Four years ago Amanda Boyle was working in development for a producer at Working Title Films. After being picked as a 'star of tomorrow' by Screen International, Amanda, who had been making her own films on the side for a while, realised she had to finally take the plunge and focus on directing.

'I'd always wanted to direct but had some notion I had to bide my time. It's not an unusual thing for women to delay that decision. Men, in my experience, often have that entrepreneurial spirit that allows them to take risks when they're young. It took me a while to say 'F*** it'.'

Making the jump to being freelance was never going to be easy, let alone making it in a field notoriously hard for women, but knowing a thing or two about the industry as she did, Amanda decided to arm herself with the best training that she could find.

With Skillset's support, Amanda has since taken a directing actors course at the Binger Institute in Amsterdam and received one to one to one coaching at the NFTS. This year, Skillset provided Amanda with funding to become a fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme, which is an initiative designed to help develop the skills, knowledge, networks and experience of potential leaders in the cultural sector.

It is the lessons learned from being on this fellowship that Amanda credits with helping her land what is by far her biggest directing job - directing the first and last two episodes of the groundbreaking Channel 4 series Cast Offs.

'I feel incredibly lucky doing Clore. It's changed me in many ways and introduced me to an array of inspiring people. Fundamentally I'd say it's made me more confident and without a doubt that helped me get Cast Offs.'

With Cast Offs gaining widespread acclaim for its dark humour and unflinching examination of the realities of living with a disability, Amanda is now ready to embark on her next project.

'Cast Offs was a totally unique project. It was an amazing team to work with. I'm not sure what's next, I can't wait.'

November 2009