How to get into the Film industry

As a Floor Runner for high end Tv and Film, it's my most asked question: How do I become a PA in TV and film?

And my response is always that that there is not one straight route in and the different paths are wide and varied however I did happen to find a path that worked for me. Note: that this isn't how to stay in the industry thats a whole different story which even I haven't mastered yet (when I do i'll let you know).

It is important to start with the fact that I always knew I wanted to work in TV and Film which gave me a massive advantage with time. From the age of 9 I worked as an extra and actress in various tv shows, adverts and films.

So I guess for me this is where I would say to start for someone with absolutely no experience or connections on a film set.

Being an Extra

The world of extra work is a strange one. If you are a college student this route is probably most suited to you as it involves random and long days with good pay. But the most important part is the education you get while you're there. Watch everyone. What they do, how they talk on their radios, how they interact with you and each other. I'd say this education was way more valuable than the UAL BTEC Film and Tv course I was taking the other 3 days of the week.

When you're there the main thing to do is talk to the crew, let them know you want to be an assistant director or an art assistant or whatever it is you're into. But get the balance right, know when the right time to speak to them is and take the hint if they're not into helping you. There are so many people on a film set don't waste your time trying to get in with one person who's clearly not interested in helping you when there might be 50 others.

So, extra work: a good education and networking tool however that is not going to mean anything on your CV. Which brings us to:

Work experience

I cannot stress how important work experience is because when it is in TV or film (and even if your not being paid) you can just put it on your cv as a daily which is onset experience whether you are being paid or not.

So the main question is how to actually get the experience.

It's weird how life works. I knew I didn't want to work in an office but for college I had to do work experience so I found a production company in London that did 2 week work experience placements. I went and too be honest I didn't love it, I wanted to leave after the first week but I pursued and did the second too. I didn't really feel like i got anything out of it but it did look good on my cv. Skip to a month later and I get a phone call whilst at college from the old receptionist there saying that he's now a production assistant on a film and they're looking for a runner to come in to do work experience on set. It was like all my dreams coming true. I went for my first day and ended up staying for the whole months shoot.

Now, not getting paid for your work is a pretty grey area which lots of people don't agree with and to be honest I don't either however I learnt all the important basics on that shoot and got an awesome mentor out of it. I know lots of people cant afford to work for free which is why I said at the beginning this strategy works really well for a 16-18 year old student.

I also worked at another production company for a week and at the end of that week I was offered a day on set (again unpaid) of an advert that the company were producing. So even though I hated the experience of being in the office both placements actually led to something amazing.

For me my first day of paid work as a runner came from being an extra. We were shooting a big clubbing scene for a HETV drama and after it was done I was one of 2 people picked to hang around in the back of the next scene with the principle actors in the show. The principle actor/exec producer/writer got chatting to me between takes asking me if I wanted to be an actress and when I told him I wanted to be an AD he really wanted to help. He called over the third AD and made him take my contact details for if there was ever any daily work on the next block. About two months passed and I had herd nothing from them until out of the blue I get a phone call from the AD at 11am asking if I can get to set on the other side of London in the next hour. I said I could do it in an hour and a half and I was booked.

In that moment when I was on the phone I was so nervous and it was so far to travel but i just made myself say yes and get there. That was definitely the job that started off my career. I ended up doing about 3 days in total but really that is all you need to get you started.

Once I got 2 days of work experience on a HETV series and I was SO excited. I was on holiday and caught a 24hr bug the night before I was due to fly back. I spent the night throwing up, the next morning sleeping, the afternoon flying home and then sleeping through the night to wake up and go for my 8am call time the next morning. I felt terrible but was determined to do the day well. I ended up working SO hard that day it was like I was the key floor runner.

Come the second day of work experience i'd run myself back down and unable to even stand up I had to cancel. I was devastated, especially since it was such a lovely crew there too. Skip to 4 weeks later and the 3rd AD texts me saying their loosing their key floor runner for the next block and they'd like to offer me the job however I had booked a holiday for the first week of the 5 week shoot so I couldn't do it. I was absolutely devastated, convinced that that was my one shot to get in and I could not do it. I'd been trying to get jobs for months and nothing was coming through. I thought i'd never be able to work. That was a really hard time for me and now looking back I know it's so important to remember that theres never one shot or one way in. In a way if I had taken that job I probably wouldn't be where I am now.

Get an Agent/ career advisor

So being completely out of running work I was still doing extra jobs. I was on my favourite job I've ever done as an extra talking to one of the crowd AD's when he'd asked me if I was with a diary service for AD's and PA's. I told him i'd tried to apply multiple times and been rejected. He told me it was worth trying again, so I did the next day and I got accepted.

The day after I got an enquiry from a Netflix show looking for a lock-off PA for 2 days shooting in a studio near my house. I accepted and the next day I had my first day on a major fantasy Netflix series, it was surreal. They ended up liking me and I was booked till the end of the shoot. From there I met a contact who took me onto his next project for HBO and so on.

Obviously there are so many different elememnts to my story and so many chance moments that could have not happened but each event did have a chain reaction and every little bit of onset experience counts.

CV

Writing a Floor Runners CV is a whole differant ball park to writing a normal one. All of those character profiles and why you think your good at your job that are usually in the profile at the top shouldn't be on a floor runners CV. All they want to know is that you've got the experience and knowledge that you can only gain onset.

Everyone I know just has a couple of bullet points at the top with any special skills like if you are first aid trained, have a chaperones licence, speak a differant language or something like that.

Then a simple table with the production name, the AD's you worked with, the month and year you worked on it and then 3 or 4 references (contact details available upon request).

Its a clear and quick to read format for even the busiest of employers.

I am not going to lie it's a hard industry to break into with no contacts but you've just got to take every oppotunity that comes your way, work hard, smile at everyone onset, be kind, be helpful and have fun.

Extra agencies in UK: Casting Collective, Universal Extras, Ray Knight, Extra People, Guys and Dolls, Sally King Casting

Production companies offering good work experience: Rattling Stick, ZigZag Productions, Endemol Shine Group, Tiger Aspect