Breaking into the Creative Sector: Meshworks Power Lunch with Icon Films and A Productions

Breaking into the Creative Sector: Meshworks Power Lunches
Thursdays at 1pm here on the Rife UA-cam channel:
11th February: Writing/Journalism
18th February: Film/TV Production
25th February: Social Media/Branding
If you’re looking to work in the creative industries in the West of England, sign up to the Meshworks newsletter for content, support and community: rife.at/meshworkssignup
For all those who missed the live Q&A session with Duncan Fraser (A Productions) and Elaine Williams (Icon Films) please find the questions and responses here:
Scarlett Smyth (Chair): Welcome everyone and thanks for joining! My name's Scarlett and today we have Duncan Fraser from A Productions (Head of Production) and Elaine Williams (EA to the CEO) from Icon Films.
Q: If a person cannot meet the criteria exactly, what are the most desirable transferrable skills would you take into consideration?
Answer:
Elaine (Icon Films): I'm searching through CVs and cover letters the main things I am looking for are a demonstrated passion for film, that is really important - and a dedicated, hard-working person. So I'd say if there are specific aspects of the criteria that you don't meet, stress your passion for film and demonstrate that, and talk about how you have demonstrated your work ethic is previous roles.
Q: ​How might you demonstrate your passion for film?
Answers:
Elaine (Icon Films): I'd say by investing time, energy and creativity into film making in some way. That might be making short films on your phone, with a group of friends or on your own. Applications that catch my eye often include links to short films that people have made, often there is a showreel. But I'm not looking for a finished, polished article, but rather an investment of energy and creativity that I can look at.
Duncan (A Productions): As an animation company we will also be looking for evidence of a passion for animation - drawing skills or acting, storytelling. ​We also have positions that are not directly creative - which involve tech or IT skills. Those can often be a way into the creative.
Q: How often do you employ entry-level crew?
Answers:
Duncan (A Productions): It really depends on projects. Currently we have four new productions starting so we are looking for quite a lot of entry level. Generally our projects run to about one or two years so it tends to go in cycles of about that length. Right now is a good time though!
Elaine (Icon Films): In normal times we have had a team of three runners on six to nine-month contracts so we would re-recruit that often. ​Honestly, since the office is much emptier, we do have fewer opportunities and have just one runner on the moment, but are hoping to get back up to a team of two this year so that would allow for between two and four positions per year.
Q: How would you ensure there is a level playing field when it comes to selecting between a candidate with lots of experience and a candidate in training or a trainee?
Duncan (A Productions): When we recruit we have a formatted set of questions and a scoring matrix so that we can fairly judge a candidate on those. We also review portfolios/showreels for creative jobs before we look at CVs, so talent is the first thing we look at.
Scarlett (Chair): Thank you to all that participated - especially Elaine and Duncan! We will have a roundup of this chat on Rife next week - and you can revisit the video any time.
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