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Perseverance: Zak Torrance (left); the figures on the zoetrope cake in Sainsury’s 150th anniversary commercial (above and below left)

Training and careers

If anyone can tell you the answer to ‘how can I get into the film and television industry?’ it’s Zak Torrance. It was only this year

that Zak, 25, realised that he couldn’t stomach a lifetime working in the job he was in, and set his mind to switching. Within six months he’s not merely got a foot in the door, he’s had a succession of jobs including international travel and settled in the locations department.

“I’ve only been in the industry since March,” he says. “Before that I was a club support manager at the Chelsea Harbour Club, but I was thinking could I do another 30-40 years at that? No. My love was TV and film.

“So I left my job, it was a massive gamble, and I walked all over London going to production companies saying: “Hi I’m Zak, pleased to meet you, I’m looking for opportunities” and trying to give them my CV. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but wanted to get involved. Some doors closed in my face but that’s fine. I told myself that if 500 doors closed in my face I needed to knock on 1,000 doors.”

Then came his first piece of luck. The guy who answered the door at one company remembered his name

How to get ahead

Zak Torrance got his first break in the industry only a few months ago – but what a break it was! He talks to Janice Turner about how he got in and became a locations assistant

from when he’d sent his CV for a job there. “He apologised that he hadn’t got back to me, they’d already filled the receptionist post. But he emailed me back the same day and offered me a two-week internship.

“They really appreciated me going in to hand in my CV,” said Zak. “That shocked quite a lot of people, everyone usually just emails them in.”

BUSY PERIODThe internship was during a very busy period for the company, so in those two weeks what happened was “just incredible. On my third day I was lucky enough to go onto a McDonalds bacon roll commercial. My first-ever job was as intern runner, getting experience on set.

“Thursday was a Pizza Hut shoot. Then on Friday I went to the studio and they were shooting a little dog for the Pizza Hut commercial that would be airing in Ukraine.”

On the second week , he ran on a two-day documentary: “I was supposed to come back on the Wednesday but I’d sorted myself out for another job from someone I met on the McDonalds shoot, and this job was a music video for Diplo and Octavian’s song New Shapes.”

But the best moment of the internship was when they asked him to deliver some model figures... to Kiev in Ukraine. “They were shooting Sainsbury’s 150th anniversary commercial and the figures were for a birthday cake zoetrope being made for the commercial.”

After his day trip to Kiev, Zak had been told he didn’t have to come in on the Friday, the final day of his spectacular two-week internship. “Then a friend messaged me asking if I could do an immediate job as a production runner at the Assembly Rooms edit suites.”

Zak met two location managers on the McDonalds shoot. “We didn’t have too much interaction but then I ran into one of them at a football game”. They decided to take him under their wing.

Zak cannot praise them highly enough: “Harry Panter and Grant Cummings, I couldn’t be more thankful for how much they’ve helped me.” Harry Panter messaged him in May about an ITV/ Suzuki Take That commercial, and this was his first locations assistant job. “There was a big team as it was such a big job, putting a funfair in the back gardens of a public school. Grant and

Harry were really pleased with how I did. I was adamant that I was going to do as perfect job as I could as I knew this was my opportunity.“

The union was running a course for new entrants on the Introduction to the art of location managing, which Zak found extremely useful, giving him a better overview of all the different aspects of the job. “It was really insightful – it was a great course, run really efficiently, it was enlightening to see a side of locations I hadn’t seen before, really infomative; I’ve used the knowledge and insight in jobs I’ve done since then.”

He has since been a location assistant with Harry on a corporate commercial and then on a Nike digital campaign called Invitation to Sport.

Later on Zak was back at his first company providing holiday cover for the man who had filled the job he had originally applied for. He has since worked on a 14-week scripted reality series for Multistory Media and had just finished a week on a major motion picture as a location assistant.

The course also opened his eyes to what the union had to offer, “so I joined straight away without hesitation. What’s really nice is I get

a lot of emails and messages about what’s going on and what’s happening. It feels like I’m part of the union and this is what’s happening.”

TOUGH JOBIn joining the locations department Zak has picked a tough grade: one of those with the longest hours on a production. If anyone’s on site they have to be there before and after. “I’ve had wakeups at stupid o’clock, I’ve had days finishing past midnight, but I wouldn’t trade it in for a desk job.

“Some departments start early – caterers turn up at 4am to cook breakfast so we have to set them up with power and water. We might have honeywagons, dining buses and generators turning up early.”

One perennial nightmare is crew parking: if anyone parks in the wrong place it could delay everything, even filming, if a car is in shot and the locations dept have to go through the entire production to find the owner. “On one production we had a turning circle for articulated lorries and someone parked their car in it.”

The course covered location scouting and what makes a perfect location: “It included things you wouldn’t expect, such as access: what happens behind the camera, rather than just what’s in the frame.

“I would say the location manager’s role is to allow the director’s creativity to flourish on screen, providing an environment that suits the cinematography, the vision of the script and provides a safe environment for the overall operation of the production. A beautiful location with no access wouldn’t do the job.”

Zak says: “I’ve been very, very lucky, I haven’t had to use a diary service , I’ve done it through the connections I had made.” Others would no doubt say that he made his own luck through sheer hard work and perseverance. l

I told myself that if 500 doors closed in my face I needed to knock on 1,000 doors

The 2020programmeBectu’s training department has issued its 2020 vocational programme for England, Scotland and Wales.

Movie Magic budgeting and scheduling courses are being run in Scotland and Wales. Cult Cymru are running mental health first aid and mentoring and coaching skills courses, while in Scotland courses include Script Development & Editing with John Yorke.

January has a busy schedule of courses. Introduction to Adobe Premiere is on 13 January while the intermediate course is on 27 January. On the 14th there is the one-day Practical Accredited Children’s Regulations Training and the following day sees the start of a three-day pilot BS7909 Electrical Program, accredited by James Eade.

Free training modules for new young members are in the pipeline, covering the themes of wellbeing, networking, finance and negotiating. And a key event for people wanting to enter the creative industries is Find your Future which takes place in February. Courses later in the year include Finance for freelancers and Beyond redundancy: setting up as a sole trader.

The Bectu reps’ courses programme for 2020 is now online. Visit https://bectu.org.uk/training/ (England), https://bectu.org.uk/bectu-vision/ (Scotland) and www.cultcymru.org/ (Wales). l

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7 February 2020

Find your future

The location manager’s role is to allow the director’s creativity to flourish on screen