and sociable.
I’m going into my 3rd year of studying Photography at UWE, and it’s going great. I love it! It’s definitely put me in the right direction and has made me want to become a creative director.
I’ve always been an ideas guy, and I love working in teams over working on my own when the team is right, and we have a good vision for what we’re doing.
I was recently part of a project, called Mandem (an online media platform that offers a unique space for young men of colour to express themselves through writing, music and film) that I was a director of, sort of unknowingly at the start, but over time it developed into more. We’ve made our own clothing since, and been featured on BBC.
That was the first time I called myself a director. We had lots of other people involved and I loved it. Right now, I’m still freelancing, still selling t-shirts, and having a really good time. University has given me the space to explore my creative career and options, and I’m working really hard to try and make something of myself.
Babbasa gave me the opportunity to have a placement at Plimsoll Productions. TV is normally a very hierarchal thing but this internship wasn’t like that. I got insight into workflow, how the company runs, and I got to have a really good experience in a couple of areas that I’d be interested in working in long-term.
The experience gave me clarity about TV as an industry and how I’d approach getting a career. One of the key areas that I’d like to work in is development – research and ideas – where you write treatments to try to sell the show.
Being an ideas guy, that seemed insane to me as a job. To see that guys are reading books, or having brainstorm meetings while getting paid for it was crazy.
After having that experience, a career in TV is definitely something that I would try and go for. It’s crazy that I was asked to come back in a year’s time as well after I graduate.
If I hadn’t had the experience, I would have assumed that I could only pursue shooting and directing, but now they’re not my primary goal. But you don’t know that until you’re there.
Before the experience, I didn’t think I saw myself there, and didn’t think I’d fit, but that was probably more down to a lack of understanding of what it was actually like.
The opportunity from Babbasa was insanely important because the real noticeable thing at this internship was the lack of diversity, which is something I had the chance to talk to the director about. He explained to me that, gone are the days when it’s great to have a bunch of middle-class graduates. They now need to have a broader scope – there was another guy there on a different inclusion scheme there as well. The lack of diversity in TV was part of why I didn’t see myself as a potential employee at first. That’s why for young people, and especially for people of colour, these opportunities are incredibly important.
Ultimately, I want to be self-employed, but to be self-employed full-time is a journey. I’ll probably need to be full-time employed and TV is somewhere that I can see myself and would like to be. I think Plimsoll is a really forward-thinking company who are taking diversity and inclusion seriously. There are definitely steps forward in diversity, but companies have just got to keep making more room for these kinds of opportunities.
I’m really grateful to Babbasa. It’s ridiculous to think that I got paid for my placement as well because I could not have done it for free.