3. Discuss and Outline
The industry I want to work in is deemed very competitive since there are a lot of
young creative people who want to do the same thing. Needless to say a lot of
people are needed on such large-scale projects and there are many sectors
such as the development, production, distribution, exhibition and export.
Creative Skills Set (http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/industry/) states that the
industry is made up of a small number of large companies and a large number of
smaller companies. This is what I have experienced, especially when looking for
work experience anyway. These smaller companies are more likely to offer you
some sort of work experience but are definitely looking for people who have a
wide skillset and not just restricted to one area of specialism.
I thought it was interesting as well to see that the overall representation of women
in film stands at around 43%, which is slightly greater than representation across
the rest of the creative media industries (42%) which is great news for me!!
4. Roles
I know that to become higher up in the film industry I will have to start right at the
bottom. It doesn’t really bother me though, because I like to learn every step so that
I appreciate what it takes to make a production and I can understand what other
people’s jobs are. This therefore means becoming a Runner, a general helper to
make sure things run smoothly without any hassle. You will rarely get paid for this
role, possibly expenses paid, but otherwise it is a great way to move up to Production
Manager or Floor Manager which can then lead on to being an Assistant Director or
Producer’s Assistant.
Therefore this is my planned way in to the industry:
•
Runner
•
Production Manager
•
Producer’s Assistant
•
Producer
If I become a Producer you are in charge of the financial, organisational and
communication logistics of a production. This will include managing the budget, the
schedule, acquiring actors, locations, contracts and agreements, and ultimately
keeping on top of all the paperwork that comes with making television shows and
films.
5. Job Profiles
So I decided to look at the beginning role and my goal rule as
examples, therefore runner and producer.
Prospects is a great website to find out about job roles, the salary from those
jobs, the skills you need, the hours, just everything I found it very useful. I picked
out what they mentioned your tasks would be when undertaking a job as a
runner and producer.
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/
This website also provides loads of different job profile examples and key
information about skills you need:
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/
tvproductionrunner.aspx
6. Job Profile – Runner (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/)
What do I do as a Runner?
fetching and carrying items, such as equipment, tapes, cable and scripts;
transporting cast, crew and production staff between offices, studios and
shoot locations; driving cars, vans or trucks between locations and around
sets; helping set up a location for a shoot; keeping the set clean and tidy;
handing out post and messages to colleagues within the production
team; delivering post to local clients; undertaking basic research;
answering the telephone; photocopying and undertaking general
administrative work; taking care of petty cash; looking after studio guests;
hiring props; making arrangements for staff on location, such as booking
meeting rooms or ordering food; transcribing production tapes; picking up
cast for make-up calls; ordering stock; making and handing out
tea, coffee and lunches; sorting out the kit bags, for example checking
that the camera bag contains all the necessary items; writing down shot
lists; using maps, tapes and clapper boards, and other film and television
production equipment.
7. Job Profile – Producer (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/)
What do I do as a Producer?
raising funding; reading, researching and assessing ideas and finished
scripts; commissioning writers or securing the rights to novels, plays or
screenplays; building and developing a network of contacts; liaising and
discussing projects with financial backers - projects vary from a
small, corporate video costing £500 to a Hollywood feature film at more
than £100million; using computer software packages for
screenwriting, budgeting and scheduling; hiring key staff, including a
director and a crew to shoot films or videos; controlling the budget and
allocating resources; pulling together all the strands of creative and
practical talent involved in the project to create a team; maintaining
contemporary technical skills; organising shooting schedules - dependent
on the type of producer and availability of support staff; troubleshooting;
supervising the progress of the project from production to post production;
holding regular meetings with the director to discuss characters and scenes;
acting as a sounding board for the director; bringing the finished production
in on budget.
8. Skillset (https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/)
RUNNER:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
enthusiasm and willingness
to take on any task
good communication and
‘people’ skills
excellent organisational
and time management
skills
initiative
stamina
flexibility and adaptability
the ability to work well
under pressure
willingness to work long
hours when necessary
PRODUCER:
• a good knowledge of the
production process
• excellent communication and
people skills
• creativity and vision
• good presentation and
negotiation skills
• leadership and management
ability
• good planning and
organisational skills
• financial skills and budget
awareness
• confidence, assertiveness and
motivation
10. Business card research
I began to look at some websites that provide the service of creating your own
business cards. I first looked at Zazzle
(http://www.zazzle.co.uk/television+businesscards) that has a variety of themes
that you can choose from, I clicked on the ones most suited and themed to my
industry and although they are all quite fun and colourful, I thought that they
were not that original and not that professional. The designs were quite obvious to
use television screens, clapperboards, cameras and bars for their themes.
Therefore I decided to look at more simple designs that were not overly
complicated nor too distracting.
MOO I then also looked at another company called MOO
(http://uk.moo.com/design-templates/business-cards/) that allows you to create
you own design completely as well as choosing an already made template. You
can upload your logo and choose the colour theme you would like to match with
your logo. You can choose from a variety of layouts as templates to start your
business card.
Business card research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/businesscards
11. Business card research
Screenshots taken from my blog looking at Zazzle and MOO:
Business card research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/businesscards
12. Business card development
I had already got an initial design which I created myself, however I
wanted to look at other designs to see if I could improve the original
design. This website http://www.logoed.co.uk/ had a lot of really nice
designs that were all similar or had characteristics that I would like to
incorporate into my own design. They are all quite simple but they
always have strong bold colours to make up for this, in addition I think by
having less but including one 'loud' characteristic makes the logo stand
out a lot more.
So from looking at some designs I started to play around with a few
ideas. For some reason I knew that I always wanted to incorporate my
initials EW, I think its just sort of a statement thing and its a lot more
personal. From here I went to edit some logos digitally on the software
Pixelmator, I made 3 different designs and then changed the colours
around to see what worked best.
Business card/Logo Development:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/logo
13. Business card development
Screenshots taken from my blog looking at my logo designs and
inspiration:
Business card/Logo Development:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/logo
14. CV Research
I looked into CV content because I thought I should look at advice
specific to my industry as well. This website http://mediargh.com/13-tipson-writing-cvs-for-media-based-jobs provides a variety of information
intentionally for the television and film industry.
From researching the content need I thought I should also look at how it
is presented since I found I still had a very basic looking CV, therefore I
decided to look into how CVs are more creatively offered. I found these
examples from http://smashfreakz.com/2012/08/creative-resumetemplate/ that I like the look of. The majority of them are web design
CVs but I thought that because they have to design websites, they
would have to create an aesthetically pleasing CV to showcase their
skills therefore they all look like professional and not over the top to look
at.
CV Research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv
15. CV Research
Screenshots taken from my blog looking at help for my CV:
CV Research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv
16. CV Development
For my original CV, which was then corrected by my lecturer who gave
me the following pointers:
- Only 2 pages maximum
- My name/contact details to be bigger and in bold
- Need more relevant experience
- Need 2 references, 1 academic and 1 industry
- Change headings as instructed
CV Development:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv
17. CV Development
These are screenshots
of the first page of my
CV before and after
the feedback my
lecturer gave me:
CV Development:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv
18. Showreel research
In order to showcase my work, a showreel seemed best suitable since I
always work closely with the Director to make sure his vision comes
through on screen, this being through the locations used and the actors
who are cast.
I already have an idea of how I want to edit my showreel, quite fast
paced but then slow at times, it will depend on the music I have but I
want one that may start slow then the tempo will be a lot quicker then
back to a slower pace. I think this will show the different kind of work I
have been involved with as well, the different genres according to the
pace of music.
Showreel Research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/showreel
19. Showreel research
I’ve picked on of the showreels that I looked at but there are more on my
blog, so please have a look. Dan Ruiz made this showreel, I like the speed of
images because they flash so quickly and then some stay on screen a bit
longer. The filter on the images also makes it look really professional and I
think it just makes it all look very sleek. He has his logo at the beginning and
also at the end, this is definitely something I want to do in mine, not include
too much text to keep it simple and the audience watching aren’t too
overwhelmed by information.
Showreel Research: http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/showreel
20. Showreel Development
If I am honest, I haven’t really started to actually edit my showreel, I am
still very much in the process of researching ideas for it. However, I have
uploaded all my Year 2 TVFP work which is what I will include in the
showreel as well as what I produce in my third year.
Showreel Research:
http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/sh
owreel
22. What’s good?
I think I have done a lot of work on the design of my logo to go onto my business
cards and CV. I have always been quite artistic and so found it easy and fun to
create a lot of different designs from others I used as inspiration. I like to
experiment with different colours to see what looks best, although I have not
confirmed my final logo I like the look of the one I have used in the PowerPoint
presentation, but here are all the others:
23. What’s bad?
So as I established earlier, I think that I need to do a lot of showreel work.
This is probably the most important component to showcase my industry
directly, and so I do need to do some more research and then start to
experiment with my own work. I do like editing and don’t always have
the chance so I will enjoy doing this section of the unit. Once I have
collaborated all of the work I want to include, I will start to cut out bits I
think were the most successful from the films I took part in. I will most
likely edit the showreel on Final Cut Pro. I would also like to research how
to transfer my logo into the showreel and possibly add motion to it.
25. What do I need to do to complete my work?
I still have a long way to go, but I think I have started off well since I have got
into my research and experimented around a little with my logo and
business card ideas. I definitely need to continue looking around at
examples, especially with my CV and have a little play around with designs
for that. I am mostly lacking in my showreel I think, I need to collaborate all
my work together and start seeing what I could use within that. I am not too
worried however since I like to develop my ideas more and more to see
what I can come up with, I am a little bit of a perfectionist! The next slide
shows my action plan so I can plan my time efficiently to complete this
project.
