1.1 - Outline the Culture of the film industry

What do you know about the working culture of the film industry?
Culture is defined as the ideas, customs, values, behaviors, beliefs and attitudes shared by a group of people who are working towards a common goal. This requires extremely effective team with working skills for everyone concerned. There must be a very clear goal for the film, which is to produce the best film that can be made, within timescales and budgets.  This can encourage people with specific roles to work with others so that can complete their deadlines that have been set. This can produce lots of high pressure as there will be lots of long hours involved, so ways of dealing with stress are important to consider. Usually, if a film is taking place in a location which is not on the film company premises, everyone will be expected to have the flexibility to just drop everything at a moments notice, which in itself is stressful.

Whilst on this course I got to work in a team for many situations, discussing what we thought could and should happen.The film industry as a whole is a very fluid industry to work in as although deadlines have to be met and production costs have to be carefully worked around there is still room for artistic license and flexibility in timetabling is needed to account for people working on various projects at the same time.

The teamwork aspect is very important as many people in the industry work long hours and under extreme pressure to meet the deadlines. Freelance work is the most common and contracts are generally short term in nature with everyone needing to be able to try their hand at a number of different roles to get the job done on time. This leads to the workforce being extremely well trained in the long term  and able to do many types of work but can mean that staff work long hours  as well as being asked to travel all over the world sometimes at a moments notice. This can lead to a difficult home life balance  and can make things very stressful for both home and work relationships.

What qualities do you need to work in the film industry?

To survive in the industry you need to show initiative from the start and not be afraid to muck in help when needed. Getting along with people is a skill that is often underrated but being able to work under pressure whilst still being able to communicate effectively is very important especially in a small team. You also need to be very determined and even if you are insure of quite what you are doing you need to sound positive and be confident in your own ability to learn things as quickly as possible. It also needs someone who will be willing to ask for help if they are unsure about what to do as some things could be very dangerous or costly if they are done incorrectly; you also need to be prepared to fail and to learn from your mistakes. Time management is a major plus as keeping positive and meeting deadlines requires good organisational skills.