FILM INDUSTRY RESEARCH

‘What is it like to work in the film

industry?’
Perhaps you’ve gotten a new job as a
production assistant. Perhaps you’re still in
school and have been given an opportunity
as an intern, or you’ve recently been asked
to help out with a friend’s production.
A film set is a uniquely judgmental place.
Everyone is relying on each other, so
everyone is constantly evaluating whom
they can rely on. It’s not enough to do the job, or even to do the job right. You have
to do it right and look like a pro while you’re doing it.
Throw Away Your Trash. A film set is a sacred place where creative people engage
with one another and make art. Every bag of chips and empty coffee cup left behind
is an act of disrespect to the art-making at hand. It is also a blemish on the film itself,
as an errant water bottle, discovered too late, renders a great shot useless.

Keep It Tight. Your dress code should prepare you to walk into a CEO’s office or to
climb a 14-foot ladder with a paintbrush in your hand. DO wear a belt and keep a
complete set of relevant tools at the ready. DO NOT wear open-toed shoes.

Act Your Age. Do not lie down, do not have tickle fights, do not play with swivel
chairs, and permanently set your cellphone on “silent.” If you are making other
people aware of your presence by doing anything other than your job (laughing,
playing a trailer on your phone, chewing loudly), you’re doing your job wrong.

Put Your Stuff Away. Each morning, identify the least obtrusive place to put your
coat, your bag and your personal belongings, and then tuck them away in the least
obtrusive part of that place. Never on set, never mixed in with equipment and never
in another department’s workspace.

Put Your Gear Away. If you can condense your gear, do so. If you do nothing but
organize and tighten up your department’s workspace all day, then that is a victory.

Be On Time. A late person is a person who can’t be trusted, as well as a person

who is excluded from important conversations about the day ahead.
At some point during the shooting day, that flashlight will land on you. Everyone will
be looking at you and waiting for you to do your job, or the production will stop
moving. That flashlight can feel like a warm spotlight or it can feel like the high
beams of a speeding car, fixing you in its headlights, determined to mow you down.
It all depends on how well you understand your job and the jobs of others around
you.

‘What personal qualities are beneficial to work in the film industry?’

A production is designed to dominate the space around it, and it’s easy to get lost in
the bubble. But you are still in the real world. Don’t run into traffic or leave gear in the
street. Don’t leave things sitting on the sidewalk unattended

1. It’s not a job it’s a lifestyle

If you view your filmmaking career as a job, you are on the wrong track. Your career will consume
every single waking moment. Unless you have passion for what you are going, you won’t be able
to do this. Your personal challenge is to juggle your dream and your personal life. Manage that
properly and we will all think you are a magician.

Filmmaking also takes up a huge amount of physical and mental resources meaning your health
needs to be dealt with in detail, down to what you eat for breakfast.

2. It’s not about how hard you work, its about how smart you work

Slaving away with your nose to the grindstone might impress your personal trainer, but if you
don’t work smart all your energy could be wasted. Knowing what you really want or knowing how
someone is going to react to what you need before you spring into action is half the battle. Then
get ready for the heavy lifting.

I always make this mistake, especially in the run-up to the festival. I get so involved in the
programming and the website that I forget to take my eyes off the grit and grime at my feet and
lift my eyes to the heavens – even just for a few minutes.

3. Don’t take things personally

Sticks and stones will hurt my bones but names will never hurt me. This nursery rhyme is packed
full of truth but it’s hard to remember, especially when it seems that the world is ganging up on
you. Every successful person has lots of people trying to take them down. Look at it this way: if
no one is slagging you off, then you aren’t successful. It’s how business (and life) works.

Does this sound familiar? Recently a close friend started criticising me about the British
Independent Film Awards and told me that they were becoming too corporate. Now, having
founded the BIFA’s they are really close to my heart, and something that I am proud of. But I took
the comments personally and before I knew it bile started to build up in my system and I fired off
a text message that nearly destroyed my personal relationship with this individual. Then I had to
realise the real reason this person had slagged off one of my dreams – envy! And I felt a whole
lot better.
Another friend told me time after time in the early years of Raindance: “Quitters never win and
winners never quit.”

4. Humility is a virtue

Do you think you can achieve terrific success and manage to kill your ego? Because that is the
trick that the most successful people use. And it is one of the hardest to pull off.

I meet so many filmmakers who are making their films and writing their scripts out of pure ego. I
will hear them say things like: “I want to win an Oscar”, or, “This is a really cool occupation, this
filmmaking thing.”

In 1975 when I first started out I was a stage hand at the Royal Court Theatre pulling ropes on a
show called Teeth N’ Smiles. One of the actors was a woman by the name of Helen Mirren. She
had virtually no ego. She was an actor. I was a stage hand, and that was about it. She got up to
go to work, as I and the rest of the cast and crew did. It was so inspiring to realise that we each
had our job and craft, and that in her eyes, we were equal human beings. That she was hugely
successful was another thing, but it sat outside of ego, giving her this terrific humility that made
her a joy and wonder to work with.

5. If you don’t believe in yourself no one else will

This comes in two parts:

First, you really and truly need to believe in your own abilities and know your boundaries and
limitations. Limitations are not a weakness, they are simply areas you need to strengthen or
negotiate.

Secondly you need to become a master in the art of self-promotion so you can convey this belief
in yourself to others without looking like an ego maniac with delusions of grandeur.

I am often guilty of this myself. Despite all the kudos and accolades Raindance and the festival
now receives I still often find myself on the back foot.

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves: “Who am I to
be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?” Actually, who are you not to be?’ (Nelson Mandela)

6. Never underestimate the power of looking good

It’s not about spending loads and loads on wardrobe or plastic surgery. It’s about presenting
yourself with style and flair. The cheapest and easiest way to create a stare-inducing presence is
to manage your diet and look after your body. Sounds elementary I know, but if you switch on the
TV or flip through style or gossip magazines you will see page after page of people who work
hard, work smart and who work their butts off – to look good.

7. Leave anyone you meet feeling better

It’s not about what you do for a person, it's how you make them feel about themselves. If you
leave a person of influence bored to death you have just shot yourself in the foot. Remember it is
the entertainment industry, and never forget the old maxim: “Leave ’em wanting more.”
Sources:
https://filmmakermagazine.com/92534-the-seven-arts-of-working-in-film/#.VecUuMZVhBc

https://raindance.org/7-key-essential-personal-traits-of-filmmakers/