Production coordinator Virginia Bonet was working on Killing Eve 4 for Sid Gentle Films when production manager Pippa Suren recommended her for ScreenSkills’ Leadership and Management training.
The two-day course is fully run by the High-end TV Skills Fund for heads of department on high-end TV productions, and Virginia was joined by several of her Killing Eve 4 colleagues.
She liked the fact that everyone brought a range of skills and experience to the table. “A few of the HoDs had been in their job for some years, while others, like myself, were newer to the role. Killing Eve 4 is only my second job managing a team.”
Virginia was born in Valencia, Spain, and studied journalism at Cardiff University. It was while she was there that her interest in the television industry started, and she took some extra media-related modules.
Through one of the modules she obtained some work experience, which lead to her first full-time job in television on Doctor Who, in 2016, as a production assistant on the sci-fi drama. From there she worked her way up to the role of production coordinator.
She says the course has given her lots of things to think about when hiring people or managing a team. “One of the things I found most useful was in the discussion on diversity. It isn't just about sex or ethnicity, which are really important, but also about personality types and how we all want to work together in a team.
“I loved the part where we talked about the different personality types – whether people are more intellectual, or more emotional, or whether you are a passionate person or not – and how important it is to balance out a team with different personalities. Having all the same personality types in a team may not be useful, for example.”
She found the discussion around how team leaders make hiring decisions particularly enlightening. “We often hire people like ourselves, perhaps in terms of men or women, or personality types, without being aware of that. It was definitely something that I will now reflect on any time I am hiring in the future.”
Virginia was delighted to learn that her organisational skills meant she was a “commander” type.
“I thought that was quite funny, but it is true that as a production coordinator you do quite often have to tell people what to do and have to be clear about what people need to do in order to keep the production running smoothly.
“The important thing is that you are always aware of how you speak to your team and how important communication skills are in leadership. I found that element of psychology and the human aspect of our jobs very interesting.”
Virginia says that other participants found the Leadership and Management training equally beneficial. “We all agreed it was a very interesting course that we learned a lot from and really enjoyed, and I would really recommend it.”
Virginia's team hasn’t always worked at the same place at the same time since she did the course, but she is looking forward to applying the skills she acquired. “It was such a positive experience that when we're all back in the same office I will definitely apply everything that I learnt.”
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