ScreenSkills has been an important part of Holly Bourdillon's career – shortly after university she applied to the ScreenSkills HETV Trainee Finder programme, gaining a placement on The Feed (a sci-fi drama produced by Amazon). While on that show she then stepped up from trainee to second assistant through ScreenSkills' Make a Move programme, and has never looked back. Her impressive CV as assistant editor includes Temple (Sky), World on Fire (BBC), White Lines (Netflix) and Viewpoint (ITV).
Holly grew up in Farnham, Surrey, and “was obsessed with television from about two years old”. She studied graphics, art and photography at school, perfect preparation for the digital film production degree she took at Greenwich University in London.
Holly knew that she wanted to be an editor from the age of 16; when she was doing work experience during her school holidays she saw an edit suite. “I just fell in love with it and made it my mission to work in one,” she says. “It was the storytelling, being able to put everything together like a puzzle piece. It really fascinated me.”
Holiday placements either on set or in post houses followed, convincing her she was on the right career path.
“I was fascinated by how a story could be told. I could have gone down the route of being part of development teams or scriptwriting, but I love the technical aspect of my job - working with different software, VFX, and so on. It's a nice balance of creative and technical.”
Holly describes an early work experience as “stressful” but she now regards the long hours she worked in a positive light. “I learnt a ridiculous amount; I was doing stuff that a trainee should never have done but it meant that I moved up a lot quicker. I don't regret it all and I'm a better person for it.” And, she adds: “The industry has changed a lot since then.”
She was first assistant editor on The Baby (HBO) – which she describes as “the best show I've ever worked on, was female-led and the most diverse”.
“That has such an impact, because it trickles down through every level. Diversity is so important in the industry because if we're trying to tell stories we can't tell them with just one kind of person in the cutting room, or sitting behind a camera, or directing. You've got to have a mixture of people.”
Holly says she has been fortunate to work with “some amazing editors”, including Gary Dollner and Mike Holliday on The Baby “who taught me lots”, and she also mentions Sian Robins-Grace and Lucy Gaymer, producers of the show, “who were really inspiring and made a difference”.
Mentoring is important, says Holly, who says she feels able to ask her colleagues for guidance. “If I don't know how to cut a scene and I'll go and chat to an editor who'll say, 'Well this is how I would do it'. It's great to have people to turn to offer support.”
Holly is currently working with “a supportive team” on One Day (Netflix); “The content is really good, the actors are great and I'm really enjoying it.”
Her goal is to work as a drama editor in HETV and she would like to step up to editor within the next few years; to that end in her free time she is cutting short films, and learning new editing skills as she works directly with directors. “I'm itching to move up, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, because this will be the hardest jump to make.”
Holly is grateful to ScreenSkills and the part it has played in her career, saying: “ScreenSkills is so crucial and such an important resource. Any time I'm asked about entering the industry I always recommend ScreenSkills. This is such a difficult industry to break into – without ScreenSkills I don't know how I would have made it.”
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