Getting to learn from people in the industry themselves has been a learning opportunity like no other. Through my placement, I have been lucky enough to help on three different productions, one a factual TV series and two feature films. Having a broad scope like this has familiarised me with the grammar and conventions of different genres and given me insight on how the things I love to watch actually get made!

My first week consisted of helping fact check on Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport, which continued to week five and helping out on a paper edit for one of the features. Did you know there’s over 400 toilets at Heathrow?... I didn’t either until I started at Raw. Seeing the paper edit gave me an understanding of how the individual components come together to make a film and the reasons as to why certain editorial decisions are made by the director.

For the rest of the placement, I helped with organising archive, transcriptions, casting for a drama recon, helping on a soundtrack task, location scouting, making shot lists, finding references for the DOP and the odd production task. Having widely varied tasks like this helped me to contextualise the different responsibilities needed to make documentaries come together.

A highlight of the placement was in my last week, week six, where I got to go on production for a drama recon shoot in Norwich. Also, to my surprise the hotel room in which I stayed was upgraded to the penthouse which was hilarious 😎 LOL. Seeing the art department, talent, lighting, production, the AD’s, camera department, production and the stunt coordinator work together to create something spectacular felt magical. It was my first time on a professional shoot, and it was made even better by bumping into a friendly face! Ruby, my fellow DocLab trainee, was also there working in costume!

One year ago I could never have imagined that I’d be able to have an inside look at the industry I’d aspired to work in for the last 10 years. The best part of placement has been the support I received from VJ whilst trying to navigate this new environment as well as from Georgina, Anna Marian and Simon from the features I’ve been helping on. Ely and the runner team also have been tremendous help too and made me feel so welcome. Everyone has been so kind and encouraging to a newbie like me and have helped settle the nerves I had about joining a workplace as someone who is neurodivergent. I also can’t say thanks enough to The Grierson Trust and Yen who set me up with this opportunity too. Onwards and upwards!