Some of you have always known that you want to work in the film or the television industry. Some of you are working your way up to getting opportunities in the industry through college, University or volunteering while some of you are lucky enough to already have the contacts who can recommend you and get you in the door.

But what if you have no way of going to University or film school, or you’ve just graduated but it’s been 6 months+ and you still can’t find any work related to the industry? What if friends or family don’t have any connections? What if you can’t afford to volunteer? What if you have no way to prove yourself because all the entry jobs are asking for experience and/or industry references?

If you have the unstoppable passion and patience to learn and you’re raring to work hard for your ambition, if you truly love it, then you should be able to obtain those opportunities but they won’t be handed to you on a plate no matter what position you’re in, you’ve got to have the confidence in yourself to get out there and create your own stuff. After all, some of the most successful icons in the world made it happen by having this attitude. Andrea Arnold grew up on a council estate, left school at 16 and later won an Academy Award® for her directorial debut with her short film ‘Wasp’. Quentin Tarantino dropped out of school at 15 and instead got a job at a video store, teaching himself as much as possible about cinema. Alejandro González Iñárritu was expelled from school at 16 due to poor grades. This isn’t to recommend dropping out of school, this just goes to show that whatever challenges you face, you can still follow through with what you want to do.

“Trying to make a film yourself with no money is the best film school you can do.” Quentin Tarantino

You’ll probably have read a few stories about famous filmmakers who borrowed a camera or were given a camera by their parents, or who worked in labour type jobs to raise a small amount of money to make their first film with. Spielberg made his first feature ‘Firelight’ on $500 borrowed from his father. Peter Jackson made his first feature film ‘Bad Taste’ on money scraped together from a job he got working for his local newspaper.

Why not get out there and make the best film you can with what you’ve got? Get favours from friends. If no one is around to help at the time you are free to make it, shoot something yourself. Use your camera phone if nothing else. There are very few excuses. 

What people don’t tend to admit though is that there are some excuses and a reality to consider. Some people have extremely challenging backgrounds. They don’t have anyone to turn to who can gift or lend them a camera or money and despite having a passion for cinema they work in labour type jobs because they need to help pay the bills and feed their family, not able to even contemplate actually making the film they’ve been dreaming of making. This reality means there’s a whole tangent of talented young people out there who are being overlooked and unsurprisingly feel blocked from the industry. It will always be dangerous for the industry to not have enough opportunities out there that are in reach for people from all walks of life looking for the chance to prove themselves, as it will affect the future of cinema, being impossible for film as a whole to paint the world truthfully. 

Slick has a few ways in which passionate young people including those with no experience or education can get involved, we call it our Trainee Circuit, where you can work from the ground up and beyond.

We have two main areas of our business, Slick Showreels and Slick Films. Our entry level trainees begin working on our showreels, where the creative freedom is far greater than usual due to the smaller teams and the training is close and personal, with one on one training with an experienced director, director of photography or sound recordist. You’ll get the feel of the pressures of time, budget and location restrictions and how to always make things work and be creative with what you’ve got in front of you. These are the things that film schools rarely teach you, only being part of making content yourself can teach you this. You’ll begin to get your head round our different cameras, lighting and equipment. You’ll also find yourself forced into a position where you quickly learn about the importance of all departments on a set, you’ll hear every decision being made and see every problem being solved. If your passion and ability shines through and is consistent, our team members will recognise this, and you’d eventually be handed the camera or you’ll be asked to direct the actors, shooting and creating original scenes yourself in the front line.

Some of our team who are often off filming feature films come back and work on our showreels from time to time, there’s no better way to practise in between the bigger projects. And after a while working on our showreels, we’d start to send bigger projects by you like music videos, corporate videos, commercials and short films, growing your experience even further in a variety of roles. There are no set days in a week that our shoots fall on, it varies and we shoot on weekdays and weekends, so trainees have the flexibility to pick and choose which of our shoots they work on so they can fit their passion around other commitments in their life. 

You’ll come to us as a trainee who perhaps had no experience before and you’ll go through the ranks, building your skills and confidence, and if you have the passion, talent, initiative and willpower, you’ll eventually be off filming or getting booked on your own shorts, feature films and TV series and it’ll be hard for us to get hold of you for our own projects! That’s always the aim and that’s what has already happened with several of our crew. A few things are for certain if you commit to it; you’ll have plenty of industry experience from consistently going out there and creating content, you’ll have your contacts and industry references and you’ll have at least one film production company’s support for life.

If you’re interested in the Slick Trainee Circuit, fill out the form below to apply and please make sure to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

Slick Trainee Application.