“This course means everything. It was because of this course that I was employed by Timeline TV and work on productions at BBC Sport.” Byron Mondahl credits a ScreenSkills course for kickstarting his career in unscripted TV. Having studied documentary filmmaking at masters level, his transition from student to practitioner was a swift one, having applied to take part in an edit assistant/technical operator training programme after his lecturer reposted it on their LinkedIn.
The programme, developed by the Unscripted TV Skills Fund and delivered by The Pipeline, was designed to build the technical, creative, professional and personal skills needed for the roles of edit assistant and technical operators across the UK.
The focus on learning the role's essential framework and language proved particularly useful for Byron. He said: “Some of the highlights were learning practical skills in the edit process but I think most important was getting a sense of the glossary of the job, learning the lingo. Developing an understanding of shared terms because without that you can’t even understand the different systems that other have in their working lives. The BBC edits differently to an edit in an independent production company. But the lingo remains the same. This was invaluable for my growing confidence. There was ton of things to learn after the course in real work scenarios but it gave me an in. A foot in the door.”
Following the course, Byron received a placement as part of the programme, completing a two-month position with production company Picture Shop. He said: “The placement after the course was essential in helping me gain the current full-time employment. I was able to get my foot in the door and show my work ethic to the company I now work for - and thus they hired me full time. The course would not have been as beneficial without this placement. I’m deeply grateful for helping me get a position.”
He has since been able to use the skills and real-world experience he learned on the course in his position with Timeline TV where he’s contracted as technical operator at BBC Sport in Manchester: “I ingest sports programmes from across the world and send it through our systems for editors and reporters to use. On a daily basis I use skills from the course to ingest, organise footage from all sources like shoot cards and drives, to downloads from websites and ingesting broadcasts from BBC, Sky, ITV, in fact any producer of sports programmes.
“The importance of these training programmes is that they give someone a new start. They also provide confidence as it gives you a grip on the landscape of perhaps a career path you never knew existed.”