The unscripted content industry is facing a critical skills crisis, and industry leaders know they need to take action to address the issue if they want to leverage the booming opportunities.
A 2022 report from ScreenSkills, in collaboration with Channel 4 and the BBC, found that shortages of skilled professionals are particularly acute among production management and senior editorial roles. These shortages can lead to over-promotion, rate inflation, senior staff stepping in to complete junior responsibilities and production delays. The pandemic has only made things worse, with increased pressures on production companies, such as illness and absence, people leaving the industry, and a massive rise in production since the pandemic peaked. According to the report, historical under-investment in production roles, a general increase in commissions, more poaching of people, and high levels of burnout are all factors that contribute to the skills shortage.
However, industry leaders are starting to address the issue by investing in two key areas. 1) training, skills, and career development programs; and 2) scalable cloud-based technology that connects, centralizes and drives positive productivity across projects, people, and organizations.
We have seen an increase in initiatives aimed at attracting and training people to reduce the shortage. Both ScreenSkills (UK) and Screen Australia offer a range of training and skills development programs, including apprenticeships, traineeships, and bursaries, providing hands-on training, mentoring, and industry experience. These programs give trainees the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the industry. It doesn’t address the shortage in senior roles; however, it is a good start.
Technology is another way to address the skills shortage. In short, the right tech can help make the best use of everyone on the team, driving efficiency and productivity across every stage of casting, crewing, and production. Leaders should not underestimate how technology can not only enable the team to deliver faster, better, cheaper projects but also increasingly helps attract and retain skilled professionals.
There are tens of billions of dollars being spent this year on content creation across a range of budgets from mega to shoestring. More people are watching more content, for more time, on more devices than ever before. With so much thatâs exciting and disruptive in the content game, companies are asking their teams to create more with less. It has never been more important for organisations to digitize their end-to-end production process so their teams â wherever they work from â can collaborate and fulfil their roles as productively as possible.
Lumi’s latest information paper is loaded with useful facts, insights, tools, and case studies to help any professional unscripted business understand how to digitize their end-to-end unscripted processes. It explains why leading production companies are moving fast to digitize every stage and how it saves and makes them money while opening up new unscripted opportunities.
By investing in technology, training, and career development, industry leaders can create an environment that enables positive productivity and attracts and retains skilled professionals. This will make everyone’s work more efficient and productive, leading to better project outcomes, happier teams, and more significant opportunities for profitable growth. With the right tools and mindset, we can overcome the skills crisis and create an amazing future for our industry.
Learn why and how screen production companies are digitising their end-to-end process
A seismic shift is happening in the screen production industry. Teams and organisations are being asked to achieve more and deliver it faster, with the same or fewer people and budgets. It has never been more important for organisations to digitise their end-to-end casting, production and management process to maximise positive productivity for everyone involved in creating unscripted content.
Read Lumi’s new information paper “Why screen production organisations are digitising their end-to-end processes”. It’s loaded with useful facts, insights, tools and case studies that can help any professional unscripted production company, wherever you are on your digital journey. Read it, and we promise you will understand why leading production companies are moving fast to digitise their talent, casting, production and management and how it saves and makes them money. Â Not to mention opening up new unscripted opportunities.
