Short Courses with Wendy Gray, AFTRS Head of Industry Program
“Children’s television is wonderful for people starting out in the industry because there tends to be more opportunity for people who don’t have a long list of credits.” — Wendy Gray
I’ve fast-tracked a few skills after discovering the short courses offered by the Australian Film Television Radio School (AFTRS). In this episode, I chat to Wendy Gray from AFTRS about their courses and who they’re designed for. We also chat about Wendy’s career in the screen industry, including her extensive experience working in children’s television.
Friendly manners: this is not a paid endorsement.
Podcast Guest Profile
Wendy Gray currently runs the short course and industry certificate programs at the Australian Film Television Radio School (AFTRS). Over the last seven years she has been Head of the Open Program, Head of the TV Unit and began life at AFTRS as the Industry Program Manager. In her current role she liaises with Industry through the Industry Advisory Panels, runs industry-related events and oversees the development and delivery of industry short courses and industry certificates.
Wendy started her career in the media at ABC TV, where she worked for twelve years in a wide variety of production roles, across all genres. Her final years at the ABC saw her devising, producing and directing a number of children’s television series including AFI-award winning series The Ferals and forty episodes of Play School.
Subsequently as a freelance producer Wendy worked on a wide range of television productions, including documentary series Greatest Cities of the World with Griff Rhys-Jones, and The Upside Down Show, an award-winning children’s series with The Umbilical Brothers, Nickelodeon US and the Children’s Television Workshop. She returned to the ABC joining the (then) New Media Division to work on the launch of ABC2, designing and executing channel branding and program development and production.
Wendy has also worked on a number of online projects including working as Online Content Producer in the marketing department for Southern Cross and as a senior website producer for Gadfly Media, supervising website content for clients such as SOCOG and NRMA.
She also worked for the Australian Film Commission (now Screen Australia) on a major online content project Australian Screen Online and taught production at SAE Byron Bay.
She has a BA (Communications) from Macquarie University and a Grad Dip in Interactive Multimedia from UTS.
Time Stamps
0:53 | Why I’ve been doing short courses through AFTRS
8:01 | Interview with Wendy Gray
Interesting Links
- Australian Film Television Radio School https://www.aftrs.edu.au/; Telephone (Australia): 1300065 281
- Australian Writers’ Guild https://www.awg.com.au/
- Film Victoria https://www.film.vic.gov.au/
Say Hello!
I’m at taku.com.au, Instagram/Twitter: @takuspeaks or Facebook: @TakuTV.
Taku Mbudzi 
