At Screen Alliance Wales, we like to keep up to date with all our former Trainees so when Andrew Creak (one of our first Trainees) returned to work in Wolf Studios Wales recently, we jumped at the chance to have a chat with them!

Andrew’s journey into TV started as a child growing up in Caerphilly with their love of Doctor Who, which is filmed in Wales.  This passion for TV led them to study for a foundation degree in film at Cardiff and Vale College and then go on to gain their BA in Film from the University of South Wales.

Their journey with Screen Alliance Wales started on Season one of `His Dark Materials’ when they joined us on the floor for two week’s work shadowing.  Andrew spent those two weeks in charge of the `Red Light and Bell’ onset and helping out the AD department.  But that is not all they spent their time doing!  During their work shadowing, they took the opportunity to be nice, impress and make connections with the team, connections that would prove invaluable in the future!

After completing work shadowing with SAW, they gained dailies work on `Gangs of London’ through one of their connections, and then after graduating, because they did so well on his work shadowing placement on HDM1, they were offered a SAW Trainee position on `His Dark Materials’ Season two as a Production Assistant.  They did a brilliant job and really became an integral part of the team.

Unfortunately, after Andrew’s time on HDM2, Covid hit and all TV productions were forced to shut down.  However, once they started up again, Andrew hit the ground running and was able to work as a daily on a varied range of productions from the film ‘Roald and Beatrix’, `A Discovery of Witches` Season 3, `Sex Education’ Season 3 to `War of the Worlds’ season 2 and ‘Doctor Who’ series 13.

After this, they were able to find a longer contract on `Pobol y Cwm’ as a Covid Supervisor – a new role in TV created by the pandemic.  They then had the opportunity to work on `The Tuckers’ series 2 as a Floor Runner – an ambition that Andrew has had for a while.  During his time on this production, they were even asked to step up to 3rd AD, which gave them an exciting opportunity to push themself, learn more, and also brought them another step closer to their ultimate goal to become a Director.  After this production wrapped, Andrew stepped onto Doctor Who as a Covid Office Assistant – which really was a dream come true for them! In a very short space of time, they have gone from having pictures taken outside the Tardis as a young fan to working INSIDE the Tardis as a member of crew.

After all their hard work this year, Andrew is enjoying having some `quiet’ time where he writes, produces AND directs his own work before productions start up again, with their recent short film ‘Jangle’ having recently hit 12,000 views online.

The one piece of advice that Andrew would recommend is to keep your eyes peeled on the Screen Alliance Wales website and take every opportunity that comes your way.  Andrew turned a two-week work shadowing opportunity into a 3 year career just by being nice, hard working and enthusiastic.  We, at SAW, are very proud of Andrew and everything they have achieved so far and this is only just the beginning for them!