Student films

[LivingTheDream]

Dd has only ever done theatre work, as we decided not to go down the agent route- she absolutely loves working on the stage, and has had leads in several professional productions. However, before she (fingers crossed!) goes to drama school in 2014, she really wants to get some experience working in front of the camera. We thought that student films would be her best option as they don't require an agent (to my knowledge) and are probably less pressure than working on a real film/ TV series. Does anyone have any experience working in student films and if so, how did you get involved? Dd has emailed the five universities local to us (that run Film/Drama courses) with her CV but we don't really know where to go from there.

[frisbee]

We found it difficult to find who to apply to when writing to the Uni's directly. It's best to look out on Talentcircle, Mandy Starnow and KCCP.

[Dogcop]

Ds did 2 student films which he got through the above sites. They were great fun and he worked with Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet, for all those not around in the 80s!) on one of them. I would really recommend them

[LivingTheDream]

I'm not familiar with those sites- I'm assuming that there is a fee to use them?

[sapphire]

Talentcircle and Mandy are free. Some jobs are free on Starnow. You do have to pay for KCCP.

[francescasmum]

Starnow usually has far more castings than the others and you can search regionally. You can also look at the jobs before subscribing so you can wait until something suitable comes up before subscribing. I think you can subscribe per month too. It's a little more expensive in the long run than subscribing for a year but if you just want to try for a month you can.

[LivingTheDream]

Great I will have a look at all of those- thanks for your help, everyone.

[pg]

It may also be worth looking at a subscription to Shooting People. A lot of student films used to be advertised in the casting bulletin (I no longer subscribe as I don't do unpaid work now, so don't know whether it has changed). It's an annual fee, but it used to be quite inexpensive. You don't have to pay CCP to apply for unpaid jobs - is it different on KCCP?

[frisbee]

We've found Shooting people has very few jobs for the under 15's.

[thankyou]

I've had a good experience with student films. The websites listed do have castings from some non-student shorts as well, and last month I did 4 shorts altogether (2 from mandy and 2 from a non-paid subscription with adult ccp) and I would really recommended this kinda experience. Although I'm older - I just finished uni (studying drama but not a drama school!) - these have been the first 'real' experience I have. Plus, you get to work out whether you feel more comfortable/suited to theatre or screen work which is also handy.

The key is to KEEP SAFE and I've definitely turned down a couple of auditions due to shockingly written scripts and the like, and you can never be sure on the quality, but on balance it's great experience, both for you and your resume, and I was really impressed with the rough cut of the first short I did and am genuinely excited to see the finished project.

Good luck!

[paulears]

Students always need people for film, media and music courses at uni - but only the best are good at planning, so although there are exceptions, expect to be messed about a little - dates in particular often get changed at short notice, and sometimes they pick people based entirely on perhaps a quick youtube audition, with no thought to distance and this makes changes very tricky to manage. They can be good fun though. Depending on the students - it's worth remembering how they do things can be very different to a professional production. Their universal weakness is planning! Their ideas, though, can be great.

[riverdancefan]

One of the students DS filmed with is now employed in a top production company and another is an intern at a casting company - all the networking and the contacts may yet pay dividends.
DS has filmed a paid job via recommendations from one of the post-grad students....
we have also been mucked about, cast then cancelled and worse still, filmed the job but it has never been edited or seen.
Mind you that has also happened to us with professional productions too...
My rule is, if it's interesting, and looks fun to do, he is free and it's not too far, we would go for it!