ScreenSkills works across the screen industries, film, TV, visual effects, animation, games and immersive technology. These are part of what the government defines as the creative industries, a sector which contributes almost £13m an hour to the UK economy every hour and which accounts for 1 in 8 jobs. (DCMS 2020)
A wide range of skills are needed across the creative industries, and this allows people to use their skills and talents to work in more than one industry. From hair and make-up, music and photography, to props, accounts and design, many of the transferable skills you need for a creative career can apply in theatre, advertising, music, architecture and marketing as well as film and TV.
Hair and make-up
Emma Romans has a career which spans hair and make-up for film, TV and theatre and she also manages a company which makes and supplies wigs for theatre, film and TV, fashion and people with hair-loss due to medical conditions.
Costume
Aileen Kelly did a theatre degree learning about both theatre and set design and she then went on to gain a place on ScreenSkills’ Trainee Finder scheme. She is currently working in children’s TV. She said:
“I studied it [theatre] to learn a wide range of practical skills related to my passion in design and making. Many of these skills were then transferable to TV and filming”
Music
Nainita Desai always loved music and studied Indian classical instruments as a child. She also learned to play the violin and piano, sang in three different choirs and had her own pop group. However, a combination of stage fright and a conservative Indian family heritage that meant she didn’t study music; she did a degree in maths instead. Later she became a sound designer and eventually began to compose her own music, creating music for The Lonely Planet on channel 4, For Sama, a film drama about the Syrian civil war, over 60 documentaries and even some music for video games.
Animation
Milana Karaica is the Founder & Executive Creative Producer at NERD Productions, an animation studio which produces animations for commercials, films, title sequences, museums and exhibitions. She said:
“For me it’s always exciting to be able to pop from one thing to another…. [for commercials] things are always needed for yesterday… but when we are fortunate enough to do projects for museum exhibitions or theatre, suddenly we have what we feel is this luxury of time”
Many of our ScreenSkills job profiles refer to roles which exist in other creative industries. Find out more about being a costume designer, hair and make-up designer, publicist or marketing assistant.
For more information about the range of job roles across the creative industries. Discover creative careers is a website which provides information about job roles in everything from jewellery making to music, publishing, advertising and theatre. Some roles exist in several industries like an electrician, a legal affairs executive or an event manager.
