WHY CREATE THE FIVE DAY FILM SCHOOL?

Filmmaking is both a science and an art form. To succeed requires a high level of technical understanding, creative flare, and the ability to work well with others. What was previously a small and elite industry delivering strictly for broadcast television has now become a global phenomenon with the advent of Youtube and DSLR cameras.

When I first started out as an assistant on feature films over 15 years ago the old boys used to play tricks on the newcomers, asking for bits of kit that didn’t really exist. It turned out that ‘sausages’ were floor markers for the actors, but the ‘multi coloured paint’ and ‘whippets’ were made up. I remember sneaking behind a camera truck on one of my first jobs to ask Google what a doughnut is (it goes between a lens and matte box to block out light). I learnt a great deal about film production working on big sets, seeing what could be done with unlimited budgets. However when you’re working in a team of over 100 people as an assistant you don’t really have any creative input. I had set out on my journey to make films, not just swing lenses.

Googling ‘career advice’ in film production wasn’t proving any more fruitful than ‘doughnuts’. Wanting to make films, I signed up for film school. Tens of thousands of pounds and 3 years later I came away with even more questions than I’d gone in with. The resources available were either too dry, impractical, or years out of date. I felt bankrupt, creatively and financially. What I needed back then was a guide, a one-stop-shop that would give me a framework to follow and make real progress.

I created this website to provide just that. Fifteen years of filmmaking later I feel privileged to have traveled the world making films for most of the major broadcasters and learnt from hundreds of exceptionally talented professionals. Condensing my knowledge and experiences into these articles I aim to save you a lot of the blood, sweat, and tears that I endured along the way. I can’t promise you wont make mistakes, in fact I encourage them as the best way to learn. Instead I offer you a head start with these practical how-to guides, filled with tips and tricks so you don’t have to sneak behind the camera truck searching Google for the baby legs and the blondes.