Researching into how an industry professional CV should result.

1. Industry CV research
Different to a standard, everyday CV, with an industry CV I will have a better chance at achieving my
goal of making it into the film industry. By putting together my relevant skills and experiences
employers are more likely to see my potential and get me further in life.
Before making a start on creating my own, research is needed to be done giving me a better idea of
how mine should be structured and worded.
From researching what jobs are in my area in subject to the film industry, a website that also comes
in handy here is My First Job In Film. Providing career advice for those looking to take their first steps
into the said industry, they even have a page dedicated for ‘CV advice’ which should come in handy
for my industry CV.
Having sections to focus on different areas of the CV, the first is about:
Format
Although it can be acceptable to have a CV going against the traditional format depending on the
region of the film industry you are applying for, the majority of the industry favour the standard
format as it is straight forward and clearer to read.
Accordingly, there is a criterion to the industry CV that is expected to provide...
 Location and contact information.
 Portfolio links.
 Experience to date.
 Education.
 Availability.
Whilst avoiding rambling, it is also suggested to have the length of the CV down to a page, two at
maximum. If the CV does cover more than one page, make sure the formatting carries out the same.
Hobbies and interests will only be necessary if they are “significant to you application” as employers
tend to avoid that area unless they work towards any requirements.
Anatomy of a CV
With an, on average, ten seconds to impress the reader, relevant skills and your career focus should
be what keeps the employer's attention. In order, this is the apparent order of everything that needs
to be on the CV.
For the top of the CV, is your full, preferred, name.
Next up, job title. The job title should be the same as the position you are applying for with the CV
worded to back that up.
Contact details. This should include a phone number and email address keeping the simplest form of
communication there. As for your address, as long as that goes on your cover letter then it won't be
required on the CV. And if you are applying for a role within your country, the area code won't be
needed either when it comes to inserting your phone number.
Finally, key skills and qualifications are to be added.
Additional things to include involves:

2.  Driver’s license.
 First Aid Certificate.
 DBS cleared.
 Confident driving vans and minibuses.
 HGV licence.
Personal Profile
Requiring enough effort to make them “noteworthy”, a personal profile must be snappy being at
least the length of three sentences. The example provided goes; “An experienced floor runner, who
has been engaged on the main unit of ten feature films and multiple commercials over the past four
years.”
Adding a link to your online portfolio, it won't guarantee you getting work, but it does demonstrate
talent and a desire to progress in the industry.
What sells a CV to all, or most recruiters is the relevant experience section. Depending on the job
listings description, it is best to research into the company and find what it is they are after, then go
from there. Dedicating each CV to where you are applying to, the employers can find all that is
relevant to them giving you a better shot. Then when you find a skill as such they are looking for in
employees, find an example you make out of that skill to help yourself stand out.
Relevant Skills
Similar to the relevant experience, the next pointer to include is relevant skills. “Proficiencies”. As
you list them, give examples of how you have demonstrated those skills.
Education
Not needing your GCSE’s, an example to word it for those who do is “8 GCSE’s over C grade”. Other
than that, a listing of the university and collage attended with the subject (s) taken and grades
earned should be added briefly onto the document.
References
When first stepping into the industry, a tutor is fine to be added as the reference, but ideally two
references from within the industry are needed. So as soon as it is possible, add an industry member
to your CV.
With a reference, it shows that someone is prepared to vouch for your work ethic adding layers of
credibility to you that the CV on its own can’t do. Not needing to provide anyone's contact details, or
even a name, you can list instead ‘references on request’ or ‘contact details on request’.
Why you need to customise your CV for every application
As basically mentioned, all jobs are different with the recruiters all on the hunt for different qualities
within their candidates. Using what it is the employers are looking for, remove any non-relevant
information and only include the qualities that will help your CV stand out to that company.
An example to make a point out of this is if you are applying for a post-production job, editing and
sound as such, although you may have experience within the production area the recruiters aren’t
interested in that. Therefore, adjusting each CV for each job application is a must for a better chance
at getting hired.

3. Information you are not required to include
A few details that may feel important to add but do no need to be on the CV include:
 Date of birth
 National Insurance Number
 Address
 Pictures
Errors to avoid
Additional incidents to make sure you avoid with your CV are:
 Do not embellish.
 Spelling and grammar.
 Overstating qualifications.
 Try not to elongate, be concise.
 Don’t use an unrecognisable format for the document, a PDF file is the neatest option.
CV stages
According to the website, there are three stages to someone’s CV depending on where they are in
the industry.
Stage 1
For those who are just on joining the industry after finishing up on education or even those looking
to switch careers, this stage is for those who have had no professional experience with the role they
are after. Rather than looking for your first official career, a better chance at getting in the industry is
looking for areas offering work experience or even an internship.
With that, the base of your CV is the experience you do have and your education. As of the
experience, use that to highlight the required skills for where you are applying to. Voluntary work,
part-time work, societies and/or clubs you have previously joined may all be referred to. No matter
the placement, there will be skills that link, like say you have experience with bar work and are
wanting to be involved with film production, you can mention the transferable skilled gained from
that involving:
 Long hours
 Being on your feet
 Customer service
 Working under pressure
 Shift work
Even for those who have pursued a career in the film industry but are looking for a change, you can
refer any skills and experiences you do have to where you are applying to.
Stage 2
Developing from the first stage, any work experiences and collaborations done should all
continuously have been getting added onto the CV. Gaining a relevant set of skills and knowledge
now, the next step is for earning professional credits and having them added onto your CV. As for
the job roles to apply for this time, internships again and/or junior level roles will be your best bet.

4. By this stage as well is where you should be researching into companies, finding as mentioned the
qualities they are after making sure you are repeatedly adjusting your CV for every job listing applied
for.
Stage 3
Now at the final stage for where your CV should be, you should have a strong resume by now filled
with relevant experience, credits and developing skills. Moving up from there, your chances of
becoming a successful candidate for employment has been strongly enhanced allowing you to be
noticed by employers.
As your CV is now full of experience and skills relevant to the sector you have been aiming for, don’t
forget to use the contacts you should have been throughout the placements getting up to this point
as having industry contacts will give you a much better chance of finding somewhere.
--
With that being pretty much everything advice-wise for the CV, the page does then move onto the
subject of cover letters causing me to have to move on from there. Not completely though, as on
that same website they do also provide example CV’s making it clearer how the document should
look.
Only having four as of now, they are all structured for specific roles going along with the ‘have a
different CV for every job’ as explained. As becoming a ‘sound trainee’ or ‘marketing and PR
assistant’ doesn’t really interest me instead I will be looking at the two that do, and with doing that I
can compare the two different documents for what would need to be different when applying to the
different roles.
Production Runner 3 Stage Plan
Immediately the page wasn’t what I was expecting, but it still works I suppose. Thinking a CV layout
would have been provided with examples, turns out it is instead explained what you would put on
the CV when applying to the titled careers.
Telling those reading the three-stage development of the CVs, as I have already gone through all of
that I won't bother re-explaining the sections especially since they basically say the exact same thing.
Scrolling onto the next page, suggestions on how you can achieve each stage are provided. For stage
one, the experience list consists of:
 Work to earn five credits a runner on short films.

5.  Work on student productions.
 Looks for opportunities on the MFJF board.
 Work with MFJF members on projects looking at the collaborations board.
Moving on, suggested skills are:
 Have a driver’s licence.
 Have a first aid certificate.
 Volunteer to drive vans and minibuses.
 Learn to use walkie-talkies.
 Learn how to use a photocopier.
 Read the production runner career guide.
 Build your office PA kit.
The final area is knowledge:
 Research CV examples.
 Research production companies and production coordinators.
 Read ‘Runner’ by Will Judge.
 Read ‘The Complete Film Production Handbook’.
 Use the www.mnfilmtv.org/fil es/2914/2428/3783/ Production_Assista nts_Pocket_Handb
ook.pdf website.
 Use MFJF industry essential to find training courses.
 Learn the basic set and office etiquette.
 Know what everyone on a film set does.
Well, the pages may not have been what I was expecting to see, but with real suggestions for people
wanting to get in that line of work the chart is quite good. If only they had more uploaded on the
website with the range of career options out there.
Moving onto the higher stages, the lists of suggestions continue getting more advanced for those
progressing through the industry. Assuming I shouldn’t really bother going through what is said for
stage two and three, a good enough idea, at least for me, has been given on what employers are
after and what a CV should include.
Two compare stage one for the production runner though to help the differences become clearer, I
will still have a look at what is said for the post-production runner.
Post-production runner 3 Stage Plan
With a list full of completely different suggestions, the experience section on stage one involves:
 Apply for work experience positions.
 Collaborate where possible.
 Build on your knowledge of software and hardware.
Skills:
 Be comfortable with transferring data.
 Be familiar with operating systems.
 Demonstrate knowledge of an editing package and/or pro tools.
Knowledge:

6.  Read ‘The art of the cut’.
 Read ‘Concrete Wedding Cake’.
 Read ‘Designing Sound’.
 Watch films.
 Understand the postproduction process.
 Look to Essentials for reference materials.
 Read CV and covering letter advice.
 Read the creative skillset guidelines.
Pretty much opposite to the production runner stage one suggestions, the list alone does show that
dedication is required when it comes to getting a career in the industry as the suggestions mostly
link to researching and gaining experience with that certain career area.
As said, I won't bother noting down the following stages as just by seeing the differences between
the two options it is clear to see what is needed on your CV. And from there, it only progresses.
--
Before coming to an end, I do want to have a look at exemplary copies of people’s CV’s to at least
get a physical view of the layout. Then with that, I will be able to make a start on my industry CV.
As I was looking around for existing industry professional CV’s, I have ended up stumbling onto
Article Search | Indeed.com UK where they have provided hundreds of articles with tips on writing a
career designated CV. Finding the ‘film director CV’, I will be reading more into what this website
suggests.
1. Contact Information
First thing to do, write your essential contact information. Full name, telephone number, home
address and email address. Adding on, if you have one you can also include a link to your personal
website.
2. Professional Summary
With two or three sentences, summarise the skills and qualifications that “provide an overview of
who you are” and what you can offer to potential employers. Mention your years of experience in
the industry whilst highlighting key professional achievements and sharing your artistic vision,
identity and the impacts you desire to have with your work.
3. Work Experience
In reverse chronological order, list your work experience starting with your current or most recent
role as it helps to demonstrate how your career has developed over time. And for your most recent
role, include five bullet points outlining your primary responsibilities and notable achievements. As
for the other roles, provide three bullet points.
4. Portfolio
Allowing you to reference previous projects you have worked on, a separate page dedicated for your
work only will help give employers more of an insight into your work and see your creative ability as
a film director.
5. Technical Skills

7. Requiring a combination of both creative skills and technical skills when it comes to becoming a
director, for the skills section of the CV, a list of film-related skills from each stage of the production
should be included. A few examples are camera and audio equipment operation, script editing with
screenwriting software, stage direction, pre-production, project management, etc etc.
6. Education
Similar to the work experience section, with your most recent degree first, list where you had
attended for education in reverse chronological order. First inserting the name of the programme,
following that state the name of the institution with the year of graduation.
7. Awards and Achievements
As a newer film director, this section can include any submissions made into film festivals or positive
reviews made to you from critics. As a more experienced film director, they would have an extensive
list of awards from competitions and recognition from noteworthy professional organisations.
Reaching the end of ‘what should be included’ on the CV, Indeed has even provided a template to
base off of, with a filled-out example below.
Finding this to be very helpful, I did have a quick search to see if they had a screenwriter version of
the CV as alongside the director career becoming a screenwriter does also interest me.
Unfortunately, there were no articles even close to what I was looking for, but what I have so far is
good enough I’d say.
--

8. Going back to looking for industry CV examples, I have managed to find one film-related resume I
will have a look at published by the website, Professional Film Crew CV Example |
MyPerfectResume.
With a simple design, I have
noticed that with the
summary, three sentences
have been used to piece this
together as it was suggested
through the research.
And rather than going quick
and simple telling the reader
they are ”experienced”, ”a
clear communicator”, and
”knowledgeable”, the writer
has made sure to back up
those points up sharing what
makes them skilled.
As for the skills section, again
the writer has made sure to
make the skills career-related
whilst also backing up how
they can be used for the role
they are applying for.
Listed in reverse chronological
order, the most recent job
role has been inserted first as
again it was suggested in the research. With the most recent one though, the
layout for the years of working there is placed different. I’m not sure if that is essential to do with

9. resumes but will have to skip over it for
now. Having around 5-6 bullet points
for each job role, each one is very
specific as to what their responsibilities
were for every job.
The education part is a
little confusing to me as
I don’t entirely get why
the three lines don’t
share the same details
as the first one only has
the name of a course
with the year they...
graduated I assume
alongside it?
Below that is the name
of a university with the
course they had
attended two years
prior with the mention
of a state above the
year.
And to top the CV off, is a section for the
writers “hobbies and interests”. From
doing my research there had been no mention of including a section like that so with that I believe I
am not to even bother. Although, with the section they have managed to link their interests with
their work which is quite interesting.
Not wanting to leave it at one CV example, before moving onto creating my own industry CV I will
have a browse for one more example to look at.
Film CV—Template and 25+ Writing Tips (resumelab.com)

10. With a little less effort
put into the layout, it is
again plain and simple
allowing the reader to
get straight to the
point. What is
somewhat different, is
that they have made
the ’personal info’ into
its own section with a
heading for it which
doesn’t look very
necessary.
Following that, the
summary. Again with
the three sentences, it
is very forward here
with the second
sentence sounding as if
it would be better placed in the achievement section giving a little too much intel. Might just be me
with the bragging tone though.
Only having
one place of
experience,
the list of
responsibilities
all sound quite
impressive.
As for the ”key
projects”, I
assume that is
where they
would want to
see a portfolio
rather than
the titles of
what you have
worked on
appearing to
be a slight
waste of time.
Again, in my
eyes at least.
With only one place of education noted, they have included the location, institute name and years
they were there. Only note that appears to be missing is the grade. With the ”private
projects”, I can only say the same as I did for the section referring to the key projects.
Lastly, the skills section. Not sharing many, for the few that have been inserted they haven’t

11. even been backed up with an
example to represent each
skill. Although for a few of
them they can be referred
back to what was said in a
previous section, but again
they might have been better
off being mentioned here.
As that is all, I am not ready
to finally make a start on my
own industry CV using the
research and examples gone
through on this document.