The Size and Shape of the Industry
The size and shape of the post production industry is constantly changing however we can track this change using employment census'. The number of organisations that responded to the 2015 census compared to the 2012 census has decreased from 47 to 22 and the number of workers in the UK has decreased from 8900 to 8650. This suggest that the industry is starting to shrink and that there may be a lack of workers in the future. The majority of companies in the UK are based in Greater London and the South of England whereas the workforce is mainly spread between Greater London and the North of England. The proportion of freelancers in post production is only 31% which is below the sector of 43%. There is also a lack of diversity and equality in the sub sector with only 24% of the entire workforce being female and only 5% being from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic backgrounds.
In the post production sector 13 out of the 15 companies in The Full Picture report admitted struggling to fill roles especially the role of edit assistant. The report suggests that, due to the ever evolving digital age, candidates do not have the right mix of technical knowledge and IT ability. The companies believe that candidates do not have enough experience handling data and that they are struggling to keep up with the constant changes in already sophisticated softwares. A lot of the blame seems to be heading to universities because of the lack of high end equipment due to high costs. To get around this, many companies are employing people as runners in order to develop their skills within the company. This means that it may be more difficult to find a job once you have a degree and that the best route in at the moment is to go straight into work.
Having researched various different sub sectors and routes into those sub sectors, I would like to continue to pursue a career in post production and more specifically editing. I would prefer to go to university as I will gain a far more in depth knowledge of the field and I will gain a good qualification out of it. However, if I were to go down this route then I would need to work on my IT skills and make sure to keep updated with any changes that will take place. I also need to keep working on my data handling skills despite having some prior experience. The logical area to study and work in is Greater London and the South of England as this is where the vast majority of post production companies are based.