Join Now For Free
Art Department · Stage 1

Art Department Assistant

The biggest department on the floor and the one that builds the world: get into the art department and earn your place in it.

The art department designs, builds, dresses and strikes everything in front of the camera, and it has more ways in than any other department. How it really works, the skills and language to arrive with, where Stage 1 experience comes from, the CV and portfolio that get you seen, and a plan.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

Go PRO to access this courseEvery lesson and resource in Foundations comes with MFJF PRO. Already PRO? Sign in

What you’ll learn

  • Know how the art department is structured across design, set decoration and construction, who you answer to, and what an assistant's day actually contains.
  • You will have a scored skills audit and a plan to fix the two gaps a coordinator would notice first, including technical drawing, SketchUp, Vectorworks and Photoshop.
  • You will have found three real routes to experience this month, including the scenery and prop houses most beginners overlook, and you will know the rules on pay, unpaid work, the union and safety.
  • You will have a one-page Stage 1 CV outline built beside the site's example, a portfolio plan, and a way of approaching coordinators and art directors that does not annoy them.
  • You will have a saved plan and be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 exit statements honestly, knowing what to do next: a mentor session, an Academy workshop and the HotList.

Where this leads

By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.

Finish the course and you can build your personal plan: MFJF's three-stage planner for this role, ticked from Your Profile and your CV, with dated next steps and the CV line each one becomes.

Module 1

The role and the department

20 min

What the art department actually does from the first sketch to the last truck out, who is in it, and what an assistant's day contains hour by hour.

  1. readWhat the art department does, from first sketch to last wrap8 min
  2. readWho is in it, who you answer to, and what your day actually contains8 min
  3. checkCheck: the department and the day4 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, software and the language

20 min

The skills art departments hire for and how to get each one now, the software and paperwork to be fluent in, the jargon, and the ten things every new assistant is told.

  1. readThe skills the department hires for, and how to get each one now7 min
  2. readSoftware, paperwork, jargon and the ten things every assistant is told6 min
  3. taskTask: your art department skills audit7 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

Where art department experience really comes from, including the scenery and prop houses most beginners overlook, and the rules on pay, unpaid work, the union and safety.

  1. readWhere art department experience really comes from7 min
  2. readThe rules: pay, hours, unpaid work, the union and staying safe6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes this month7 min
Module 4

Your CV, your portfolio and your first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 art department CV contains and leaves out, the portfolio that goes with it, the cover email, how to approach people without annoying them, and what a reference means here.

  1. readYour Stage 1 CV, your portfolio, and how to approach people8 min
  2. taskTask: draft your Stage 1 CV outline8 min
  3. checkCheck: CV, portfolio and approaches4 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

The wider map: studios, hire houses, the guild and the union, the career path and the site's three-year plan, where else the same skills get hired, and what the people in the case studies did.

  1. readThe wider map: studios, suppliers, the guild and where the path leads7 min
  2. resourcesThe art department library8 min
  3. checkCheck: the industry around the role5 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Your plan, saved: the role, the branch, the three routes, the skills to fix and the first approaches. Then the five statements that tell you that you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF.

  1. plannerYour art department plan10 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 26 min
  3. checkCheck: ready for Stage 2?4 min
MFJF PRO

Unlock this course with PRO

Go PRO to open every lesson and resource in this course, and in every other Foundations course.

Go PRO to access this courseAlready PRO? Sign in

Sources and references

Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.

What this course was written from

Every link checked 19 September 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Art Department. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: Art DepartmentTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. The career planner: Art DepartmentWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Art DepartmentThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

Matching Art Department right now

Live from the job board, the mentor programme, the Industry Essentials, the film course directory, Industry News and the competitions open now.

All jobs →
All mentors →
All Industry Essentials →
All film courses →
All Community Blog posts →
All trainee schemes →
All competitions →