Tim Langley

Okay, so my name is Tim Langley. I am at the Rare Content offices right now, which is based in Market Harborough in Leicestershire. And I am a video producer.

Well, the beauty of what I do, and probably part of the reason why I do it, is there's a mass variety to my job. So there's nothing that I spend the most time doing.

I could be liaising with clients, I can be writing scripts, working on pitch decks, out filming, organising shoots, overseeing edits. So the job role has a mass amount of variety, which is why I love it so much.

There's a lot of variety in my role. So a typical day for me could be in the morning, having a bit of a team meeting with the creative director, maybe videographer, editor, and say we're pitching for a film or for a social media campaign. We might spend time working on ideas and like bouncing ideas around and doing that.

Then I could end up writing a script. So I might actually work on scripts and do script writing and doing voiceovers and that kind of thing.

Then obviously my main role is to look after and actually plan and organise the shoots. So that could mean anything from hiring crew, casting, obviously logistics, like finding locations, booking hotels, organising travel, sorting out the wardrobe and the props. So a huge sort of a variety of things that you can do for that.

And then also there's also, obviously there's more of the actual sort of editing side, post-production side. So obviously we have fantastic editors here that actually do the editing, but as producer, I also edit produce. So I have to oversee the edits and make sure that we're telling the stories in the right way.

And also as well, I have to look after the clients. So again, a lot of client meetings, dealing with emails, phone calls, and making sure the clients are happy and we're keeping them informed throughout the whole process of the production.

Yes, so we're only a small team here, but a very talented team.

So I'm lucky to work with a very good creative director who's also a DOP (director of photography). So DOP is basically someone who makes things look beautiful. So in terms of framing and lighting and making everything look beautiful. So he's fantastic and very creative.

Also videographer here and also an editor. So again, videographer helps support the DOP on the shoots and the editor, obviously, makes it all look beautiful in the end.

And also we have a VFX specialist. So we do a lot of CGI and computer generated films. So we did a Christmas film for the Ritz London and that's got like a little teddy bear in it that goes around the hotel and causes mischief and things. So when we're doing that kind of work, we have a VFX specialist that we work closely with as well.

There's so many things. So again, but the variety is a huge thing. So you get to work with so many different clients on so many different projects. And obviously I also get to work with a fantastic team.

So I'd have to say people is a big thing because I always, I'm not the kind of person that I just could sit on my own all day and work. I'm very much a team player. I love being around people.

I don't like the kind of job role where you're just going to sit in a chair all day, you know, every day. I like being out and about. I like doing things. And on this job, you get to work with so many different types of people and you get to work actually out on different locations.

I mean, we get to work all over the world as well, which is fantastic. And you work with crews and people from all around the world, different cultures. So it is diverse and it is exciting and it's fascinating.

And yeah, the people that you meet, it's gotta be the best thing I love about this job.

So the hardest part is a tough question because... I love it. So therefore, I don't really find any of it hard.

Like I feel blessed in the fact that I'm doing something that I wanted to do that I love doing. And so I suppose the hardest part of the job is probably the admin.

So like in any job, there's always a certain amount of admin. So for me, that's things like budgeting. I'm in charge of all the budgets. I have to make sure that we don't overspend and that we actually make money on the jobs.

So, so managing the budget and that kind of stuff and doing like risk assessments and you know, there's a certain amount of like what I call admin and paperwork sort of side of the job that you have to do.

And I don't dislike it. It's just, that's the more sort of responsible side, I suppose, like the budget. And also it can be a bit, it'll be a bit boring sometimes, but I still enjoy it. So it's fine.

So yeah, probably not the usual route.

So I did communication arts at Huddersfield University, which is a fantastic degree to do. I learned lots of different types of media production. So we did like journalism, radio production, video production, we also did some theatre, like theatre studies, things like that.

It was a variety, but again, what it really taught me was working as part of a team of groups. So a lot of the marking was practical work, wasn't just dissertations and things like that.

So I did a lot of work again, groups of people putting on, making, say you had to do like a, a video together or you had to put on a show together or had to do things.

So that taught me loads, gave me a lot of confidence. It also really honed my sort of people skills, communication skills. And yeah, and it sort of, it made me realize actually what it is I wanted to do in my life, which is basically I wanted to be part of a team and I wanted to collaborate and work on projects that way.

I'm kind of torn. This is probably a bit controversial maybe, but I do kind of feel the education system is a little bit outdated now, in my opinion.

I kind of, I feel like people should be encouraged to do what they love and what they're good at and what they have interests in. And then you should be really like encouraged to kind of hone those kinds of skills.

But my education helped because I did, I had some amazing teachers, you always remember your good teachers. I always loved, I wasn't really much very good at even though I do budgets now, I wasn't very good at maths and sciences and those kind of things.

I was good at English and drama and I did a theatre studies A-Level. And I can say they particularly again helped with my confidence and also like my communication skills, which I think are very important.

I think soft skills are much, much more important than people give people credit for, especially at school. I think that should be taught more.

I think communication skills, soft skills, EQ, so actually being able to have a conversation with someone and really understand how they're feeling and what they're doing and actually being able to connect with people, I think is so important.

I've been very lucky with what I do. I get to travel the world and I get to meet lots of people from so many different cultures.

But one that really stands out for me is one of our clients was the Volvo Group, which is obviously an international client and they own a company called UD Trucks in Japan, just outside Tokyo. And I had to go out to Japan and basically produce a film.

I'd never been to Japan before. I'd never met the client before. And there was just me and my business partner. And we basically had to hire a local crew, a Japanese crew who we'd never met before. And we had to go out there and film over about four days, this big brand film for UD Trucks.

And it was an absolutely fascinating and wonderful experience because when we got out there, we didn't know what to expect. And obviously we had translators because a lot of the crew didn't even speak English.

So we were communicating through translators for the client and for the crew. And we had to coordinate and organise the shoot across their site, in different locations.

And I remember the final scene is over 200 people from all the different departments of the company all had to converge together in this big square and then had to hold up these cards and we had a drone above filming down on the cars and it was the UD truck symbol.

And I had to coordinate this and I had a megaphone and I'm trying to shout and trying to organise all these people converging and as they're walking obviously they looked a bit glum I suppose.

They're saying they're a bit serious and obviously we wanted the whole point of this brand film is it's a lovely company, they're happy and I learnt "motto waratte" which is "more smile".

And I had this megaphone and I'm shouting at all these Japanese people "motto waratte, motto waratte" and just the whole experience of that of me with this megaphone with like 200 Japanese people and trying to organise them I just remember thinking wow this is amazing this is absolutely fantastic.

And we got the shot and it was I remember actually it was so windy the drone kept getting blown away so in the end Dave and the cameraman had to run to the top of this building and lean out over and try and get this shot from the top and we got it and the film was great, the client was really happy.

But as an experience, I just remember thinking, wow, this is great.

First is do what you're good at and do what you love. Like if you find something that you actually are good at and you actually enjoy doing, even if at the time you think, you know, is this going to be a good career or whatever?

My belief is we live in an age where you can make money from doing almost anything. So if you love what you're doing, you're good at it, then you can figure out a way of how to make a living from doing that or how to monetise it.

So my first advice would be just do that, you know, and go for it.

And the second thing, which I touched on earlier is communication skills, soft skills. So put as much effort into that as possible.

If you are confident, if you are articulate, you can meet and speak to anyone from any culture, you know, and you can hold a conversation and you can empathise with people, you will do well. Whatever you do, you will do well because people will like you.

They'll want to be around you. You'll get on with people and you will succeed. I guarantee it. So good communication skills, good EQ.

And then yeah, follow your dream, follow your passion. And I know it sounds a bit corny, but work hard. If you really want to do well, you have to put the work in. There are no shortcuts really.

If you want to succeed, find something you're good at that you love and then work hard at it.