Case study - What can Women in Digital Entertainment do for you?
"It really helped me to put into focus the expectations of a producer and will greatly contribute to my current job position" Participant in Introduction to TV and Film Producing (June 2006)
"Dawn's enthusiasm and delivery were great and this course definitely made me think about way to improve my networking and confidence" Participant in Personal Branding and Networking (June 2006)
"Brilliant, totally worthwhile" Participant in HDV Camera Course (September 2006)
These are just some of the comments coming from participants in the Women in Digital Entertainment (WiDE) programme, Co-funded by the European Social Fund, and run by The University College of Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone & Rochester. Women are under-represented in the Digital Media industries with the Skillset Employment Census 2004 reporting that women represent just 31% of the industry workforce in the South East.
WiDE have developed a programme of training and activities to support and develop the careers of women living or working in the South East at any stage in their career with:
- Events & workshops to update technical Skills
- Events & workshops to develop business and commercial Skills
- Individual mentoring, careers and business advice
- Financial support for travel, care, training and those with disabilities.
To learn more about WiDE, the training programmes or funding please go to the website.
CASE STUDY: Deborah Westrup
It took just three hours on a WiDE course to help 34 year old Deborah Westrup gain the confidence and direction to take her own show to the Edinburgh Festival.
Deborah gained wide-ranging experience working as a freelancer TV: from her early career as a production assistant and researcher, she moved through to producing and directing roles, and from there to acting.
But everything changed with the birth of Julia, now 14 months old. Deborah says "Julia is wonderful, but being a mum meant that I just couldn't carry on working in TV as I once did. Part time work is incredibly hard to get." Deborah worked from home as a researcher, but was worried that her other skills would atrophy, or that she wouldn't be able to keep up.
"In the TV world, the more multi-skilled you are, the more employable you are"
Deborah turned to the WiDE initiatives for support. She says "Initially, I thought WiDE would help fills the skills gap for me, but it has been so much more." She took the free of charge Final Cut Pro course, which enabled her to extend her editing skills to complement her camera expertise. Deborah says "Learning this has enabled me to reinforce my skills while I was looking after Julia and dabbling in pieces of work that came my way."
But having so many skills was confusing. Deborah says "I kept asking myself, what am I? Producer, director, researcher, writer or actor?" Deborah then attended a free Life Coaching session, with Sandra Coley of Shifting Sands. She says "In three hours I had a completely different mindset."
During the session, Deborah came to see her experience as not a piecemeal, ad-hoc array of skills, but as a perfectly balanced and unique professionalism. "I realised that I had everything I needed to produce my own work. I was a professional that understood, and could do, every aspect of the business. I had all the skills and knowledge."
Deborah recognised that her contacts from many different areas of the industry, which she had previously though of as separate, formed a huge network that she had built up herself; "I realised that I could use my contacts in one area to complement another."
"It gave me clarity and focus"
Deborah says. "I realised that what I wanted was to develop a project based in one of a number of ideas I had. I saw an opportunity in Ibsen's centenary to focus on an Ibsen project that I had been playing with for a while. I had always dreamed on taking a show to the Edinburgh Festival. Life coaching enabled me to prioritise the tasks I needed to do, to identify the psychological and logistical barriers to my dream and to plan how to overcome them."
Deborah's show "Nora" showed during the Ibsen Season at the Hill Street Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival. "I'm using the full range of my skills to get the show together - to write the show and produce it. I'm acting in it too."
"Because I've learned how my skills link together, I'm combining my TV knowledge, my network and my acting skills to move into voiceover work. I'm creating opportunities for myself. I feel that this is only the beginning ..."
To learn more about WiDE please go to the website.
