Written by Malik Hilliman.
Malik is a Staff Writer for Novel Entertainment by day and tests the limits of how much a person should talk about film and TV by night.
There’s often a strange invisible velvet rope wrapped around the concept of working in a creative industry. Conversations about wanting to work in Film and TV are often punctuated with a rapid, “you’ve got to know someone.”
And then if you’re talking to your parents, an even quicker “why?”
This velvet rope of exclusivity is often what leads people to not pursuing a job in this industry whatsoever. Not having the right connections, or not being in the correct place or not studying the correct subject are all feelings I experienced at school and I imagine many kids feel now. Indeed, Film and TV can seem like an exclusive wine bar that you only realise is there once you see pictures of your favourite director stumbling out of it.
These misconceptions are what we are aiming to counteract. The opportunity to do this came when we decided to update our stand, for a virtual careers fair (2022, everyone). We decided we wanted to add some virtual life to our virtual stand. The main goal being to demystify common misconceptions about the industry and to give students an opportunity for work experience, essential for them to be aware of how varied and beautiful our industry is.
This was the main aim of our introductory video. Highlighting the varied backgrounds that we all came from- to display the point that: of course you don’t need to know someone, and of course you don’t need to live in London to work in our creative industry. Ultimately, every story is incredibly different, and this is why we made the video.
Sure, if you love cameras and writing, there’s a place for you in the industry. But there’s also a place for you if you just really love spreadsheets (and they’re out there, big time!), or organising groups of people. For our industry to function, it requires many different types of people in many different types of roles. Our goal here was to illustrate that, and to inspire a new generation of students embarking on their work experience week to join this incredibly varied and creative industry.
Hopefully over time, these myths will become a thing of the past and we’ll all step over that much lower velvet rope.