Working Lives

Working Lives: Visual effects supervisor

His Dark Materials (Credit: BBC)

By trade, he is a VFX supervisor, but is also creative director of television at the visual effects and animation studio Framestore.

What do you do as a VFX supervisor?

I’m responsible for all the visual effects in a show, which comes down to two main things: helping the production get the best creative use of their money on screen; and, during filming, ensuring the correct material is acquired to allow all the brilliant VFX artists to do their job.

When are you brought on board a production?

Working Lives: Distributor

We Are Who We Are (credit: BBC)

Fremantle’s EVP head of EMEA distribution recently brokered deals for the upcoming BBC Three drama We Are Who We Are and BBC Two documentary series Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

What does the job involve?

In its simplest form, distributors sell the international rights for programmes. Channels and platforms around the world cannot produce all their own shows, so they need to acquire content.

Has the job changed over time?

Working Lives: Stunt Co-ordinator

What does the job involve?

There are two sides to the job: safety and creativity. We identify scenes that are potentially hazardous and, where possible, remove those risks, or reduce them to an acceptable level. That may involve using a stunt double instead of an actor or using safety equipment, such as elbow pads under costumes, out-of-shot crash mats or complex wire-rigging. Creatively, we could be choreographing fight sequences or staging shoot-outs.

 

How did you become a stunt co-ordinator?

Working Lives: Make-up artist Lisa Armstrong

Lisa Armstrong with her RTS Craft & Design Award (Credit: Richard Kendal)

She wowed the judges with her work on BBC One smash hit Strictly Come Dancing, “consistently impressing audiences and fans, never failing to entertain and constantly exhibiting an amazingly varied array of skills and techniques”.

What makes a good make-up artist?

You have to have a talent and an eye for it – a good artist pushes boundaries. But you also need confidence and integrity – what goes on in the make-up room stays in the make-up room.

So you need personal as well as technical skills?

Working lives: Quiz editor

What does the job involve?

You need to know how to put together good quiz rounds, balancing easier and harder questions. And, literally, you need to edit questions – rewording, reframing or even flipping them. You then have to get questions and answers verified. You also need a deep understanding of the show, so you can bring its character out in the questions.

 

How did you become question editors?

We did a lot of question writing in the quiz world and put on quizzes through our company, QuizQuizQuiz, and made connections.