The document provides information about the role of a film director, including key responsibilities, average salary, notable directors, education and experience needed, and potential career pathways. It then provides a practitioner fact file on director Edgar Wright and an example 5-year plan for pursuing a career in film. The 5-year plan outlines current college studies, future university degree plans, desired work experience, and skills needed to achieve career goals of directing.

1. Job Roles Research
Industry role Director
Key responsibilities Creative lead, Supervise Scripts, auditions, locations, Hold meetings with
different departments, Direct actors, Agree on budget and schedule.
Average salary per year Between £25k - £56k (Can vary wildly)
People in the industry in this role Jonathan Glazer, Sam Esmail, Bong Joon-ho, Yorgos Lanthimos, Charlie
Kaufman, Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson.
Education/experience needed Film production or related degrees, Technical knowledge, Plenty of time on film
sets, Some experience of all film departments.
Key skills needed Leadership, Communication skills, Problem solving, Creative flair, Attention to
detail, diplomacy.
Potential pathways from this role Writer, Producer, Actor.

2. Practitioner Fact File
Name Edgar Wright
Age 46
Job title Director/ Writer/ Producer.
Previous jobs (if applicable) Student, TV director.
Productions worked on Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz,
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The World’s
End, Baby Driver.
Quote “You either liked Spinal Tap or you were
not worth talking to”

3. 5 Year Plan.

4. What are you currently doing to pursue a career in your chosen field?
• Taking a college course on creative media.
• Learning as much about the film industry as possible.
• Looking for university courses focused on film.
• Writing scripts, pitches and concepts when I can.

5. What do you plan to do next in the pursuit of your chosen field?
• Finish this college course.
• Take a film production degree.
• Continue to write scripts in my spare time.
• Increase my knowledge of film.

6. Select at least three potential University courses that would help you further your career aims. You should state
what the course is, which university it is run by, the entry requirements and why you think it would help you.
• York University: BSc (Hons) Film and Television Production. DDD BTEC (with alternative offers available.) All
sources point to this course being excellent as well as the university and city around it being familiar to me.
• Leeds Art University: BA (Hons) Filmmaking. DMM minimum and “A portfolio of relevant practical work,
demonstrating your ability and enthusiasm for the course”. I feel this course would give me a lot of relevant
experience as a filmmaker while also harbouring a more ‘artistic’ approach seeing as it’s a BA.
• University for the Creative Arts: Film Production BA (Hons). DMM and portfolio. This course looks excellent and
among its alumni are BAFTA and Oscar winning productions.

7. What type of work experience do you think you would need to help you in your future career?
If you could pick anywhere to do work experience, where would it be and why?
• I feel that runner would be a good job to get plenty of experience in all departments of a film set.
• Working with students on their films as they will take nearly anyone, this will also likely give me experience in
terms of stretching budgets and schedules to their limits.
• More experience with audio engineering would be useful given how crucial that is on a film set.
• Woodwork or similar engineering work would help with set and prop building.
• With auteur directors to learn more about fully controlling a film production.
• With the BBC as they often work with low budgets and high concepts, I would feel that this sort of environment
would be useful for learning about budget and time issues.
• With experimentally shot films to learn about alternative methods of storytelling from traditional single and
multi camera productions.

8. What specific skills do you need to develop to achieve your goals?
• A intuitive understanding of film.
• Visualisation skills.
• Screenwriting skills.
• Communication skills.
• Leadership.
• Cinematography.
• Understanding of acting.
• Organization skills.
• A group of contacts in the film industry.
• Negotiation skills.
• The ability to work under pressure.

9. In 5 years time I will…
• Hopefully be directing and/ or writing a short film, feature film or a TV show of my own creation.
• Working within the industry.