Working in the film industry is not a 9 to 5 job. You will have to shoot depending on the time of day and the weather and schedules may run over by weeks or months and you would be expected to continue working despite this. Producers and directors especially will often work constantly over long periods of time in when a film is in progress. You may be asked to travel if you want the job they offer (which you almost always will, especially when you are just starting out). We learnt from our directing masterclass, that working with children and animals is particularly restrictive, they can only work for so long and the health and safety becomes much more complex.

If you are freelancing and you need a crew, you will need to find the funding to pay them, unless they are working for free (to Han experience).

The pressures of working on film is that a lot depends on every single member of the crew, so much can go wrong and you are often limited with money and time, so you have to be responsible.

Positives and negatives? It will almost always be incredibly stressful, but it’s creative and exiting and you work with a team to make something everyone is proud of.

Time management is incredibly important in the film industry, there is no SPARE time so if people are late for unnecessary reasons it massively slows down the process and can end up costing large amounts of money. Taking initiative and being competent is also important, you have to be confident in your ability so that you don’t rely on being told what to do all the time (there isn’t enough time/money/resources for that) and you have to be competent using any equipment you are trusted with.

I would like to work in documentaries, or videography for outdoor sports (surfing, climbing etc) because it’s what I enjoy doing and watching.

I would like to further study creative media, but most likely not in higher education, I would prefer to do an apprenticeship or get an entry-level job.

I would love to volunteer at Doc fest in Sheffield, and hopefully get a job when I finish my A-levels. I go to docfest every year and always enjoy it and hope that I would be able to gain some insight into what that side of the creative media industry involves.

Options for making my own content would likely be through creating a Instagram/YouTube page and posting work of there to get private clientele, or for getting an entry-level job for a company like Vans for Redbull and working my way up over several years.

If I was to make something directed at myself it would love to make a short film/ documentary about coral bleaching in Australia and French Polynesia. This means if I was going to get funding (if I could get it at all) it would most likely be from environmental charities or tourism sectors.

My next steps are to hopefully learn to edit properly myself and practice filming sport while I and working on a gap year, then using that when I apply for entry level jobs in the sporting media industry.

Progression routes into and connected creative industries:

Apprenticeships- ideal when it comes to networking and meeting people who could help you progress in the industry, you are more likely to be paid for an apprenticeship than at university, and will (in most cases) give you a more “hands on” experience of the industry when compared with higher education.

Entry-level Jobs- a good chance to gain experience although often hard to progress without connections. You will get paid however, meaning you can be working at your progression into the film industry full time.

Studying at university- Will gain vast knowledge of the film industry, an opportunity to experiment and make mistakes, you will get a degree/ qualification at the end and often film course have equipment you can use free of charge.

Online opportunities- allows you to network and gain connections with people, able to apply/hear about jobs abroad, therefore widening you’re chances of success in the industry.

Film Festivals- able to submit your own work and have a chance at winning prizes, and often gaining recognition for the work you do. Also a good opportunity to get “spotted” by people higher up in the industry.

BFI Academy progression- I would like the do the Documentary course as it is most suited to what I would ideally like to do in the future in regards to film.

I think I worked well with others in the crew, we all got on very well and made sure everyone felt included, at the start it was more difficult as we didn’t know each other well but it got lots better with time.

I worked well with my team on edit day, we hadn’t really done enough planning for the day and Emily stepped in to be editor (an example of a problem we overcame) and we had to work together to cut and edit as i was the director.

I think i could improve my ability to work with others by trying to be more patient as i felt as we got near the end of the shoot day I was quite stressed and snappy.

I think the most important qualities for working well as part of a production team is patients and respect. People need to feel comfortable sharing their views and ideas, especially within a group and they need to feel appreciated.

We kept to good time on shot day by strictly sticking to our shot list and it worked well as we finished with 15 minuets to spare.

We were reliable as we planned what props we were going to use and everyone brought the things we needed on the day which meant nothing went wrong.

We shared ideas in the planing of the script as I had no experience of writing screen plays at all and had not originally planned to do it, so everyone contributed and helped.

We had good communication on edit day, as our editor was ill and we had to work as a team quickly and efficiently.

We were safe in the studio as we were supervised all day, especially when moving equipment (e.e lights, tripod, camera).

Elfie through out this whole filming production has been really caring, productive and always hardworking. She always makes sure things are done on time, and finds a good idea whenever we are stuck or need help. Elfie’s communication is amazing, she makes sure to get her ideas across and accepts other’s ideas openly and is willing to edit the script so everyone feels included and happy. I feel for Elfie, she had a huge demand on getting the script drafts done on time, making sure the creative vision was there but also to make it clear what was happening. Elfie overcomes these problems by getting her work done quickly, and always asks if anyone is confused or needs help understanding. Elfie was amazing and always is with the team, she has contributed by bringing always a positive attitude, but also she works really hard with the script and making sure everything is done. For areas of development I’d say to Elfie to never loose the positive aspect she brings to the team and keep being amazing, as people need it in the film industry.

I was the director and writer of our film. As the writer I tried to motivate the group when brainstorming ideas for a story, then chose the one that I believed would be most successful. Once I had the approval of everyone else in the group that they liked the idea for the plot, I wrote the script in celtx. This was a really good experience and something I hadn’t expected to do then I applied for BFI Academy as I was expecting to be an editor or cinematographer.

I agree with the feedback, communication was so important in the making of our film and at some times was challenging as two of our team members weren’t strong English speakers, despite this we all got along really well and worked amazingly efficiently on shoot day, so although sometimes communication between members was a struggle, we overcame the challenge and had loads of fun.

One of the things I really struggled with was adapting to the idea of being a writer/director, I was originally supposed to be the editor and it was slightly later on when we were planning ideas for the story-line that we decided some of us should switch our roles around as some people would be better suited to different roles.

I learnt LOADS about editing as our editor was unwell on the edit day so we had to edit the film as a team, which was at times very stressful but also quite fun. I learnt about the importance of a white balance as we forgot to do one in one of our scenes and the shot has a slightly blue tone, but this means I’ll definitely remember from now on.

My understanding of film development has increased massively. As the writer/director I had to complete all the shot lists as well as put the story into script format. We all also had a talk with a producer at the start of the course that really put tings in perspective about all the documents that must be completed in order to process a film, e.g. copyright, the writes to the film, risk assessments, permission to film in public places etc.

What are the different teams in your production? There were seven teams within our short film production (director, editor, screenwriter, producer, camera, sound and actor). These teams were all made up of just ope person (apart from actors in which there were two), so there was little room for conflict within these teams, we all got along very well and we worked together in a happy, respectful manner. This was seen obviously on the shoot day as everything ran smoothly and we all enjoyed working with each other.

How do they work together? For example, how did your team work together to prepare for the shoot? Also, during production and post-production? The director was very much involved in all aspects of the film, working closely with the screenwriter in the development of the script as well as the producer in the planning of the film/ shoot day. On the shoot day they also worked closely with the camera and sound crew as well as the actors. The actors worked with the writer in the development of their characters and sound and camera worked closely all day.

Why is it important that production teams work well together? There are lots of things that can go wrong in the making of even a short film, and so it is essential that all the members of the team are “on the same page” and willing to work hard, even if they feel as though they have differences to some members of the team.

Give an example of when your production team/s worked well together. We worked together well on our shoot day, we had planned it well before hand and there fore everything ran smoothly and I think everyone was happy with how they did and we finished in good time.

What can happen if there isn’t good teamwork? If the group didn’t work well as a team then it would have been difficult to execute the shoot and edit days successfully, and some people may feel that they have to do an unfair share of work.

Was there an example of when teamwork could have been better on your film production? How did this affect the production process? Our Editor was ill on edit day so we had to edit as a team and therefore the end product of our film was probably less successful than it would ave otherwise been, however we managed and we finished on time.

Elfie through out this whole filming production has been really caring, productive and always hardworking. She always makes sure things are done on time, and finds a good idea whenever we are stuck or need help. Elfie’s communication is amazing, she makes sure to get her ideas across and accepts other’s ideas openly and is willing to edit the script so everyone feels included and happy. I feel for Elfie, she had a huge demand on getting the script drafts done on time, making sure the creative vision was there but also to make it clear what was happening. Elfie overcomes these problems by getting her work done quickly, and always asks if anyone is confused or needs help understanding. Elfie was amazing and always is with the team, she has contributed by bringing always a positive attitude, but also she works really hard with the script and making sure everything is done. For areas of development I’d say to Elfie to never loose the positive aspect she brings to the team and keep being amazing, as people need it in the film industry.

1. What did you do? We watched a screening of the film ‘The Runaways’ and were given a talk from the director about the process of planning, shooting and selling the film.

2. What have you learnt? I learnt that there are different ways people develop in the film industry and there is a huge cross over between the skills that are practiced in documentary film making with fictional shorts and feature films.

3. How have you worked with others? I took on the role of writing the screen play for our short film, as a group we read over it and made notes about specific shots that we wanted to do and a simple prop list.

4. What do you need to develop? We need to make a full shot and prop list and make sure that everyone is happy with the first draft of the script and feel that they know what their jobs involve.