My background is stills production assistant / co-ordinator. Looking to make the move into factual tv / documentary. Does anyone have any advice?
Documentary Production Assistant
by Georgina Orpin on 9th Jun 2020 Answers
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Start shooting some video content and build a video portfolio.
Show that you can tell a story with motion picture.
Learn how to shoot for the edit.
And like everyone else, contact as many people as you can, offer to shadow for a day (but don't work for free or allow yourself to be exploited).
Maybe you could find a subject matter that you are passionate about. It can be literally anything - and make a short documentary about it (10-15mins). It doesn't have to be a groundbreaking story, but if you can demonstrate that you know how to produce a a short doc, with interviews, b roll, sequences, narrative structure etc, that will put you in a good place to move forward and get noticed by people who make docs and hopefully onto a bigger and better things.
Good luck!
Adding to Riaz's very good advice, you should check out The TV Watercooler for helpful guides and advice. The famous Runners Bible was complied from industry experts and it is full of useful tips that will serve you well at the beginning and throughout your career. In factual and documentaries, we don't have production assistants but we do have runners (and yes, many of them have gone to film school) who then progress to researchers.
Thanks for everyones help!
Having your own portfolio is a good idea, but not always much use when going for entry-level jobs in broadcast TV.
You need to decide two things: What you want to do AFTER you get your first break and what kind of shows you want to work on (Science? Arts? Ob-doc? Journalism?). With your experience you could probably step straight into production co-ordinator roles, which will set you on a Production Management career track. You could also probably step into a job at a kit-hire company or post-production house, which are both one step removed from the production coal-face (but if editing - or kit - is your thing there are good jobs to be had there).
If you want to move into editorial roles (e.g. researcher, AP, Producer) you can side-step from co-ordinator into researcher jobs or start at the bottom as a runner. In either case, watch shows you love and want to work on, find out who made them and then find out who to approach for entry-level or production management jobs at those companies. Then fire off your CV! Then follow up a week later to see if they read your CV and ask for a meeting.
Expect many un-returned emails, but don’t loose heart or give up - it’s a case of catching the right person’s eye at the moment they need someone.