For this weeks #traineetuesday, meet Katja!

Katja completed a foundation diploma in Fine Art before securing an apprenticeship through Sgil Cymru in Scenic Painting with Cardiff Theatrical Services. From there, she decided that she wanted to work in the art department and was accepted into the ScreenSkills film traineeship, where she was allocated a number of trainee roles on productions including Killing Eve Season One and Eternal Beauty. 

After completing her Apprenticeship, Katja wanted to move into Set Design but she was worried that she hadn’t gone to university to study this when she met with SAW to discuss some potential work shadowing. However, after shining on her two weeks in the Art Department on His Dark Materials season 2, Katja was lucky enough to be taken on as Art Department Trainee when the Supervising Art Director was looking for someone to train up. Katja was taught the fundamentals of draughting and taken through the process step by step until, by the end of her traineeship, she was a fully-fledged Junior Draughtsperson

“SAW gave me the opportunity to expand on my knowledge further and work as a Draughtsperson Trainee on HDM S2 in 2019 and since then I have been working as a Draughtsperson in the Art Department on productions including Havoc and Willow”.

For somebody looking to start in the industry, Katja’s key piece of advice would be to take every opportunity to just talk to as many people as possible, even in other departments - they are all connected, and to never compare your path into the industry to someone else’s. 

Thank you to Katja for taking the time to tell us about her story. We will be highlighting the incredible achievements from another one of our incredible former trainees next week, so watch this space!