Work Experience at Lime Pictures

Whilst this is over a month late i feel i need to write about my work experience at Lime Pictures as part of my learning experience to do with my course and future career.

I had organised two weeks work experience at Lime Pictures on Hollyoaks through my brother. However i did not rely on him to get me work experience, i needed a good cv and covering letter to convey i was interested in working at lime and that i had previous experience and skills that i would be able to offer them. (more details on my cv will be featured in a later blog).

Obviously having my brother working already at Lime Pictures did help as he was able to give my CV straight to Human Resources which possibly put me towards the top of the list of the many applicants they receive. I was happy to find they gave me to weeks work experience and i knew i had to work hard and prove myself as getting my foot through the door so to speak was quite easy.

I was assigned to the production department as a runner and shadowing 3rd Assistant Director. I was also on the same block of episodes which gave me a variety of different sets, actors, set ups that i could learn from, as well as allowing me to get familiar with the crew members which made it easier to ask questions and get involved with other tasks.

Whilst i had the opportunity to work on other directors shoots which would have possibly given me more to do and maybe learn new things, i decided not to as i felt it was more industry like to stick with one unit of crew and experience the best and worst parts of the job to give me a much better experience of the entire operation.

I first had to watch a health and safety video which seemed pretty standard for any organisation and so therefore some seemed pretty irrelevant to the nature of work i was doing. However the idea of tieing down cables and how to use a work area safely was something i took away from the video and observed througout my time at Lime which i thought i can consider much more when it comes to do my major and minor projects in my 3rd year.

I also had to sign a confidentiality agreement so i don’t reveal upcoming storylines on Hollyoaks and how certain thing how the business operates. Therfore i will talk aout things i learnt at Lime without revealing too much.

My main tasks were to report to the 3rd and 2nd Assistant Director. I made cups of tea, handed out biscuits and all the other jobs i had heard runners do, which i didn’t mind at all. It gave me a chance to get to know the crew and ask questions about their jobs and the work they do. I didn’t see this duty as below me as it gave me more opportunities to go on set and see what was happening, something i didn’t take for granted.

I also reported back to the 2nd Assistant Director on the location of actors and getting them to make-up, costume and set as well signing in extras. I was busier inbetween takes then during. This sometimes became slow but i tried to utilise this time to again ask questions and observe the way the director, director of photography and camera man interacted, something i specifically said i wanted to see on my CV.

I also learnt a lot about the lighting, much more then i already knew, about setting them up, different types and how certain affects were achieved which i wasn’t aware of. It has given me much more interest in lighting and is something i want to continue to learn throughout my specialism workshops and future career. Being a camera-lighting man is something i would like to seriouosly persue, as much as being a director. This has made me realise i need to have a far greater technical knowledge of the equipment and something i hope i will research further and continue to learn about.

Overall, whilst i have only explained briefly a few things that i enjoyed and worked on at Lime, I did learn a lot. I realise that you learn far more on the job then reading a book. I have learn much more about individual roles and how a large production company like Lime works and my experience here as certainly helped me in ways of working on future projects, making me more prepared as well as giving me my enthusiam back about Television and Film, something i was beginning to loose slightly, so i have a lot to thank for working at Lime Pictures.

~ by acox on May 22, 2008.