Aleysha Minns, Class of 2013 | Pinewood Studios & BAFTA Crew

AleyshaMinns_2016As September has come and gone again, seeing my 3rd LSFM media mentee with her graduation photos, it just reminds me of how long ago 2013 feels. The past 3 years have been a bit of a rollercoaster, with the past 12 months being some of the most difficult but incredible of my career so far. 

The last half of 2015 was tough, finding work was a nightmare and I was ready to give up on the whole thing. That was until February of this year, when I got to live out my childhood dream of working at Pinewood Studios on my first big budget film, taking the leap from Production to the Locations/Studio department as a trainee. Confidentiality surrounding these types of films mean I can’t say anything about it until release, but I spent up until August there and has been the lift that I needed. Since then I’ve been working on commercials and have been accepted into BAFTA Crew 2016, which is a huge honour and made it on to the list on my 2nd attempt. To top off the year, Beautiful Devils (2015) premièred at Cannes Film Festival to a great reception and my first ever film credit on ID2:Shadwell Army (2016) recently came out in cinemas and DVD. Continue reading

Aleysha Minns, Class of 2013 | Career Update: Working in Film

Aleysha-minns_Update2015_04-06 18.24.49I have just finished working as a Production Trainee on the feature film ID2: Shadwell Army (2016), which was shot entirely in Hull. After a few years of hard work, gaining a place on Channel 4’s 4Crew and becoming a Skillset Film Trainee, both came together to provide contacts as well as funding to help me gain my first feature film role in the relatively small but amazing production team.  The film is a sequel to ID, released in 1995, and had two incredible Producers, Sally Hibbin (Ken Loach’s producer) and Patrick Cassavetti [Brazil (1985), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)] who both felt very strongly about providing film training for local people. I spent 7 weeks helping to create our fictional Shadwell and learnt so much about working in Production as well as how feature film works.

Aleysha-Minns-with Linus RoacheThe cast was also incredible, with the likes of Simon Rivers, Linus Roache (pictured with me), Neil Pearson and Lee Ross, I learnt a lot from watching and speaking to them on set/in the office as well as helping them out with anything they needed. Being a trainee in a smaller team means that you get to know every person in every department and receive much broader training. Continue reading