I decided that I would spend some of the summer break getting some work experience in film production. I went about this by using the website ‘‘mandy.com’’. This site is great for searching for jobs in Film and Broadcasting. The vacancies are with various companies both established and amateur.
I went down the list of jobs that are posted up daily (a lot of which were in London) an hour’s journey on the train from where I live in Suffolk, which was ideal. Lots of the jobs I found seemed like they would give me the kind of experience I was hoping to get, un-paid but just what I was looking for. I ended up applying for at least fifty different jobs but only hearing back from one or two. These unfortunately just told me that students were not what they were looking for. Eventually though I did get some positive news. I was offered job being part of a production crew with the Young Person’s Theatre company who were shooting a video short around London. I was told that they needed help with general jobs around the set and that I’d also get to watch and take part with the filming as well as meet a lot of interesting people which seemed perfect to me.
The production had already started a few days prior to me receiving the phone call about the job so I had to start work right away. Commuting wasn’t going to be cheap and not easy either seeing as the crew had to arrive on set at 6:30 some days. So I made a hasty decision to stay in London for week. I found some accommodation on the Holloway road in North London which is close to Camden where the first few days of filming took place. During my weeks work experience we did move all over north and east London to various sets and locations. One of these locations was 3 mills studio’s near Bromley-by-Bow tube station, East London. This was an interesting experience as it’s a popular location in London for production companies to hire out for live broadcast or the recording of film. I also found out that some episodes of the television series Bad Girls was shot there.
Here is a description of the video short I worked on quoted from the YPTC website.
‘‘Shot over twelve days in August 2008, Invalid Debris tells the story of ten young people who, although they do not initially realize it, are permanently linked by their involvement in the death of a young girl. One year later they are brought together by the only person who knows the whole story of what happened on that fateful night. Locked into a deserted building together, they are forced to examine their lives and, finally, face up to the truth about themselves...
Invalid Debris is a thoughtful and moving examination of the way in which our actions impact on the world around us. Powerfully acted by the young cast, many of whom, at that time, had no previous film acting experience, Invalid Debris is set to become a classic of its type.’’
From my weeks work experience I feel I learnt a lot about how recording a film works and managed to answer a lot of my questions and queries. I also made some good friends and contacts students like myself and people who work in unpaid and paid video production jobs throughout the year. I feel it was a valuable experience and have gained some ideas from people I talked to for some work experience next summer.
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