Producer: Hannah Lewis
In your own words, briefly describe your job.
''I work on TV and film production ranging from documentaries to drama to promos. I do some feature work as a production assistant to producing my own short films.''
How did you get into the industry?
''I did a degree at film school but it was difficult because they didn’t have good tuition or equipment, and we couldn’t apply for training schemes because we were students. So we used the time to make short films and learned from each other. After that we continued to make films and it was easier to apply for funding.''
What advice would you give to others seeking work experience?
''It's a problem for people trying to get into the industry from the beginning who don't have relatives in the industry and have no money. It's still worth pursuing and it's possible because I had no support or funding connections. It's the same with schemes - keep applying every year. So, keep going and not giving up.''
What training and/or education have you found most useful in progressing your career?
''There's no particular training in production because it's so broad but legal and financial training would be useful. Maybe something lacking is a producer's foundation course. I did a 6 month masters course in Spain which was really good and touched on legal and contractual issues. I found it really hard to get funding to do that course though, and no one was interested in supporting us.''
What are your career plans for the future?
''My friends and I have made 7 short films, which has been a good training ground and we've really enjoyed doing them. We've got a feature in development and doing our own features is something that we'd like to do in the next couple of years.''
What has been the best piece of luck for you?
''Best piece of luck would be receiving the BAFTA last year for a short film. It certainly opened up doors in terms of getting our work seen and people willing to meet us. It gave us a higher profile and people take us seriously because we're now not just considered as a student short.''
Do you freelance? Fulltime? Contract?… What are the (dis)advantages of that?
''Advantages of working freelance, are the flexibility and you get to work on interesting projects. That's the reason why I haven't been a full time employee. I can' t afford to freelance all of the time and have to supplement income by waiting tables which keeps you away from what you really want to do but you have to do it especially if you want to make your own work. In working for someone else, you have the financial stability but perhaps you can't do your own project or do stuff that really interests you or do things at short notice. What keeps me going is to be able to choose the work you want and find more interesting work.''
Has anyone or anything particularly inspired you?
''Because I work with a team of people, it's nice to see that teams work well together, like Danny Boyle and the Trainspotting team, and see how they keep the same relationship, and keep making good work. There are lots of individuals, like Timothy Burrow, and people who’ve been in industry for years that are keen on training and wanting to put something back into the industry.''
''I work on TV and film production ranging from documentaries to drama to promos. I do some feature work as a production assistant to producing my own short films.''
How did you get into the industry?
''I did a degree at film school but it was difficult because they didn’t have good tuition or equipment, and we couldn’t apply for training schemes because we were students. So we used the time to make short films and learned from each other. After that we continued to make films and it was easier to apply for funding.''
What advice would you give to others seeking work experience?
''It's a problem for people trying to get into the industry from the beginning who don't have relatives in the industry and have no money. It's still worth pursuing and it's possible because I had no support or funding connections. It's the same with schemes - keep applying every year. So, keep going and not giving up.''
What training and/or education have you found most useful in progressing your career?
''There's no particular training in production because it's so broad but legal and financial training would be useful. Maybe something lacking is a producer's foundation course. I did a 6 month masters course in Spain which was really good and touched on legal and contractual issues. I found it really hard to get funding to do that course though, and no one was interested in supporting us.''
What are your career plans for the future?
''My friends and I have made 7 short films, which has been a good training ground and we've really enjoyed doing them. We've got a feature in development and doing our own features is something that we'd like to do in the next couple of years.''
What has been the best piece of luck for you?
''Best piece of luck would be receiving the BAFTA last year for a short film. It certainly opened up doors in terms of getting our work seen and people willing to meet us. It gave us a higher profile and people take us seriously because we're now not just considered as a student short.''
Do you freelance? Fulltime? Contract?… What are the (dis)advantages of that?
''Advantages of working freelance, are the flexibility and you get to work on interesting projects. That's the reason why I haven't been a full time employee. I can' t afford to freelance all of the time and have to supplement income by waiting tables which keeps you away from what you really want to do but you have to do it especially if you want to make your own work. In working for someone else, you have the financial stability but perhaps you can't do your own project or do stuff that really interests you or do things at short notice. What keeps me going is to be able to choose the work you want and find more interesting work.''
Has anyone or anything particularly inspired you?
''Because I work with a team of people, it's nice to see that teams work well together, like Danny Boyle and the Trainspotting team, and see how they keep the same relationship, and keep making good work. There are lots of individuals, like Timothy Burrow, and people who’ve been in industry for years that are keen on training and wanting to put something back into the industry.''
