How To Become a Costume Assistant

How to become a Costume Assistant

What is a Costume Assistant?

A lot of film productions, depending on the genre and the setting, rely on their costume department for an accurate representation of the setting, period and story. For this reason, the department involves many different roles and a variety of tasks that need to be smoothly carried out during pre-production.

Costume Assistants take care of lots of smaller, daily, or last-minute tasks to help Costume Designers complete their job with the best possible result. This entry-level job is also the perfect way to kickstart a career in the Costume Department.

Costume Assistants help Costume Designers break down the script, in order to identify all the costumes needed by different characters throughout the story. They also assist in research into clothing styles, design and fabrication methods.

How To Become an Art Department Assistant

What is an Art Department Assistant?

Overseen by the Production Designer, the art department is responsible for the aesthetic choices of everything within a film. The roles are split between designing and selecting off-set, and those working on set. The art department is usually the largest on set.

How To Become a 3rd Assistant Director

How to become a Third Assistant Director

What is a Third Assistant Director?

The role of 3rd Assistant Director is one of the best ways to start your directing career. As a 3rd AD, you can be involved in a wide range of tasks but the main responsibility is to ensure that the first and second Assistant Directors are supported in every capacity. The most common duty of the 3rd AD is to coordinate the movements and direction of extras and maintain a clear channel of communication between cast and crew.

How To Become a Camera Trainee

What is a Camera Trainee?

Gaining work within a camera department can often be difficult considering that only experienced and established technicians are entrusted with the craft. However, junior roles with the camera department such as a Camera Trainee can provide an opportunity to gain experience whilst you’re learning the ropes. One of the positives about working as a Camera Trainee is that competent and able trainees are always in demand and considering it’s a key part of developing your skills, making a solitary mistake shouldn’t cost you your job in the early stages of working within the department.

How To Become a Sound Assistant

What is a Sound Assistant?

Although the hours are often long and fairly intensive, working within the sound department is a good opportunity to gain a foothold in an entry-level position within the industry. Working under the supervision of a good production sound mixer can be the perfect platform to gain practical experience whilst developing your craft as a sound recordist.

Amateur Wage as a Professional Slave?

The ongoing discussion on our Watercooler forum headed ‘Camera Person with Own Kit: £100’ gets to the heart of the worries of thousands of TV freelancers. At first reading, it looks as if the debate is about what is a fair rate for the job. In fact, the real subject is whether the team offering the work, and the people who apply to do it, are working within a professional industry, or one for amateur enthusiasts.

Let us be in no doubt that there is a professional television industry. A 2005 Film Council study noted that the UK’s total TV turnover was £13.4 billion in the previous year, and it has grown over the last four years. Skillset estimates that there are some 75,000 people whose livelihoods directly depend on that turnover for their income, which probably includes you and me.

Film and television-making is not a monopoly controlled by the professionals, any more than baking is controlled by Rank Hovis McDougall. You can bake cakes at home, or to sell at your tea shop but if you were employed to make Mr Kipling’s French Fancies, you would not expect to bake them in your home oven, and you would expect to be paid a sustainable rate in return for your employers’ intention to make a profit from them.

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