Welcome to our July newsletter!

We are so excited to share all our news with you as we’ve had another incredibly busy and exciting month here at Screen Alliance Wales.

Firstly, we would love to encourage you to create a profile on our website if you haven't already done so. This is such a great resource as you can be searched by production companies should you wish and be a part of an ever-growing network of crew within Wales. If you are a student, graduate, professional or looking to step across from theatre and events, having a user profile will really help you with finding more opportunities for working in Film and TV.

Production Guild

We are thrilled to announce that we have become an affiliate member of the Production Guild of Great Britain! This will give us amazing networking opportunities, and they actively support their affiliate members, and we are so pleased to start this brilliant relationship. A huge thank you to the Production Guild for allowing us to be a part of this wonderful organisation. Read more about this new venture here.

Vacancies

We have a huge range of jobs currently available on our website. Now is the perfect time to get applying!

Bad Wolf are seeking a Covid Assistant.

ADF Facilities are looking for:

o   HGV/C+E (Class 1) Drivers, Tech Driver and Base Staff

The Wales Millennium Centre are looking for several positions:

o   HR Advisor, Purchase Ledger Clerk, Casual Stage Technician, Customer Assistants, HR Manager, Systems Engineer, Weston Studio Technician, Bilingual Arts and Creative Project Assistant, Arts and Creative Technician, Finance Officer, Finance Officer (FTC) and a Food and Beverage Supervisor.

BBC are looking for a runner (must be over 23)

Boom Cymru need a Production Designer for their art department

Painting Practice require a new Head of Production

Gorilla are looking for a Dubbing Mixer

Real SFX are currently seeking a Production Manager

Find out all info for the roles above here. Our vacancies page is regularly updated so make sure to keep checking it.

Career’s Café – For this month’s careers café, we welcomed Bad Wolf Script Executive, Bethan Evans, who shared a plethora of hints, tips and advice for aspiring writers on scriptwriting, editing and working as a writer. She began by sharing her own personal career journey, and how she ended up working for Bad Wolf in the script department. She finished up by answering questions from our participants in an incredibly informative and helpful session.

A huge thank you to Bethan for taking time out of her busy schedule to be this month’s very special Careers Café guest!

True Crime Masterclass – On the 22nd of this month, we welcomed back New York-based producer Tracey Ullman, who delivered another fantastic masterclass on how to create true crime documentaries but this time she delivered it for Wales-based Pact members.  She discussed ‘The Three P’s’ (process, pitching and promotion) not to mention a sharing vital information from her many years’ experience as a producer for some of the biggest documentaries on TV. It was a great success, and the response from the participants was fantastic. We hope to put on similar courses on in the future, so make sure to stay up to date with everything we’re doing on social media.

The work we carry out is only made possible by our wonderful Sponsors: Bad Wolf, USW, HBO, S4C, Facilities by ADF, Panalux, MovieTech, 4Wood, Gorilla, and Maddog2020. Here’s what they and some of our supporters have been up to this month…

Sponsors and Supporters

Bad Wolf – After last month’s announcement that ‘His Dark Materials’ season 3 has begun filming, Bad Wolf have been incredibly busy with the production. They are so excited to be sharing with you all the updates from how it’s all going, so make sure to follow them on social media @BadWolf_TV, @darkmaterials.

S4C - SAW partner S4C has published its Annual Report for 2020/21. Despite the challenges of the past year, the broadcaster saw an increase in its audiences across all platforms, with S4C viewing hours throughout the UK rising to their highest level for seven year. The report draws attention to the essential role S4C has played in maintaining and promoting the Welsh language, with the aim of contributing to the target of reaching a million Welsh speakers by 2050. It also outlines how S4C is working in partnership to develop skills and future workshop. The report is available here. 

Mae S4C, un o bartneriaid SAW, wedi cyhoeddi ei hadroddiad blynyddol ar gyfer 2020/21. Er yr anawsterau dros y flwyddyn ddiwethaf, gwelwyd cynnydd yng nhgynulleidfaoedd S4C ar draws pob platfform gydag oriau gwylio S4C ledled y DU ar eu lefel uchaf ers saith mlynedd. Mae'r adroddiad yn nodi rôl hollbwysig S4C o ran cynnal a hyrwyddo'r Gymraeg, gyda'r nod o gyfrannu at gyrraedd miliwn o siaradwyr erbyn 2050. Mae hefyd yn amlinellu sut mae S4C yn gweithio mewn partneriaeth i ddatblygu sgiliau a gweithlu’r dyfodol. Mae’r adroddiad ar gael yma.

Facilities by ADF – The wonderful team at ADF are currently doing a huge recruitment drive with many positions they have currently available. Head over to their website (here) to check out all their latest vacancies.

MovieTech - Movietech are incredibly busy at the moment in London and in Wales. Movietech Cymru are supplying camera and grips packages for ‘His Dark Materials 3’and ‘Industry 2’ for Bad Wolf Studios. We are also supplying  ‘Havoc’ (the Tom Hardy feature film) which is shooting at Seren Stiwdios Wales as well as ‘Trapper Keeper’ for Barking Lion Productions/Disney at Dragon Studios in Bridgend. We have also supplied ‘The Trick’ which has just wrapped with us and ‘We Hunt Together’ season 2, which will wrap in the coming weeks. They have also taken on two new employees Jamie Cobley (Grips Department) and Tom Cavagin (Camera Department) at Movietech Wales and have also taken on more space within Seren Stiwdios.

Gorilla have a new apprentice starting this week and are also looking forward to their next USW MA placement. They have also just taken on 2 new dubbing mixers as well as creating a new ‘finishing assistant’ role with a path to Online and Colour Grading. They are always expanding so expect to see more job advertisements soon.

Coleg Y Cymoedd – We ran an article this month about a material donation from Bad Wolf to Coleg y Cymoedd which you can read here. We are thrilled that we also have a BA Props graduate from the college currently working in the CFX department for HDM3.

Ffilm Cymru Wales have launched their ‘Green Cymru Challenge’ which offers funding for researching new ways for the TV and film industry to become more eco-friendly, with the aim of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is a great initiative so make sure to check it out here.

Sgil Cymru are pleased to welcome a new Post-production CRIW apprentice, Curig, who has joined their team in this month. He joins them from Coleg y Cymoedd as part of a scheme that will see him in placements with Post-Production houses and companies across Wales. We wish him the very best of luck!

Careers Wales have recently announced that they will be hosting a Creative Pathways Career fair at Cardiff City Hall on the 18th November 2021. We will be attending, so make sure to come along.

Perseverance Really Does Pay Off

Screen Alliance Wales prides itself on being the number one gateway for those looking for a career within the Film and Television industry in Wales. Rhys Bolton is a brilliant young man who stuck to his guns and persevered in order to get into the media. We are thrilled that Rhys has now been offered a paid contract with Boom and has started his journey on the career he has always wanted. To read more about Rhys’s amazing story, click here.

Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn – Doctor Who Premier

We were incredibly lucky to receive an invite earlier this month from the fantastic team at Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn in Swansea to the world premiere of their brilliant fan film “Doctor Who Attack of the Autons”. It was a swansong performance for sixth former Euan as he left the school at the end of this term, but it was clear that he gave his all in an emotional ending for his incarnation of the Doctor. He is now hoping to follow his dream of becoming a professional actor, so we are incredibly keen to watch his rise to stardom! He has handed the role of the time travelling alien to sixth form learner James, who will be manning the Tardis from now on.

To see this brilliant project and more of their terrific films, head over to Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn’s YouTube channel here. The school have also started a brand-new magazine that highlights all the incredible work that they’ve been doing. Click here to read the Summer Edition of the magazine.

Showreel

Our amazing new showreel is now in its final edits and we are thrilled to soon be sharing it with the world! We have asked several our former trainees and others we have worked with to share their stories with us and talk about how Screen Alliance Wales helped them in getting their foot in the door of the industry. We will be sharing this as soon as we possibly can, so watch this space.

Virtual Tour

And lastly, we are excited to announce that we have been working on a brand-new virtual tour of Wolf Studios Wales so you will soon be able to see all the brilliant work that goes on at the incredible studio in Cardiff from the comfort of your own home.

Don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels to keep up to date on all the latest news and vacancies. 

Twitter: @ScreenAllianceW /@SAWeducation

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LinkedIn: @Screen Alliance Wales