Creative Platforms

My Industry:

Television and Film Production

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!!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Research & Development

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

Business card research

Screenshots taken from my blog looking at Zazzle and MOO:

Business card research:http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/businesscards

Business card development

Business card/Logo Development:

http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/logo

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 development

Business card/Logo Development:

http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/logo

Screenshots taken from my blog looking at my logo designs and

inspiration:

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-tips-

on-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-resume-

template/ 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

CV Research

CV Research:http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv

Screenshots taken from my blog looking at help for my CV:

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

CV Development

CV Development:http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/cv

These are screenshots

of the first page of my

CV before and after

the feedback my

lecturer gave me:

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

Showreel research

Showreel Research: http://emilywiles.tumblr.com/search/showreel

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 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/showreel

Strengths and Weaknesses

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:

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.

What needs to be done?

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.

Action plan