Web Presence: ‘LinkedIn’ Page and Jess Woodcock Design Portfolio
I created a ‘LinkedIn’ page for people to find me if I go self- employed when I finish my degree. I have contacted a few people already through ‘LinkedIn’ and I have found it very easy to use and easy to contact people. They have contacted me back using my new email address that I have put up on my page in my contact details.
When I get my first job, I will change my title from ‘Studying at Birmingham City University’ to whatever my job title will be so if people want to try and find an ‘art director’ or ‘set designer’, then hopefully my profile will come up.
I have created a blog showing a portfolio of all the design work I have done through out the course studying Theatre, Performance and Event Design. I have also included the work experience that I have done over the past few years. I have linked my blog to my CV and my LinkedIn page for possible future employers to have a look at.
http://jesswoodcock21.wordpress.com
Business Card
Curriculum Vitae
Prop Maker and Set Designer
This set designer is a distant relative from mine. My uncle told me that he works in the stage and set industry and is currently working for a Theatre Company called, Bakehouse Factory.
I found him on LinkenIn and sent him a message telling him who I was and whether I would be able to have his email address for me to ask him a few questions about what he actually does in the theatre company and generally about working in the stage and set industry.
The email I sent:
Dear Dan,
My uncle is your stepdad’s brother and he has passed on your details to me as he told me that you work within the stage and set industry currently working for a Theatre Company called, Bakehouse Factory.
I am due to graduate this year having completed a degree in Theatre, Performance and Event Design. One of my final projects for my degree is to research potential future employers and find out more about the industry that I am hoping to work in. I would be very grateful if you could answer these questions:
– Please could you tell me briefly about your background and how you progressed to your current role?
– Would you be able to forward any contact details to me of set designers who I could contact?
– When applying for a job, what personal qualities do you think one should have to be a set designer in the theatre industry?
– Have you found that you have got jobs from word of mouth rather than answering job advertisements?
– Is there any possibility of having work experience with you at some point?
Thank you ever so much for your time. If there is any other advice you can offer me, that would be great!
Jess Woodcock
The Movie Industry Networking and Jobs Page for the UK
My friend’s, friend from home is wanting to become a Production Runner and is trying to make contacts herself. I told her about wanting to be working in the Art Department for Film or TV and so she added my on the social network, Facebook and added me to a group she knows about called, ‘The Movie Industry Networking and Jobs Page for the UK’.
She said; ‘The guy who made the group is trying to make it bigger and the main group for jobs in the UK. Don’t know if it will work but he’s put a few new productions up there already (not to sure what to do with that info though) but never know if anything comes of it!’
So I am going to keep an eye out for anything that might crop up!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/402751219811819/409277265825881/?notif_t=group_activity
I posted this on the page so that people know who I am and what I am looking for:
‘I have experience working as an Art Department Runner and have recently just had experience working in the Art Department for a BBC1 TV Drama. I am looking to have a job in the Art Department for Film or TV. If you have any more work for me, please let me know!’
Chris (Producer for Film and TV)
My friend told me that he has a relative that works in Film and TV as a producer. My friend also told me that he has made a music video for his wife as she is a singer.
Ashley gave me his email address so I would be able to contact him in asking him about what he does and whether he knows any set designers that I could talk to
His IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4200085/
31/01/2013
Hi,
I am good friend’s with Neil’s son, Ashley. Ashley was the one that gave me your email address so I could contact you as he told me that you have produced work seen on many television networks.
I am due to gradate this year having completed a degree in Theatre, Performance and Event Design. One of my final projects for my degree is to research potential future employers and find out more about the industry that I am hoping to work in. I would be very grateful if you could answer a few questions:
– Please could you tell me briefly about your background and how you progressed to your current role?
– Do you ever work with set designers? If so, would you be able to forward any contact details to me?
– When applying for a job, what personal qualities do you think one should have to be working in the TV/Film industry?
– Have you found that you have got jobs from word of mouth rather than answering job advertisements?
Thank you ever so much for your time. If there is any other advice you can give me, that would be great!
Jess Woodcock
Rebecca (Events Manager)
Rebecca’s son goes to the school where my mum works and so she gets to talk to a lot of people and finds out what they do etc. She told me that I should speak to a woman called Rebecca as she is an Events Manager. My mum talked to her about me thinking about wanting to become an Events Manager after I have finished my degree and my mum asked if I could have her email for me to be able to ask her a few questions about the events manager role.
31/01/2013
I sent her this email:
Hello Rebecca,
My mum, Sarah works at school and she has given me your email address.
I am due to graduate this year having completed a degree in Theatre, Performance and Event Design. One of my final projects for my degree is to research potential future employers and find out more about the industry that I am hoping to work in. At the moment I am thinking of two different careers, one as an Events Manager and one as a set/production designer or art director. I would be very grateful if you could answer these questions:1. Please could you tell me briefly about your background and how you progressed to your current role?
2. Would you be able to forward any contact details to me of production designers who I could contact?
3. When applying for a job as an Events Manager, what personal qualities does one need?
2. Would you be able to forward any contact details to me of production designers who I could contact?
3. When applying for a job as an Events Manager, what personal qualities does one need?
4. Is there any possibility of having any work experience with you at some point?
Thank you ever so much for your time. If there is any other advice you can offer me, that would be great!
Jess Woodcock
06/02/2013
Hi Jessica,
Thank you for your email. I will admit to falling in to my roles over the years and via more luck than judgement J
My Post Graduate Degree was in Marketing ! Event planning happened via the companies that I worked with. I lived in Singapore for three years and worked with a Financial Consulting company, I offered to run their staff and client events when the opportunity came up. When I lived in San Francisco I applied for many, many positions and it took 6 months to find a job that actually didn’t sound appealing initially, but knew I needed to start from the beginning as I didn’t have any US experience at all. MCJ Consulting are based in the Bay Area and ran medical education meetings and events. Michele Johnson is the Managing Director and owner of the business and would be more than happy to give you some advice for expertise that she would be looking for, especially in a graduate. The online registration system and associate membership projects were really useful experiences that I did not gain qualifications for. However, Marketing will play a big part in any Event role as you need people to attend the event, buy in to the event, register etc. I think it all depends which area of Event production/management you would prefer.
I will discuss work experience opportunities with the business owners here and let you know. We are running several festivals this year, but we are a security and training company and the events are on top of what we provide. Many events require security now which is why we moved in to the business.
If you would like to talk to someone at the hotel I can get you names, but I am very far removed from their events team now and do very little hours for them. You will need to write to their HR team first and then the Banquets and Sales team as well. I will see what information I can get. The Guest Relations Manager, Maxine McDonnell is also a huge help, if you mention that I put you on to her she can then forward your email or letter to the relevant team.
Ben at ‘Producktions’ is a graduate from Tech, he runs his own production company now and will help. I will send him a note on your behalf.
I will send more details to you as soon as possible. Many thanks, Rebecca
Kind Regards
Rebecca
Set Designer – Tony
Me and my family used to watch plays and comedies at a small theatre near Reading. I remember the stage sets inspired me as I liked how the designers made use of the small space. I remember a set that had two different styled houses on the same small stage to represent two locations.
I contacted the theatre by sending them an email asking if I were able to send some questions to the set designer (Tony). He designs most of the stage sets there and I want to find out more information about how he got started as a set designer and whether he can offer me some work experience.
31/01/2013
I got a message back from Tony:
Hello Jess
Thank you for your email i would be happy to have a chat with you, my number is ……
Tony
04/01/2013
I spoke to him on the phone asking him questions and this is what he said:
Me: Could you tell me briefly about your background and how you progressed to your current role?
He told he graduated from a speech and drama school about eight or nine years ago and also did a degree course in scenic art. He had previously done some work experience at the theatre with his cousin who used to paint there and he always knew he wanted to work in the theatre industry. He had written his dissertation on someone that privately runs theatres and so he already had this persons contact and so they already knew of him. When Tony graduated, he was lucky enough to get an interview on the basis that their painter at the time had left and so he got the job. With the painting job, there was also some design work that came with it too and he told me that he had done about twenty set designs there. He designed about two or three set designs a year and painted the sets for every show. Tony is thirty one years old and he has done a bit of free lancing when the sets are being built to try and get some more work including non theatre work. He has recently just worked on the paralympic games where he was helping out with the opening ceremony for a couple of days with painting the big kite that they had and he said it was an experience and a very good job.
Me: When applying for a job in the industry, what personal qualities do you think one should have to be a set designer in theatre?
He said he is classed as a set designer himself but mainly as a scenic painter. He told me to just be your self and show initiative and that your willing to work hard. He said that when you are knew in the industry it would be good to get like an internship. His girlfriend works for the RSC and is a stage manager and he know that they do internships with people that are wanting to work in the industry and they would work with a designer for a year and get paid a little amount to gain more experience and knowledge about the designer role. He said it is a way of getting yourself known with quite high up people and designers. He told me to phone up some professional designers to see if they need assistance by making models. He said that you might not earn much money for that year when doing this but in the long run, you can benefit from just that one years work for the rest of your life. Tony said that I am more than welcome to come over to the theatre and have a look at what they do. He said that it isn’t easy trying to find a job in this sort of industry and the fact that he was just very lucky to find design work and that when your a young designer you just have to start doing unpaid work. Tony said that it would be good to get to know directors as those would be the ones that you would work with as a designer and they would be able to get you work. He said one thing that I can do that he has been thinking about doing himself is getting a design agent like how an actor has an agent. For example, an experienced designer might need help and so they would call up a not so experienced designer to help them with their work under a small budget. He said it would be good to search for design agents on the internet to have a look at the kind of thing he means.
Me: Have you found that you have got jobs from work of mouth rather than answering jobs from advertisements?
Tony said that jobs in this industry all come from word of mouth and he suggested that I should look in The Stage magazine as they have got job adverts that come up every week in there such as painting jobs, acting jobs, design jobs etc and he said that it is definitely worth having a look at that. Tony said that he gets most of his work through the theatre but he said if I am really hungry to do it then you will just keep phoning people to see if they have any work for you. He said to expect a lot of knock backs but if you are really passionate about what you want to do, then you will do whatever it takes by searching for pantomimes to see if you can get in touch with any designers that might need assistance. He said that when you start off in the industry, you would not be earning that much money but then gradually you will get to where you want to be and then you will start charging the proper amount. He said that If I am interested in painting then there are many pantomimes around the country, you can still get good work experience and you can put this on your CV as this will look good. He said that when your young is the time to do lots of work experience to boost your CV before you get a mortgage and stuff like that. Tony said that he wished while he was at uni that he’d done more work experience rather than just starting to look as you leave. He said while you are a student, it would be good to get involved with anything you can. Tony told me that it would be good to get a business card done so I would be able to pass this on to the people that I have worked with in the past so they would remember who I am for the possibility of future work.
Tony said that he sometimes gets the odd set where he needs an extra pair of hands to help and he said he pays for people to come and help him so he said that he would definitely consider me for that and he would give me a call when he does need someone!
He also told me to get to know young directors and try and work with them as much as possible so in the future, they will remember you and might ask you to work with them for a theatre show etc. He said for example, that the director might end up doing really well for themselves and then if your working with them, then you might do really well too.
He said that if I ever wanted to come and do some work experience at the theatre by looking at what they do or work with the stage manager for a day or two and see the costume department etc then I should contact him when I have finished my degree. He said we will try and arrange a date for to come down when a show is setting up.
TV/Film production companies in New Zealand
I searched ‘TV production companies in New Zealand’ on a search engine and the first link I went on was mandy.com:
This webpage I found shows a list of producers and production companies based in New Zealand with information about the company and a link to their website. This will help me to start emailing a few companies asking questions about what they do and to find out if they would employ someone with my degree.
http://www.golem.co.nz/showreel.htm
When searching on the internet for TV companies in New Zealand, I came across this website that gives information about the film and TV industry in New Zealand. This particular page is about working in the creative side of film and TV and has information about the art departments in the country:
http://www.filmnz.com/production-guide/creative.html
When looking over this website, I found that there is a link to ‘The Date Book’ which is New Zealand’s film and television industry directory. You are able to search people and their specific roles in the industry to get in contact with them. For example, Script Writers, Production Designers, Art Directors, Directors, Producers etc.
I found another useful link from this website;
CREWTV is a ‘community, a network – a collective’. It is a network for freelancers working for film and television that want to find work by looking for people that they have already worked with that is on the network to ask them about more jobs. This website is like ‘LinkenIn’ but this is generally for people in that working industry.
The Email I sent out to the production companies:
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to ask for your help. I am a third year student studying Theatre, Performance and Event design at university and I will be looking for employment later in the year. One of my final projects for my degree is to research potential future employers and find out more about the film and television industry that I am hoping to work in. I am thinking about maybe moving to New Zealand as my boyfriend has been offered a job here and so I will be looking for a job too. I will be very grateful if you could spend a bit of your time to answer the following questions:
Do you employ people with my qualification? If so, for what sort of job?
What do you look for in a potential candidate?
Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.
Jessica Woodcock
05/02/2013
Reply from: http://www.golem.co.nz
Dear Jessica: Thanks for your enquiry. Here in New Zealand, 99% of media production businesses operate similar way as I do: sole operator. From time to time we contract other people, depending on skills we need to finalise job for our client. In general, market is very small and even bigger players such as TVNZ don't employ many people. Also, recession influenced the business and many people from the industry left the business. That is the reality. But you never know... Feel free to contact me when you will be in this coutry. Kind regards Ilja Ruppeldt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8da1gn5JEA
Professional Studies Blog 