A Day In The Life

Annabelle Cuthbert

Annabelle Cuthbert

Posted 01 November 2015

New York Program

March 2009 Intake


Annabelle Cuthbert (March 2009 - New York), graduate of Reading University, UK continued to work within post-production for facilities such as Work Editorial and The Mill in London after completing Mountbatten. She lived in south-west London before returning to New York earlier this year, fulfilling her dream to go back. She now works at Hogarth, an international marketing implementation agency. She lives in the East Village in Manhattan.

"I get up at around 7:30am and most mornings go for a run along the water down to the Williamsburg Bridge. I'm lucky to be a late-starter as I start work at 10am, and gone are the stresses of an arduous commute as I'm fortunate enough to live close to work, so I have a 20 minute walk to my office instead. I usually call family or a friend on my way to work so I can make sure I'm keeping in touch with people back home, it's a careful balance living abroad and I never want to lose touch.

I'm a post-producer for Hogarth, a marketing agency that not only has its own clients but also facilitates advertising agencies including Ogilvy, Grey and JWT. My team facilitates JWT. Having prepared the evening before what my projects are for the day ahead, I begin my day going over emails and attending edit, voiceover, animation and/or audio sessions. I work closely with the creatives and broadcast producers at JWT and generally cover the preliminary phases of campaigns, including pitches, test scripts, animatics, and being a part of the concepts for commercials. Each day varies depending on what I'm working on. I make estimates to clients and have to budget for each job as a whole, I take each project through from beginning to end, and maintain relationships with the artists and engineers on each job as well as the account and production teams at JWT. Whilst I do manage to take a break most days, I'm again very fortunate that I have a company Seamless account and have lunch provided each day, certainly a perk of the job! It gives me a bit of freedom to try new places and satisfy my passion for food.

Depending on whether we're in the midst of a project or shipping that day, I'm in charge of quality control on all video and audio exported, making sure it's to specification and submitted to the deadline set. It's a busy environment, but working on huge advertising campaigns and seeing the development from concept to execution is really exciting. I work the odd late night, but normally finish between 6pm and 7pm and usually go to meet friends for drinks or dinner. As everything is so close by, I rarely stay in and generally just love making the most out of living in New York once again"