The Uncharted Freelancer| Your Skills For Your Next Job| Issue 5| May 2024 Edition
Laura Masters
WFTV Award Winner| Soho Editors trained 2nd Assistant Editor| HETV and Features| Assistant Editor| Junior Editor| Un/Scripted| Available Now| Founder of The Uncharted Freelancer| #Editing #Assistant Editor #Avid#Adobe
Hello everyone and welcome back to Issue 5 of The Uncharted Freelancer. I hope you enjoyed reading Issue 4: Self Promotion focusing on designing a business card, FREE website, FREE linktr.ee account and CV/cover email tips. My aim of this month's newsletter is looking a bit further into training and keeping up to date with those vital skills you have for seeking work in the tv industry as well as other creative industry sectors. One thing all freelancers must be wanting to know is finding the jobs. That's the secret we need to crack. Our questions are: Where is the work? Where are the jobs? How do we get more work? Well, when we do get that next job, we need to make sure we are on top of our skills. Therefore, we need to be able to retain them and also learn new skills.
Test Your Knowledge On Quizzes (postproduction)
One website I highly recommend if you're working with software such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition, Avid Media Composer or DaVinci Resolve etc, is to visit a website called ProProfs. Here is a link to their website: https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/browse
There are a variety of quizzes you can do;
Afterwards, you will get a certificate on your score. Please note this is NOT an accredited certificate, as it's only to quiz your knowledge. However, you can look to get certified in areas of software in Adobe CC applications mentioned above and Avid Media Composer at Avid Learning Centre with an Avid Trainer near you and at Soho Editors in London. Bursaries may be available from ScreenSkills. Here is a link to ScreenSkills bursary guidelines: https://www.screenskills.com/your-career/screenskills-bursaries/bursary-guidelines/
How Do You Get More Work?
The answer to the question all freelancers want to know: "How do we get more work?" Well, as we all know, that's not an easy question to answer. Asking myself, I don't actually have the answer apart from sharing tips with you that's worked for me;
What Are Other Freelancers Doing To Maintain Their Skills?
First of all, thank you to those of you who contributed and shared their experience on how they're maintaining their skills. Here are some freelancers in different areas sharing their tips;
Asib Akram - Freelance Production/Post Production Coordinator based in Scotland. Asib keeps up with his skills taking online courses and attending workshops related to the Film and TV industry. Asib also attends industry events and connecting with other professionals. He also likes to keep an eye out for any step-up schemes and opportunities.
If you're looking for an experienced industry professional for your Production Management needs, here is a link to Asib's LinkedIn profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/asib-akram/
Sibyl Arbuckle - Freelance CFX Assistant/Costume Trainee/Props Maker based in Scotland creates her own projects making items she has at home. She has recommended that YouTube is great for finding ideas and tutorials. Sibyl has also attended FREE courses BECTU Vision and ScreenSkills such as; Finance, First Aid and Promoting Yourself On Social Media.
If you can find Sibyl's LinkedIn profile here with photographs of her projects. If you're looking for an industry professional to hire for your CFX, Costume and Prop needs, here is a link to Sibyl's LinkedIn profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sibyl-arbuckle/
Trevor Jones - Freelance Edit Assistant/Assistant Editor based in Cardiff, Wales working in scripted/unscripted. Trevor has worked on a variety of projects for BBC ITV Studios and independent companies. Trevor has a great attitude of staying positive and has been working with DaVinci Resolve to do some edits. He explains it's a really good programme to use and you can also get a FREE version: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
If you're looking for an experienced industry professional for your Post Production needs, here is a link to Trevor's LinkedIn profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/trevor-jones-817ba34a/
Aidan Lynn - Freelance Short Filmmaker based in Scotland with Edit Assistant experience. Aidan keeps up with his skills by brainstorming some ideas for his YouTube Channel - specialising in short docs of Ayrshire History.
If you're looking for an experienced industry professional for your post, here is a link to both Aidan's LinkedIn profile and YouTube Channel:
Where Do We Get The Skills?
Depending on what your area of field is, having a varied and diverse skillset is very beneficial. There are a variety of ways to get skills we need to thrive in our profession working in a freelance industry. There are a few places where we can get the skills;
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ScreenSkills - I highly recommend which has been beneficial to me being out of work and enabling me to gain skills I didn't have to continue working in my profession in Post Production.
You can find out more here on workshops, FREE courses and funded traineeships on ScreenSkills website: https://www.screenskills.com/
You can also look at the different career paths there are if you're thinking of working in a different department and looking for a new career path working in Film and Television.
Transferable Skills You May Have
If you are a Production Runner, you may have skills of making teas and coffees or cash handling if you've worked in hospitality or retail. Also as well, having a full UK driver's licence is essential for needing to drive cast and crew to required locations. Bare in mind due to insurance companies, you may need to be over twenty-five. If you've worked in an office, you may be familiar with Outlook, Zoom, SharePoint and Microsoft Applications such as Word and Excel.
If you've worked as a Project Manager before, this should be able to help you be able to work in Production Management to help the team make sure a production operates smoothly and efficiently looking after finance and making sure productions are made within budget and delivered on time.
Every freelancer has communication and teamworking experience whether they have worked on television projects, and other industries which could be; retail, hospitality, catering, construction or clerical work etc. We can also transfer our skills to content, PR and marketing if we have experience of making videos for Social Media channels for businesses.
Traineeships That Will Help Boost Your Skills
As discussed in Issue 3 - The Search For Work - gaining a place on traineeships can help to boost your skillset for more employability. Back in April, I applied to a traineeship through ScreenSkills - Step up to 2nd Assistant Editor on HETV (High-end Television) to be trained at Soho Editors in London. There were only ten places and I successfully gained one of the places. There were a couple of stages to go through like all traineeships and I was very excited to get a place (and cried). I'm usually unsuccessful trying to gain a traineeship so this was a really lovely opportunity to have been given. Please don't give up and keep applying. This was an incredible opportunity I never thought I'd gain a place on. An article about this will be produced later on in the year.
You can find out about more on ScreenSkills' website here: https://www.screenskills.com/
ScreenScotland's website has traineeships on both scripted and unscripted programmes: https://www.screen.scot/skills-and-talent/skills-development/rad-tv-trainee-programmes
Rad Scotland - https://trcmedia.org/training/rad-scotland-tv-traineeship/
Funded by Channel 4, BBC Studios, Screen Scotland and BBC Nations and Regions.
Royal Television Society (apprenticeships and traineeships) - https://rts.org.uk/education-and-training-pages/apprenticeships
Apprenticeships on these two websites can be found at; BBC, Channel 4, ITN, ITV, Sky, UKTV and Viacom.
SWOT Analysis
Downloadable Documents
Last month, I spoke a little about a SWOT analysis which focuses on four key areas; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. If you have completed one of these documents, use this as part of your learning and development of being a freelancer in the Creative Industries. Here you can find out more information and download their FREE template:
Professional Profiles
Do feel free to check out my portfolio if you have time: https://lauramasters.myportfolio.com/
You can also check me out on Film Bang: https://www.filmbang.com/listings/masters-laura
Click here to see my IMDB profile - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11158228/
or
You can now find all my professional profiles of; my website/portfolio, email, newsletter, Film Bang and IMDB listings here on:
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this fifth edition of The Uncharted Freelancer. I hope you tune back in for the sixth edition which will focus on travelling for freelance work and being away from home.
If you would like to find out more, don't hesitate to contact me directly on here and REMEMBER to subscribe to my monthly newsletter if you haven't already. If you enjoy the articles, please share with your LinkedIn connections and fellow freelancers who can get involved with The Uncharted Freelancer.