United Kingdom
Film Training
Academy
United Kingdom
Film Training
Academy
Since 2019 the scale of film production has exploded in the UK – and there is now a serious lack of skilled staff to man all of the upcoming productions planned – that’s the opportunity we are offering to you.
Just think of the recent influx of top US film studios and production houses to the UK: Universal Pictures at Elstree, Walt Disney Studios at Pinewood in Hertfordshire, Warner Bros Studios at Leavesden, Apple TV in Watford, Netflix at Shepperton Studios in south-west London.
The UK now has more studio space than all of California. In May 2024 an article in The Guardian stated “The country’s film, television and photography sector employs more than 290,000 people, encouraged by generous tax breaks. Warner Bros recently said Barbie, which was shot almost entirely in the UK at its Leavesden studios in Hertfordshire, contributed £80m to the UK economy and created 685 jobs.
We believe a career in film production lighting is an excellent choice for experienced electricians and for ex-Forces soldiers from corps such as the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, or REME. Above all, it’s exciting, and endlessly interesting: each production is different. Never the same as any other.
The other great thing about the film lighting profession is – it’s not all taking place in London and the South East – film location work takes place all over the UK. It happens at our thousands of beautiful country houses, cottages, countryside and coastline. So if you’ve not based in the South East, don’t worry, the work is out there!
Best of all, the craft skills of British film production staff are held in the highest regard by film-makers worldwide, including those many top Hollywood directors who have insisted their films are made only in the UK.
They include Steven Spielberg, who made the hugely successful ‘Indiana Jones’ series, and ‘War Horse’ here. Earlier, the original ‘Star Wars’ was created in the UK – on an absolute shoestring because no one thought it had a hope at the box office – by now famous producer-director George Lucas.
In December 2023 some of the latest high-end TV and film productions shooting in the UK for the big studios and streamers included ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, ‘Speak No Evil’ and ‘Above the Below’. This does not include the large, ongoing TV production schedules of ITV, BBC and Sky TV, all being produced at sites all around the UK. Think, too, of the ‘James Bond’ series of true blockbusters, all made in the sound studios at Pinewood.
In 2024, for example, Tom Cruise – an actor who has made so many films on UK soil – is finishing yet another film, ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two’.
