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Directors · Stage 1

Director's Assistant

The desk outside the director's door: the diary, the script, the car and the confidence.

A director's assistant keeps one director's diary, script, notes and travel in order on a feature or high-end series. It is not an assistant director's job and is rarely advertised. What the job contains, how people really get it, what your Stage 1 CV should say, and a written plan to reach Stage 2.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Say plainly what a director's assistant is and is not, where the job exists, who hires for it and who you answer to, and describe a prep day and a shooting day hour by hour.
  • Know the twelve skills a director is really hiring for and how to get each one now, the documents, tools and phrases to be fluent in, and have scored yourself against them.
  • Have found three real routes to experience this month and know the rules on pay, unpaid work, tax, confidentiality, hours and driving that apply to them.
  • Have a Stage 1 CV outline with the right title on it, a covering email, and a way of approaching coordinators and assistants that does not annoy them.
  • Have a saved plan from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 statements honestly.

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 director

20 min

What a director's assistant is and, first, what it is not; where the job exists; the director's year seen from your desk; and what a prep day and a shooting day actually contain.

  1. readNot an assistant director: what a director's assistant actually is8 min
  2. readThe director's day, and yours, hour by hour8 min
  3. checkCheck: the role and the director4 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, paperwork and knowledge

20 min

The twelve skills a director is actually hiring for and how to get each one before you have a credit; the documents, tools and phrases to be fluent in; and an honest audit of where you stand.

  1. readThe twelve skills a director is hiring for, and how to get each one now7 min
  2. readPaperwork, tools, phrases and the ten tips7 min
  3. taskTask: your skills audit, with a score6 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

Where this job really comes from when it is almost never advertised, the seven routes that lead to it, the rules on pay, unpaid work, tax, confidentiality, hours and driving, and a task to find three routes this month.

  1. readWhere the job really comes from: seven routes8 min
  2. readThe rules: pay, unpaid work, tax, the NDA, hours and driving6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes this month6 min
Module 4

Your CV, covering email and first approaches

20 min

Why the title on this CV is the hard part, what a Stage 1 CV for this career contains and leaves out, the covering email that gets read, how to approach coordinators and assistants without annoying them, and what a reference means here.

  1. readYour Stage 1 CV, your covering email, and how to approach the people who hire8 min
  2. taskTask: draft your Stage 1 CV outline8 min
  3. checkCheck: CVs, emails and approaches4 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

The wider map: everyone on the other end of the director's phone, the ladder and the site's three-year plan, where else the same skills get you hired, and what the people in the case studies actually did.

  1. readThe industry around the director's desk8 min
  2. resourcesThe director's assistant's library8 min
  3. checkCheck: the industry around the role4 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Turn everything you have produced into a saved plan, then check yourself honestly against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements and decide what you do next on the site.

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

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Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Directors. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to.

  1. Find your role on the career mapEvery entry-level job by department, and where each one leads.
  2. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  3. Speak to an MFJF mentorAsk someone who does the job what they wish they had known.
  4. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.
  5. Industry ResourcesCareer guides, CV advice and example CVs for every department.
  6. See what entry-level jobs ask forThe job board, updated daily: read the ads before you apply.

Matching Directors right now

Live from the job board, the Academy, the mentor programme, the film-course directory and the reading list.

MFJF Academy workshops

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MFJF mentors

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Film courses

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Reading and links

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