Valerie Bundy has spent nearly 30 years working as a theatre actor, before quietly building a second career writing, directing and producing her own short films on next to no budget.

In this episode, Val talks honestly about breaking in without drama school on her CV, the years of touring theatre that followed, and the confidence it eventually took to call herself a writer.

In this episode:

• The last-minute phone call that led to her first professional job
• Years of touring theatre, from performances in schools to small venues and theatre festivals
• Writing, producing and funding her own short films from scratch
• A cast most independent productions could only dream of, and the festival rejections that came anyway
• Imposter syndrome, whether it's actor or actress, and AI's growing role in music and writing

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Chapters

0:00 Introduction — Valerie Bundy, actor, writer and filmmaker

0:30 Imposter syndrome — even a famous director has it

2:05 Theatre training without drama school

3:04 A last-minute call and moving to London within a week

4:08 Touring Shakespeare — three plays, one company

6:00 Touring with Black Hat Theatre and CragRats

6:44 The 247 Theatre Festival — and meeting her husband

8:10 Stepping back from touring after having children

8:54 Writing, shooting and editing her first short film, Henry

9:46 The Raising Films course and caring for her mum

10:46 Winning a BAFTA-linked writing competition

11:28 Choosing Miranda Hart as a mentor

12:59 AI, ChatGPT, and what actually counts as writing

20:06 Test screenings and reworking a film score

21:01 AI-generated music, Suno and Udio, and copyright

25:12 Scoring Facade with composer Troy Masters

26:00 Meeting director Darren Westwood and writing Facade

27:08 Crowdfunding and producing for the first time

29:00 Writing a feature film using the Save the Cat method

32:26 How Covid affected freelance and TV work

33:18 Three TV and advert jobs that never made it to air

38:44 Told not to bother with comedy, so she wrote a comedy short

43:00 Actor or actress? The debate over titles

45:36 How many ways can you say one line? Directing voiceovers

50:08 Writing 'What Would Julie Do?' and casting Julie Hesmondhalgh

54:54 A long-shot letter that got a surprising reply

57:38 Festival rejections despite a dream cast

59:06 Turning rejections into festival wins

1:02:19 Getting paid for music on short films

1:03:55 Why sound design gets forgotten on tight budgets

1:06:18 Royalties, stock music, and considering film scoring

1:07:04 An idea for exclusive podcast intro music

1:08:02 Self-taught, and how the music actually gets written

1:10:07 Writing routines — Spike Lee, Stephen King and Aaron Sorkin

1:13:44 Being mentored by Miranda Hart

1:16:24 Finding composers and sound designers through networking

1:18:18 The debate over working for free early in a career

1:21:09 What's next — Facade, a new feature, and a sitcom pilot

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Media Music Now Conversations — real, unscripted chats with people working in the music and media industry. Hosted by Lee Pritchard, co-founder of Media Music Now.

Find out more at mediamusicnow.co.uk/conversations.aspx

Lyndon Saunders spent seventeen years working across radio and television before he ever stepped into a lecture hall. He started at a small independent production company in his early twenties, the best possible training ground, and went on to high-profile documentary work and major entertainment television.

In this conversation, Lyndon talks honestly about that career and why he eventually chose teaching over another location shoot.

In this episode:

• Making radio documentaries and touring with Badly Drawn Boy in his early twenties
• Being dispatched to New York within 48 hours of 9/11 to produce a Five Live Report special
• A live radio broadcast that came within minutes of not making it to air, and had to be rebuilt from scratch under pressure
• Five series producing Dragon's Den, then Strictly Come Dancing
• Why factual and drama production currently has a flat no on generative AI
• Why he believes the real issue with AI was never the technology itself, but who controls it

Media Music Now Conversations — real, unscripted chats with people working in the music and media industry. Hosted by Lee Pritchard. Find out more at mediamusicnow.co.uk/conversations.aspx

Ben Harris-Hayes has worked across pretty much every corner of the music industry. Bands, touring, session work, record labels, writing for other artists, composing for film and TV, and now a full-time role in games audio alongside a busy freelance life.

He didn't follow a straight path to get there. He followed whatever was in front of him and figured it out along the way.
In this conversation, Ben talks honestly about what that kind of career actually looks like — the highs, the dry spells, and everything in between.

In this episode:
- The feast and famine of freelance work and how networking has driven most of the opportunities
- Getting down to the final two for a major games role in Canada, and why he didn't get it
- AI and music — the data scraping problem, copyright, and what the EU AI Act changes
- Music theft from personal experience and why contracts matter
- Content ID, stock music, and how the library music world has changed
- Coming full circle — why live music is the one thing AI can't replicate

Media Music Now Conversations — real, unscripted chats with people working in the music and media industry. Hosted by Lee Pritchard.

Find out more at mediamusicnow.co.uk/conversations.aspx