Everything on the List
Pick the part of the industry you are heading for and its books, blogs, websites and bodies are on the right. Or search across all of them.
Specifically entry level 82
For the person this site is for: how to get the first job, what a runner or a production assistant actually does all day, and the organisations that run paid routes in.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readRunner: How to Break into Film...
Written by industry professional Will Judge, 'Runner' is a career guide that aims to put what's normally considered to be a grunt's job into a positive light.
Essential readBreaking into UK Film and TV Drama
A working UK crew member on exactly how people get their first jobs in British film and TV drama: the departments, the routes in, who hires and how to approach them. Written for here, not Hollywood.
Essential readKeys to the Production Office
The office production assistant's job set out by two people who did it: the paperwork, the call sheet run, the phones, and how an office PA becomes a coordinator. The route into the production office.
Then the rest of the shelf, 79 more.
Books 13
BookThe Ultimate Production Assistants Guide
This manual was created by a working PA as a tutorial for those starting out, or a reference guide for seasoned filmmakers.
Sound DepartmentTo Become a Sound Designer
A small handbook written to highlight the essential lessons learned as a newly-graduated sound designer plus tips and advice on how to advance audio skills.
CameraIntroduction to Cinematography: Learning Through Practice
Built for someone starting out: it teaches the camera department job by job, from clapper loader up, so you learn the kit and the set etiquette in the order you will meet them.
LightingLiving the Lighting Life: A Guide to a Career in Entertainment Lighting
What the lighting career is really like and how people get into it - the routes, the day rates, the ladder from trainee to gaffer, written by someone who climbed it.
Production OfficeThe Production Assistant's Pocket Handbook
Written by a PA for PAs: getting the first job, holding a lock-up, using the radio, running talent, driving, and what to have in your pockets on day one.
Production OfficeWhat I Really Want to Do on Set in Hollywood
Thirty-five crew jobs, each with a day in the life - what the work really is, who you answer to, and how the departments fit together shot by shot.
Production OfficeHow To Survive On Set: The Set Production Assistant's Guidebook
A set PA's own guidebook, now in a second edition with a glossary of the words people will shout at you and forty pages of advice nobody stops to give.
Production OfficeSetlife: A Guide To Getting A Job In Film (And Keeping It)
What a film set is really like to walk into, and how to stay on one - a crew member's account of getting the first job and building from it, not film-school theory.
Sound DepartmentThe Sound Effects Bible
Recording, editing and building sound effects, from the basics up. The practical book for a sound trainee.
Sound DepartmentThe Location Sound Bible
Recording sound on set and on location: the microphones, the mixers, the wireless, and the practice. The book for a boom operator or sound trainee.
Assistant DirectorsSomething Like an Autobiography
Kurosawa's memoir up to Rashomon: his apprenticeship as an assistant director and what he learned from it.
Production OfficeGofers: On the Front Lines of Film and Television
A PA's memoir of starting with no contacts at all - the gofer years on real productions, what freelancing actually costs you, and what he would tell himself on day one.
- Production Office
The Production Assistant's Guidebook
Out in 2027. Twenty years as a PA and assistant director set down as one book: how a production is structured, and how to do each PA job well rather than merely survive it.
Blogs 28
CameraThe Black and Blue
A working camera assistant's notes, still written one post at a time: what is in the ditty bag, how to pull focus, how to get the next job and keep it.
- VFX
Prolost
One visual effects supervisor and director writing about cameras, colour and post since before most blogs existed, and still posting.
Feature Film Production CompanyChris Jones
The author of the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook on how to make a film with what you have. British, blunt and useful.
Production OfficeWrapbook Blog
Production payroll company blog with unusually good explainers on how productions are organised: call sheets, day rates, the paperwork.
- Editing
Eleanor Adler - Post Production Blog
Site and blog of Eleanor Adler, a London-based associate and assistant editor (Mission: Impossible franchise) who mentors people trying to get into UK post-production.
Sound DepartmentJames Lister Sound blog
A Manchester-based freelance sound assistant, boom operator and sound recordist writing an honest one-person blog about building a career in TV and film sound: boom operating on set, gear lists, and a frank post titled 'is it worth it???' about gaps in work since 2022.
AnimationAnimation Apprentice Blog
A near-daily blog by UK animator and lecturer Alexander Williams covering how to get a first job in animation, showreels, studio interviews and industry news, aimed at students and graduates.
AnimationStory Notes! (Story Field Notes)
A Substack by Wren Petkov, a story artist who graduated in late 2024 and started at Elk Studios in Dublin. Posts include 'I survived my first year in animation.' and notes on story craft from a junior's desk.
WriterPhilip Shelley, Script Consultant
Fortnightly blog by Philip Shelley, the UK script editor who runs the Channel 4 screenwriting course and has fed back on 2,300-plus scripts. Posts cover his most common script notes, pitching, which UK courses and schemes are open, and interviews.
WriterScript Angel
Site and blog of Script Angel, the UK script development outfit run by Hayley McKenzie (ex-ITV Studios development executive, script editor on Casualty). Craft articles, industry news and partnership announcements for emerging writers.
WriterMessy Collective
Substack of a London community of women, non-binary and trans writers and filmmakers (3,000-plus members), written by its small volunteer team. Posts include So You Want To Be A Script Reader by an assistant script editor on Silent Witness, plus deep dives on UK schemes and contests.
WriterThe Comedy Crowd Newsletter
Weekly Monday newsletter from the UK comedy platform The Comedy Crowd listing open opportunities: Channel 4 Screenwriting, BBC Liverpool Comedy, BAFTA Rocliffe, British Comedy Guide awards, script calls and festivals, with a short reflection on comedy writing each issue.
Assistant DirectorsBehind Every Frame
Daisy Bryant, a London-based producer and assistant director who pivoted from National Geographic documentaries into features and shorts for Focus, Working Title and indie productions. Weekly numbered posts on the journey, short film funding, festivals and how to get in.
Production OfficeThe Call Sheet UK
Matt J. Gallagher, about 15 years in UK film and TV production, writes monthly UK production updates and industry news, and has just published a 100,000-word guide, Breaking Into UK Film and TV Drama, with 50 industry contributors.
- Director
I'm Making My First Film!
Tom Violett is making his first documentary, Voices for Change, with his 19-year-old filmmaker son Ray, and writes about the process and the slog. Location not stated on the site; he is part of the US-centred NonDē community.
Production OfficeThe Runner Diaries
An anonymous UK television runner's diary of life at the bottom of the call sheet: skin bins, crying on camera, losing a job, plus a long guide to entry-level TV and film runner jobs.
- Production Office
Zara's Takes
An early-career UK writer (work experience at local radio, studying media) publishes a 'The role of...' series on overlooked production jobs (production coordinator, script supervisor) alongside UK broadcasting analysis.
- Commercial Production Company
The TV Watercooler
A free, non-commercial site run by UK TV freelancers for over 20 years, with posts filed under Runners Info, Sites To Avoid, Your Rights and Industry News.
WriterOff Script with Rachel
Substack by a former UK factual producer who went from runner on Antiques Road Trip to producer in six years and then left: what the runner-to-producer path is really like, and honest guidance for anyone weighing up whether to stay in TV.
Creative AgencyMike the Advertising Mentor
Mike Nicholson, a London copywriter and executive creative director with 29 years in agencies including Wieden+Kennedy London and the School of Communication Arts, writes a weekly technique for aspiring advertising creatives: how to build a portfolio, get placements and survive a creative department.
Commercial Production CompanyGreen to Greenlit
Freddie Green, a UK writer-director who works in the commercials industry guiding unsigned directors, writes a Substack on what making TV commercials actually looks like: how the agency, brand and production company fit together, and a four-part series on how to become a director in advertising.
BlogThe Mainstream
Newsletter of The Mainstream, a launchpad for emerging UK media talent founded by broadcaster Remel London; monthly interviews, presenting opportunities and a live show. Leans towards presenters and creators as well as production.
Script SupervisorScript Supervisor Blog: Notes from Set
Blog of a script supervisor with 15 years on set who works across the UK and EU (based in Sweden): continuity, a UK multi-unit slating system, on-set challenges and a Become a Script Supervisor section.
DirectorSHORT PEOPLE TV
London screenwriter who started as a Soho runner and then an assistant director, now making one-minute films; frequent posts recapping the route in and the process of making his own work.
- Writer
Tia Welsh (The Gutsy Writer)
London writer who has worked at BBC Studios Drama, Moonage Pictures and Channel 4 writes weekly about being new in TV drama, including being a runner and balancing a day job with the writing.
Hair and Make-UpAnnie Little Hair Arts
London film and TV hair designer's blog, Notes from On-Set: being the best trainee, Black hair on screen, and her process on productions. Posts are infrequent (last September 2024).
Art DepartmentGRFxFILM
Substack by an anonymous graphic designer and art director with 15 years in film and TV on graphic design for the screen: script breakdown for graphics, period design niches, becoming a film graphic designer. Region not stated (some UK references).
Costumethe costume department newsletter
Faraday Gamble-Gittings writes from inside the costume department: what the work is actually like day to day, how the department is run, and how people get into it. One of the few newsletters by someone doing the job.
Websites 14
DirectorFilm Riot
The YouTube channel that taught a generation to make films with what they had: tutorials on every part of the craft, free.
- Camera
StudioBinder Blog
The clearest beginner explanations on the web: what a shot list is, how a call sheet works, every camera movement with clips. Written to sell their software, but the articles are excellent.
VFXVFXwire
Founded in 2014 by compositor Allan Torp Jensen, VFXwire publishes VFX news, interviews and breakdowns (including a 'Meet the Runner' series) and, since a September 2026 relaunch, also a job board. Base not stated.
VFXThe Rookies: Careers blog
The careers section of The Rookies, a community for CG, VFX and games students, with first-person pieces such as 'How I got hired in VFX', 'Working as a junior compositor' and graduate spotlights.
- Camera
Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins' own site: a free forum where he personally answers questions (threads this month include 'First Job as a DP', colour temperature, cameras), 'Looking at Lighting' breakdowns of his films, occasional 'Musings' posts and the Team Deakins podcast.
EditingEdit Girls
A London-run site publishing career stories and interviews with women and gender-diverse editors, colourists and sound designers in TV, film and commercials, plus a Career Chats video series.
Production OfficeMedia Career Advice
Hannah Gosney's one-woman UK career coaching and training service for TV and film production people, with a blog of role introductions and scheme write-ups.
WebsiteCreative Lives in Progress
UK creative-careers platform for emerging talent with first-person articles on how people landed their first roles, including runners and BBC Natural History Unit researchers, plus guides and events. Covers all creative industries, not only film and TV.
Creative AgencyIPA: Careers in Advertising
The UK agencies' trade body's careers hub: which role suits you, how agencies are structured, salaries, apprenticeships, Advertising Unlocked open days, interview tips and job listings from member agencies. A body's site, not a blog.
Creative AgencyD&AD New Blood Awards
D&AD's annual awards for students and emerging creatives: real briefs from brands such as Duolingo and HSBC, judged by agency creative leaders, with a free 'Brief In' course on how to answer them. The 2026 edition is complete.
Creative AgencyOne Minute Briefs
A daily advertising brief posted on X and LinkedIn between 8am and 6pm UK time: anyone can enter a scribbled idea, the best get shared to 100,000-plus followers, and brands such as WWF and Gymshark have run briefs. Run by Bank of Creativity, with talks and events in London and Manchester.
Commercial Production CompanyStoryflow Entertainment: The Commercial Break
The blog of a UK video production company, written by John Mouratis, built around his Commercial Break livestream interviews: what it takes to become a director in commercials (Three Shades), the role of an agency producer (Rory O'Connell), a commercial director on crafting campaigns (Henry Dean).
CastingBecoming a Casting Director (CDG)
The Casting Directors' Guild's own guide to getting into casting. There is one route, as a casting assistant for several years, and it sets out what that job is: talking to agents, availability checks, setting up sessions and typing deal memos.
CastingNFTS Casting Certificate
The National Film and Television School's part-time casting certificate: six months of evening classes, mostly online with some sessions in London, designed by working casting directors and supported by the CDG to get you ready for a casting assistant's job. Check the school's page for the next intake.
Industry bodies 24
Industry bodyCreative Access
Creative Access was founded in 2012 to provide opportunities for paid internships in the creative industries for young people from under-represented, non-white minority ethnic backgrounds.
VFXAccess:VFX
The industry body for getting people who would not otherwise get in into VFX, animation and games: mentoring, work experience and open days at the studios.
- Industry body
BBC Early Careers
The BBC's apprenticeships, work experience and graduate schemes, across production, journalism and technology. Free to apply; the applications open in windows, so check the dates.
Film SchoolBFI Film Academy
The BFI's free courses for 16 to 25 year olds, run around the country, and the route into its Future Skills programme, which places trainees on real productions.
Industry bodyFilm and TV Charity
Support for anyone working in film and TV, at any level: a 24-hour support line, hardship grants, and a mental health programme built for freelancers. Free.
Industry bodyLiverpool Film Office
Liverpool's film office, one of the busiest outside London. Registers crew, lists what is shooting, and runs entry-level schemes with the productions.
Industry bodyMAMA Youth Project
Free, paid training for 18 to 30 year olds with no way into TV: you make a real series for Sky, then they place you. One of the few genuine doors in.
Industry bodyRise
A network for women in broadcast technology and production: mentoring, events and a jobs board, with an early-careers strand.
Industry bodyRoyal Television Society
Bursaries for students from lower-income backgrounds, a student awards scheme, and Futures events built for people trying to get their first TV job.
Industry bodyScreen Industries Growth Network
Yorkshire's screen skills body: free short courses, mentoring and paid placements for people entering the industry in the North.
- Director
The Grierson Trust
The documentary awards, plus DocLab, a free training scheme for 18 to 25 year olds from under-represented backgrounds who want to work in documentary.
- Director
BFI NETWORK
The BFI's programme for new writers, directors and producers: short film funding and development through the regional film hubs. The first public money most people get.
- Industry body
4Skills (Channel 4)
Channel 4's training arm: production training schemes, apprenticeships and the Content Creatives scheme, most of it aimed at people outside London and without contacts.
- Industry body
Netflix Grow Creative Hub
Netflix's UK training: the Grow Creative courses and the placements with its productions, mostly for people already in but early on.
Industry bodySky Up Academy Studios
Sky's free programme for young people: workshops, studio visits and the schemes that lead to its apprenticeships.
Industry bodyITV Academy
ITV's entry routes: the apprenticeships, the production trainee schemes and the work experience programme.
Sound DepartmentSoundGirls - Film & TV Production Sound
Non-profit community for women in audio with a member-written blog. The film and TV production sound and post-production sections hold profiles and how-to pieces by working mixers and editors (Boom Op: Head to Toe, Essentials of Location Sound, Deb Adair on re-recording mixing) plus union explainers (IATSE 101).
WriterBBC Writers
The BBC's own site for new writers (formerly BBC Writersroom): script library of produced BBC scripts, open submission windows, Writers' Academy and development schemes, and dated news and interviews. A broadcaster's page, not a blog, but the scripts library alone is worth it.
Post ProductionThe Rough Assembly (Bectu Post Production and Facilities Branch)
The website of Bectu's post-production branch, representing over 1,000 UK picture and sound editorial members, with news posts and a mentoring scheme.
- Film Finance
The TV Collective
UK community and platform for Global Majority professionals in TV, film and digital, running for over 15 years with BBC, ITV, Paramount and Sky: videos, networking, jobs, funding and the Breakthrough Leaders programme.
Commercial Production CompanyAPA (Advertising Producers Association)
The trade body for UK commercials production companies, based in Beak Street, London. Runs the APA Masterclass for new entrants to commercials production, a learning platform, seminars, a jobs board and the APA Show. Not a blog; listed because it is the door into UK commercials production.
Creative AgencyBrixton Finishing School
A free UK school for 18 to 30 year olds from under-represented backgrounds wanting to get into advertising, marketing and communications: an eight-week London summer programme, the online ADcademy and a virtual ADcademy LIVE week. 70 percent of graduates went on to an industry role in 2023.
- Creative Agency
Creative Newbies Network
A support site for placement-level advertising creatives founded by the creative team Eve Nadin and Anna Belka: an industry contact book, a portfolio-building guide, a Discord for finding a copywriter or art director partner, and occasional workshops.
- Lighting
Sparks Branch
Bectu's branch for lighting technicians on UK commercials, feature films and TV drama: the current rates and agreements, contracts and safety, a Becoming a Spark guide to the qualifications, and the two-year Screen Lighting Technician apprenticeship run with the lighting rental houses. Read it before you email a gaffer.
General film reading 84
About the industry rather than one department — how films get made, financed and sold, the trade press, and the histories worth reading.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readHitchcock
Truffaut's fifty hours of conversation with Hitchcock, film by film, on how each was made and why. The most useful book about directing ever written.
Essential readThe Movie Business Book
The standard textbook on how the business works, with a chapter by a working expert on each part: development, production, distribution, exhibition, finance.
Essential readEasy Riders, Raging Bulls
Based on hundreds of interviews with directors, producers, writers and studio execs, Easy Riders discusses not only filmmaking in the 1970's but the lives filmmakers were living.
Then the rest of the shelf, 81 more.
Books 53
BookMasters of Light
The authors explore the working world of the person who controls the visual look and style of a film.
BookThe Hairstylists Handbook
With input from hairstylist Yvette Rivas, this step-by-step guide makes complex techniques clear, allowing you to achieve the most coveted results.
BookHollywood Economist 2.0
An in depth look at what makes the Hollywood system tick.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Kid Stays in the Pictures
this is the tell-all autobiography from Robert Evans, the legendary Hollywood producer ("The Godfather", "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown") who's lived the Hollywood dream.
BookMasters of FX
Through interviews with 16 of the leading FX pioneers from around the world, author Ian Failes explores the making of some of the most memorable film sequences ever produced.
BookDrawing Light and Shade
Giovanni Civardi shares his great expertise in drawing light and shade, beginning with the basics of drawing simple 3D shapes.
Feature Film Production CompanyMovie Speak
"Movie Speak" is a book about language, but through language also a book about what it's really like to be a director or a producer or an actor or a crew member.
BookThe Screenplay Business
The Screenplay Business is a new key text for academics and students researching film and media, and indispensable reading for anyone working in film screenplay development today.
BookConnected Viewing
Connected Viewing contextualises the dramatic transformations taking place across both media industries and national contexts,
BookWhere do good ideas come from
Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From: The Seven Patterns of Innovation identifies key principles that are the driving force of creativity.
BookThe Ad Makers
Focusing on the shooting and production elements of making a TV ad, this book aims at an audience of aspiring filmmakers for whom shooting second spots is the gateway to a career in film.
BookThe elements of design.
This text offers a comprehensive visual survey of the designs that have had the greatest impact on the applied arts in the Western world.
BookFurniture: World styles from classical to contemporary
This definitive guide illustrates every style and form. Packed with tips on how to recognise the key elements of each period.
BookRotoscoping: Techniques and Tools for the Aspiring Artist
Master what it takes to make your rotoscoping and digital painting blend seamlessly into each shot.
Film FestivalDown and Dirty Pictures
The sequel: Miramax, Sundance and the rise of independent film in the nineties, and what the Weinsteins did to it. How the indie business you are joining came to be.
CameraFive Came Back
Ford, Capra, Huston, Wyler and Stevens go to war with cameras, and come back different directors. History that reads like a novel.
BookThe Kid Stays in the Picture
Robert Evans's own account of running Paramount when it made The Godfather and Chinatown. Vain, unreliable and completely gripping.
WriterWhich Lie Did I Tell?
Goldman's second book on screenwriting: the later career, the failures, and a workshop where he rewrites a story in front of you.
BookThe Big Picture
How Hollywood became a business of franchises: the Sony hack emails, Marvel, Netflix, and why the mid-budget film disappeared. The industry now, explained.
Film FinanceMy First Movie
Twenty directors - Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, the Coens, Bertolucci - on making their first film: how it got financed, what went wrong, what they learned. Interviews, and the most encouraging book here.
ExhibitionCinema Speculation
Tarantino on the films of the seventies that made him, as critic, historian and fan. A film education in one book.
BookBlockbuster
Tom Shone's answer to Easy Riders: a defence of Jaws, Star Wars and the films that built the modern business, and an argument about what a blockbuster actually is.
BookThe Devil's Candy
A reporter given full access to the making of The Bonfire of the Vanities, a film that went wrong from the first day. The best account of how a big production really runs.
BookFinal Cut
The head of United Artists on Heaven's Gate, the film that destroyed the studio. How a budget runs away, told by the man who was supposed to stop it.
DirectorKazan on Directing
The director of On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire's notebooks and letters on directing actors, script by script.
BookPictures at a Revolution
Five films at the 1968 Oscars - Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Doctor Dolittle - and the year Hollywood changed.
CameraNotes on the Cinematographer
Bresson's aphorisms on filmmaking, a page at a time. Very short, very demanding, and quoted by every director who has read it.
BookThe Studio
A year inside 20th Century Fox in 1967 with unrestricted access, watching Doctor Dolittle get made. Funny and unsparing.
BookConversations with Wilder
Cameron Crowe's long interview with Billy Wilder on every film he made, with the pictures. Craft and wit in equal measure.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Genius of the System
How the studio system actually worked, from the archives: the producers, the contracts, the assembly line that made the golden age.
WriterCity of Nets
Hollywood in the 1940s: the moguls, the writers, the blacklist and the war, in one panoramic history.
BookThe Parade's Gone By
Kevin Brownlow's interviews with the makers of silent films, made when they were still alive. The founding book of film history.
BookPicture
Lillian Ross followed John Huston through the making of The Red Badge of Courage for The New Yorker. The first great making-of book, from 1952.
WriterThe Jaws Log
The co-writer's diary of the shoot that nearly sank: the shark that did not work, the schedule that tripled, and the film that came out of it.
BookThe Disaster Artist
How The Room got made, told by the man who co-starred in it. Very funny and, underneath, a real account of a production with no idea what it was doing.
BookThe Big Screen
David Thomson's history of the movies as an argument about watching: what the screen has done to us for a century.
EditingA Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away
Paul Hirsch cut Star Wars, Carrie and Ferris Bueller. His memoir is the most readable account of an editor's working life.
BookThe Hollywood Economist
Where the money in film actually comes from and goes: the deals, the accounting, and why the box office is not the point.
BookSleepless in Hollywood
Lynda Obst produced Sleepless in Seattle and Interstellar. Here she explains why the studios stopped making the films she used to make.
DirectorA Life in Movies
Michael Powell's autobiography, up to The Red Shoes. The great British director on how his films were made and what the British industry was.
WriterMike Leigh on Mike Leigh
Leigh explains his method - the months of improvisation before a script exists - film by film, in interviews with Amy Raphael.
DirectorAdventures of a Suburban Boy
John Boorman's memoir: Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, and a British boy's route into directing in Hollywood.
DirectorScorsese on Scorsese
Scorsese on his own films in his own words, from the Faber series that puts a director's whole career in one book.
BookLynch on Lynch
Chris Rodley's book-length interview with David Lynch, from Eraserhead to Mulholland Drive.
BookCassavetes on Cassavetes
The founder of American independent film on how he made films with no money and his friends, in his own words.
BookSeeing Is Believing
Biskind on the films of the fifties and what they were really saying about America. The critic before the gossip; the sharpest of his books.
BookTarantino: A Retrospective
Tom Shone's film-by-film account of Tarantino, with the pictures. How a video-shop clerk built a career out of the films he loved.
BookBlood, Sweat & Chrome
The oral history of Mad Max: Fury Road, from the years of false starts to the desert shoot that nearly broke everyone. The best recent account of what a huge production is like.
BookThe Last Kings of Hollywood
The rise and fall of the Weinsteins and the Miramax era, told as a business story. What the independent film boom cost, and who paid.
BookHits, Flops, and Other Illusions
Ed Zwick directed Glory and Legends of the Fall and produced Shakespeare in Love. His memoir is honest about the flops, the studios and the luck. Very readable.
BookThe Nolan Variations
Tom Shone's book-length conversation with Christopher Nolan, film by film, on how he thinks and works. The closest thing to a Nolan memoir.
BookMartin Scorsese: A Retrospective
Tom Shone on every Scorsese film, with the images. The career laid out in order, and what changed along the way.
BookWoody Allen: A Retrospective
Tom Shone's film-by-film retrospective of Woody Allen, from the early comedies to the late European pictures.
Blogs 5
BlogUnscripted TV News
Weekly 'This Week in Unscripted TV' newsletter by format developer Emily Wilson: commissions, format sales, exec moves and trends across the UK, US and international unscripted industry, plus an annual State of Unscripted round-up.
BlogProduction Taken Care Of!
Substack by Derek Drennan, founder of UK production-partnerships company Nest Productions, on the realities of getting commissioned: what a commissioner rejects in ten seconds, confessions of a streamer commissioner, running an indie.
BlogFurther&Better
One-person daily roundup of global TV, film and media industry news with a strong UK slant (BBC, Banijay, Doctor Who alongside the US streamers).
BlogWorking Mum in TV
Anonymous 15-year veteran of UK film and TV writing about money, hierarchy, ambition and the quiet negotiations of staying in the industry as a parent.
BlogReelScotland
Freelance journalist's newsletter on Scotland's screen sector: monthly round-ups and interviews with people making Scottish TV, film and digital work. Appears paused since December 2024.
Websites 7
WebsiteBroadcast
The trade paper for British television: who has commissioned what, who has moved where, and a jobs section. The paper the people hiring you read.
- Website
Empire
The UK's film magazine: reviews, features and the long interviews. The mainstream conversation about films.
WebsiteLittle White Lies
The British film magazine with the illustrated covers: reviews, interviews and features, and its own guides to filmmaking.
WebsiteTellyCast
Justin Crosby's UK TV industry podcast and free newsletter, run from Elstree Studios, interviewing commissioners, format creators and production company heads.
WebsiteThe D-Word
Worldwide online community of documentary professionals since 1999: discussion forums on craft, business and ethics, a crew database, Friday video meet-ups and curated expert conversations; 23,000 members in 161 countries, free basic membership.
WebsiteRealscreen
The trade paper for unscripted and documentary television: daily news on commissions, deals, exec moves and formats, plus the Realscreen Summit. A magazine, not a blog.
- Website
SUSST
Substack of a campaign group speaking up for Scotland's screen talent: data-led posts on who gets hired on Scottish productions, BBC network spend and Netflix in Scotland. An advocacy group, not a personal blog.
Industry bodies 16
Industry bodyBECTU
BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theatre and the arts, live events, leisure and digital media.
Industry bodyBritish Screen Advisory Council
BSAC represents the audiovisual industries of the United Kingdom and provides thought leadership to the government, the industries and policy makers.
Industry bodyEquity
Equity is the UK trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners.
Industry bodyBAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image.
Industry bodyScreen Scotland
Screen Scotland is the dedicated partnership for screen in Scotland, delivering enhanced support for all aspects of Scotland's screen sector.
Industry bodyNorthern Ireland Screen
Northern Ireland Screen is the government-backed lead agency in Northern Ireland for the film, television and digital content industry.
Industry bodyScreen Alliance Wales
SAW is the gateway between the industry and its workforce. It grows and promotes the talent, crew and services of the film and TV industry in Wales.
Industry bodyCreative England
Creative England invest in talented people and their creative ideas, nurturing our richly diverse games, TV, film and digital media industries.
Industry bodyWomen in Film and TV
Women in Film & TV (UK) is the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK, and part of an international network of over 14,000 women worldwide.
Industry bodyUK and European Guild of Music Supervisors
The UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors is a newly established, non-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of the role of a music supervisor.
Industry bodyScreen Yorkshire
Screen Yorkshire is a specialist business which invests first and foremost in content, but also in developing talent.
Industry bodyBFI
The British Film Institute is a film and television charitable organisation that promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom.
Industry bodyArts Council England
We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.
Industry bodyUK Screen Alliance
We provide a voice for over 100 companies and liaise with the government and other areas of the film industry.
Industry bodyScreen Manchester
The film office for Manchester: the productions coming in, the crew database, and the training they run with the local studios.
- Industry body
The British Blacklist
The directory and news site for Black British talent in film, TV and theatre. Read it for who is doing what, and for the opportunities it lists.
UK Film Schools 20
The schools themselves — the national school, the independents and the university film schools — each linked to its own site.
Three recommended schoolsstart here
RecommendedMetFilm School
Film school on the Ealing Studios lot, with BA and MA courses and a set of short courses and evening classes for people testing the water.
RecommendedEscape Studios
The London school for VFX, animation and games, part of Pearson. Its courses are built with the studios and its graduates go straight into them.
- Recommended
NFTS
The National Film and Television School at Beaconsfield: the postgraduate courses, the short courses, and the diploma route for people who cannot do a two-year MA.
Then the rest of the shelf, 17 more.
Websites 17
Film SchoolLondon Film School
The oldest film school in the country, in Covent Garden. MA Filmmaking, screenwriting and the short courses.
- Film School
Raindance
The independent film organisation: the festival, the film school in London, and a long list of evening courses for people who cannot stop working to study.
Film SchoolLondon Film Academy
A small independent film school in Fulham: a one-year filmmaking diploma, a two-year BA, and short courses, taught by working crew on small cohorts.
Film SchoolScreen Academy Scotland
Edinburgh Napier's film school, one of the UK's Skillset-badged screen academies: film and TV degrees and masters with a working relationship with the Scottish industry.
Film SchoolCentral Film School
An independent film school in London with degrees and short courses in filmmaking and screenwriting, taught on practical productions rather than lectures.
Film SchoolBournemouth Film School (AUB)
Arts University Bournemouth's film school: BA courses across production, animation, costume and make-up for screen, with a long list of working graduates.
Film SchoolNorthern Film School (Leeds Beckett)
Leeds Beckett's film school, the north of England's longest-established: undergraduate and postgraduate filmmaking with a track record of graduates on set.
Film SchoolManchester Film School (UCEN Manchester)
The film school at UCEN Manchester: degrees in film production and a practical, crew-based way of teaching, close to the city's growing production base.
- Film School
University of Westminster, Film and Television
Westminster's film and television degrees, taught at the Harrow campus with a long line of alumni in British film and TV.
Film SchoolRavensbourne University London
A specialist digital media university on the Greenwich Peninsula: degrees in film and television production, editing, and the crafts around them.
Film SchoolGoldsmiths, University of London
Goldsmiths' School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies: film and screen degrees with a strong documentary and practice tradition.
- Film School
London College of Communication (UAL)
UAL's London College of Communication at Elephant and Castle: film and television degrees alongside the design, sound and screen crafts.
Film SchoolNorwich University of the Arts
A specialist arts university with film and moving image degrees, and a working relationship with the East of England's screen industry.
Film SchoolEdinburgh College of Art
The University of Edinburgh's art college, with film and television degrees and the city's festivals on the doorstep.
Film SchoolRoyal Holloway, Film, Television and Screen
Royal Holloway's Department of Media Arts: film, television and screen degrees in Egham, with practice and theory taught together.
Film SchoolFalmouth School of Film and Television
Falmouth University's School of Film and Television in Cornwall: undergraduate and postgraduate film and television production.
- Film School
University of South Wales, Film and Media
The University of South Wales' film and media degrees in Cardiff, home of the former Film School Wales, close to the Welsh drama studios.
Online Professional Development Courses 16
Short courses you can take from home while you work: the film schools' online offers and the specialist platforms for one craft.
Websites 16
- Writer
Cover to Coverage
One-to-one courses on reading and scouting books for film and TV adaptation, by an industry insider: how to write the coverage a production company will act on. The way into development.
WriterIndustrial Scripts
Script coverage and screenwriting courses from a company that has read for the industry since 2010, with the Character Driven blog alongside: the craft, the business and how readers actually judge a script.
WriterJohn Yorke Story
John Yorke's story training: online CPD courses on how stories work, for screenwriters and for anyone whose job depends on them, plus the articles. From the man who ran BBC Drama and wrote Into the Woods.
- Online Courses
NFTS short courses
The National Film and Television School's short courses, many of them online: a few days or weeks on one craft, taught by the people the full-time school uses.
- Online Courses
MetFilm School short courses
MetFilm's short courses in filmmaking, directing, editing and acting, run from Ealing Studios and online.
- Online Courses
Raindance courses
Raindance's evening and weekend courses, many streamed online: directing, producing, screenwriting, documentary and the filmmaker intensives.
- Online Courses
London Film Academy short courses
Short practical courses from the London Film Academy: a weekend or a week on one skill, taught on real kit.
Online CoursesSoho Editors Training
Authorised Avid, Adobe, Blackmagic and Apple training in Soho and online, from the post-production recruitment company of the same name.
- Online Courses
MasterClass: film and television
Long video classes from famous names - directors, writers, actors and composers - on how they work. Inspiration rather than certification, on a subscription.
Online CoursesDomestika: film, video and TV
Affordable online courses in film, video and television craft, each one a single project taught end to end by a working practitioner.
Online CoursesFutureLearn: filmmaking
Free and paid online filmmaking courses from universities and institutions, in short weekly units.
WriterEuroscript
An independent script development organisation, thirty years old: courses, workshops and mentoring for screenwriters, script feedback, and an annual story competition.
Online CoursesUdemy: filmmaking courses
Nearly two hundred filmmaking courses at low prices, from complete beginner to a single craft. Uneven, so read the reviews first; the good ones are a cheap way to try a department before committing.
Online CoursesInside the Edit
The online course on creative editing, built around real rushes: how to find the story in a cut rather than which button to press. Used by working editors as well as beginners.
Online CoursesFilmmakers Academy
Shane Hurlbut's online academy for cinematography and set craft: courses and long behind-the-scenes lessons from a working DP and his crew.
Online CoursesMZed
An online education platform for filmmakers: courses in cinematography, lighting, sound and directing from working professionals, on a subscription.
UK Film Industry Bodies 71
Every guild, union, funder, agency and charity on this page in one list — the organisations that run the industry and the routes into it.
Industry bodies 71
CameraGuild of British Camera Technicians
The Guild of British Camera Technicians is not a union but an Association of professional camera technicians.
Commercial Production CompanyBritish Film Designers Guild
Feature films, Shorts, Pilots, Promos, Commercials, Television Film, Series and Light Entertainment; the BFDG represent Design in British Films.
CameraThe British Society of Cinematographers
Since its formation in 1949, its prime objective has been to promote and encourage the highest standards in the art and craft of cinematography.
- Industry body
BECTU
BECTU is the UK's media and entertainment trade union; sectors covered include broadcasting, film, independent production, theatre and the arts, live events, leisure and digital media.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe British Film Commission
The British Film Commission (BFC) is the national agency with a remit to maximise and support the production of international feature film and television in the UK. - See more at: http://www.britishfi
Sound DepartmentAssociation of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS)
AMPS is a craft guild made up of 450 working sound professionals who strive to promote the value of great sound in TV and film, championing the creative contribution it can make to every production.
Sound DepartmentInstitute of Professional Sound
The IPS provides support, training, standards, community, and professional recognition for our members in the media industries.
Film Sales AgentsFilm Export UK
Film Export UK performs a wide range of functions to support and sustain the export of British independent films from UK companies.
DistributionEuropa Distribution
With more than 140 leading independent distributors representing 28 countries in Europe and beyond, it serves as the voice of the sector and acts as a network and a think tank.
DistributionFilm Distributors' Associations
Film Distributors' Association Ltd. (FDA) is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK cinema audiences.
EditingThe Guild of British Film and Television Editors
The Guild of British Film and Television Editors, GBFTE, is an association of editors in the British Film and Television Industries.
Location DepartmentThe Production Guild
Based at Pinewood Studios we represent and support those working in accounts, production, assistant directing, location management, post production and VFX.
- Industry body
British Screen Advisory Council
BSAC represents the audiovisual industries of the United Kingdom and provides thought leadership to the government, the industries and policy makers.
DirectorDirectors Guild Of Great Britain
The Directors Guild is a charitable foundation established for directors in all media.
DirectorDirectors UK
Directors UK is the professional association of directors working with the moving image in the UK, with almost 6,000 members.
- Industry body
Equity
Equity is the UK trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners.
Production OfficeThe Production Managers Association
The Production Managers Association (PMA) is a long-established professional body of film, television, corporate and multimedia production managers.
WriterThe writers Guild
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, poetry, animation and video games.
- Industry body
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image.
Commercial Production CompanyPACT
The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent media companies.
AnimationFilm London
Film London connects ideas, talent, and finance to develop a pioneering creative culture in the city that delivers success in film, television, animation, games and beyond.
- Industry body
Screen Scotland
Screen Scotland is the dedicated partnership for screen in Scotland, delivering enhanced support for all aspects of Scotland's screen sector.
- Industry body
Northern Ireland Screen
Northern Ireland Screen is the government-backed lead agency in Northern Ireland for the film, television and digital content industry.
- Industry body
Screen Alliance Wales
SAW is the gateway between the industry and its workforce. It grows and promotes the talent, crew and services of the film and TV industry in Wales.
- Industry body
Creative Access
Creative Access was founded in 2012 to provide opportunities for paid internships in the creative industries for young people from under-represented, non-white minority ethnic backgrounds.
- Industry body
Creative England
Creative England invest in talented people and their creative ideas, nurturing our richly diverse games, TV, film and digital media industries.
- Industry body
Women in Film and TV
Women in Film & TV (UK) is the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK, and part of an international network of over 14,000 women worldwide.
Hair and Make-UpNASMAH
NASMAH is a professional, social and educational organisation. We encourage the highest standards in the craft of media hair and make-up, and work hard to promote our members.
ExhibitionIndependant Cinema Office
The Independent Cinema Office (ICO) is the national support organisation for independent exhibitors of all kinds including cinemas, film festivals and film societies.
CameraAssociation of Camera Operators
The Association of Camera Operators is a voluntary organisation, of professional feature film, commercials, and television drama camera operators, specialising in the art of camera operating.
- Industry body
UK and European Guild of Music Supervisors
The UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors is a newly established, non-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of the role of a music supervisor.
- Industry body
Screen Yorkshire
Screen Yorkshire is a specialist business which invests first and foremost in content, but also in developing talent.
- Industry body
BFI
The British Film Institute is a film and television charitable organisation that promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom.
- Industry body
Arts Council England
We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.
- Industry body
UK Screen Alliance
We provide a voice for over 100 companies and liaise with the government and other areas of the film industry.
- VFX
Access:VFX
The industry body for getting people who would not otherwise get in into VFX, animation and games: mentoring, work experience and open days at the studios.
AnimationAnimation UK
The trade body for the British animation industry: who the studios are, the skills schemes, and the case for the sector. Start here for who to write to.
- Industry body
BBC Early Careers
The BBC's apprenticeships, work experience and graduate schemes, across production, journalism and technology. Free to apply; the applications open in windows, so check the dates.
- Film School
BFI Film Academy
The BFI's free courses for 16 to 25 year olds, run around the country, and the route into its Future Skills programme, which places trainees on real productions.
- Casting
Casting Directors' Guild
The UK casting directors' professional body. The route to casting assistant jobs runs through the people listed here.
Film FinanceFfilm Cymru Wales
The national film agency for Wales: development and production funding, and the skills and training programmes for Welsh crew.
- Industry body
Film and TV Charity
Support for anyone working in film and TV, at any level: a 24-hour support line, hardship grants, and a mental health programme built for freelancers. Free.
Location DepartmentGuild of Location Managers
The professional body for location managers and their assistants in the UK. Read the members' directory to see what the career looks like.
- Industry body
Liverpool Film Office
Liverpool's film office, one of the busiest outside London. Registers crew, lists what is shooting, and runs entry-level schemes with the productions.
- Industry body
MAMA Youth Project
Free, paid training for 18 to 30 year olds with no way into TV: you make a real series for Sky, then they place you. One of the few genuine doors in.
- Industry body
Rise
A network for women in broadcast technology and production: mentoring, events and a jobs board, with an early-careers strand.
- Industry body
Royal Television Society
Bursaries for students from lower-income backgrounds, a student awards scheme, and Futures events built for people trying to get their first TV job.
- Industry body
Screen Industries Growth Network
Yorkshire's screen skills body: free short courses, mentoring and paid placements for people entering the industry in the North.
- Industry body
Screen Manchester
The film office for Manchester: the productions coming in, the crew database, and the training they run with the local studios.
- Industry body
The British Blacklist
The directory and news site for Black British talent in film, TV and theatre. Read it for who is doing what, and for the opportunities it lists.
- Director
The Grierson Trust
The documentary awards, plus DocLab, a free training scheme for 18 to 25 year olds from under-represented backgrounds who want to work in documentary.
- Film Festival
Into Film
Film education for 5 to 19 year olds: the film clubs, the festival, and the careers resources that explain the jobs to people still at school.
Location DepartmentProduction Central WM
The West Midlands production hub, which took over from Film Birmingham: the local crew base, the locations, and the training it runs.
- Director
BFI NETWORK
The BFI's programme for new writers, directors and producers: short film funding and development through the regional film hubs. The first public money most people get.
- Industry body
4Skills (Channel 4)
Channel 4's training arm: production training schemes, apprenticeships and the Content Creatives scheme, most of it aimed at people outside London and without contacts.
- Industry body
Netflix Grow Creative Hub
Netflix's UK training: the Grow Creative courses and the placements with its productions, mostly for people already in but early on.
- Industry body
Sky Up Academy Studios
Sky's free programme for young people: workshops, studio visits and the schemes that lead to its apprenticeships.
- Industry body
ITV Academy
ITV's entry routes: the apprenticeships, the production trainee schemes and the work experience programme.
- Sound Department
SoundGirls - Film & TV Production Sound
Non-profit community for women in audio with a member-written blog. The film and TV production sound and post-production sections hold profiles and how-to pieces by working mixers and editors (Boom Op: Head to Toe, Essentials of Location Sound, Deb Adair on re-recording mixing) plus union explainers (IATSE 101).
- Writer
BBC Writers
The BBC's own site for new writers (formerly BBC Writersroom): script library of produced BBC scripts, open submission windows, Writers' Academy and development schemes, and dated news and interviews. A broadcaster's page, not a blog, but the scripts library alone is worth it.
- Post Production
The Rough Assembly (Bectu Post Production and Facilities Branch)
The website of Bectu's post-production branch, representing over 1,000 UK picture and sound editorial members, with news posts and a mentoring scheme.
Film FestivalSheffield DocFest
The UK's leading documentary festival and market, held each June, with talent schemes including the Queer Realities Director's Lab and a Youth Jury for 18 to 23 year olds.
DirectorDoc Society
Non-profit backing independent documentary worldwide, running the BFI Doc Society Fund in the UK, the Impact Field Guide and a newsletter listing funds and fellowships.
DirectorThe Whickers
Funding body for emerging, first-time documentary directors: a £120,000 Film & TV award, a podcast pitch with Sheffield DocFest, bursaries, and the annual Cost of Docs survey.
DirectorScottish Documentary Institute
Charity supporting documentary makers: masterclasses (Brett Story and Stephen Maing, 21 Sep 2026), the Edinburgh Pitch, Bridging the Gap and other schemes for emerging filmmakers.
- Film Finance
The TV Collective
UK community and platform for Global Majority professionals in TV, film and digital, running for over 15 years with BBC, ITV, Paramount and Sky: videos, networking, jobs, funding and the Breakthrough Leaders programme.
- Commercial Production Company
APA (Advertising Producers Association)
The trade body for UK commercials production companies, based in Beak Street, London. Runs the APA Masterclass for new entrants to commercials production, a learning platform, seminars, a jobs board and the APA Show. Not a blog; listed because it is the door into UK commercials production.
- Creative Agency
Brixton Finishing School
A free UK school for 18 to 30 year olds from under-represented backgrounds wanting to get into advertising, marketing and communications: an eight-week London summer programme, the online ADcademy and a virtual ADcademy LIVE week. 70 percent of graduates went on to an industry role in 2023.
- Creative Agency
Creative Newbies Network
A support site for placement-level advertising creatives founded by the creative team Eve Nadin and Anna Belka: an industry contact book, a portfolio-building guide, a Discord for finding a copywriter or art director partner, and occasional workshops.
WriterScribe Lounge
A free online community for UK screenwriters at every stage, from complete beginner up: showcase your work to the industry, meet other writers, and a paid tier with monthly industry AMAs and writing groups. It ran the Scribe Lounge Labs with BBC Writers.
- Lighting
Sparks Branch
Bectu's branch for lighting technicians on UK commercials, feature films and TV drama: the current rates and agreements, contracts and safety, a Becoming a Spark guide to the qualifications, and the two-year Screen Lighting Technician apprenticeship run with the lighting rental houses. Read it before you email a gaffer.
Art Department 14
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for art department.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readThe Art of the Storyboard
How to draw a storyboard that a crew can shoot from, for people who cannot draw.
Essential readWhat an Art Director Does
A working art director on the job: the drawings, the budgets, the sets and the crew. Plain and practical.
Essential readStoryboarding Essentials
Storyboarding for film, animation and games, from the shot language to the finished board.
Then the rest of the shelf, 11 more.
Books 9
Art DepartmentBig screen little screen.
Hollywood production designer Lance King offers you a "behind the scenes" perspective which demonstrates a realistic overview in how film production works.
Art DepartmentFilm Craft: Production Design
Fascinating for both film fans and practitioners, this book is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to learn about the craft of some of the greatest film artists of our time.
Art DepartmentDo you have what it takes to survive film production: Art Department.
The job descriptions and helpful links to websites, publications and suggested books are there to help you to make a more informed decision about your career choice.
Art DepartmentThe art direction handbook for film and TV.
This comprehensive, professional manual details the set-up of the Art Department and the day-to-day job duties.
CostumeThe Costume Designer's Toolkit: The Process of Creating Effective Design
The designer's process from script breakdown to fitting: research, rendering, budgets, sourcing and the collaboration with director and actor that decides what ends up on screen.
CostumeThe Art and Practice of Costume Design
Five working designers on how they actually work, with their research and drawings - the closest thing to watching over the shoulder of someone doing the job.
Art DepartmentUnderstanding Design in Film Production
How the look of a film is decided and then built: what the designer, art director and their crew actually do between the script and the first day on set.
DirectorFilm Directing: Shot by Shot
Visualising a film before you shoot it - coverage, blocking, storyboards and staging - drawn out frame by frame. The standard reference for turning a scene into a shot list.
SFXSpecial Effects: The History and Technique
How effects are really done, from the physical floor work to the digital: a history of the craft and an explanation of each technique, with a foreword by Ray Harryhausen.
Blogs 2
- Animation
Flooby Nooby
Animation director Ron Doucet (Halifax, Canada) posts several times a week on storyboarding, cinematography, character design and film analysis, with a large archive of storyboard and staging resources.
Art DepartmentStoryboard Artist UK Blog (Mitchell Hughes)
A Kent-based freelance storyboard artist with 20 years on UK shoots writes about how boards are used on set, pricing, formats and hiring. Written for producers and directors, with one post on lessons from set.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Assistant Directors 5
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for assistant directors.
The essential readread these first
Then the rest of the shelf, 4 more.
Books 3
Production OfficeThe Complete Film Production Handbook
This book is for working film/TV professionals and students alike. If you're a line producer, production manager, production supervisor, assistant director or production coordinator--the book has ever
Assistant DirectorsFilm Scheduling
The assistant director's core skill taught from the script up: breaking a screenplay down, the strip board, and how long a day's work really takes. Old, and still the way it is done.
Assistant DirectorsBest Seat in the House: An Assistant Director Behind the Scenes of Feature Films
A first assistant director's memoir of a career on feature film sets, with forewords by Bob Gale and Cameron Crowe: what the job is day by day on a big picture, from someone who ran the floor on them.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Camera 45
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for camera.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readThe Five C's of Cinematography
Camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups and composition, from 1965 and still taught. Short and clear on why a shot is where it is.
Essential readCinematic Storytelling
A hundred ways a film tells you something without dialogue, each with a scene that does it. A vocabulary of visual choices.
Essential readMaster Shots
A hundred camera set-ups that make a scene work, drawn out with the movement shown. A cookbook, and useful as one.
Then the rest of the shelf, 42 more.
Books 21
CameraThe Camera Assistants Manual
David E. Elkins, SOC has over 25 years of professional experience as a Camera Operator and First Assistant Cameraman.
CameraPainting with Light
Painting With Light was the first book on cinematography written by a major Hollywood cameraman.
CameraThe Camera Assistant
The Camera Assistant: A Complete Professional Handbook explains both the practice and theory.
CameraCinematography: Theory and Practice
You are on your way to learning not only about the equipment and technology, but also about the concepts and thought processes that will enable you to shoot professionally.
CameraContemporary Cinematographers on their Art.
The twelve interviews in this book cover all aspects of cinematography from pre-production planning to post-production, special effects, aerial photography, and second unit.
CameraBasic Cinematography: A Creative Guide to Visual Storytelling
The decisions behind the images - lens, height, movement and light - taught through scenes you already know, for anyone who can work a camera but wants to shoot with intent.
CameraDigital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques and Workflows
The modern camera department end to end: sensors, colour, codecs and the data workflow from the set to the grade. The reference for how a digital shoot actually holds together.
VFXThe Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects
Written for the people who are not in the VFX house: what to shoot, what to measure and what to hand over, so the effects work can be done at all.
- Director
Film Directing: Shot by Shot
Visualising a film before you shoot it - coverage, blocking, storyboards and staging - drawn out frame by frame. The standard reference for turning a scene into a shot list.
GripsThe Grip Book: The Studio Grip's Essential Guide
A working Hollywood grip on every piece of kit you will be handed: C-stands, rigging, dollies and cranes, how to set them safely and what each one is called.
LightingSet Lighting Technician's Handbook
The day-to-day manual for anyone on the lighting and grip crew - lamp operator, best boy, rigger or gaffer: the equipment, the electrical distribution and the practice.
CameraThe Filmmaker's Handbook
The reference every film course sets: cameras, lenses, sound, editing, the business, all of it, in one thick book. Not read cover to cover; kept.
CameraThe Visual Story
How line, shape, tone, colour and movement carry a story, with the films that prove it. The book for learning to see what a frame is doing.
CameraIf It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die
What colour does to an audience, scene by scene, from a teacher who ran the experiment for years. The colour book.
CameraThe Filmmaker's Eye
Composition, shot by shot type: what a close-up does, what a low angle does, with a still from a film for each. Very good for a beginner.
CameraFilm Directing Cinematic Motion
Katz's second book: how the camera and the actors move together, staged and drawn out.
CameraGrammar of the Shot
The rules of framing, movement and coverage, laid out for someone who has never shot anything. The first camera book to read.
LightingLighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide to the Art and Craft of Lighting for the Moving Image
A practical guide to lighting for the camera from someone with thirty years of lighting work on features, TV and commercials who now teaches it: why available light is rarely enough, and how lamps are placed to give a scene depth, contrast and atmosphere.
LightingMotion Picture and Video Lighting
Written for cinematographers, gaffers and lighting technicians: the equipment, the theory of light and colour, and the techniques, covering why a lamp goes where it does as well as how. The one to read after the technician's handbook, for the eye rather than the hands.
LightingFilm Lighting: Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers
Leading cinematographers and gaffers interviewed on how a film's look is decided and then lit, with the equipment and the working methods behind it. The job described by the people who do it.
LightingLighting for Digital Video and Television
A complete course in lighting for the camera, from how the eye and the camera see light to the kit, the set-ups, safety and fixing common problems. Plain and well illustrated, and a good first lighting book for someone working on smaller shoots.
Blogs 8
- Camera
Hurlblog
Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut's teaching site, now Filmmakers Academy: lighting and camera lessons with the set-ups shown, from a DP who shot Terminator Salvation.
CameraNeil Oseman
The long-running personal blog of a UK director of photography: how he lit specific scenes (a sewer for War of the Worlds: The Attack), cinematography for drama, lens and format thinking, and TV camera history. One person, posting most months.
CameraTony Kay ACO
Job-by-job diary of a UK camera, Steadicam and Trinity operator (The Gentlemen S2, BSC Expo notes). One person, written from the floor.
- Camera
XDCAM-USER by Alister Chapman
A UK freelance DP's technical blog: camera set-up, exposure, LUTs, monitors, shooting in cold weather, mostly on Sony cinema cameras. One person, running for well over a decade.
CameraPhilip Bloom
Long-running blog of a British DP and filmmaker: hands-on reviews of cameras, lenses, drones and wireless mics from someone who shoots with them.
LightingThe Wandering DP
A working DP's site: 500-plus podcast episodes with cinematographers (recent run is 'Life Off Set'), and written pieces such as 'Cinematography Tips: 10 Things Successful DPs Have Taught Me', lighting ratios and camera workflow.
CameraFocus Puller At Work
Community site for the camera department (2,500 members, 60 countries) run by a team of working 1st ACs: forum, a file server of camera manuals, a podcast, 'Quick Tips for Camera Department Professionals' and a blog where members write up topics such as rental-house etiquette.
CameraPortraits in Film
A one-person project by Miles Mc, who works in the camera department, photographing and interviewing UK crew about how they got in and how they work.
Websites 10
CameraCineD
News and reviews of cinema cameras, lenses and lighting, with lab tests. Useful when you are buying, or being asked to know what a camera does.
CameraCinematography.com
The forum for cinematographers and camera crew. Working DPs answer beginners here.
CameraNewsshooter
Camera and sound kit reviews from working news and documentary shooters. Honest about what breaks.
Post ProductionProVideo Coalition
Working-professional articles on post, cameras and workflow, with columns from editors and colourists.
CameraRedShark News
Video technology news: cameras, codecs, monitors, and where the tech is going.
CameraY.M.Cinema
Digital cinema camera news and analysis: what the cameras can do, what was shot on what, and why.
CameraFilm and Digital Times
Jon Fauer's journal of camera and lens technology: new cameras and lenses explained as if you were on location with him, trade-show reports, interviews with DPs and directors about their kit. A magazine, but effectively one cinematographer's notebook.
CameraBritish Cinematographer
The UK cinematography magazine, updated daily online: DP interviews, plus crew-role pieces (a dolly grip on camera movement published today) and a partnership page for the Focus Puller At Work community.
CameraCinematography World
UK-published magazine and site on the art and craft of cinematography: production features, lighting and virtual production news, interviews from IBC and BSC Expo.
CameraThe Steadicam Forum
The long-running forum for Steadicam and stabiliser operators: technical threads, workshop questions, a marketplace, and newcomers' write-ups such as a first feature on an Axis.
Industry bodies 3
- Camera
Guild of British Camera Technicians
The Guild of British Camera Technicians is not a union but an Association of professional camera technicians.
- Camera
The British Society of Cinematographers
Since its formation in 1949, its prime objective has been to promote and encourage the highest standards in the art and craft of cinematography.
- Camera
Association of Camera Operators
The Association of Camera Operators is a voluntary organisation, of professional feature film, commercials, and television drama camera operators, specialising in the art of camera operating.
Casting 7
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for casting.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readCasting Revealed: A Guide for Film Directors
The casting process set out step by step for a director casting their own film: the audition notice, running the sessions, tracking down actors' agents and the union paperwork. American and written for directors, it sets out the process a casting office runs, in order.
Essential readA Star Is Found: Our Adventures Casting Some of Hollywood's Biggest Movies
Two Hollywood casting directors, partners since 1981, on twenty-six years of finding actors, from then-unknowns such as Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio to the Harry Potter children. A working account of the casting job, told through the stories.
Essential readHow to Audition on Camera: A Hollywood Insider's Guide for Actors
The casting director of The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul answers the twenty-five questions actors ask most about auditions. Written for actors, but it is the casting side of the room - what she is looking for and what goes wrong - which is what anyone running sessions needs to know.
Then the rest of the shelf, 4 more.
Books 3
CastingHow Movies Work
How movies work provides a comprehensive consideration of movies from idea to script, casting, financing, shooting and distribution.
CastingAuditioning for Film and Television: Secrets from a Casting Director
A casting director whose credits include Wanted and Hellboy on film auditions in front of the camera, self-tapes and online casting. Written for actors from the casting side of the table: read it for how sessions and tapes are judged.
CastingAudition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part
The classic book on auditioning, by the casting director of Chicago and Jesus Christ Superstar, built on his twelve guideposts. It is for actors: read it to understand the person on the other side of the table, and to read better on the days the reader is you.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Costume 15
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for costume.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
The Costume Designer's Toolkit: The Process of Creating Effective Design
The designer's process from script breakdown to fitting: research, rendering, budgets, sourcing and the collaboration with director and actor that decides what ends up on screen.
- Essential read
The Art and Practice of Costume Design
Five working designers on how they actually work, with their research and drawings - the closest thing to watching over the shoulder of someone doing the job.
Essential readHollywood Costume
The book of the V&A exhibition: a century of costume design, with the designers on what the clothes were for.
Then the rest of the shelf, 12 more.
Books 9
CostumeCostume Design 101
Written by an award-winning costume designer, this book offers an in-depth insight into the costume design business, department operations and management.
CostumeFilm Craft: Costume Design
Sixteen of the worlds greatest costume designers come together to share their inspiration and knowledge with the world.
CostumeDesigning Costumes for Stage and Screen
Packed with great drawings and case studies, this is an essential book for any student or professional costume designer looking for additional inside advice.
CostumeDressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design
A lavish tribute that mingles words and images of equal luster, Dressed is one book no film and fashion lover should be without.
CostumeCostume1066 to the Present.
This is an essential reference for students of theatrical design and fashion, amateur drama groups and anyone interested in the history of costume.
- Art Department
Understanding Design in Film Production
How the look of a film is decided and then built: what the designer, art director and their crew actually do between the script and the first day on set.
Hair and Make-UpThe Makeup Artist Handbook
The working manual for make-up on screen - beauty, period, character and effects - with the kit, the continuity and the on-set practice that go with it.
Hair and Make-UpThe Hair Stylist Handbook
Hair for film and television as its own department: period styling, wigs, continuity across a shooting day, and how the trailer is run.
Hair and Make-UpMakeup Artistry for Film and Television
A working artist on building a career as well as a kit: how the department is structured, how you get called back, and what the job asks of you on a long shoot.
Blogs 3
- Costume
Costume Design Archive
Costume designs, sketches and stills from film and television, posted almost daily since 2011. A reference library for anyone in the costume department, and a place to learn the names.
CostumeNOT SO NICHE (Megan Henry)
Megan Henry's newsletter on directing and costume, with a whole section on costume design: the process, the collaboration with the director, and the decisions that end up on screen.
CostumeFrock Flicks
Three costume-minded writers on the historical costume in film and television: what is right, what is wrong and why it matters. Sharp, funny and posting most days; a good education in period dress.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Editing 28
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for editing.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readOn Film Editing
A director who cut his own pictures on what the editor is really deciding - pace, emphasis and where the audience is looking. Short, opinionated and widely set as a first read.
Essential readThe Lean Forward Moment
Hollyn on editing for emotion: what the audience feels at each cut, and how to decide.
Essential readGrammar of the Edit
The rules of cutting, for someone who has never cut anything: when to cut, on what, and why it works. The first editing book to read.
Then the rest of the shelf, 25 more.
Books 15
EditingDialogue Editing for Motion Pictures
Gain innovative solutions to common dialogue editing challenges such as room tone balancing, noise removal, perspective control, finding and using alternative takes.
EditingConcrete Wedding Cake
In "Concrete Wedding Cake", John Heath has written a concise, practical and clear approach to motion picture editing based on his over thirty years of editing, directing and producing.
EditingThe Art of the Cut
The book is written primarily for those who wish to learn the basic principles of editing but who may also be filmmakers or close to the filmmaking process.
EditingCutting Rhythems
While respecting the importance of intuitive flow in the cutting room, this book offers processes for understanding what editing intuition is and how to develop it.
Script SupervisorBeyond Continuity: Script Supervision for the Modern Filmmaker
Script supervision as it is done now, on digital shoots with multiple cameras: what to log, what the editor needs from you, and how to hold continuity without slowing the floor.
EditingThe Technique of Film Editing
The book the cutting room was taught from for fifty years: why a cut works, shot by shot, taken apart in detail. Older than the software and still about the craft underneath it.
EditingFilm and Video Editing Theory
Where the rules of editing came from and what they are for, from Soviet montage to the modern cut, so you can argue about a decision rather than just feel it.
DirectorMaking Movies
A director of fifty films on how each one is actually made, department by department, from the first reading to the mix. Plain, unromantic and the best single account of the job.
EditorIn the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing
A hundred pages on why a cut works, from the editor of Apocalypse Now: the rule of six, and what the blink of an eye has to do with it. The book every editor is handed.
EditorThe Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
A novelist in long conversation with a great editor about picture, sound and how a film finds its shape in the cutting room. The best account of what post is like from inside.
EditorWhen the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story
An editor on the films he rescued in the cut, Annie Hall among them, and how badly a picture can be going when he gets it. Honest about the part of the job nobody advertises.
Script SupervisorScript Supervising and Film Continuity
How to break a script down for shooting, hold screen direction, match shots for the edit, and keep the log the cutting room works from. The standard work on the job.
EditingThe Eye Is Quicker
Why a cut works, taught from the frames of real films, by an editor who teaches it.
EditingBehind the Seen
Walter Murch cutting Cold Mountain on Final Cut Pro, watched day by day. The best account of an edit from inside.
EditingFirst Cut: Conversations with Film Editors
Long interviews with the great editors - Schoonmaker, Murch, Rosenblum - on how they work.
Blogs 8
Post ProductionFrame.io Insider
Frame.io's magazine on post-production workflow, colour and delivery, written by working editors and colourists.
EditingJonny Elwyn
A London editor's site: tools, tutorials, and the best-organised set of links on editing and post anywhere. Look at his reading lists.
EditingVashi Visuals
Editor Vashi Nedomansky on editing craft, with a lot of free tutorials and breakdowns of how famous scenes are cut.
Post ProductionJournal of a Freelance Colourist
Journal of Matt Mahmood-Ogston, a freelance colourist based in London, with thoughts, ideas and learnings from his own grading work.
EditingCut/daily
Weekly Friday newsletter from UK film editor Jonny Elwyn (whose jonnyelwyn.co.uk we already list), read by 2,100+ post-production people, with a 400+ issue archive.
EditorBetween Cuts
Substack by David Thomson, a London-based writer, director and editor who founded the games-trailer agency Fire Without Smoke and was Director of Trailers and Ads at Rockstar Games.
EditingOut of Sync
Shane Woods, an assistant and assembly editor for two decades on Sherlock, This Is England '90, Peaky Blinders, Suspicion and The Crown, writes weekly about post-production systems, kit, finding score, and why the next generation of editors is being failed.
EditingJulian Langham, Video Editor
Blog of Julian Langham, a BBC-trained editor and freelance filmmaker in London, writing about post-production from his own experience.
Grips 3
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for grips.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Set Lighting Technician's Handbook
The day-to-day manual for anyone on the lighting and grip crew - lamp operator, best boy, rigger or gaffer: the equipment, the electrical distribution and the practice.
- Essential read
The Grip Book: The Studio Grip's Essential Guide
A working Hollywood grip on every piece of kit you will be handed: C-stands, rigging, dollies and cranes, how to set them safely and what each one is called.
Then the rest of the shelf, 1 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Hair and Make-Up 8
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for hair and make-up.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
The Makeup Artist Handbook
The working manual for make-up on screen - beauty, period, character and effects - with the kit, the continuity and the on-set practice that go with it.
- Essential read
Makeup Artistry for Film and Television
A working artist on building a career as well as a kit: how the department is structured, how you get called back, and what the job asks of you on a long shoot.
Essential readSpecial Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen
Prosthetics from sculpt to application: moulds, silicone, ageing, injuries and creatures, with the safety practice that working on a face demands.
Then the rest of the shelf, 5 more.
Books 4
Hair and Make-UpThe Makup Artist's Handbook
Get professional techniques usually known only by Hollywood makeup artists in this full-color.
Hair and Make-UpThe Complete Makeup Artist
Written for all media make-up students, in particular those studying a VRQ at Levels 2 and 3, this new edition has been updated in accordance with the new NOS.
Hair and Make-UpSpecial Makeup Effects
Learn how to sculpt and mold your own makeup prosthetics, with a focus on how human anatomy relates to sculpture, to create the most realistic effects.
- Hair and Make-Up
The Hair Stylist Handbook
Hair for film and television as its own department: period styling, wigs, continuity across a shooting day, and how the trailer is run.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Lighting 6
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for lighting.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Set Lighting Technician's Handbook
The day-to-day manual for anyone on the lighting and grip crew - lamp operator, best boy, rigger or gaffer: the equipment, the electrical distribution and the practice.
- Essential read
Lighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide to the Art and Craft of Lighting for the Moving Image
A practical guide to lighting for the camera from someone with thirty years of lighting work on features, TV and commercials who now teaches it: why available light is rarely enough, and how lamps are placed to give a scene depth, contrast and atmosphere.
- Essential read
Film Lighting: Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers
Leading cinematographers and gaffers interviewed on how a film's look is decided and then lit, with the equipment and the working methods behind it. The job described by the people who do it.
Then the rest of the shelf, 3 more.
Books 2
- Lighting
Motion Picture and Video Lighting
Written for cinematographers, gaffers and lighting technicians: the equipment, the theory of light and colour, and the techniques, covering why a lamp goes where it does as well as how. The one to read after the technician's handbook, for the eye rather than the hands.
- Lighting
Lighting for Digital Video and Television
A complete course in lighting for the camera, from how the eye and the camera see light to the kit, the set-ups, safety and fixing common problems. Plain and well illustrated, and a good first lighting book for someone working on smaller shoots.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Location Department 8
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for location department.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readLocation Management and Scouting Handbook
Discover what makes an excellent location, how to manage the location and how to handle any problems that might come up.
Essential readShoot On Location
Shoot on Location provides everything you need to know from scouting through the wrap.
Essential readLocation Sound Bible
The topics include audio basics, microphone selection, wireless systems, recording and mixing techniques.
Then the rest of the shelf, 5 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies 3
- Location Department
The Production Guild
Based at Pinewood Studios we represent and support those working in accounts, production, assistant directing, location management, post production and VFX.
- Location Department
Guild of Location Managers
The professional body for location managers and their assistants in the UK. Read the members' directory to see what the career looks like.
- Location Department
Production Central WM
The West Midlands production hub, which took over from Film Birmingham: the local crew base, the locations, and the training it runs.
Production Office 11
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for production office.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readRunning the Show: The Essential Guide to Being a First Assistant Director
The First AD job set out properly - the schedule, the call sheet, the floor, and the judgement about when to push and when to hold. The way into the department.
- Essential read
Making Movies
A director of fifty films on how each one is actually made, department by department, from the first reading to the mix. Plain, unromantic and the best single account of the job.
- Essential read
Script Supervising and Film Continuity
How to break a script down for shooting, hold screen direction, match shots for the edit, and keep the log the cutting room works from. The standard work on the job.
Then the rest of the shelf, 8 more.
Books 6
- Production Office
The Complete Film Production Handbook
This book is for working film/TV professionals and students alike. If you're a line producer, production manager, production supervisor, assistant director or production coordinator--the book has ever
Production OfficeFilm Production Management 101
"the" essential road map to the business and logistics of on-the-job film & television production
Production OfficeProduction Management for TV and Film
Written by highly experienced production manager and specialist tutor, Linda Stradling, this is a complete guide to the profession.
Script SupervisorThe Continuity Supervisor
The short, practical manual on the continuity job - the paperwork, the timings and the matching - from the Media Manuals series that crews have used for decades.
VFXThe Visual Effects Producer
The business end of effects: bidding, scheduling, vendors and the paperwork that keeps a sequence on budget. The route in for anyone organised rather than artistic.
- Assistant Directors
Film Scheduling
The assistant director's core skill taught from the script up: breaking a screenplay down, the strip board, and how long a day's work really takes. Old, and still the way it is done.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Script Supervisor 3
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for script supervisor.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Beyond Continuity: Script Supervision for the Modern Filmmaker
Script supervision as it is done now, on digital shoots with multiple cameras: what to log, what the editor needs from you, and how to hold continuity without slowing the floor.
- Essential read
The Continuity Supervisor
The short, practical manual on the continuity job - the paperwork, the timings and the matching - from the Media Manuals series that crews have used for decades.
- Essential read
Script Supervising and Film Continuity
How to break a script down for shooting, hold screen direction, match shots for the edit, and keep the log the cutting room works from. The standard work on the job.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
SFX 3
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for sfx.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen
Prosthetics from sculpt to application: moulds, silicone, ageing, injuries and creatures, with the safety practice that working on a face demands.
- Essential read
Special Effects: The History and Technique
How effects are really done, from the physical floor work to the digital: a history of the craft and an explanation of each technique, with a foreword by Ray Harryhausen.
Then the rest of the shelf, 1 more.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Sound Department 22
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for sound department.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readSound Design
How sound works on an audience, and how to design it on purpose: the theory behind what the sound department does.
- Essential read
Location Sound Bible
The topics include audio basics, microphone selection, wireless systems, recording and mixing techniques.
Essential readProduction Sound Mixing
Written by veteran sound mixer John J. Murphy, the book offers a step by step collaborative journey through the basic physics of sound, latest techniques and equipment.
Then the rest of the shelf, 19 more.
Books 7
Sound DepartmentProducing Great Sound for Film and Video
In Producing Great Sound for Film and Video, Fourth Edition audio guru Jay Rose revises his popular text for a new generation of filmmakers.
Sound DepartmentDesigning Sound
Designing Sound teaches students and professional sound designers to understand and create sound effects starting from nothing.
Sound DepartmentThe Foley Grail.
Master classic and cutting-edge Foley techniques that will allow you to create rich, convincing sound for any medium, be it film, television, radio, podcasts, animation, or games.
Sound DepartmentSound for Film and Television
The standard text on production and post sound: how a soundtrack is recorded on set, cut, mixed and delivered, by the engineer who devised THX.
Sound DepartmentSound for Digital Video
Getting good sound on a small crew: microphone choice and placement, recording on location, and the edit and mix that follow, without a sound department to lean on.
Sound DepartmentAudio Post Production for Television and Film
What happens to sound after the shoot: the edit, dialogue and ADR, effects, the mix and delivery. The standard account of how a track is finished to broadcast spec.
- Editor
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
A novelist in long conversation with a great editor about picture, sound and how a film finds its shape in the cutting room. The best account of what post is like from inside.
Blogs 7
Sound Departmentrtsound - Richard Thomas, sound recordist
Blog of a London freelance location sound recordist (documentary, drama, corporate). Mostly practical kit posts (radio mic range tests, windshields, 32-bit float) and one long piece, Making a start in Production Sound, on how people actually get into UK production sound.
- Post Production
Tom Edwards Sound (Substack)
Weekly newsletter from a London freelance dubbing mixer and supervising sound editor with 20 years in TV and film post. Posts every Thursday on the craft (mono vs immersive, mastering, peaking) and the career (Where did all the mentors go?, Stop chasing job titles, The psychological horror of chasing credits).
- Post Production
The Music of Sound
Running since 2006, the personal blog of Wellington-based film sound designer and supervising sound editor Tim Prebble (HISSandaROAR). Sound design and mixing notes mixed with music, photography and weekly link round-ups. New Zealand based, read everywhere.
Sound DepartmentMindful Audio blog
Personal blog of a UK-based professional field recordist whose wildlife and nature recordings appear in Nat Geo and BBC documentaries. Tools of the trade, how-to posts, expedition write-ups and the sound library business.
Post ProductionCreative Field Recording
Long-running one-person blog on recording, editing, curating and selling sound effects for film and games, with detailed gear and workflow posts (a Rode blimp upgrade, sound library publishing mistakes).
- Sound Department
Foley First blog
Small one-person blog by a foley artist and foley supervisor working in Georgia and Turkey: a three-part How to Build a Foley Studio, mic comparisons for foley, and 3 Personal Qualities That Will Help a Beginning Foley Artist.
Sound DepartmentDan Guest, Sound Recordist
Personal blog of Dan Guest, a UK freelance production sound recordist: kit notes, a running 'Diary of a Sound Recordist' series and tips on things like money management.
Websites 3
- Camera
Newsshooter
Camera and sound kit reviews from working news and documentary shooters. Honest about what breaks.
Sound DepartmentTonebenders Podcast
Long-running podcast and site interviewing sound editors, designers and mixers on films, TV series and games (recent live episodes from SoundDay LA on Stranger Things, The Pitt and Spider-Noir). Its stated mission is building a community where anyone can build a career in sound.
Post ProductionA Sound Effect blog
Sound-effects marketplace whose blog is the busiest film-sound publication online: in-depth interviews with supervising sound editors and mixers (Behind the Final Mix, the 2026 Emmy sound winners), guides, a podcast and an audio jobs board.
Industry bodies 2
- Sound Department
Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS)
AMPS is a craft guild made up of 450 working sound professionals who strive to promote the value of great sound in TV and film, championing the creative contribution it can make to every production.
- Sound Department
Institute of Professional Sound
The IPS provides support, training, standards, community, and professional recognition for our members in the media industries.
Animation 23
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for animation.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readThe Animator's Survival Kit
The animation textbook, by the man who animated Roger Rabbit: timing, spacing, weight and walks, drawn out. Used on every animation course there is.
Essential readThe Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
Two of Disney's Nine Old Men setting down the twelve principles of animation and how the studio worked. The founding text of the craft, and a beautiful book.
Essential readDirecting the Story
Storyboarding and staging for animation and film, taught through worked examples by a Disney story artist.
Then the rest of the shelf, 20 more.
Books 7
AnimationThe Animators Survival Kit
Williams distills the secrets of the masters into a working system in order to create a book that has become the standard work on all forms of animation for professionals, students and fans.
- Sound Department
The Foley Grail.
Master classic and cutting-edge Foley techniques that will allow you to create rich, convincing sound for any medium, be it film, television, radio, podcasts, animation, or games.
AnimationTiming for Animation
The short classic on how many frames a movement takes and why that decides whether it reads. Slim, practical and still the first thing to learn after the drawing.
AnimationThe Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects
The standard textbook on computer animation and effects: the pipeline, the techniques and the vocabulary.
AnimationAnimation Masterclasses: From Pencils to Pixels
Classical animation technique brought into digital tools, taught as a complete course by a working animator.
AnimationCharacter Animation Crash Course
Eric Goldberg animated the Genie in Aladdin. His book is the principles of character animation, drawn out.
AnimationActing for Animators
How actors think, taught to animators: intention, status and what a character wants. Recommended on every animation course.
Blogs 4
- Animation
Flooby Nooby
Animation director Ron Doucet (Halifax, Canada) posts several times a week on storyboarding, cinematography, character design and film analysis, with a large archive of storyboard and staging resources.
AnimationMove Madly
UK animation critic Alex Dudok de Wit (ex-Cartoon Brew, Sight & Sound) writes essays, reviews and filmmaker interviews on animation, mostly shorts, plus posts such as how to run an Oscar campaign for a short.
AnimationAnimation Obsessive
A twice-weekly Substack digging into how animation is made around the world: storyboards, studio histories, artist resources, and long pieces on directors and techniques.
- Art Department
Storyboard Artist UK Blog (Mitchell Hughes)
A Kent-based freelance storyboard artist with 20 years on UK shoots writes about how boards are used on set, pricing, formats and hiring. Written for producers and directors, with one post on lessons from set.
Websites 6
- Film School
Escape Studios
The London school for VFX, animation and games, part of Pearson. Its courses are built with the studios and its graduates go straight into them.
AnimationAnimation World Network
The news site for the animation industry: the studios, the festivals, the jobs, and who is making what.
AnimationCartoon Brew
Daily animation industry news, with a sharp eye on the business and the working conditions.
VFXfxguide
The VFX and animation industry site: technical breakdowns, the podcast and the coverage of what the studios are doing.
AnimationSkwigly
A UK online animation magazine with news, interviews, podcasts, reviews, festival coverage and a directory of UK animation courses.
VFXCG Channel
A daily news site on the tools of VFX and animation: software releases, free tutorials and industry updates, run by the Gnomon group.
Industry bodies 3
- Writer
The writers Guild
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, poetry, animation and video games.
- Animation
Film London
Film London connects ideas, talent, and finance to develop a pioneering creative culture in the city that delivers success in film, television, animation, games and beyond.
- Animation
Animation UK
The trade body for the British animation industry: who the studios are, the skills schemes, and the case for the sector. Start here for who to write to.
Commercial Production Company 8
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for commercial production company.
Two essential readsread these first
Essential readOgilvy on Advertising
The standard book on what advertising is trying to do and how it is made. The grounding for anyone shooting commercials or working in an agency rather than on features.
Essential readD&AD: The Copy Book
Fifty leading copywriters on how they write, collected by D&AD. The craft reference for the words, from the body that sets the standard in British advertising.
Then the rest of the shelf, 6 more.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites 2
Feature Film Production CompanyKFTV
The directory of production companies, services and crew in film, TV and commercials worldwide, and the daily news of what is being made where.
DirectorPromonews
The UK music video magazine, edited by David Knight (also editorial director of the UK Music Video Awards): a new video reviewed almost every day, industry news, director profiles and features. A small-team publication rather than a personal blog.
Industry bodies 3
- Commercial Production Company
British Film Designers Guild
Feature films, Shorts, Pilots, Promos, Commercials, Television Film, Series and Light Entertainment; the BFDG represent Design in British Films.
- Commercial Production Company
PACT
The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent media companies.
- Camera
Association of Camera Operators
The Association of Camera Operators is a voluntary organisation, of professional feature film, commercials, and television drama camera operators, specialising in the art of camera operating.
Creative Agency 11
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for creative agency.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Ogilvy on Advertising
The standard book on what advertising is trying to do and how it is made. The grounding for anyone shooting commercials or working in an agency rather than on features.
- Essential read
D&AD: The Copy Book
Fifty leading copywriters on how they write, collected by D&AD. The craft reference for the words, from the body that sets the standard in British advertising.
Then the rest of the shelf, 9 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs 5
- Editor
Between Cuts
Substack by David Thomson, a London-based writer, director and editor who founded the games-trailer agency Fire Without Smoke and was Director of Trailers and Ads at Rockstar Games.
- Creative Agency
Dave Trott
The personal blog of Dave Trott, the veteran London creative director and author. Short weekly posts that turn a story from history or the street into a point about advertising and persuasion.
- Creative Agency
Stuff from the Loft
Dave Dye, a London art director and creative director, interviews the people who made the famous British campaigns and writes long illustrated pieces on agency history and craft. Now mostly podcast episodes with a written intro.
Creative AgencyTone Knob
Nick Parker, a UK copywriter, writes a monthly Substack dissecting brands that do interesting things with language and tone of voice, with real examples pulled apart line by line.
Creative AgencyFamous Campaigns weekly
The weekly Substack round-up from Famous Campaigns, a UK-spelling 'brandzine' about creative brand marketing: the best campaigns of the week, issue 161 on 17 September 2026, read by around 30,000 marketers and agency people.
Websites 4
Creative AgencyCreative Salon
A UK editorial site covering commercial creativity: new campaigns, agency interviews, features such as internship advice from Grey London and pieces on talent beyond London. Small team, daily posts.
Creative AgencyCreative Review
The long-running UK magazine for the creative industries, covering advertising campaigns, design and branding, with sections on creative process and leadership and a Gradwatch strand on emerging talent. Some content is subscriber-only.
Creative Agency
Contagious
The free news-and-views section of Contagious, the London-based (Cannes Lions owned) intelligence service on creative marketing: standout campaigns explained, industry news and a podcast.
Creative AgencyThe Drum
UK marketing and advertising trade site with daily news, columns (Mark Ritson among them) and agency coverage. Campaign and Marketing Week are already listed; this is the third of the UK trade set.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Distribution 21
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for distribution.
Two essential readsread these first
Essential readThe Insider's Guide to Independent Film Distribution
What happens to a finished film: sales agents, markets, territories and the deals, and what a producer should be doing about it long before the film is cut.
Essential readThe International Film Business
The International Film Business examines the independent film sector as a business, and addresses the specific skills and knowledge it demands.
Then the rest of the shelf, 19 more.
Books 10
- Casting
How Movies Work
How movies work provides a comprehensive consideration of movies from idea to script, casting, financing, shooting and distribution.
DistributionThe Business of Media Distribution
Learn how an idea moves from concept to profits, how distribution dominates the bottom line of an industry otherwise grounded in high profile elements (production, creative, law, finance, marketing).
DistributionThink Outside the Box Office
As the digital revolution has democratised film production, a new hybrid model of distribution is the way independent filmmakers can take control of their own distribution.
DistributionDictionary of Film Finance and Distribution
The terms and phrases discussed in this dictionary are those of film finance and distribution, film production, marketing, accounting, insurance, securities, legal structures and general finance.
DistributionThe Insiders Guide to Independent Film Distribution
This comprehensive manual for filmmakers and producers dedicated to film distribution and the marketplace could mean the difference between getting your film to the public and keeping it "in the can."
DistributionFilm Distribution in the Digital Age.
Film Distribution in the Digital Age critically examines the evolution of the landscape of film distribution in recent years.
DistributionDelivering Dreams
This book highlights the crucial role that distributors have played in maintaining the solid foundations of the British film industry.
DistributionStairways to Heaven
: Rebuilding the British Film Industry. Published in partnership with the Film Distribution Association.
Marketing/PRGuerrilla Film Marketing
Building an audience for a film with no marketing budget: positioning, the campaign, press and the platforms, aimed at people releasing their own work.
Legal and Business AffairsThe Biz: The Basic Business, Legal and Financial Aspects of the Film Industry
How the money and the law actually work in film: financing, legal structures, distribution deals and tax, set out for people who are not lawyers. Sixth edition, written for a digital business.
Blogs 5
Feature Film Production CompanyIndie Film Hustle
A podcast and blog on the business side of independent filmmaking: distribution, financing, and the mistakes people make with both.
DirectorJeanie Finlay: Glimmers
Jeanie Finlay, the Nottingham-based documentary director (Seahorse, Your Fat Friend), on independent documentary and radical, creative self-distribution. Her latest, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, was made over four years with the fishermen of Hartlepool.
DistributionBusiness of TV
Jen Topping, a UK media analyst, writes for TV and film producers about where the business is going: Channel 4's future, production company models, the creator economy, Edinburgh TV Festival.
Film FestivalFestival Formula: Industry Insight
Monthly articles from a London festival-strategy consultancy founded by strategist Katie Bignell: runtime and selection, life beyond the festival circuit for shorts, distribution grifters, micro-dramas. Written by the consultants themselves.
- Distribution
Script to Screen
UK independent film and documentary consultant and producer with 27 years in distribution and marketing writes about development, marketing and selling independent films.
Industry bodies 3
- Distribution
Europa Distribution
With more than 140 leading independent distributors representing 28 countries in Europe and beyond, it serves as the voice of the sector and acts as a network and a think tank.
- Distribution
Film Distributors' Associations
Film Distributors' Association Ltd. (FDA) is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK cinema audiences.
- Exhibition
Independant Cinema Office
The Independent Cinema Office (ICO) is the national support organisation for independent exhibitors of all kinds including cinemas, film festivals and film societies.
Exhibition 4
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for exhibition.
The essential readread these first
Then the rest of the shelf, 3 more.
Books none yet
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Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites none yet
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Industry bodies 3
- Distribution
Film Distributors' Associations
Film Distributors' Association Ltd. (FDA) is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK cinema audiences.
- Commercial Production Company
PACT
The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent media companies.
- Exhibition
Independant Cinema Office
The Independent Cinema Office (ICO) is the national support organisation for independent exhibitors of all kinds including cinemas, film festivals and film societies.
Feature Film Production Company 36
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for feature film production company.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readProducer to Producer
A working producer's step-by-step on producing a low-budget feature or short, from the budget to delivery. Practical to the page.
Essential readThe Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook
The short version: the essentials of making your first film, for people who will not read the doorstop.
Essential readSo You Want to Be a Producer
The producer of The Graduate on what a producer actually does, from finding the story to the release. The clearest first book on producing.
Then the rest of the shelf, 33 more.
Books 16
- Production Office
The Complete Film Production Handbook
This book is for working film/TV professionals and students alike. If you're a line producer, production manager, production supervisor, assistant director or production coordinator--the book has ever
- Sound Department
Producing Great Sound for Film and Video
In Producing Great Sound for Film and Video, Fourth Edition audio guru Jay Rose revises his popular text for a new generation of filmmakers.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Producer's Business Handbook
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the business of entertainment.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Producers
Examining the role of the producer, seven feature film producers discuss how to work in Hollywood.
Feature Film Production CompanyHigh Concept
A classic story of Hollywood excesses, Charles Fleming looks at Producer Don Simpson, whose partnership with Jerry Bruckheimer gave us some of the best known films of the 1980's.
Feature Film Production CompanyYou'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again
A memoire from the producer of Close Encounters, Taxi Drive and The Sting.
- Distribution
The Insiders Guide to Independent Film Distribution
This comprehensive manual for filmmakers and producers dedicated to film distribution and the marketplace could mean the difference between getting your film to the public and keeping it "in the can."
- Editing
Concrete Wedding Cake
In "Concrete Wedding Cake", John Heath has written a concise, practical and clear approach to motion picture editing based on his over thirty years of editing, directing and producing.
WriterAdventures in the Screen Trade
A screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and All the President's Men on how the business really treats a script, and why "nobody knows anything". Funny, and truer than it is comfortable.
Film SchoolRebel Without a Crew
The diary of making El Mariachi for $7,000 and what happened next. The argument that you can start now with what you have, from someone who did exactly that.
Talent AgencyPowerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency
How CAA was built and how agenting actually works, told by the people who were there. The clearest picture of the power an agency holds and what it does with it.
Legal and Business AffairsDealmaking in the Film & Television Industry
What is in a film contract and why: the legal and business affairs of getting a picture made, from the first negotiation to the final signature, by an entertainment lawyer who writes them.
Feature Film Production CompanyA Killer Life
Vachon's second book: twenty years of producing independent films, and what the work is really like.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Business of Film
The textbook on the film industry as a business: development, finance, distribution, exhibition, and the numbers behind each.
Feature Film Production CompanyThe Guerilla Film Makers Handbook
The British classic on making a feature with no money: interviews with everyone who touched a low-budget film, and the paperwork. A doorstop, and worth it.
Feature Film Production CompanyMaking Short Films
How to make a short that works, and what to do with it afterwards. Written for someone making their first.
Blogs 8
- Feature Film Production Company
Indie Film Hustle
A podcast and blog on the business side of independent filmmaking: distribution, financing, and the mistakes people make with both.
- Director
Noam Kroll
A working writer-director on making micro-budget features for real: the money, the cameras, and getting the film seen.
- Feature Film Production Company
Raindance Blog
Practical articles on making and selling independent films, from the people who run the festival and the school.
- Director
Elliot Grove
The founder of Raindance writes a near-daily personal Substack: an Independent Film Strategy Brief every Monday plus essays on audiences, distribution and craft. Separate from the Raindance site already listed.
- Director
Exploring Filmmaking
Andrew G. Cooper, a Canadian writer-director, documents producing and directing his first feature (Below the Silent Sky): development workshops, proof of concept, lessons from a year of producing, a first trip to Cannes.
- Distribution
Script to Screen
UK independent film and documentary consultant and producer with 27 years in distribution and marketing writes about development, marketing and selling independent films.
Feature Film Production CompanyCath Walker TV
London and Manchester entertainment producer's blog: mostly British TV news and first looks, with occasional posts on what she has learnt about unscripted development.
Feature Film Production CompanyClaire Duffy (Handbag Studios)
Glasgow producer and writer building a scripted studio in public, posting several times a week on financing, Scottish stories and why-not-me persistence.
Websites 5
- Feature Film Production Company
KFTV
The directory of production companies, services and crew in film, TV and commercials worldwide, and the daily news of what is being made where.
Post ProductionTelevisual
The magazine for the production and post companies: the annual production 100, the facilities survey, and who is making what.
Feature Film Production CompanyFilmmaker Magazine
The magazine of independent film in America: interviews with the people making films, and the 25 New Faces list every year.
WriterSundance Collab
The Sundance Institute's learning platform: free and paid courses on writing, directing and producing, taught by the people who make the films.
- Writer
Cover to Coverage
One-to-one courses on reading and scouting books for film and TV adaptation, by an industry insider: how to write the coverage a production company will act on. The way into development.
Industry bodies 4
- Commercial Production Company
British Film Designers Guild
Feature films, Shorts, Pilots, Promos, Commercials, Television Film, Series and Light Entertainment; the BFDG represent Design in British Films.
- Feature Film Production Company
The British Film Commission
The British Film Commission (BFC) is the national agency with a remit to maximise and support the production of international feature film and television in the UK. - See more at: http://www.britishfi
- Commercial Production Company
PACT
The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent media companies.
- Camera
Association of Camera Operators
The Association of Camera Operators is a voluntary organisation, of professional feature film, commercials, and television drama camera operators, specialising in the art of camera operating.
Film Festival 11
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for film festival.
Two essential readsread these first
Essential readChris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide
Which festivals to enter and why, what they cost, how to submit, and what to do when you get there. The standard handbook for the festival circuit.
Essential readSundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made
What film festivals are really for, by the Los Angeles Times critic: the business behind them, the politics around them, and what a festival does to the town it lands in.
Then the rest of the shelf, 9 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs 4
- Director
Elliot Grove
The founder of Raindance writes a near-daily personal Substack: an Independent Film Strategy Brief every Monday plus essays on audiences, distribution and craft. Separate from the Raindance site already listed.
- Film Festival
Festival Formula: Industry Insight
Monthly articles from a London festival-strategy consultancy founded by strategist Katie Bignell: runtime and selection, life beyond the festival circuit for shorts, distribution grifters, micro-dramas. Written by the consultants themselves.
Film FestivalThe Film Festival Doctor
Blog and podcast from festival strategist Rebekah Louisa Smith, who built the business in the UK and has since moved it to the US: how to get a film Academy-qualified, promoting a film at festivals, which festivals to open the year with, interviews with programmers.
Film FestivalTalented People Blog
Blog of Talented People, a UK unscripted TV recruitment and talent firm, written mainly by joint MD Kimberly Godbolt: what freelancers need to know from Edinburgh TV Festival and Sheffield DocFest, the state of the freelance market, hiring trends. It is a recruiter's blog rather than a personal one.
Websites 2
- Film School
Raindance
The independent film organisation: the festival, the film school in London, and a long list of evening courses for people who cannot stop working to study.
- Film Festival
The Documentary Report
Daily news aggregator covering only non-fiction film: festival announcements, releases, streaming acquisitions, filmmaker interviews and industry deals gathered from across the web each morning.
Industry bodies 3
- Exhibition
Independant Cinema Office
The Independent Cinema Office (ICO) is the national support organisation for independent exhibitors of all kinds including cinemas, film festivals and film societies.
- Film Festival
Into Film
Film education for 5 to 19 year olds: the film clubs, the festival, and the careers resources that explain the jobs to people still at school.
- Film Festival
Sheffield DocFest
The UK's leading documentary festival and market, held each June, with talent schemes including the Queer Realities Director's Lab and a Youth Jury for 18 to 23 year olds.
Film Finance 14
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for film finance.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
The Biz: The Basic Business, Legal and Financial Aspects of the Film Industry
How the money and the law actually work in film: financing, legal structures, distribution deals and tax, set out for people who are not lawyers. Sixth edition, written for a digital business.
Essential readIndependent Film Producing
Producing an independent feature as a business: the company, the financing, the contracts and the sale.
- Essential read
The International Film Business
The International Film Business examines the independent film sector as a business, and addresses the specific skills and knowledge it demands.
Then the rest of the shelf, 11 more.
Books 4
- Casting
How Movies Work
How movies work provides a comprehensive consideration of movies from idea to script, casting, financing, shooting and distribution.
- Distribution
The Business of Media Distribution
Learn how an idea moves from concept to profits, how distribution dominates the bottom line of an industry otherwise grounded in high profile elements (production, creative, law, finance, marketing).
- Distribution
Dictionary of Film Finance and Distribution
The terms and phrases discussed in this dictionary are those of film finance and distribution, film production, marketing, accounting, insurance, securities, legal structures and general finance.
- Legal and Business Affairs
Dealmaking in the Film & Television Industry
What is in a film contract and why: the legal and business affairs of getting a picture made, from the first negotiation to the final signature, by an entertainment lawyer who writes them.
Blogs 3
Film FinanceStephen Follows
London-based data analyst Stephen Follows uses industry data to explain how film gets financed, made and sold, with frequent posts on screenplays, genres and what actually gets produced. Also on Substack (14,000-plus subscribers).
- Distribution
Business of TV
Jen Topping, a UK media analyst, writes for TV and film producers about where the business is going: Channel 4's future, production company models, the creator economy, Edinburgh TV Festival.
Film FinanceThe Indie Hustle
Weekly UK Substack from the Indielab team, written by experienced media journalists, decoding the independent TV production sector: development, commissioning, AI, the finances of small indies.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies 4
- Animation
Film London
Film London connects ideas, talent, and finance to develop a pioneering creative culture in the city that delivers success in film, television, animation, games and beyond.
- Film Finance
Ffilm Cymru Wales
The national film agency for Wales: development and production funding, and the skills and training programmes for Welsh crew.
- Director
Doc Society
Non-profit backing independent documentary worldwide, running the BFI Doc Society Fund in the UK, the Impact Field Guide and a newsletter listing funds and fellowships.
- Director
The Whickers
Funding body for emerging, first-time documentary directors: a £120,000 Film & TV award, a podcast pitch with Sheffield DocFest, bursaries, and the annual Cost of Docs survey.
Film Market 3
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for film market.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
The Insider's Guide to Independent Film Distribution
What happens to a finished film: sales agents, markets, territories and the deals, and what a producer should be doing about it long before the film is cut.
- Essential read
The International Film Business
The International Film Business examines the independent film sector as a business, and addresses the specific skills and knowledge it demands.
Then the rest of the shelf, 1 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Film Sales Agents 3
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for film sales agents.
The essential readread these first
Then the rest of the shelf, 2 more.
Books none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Film School 26
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for film school.
Three essential readsread these first
Essential readOn Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director
The teaching notes of the man who made The Ladykillers and then ran the film school at CalArts: what a director is really deciding, taught by someone who did both jobs well.
- Essential read
Rebel Without a Crew
The diary of making El Mariachi for $7,000 and what happened next. The argument that you can start now with what you have, from someone who did exactly that.
Essential readLetters to Young Filmmakers
A UCLA professor's letters on how to build a filmmaking career and a life around it. Short chapters, read by film students everywhere.
Then the rest of the shelf, 23 more.
Blogs none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Websites 21
- Film School
Escape Studios
The London school for VFX, animation and games, part of Pearson. Its courses are built with the studios and its graduates go straight into them.
- Film School
London Film School
The oldest film school in the country, in Covent Garden. MA Filmmaking, screenwriting and the short courses.
- Film School
MetFilm School
Film school on the Ealing Studios lot, with BA and MA courses and a set of short courses and evening classes for people testing the water.
- Film School
NFTS
The National Film and Television School at Beaconsfield: the postgraduate courses, the short courses, and the diploma route for people who cannot do a two-year MA.
- Film School
Raindance
The independent film organisation: the festival, the film school in London, and a long list of evening courses for people who cannot stop working to study.
Film SchoolNo Film School
The biggest site for people learning to make films: gear, craft, the business, and a forum. Free and daily. If you read one filmmaking site, this is it.
- Film School
London Film Academy
A small independent film school in Fulham: a one-year filmmaking diploma, a two-year BA, and short courses, taught by working crew on small cohorts.
- Film School
Screen Academy Scotland
Edinburgh Napier's film school, one of the UK's Skillset-badged screen academies: film and TV degrees and masters with a working relationship with the Scottish industry.
- Film School
Central Film School
An independent film school in London with degrees and short courses in filmmaking and screenwriting, taught on practical productions rather than lectures.
- Film School
Bournemouth Film School (AUB)
Arts University Bournemouth's film school: BA courses across production, animation, costume and make-up for screen, with a long list of working graduates.
- Film School
Northern Film School (Leeds Beckett)
Leeds Beckett's film school, the north of England's longest-established: undergraduate and postgraduate filmmaking with a track record of graduates on set.
- Film School
Manchester Film School (UCEN Manchester)
The film school at UCEN Manchester: degrees in film production and a practical, crew-based way of teaching, close to the city's growing production base.
- Film School
University of Westminster, Film and Television
Westminster's film and television degrees, taught at the Harrow campus with a long line of alumni in British film and TV.
- Film School
Ravensbourne University London
A specialist digital media university on the Greenwich Peninsula: degrees in film and television production, editing, and the crafts around them.
- Film School
Goldsmiths, University of London
Goldsmiths' School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies: film and screen degrees with a strong documentary and practice tradition.
- Film School
London College of Communication (UAL)
UAL's London College of Communication at Elephant and Castle: film and television degrees alongside the design, sound and screen crafts.
- Film School
Norwich University of the Arts
A specialist arts university with film and moving image degrees, and a working relationship with the East of England's screen industry.
- Film School
Edinburgh College of Art
The University of Edinburgh's art college, with film and television degrees and the city's festivals on the doorstep.
- Film School
Royal Holloway, Film, Television and Screen
Royal Holloway's Department of Media Arts: film, television and screen degrees in Egham, with practice and theory taught together.
- Film School
Falmouth School of Film and Television
Falmouth University's School of Film and Television in Cornwall: undergraduate and postgraduate film and television production.
- Film School
University of South Wales, Film and Media
The University of South Wales' film and media degrees in Cardiff, home of the former Film School Wales, close to the Welsh drama studios.
Legal and Business Affairs 7
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for legal and business affairs.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Dealmaking in the Film & Television Industry
What is in a film contract and why: the legal and business affairs of getting a picture made, from the first negotiation to the final signature, by an entertainment lawyer who writes them.
Essential readClearance & Copyright
Everything you have to clear before a frame is seen: copyright, music, trademarks, locations, faces in the background. The standard legal reference for independent film and television.
Essential readThe Independent Film Producer's Survival Guide
The legal and business side of independent producing: contracts, rights, financing and distribution deals, in plain English.
Then the rest of the shelf, 4 more.
Books 3
- Distribution
Dictionary of Film Finance and Distribution
The terms and phrases discussed in this dictionary are those of film finance and distribution, film production, marketing, accounting, insurance, securities, legal structures and general finance.
- Legal and Business Affairs
The Biz: The Basic Business, Legal and Financial Aspects of the Film Industry
How the money and the law actually work in film: financing, legal structures, distribution deals and tax, set out for people who are not lawyers. Sixth edition, written for a digital business.
Legal and Business AffairsContracts for the Film & Television Industry
The contracts themselves, annotated - what each clause is for and where it bites. A companion to Dealmaking for anyone doing business affairs on a production.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Marketing/PR 11
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for marketing/pr.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Guerrilla Film Marketing
Building an audience for a film with no marketing budget: positioning, the campaign, press and the platforms, aimed at people releasing their own work.
- Essential read
Ogilvy on Advertising
The standard book on what advertising is trying to do and how it is made. The grounding for anyone shooting commercials or working in an agency rather than on features.
- Essential read
D&AD: The Copy Book
Fifty leading copywriters on how they write, collected by D&AD. The craft reference for the words, from the body that sets the standard in British advertising.
Then the rest of the shelf, 8 more.
Books 5
- Distribution
The Business of Media Distribution
Learn how an idea moves from concept to profits, how distribution dominates the bottom line of an industry otherwise grounded in high profile elements (production, creative, law, finance, marketing).
- Distribution
Dictionary of Film Finance and Distribution
The terms and phrases discussed in this dictionary are those of film finance and distribution, film production, marketing, accounting, insurance, securities, legal structures and general finance.
Marketing/PRFilm Marketing into the Twenty-First Century
Straddling practical and theoretical considerations, the book explores modern film marketing, its evolution, and the key issues at stake in a global era.
Marketing/PRThe New Rules of Marketing and PR
Learn how companies, nonprofits, and organisations of all sizes can leverage web–based content to get timely, relevant information to eager, responsive buyers for a fraction of the cost.
- Film Festival
Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide
Which festivals to enter and why, what they cost, how to submit, and what to do when you get there. The standard handbook for the festival circuit.
Blogs 2
- Film Festival
The Film Festival Doctor
Blog and podcast from festival strategist Rebekah Louisa Smith, who built the business in the UK and has since moved it to the US: how to get a film Academy-qualified, promoting a film at festivals, which festivals to open the year with, interviews with programmers.
- Distribution
Script to Screen
UK independent film and documentary consultant and producer with 27 years in distribution and marketing writes about development, marketing and selling independent films.
Industry bodies none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Post Production 36
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for post production.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Sound for Film and Television
The standard text on production and post sound: how a soundtrack is recorded on set, cut, mixed and delivered, by the engineer who devised THX.
- Essential read
On Film Editing
A director who cut his own pictures on what the editor is really deciding - pace, emphasis and where the audience is looking. Short, opinionated and widely set as a first read.
- Essential read
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing
A hundred pages on why a cut works, from the editor of Apocalypse Now: the rule of six, and what the blink of an eye has to do with it. The book every editor is handed.
Then the rest of the shelf, 33 more.
Books 10
- Camera
Contemporary Cinematographers on their Art.
The twelve interviews in this book cover all aspects of cinematography from pre-production planning to post-production, special effects, aerial photography, and second unit.
Post ProductionGuide to post production for TV and Film
This guide will show you how to navigate each step in taking a TV or film project from production to final delivery. Start by getting a handle on the critical issues of budgets and schedules.
- Camera
Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques and Workflows
The modern camera department end to end: sensors, colour, codecs and the data workflow from the set to the grade. The reference for how a digital shoot actually holds together.
- Sound Department
Sound for Digital Video
Getting good sound on a small crew: microphone choice and placement, recording on location, and the edit and mix that follow, without a sound department to lean on.
- Editing
The Technique of Film Editing
The book the cutting room was taught from for fifty years: why a cut works, shot by shot, taken apart in detail. Older than the software and still about the craft underneath it.
- Editing
Film and Video Editing Theory
Where the rules of editing came from and what they are for, from Soviet montage to the modern cut, so you can argue about a decision rather than just feel it.
- Sound Department
Audio Post Production for Television and Film
What happens to sound after the shoot: the edit, dialogue and ADR, effects, the mix and delivery. The standard account of how a track is finished to broadcast spec.
VFXCompositing Visual Effects
What a compositor does and why each step matters - keying, matting, colour and integration - taught from the principles rather than one piece of software.
- Editor
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
A novelist in long conversation with a great editor about picture, sound and how a film finds its shape in the cutting room. The best account of what post is like from inside.
- Editor
When the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story
An editor on the films he rescued in the cut, Annie Hall among them, and how badly a picture can be going when he gets it. Honest about the part of the job nobody advertises.
Blogs 11
- Post Production
Frame.io Insider
Frame.io's magazine on post-production workflow, colour and delivery, written by working editors and colourists.
- Editing
Jonny Elwyn
A London editor's site: tools, tutorials, and the best-organised set of links on editing and post anywhere. Look at his reading lists.
- Post Production
Journal of a Freelance Colourist
Journal of Matt Mahmood-Ogston, a freelance colourist based in London, with thoughts, ideas and learnings from his own grading work.
- Editing
Cut/daily
Weekly Friday newsletter from UK film editor Jonny Elwyn (whose jonnyelwyn.co.uk we already list), read by 2,100+ post-production people, with a 400+ issue archive.
- Post Production
Tom Edwards Sound (Substack)
Weekly newsletter from a London freelance dubbing mixer and supervising sound editor with 20 years in TV and film post. Posts every Thursday on the craft (mono vs immersive, mastering, peaking) and the career (Where did all the mentors go?, Stop chasing job titles, The psychological horror of chasing credits).
- Post Production
The Music of Sound
Running since 2006, the personal blog of Wellington-based film sound designer and supervising sound editor Tim Prebble (HISSandaROAR). Sound design and mixing notes mixed with music, photography and weekly link round-ups. New Zealand based, read everywhere.
- Sound Department
Mindful Audio blog
Personal blog of a UK-based professional field recordist whose wildlife and nature recordings appear in Nat Geo and BBC documentaries. Tools of the trade, how-to posts, expedition write-ups and the sound library business.
- Post Production
Creative Field Recording
Long-running one-person blog on recording, editing, curating and selling sound effects for film and games, with detailed gear and workflow posts (a Rode blimp upgrade, sound library publishing mistakes).
- Sound Department
Foley First blog
Small one-person blog by a foley artist and foley supervisor working in Georgia and Turkey: a three-part How to Build a Foley Studio, mic comparisons for foley, and 3 Personal Qualities That Will Help a Beginning Foley Artist.
- Editing
Out of Sync
Shane Woods, an assistant and assembly editor for two decades on Sherlock, This Is England '90, Peaky Blinders, Suspicion and The Crown, writes weekly about post-production systems, kit, finding score, and why the next generation of editors is being failed.
- Editing
Julian Langham, Video Editor
Blog of Julian Langham, a BBC-trained editor and freelance filmmaker in London, writing about post-production from his own experience.
Websites 11
- Post Production
Televisual
The magazine for the production and post companies: the annual production 100, the facilities survey, and who is making what.
Post ProductionCreative COW
The forums where working post-production people solve each other's problems. Twenty years of answers to search.
Post ProductionLift Gamma Gain
The forum for colourists: grading, colour science and the tools, discussed by the people who do it.
- Post Production
Post Magazine
The American trade magazine for post-production: the facilities, the tools and the people.
- Post Production
ProVideo Coalition
Working-professional articles on post, cameras and workflow, with columns from editors and colourists.
- Camera
RedShark News
Video technology news: cameras, codecs, monitors, and where the tech is going.
Post ProductionColourgrade - Learn the Craft (Paul Handley)
Blog of Paul Handley, a UK freelance colourist working across London, Manchester and Bristol; beginner-friendly but technically rigorous DaVinci Resolve articles.
Post ProductionPost Super
UK site founded in 2019 by Gemma Nicholson (25 years in post: sound editor, post coordinator, then post supervisor on several Harry Potter films and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) with her sister. Free knowledge base, weekly newsletter, training courses and a post-production directory.
- Sound Department
Tonebenders Podcast
Long-running podcast and site interviewing sound editors, designers and mixers on films, TV series and games (recent live episodes from SoundDay LA on Stranger Things, The Pitt and Spider-Noir). Its stated mission is building a community where anyone can build a career in sound.
- Post Production
A Sound Effect blog
Sound-effects marketplace whose blog is the busiest film-sound publication online: in-depth interviews with supervising sound editors and mixers (Behind the Final Mix, the 2026 Emmy sound winners), guides, a podcast and an audio jobs board.
Post ProductionProduction Expert - Audio Post Production
UK-run pro-audio site with a dedicated audio post-production section: expert panels on dialogue editing, Dolby Atmos, loudness and intelligibility, tools and workflow news. Most of the site is music production; roughly a fifth is film and TV post.
Talent Agency 6
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for talent agency.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency
How CAA was built and how agenting actually works, told by the people who were there. The clearest picture of the power an agency holds and what it does with it.
Essential readAn Agent Tells All
A Hollywood agent on what agents do, how they choose clients and how to be one worth having.
Then the rest of the shelf, 4 more.
Blogs 2
Talent AgencyDealmakers with Alex Segal
Several posts a week from Alex Segal, managing director of UK talent agency InterTalent: 'Ask the Agent' columns, what went wrong in a new client's first two weeks, weekly industry wraps, interviews with industry figures.
Talent AgencyOff Script: Notes from a Talent Manager
UK talent manager with 15 years in comedy and entertainment agencies writes about how careers get built and where the business is shifting.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
VFX 27
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for vfx.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects
Written for the people who are not in the VFX house: what to shoot, what to measure and what to hand over, so the effects work can be done at all.
- Essential read
The Visual Effects Producer
The business end of effects: bidding, scheduling, vendors and the paperwork that keeps a sequence on budget. The route in for anyone organised rather than artistic.
- Essential read
Compositing Visual Effects
What a compositor does and why each step matters - keying, matting, colour and integration - taught from the principles rather than one piece of software.
Then the rest of the shelf, 24 more.
Books 7
VFXThe VES Handbook of Visual Effects
This new edition has been updated to include the latest, industry-standard techniques, technologies, and workflows that are ever-evolving in the fast paced world of visual effects.
VFXInside the VFX Business
So you think you understand the film and VFX world? Think again! This book will turn everything you know on its head.
VFXDigital Compositing for Film & Video
This practical, hands-on guide addresses the problems and difficult choices that professional compositors face on a daily basis.
- Camera
Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques and Workflows
The modern camera department end to end: sensors, colour, codecs and the data workflow from the set to the grade. The reference for how a digital shoot actually holds together.
- Animation
The Animator's Survival Kit
The animation textbook, by the man who animated Roger Rabbit: timing, spacing, weight and walks, drawn out. Used on every animation course there is.
- Animation
Timing for Animation
The short classic on how many frames a movement takes and why that decides whether it reads. Slim, practical and still the first thing to learn after the drawing.
- SFX
Special Effects: The History and Technique
How effects are really done, from the physical floor work to the digital: a history of the craft and an explanation of each technique, with a foreword by Ray Harryhausen.
Blogs 8
VFXEffects Corner
Insights to Visual Effects for Motion Pictures and Television.
VFXbefores & afters
Ian Failes's VFX magazine: how the effects in current films and series were actually made, told by the artists.
- VFX
Conrad Olson
Compositor Conrad Olson (Framestore, MPC, Digital Domain; London then Vancouver) writes about Nuke, roto and career choices, including 'My Top 10 Roto Tips' and posts on his own films.
VFXErwan Leroy
Personal site of a senior compositor and Nuke developer based in Vancouver, with long-form tutorials on Python and C++ for Nuke, compositing supervision and studio workflow.
VFXCompositing Mentor
A one-person tutorial blog by the compositor behind the free Nuke Survival Toolkit, covering CG compositing, keying, lens distortion, precomp workflow and their own Nuke tools. Author is credited only as Creative Lyons.
- VFX
Natalia Raz
A Substack by a VFX compositing artist and editor documenting real shots: tracking a 730-frame TV shot, cleanup with ComfyUI, small tools she wrote for Resolve. Base not stated.
VFXAlex Villabón | VFX + AI
A weekly Substack by VFX supervisor Alex Villabón collecting tools, tests and links on where AI is landing in VFX workflows. Base not stated.
VFXThe VFX Process
Wolverhampton VFX artist's weekly podcast and site interviewing VFX professionals, with posts such as starting your career in the VFX industry.
Websites 8
- Film School
Escape Studios
The London school for VFX, animation and games, part of Pearson. Its courses are built with the studios and its graduates go straight into them.
- Post Production
Creative COW
The forums where working post-production people solve each other's problems. Twenty years of answers to search.
- VFX
fxguide
The VFX and animation industry site: technical breakdowns, the podcast and the coverage of what the studios are doing.
VFXVFX Voice
The Visual Effects Society's magazine: behind-the-scenes features on film, TV and animation VFX, studio profiles and technology trends.
- VFX
CG Channel
A daily news site on the tools of VFX and animation: software releases, free tutorials and industry updates, run by the Gnomon group.
VFXNukepedia
The community repository of free Nuke gizmos, Python scripts and plugins, plus tutorials and interviews with compositors.
- VFX
CGWiki
A personal wiki of Houdini (plus Maya, Nuke and Python) notes by Matt Estela, formerly at Animal Logic in London and now a senior technical artist at Google.
VFXEntagma
A Munich two-person site of free and paid Houdini tutorials on simulation, VEX and procedural work.
Director 51
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for director.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Making Movies
A director of fifty films on how each one is actually made, department by department, from the first reading to the mix. Plain, unromantic and the best single account of the job.
Essential readOn Directing Film
A short, hard argument that directing is deciding which shots to cut together, not moving actors around. Taken from a class he taught, and it will change how you read a scene.
Essential readDirecting Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television
The book directors are pointed to when the performances are not working: how to talk to an actor, what a note should be, and the direction that gets a result instead of a flinch.
Then the rest of the shelf, 48 more.
Books 20
- Production Office
The Complete Film Production Handbook
This book is for working film/TV professionals and students alike. If you're a line producer, production manager, production supervisor, assistant director or production coordinator--the book has ever
Commercial Production CompanyThe 30 Second Storyteller
The 30-Second Storyteller teaches any filmmaker how to get work as a commercial director, how to navigate the pitfalls of production, and how to get clients to keep coming back to you for more.
- Editing
Concrete Wedding Cake
In "Concrete Wedding Cake", John Heath has written a concise, practical and clear approach to motion picture editing based on his over thirty years of editing, directing and producing.
- Director
Film Directing: Shot by Shot
Visualising a film before you shoot it - coverage, blocking, storyboards and staging - drawn out frame by frame. The standard reference for turning a scene into a shot list.
- Director
On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director
The teaching notes of the man who made The Ladykillers and then ran the film school at CalArts: what a director is really deciding, taught by someone who did both jobs well.
DirectorSculpting in Time
A great director on what film is for - time, image and why a shot holds. Not a how-to; the book people reach for when the craft books have stopped being the problem.
WriterSave the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
The beat sheet the industry actually talks in: fifteen story beats and where they fall. Argue with it if you like, but you need to know it to sit in the room.
WriterThe Anatomy of Story
Structure built from the character's moral argument rather than a template, worked through twenty-two steps. The counterweight to the beat sheet, and the harder book.
WriterStory: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
The long, serious one: what a scene is, what a turn is, and why a story works at all. Dense, argumentative and the reference most script editors have read.
WriterInto the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them
Written by the man who ran BBC Drama: why every story has the shape it has, drawn from television as much as film. The best British book on structure.
- Film School
Rebel Without a Crew
The diary of making El Mariachi for $7,000 and what happened next. The argument that you can start now with what you have, from someone who did exactly that.
DirectorDirecting the Documentary
The standard textbook on documentary: developing an idea, interviewing, shooting, and shaping it in the edit.
DirectorDocumentary Storytelling
How a documentary finds its story, from the people who make them for Ken Burns and PBS.
DirectorThe Film Director's Intuition
Weston's second book: script analysis and rehearsal, and how a director prepares for actors.
DirectorThe Way Hollywood Tells It
How the storytelling of Hollywood films has changed since the seventies, and how much it has not. Bordwell at his most readable.
DirectorSpike Lee's Gotta Have It
Spike Lee's production diary of his first feature, with the script and the budget. How a film gets made with nothing, day by day.
DirectorThe Name of This Book Is Dogme95
The Dogme manifesto and interviews with the directors who made films under its rules, on why constraint helps.
DirectorDirecting: Film Techniques and Aesthetics
Rabiger's textbook on directing, from the exercises up. What most film schools teach directing from.
DirectorFilm Art: An Introduction
The textbook on how films work - narrative, style, editing, sound - set on more film studies courses than any other.
- Casting
Casting Revealed: A Guide for Film Directors
The casting process set out step by step for a director casting their own film: the audition notice, running the sessions, tracking down actors' agents and the union paperwork. American and written for directors, it sets out the process a casting office runs, in order.
Blogs 17
WriterFilm Courage
Thousands of interviews with working screenwriters, directors and producers, on video. Search by the question you have.
- Director
Noam Kroll
A working writer-director on making micro-budget features for real: the money, the cameras, and getting the film seen.
DirectorOutrun the Doubt: Adventures in the Micro-Budget Film World
Andrew David Barker, a British writer-director and novelist, charts his (mis)adventures in the lower levels of British independent film. His second feature, The House on Lidderman Street, was shot in eight days for under $50k and won Best Film at Glowflare in September 2026.
DirectorLittle Scraps of Filmmaking
Tomas Leach, the British documentary director of In No Great Hurry (Saul Leiter) and The Lure (exec-produced by Errol Morris), writes a filmmaker's notebook: craft, jealousy, Q&As, creativity, plus an artist interview series. Weekly.
- Director
Jeanie Finlay: Glimmers
Jeanie Finlay, the Nottingham-based documentary director (Seahorse, Your Fat Friend), on independent documentary and radical, creative self-distribution. Her latest, All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, was made over four years with the fishermen of Hartlepool.
DirectorDocumental
Vicki Lesley, a UK documentary filmmaker (The Atom: A Love Affair), writes dispatches and conversations about making independent documentaries, collaborators, and the history films she loves. Includes a live 'Film Thread' chat series.
- Director
Elliot Grove
The founder of Raindance writes a near-daily personal Substack: an Independent Film Strategy Brief every Monday plus essays on audiences, distribution and craft. Separate from the Raindance site already listed.
- Director
Ben Wheatley
The director of Kill List, Sightseers and Meg 2 writes a small personal Substack ('Film maker, writer'): idle thoughts on the future of cinema, BBC Arena docs, and making his film-and-TV fanzine.
- Director
El Suizo Dispatches: Cinema Between Worlds
Mauro Mueller, a Mexican-Swiss filmmaker and showrunner (Student Oscar winner, three features, Academy member), writes weekly essays on the unglamorous business of ambition: carrying a film for ten years, grief and magical realism, sacrifice.
DirectorFilm Directing Coach
Peter D. Marshall, a Vancouver-based director and first AD with 40 years in film and TV and 25 teaching, posts every three days: a 50-part series on techniques that build a director's visual style, and notes on directing actors.
DirectorFilmStack Daily Digest
A community digest run by Ted Hope that rounds up posts from the filmmakers writing on Substack ('FilmStack'), plus a calendar of free events, meetups and screenings across the US and elsewhere.
- Director
Exploring Filmmaking
Andrew G. Cooper, a Canadian writer-director, documents producing and directing his first feature (Below the Silent Sky): development workshops, proof of concept, lessons from a year of producing, a first trip to Cannes.
DirectorGlasgow Film Crew's Substack
Personal Substack of a Glasgow filmmaker (posting as GlasgowFilmCrew) who wrote, directed and sold a debut micro-budget feature, The Thistle in the Kiss, plus guest pieces such as a sound designer's day.
DirectorStories from an Independent Documentary Filmmaker
Diary of a UK independent documentary filmmaker who films protest, policing and migration on the frontline: what happens on a filming trip to Dunkirk or Boulogne, arrests, court, and why she keeps going.
DirectorHolding for Parrots
British film and TV director (Bridgerton and much US episodic television) writes weekly about directing series, working with actors and what happens when projects fall through.
DirectorForever Freelance
UK-based TV director and format creator with 30 years freelancing writes about the instability of freelance TV work: Bectu survey data, mortgages, mental health and practical tools. Posts are occasional (last October 2025).
- Costume
NOT SO NICHE (Megan Henry)
Megan Henry's newsletter on directing and costume, with a whole section on costume design: the process, the collaboration with the director, and the decisions that end up on screen.
Websites 4
- Feature Film Production Company
Filmmaker Magazine
The magazine of independent film in America: interviews with the people making films, and the 25 New Faces list every year.
- Writer
Sundance Collab
The Sundance Institute's learning platform: free and paid courses on writing, directing and producing, taught by the people who make the films.
DirectorDirectors Notes
UK-based site running since 2006 that premieres independent short films alongside a daily deep-dive interview with the director about how the film was made. Also a weekly newsletter (DN Weekly on Beehiiv).
- Director
Promonews
The UK music video magazine, edited by David Knight (also editorial director of the UK Music Video Awards): a new video reviewed almost every day, industry news, director profiles and features. A small-team publication rather than a personal blog.
Industry bodies 7
- Location Department
The Production Guild
Based at Pinewood Studios we represent and support those working in accounts, production, assistant directing, location management, post production and VFX.
- Director
Directors Guild Of Great Britain
The Directors Guild is a charitable foundation established for directors in all media.
- Director
Directors UK
Directors UK is the professional association of directors working with the moving image in the UK, with almost 6,000 members.
- Film Festival
Sheffield DocFest
The UK's leading documentary festival and market, held each June, with talent schemes including the Queer Realities Director's Lab and a Youth Jury for 18 to 23 year olds.
- Director
Doc Society
Non-profit backing independent documentary worldwide, running the BFI Doc Society Fund in the UK, the Impact Field Guide and a newsletter listing funds and fellowships.
- Director
The Whickers
Funding body for emerging, first-time documentary directors: a £120,000 Film & TV award, a podcast pitch with Sheffield DocFest, bursaries, and the annual Cost of Docs survey.
- Director
Scottish Documentary Institute
Charity supporting documentary makers: masterclasses (Brett Story and Stephen Maing, 21 Sep 2026), the Edinburgh Pitch, Bridging the Gap and other schemes for emerging filmmakers.
Editor 12
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for editor.
Two essential readsread these first
- Essential read
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing
A hundred pages on why a cut works, from the editor of Apocalypse Now: the rule of six, and what the blink of an eye has to do with it. The book every editor is handed.
- Essential read
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
A novelist in long conversation with a great editor about picture, sound and how a film finds its shape in the cutting room. The best account of what post is like from inside.
Then the rest of the shelf, 10 more.
Books 5
- Editing
Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures
Gain innovative solutions to common dialogue editing challenges such as room tone balancing, noise removal, perspective control, finding and using alternative takes.
- Editing
Concrete Wedding Cake
In "Concrete Wedding Cake", John Heath has written a concise, practical and clear approach to motion picture editing based on his over thirty years of editing, directing and producing.
- Editing
The Art of the Cut
The book is written primarily for those who wish to learn the basic principles of editing but who may also be filmmakers or close to the filmmaking process.
- Editing
Cutting Rhythems
While respecting the importance of intuitive flow in the cutting room, this book offers processes for understanding what editing intuition is and how to develop it.
- Editor
When the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins: A Film Editor's Story
An editor on the films he rescued in the cut, Annie Hall among them, and how badly a picture can be going when he gets it. Honest about the part of the job nobody advertises.
Blogs 4
- Editing
Jonny Elwyn
A London editor's site: tools, tutorials, and the best-organised set of links on editing and post anywhere. Look at his reading lists.
- Editing
Vashi Visuals
Editor Vashi Nedomansky on editing craft, with a lot of free tutorials and breakdowns of how famous scenes are cut.
- Editing
Cut/daily
Weekly Friday newsletter from UK film editor Jonny Elwyn (whose jonnyelwyn.co.uk we already list), read by 2,100+ post-production people, with a 400+ issue archive.
- Editor
Between Cuts
Substack by David Thomson, a London-based writer, director and editor who founded the games-trailer agency Fire Without Smoke and was Director of Trailers and Ads at Rockstar Games.
Websites none yet
Nothing on this shelf yet.
Writer 45
Books, blogs, websites and industry bodies for writer.
Three essential readsread these first
- Essential read
Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
The beat sheet the industry actually talks in: fifteen story beats and where they fall. Argue with it if you like, but you need to know it to sit in the room.
Essential readScreenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
The book that put three-act structure into everyday use, with the plot points and page counts a reader is unconsciously measuring your script against.
- Essential read
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
The long, serious one: what a scene is, what a turn is, and why a story works at all. Dense, argumentative and the reference most script editors have read.
Then the rest of the shelf, 42 more.
Books 19
- Casting
How Movies Work
How movies work provides a comprehensive consideration of movies from idea to script, casting, financing, shooting and distribution.
- Director
On Directing Film
A short, hard argument that directing is deciding which shots to cut together, not moving actors around. Taken from a class he taught, and it will change how you read a scene.
- Director
On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director
The teaching notes of the man who made The Ladykillers and then ran the film school at CalArts: what a director is really deciding, taught by someone who did both jobs well.
- Writer
The Anatomy of Story
Structure built from the character's moral argument rather than a template, worked through twenty-two steps. The counterweight to the beat sheet, and the harder book.
- Writer
Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them
Written by the man who ran BBC Drama: why every story has the shape it has, drawn from television as much as film. The best British book on structure.
- Writer
Adventures in the Screen Trade
A screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and All the President's Men on how the business really treats a script, and why "nobody knows anything". Funny, and truer than it is comfortable.
WriterWriting the TV Drama Series
How a drama series is written and run, from the pilot to the writers' room. The textbook on television writing.
WriterThe TV Writer's Workbook
Writing a spec episode of an existing series, step by step, from a writer who ran shows.
WriterWriting for Television
A British script editor and producer on how television drama gets written and commissioned here.
WriterThe Science of Storytelling
Why stories work on the brain, from a novelist who read the neuroscience. Structure from the other direction.
WriterThe Writer's Journey
Vogler's memo on the hero's journey, turned into the book most screenwriters have on the shelf. The structure Hollywood talks in.
WriterThe Hero with a Thousand Faces
Where the hero's journey came from: Campbell's study of myth, read by Lucas before Star Wars. Dense; the source.
WriterWriting Screenplays That Sell
Hauge's practical guide to writing a script the industry will buy: concept, character, structure and the pitch.
WriterThe Coffee Break Screenwriter
Writing a screenplay in the ten minutes you have, with exercises. For the person with a job and a script to finish.
WriterCrafty Screenwriting
A working screenwriter on the craft as it is actually judged: what makes a script readable, and what gets it passed on.
WriterThe Screenwriter's Bible
Format, structure, the business and the marketing of a script, in one reference. What a spec script must look like.
WriterYour Screenplay Sucks!
A hundred ways a script goes wrong, from a reader who has seen them all. Blunt, and useful before you send anything out.
WriterOn Writing
Stephen King on how he writes and how he learned to. Not about screenplays, and every screenwriter reads it.
WriterThe War of Art
On resistance - the thing that stops you writing - and how to beat it. Not about film; every writer has read it.
Blogs 16
WriterCinephilia & Beyond
Long reads on how great films were made, with the scripts, storyboards and documentaries gathered in one place. For the history.
- Writer
Film Courage
Thousands of interviews with working screenwriters, directors and producers, on video. Search by the question you have.
WriterJohn August
The screenwriter of Big Fish and Go on how scripts get written and sold, with twenty years of archive. The Scriptnotes podcast lives here too.
WriterScriptnotes
The podcast on screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, from John August and Craig Mazin. Six hundred episodes; start with the ones on structure.
- Writer
The Bitter Script Reader
A working script reader on what is wrong with the scripts they read, and what a coverage report actually says. The best guide to how your script is judged.
WriterDanny Stack
One-person blog by Irish-born UK screenwriter and director Danny Stack (children's TV, indie features, co-host of the old UK Scriptwriters podcast). Recent posts include My Life As A Script Reader and How I Got on TV.
- Writer
The Situation Room
Substack by James Cary, BBC sitcom writer (Bluestone 42, Miranda, Hut 33) and script editor, successor to his long-running Sitcom Geek blog. Weekly essays on the mechanics of comedy writing and the realities of getting a sitcom made.
WriterScript Apart
Newsletter and podcast by UK journalist and writer Al Horner in which screenwriters walk through their first drafts and what changed on the way to the screen. Podcast site at scriptapart.com; Substack carries the essays.
- Writer
Asante Space
Substack by Sarah Asante, 20 years in British TV including senior scripted development at the BBC and UKTV and the BBC's first Black comedy commissioner. Essays on how commissioners read scripts and pitches, and the vanishing script-reader route into TV writing.
WriterScript Advice
Articles by Yvonne Grace, UK TV drama producer and script editor (EastEnders, BBC, ITV) on writing for television: structuring a series, writing a pilot, pitching, the development path. Also a newsletter and a script-editing course.
- Film Finance
Stephen Follows
London-based data analyst Stephen Follows uses industry data to explain how film gets financed, made and sold, with frequent posts on screenplays, genres and what actually gets produced. Also on Substack (14,000-plus subscribers).
WriterStephen Gallagher
Personal blog of UK TV writer and novelist Stephen Gallagher (Doctor Who, Silent Witness, creator of Eleventh Hour, lead writer on Crusoe). A veteran's notebook: pitching a Dracula to the BBC that was cancelled on delivery day, sharing his Crusoe scripts, thoughts on AI and writing.
- Director
Outrun the Doubt: Adventures in the Micro-Budget Film World
Andrew David Barker, a British writer-director and novelist, charts his (mis)adventures in the lower levels of British independent film. His second feature, The House on Lidderman Street, was shot in eight days for under $50k and won Best Film at Glowflare in September 2026.
- Director
Ben Wheatley
The director of Kill List, Sightseers and Meg 2 writes a small personal Substack ('Film maker, writer'): idle thoughts on the future of cinema, BBC Arena docs, and making his film-and-TV fanzine.
- Creative Agency
Tone Knob
Nick Parker, a UK copywriter, writes a monthly Substack dissecting brands that do interesting things with language and tone of voice, with real examples pulled apart line by line.
- Feature Film Production Company
Claire Duffy (Handbag Studios)
Glasgow producer and writer building a scripted studio in public, posting several times a week on financing, Scottish stories and why-not-me persistence.
Websites 5
- Writer
Sundance Collab
The Sundance Institute's learning platform: free and paid courses on writing, directing and producing, taught by the people who make the films.
- Writer
Industrial Scripts
Script coverage and screenwriting courses from a company that has read for the industry since 2010, with the Character Driven blog alongside: the craft, the business and how readers actually judge a script.
- Writer
John Yorke Story
John Yorke's story training: online CPD courses on how stories work, for screenwriters and for anyone whose job depends on them, plus the articles. From the man who ran BBC Drama and wrote Into the Woods.
- Writer
Euroscript
An independent script development organisation, thirty years old: courses, workshops and mentoring for screenwriters, script feedback, and an annual story competition.
- Writer
Cover to Coverage
One-to-one courses on reading and scouting books for film and TV adaptation, by an industry insider: how to write the coverage a production company will act on. The way into development.
Industry bodies 2
- Writer
The writers Guild
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, poetry, animation and video games.
- Writer
Scribe Lounge
A free online community for UK screenwriters at every stage, from complete beginner up: showcase your work to the industry, meet other writers, and a paid tier with monthly industry AMAs and writing groups. It ran the Scribe Lounge Labs with BBC Writers.
