Sam Shetabi: Seeing it all Come Together

08 September 10

Sam tells us how his taste for a career in the movie business is stronger than ever as he sees his first film become a finished product.

Sam Shetabi Blog 5 This month has been a month of looking beyond the Screen-Skills experience and seeing where everything I’ve learnt may lead me!

My work with the London Film Academy has now given me the skills and the all-important contacts to be able to really believe filmmaking will be my future.

I was invited back to the LFA for a screening of the films my course mates and I made together the month before. It was first time I’d seen all of the films as finished products but also (and nerve-rackingly) the first time I’d seen the footage of my own DoP’d film full stop!

The standard of the films was remarkable considering we’re all new filmmakers, which is a testament to the teaching and support we received while I was on the Diploma course. Inevitably, there were things I feel could be improved with my film (Why did I have to make that backlight so strong? And why didn’t I milk that cool window effect more?!) but I was really chuffed to see my piece on the LFA’s big screen and my name in the credits for all the other 2 minute films I’d worked on!

All of this experience has been perfect for when I make my own short film this August on my own steam / outside of my bursary placement. Daisy, the Principal at the LFA, has been incredibly generous in offering mentoring and guidance in all the pre-production.

My work with the London Film Academy has now given me the skills and the all-important contacts to be able to really believe filmmaking will be my future.

I’ve been able to don my Producer hat for what will be a short horror filmed at my old school! Best of all, I’ve been able to make new contacts and nurture old ones from the LFA and put together an excellent crew with wide-ranging experience. Fingers and toes crossed the shoot goes well and that I’ve been able to put everything I’ve learnt into practice!

Perhaps the highlight of this month however was just a couple of days spent in the humble offices of BBC Blast! Knowing that I have a keen interest in producing too, Blast invited me to do some of the real training new BBC employees must undertake, from health and safety to working with children. It remains a lifelong ambition to work for the BBC so I was impressed with myself that I didn’t explode with excitement just walking through the entrance to the Media Village in White City (or the BBC Canteen for that matter!).

Being given the chance to have an intensive look at what it takes to be a producer at the Beeb was fascinating. Perhaps most interesting was the emphasis on employees to make sure they are honest and don't deceive the audience. As a wizened TV viewer, I was actually willing to accept more artifice than the BBC deemed acceptable – so I better reign myself in if I ever get to work for Auntie!!