Six residents from Charter Housing got the chance to spend a week on a film set learning new skills. Bron Lloyd explains how it came about
Charter has been working with Ffilm Cymru on a project called ‘Cinema Without Walls’. The two principal aims are to increase social interaction and provide access to arts and cultural experiences to disadvantaged communities though film and to inspire and provide employment opportunities in the fast growing film industry in Wales.
As a result of this partnership, six Charter residents were able to participate the Ffilm Cymru initiative called ‘Foot in the Door’. They got the opportunity to spend a week learning valuable new skills and to experience a live film set on The Raid film director Gareth Evans’ new film Apostle starring Michael Sheen and Dan Stevens on location in South Wales.
Before going on set, they undertook a five-day film training course led by industry experts, introducing them to the various roles and responsibilities on set. With the guidance of individual mentors and industry experts, participants then spent a week with the production. From costume to construction, and design to administration, a film set presents a wealth of transferable skills that can launch a career in the creative sectors and be relevant to careers in other areas.
Funding for childcare and travel was provided by Charter Housing and Creative Skillset, costs that may otherwise have proven to be a barrier for them.
Feedback from the mentors over the course of the week was amazing. They were impressed by the commitment and ability of the participants and learned much about the barriers that many people face in getting into work. This mutually beneficial experience engendered considerable respect on both sides.
The increase in confidence shown by the participants over the course of the week was visible and two of the participants were invited back for further work on the set the following week.
A follow-up session focussed on how to market themselves in this largely freelance world and the contacts they made during the project will help them both in the creative industries and the wider world of work.
Already one of the participants has used this new found confidence to gain a good job in a large local hotel.
One of the participants, Alex Simpson, said: ‘People like us don’t get opportunities like this….everything you’ve (Charter) done we want to say thank you… we’ve developed from situations that didn’t look so great and now the future looks a little bit brighter.’
Other tenants continued to be engaged with the Charter employability team to get additional training to overcome the barriers to work identified during the shoot.
Providing our tenants with a project that appeals to all ages and interests and introduces them to a sector that they would not think was within their reach is very exciting with long-term benefits for both our tenants and the film sector here in Wales.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Foot in the Door project is led by Ffilm Cymru Wales and creative industry consultancy Our Cola, which are working in partnership with US production and worldwide sales company XYZ Films and Welsh production company Severn Screen. It is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund under its Innovation Pilot programme, with BFI’s Film Forever National Lottery funds.
Ffilm Cymru Wales’ chief executive Pauline Burt explained the rationale behind setting the programme: ‘We wanted to help build the capacity of the sector, which is experiencing real growth, in a way that enabled people from any background to be able to quite literally get a foot in the door and to be guided and supported in that process.
‘We’re committed to making the film sector more accessible and inclusive – and that needs practical and scalable solutions, particularly when dealing with the challenges that new entrants can face in a largely freelance environment that depends on availability and connections – so childcare, transport and networking are built in.’
Bron Lloyd is director of community regeneration at Charter Housing