Explainer 06
There is no single route in, which is bad news if you wanted a map and good news if the usual one was never open to you.
Seven routes are real and in regular use: trainee schemes, runner and entry grades, film school, apprenticeships, making your own work, crossing over from an adjacent trade, and lateral entry from a different career later in life.
Every one ends in the same place — somebody who knows what they are doing being willing to recommend you. They differ only in what they cost you, how long they take, and who they are realistically open to.
The sevenWhat each route costs, who it suits, and the odds
| Route | What it is | What it costs you | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trainee schemes | Structured entry into a craft, usually with a placement attached and a body standing behind you. | Usually free or paid; you pay in competition and travel. | The highest-value route by a distance, and the most competitive. Apply every time one opens. |
| Runner and entry grades | Production, floor or post runner, or a runner at a rental house or facility. | A low wage, and travel. It should never cost you nothing to be there. | The most common genuine first job. Where you run decides which department you end up in. |
| Film school and university | One to three years of structured teaching, equipment access, time and a group of people around you. | Fees and living costs, or a postgraduate loan. | Genuinely valuable for some crafts and close to irrelevant for others. Choose by department, not prospectus. |
| Apprenticeships | Paid employment with structured training, funded through the apprenticeship levy. | A lower wage while you train. | Rare in production because engagements are short, but real, growing and drastically under-applied for. |
| Making your own work | Your own material, or commercials, corporate, events and social content. | Kit, time, and a long stretch of being unimpressive. | Builds competence fast and works best combined with something else. In factual it is a career in itself. |
| Crossing over from a trade | Bringing an existing skill into the department that needs it. | Almost nothing, if you already hold the trade. | The most under-told route and often the fastest. You are changing sector, not starting at the bottom. |
| Lateral entry later in life | Joining in your thirties, forties or fifties from an unrelated career. | A pay cut for a period, and some humility. | Entirely normal below the line. Production, locations, accounts, transport and the standby crafts take experienced adults regularly. |
Route 01Trainee schemes, and what you are applying for
Hiring runs on recommendation, so a trainee scheme is a manufactured recommendation: an organisation with standing tells a head of department you are worth a place, and carries some of the risk of being wrong. That is the product. The training is the delivery mechanism.
Where to look
ScreenSkills, the BFI Film Academy, craft associations in camera, lighting, grip, sound and production, regional screen agencies, and the training pages of individual broadcasters and studios.
What they want to see
Not a showreel and not a degree. Evidence that you understand what the job is, that you will turn up, and that somebody has seen you behave professionally in a working environment.
How to be ready when one opens
A one-page CV, two people who will vouch for you, a clear answer to “why this department”, and one experience of a working unit that is not your own short film.
And apply repeatedly
Almost nobody gets the first scheme they apply for. The people who get in are frequently the ones who applied three times and got visibly better each time.
Route 02Four different runner jobs, leading to four different careers
| Where you run | What you do | Where it leads |
|---|---|---|
| Production office | Paperwork, distribution, travel, deliveries, keeping an office of stressed people functioning. | Production secretary, assistant coordinator, production coordinator, production manager, line producer. |
| The floor | Working to the assistant directors: cast, background artists, lock-ups, radios, and knowing where everybody is. | 3rd AD, 2nd AD, 1st AD — and a genuine route to directing for some. |
| Post house | Machine rooms, media, client service, and being in the building when somebody is needed at short notice. | Assistant editor, post coordinator, colour assistant, sound assistant, VFX runner. |
| Rental house or facility | Prep bays, kit checks, cleaning, loading, and meeting every camera department in the country. | Camera trainee and clapper loader (2nd AC) — one of the strongest camera routes there is, and the least publicised. |
Runner is not one job. It is the entry grade in four separate parts of the industry, and the one you take largely decides what you become.
Routes 03 and 04Study and apprenticeships, which are not interchangeable
Postgraduate film school
Small groups, serious equipment, time to fail, tutors with credits. Its greatest asset is the people: the ones you make work with become the ones who hire you for the next fifteen years.
Undergraduate degrees
Enormously variable. Ask one specific question before enrolling: which department does this course place people into, and how many, last year?
Apprenticeships
Paid employment with structured training, funded by the apprenticeship levy. Harder to run in an industry of short engagements, but real — particularly in post, VFX, production and broadcast — and consistently under-applied for.
No degree at all
Completely normal. A large share of working crew in every craft department entered without one, and no head of department has ever asked to see a certificate before a shooting day.
Route 06Crossing over: if you hold a trade, you are changing sector rather than starting again
| What you already do | Where it lands on a production |
|---|---|
| Electrician | Lighting — sparks, rigging electrician, eventually best boy and gaffer. A real electrical trade sits underneath the department. |
| Carpenter, joiner, plasterer, painter, metalworker | Construction and the standby crafts. The largest crew on most productions, and persistently short of people. |
| Rigger or scaffolder | Rigging, grip and lighting rigging. Working at height and load safety transfer directly. |
| Hairdresser or beauty therapist | Hair and make-up, including prosthetics and period work. |
| Tailor, seamstress, dressmaker or costumier | Costume — making, breaking down, altering and standing by. |
| Chef or catering manager | Unit catering. Feeding a hundred and fifty people on time in a field is a specialism of its own. |
| Driver with the right licence | Unit and facilities driving, action vehicles, and transport coordination. |
| Accountant or bookkeeper | Production accounts, one of the hardest departments in the country to staff. |
| Project, event or logistics manager | Production office and locations. Permits, neighbours, schedules and people who all want the same hour. |
| IT, data or systems | Digital imaging technician, data wrangling, media management and post infrastructure. |
| Software, 3D or games | Visual effects, virtual production and the technical side of post. |
The most under-told route into the screen industries and frequently the fastest. Productions need qualified trades constantly, and the departments that employ them are the largest on any unit. What you lack is not skill. It is knowledge of how a set works, and one person willing to recommend you.
Crew at the camera on a dark stage
This month
Four things, none of which require anybody’s permission.
01
Choose a department, provisionally
Not a job title for life. A direction, so your next choice can be deliberate rather than whatever appeared first.
02
Learn the language and the shape of a day
The vocabulary and the chain of command are the two cheapest barriers to remove on this whole site, and both take an afternoon.
03
Get onto one working unit in any capacity
A simulation, a student shoot, a community film, a workshop day with real crew. One experience of a real chain of command changes how you talk about the work.
04
Put yourself on the lists and apply to everything open
Craft associations, crew directories, every trainee scheme you are eligible for, and the entry grades at rental houses and post facilities.
Next
Start from the grade, not from the job title you have heard of.
The Careers A–Z takes every department apart into grades and tells you what each one does, what it is paid to be good at, and every route into it. If cost is the thing standing in your way, say so first rather than last.
