When Covid-19 struck, chartered accountant Hamish Stewart saw his work dry up and was forced to put the launch of his own business on hold. Eager to continue work in another industry, he saw that there was a great demand for accountants in screen and decided to apply for a place on the ScreenSkills Accounts Industry Transfer Programme.
The programme is an example of an intervention funded by the High-end TV Skills Fund to address the shortage of production accountants in key production hubs. It offered a group of 22 professionals working in and around Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds the opportunity to move into screen.
Hamish, who was born in Zimbabwe, had worked in Germany and various African and South Atlantic countries for many years, before returning to the UK in 2016 to work as a finance manager on a big malaria project for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Late 2019 he decided to launch his own development business - delivering micro-loans and technology to help solve some of the challenges of providing clean drinking water to high density slum dwellers in the African continent. Mere months in, the Covid pandemic forced him to rethink his career.
Having always been fascinated by the world of film and TV, he decided to apply for the ScreenSkills Accounts Industry Transfer Programme, delivered by thecallsheet. “As part of the application, I had a chat with trainer Neil Cairns and I luckily managed to convince him to select me for the course,” Liverpool-based Hamish says. “A whirlwind flash through production accounting 101 followed.”
Over five weeks Hamish got a taste of everything in production accounting, which included hearing from some people who recently entered the industry themselves.
Soon after completing the theoretical part of the course, he landed an accounting position on Jack Thorne’s drama Help!, featuring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham. Immediately afterwards he was hired onto Sky Studios’ drama series The Rising, filmed in and around Manchester.
“I did a little bit of everything on my first job, but now I am trying to more systematically work through several roles,” Hamish says. “I have perfected the science of cashiering and Equals cards, all the while trying to make friends and learn about the industry from the crew. I am expecting to get stuck into crew payroll work in the next few weeks, and then hope to look at the reporting and budgeting challenges for departments.”
While he has found that the accountancy part of his new job is not that challenging – “it’s really a bit like learning a new language” – the work environment is certainly different. “I understand all accountancy concepts, but everything is expressed in a different way in this industry,” he explains. “Weekly and monthly reporting cycles are much more hectic and the hours are punishing, but the people are lovely and it’s clear that no two film or TV projects will be the same.”
Going forward his goal is to work his way up to the role of production accountant as quickly as possible, so that he can use his commercial experience to make production more efficient. “I would also love to find some international projects so I can draw from my international experience as well,” he adds. “European co-productions or anything on locations abroad would be great.”
He is glad that he made the choice to transfer into screen. “The key to getting on in production accounting seems to be prepared to do anything and to go anywhere – and that is me - I am ready for it,” he says. “I would recommend it to all qualified accountants up for an adventure…”
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