What you’ll learn
- Explain what the exhibition sector does, name the UK's main festivals and cinema networks and describe a festival year from the call for entries to the debrief.
- Know a festival assistant's nine jobs, a pre-festival day and a festival day hour by hour, the language of the office (DCP, KDM, holds, run sheets, premiere status) and how to score yourself against the ten skills a producer hires for.
- Know where experience really comes from for this role, including festival volunteering, cinema front of house, viewing, community cinema and the ICO's training, and what the law says about volunteering and unpaid work.
- Have a scored skills audit, three routes into the sector this month, a Stage 1 CV outline built against MFJF's template and a plan, saved to your account, to bring to an MFJF mentor.
- Be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 statements honestly and know what to do next on the site.
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.
The role, the festivals and the cinemas
20 minWhat exhibition is, who runs the UK's festivals and cinemas, where the money comes from, how a festival year works, and what an assistant does before and during the event.
- readFestivals and cinemas: the map, the money and who is in the office9 min
- readThe festival year, the assistant's nine jobs and a week in a cinema8 min
- checkCheck: the sector and the assistant3 min
Before day one: skills, tech and the language
20 minThe ten skills a festival producer or cinema manager hires for and how to get each one this month, the words you will hear in week one, and a scored audit of where you stand.
- readThe ten skills that get you hired, and how to get each one now7 min
- readThe language of the festival office and the ten tips6 min
- taskTask: score yourself against the festival skills list7 min
Getting experience at Stage 1
20 minThe two classic first steps and five more routes that need no contacts, then the rules on contracts, volunteering, pay, hours, safety and personal data that go with them.
- readWhere experience really comes from for this role7 min
- readThe rules: contracts, volunteering, pay, hours and looking after yourself7 min
- taskTask: find three routes into festivals and cinemas this month6 min
Your CV, cover letter and first approaches
20 minWhat a Stage 1 CV for this role says and leaves out, the four-paragraph cover letter, how to approach festival and cinema people without annoying them, and what a reference means in a sector this small.
- readThe Stage 1 festival CV, the cover letter and the approach7 min
- taskTask: draft your Stage 1 CV outline7 min
- checkCheck: the CV and the approach6 min
The industry around the role
20 minWho is on the other end of a festival office's emails, the international calendar, the path from assistant to producer or programmer, where else the skills get you hired, and the library for this course.
- readThe wider map, the path upwards and the people who walked it7 min
- resourcesThe library for this course8 min
- checkCheck: the map and the path5 min
Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2
20 minYour plan, saved to your account: the role, the routes, the skills, the approaches and a review date. Then the five statements that tell you when you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF.
- plannerPlanner: my route into festivals and cinemas9 min
- readHow you know you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF7 min
- checkCheck: ready for Stage 2?4 min
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