EVE August

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The culture of Film and TV production such have a big part to see if more junior roles can carry out jobs without a lot of supervision and have a ‘can do’ attitude towards their roles. These qualities are very useful because when something happens on set the senior members of the team need to know that they can always rely on the rest of the team to keep the department together.

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Someone who has made a good impression is usually the one offered the job or given a strong reference if the production doesn’t have any openings at the time.

The next step from accounts trainee is to move to the role of assistant production accountant which happens when the trainee has consistently shown the ability to work on their own. The route would have to depend on the size of budget and whether it is for Film or television.

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On a small production there would only be one assistant rather than a lot. The role will require a lot of understanding as they may have responsibilities across many areas like for instance payroll, accounts payroll and petty cash.     

On a medium production the new assistant would be taking on a more specialized role such as being responsible for the administration of petty cash.

On a larger production you are most likely to join a team of other assistants whose position is noted by moving towards being the first assistant production accountant.

Production accountant is the next role which requires analytical and strategic skills and experience as well as interpersonal skills such as high level people in management. It also requires a understanding of how a production works and how film and television are financed.

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They can take on small production jobs from their own office and they may also work in post-production which allows for shorter days and more predictability since the production is no longer running,

Medium sized television productions may have a senior production accountant overseeing multiple assistant production.

People move from production accounting into more production roles like production co-ordinator, production manager, line producer or producer depending on the lever of experience you have developed. It’s very useful to understand the financial side of production for someone working in the production team.

Other possible routes would be working on set, starting as a runner and working as a portfolio accountant for a broadcaster. Any role on a production will allow you to have a good look into the kind of challenges faced on production. People have moved from those on set roles because they begin to like the more crafting services such as the art, design costumes or any other assistant director roles. Another route would be starting as a runner which is a common route into production accounting, working closely with the production accounting department allows the person to understand how the activities of other teams impact the budget holders. Experienced production accountants believe they are able to say they worked in a junior role in a different department.

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Working for a broadcaster can be very effective in ways to develop skills and a lot of experience in production accounting. Since they are responsible for a portfolio of productions ranging from children’s programming to comedy and dramas.

It is worth knowing some areas of the industry qualifications more than others. Freelance senior production accountants or financial controllers on large films must have a good track record for large film productions in order to be approved by the financiers of the production. Doing this training early in your career as experienced production accountants suggested that having this level of understanding of accounting is useful throughout your career.

When getting started in in a career you’d need certain experience to be able to choose which route is for you and if you have enough experience for that role.