The Skillset Film Trainee Network placements began in September 2008 and are continuing into Spring 2009.  Here is one trainee's experience, Ravinder Patria, a trainee editor.

Ravinder Patria's potential was evident from the start. When he graduated from the London College of Printing in 1999, his graduation short went onto achieve Best Student Film (Help – fiction written, edited and directed) at the 5th Brief Encounters Film Festival in Bristol.

Knowing that he wanted to move into the field of editing, he extended his skills doing work experience at many well known post production facilities including the BBC, Goldcrest, Arion and Maverick Television. Ravinder then gained three crucial placements on feature films via FT2, a Skillset supported New Entrants Technical Training Programme, as a trainee assistant editor. He picked up invaluable experience and contacts working on The Boat That Rocked (2009), Franklyn (2008) and The Duchess (2008).

Ravinder was on the FT2 Editing course when he qualified for the network as a Skillset funded New Entrant on the Skillset Film Trainee Network scheme. His placement was with Wild Target Ltd on Wild Target (2009) as a trainee editor. Wild Target is an upcoming 2009 comedy film, directed by Jonathan Lynn and edited by Michael Parker and assistant Guy Ducker.

One of Ravinder's main tasks and responsibilities was to work on Avid Script Sync reconstructing the paper–based ‘lined' script into a document on the editing system, associating each line of dialogue with the relevant and digitised video clips of takes, which would play instantly on the click of a mouse.

"Avid Script Sync was an important but unfamiliar tool that I wished to gain experience of before the placement so it was particularly important to get to grips with it as soon as I began to use it," says Ravinder. "The experience on Wild Target also reinforced my knowledge on a lot of areas I had covered before via FT2 such as digitising, syncing up, and understanding of the process in general.

"I have also learned a further variation on the workflow of an assistant editor in features that will add to my existing knowledge, and which will help me form my own workflow as an assistant editor in the future."

Ravinder found the scheme extremely useful: "It is reassuring to have an industry recognised organisation looking for productions on your behalf in support of your own efforts in searching for placements and work. The financial support it provides for trainees, arranged from the agreement between scheme and production, was crucial for living and working in London."

At the end of the scheme, Ravinder hopes he has built a significant reputation and networking connection to carve out a future in the feature film industry as a 2nd assistant editor or assistant editor for television drama.

"I found it difficult to gain another trainee placement on another feature after the FT2 scheme had finished, but with Skillset's superior network connection and access to industry information, they were able to forward my CV to productions and to the right people at the right time." 

Find out how you can become a trainee or a host company:

Skillset Film Trainee Network