• To work as a camera operator in film and TV (possibly music videos), and eventually become a Director of Photography. 

Reality:

• I am currently in my third year of a Media and Performance at the University of Salford, a degree that has given me technical and practical experience. 

• I do not have any formal experience on TV or film sets outside of university projects

• I currently do not have the time or means to do unpaid one off jobs to gain more experience

• I do not have a driver’s license, something that limits opportunities for me that are not based in or around central Manchester.

• I have a lack of industry contacts and I have not attended many networking events. 

Options:

• To network more in order to make my name and work ethic known in the industry. I can do this by creating professional social media accounts to display my work and to attend networking events. These accounts would establish my presence online and make me more accessible to directors and/or producers who use their own platforms frequently.

• Gain further insight into the industry through applying for a paid internship such as the previous BFI Film Academy Internship, which focuses on the Creative Development department at HOME in Manchester. It would give me more insight into the administrative side of film distribution, for both independent and big budget films. Additionally, as a staff member at HOME I would be invited to networking events and showcases. Opportunities such as these would give me the chance to discuss my ideas and goals within the industry with professional filmmakers and other creatives. Internships such as this one would also give me the opportunity to work on technical skills, something that I currently struggle with. 

  They would also be beneficial as ones like this are paid. This would enable me to concentrate all of my energy into my work there without worrying about not being able to sustain myself. This issue is faced by a lot of creative graduates, as some of the biggest opportunities for those with less experience tend to be unpaid. 

• I would need to create a showreel to display my talents and experience. This would be used alongside my CV to exhibit my strengths in cinematography and the diverse range of projects of which I have worked on up to this point. 

• Another option, as opposed to a paid internship, is a non-industry part time job alongside the unpaid opportunities on my days off. This option would be more taxing and less accessible however, as my work schedule would limit my time that could be used networking and gaining experience.

• Another important aspect of gaining more experience and eventually an industry job is to be based centrally, typically in Manchester and London. London, of course, has many studios and has been used to film many iconic films over the years: Bridget Jones’s Diary (Maguire, 2001), 28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002), and more recently, Wicked (Chu, 2024). All of these films have become world famous and have grossed millions over the years, thus, London is the place to be for a young aspiring filmmaker. 

  
  

  Furthermore, Manchester is home to Media City, where ITV and BBC studios are situated, and an essential location to be based in for those hoping to work in TV. However Manchester has also been used as a filming location for films such as 24 Hour Party People (Winterbottom, 2002) and Darkest Hour (Wright, 2017). A lot of job opportunities require for someone to either be based centrally or have regular transport, thus I am choosing to stay in Salford in order to maintain accessibility to jobs that come available in the Manchester area. I am also open to working on camera for TV. Being in between Manchester and Media City is a prime location for both of these options. 

Will:

• This Month:  Create a professional Instagram and a Linkedin account.

• Next 2 Months: Submit my documentary to film festivals and attend them regardless of whether our film is shown, in order to network and see other people’s work.

• Next 5 Months: Apply for paid internships within the industry.

• Ongoing: Live centrally and learn how to drive and buy a car in order to commute to work and/or unpaid volunteer jobs.

• She’s In the Band is an independent documentary about women in the music industry and the struggles they face. We hope to create a performative and poetic documentary to expose the industry’s flaws with both first person accounts and musical intervals. 

  
  

  The combination of interviews and music will create a cohesive and meaningful project that will represent these womens’ talents and strife respectively.

  
  

  The interviews will each be held in meaningful locations for the artists, for example; the venue where they played their first gig, their choice of recording studio, or even childhood homes, where they may have first discovered their passion for music. We will interview bands, songwriters, composers and classical musicians alike in order to exhibit the multifaceted world of the music industry. We would also like to talk to managers, labels and other women in executive roles. 

  
  

  We will intercut these interviews with short performances from the artists interviewed in the film, giving them the chance to tell their stories through song. Each of these snippets will be produced as short music videos and will include original songs, covers and even new tracks written for this film. Every one of these songs will be recorded before production and then arranged into an album, which will be released after the film. This will include a score which will be contributed by the composers and classical artists.

  
  

  Meet the Director

• Hi, my name is Claudia Fawbert and I am an aspiring cinematographer and a student at the University of Salford. For this project I have decided to direct in order to bring life to a subject that I am passionate about. She’s in the Band was inspired by a documentary that my crew and I produced in order to discover more about the experiences of independent bands in Manchester. This gave us the idea to focus on the struggles of women in the music industry, something we understand as an all female team in a male dominated industry. We know we have the skills and determination to do justice to this film and really express our support and empathy for the women who will take part in it. 

  
  

  Budget Plans

• The budget will be used to pay the crew and the artists who partake in the interviews, along with hiring professional equipment from No Drama in order to give the film a sleek and professional look.

  It will also be used for travel as we hope to arrange in person interviews with every participant who is interviewed for the film. 

  Furthermore, we hope to hire a professional editor in order to get the most visually satisfying look for both the film and the trailer. 

  We also hope to hire a graphic designer to create a professional film poster for the documentary. 

  
  

  Stretch Goals

1. £6,300 will enable us to pay the artists to record more original songs for the album. This money will also enable us to hire out more than one camera and microphone for interviews and musical segments, resulting in a sleeker and overall more professional documentary. 

2. £10,500 will enable the crew to travel abroad from the UK to interview a wider variety of people all over the world.

• Pledge awards: 

1.  £10 - Limited edition poster. 

2.  £35 - Limited edition t-shirt 

3.  £60 - Poster and t-shirt bundle BONUS Signed soundtrack CD.  

4.  £100 - Associate Producer credit 

5.  £200 - Executive producer credit BONUS special thanks in the credits.

   
   

   Challenges and Risks

• Plausible challenges include the risks that come with holding real interviews for a non-fiction film, as participants are allowed to drop out of the project anytime before the filming of their interview begins. This would set the film back as the crew and I would have to pause production to get in touch with other artists to fill their place. 

  Additionally, risks such as the health of the cast and crew and any illness that may delay filming would overall add more time to filming. 

  We also have to take into account any other outside forces that may pose risk to the production of this film and if filming is paused for over three months every person who pledged is promised their money back.

Thank you so much for your support. 

The film’s main message is anything but subtle and is evident from the get go, as Quiad’s character, Harvey, blatantly fires Moore’s character, Elisabeth, for being ‘past her prime’. “Renewal is inevitable” he tells her over lunch, which is a visual and auditory nightmare, especially for those with an aversion to shellfish. Sound design, music and visuals are tools used by this film to further immerse the audience. Loud electronic music and gruesome sound effects bring the horror to life. Additionally, the contrast between the gore and the flashy TV studios create the perfect balance to showcase Hollywood’s gruesome underbelly discrimination. 

The devastating statement not only causes Elisabeth’s car accident but also foreshadows her own physical renewal into Sue. The phrase also indicates the larger problem with Hollywood and its hatred for older women. The problem even extends past the industry, affecting civilian women too. Collagen, anti-aging cream and endless skin care routines made to keep women looking young. The substance's (a radioactive looking green liquid) aim in the film is to create ‘a better version of yourself’ (Fargeat, 2024), a familiar phrase reminiscent of skin care slogans. This anti-aging process becomes more accessible the more money a woman has, eventually becoming botox, filler and facelifts, a step taken to maintain youthful beauty and stop aging in its tracks. This includes our lead actress, Demi Moore, who has had some work done herself, a purposeful casting choice from director Fargeat and an important role for the actress to have accepted. 

However, the more pressure put on these actors, the more work they are inclined to have done, which the masses then use against them. This is represented by the final form taken by our anti-hero: Monstro ElisaSue, a hybrid of the two women that is born through their lack of respect for each others' time. The crowd is horrified by the woman’s appearance, an event that could have been avoided if only Elisabeth had not been undermined simply for her age. The 'creature' is reminiscent of Cronenberg’s classic body horror flick, The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986), taking obvious inspiration from Brundle’s final form. The creature may also have been inspired by the lesser known cult classic, Society (Yuzna, 1989), in which we see a grotesque creature that is a combination of the entire town in the film's climax as a result of the desire for perfection. The era of body horror was iconic in the 80s for horror fans, but has since been overshadowed by later trends in the genre such as torture porn and the paranormal. Nevertheless, the subgenre will always be infamous amongst enthusiasts due to its unforgettable nature and horrific visuals. 

The success of The Substance in this day and age, however, has surprised many, regardless of them being horror fans, especially now with its many 2025 Oscar nominations. This sudden burst in success for the subgenre completely overshadows the last few quiet years for body horror devotees, as David Cronenberg, who is known as ‘the king of venereal horror’, is no longer the director he used to be in the critics’ eyes; with one of his most recent projects, Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg, 2022), becoming a box office flop. The film was deemed underwhelming, with well known critic and horror fanatic Mark Kermode stating that film was ‘a playful step back rather than an evolutionary step forward’ (Kermode, 2022). This disappointment paired with Cronenberg’s son’s lack of mainstream success convinced the fans of the subgenre’s gory demise, a fact The Substance (Fargeat, 2024) has disproved. 

The world insists that a woman stays looking young, yet they are disgusted when a woman takes surgical steps to fulfill these requests. It is a vicious cycle that is depicted well in Fargeat’s feminist body horror, because being a woman is just that: a living horror film. 

The workshop that inspired me the most throughout the module was James Kennedy’s workshop on film funding in week 4. This workshop helped as he offered volunteer jobs on the music video he was to direct to those of us who were interested. I volunteered and ended up being a runner and helping out as James directed the video for the band Hot Milk’s unreleased song 90 seconds to Midnight. This experience, along with James’ advice on the industry and his story about the success of his short film CTRL Z (Kennedy, 2017), gave me a completely new perspective on the industry as a whole and inspired me to branch out creatively in order to gain experience more easily. He spoke a lot about multitasking and maintaining multiple roles in the filmmaking process all at once. He talked about how important it is to be learning new skills every day and maintaining current skills. I have taken on this advice by continuing with my camera work, whilst also putting more energy into my skills on set/props and directing. Set/props is a role I have experience in and have enjoyed, but I decided to put it on pause whilst I improved my camera skills. However, I have now decided to use all of my skill sets to my advantage in terms of gaining an industry job. Furthermore, whilst I was a runner on the set of the music video I was asked to help the art department with the set decoration for a few scenes. I spoke with the art director and have kept in contact since, as networking is a skill that many of the workshops have emphasised the importance of. Thus, I have decided to centre my professional social media accounts around both camera work and art work in order to expand my options. I believe that set and prop design is integral to a production as it brings the project to life, as LoBrutto states that, since nowadays production design is becoming more prominent in the industry, ‘in turn, the work is more visually interpretive and expressive’ (LoBrutto, 2002). I am also currently gaining experience in the art department of a stage show, as I am assistant props master for an upcoming musical. I have created a few props for this production and really enjoyed making them, however challenging. Much like my work on our Video Drama Project film, A Love’s Bite, I enjoyed discussing world building with the directors and the art team, and it is another aspect that helped me rediscover my passion for art. I am also glad that I have experience in both props and set for films, as ‘when design is considered as part of a film, those elements all work together to make meaning’ (D’Arcy, 2018). The two aspects of filmmaking work hand in hand, and knowledge on both is beneficial to create a cohesive set the actors can interact with. Overall James Kennedy has inspired me to begin my postgraduate career in the film industry by utilising all of my creative learned skills and being open to learning new things every day I am on the job.

In contrast, Rachael Stirrup's talk on her recent experiences as 2nd assistant camera for multiple projects was intriguing to me due to my passion throughout my final year of this degree being cinematography. It is something I have found a great love for as it is enjoyable both to film the scenes, and to take pride in the final look of the project: ‘digital cinematography can be both very rewarding and great fun.’ (Wheeler, 2013). Rachael spoke to us about her role and the time it takes to work your way up. We learnt that it takes time and hard work and no postgraduate will come out of university with an immediate director of photography job. Rachael’s job consists mainly of technical maintenance and keeping track of footage. I was surprised by this, as I was expecting the 2nd assistant camera to be operating the cameras and discussing shot composition. In big productions the camera team consists of more than just camera operators and cinematographer. It made me realise just how much work I will need to put in in order to achieve my dream job. To do this I will continue to strengthen my camera abilities and learn as much as I can about the technical aspects, as I often struggle with understanding new equipment. I will also further my knowledge by completing short courses on videography and cinematography, such as the course ‘Secret Path to Becoming a Cinematographer’ on SkillShare. However, it is not just technical skills that define a good cinematographer, but their creative vision and artistic abilities, as Hoser supports; ‘It is the ability to creatively use film language to help the director interpret a script, story or idea and turn it into images that marks out a cinematographer from someone who knows how to use a camera.’ (Hoser, 2018). Though brushing up on technical skills is important, it is my love and creative imagination that really prove my worth. I believe I have the skills and passion for film to pursue this career. To improve this I will attend film festivals, such as the Manchester Film Festival, and research the kind of media I am most interested in in order to support my current knowledge and expand my film vocabulary. 

Another role I have enjoyed in the past is that of the director. Personally I have not taken it on as often because of the workload and the massive responsibility to execute the film in the best way possible. As Rabiger states, ‘to be successful means having inventiveness and tenacity, an ability to get the best out of a team, a strong sense of vision, and an abiding love for the process of making films’ (Rabiger, 2013). Directing a film is a massive responsibility, something one has to do justice to, to be successful both monetarily and for the cast and crew’s peace of mind. When I co-directed a short documentary about the experiences of independent bands in Manchester for a module, I enjoyed the responsibility. Though the film was short and it simply consisted of performance b-roll and interview footage, we still treated the project professionally as we wanted to do the film justice. In week 3 we had a workshop with Sue Dunderdale, an experienced theatre director who has also directed films and TV. I found her life and career experiences interesting, as she has been directing since the 1970s and is very passionate about her work. Additionally, I found her short film, Last Laugh (Dunderdale, 2005) very beautiful and emotional, both the story and the execution. The film was less than 15 minutes but it really inspired me to think about directing more short projects in the future. I was impressed by how engaged I became with the characters in such a short frame of time, a feat that is harder for short film directors as opposed to directors of feature films. My skills behind the camera also benefit any future directing experience as it is essential to understand every job role in order to direct. I took my inspiration from this workshop to create an idea for a music documentary. I would like to direct this film, titled She’s in the Band, and do justice to women in music’s stories. Though a challenge, given the correct preparation I hope to direct the film successfully, I just need to have my vision for the project clear: ‘the most important attribute that can be taught, the one that if missing will negate all the rest, is clarity’ (Proferes, 2017). Overall Sue Dunderdale made me realise just how much hard work and determination it takes, but also how far it can take you in the film industry, which is male dominated and can challenge women every day. 

In conclusion, I believe that these three workshops in particular have reignited my passions for creating and filming projects efficiently whilst maintaining visual aesthetics. With the knowledge and lessons I have learned I will continue to improve my skills and work hard to achieve jobs that I am passionate about where I can showcase my variety of skills within the film and TV industry. I am currently working on a showreel for my camera work and a portfolio for my creative work in set and props. I will also create social media accounts to showcase this work, along with my current directing experience. Overall the module has taught me a lot about the real world of the film and TV industry and has given me the knowledge and drive to prepare for the inevitable obstacles I will face. 

• Submit our documentary I’m With the Band: Manchester’s Undiscovered to film festivals. This will include the Manchester Film Festival in which we will use FilmFreeway to submit the film for the 2026 Festival. We will also submit to Leeds International Film Festival using FilmFreeway before May of 2025 with the hopes of being featured this year in November. Whether or not our film is screened we will still attend with the hopes of a chance at networking and gaining contacts. 

• Create professional social media accounts in order to display my work and network more. I will concentrate mainly on Instagram and Linkedin for a mix of creativity and professionalism. I will also make sure to follow people with similar jobs to what I am interested in doing, this includes; directors, cinematographers and camera operators. I will also look for people in the art department of films and TV as I have props and set experience within the university. 

• Work on PRP with my group on our music video and documentary. We plan to create both and submit them as one film, as the research and questions answered in the documentary will be expressed in the final product: the music video itself. This final film will present more opportunities than if we just created a documentary as we will have displayed our strengths in creating two types of media. 

Months 3 to 6

• I will look for more jobs as a runner in order to network and make my work ethic known. I first worked as a runner on the music video for Hot Milk’s 90 Seconds to Midnight and I really enjoyed being on a professional set and gaining more experience. I will do this by joining groups on platforms such as Facebook. An example of this is the group People in TV: Runners, that I have joined in order to explore more opportunities in the industry. 

• I will also volunteer to help out with independent and/or student films, especially for work related to camera and/or set and props in order to further my knowledge and experience. To find these opportunities I will keep an eye on my university opportunity emails and also through old coursemates who may be looking for help with their own project. 

Months 6 to 8

• I will work on furthering my technical and general filmmaking knowledge in order to produce my own documentary. A step I will take in order to do this is to partake in the course Interviewing for Documentary with the Landmark Film School. The two day course covers everything from tech to interviewing with an emphasis on conversational skills: “you’ll also gain insights into the human skills you'll need to help your contributor shine in front of camera”. 

  
  

  I will use the skills I learn from this course to begin the process of producing my documentary, She's in the Band, in which I will explore women in the music industry. 

• Furthermore, I will continue to attend film festivals and networking events in order to find people to help with my documentary. I will also pitch this idea to the producer and co-director of my documentary I’m With the Band, with the hopes that we will all work together again. 

• I will begin my research into the treatment and experiences of women within the music industry, something I have become very passionate about currently. My group and I explored the experiences of an independent band specifically in Manchester in Documentary to Mockumentary, and it made me think more so about women’s experiences and the struggles they might face as budding musicians. An example of films about women in music is Sisters with Transistors (Rovner, 2020), which follows female composers within the genre of electronic music. 

Months 8 to 12

• I will create a Kickstarter in order to fund my film, more specifically to pay interviewees and crew, and to hire out filming and technical equipment. 

• Throughout these few months is when I plan to film and edit my documentary. I hope to travel the country and gain insight into the discrimination of the music industry, specifically against women. I will interview bands, solo artists and composers alike. Additionally, I will hopefully have earned enough through my Kickstarter to pay some of the artists for the rights to use some of their music in my documentary. 

• Alongside filming and producing my documentary, I hope to find the time to attend film festivals around the UK in order to network and to spread the word about my upcoming film.

• I will also use some of the budget to create film posters and a trailer for the documentary, two things that are essential in advertising a film. 

• Additionally, I will continue to volunteer for runner jobs for further experience on professional sets. 

Months 12 to 15

• By the 12th month of my plan I am hoping to have finished the documentary and will begin with distribution.

• I will book out a screen at HOME, a cinema in Manchester (having given 12 weeks notice as requested on the website) in order to premiere my film to the cast and crew and other industry professionals. This would not only be a nice event to showcase everyone’s hard work, but would also display our work and film to producers and distributors who may be interested in this film and even funding future projects.

• I also plan to submit the documentary to film festivals, such as Leeds International Film Festival, in the hopes that our documentary will be screened.

• Furthermore, my crew and I will begin research on a second documentary depicting the experiences of women in the film and TV industry. This is a different idea that still ties into our previous film.

• I wish to use both films to expose the struggles of women within both industries and to hopefully help fight for women to have more power within their careers.