1. Professional Practice Case Study
The role that I have decided I would like to do in the future is a ‘Production Manager’ within the
scripted area of the television industry.
A television or film production manager oversees the business, financial and recruitment areas of
production. The production managers role is one of the most important roles for any film
production.
The production manager will spend their time either working in an office or they will be out
monitoring a film shoot, making sure that it is running to plan, and deal with any problems that
occur during filming. They will work very closely with the director, producer, and other senior
production staff. The production manager spends their time drawing up plans for a film shoot. This
includes writing up a risk assessment, drawing up a budget and writing up a filming schedule. They
are also responsible for sourcing props, hiring a cast and crew, and hiring out filming equipment.
To be a successful production manager, the person needs to:
Have competent computer skills – they need to be able to use the basic software packages
such as Microsoft Word (e.g., to write up a risk assessment or a filming schedule) and excel
(e.g., to draw up a production budget).
Have a thorough understanding of health and safety law as they will spend time writing up a
risk assessment as part of their day-to-day tasks.
Be able to communicate with other people – they will spend their time negotiating deals and
contracts with suppliers, and they need to make sure that cast and crew understand what is
happening when and why.
Be able to prioritise their workload – they need to know what pieces of work are of the
highest importance at the time and be able to find solutions which help to make filming run
smoothly, as well as be able to work in a fast-paced working environment and the ability to
work under pressure. This will also require the person to be able to make any last-minute
decisions.
Have excellent organisational skills in the financial and production areas – they need to be
able to keep paperwork in order, they need to be able to manage a budget and keep a track
of costs. They also need to make sure that the cast and crew are fully equipped with
everything that is needed for a film shoot.
Be able to solve problems (e.g., if a piece of filming equipment is broken, they are
responsible for sourcing a replacement), and they need to be able to deal with any other
problems that occur during filming.
An issue that the film and television industry is currently facing is a skills gap. According to results
from the ScreenSkills High End Television Workforce Research Survey 2021-22, 86% of the almost
100 respondents to the survey, said that the skills gap is either serious or very serious. This is up
from 72% in the survey conducted the year before. This shows that people within the film and
television industry are becoming increasingly concerned about the skills gap. Furthermore, it shows
that something needs to happen to help reduce the skills gap.
Due to the competition between online streaming companies, and a post-pandemic growth in
production, productions are now very busy, and it is becoming more challenging for programmes
and production companies to recruit new craft talent. But in addition to this, the television industry
2. has not done enough to attract a younger generation of craft talent into the industry. Dock10’s
studio manager Andy Waters said “A lot of the crews now are the same people I was working with
20 years ago. Our industry is going to have some problems in the future unless we make some
changes”. This shows that industry professionals are concerned that the television industry isn’t
doing enough to attract a younger generation of craft talent into the industry.
According to research conducted by ScreenSkills, production companies are finding it very difficult to
find people to take up important roles such as production managers and production co-ordinators.
According to the ‘Unscripted TV production in the UK 2021 skills review survey’, 90% of respondents
said they were finding it either difficult or very difficult to find people to fill the important key roles
needed for filming. Almost half that were surveyed said that production manager was the most
critical role to their business over the next 12 months, followed by production co-ordinator on 14%.
This shows that companies in film and television industry id desperate for the important key roles to
be filled, and that they want to reduce the skills gap.
To address the skills gap issue, ScreenSkills, which is the UK’s film and television training body, is
investing £10.1m into High End Television. This is to make facilities for the training needs that are on
demand. This will help to attract a younger generation of craft talent into working within the film
and television industry.
In 2020, dock10 studios, based in MediaCityUK, Manchester, launched a pilot training scheme for
craft talent. To do this, dock10 put out a job advert for two entry level sound assistants, who were
interviewed and picked by a dock10 studio manager and two sound supervisors. Dock10’s studio
manager Andy Waters said, “it’s a way of seeding the freelancers of the future”. The scheme proved
to be successful and had proven to be very popular with the younger generation of craft talent. As
the programme has proved to be very popular, it has since expanded, and has started training two
camera assistants, whilst still running the sound assistants programme. Dock10’s studio manager
Sam Handsley said, “We’re trying to give them as much experience as we can of learning from the
different departments, shadowing and getting involved in shows”. Sam then went onto say “This
isn’t just an 18-month thing – once they finish and go freelance, we want to be there to support
them and give them opportunities”. This shows that the dock10 production company is addressing
the issue of the skills gap. Dock 10’s studio manager David Blake said “you’ve got a real hands-on
opportunity to learn here. You have the chance to get it at the ground level, learning about
everything from working on a show, to looking after kit, to working with engineers and making
contacts on the studio floor”. This shows that the television industry is beginning to attract a
younger generation of craft talent into working in the industry, which also shows that the industry is
beginning to address the skills gap issue, and it hopes that other production companies will catch on
to the idea and launch a similar training scheme, which will give more opportunities for people.
Holly Marlow is a production manager at ‘Off the Fence’, a production company based in Bristol. The
genres that ‘Off the Fence’ specialise in are natural History, Crime, Documentary, Science, History
and Lifestyle. In 2006, Holly graduated from the University of Gloucester with a degree in Film
Studies. While she was studying at university, she worked for a ‘Future Publishing’ between March
2005 – March 2006. Holly then progressed and went on to work at Aardman Animations. Aardman is
best known for making films such as Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep. In her first year of
working for Aardman Animations, she was employed as a personal assistant to the Head of
Commercials, where she gave support for a wide range of pitches. She then progressed through the
company in March 2007 to being a production assistant, and she worked on a range of animated
3. advertisements. In August 2008, Holly progressed through the Aardman company from production
assistant to production co-ordinator. She was a co-ordinator for productions such as series 2 of
Shaun the Sheep and The Tate Movie Project film ‘The Itch of The Golden Nit’.
In August 2011, Holly left Aardman Animations and went to work as a production co-ordinator for
‘Wonky Films’, a production company that specialises in animation and illustration. Wonky Films
clients include the BBC and Channel 4. During Holly’s time at Wonky Films, she worked on a variety
of online films and commercials.
In July 2012, Holly moved on from Wonky Films and went on to work as a production co-ordinator
for ‘Wildlife Television’. She spent six months working for the company and she worked on the
documentary series ‘Walking Through History with Tony Robinson’, a documentary for Channel 4.
In February 2013, Holly then went on to work as a production co-ordinator for North One Television,
a production company based in London and Birmingham. North One Television is well known across
the world for producing factual entertainment programmes such as Travel Man on Channel 4 and
Guy’s Garage. They are also known for working on sport and live events programmes. Holly worked
at the company for nine months and worked on two programmes. Between February and April 2013,
she worked on the programme ‘Guy’s Speed Garage’, broadcast on Channel 4, and then went on to
work on ‘Fifth Gear’, broadcast on the Discovery channel, between April and October 2013.
In 2014, Holly progressed and worked as a senior production co-ordinator for Windfall Films LTD.
She worked on Natural History programme ‘Born in The Wild’, broadcast on Channel 4.
In late 2014, Holly joined ‘Off the Fence’ as a senior production co-ordinator. She worked on the
wildlife series ‘Destination Wild’ for National Geographic.
In January 2016, Holly began to work as a production manager at Off the Fence productions in
Bristol, a role which she has now been in for 6 years. Overall, since leaving university, it took her 10
years to get to work as a production manager within the industry.
As part of industry week, I attended three useful and insightful talks.
Tejas Dattani is a choreographer, director and producer based in Bradford, but is originally from
India. He started his career out as a dancer in the Bollywood film industry and has worked on films
and music albums and he has appeared in the World Bharti Show. He spent 22 years working in the
Bollywood industry.
After his dancing career, Tejas then progressed and became an assistant choreographer for
choreographers Remo D’Souza and Chinny Prakash. He worked with them on songs for films and
cruise shows. After this, he then progressed and went on to be an independent choreographer and
has worked with directors such as Azeem Parker.
Tejas then progressed and is now working as a combined director and choreographer. He is now a
well-respected director and choreographer in countries such as India and the UK.
Throughout Tejas’ career, he has directed and choreographed for 125 film songs and music videos, 6
live concerts and tours. His most recent work includes directing and choreographing two promos for
season 8 of ‘Jhalak Diklah Jaa’, India’s version of Strictly Come Dancing in 2015.
4. Liam Taylor-Rutterford is a film Digital Producer for Channel 4. He is currently working on Channel
4’s sport digital coverage including Formula 1, and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
Liam graduated from York St John University in 2017. Throughout his career, Liam has gained lots of
experience in live broadcasting, digital content, and feature length documentaries. Liam has
produced three feature length documentaries in sport. This includes the boxing documentary ‘One
Night: Joshua vs Ruiz’ in 2019 – a documentary about the boxing match between Anthony Joshua
and Andy Ruiz Jr.
Liam has gained lots of experience using editing software such as Avid and Adobe Premiere Pro. He
has created video content for Manchester United FC, Everton FC and Liverpool FC, and the content
that he has created has been showed at Madison Square Garden.
During the talk, Liam talked about the shortage of production managers and location managers in
the industry, and that productions are looking for people to fill these key roles. After a discussion
about this, he said that if your aspiration is to be a production manager, then you need to
understand the role, and research the other crew roles within the film and television industry, then
you and other crew members that you work with in the future will understand what they need to do
and when and why. Liam also said you need to understand your worth and gain lots of knowledge
about the film and television industry.
Antonia De Feo is a Social Strategy and Platforms Manager at Walt Disney in the UK. She graduated
from university in 2004 in Drama and Theatre Production.
As she was starting her career, she went to work for the BBC in Nottingham, and she undertook lots
of free work experience to get on to her master’s degree course. While she worked at the BBC, she
spent her time cutting footage together for BBC Sport and broadcasting it live to the nation.
Antonia then went on to work at Everton FC as a new media journalist. While she worked there,
Facebook had just been introduced as ‘The Facebook’, and she helped launch Everton FC’s Facebook
page. She also edited footage together for the football club.
Antonia has worked for big sporting events. In 2012, she worked for the London Olympic Games as
she enjoys Olympic international competitions. She worked as part of the team that built the London
2012 Olympic Games website and was responsible for making sure that the live commentary and
updates, and the image gallery was up to date.
Antonia also went on to have a career in fashion. Even though she had no relevant experience, she
applied to work for Boden, a 31-year-old clothing brand, as a Global Social Media Manager, and she
wrote up the influence and marketing side of the brand.
Antonia is now working for Walt Disney as a Social Strategy and Platforms Manager at Walt Disney.
As part of her job there, she helped to launch Disney UK on to TikTok.
Tips that I took away from Antonia’s talk are to say yes to opportunities that come your way, as
opportunities open doors. She also said find your niche and try things that will challenge you and
take you out of your comfort zone. She also said that social media is where a lot of people will look
to help start their careers in film and television.
5. Bibliography/Research Links
https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/production-
managment/production-manager-unscripted-tv/ - Accessed 26th
April 2022
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/tv-or-film-production-manager - Accessed 26th
April 2022
McHugh, M. (2022). UK’s ScreenSkills to invest £10m in high-end TV training amid skills
gap concerns. Available: https://www.screendaily.com/news/uks-screenskills-to-invest-
10m-in-high-end-tv-training-amid-skills-gap-concerns/5168415.article. Last accessed
27th April 2022.
https://www.dock10.co.uk/about/news/the-dock10-trainee-scheme-aiming-to-tackle-the-tv-
production-skills-gap/ - Accessed 27th
April 2022
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/holly-marlow-a1ab9319 - Accessed 28th April 2022
https://www.offthefence.com/Production/OurProductions - Accessed 28th April 2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardman_Animations - Accessed 28th April 2022
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4625691/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 – Accessed 27th
April 2022
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tejas-dattani-76b06136 - Accessed 27th April 2022
Dattani, T. (2015). Tejas Dattani Choreographer & Video Director: About. Available:
https://tejasdattani.wixsite.com/tejasdattani/about. Last accessed 28th April 2022.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/liam-taylor-rutterford - Accessed 27th April 2022
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7802661/ - Accessed 27th
April 2022
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/antoniadefeo - Accessed 27th April 2022
