Hello all
im a HND media production student in the uk the course is more governed towards the filmmaking side of moving image and i have just finished my first year. I have been thinking very much about the next step after the completion of the second year. I have the option of doing a third year to top it up to a degree but being 25 and a mature student the idea of moving more in to the job side of the business is more appealing.
I want to try to include travel in with a job in moving image its not that i have itchy feet but if there was a way in to the business that allowed the chance to travel it would be a fantastic advantage. i obviously understand that i would have to take any oppertuinity offered to gain more experience. I am a fan of documentary in the main and love the idea of the exploration of a subject and am a interested also in wildlife. I suppose i am asking if any one knows what would be the best way to find a route in to this genre of moving image and if there is any research material or websites that may aid me in persueing my aim.
Anything that anyone could provide would be massivly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Matt
One of the benefits of documentary shooting is that it seems to be much easier to put together a proposal for a documentary and ship it around the TV companies in the UK than to do the same for a drama... for one thing, documentaries are often one-offs, whereas the market for a one-off TV drama is much smaller.
Mark, what's a "one-off"? That term is new to me.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
"One-off" as in only one show rather than a series... though where documentaries are concerned they may well bundle a number from different people with similar themes into a series.
Thanks, Mark. Makes sense.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
We're UK based. You basically need to pimp yourself like crazy, sign up for shootingpeople.org and talentcircle.co.uk, and surf mandy.com for jobs, you need real experience asap so look at shooters or talent circle for unpaid short film type jobs to give yourself a CV, all the time bombard documentary production companies with your CV and offer to do work experience for free to get in with people. Travel is hard to get unless you have a lot of experience because it's usually cheaper to pick up crew in the country you're going to for anything other than director/producer/DP sort of level jobs, but look out for jobs at the BBC (try the Guardian on Monday's I think or their website) as a researcher for something like the natural history unit and you may get lucky and find yourself in Mongolia with David Attenborough.
It takes a lot of time to get anywhere so priority recommendation is to be prepared for rejection, because it will happen a lot, and don't give up, because the one's who keep trying are the one's who get in.
Steve Piper
Coffee Films
www.coffeefilms.com
www.myspace.com/coffeefilms
Steve Piper
Coffee Films
www.coffeefilms.com
www.metacafe.com/channels/coffeefilms
