ScreenSkills

Laura Mansfield sounds like a glass-half-full kind of person. Her body language is that of a can-do leader. This is just as well, as she has assumed the leadership of ScreenSkills at a challenging time for many of those seeking careers in the television industry.

Research published by the training body last month offered some stark statistics on the lack of jobs in the UK screen sector since the post-Covid production boom burst, forcing many to work elsewhere as they wrestled with rent or mortgage payments.

The joint RTS Scotland/ScreenSkills event, held at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay base, started with a panel discussion led by RTS Scotland Vice-Chair Gavin Smith and ended with a “speed networking” session.

“There have been well-publicised financial headwinds [facing the industry],” admitted BBC Scotland Commissioning Executive Steve Allen, “but it’s not all bad news”.

Highlighting the opportunities for Scottish production companies, he said: “We do have money that we’re spend­ing, hoping to stimulate the industry in Scotland.”

Both Gareth Gordon, Chief Technology Officer at Glasgow outside broadcast sport specialist QTV, and Morag McIntosh, Solution Lead – Studio Automation, BBC Technology, started as BBC trainees two decades ago.

The “speed-networking” format, where industry professionals visited tables with seven minutes to speak to attendees, was used again at the packed-out event at BBC Studios in Glasgow.

Tony Wood, CEO of Buccaneer Media, spoke about his decision to expand the company to Scotland: “Television is controlled by London and that seemed to me to be a shame. So, on the spur of the moment, I agreed with Screen Scotland to set up a production company here.

Asked about her choice of career, director of photography Mari Yamamura revealed: “I was studying to be a painter; I hadn’t thought of video as a fine art medium.

“I decided to study film instead of painting, which I can do in my own time, but I always find painting and lighting to be the same process. I get the image from reading a script and then I want to express that image on the set – that’s what I’ve been trying to do and that’s what gives me joy.”

The three-hour speed networking evening, “The big connection”, saw guests being allocated a table and visited by professionals at eight-minute intervals, with everyone given the opportunity to introduce themselves and ask questions.

Sarah Joyce, head of unscripted at ScreenSkills, explained the choice of the evening’s theme: “Sometimes, people don’t really understand what unscripted TV is, or… appreciate that there’s such a breadth of content.

In our case it was a room on the top floor of Sunderland’s new City Hall. In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage musical Hamilton, it was a house in Lower Manhattan. But on both occasions, key players gathered to shape the future. 

No one really knows how the game is played 

The art of the trade 

How the sausage gets made 

We just assume that it happens 

But no one else is in the room where it happens