Introduction
These skills checklists have been designed to provide information to employers and individuals about the skills, responsibilities and tasks required for a wide range of roles and departments within film and TV productions. These are non-exhaustive lists that can be adapted and tailored to your own requirements, depending on the size, genre or type of company or production you are working in.
Based on the National Occupational Standards, which detail the skills and knowledge required to work in each department, the checklists have been created in close collaboration with production companies, broadcasters, guilds, associations and wider industry experts to make sure the information about each role is correct. You can find out at the bottom of this page who ScreenSkills have consulted with across the different departments.
The skills checklists aim to support the successful hiring and professional skills development of freelancers and employees on film and scripted TV productions.
Please note that these skills checklists are designed to complement the ScreenSkills job profiles, which are used for careers education and to explain the principal job roles and areas of work within different genres and sectors for those unfamiliar with the screen industries.
What information is on the skills checklists?
The skills checklists provide the following information about each job role:
- Overview of the role: a summary description of the role, its typical responsibilities, and who they work with, both within and outside their own department. This information can help you plan your future progression within a department, or can form part of a job description to inform potential applicants.
- Core responsibilities: this is a non-exhaustive list of the typical areas of responsibility and related tasks for each role. The exact responsibilities on a particular production or in a particular organisation will vary depending on the scale and budget band. The responsibilities in the checklist will be divided across the main work areas for the role, which will often follow the sequence of prep, shoot, wrap and/or post.
- Role-specific skills: this section provides a list of the specific skills usually required for each role in order to carry out the responsibilities and tasks. These are usually technical or specialist, for example related to particular equipment or documentation such as contracts.
- Other/transferable skills: this is a list of transferable, professional or general skills that are typically required in the role, but which are not unique to this occupation – they might be gained and developed in other roles, departments or industries. This information can be particularly useful for a job description if you are interested in opening up a role to applicants from outside the sector; it can also help you identify opportunities for training to develop skills to support both your present and future career.
- Attributes: this section lists general attributes or behaviours that are beneficial within this role or the surrounding department.
How can I use the skills checklists?
Find out how to get the most out of the skills checklists directory.
Job descriptions are currently underused in the screen industries. Many freelance crew roles are never advertised other than with simply the job title, shoot dates and location. With most people working on short-term contracts, moving from job to job and a quick recruitment turnaround, there is often not time or resource to write formal job descriptions for each role.
This means that the duties and responsibilities of each role are therefore often largely assumed by others working in the industry. If you apply for a particular role, there is an assumption that you are aware of what that role entails, and ideally have experience of performing the duties on a previous production.
But job descriptions can play an important part in making the recruitment process more transparent and inclusive. A clear and well-written job description enables a candidate to determine if they have the required skills and experience for the role, and to apply accordingly (especially if they are looking to break into the sector for the first time). The job description can also be used by those recruiting, by assessing the skills and experience of the candidate against the roles and responsibilities of the role.
The skills checklists provide a non-exhaustive list of the responsibilities, tasks and skills required in different key departments within film and TV production. You can adapt the information in the skills checklists to select the most appropriate requirements for the role you are describing. It’s important to consider what skills, experience and tasks are essential and what are only desirable. Where possible, try to stick to essential criteria for the role only.
You can read more advice about how to create a job description in the ScreenSkills HR Toolkit as part of a wider, more inclusive hiring process.
The skills checklists can also be used for your own professional development (or CPD) to help you identify what your current skills and experience gaps might be, and what relevant training might be required to address these. By developing individual strengths and skills, CPD can help build confidence in us as individuals and collectively in the screen industries.
You can use the skills checklists to regularly compare your experience with that listed for your role, and identify any responsibilities, tasks or skills that you, your line manager or mentor feel might require further development, to help you to deepen your expertise or to prepare yourself to progress onwards in your career. Examples of ways in which you might choose to develop your skills and experience are:
- attending training courses, whether paid for or funded by skills bodies like ScreenSkills, e.g. seminars, e-learning courses, webinars, workshops, masterclasses, lectures or accredited professional qualifications.
- work-based professional development from leaders or colleagues in your organisation or in your part of the industry, usually folded into your day-to-day work e.g. mentoring, masterclasses, shadowing, secondments, inductions, lunchtime learning sessions. You might need to initiate this yourself.
- informal self-led learning, usually initiated yourself and a low or no-cost independent commitment by you to develop in a particular area in your spare time, e.g. reading articles or books, watching online videos, listening to podcasts, seeking advice, taking part in taster webinars, attending talks.
For many crew, there is an expectation that in a new or stepped-up role you will simply learn on the job what your new role entails, the responsibilities that you will take on and the key skills and knowledge that you need. Much of this is down to your line manager or HoD guiding you and is very much based on their own knowledge of the requirements of the role. This can often lead to inconsistencies between your knowledge of a role and what others outside your production or organisation might perceive the role to be.
The skills checklists can help form the basis of your understanding of your new or stepped-up role and what it requires in terms of responsibilities, tasks and skills. You can use them to compare your direct experience in your new role with those listed on the checklist, and gradually identify any areas that you, your line manager or mentor feel might require development, to help you to broaden your understanding and experience of the role.
The skills checklists can also be used if you are on a work-based learning programme such as ScreenSkills’ Trainee Finder or Make a Move to help guide and shape your learning aims and objectives as you work through a training plan.
Examples of ways in which you might choose to develop your skills and experience are work-based professional development from leaders or colleagues, informal self-led learning, or even training courses (see above for further descriptions of these).
While we appreciate that for the majority of freelance crew working in film and TV production appraisals are not a common part of the HR process, for colleagues working in crew roles in continuing drama the skills checklists could be used to help provide a helpful structure during an appraisal process, to set and then review objectives for a specific time period ahead, such as the coming year.
Acknowledgements for creation and review of skills checklists
Writers: Nicole Suter and Julie Witana
Proof reader: Jilly Hunt
Camera department:
- Planning: Kim Vinegrad (1st AC) and Stephen Gardner (Camera operator)
- Reviewer: Simon Mills (Camera technician)
- Consultation: Tim Potter (Chair, GBCT); GBCT members; camera teams hosting ScreenSkills trainees; camera participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Location department:
- Planning: Amie Tridgell (Location manager) and Antonia Grant (Location manager)
- Reviewers: Harriet Lawrence (Location manager); members of Guild of Location Managers
- Consultation: Guild of Location Managers members; location mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; locations participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Assistant directors department:
- Planning: Steve Crabtree (2nd AD) and Paul Murphy (1st AD)
- Reviewers: Jay Arthur (Chair, AD Guild) and Stuart Jerome Learmonth (2nd AD)
- Consultation: AD Guild UK and Education & Training Committee members; AD mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; AD participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Production sound department:
- Planning: David Bowtle McMillan (Production sound mixer)
- Reviewer: Michele Caruso (Sound recordist, editor and lecturer)
- Consultation: Andrew Wilson (Chair, AMPS); AMPS and IPS members; sound mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; sound participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Production department:
- Planning: Kate Larking (Line producer) and Steve Clark Hall (Producer)
- Reviewer: Steve Clark Hall (Producer)
- Consultation: Production Guild newsletter mailing list; line producers, production managers and production coordinators working with ScreenSkills; production office participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Script supervisor department:
- Planning: Jane Jackson (Script supervisor)
- Consultation: Script Supervisor Association members; script supervisor mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees
Costume department:
- Planning: Joanne Thompson (Costumer designer)
- Reviewers: Charlotte Sewell (Chair, Costume & Wardrobe Bectu branch and Assistant costume designer) and Claire Anderson (Costume designer)
- Consultation: Bectu Costume & Wardrobe branch members; costume supervisors and mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; costume participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move or Leaders of Tomorrow
Hair, make-up and prosthetics department:
- Planning: Julia Townend (Makeup artist, trainer and educator)
- Reviewers: Sarah Pickering (Makeup artist) and Spob O’Brien (Hair and makeup supervisor, and Chair of Hair & Make-up Bectu branch)
- Consultation: Bectu Hair & Make-up branch members; hair and make-up mentors who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; hair and make-up participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move
Post-production department:
- Planning: Gemma Nicholson (Post supervisor)
- Reviewer: Gemma Nicholson (Post supervisor)
- Consultation: Members of Post Super.com network; all post supers who have hosted ScreenSkills trainees; post-production participants of ScreenSkills HETV Make a Move/Leaders of Tomorrow; ScreenSkills contacts at post and facilities houses.
The development of the scripted film and TV skills checklists has been supported by:
- the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery
- the ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills fund, with contributions from high-end television productions