Creativity Works: Content Production Weeks #3 & #4 round-up

8 December 2022

Let’s start with a quick summary of week 3, written by course participant Alex

This week saw the start of the shooting process for most of us on the course. Instead of having talks on Monday, we had self-study time to begin shooting our films. The formal part of our learning started with a midway check-in with Nathaniel from Swim Dem Crew, and a wicked masterclass on writing treatments by Creativity Works alum Edem Wornoo. Edem's session was particularly interesting because he really opened up about his career journey.

Wednesday saw a mixture of 121s with Thierry, and sessions with directing duo Meeks and Frost as well as Annie Ayers from Untold studios.

Next up was Thursday which was in person! This involved 121s with Rosie, Chantal and others, as well as an awesome and insightful talk on sound design for advertising, film and tv from the Factory. The evening saw a group session with Kei Maye and lastly on Friday we workshopped with Ayumi on career choices and progression. Bring on week 4!

Week 4 highlights written by trainee Greta Stepanyan

Week 4 was dedicated to editing time. As our final films were due in the following Wednesday , so a lot of our time was allocated towards filming additional footage and editing our final projects.

We also had so many interesting talks this week! On Tuesday Danielle Goff gave a talk about her journey of becoming a producer, from doing her MA at NFTS and producing her first short films, to moving on to creating feature-length films.

She also talked to us about some basic considerations when working in production such as different insurances, sources to look to for fair rates for the crew, newsletters to keep up with opportunities, and agencies that produce films specifically. I found this all very informative as I am interested in producing and it was great to hear it broken down like that. I now have a better idea of what the day-to-day would look like for this type of role.

We also had an interesting talk by producers Sue Agyeman and Aisha Clarke from BBC Creative Studio. The theme for the day was casting and how they go about choosing people for documentary-type shows; explained via some case studies. An interesting takeaway was how it's much easier to cast for roles within social media platforms now, but when they're casting for documentary-type roles, they try to be a lot more selective as people can apply for jobs for the wrong reasons so would prefer to find them through personal networks and network recommendations.

They also talked to us about how long it can take to cast people in roles and the very changeable nature of TV, which was good to hear as I guess this is what keeps the producers on their toes and maintains patience. It was especially inspiring to see that they clearly enjoy their jobs!

Thursday we had 121s with Thierry, a colorist for NTS, who helped with colour grading . During my session, he showed us how he would colour-grade visuals; playing with features like tint and highlights on the footage I shot. I typically wouldn't go near aspects like tint and highlight but I realised the smaller adjustments help with making the video look more professional – so it's an approach that I'll definitely take on for future projects.

As we were at the Good Growth Hub with the rest of the cohort, we were also able to check out each other's work and see how we were all getting on, which was quite exciting and a reminder that we're part of something bigger and not just going through this process alone.

There was also the Negotiating Rates w/ Kei Maye Part 2 session this week. Although I couldn't make it as it was in the evening and I had prior commitments, I'm glad to know her session was recorded and I can watch it on the weekend. I've watched Part 1 of her talks, which I found very helpful, particularly the equations she shared for us to determine our rates for projects. I didn't receive this type of advice on my university course so it was great to see there is more structure to it than I had previously thought.

On Friday we had a CV talk with Ayumi Konno. She showed us a few examples of CVs and major pointers we should be aware of. A big takeaway for me is to curate my cv for different jobs I apply for and to continuously update the document, which I don't do as much as I should. She also suggested different sites where we could look for jobs such as the Dots, Facebook, and Reddit - wherever there's a community, which makes sense but is not always obvious.

Something she said that felt significant was to give titles to jobs we did on a smaller scale - such as if we helped produce a project with friends, we could list it as Project Coordinator, to make the most out of all our experiences, informal and small, along the way.

Ayumi comes across as very upbeat which I found encouraging, considering the intimidation factor with job applications.

Overall it was a busy and informative week for me and I'm happy with how the course is progressing. Each session has been very useful, so I always make it a point to attend them, take notes, and ask questions if I have any. I'm glad I'm taking part and excited for the next week!