One Day On Set

“Are You Bored Yet?”

”Nope”

 

I’m going to have to say that my job shadow was one of the coolest things I’ve done in my life.

I am very grateful for the chance I had to see, learn, and experience everything I did in those 4 hours. 

 

[WHAT IS A JOB SHADOW?]

A job shadow is a project assigned to grade 9/10 students in their Career Ed course, where they are asked to book a day to shadow someone doing an occupation they may be interested in after high school. 

 

[THE PROCESS]

The very first thing we had to do was pick an occupation we may be interested in.

For me, I really like film and writing. Something I enjoy doing is writing small skits or scripts for videos, DI, and just stories in general. From the beginning of the project, I really wanted to shadow someone in the film industry, even though I knew it would be difficult. 

I actually started off just taking a chance and trying to contact one of my favourite TV writers via Twitter.

Unfortunately (though unsurprisingly), no luck there. 

So I was at a bit of a loss. I wasn’t sure what to do or how to contact people other then the big chance steps. 

Then, a family friend came to visit. She gave me the advice to just contact individual film companies in the area and see if I could shadow people there. Seemed like the most promising idea, and so one day I sat down with my phone and a little script and googled “Individual Film Companies Vancouver”. 

It was around 5pm so a lot of places were actually closing or closed. Some people just didn’t pick up when I called. The universe must have been on my side that afternoon, because one place did pick up. And about 10 minutes later, I had a job shadow. 

 

[MY SHADOW]

My job shadow was booked for Tuesday the 18th of June, at a film shoot for a short film with Shelby (a producer) from BOLDLY. 

I was going to be watching the process of a film shoot live, and hopefully get to ask some questions about the lives of people in the film industry. Sounds like the perfect afternoon to me.

 

[JUNE 18TH 2019]

When I found out my job shadow would be taking place in Surrey, I was a just a little concerned. Only because I can’t drive yet, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get all the way out there. 

Shoutout to my dad for being the most amazing person ever and driving that hour and a half to get me there in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. 

I arrived ready to learn. One of the best ways I know I learn is watching everything in real time, and that is what I was getting the chance to do.

We pulled up outside this HUGE house in Surrey, and I was already so exited.

It just got better from there.

I met Shelby, who is the nicest person ever, and got to spend the first little bit of my shadow just watching the process of getting ready for filming and the actual filming itself. I had the chance to look around and see the way that being on set is actually like, and see how the different people made everything come together. It was pretty awesome to me. Maybe not so much for the people had been there since 6am. 

Truthfully I can’t quite describe how being there felt. I’m a kid from two small areas in two small places, and I don’t really have a lot of experience with film other then that fact that I love making little films and videos myself, and the things I see in the film(s) I watch. Being there, seeing how everything worked and the “day in the life” of people on set, it was so new and interesting to me.

 

[THE QUESTIONS]

There was a bit of time in the day where I got to sit down and ask some questions about the highs, lows, and process’ of being apart of the film industry. 

My questions were based a lot around how to get there, but also the best and worst things about the industry.

The school related questions included things like:

• What Kind Of Post Secondary Education Is Needed To Become A Producer?
• How Many Years Of Post Secondary Education Is Needed To Become A Producer?

The day-to-day life questions included things like:

• What are the workday hours of a Producer/Writer/Director/Crew Member?
• What are the skills needed to become a Producer/Writer/Director/Crew Member?
• Best and Worst things about being a Producer/Writer/Director/Crew Member?
• What are occupations related to Producer/Writer/Director/Crew Member?

Instead of writing every single answer down, here is the mind map with all the answers I received:

 

[THE CONCLUSION]

I really enjoyed my job shadow. There are so many things I could say, but no one wants to read a 6000 word blog post. I learnt so much, and had such a good time, the energy on the set was so interesting to me, and the whole afternoon was amazing.

Thank you to Shelby, and BOLDLY for letting me come and see what life on set is like, and for giving me the chance to see and learn everything I did. 

I didn’t really know all the work that was put into these kinds of projects, and I am so glad I had the chance to find out. 

Hopefully I get the chance to work in a setting like that one day. Whether that’s in writing, directing, producing, post production, or even acting, I look forward to it.