Have no clue where to start when getting into the industry? Tom Wealthy shares what it takes to start working on your own, what going to university for production is really like, and what inspired him to go down this path.

Is university worth it?

“I did a two year accelerated course at SAE for film production. We did hands-on stuff quite frequently, there were 4 lectures a week, but then a lot of the time we were off doing our own scripts or we were off getting to know the cameras or audio equipment, the lights.

“We had to do things like a 3 minute VNF (visual narrative film), that was the first thing we ever did. I had no clue what I was doing, I couldn’t find an actor to play a musician so I just had to do it myself in the end.” 

Though working alone is sometimes a problem, university is the perfect place to hone your skills through working with others and making mistakes without backlash. 

“Everything we did, we had to pitch in front of the class, our lecturers and sometimes the head of campus.”

“Carl and Ste our lecturers would give us areas to build on if they saw areas in the presentation that there was something we hadn’t fully thought out yet, they’d say ‘’maybe do this, this sort of style might work for it.’” 

Though some people choose not to attend university if they intend to go into TV or film production, for Tom it’s shown to be a valuable asset that’s only built upon his knowledge. We asked him if he’d recommend going to university for a practical course like this and we got a resounding yes.  

“Even just getting the insider knowledge of how stuff works before you go out and do anything so you can just get the initial f*** ups out the way so you don’t embarrass yourself. I mean you still will, God knows I did.

“Also, the people as well. You’ll meet a lot of people who will give you new ideas, people that will work with you and your ideas. They’ll work as your editor, your DOP and they’ll help you with locations sometimes. You just workshop stuff with the people you want to work with to get the best result, it works better than if you’d have done it entirely on your own.” 

Equipment

It’s not just the people or the knowledge that make university worthwhile.

“It’s definitely worth doing, even for the equipment alone.

Realistically the nine grand is paid off in small sums, to buy the cameras ends up being the same amount as a year at uni, and then you’re at least getting instructions on how to use them along with everything else so it’s worth it.” 

People at the university would also consider what was capable, even in terms of equipment in relation to what was best to use and what was realistic.

“You’d get given the basics and the knowledge of what equipment was best to use and what you could handle. We workshopped how we’d get a Steadicam up the stairs and do a full 180 on the staircase in a pretty small house, Ste (a lecturer/ technician) helped us figure all that out. We got a pretty good rundown of the Steadicam as well.” 

There were also times where cameras would be too heavy for one person to hold for such a long period of time, all of this was taken into consideration and changes made, something that wouldn’t be possible without working with others. 

Inspirations 

When asked what made him want to get into this line of work, Tom’s answer could be summed up in two words: “Sam Witcher.” 

When looking at what A Levels to do, Tom ended up choosing a media course.

“I thought ‘media seems chill, I could look at stuff like that’. I’d always liked making videos and telling stories when I was a kid, but I’d never really tried telling stories through a different form.”

“I like stories and getting stuff across, making people laugh and making people think. You never hear enough people saying: I like making people think.” 

After choosing media as an A Level, Sam Witcher became Tom’s teacher for the subject. 

“His constant ability to be absolutely lovely. His passion for film and TV and the indepth-ness that he would talk about stuff was impressive. I think he just sees things that other people don’t.” 

The course and the teachers seemed to have a large impact on Tom as at the end, he ended up going to his university course to study film production. 

What’s he Done and What’s Coming Next? 

In and out of uni, Tom’s worked on lots of different projects from documentaries to comedy shows.

“One of the last semesters we had, we did a 10 minute documentary on the Liverpool artist Terry Duffy on one of his cope projects.” 

He also worked on a documentary project Hidden Treasures, something that he still wants to make into a series.

“Me and Seb (another student on the course) spent quite a bit of time on that. Talking and going through stuff, we did a lot of planning ourselves behind the scenes. I directed and presented on it but Seb was assistant director and DOP, he also edited, he had his work cut out for him.

He’s even got a production company going, Arrowe Productions (named after the Arrowe Brook and not the hospital). Started with friends, they’re currently starting a new hiking series “Bush”. “I’m gonna try and use Arrowe Productions to get the documentary series ‘Hidden Treasures’ going a bit more, once I have the cameras I can get to filming and hopefully have a good series presenting and directing.” 

“There’s a few different documentary shows I want to do, but they’re all in a notepad currently.”

He’s not limiting himself to just film and TV: “I’ve done music videos as well and live gig videos, last Christmas we did a music video for the Merseyside-based band Rozemary. There’s a few more music videos I want to do, something more narrative driven.” 

Looking to the future, he’s currently working on a TV series Heavy Salad by Ste Bell, which is currently still being filmed. With all of his past work and future ideas, there’s no telling what he’ll do next. 

Any advice?

“It might take a minute to think of solid advice, but there’s definitely prerequisites to getting into production.

“Every single person here is just a bit insane, you just kind of have to be. No sane person would sit for 20 hours a day for 3 weeks doing this when they could’ve done it with other people but just chose to do it on their own. Generally just being a little unhinged is a prerequisite.”

So if you’ve established that you have ticked off all the prerequisites Tom mentioned and you’re stuck for ideas, what’s next? 

You’ve just got to go places and see things, I’m not talking massively but just even go to the park. I’ll go out on my bike and I’m like ‘I’ve just had an idea.’ It’ll be completely unrelated from the setting, but just do stuff that clears your head and brings you ideas.

It’s not always going to be right the first time, that’s a given for anything. Sometimes it’ll take 50, sometimes it’ll take 200 iterations. You’ve just got to push through until you’re happy with it and sometimes you just need to stop for a few hours, go outside and get some air and stop walking in circles.

And finally just pool your ideas with people, even if you think it’s mediocre, it’s good to have the options. Sometimes the shot you don’t expect to even look good looks the best and you find you outdid yourself by accident.”

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