What you’ll learn
- Be able to say who actually hires on each track (coordinators, 2nd ADs and HoDs on production; office managers, heads of development and client services teams at the companies), where each looks, and why word of mouth fills most jobs on both before they are advertised.
- Know the honest timeline on each track (about two years to consistent paid work: credits earned by the day on production, placements measured in months plus interview cycles and notice periods at a company), the two reasons people quit, and what a plan and the 20-a-Day Challenge do about both.
- Know how entry-level pay works on each track (freelance day rates by BECTU and Pact budget band and APA guidance against salaried juniors, the National Minimum Wage, the London Living Wage and the rules on paying interns), where to check a figure, when unpaid work is legal, and what a survival job is for.
- Have read all twelve MFJF Survival Guides and the internships guide, know the key points of each, and have a contact list and a cold message of your own written for your track to the Three Ps.
- Have chosen a track or a date to choose by, have a dated plan with your own numbers in it, and have taken Sam'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.
How the industry hires, on both tracks
20 minThere are two ways into film, and they hire differently. Production (freelance crew and runners) is hired by busy people on a temporary production. Non-production (employed or interned at a company) is hired by companies that keep going after the film is over. This module is one read on each, built on the Survival Guide Where to Find Film Jobs in the UK, the site's runner-jobs blogs and the non-production careers guides.
- readHow production hires8 min
- readHow the companies hire8 min
- checkCheck: who hires on each track4 min
How long it takes, on each track
20 minThe honest timeline from the Survival Guide of that name, laid along both tracks: building credits as a freelancer, and internship to runner to assistant at a company, with its notice periods and interview cycles. Then the two tools the site gives you for the length of it, Get a Plan! and the 20-a-Day Challenge, adapted to each track.
- readTwo years, on average, on either track8 min
- readGet a Plan! and the 20-a-Day Challenge, on each track7 min
- checkCheck: the timeline and the plan5 min
What you get paid, on each track
20 minThe How much will I get paid? guide in full: crew day rates and the BECTU and PACT cards against salaried juniors at a company, the National Minimum Wage and the London Living Wage, the rules on internship pay, and how to tell a fair offer on either track. Then the survival job, the UK rule on unpaid work, and how you actually get paid as a freelancer and as an employee.
- readHow much will I get paid?9 min
- readThe survival job, unpaid work, and how each track pays you7 min
- checkCheck: pay, unpaid and survival on both tracks4 min
Getting past the wall, on both tracks
20 minThe things that stop people on either track: the CV Black Hole (a crew CV in a coordinator's stack, a company application in an inbox), the Experience Required Catch 22, the loneliness of doing it alone, and the habit of applying to everything. Six Survival Guides and blogs, and a task that starts your contact list.
- readThe CV Black Hole and the Catch 22: a crew CV against a company application8 min
- readAsk for help, build the network on set and in the office, stop applying to everything7 min
- taskTask: start the database and write the message5 min
Not blowing it: on set and in the office
20 minThe mistakes the site sees every week, then the two codes: set etiquette for the production track and office etiquette for the company track (the first week, email, discretion, and the intern who gets kept on), research as a habit, and what references mean here. Then the library for this course, with the company-side resources added, and a check.
- readCommon mistakes, set etiquette and office etiquette8 min
- resourcesThe library: do first to do later8 min
- checkCheck: mistakes, set etiquette and office etiquette4 min
Your plan: track, numbers, dates and the five statements
20 minThe planner asks you to choose a track (production, non-production, or not sure yet) and sizes the plan to it, turning Get a Plan! and the 20-a-Day Challenge into your own numbers and dates. Then a read on the five Stage 1 statements through what this course taught on both tracks, and a final check.
- plannerPlanner: your track, your plan, your twenty, your sixty days10 min
- readThe five statements, read through the 101 on both tracks6 min
- checkCheck: ready for Stage 24 min
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The career map
