Workshops

Individuality and Career Development for Writers,
Directors & Producers

 

Friday 16th & Monday 26th March 2012

 

Introduction

The lives of writers, directors and producers are highly individual. No two are quite the same. It’s hard to apply the usual career-pattern criteria to creatives. This isn’t a bad thing, but it can make your own career-development assessments difficult. To be blunt, it’s often hard to know if you’re on your way up, on the way down, or just stuck.

This new and intensive short programme is devised by Shiona Llewellyn, author of Skillset’s ‘Career Handbook for TV, Radio, Film, Video and Interactive Media’. It proposes that self-knowledge and personal authenticity, properly understood and clearly presented in a strategic way, are the most powerful drivers for creative and professional advancement.

A unique combination of individual coaching and group workshops are designed to help you understand where you are, and how you can move yourself forward.

Shiona will provide tools for self-analysis, helping you to identify your strong and less-developed skills. The course will offer insights into the demands the industry makes of writers, directors and producers and match them with your own skill set, identifying areas for future development.

Shiona will guide each individual in devising strategies for self-presentation and self-promotion, including CV and credit list presentation, and contact and networking ideas.

 

Programme Structure:

  • Application & First Telephone Interview with Shiona (individual)
  • Workshop One at LFS (group)
  • Assignment & Second Telephone Interview with Shiona (individual)
  • Workshop Two at LFS (group)
  • Follow-up with Shiona (individual)

 

Application & First Telephone Interview

Applicants are asked to submit a CV and brief personal statement, after which Shiona will contact each applicant to arrange an informal telephone conversation. The aim is for Shiona to understand your current career situation, and to determine what you hope to gain from the course.

Suitable applicants will be invited to sign up for the course.

 

Workshop One at LFS – Friday 16th March

The aim of day one is to help you to build a ‘big picture’ of what you currently offer to the industry.

The Individual: Through work in pairs, interviews, brain-storms and feedback sessions, each individual will consider the following areas:

  • Skills – Different skill-types across the industry. Where there are your strengths and development needs?
  • Knowledge – Your life knowledge, as well as technical and film knowledge.
  • Experience – Evidence of productive and non-productive previous work. The sorts of people and tasks you find stimulating.
  • Interests – Evidence of non-work-based propensities.
  • Values – What is really important to you? Where, if anywhere, are you willing to compromise?
  • Aptitudes – What would you be good (or very good) at, with input? And which of these possible areas of development could be of real value to your career?
  • Aspirations – Working towards the articulation of a realistic career plan: 6 months / 1 year / 5 years.
  • Constraints – What are the barriers to your progress? Are they real? Are they temporary? Are they you?

The Industry: Next, a series of group exercises will define and explore:

  • The filmmaking process, including interfaces with different skills-groups.
  • Identification of roles, and how each touches a diversity of others.
  • How each role has a (usually unwritten) person specification.
  • Role and person specifications: how do you match? And how do you match up against the competition?

 

Assignment & Second Telephone Interview

To reflect on the first workshop, and to help you sort out your thoughts, Shiona will ask you to complete a number of ‘thinking exercises’ and questionnaires. You will edit and shape these into a short document, as a foundation for a half-hour telephone discussion with Shiona. At the end of the discussion you will decide together how to prepare for the second day at LFS.

 

Workshop Two at LFS – Monday 26th March

Day two is about applying all of this thinking in order to make things happen.

The Individual and the Industry: The 12 participants will divide into small observed groups to interview each other.

  • Verbal and non-verbal communication.
  • Guidelines for networking/informal encounters - Opportunities for personal marketing.
  • Becoming your own ‘Marketing Director’ - Identifying and satisfying industry needs with your ‘brand’.
  • How do executives make recruiting decisions?
  • A scenario-based exercise - How to negotiate a networking group, and present yourself as a desirable collaborator?
  • Raising your profile - A strategic armoury of ways to be noticed and remembered: direct and speculative approaches; industry groups; agents and personal marketers; strategic volunteering.
  • The devil in the detail - Letters, business cards, phone messages, letterheads.
  • Be the decision-maker: Scenario-based interview exercises and role-swapping. Everyone gets the experience of being the candidate, the interviewer and the observer.

 

Follow-up

After day two, each participant should finesse their CV, letters, business communications and career plan, and email them to Shiona for a short telephone consultation to discuss personal career strategy.

 

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Times: 10.30am-5.30pm
Capacity: Max. 12 participants
Fee: £400
10% Early Bird discount applicable to applications received before 10th Feb

How to apply


Please submit the following items (email applications preferred):

Once your application has been received you will be contacted by Shiona Llewllyn to arrange an initial telephone interview.

Once selected, you will then be provided with instructions for booking your place online.

Please Note:

Applications received before Fri 10th Feb will be processed by Tue 14th Feb.

Any applications received after Fri 10th Feb will be processed during week commencing Mon 5th Mar.

Email us:
Carolyn Atherton:
workshops@lfs.org.uk

Telephone us:
+44 (0)20 7836 9642