Caroline Ball on Telly Mums mentoring programme

Caroline made the big and daunting decision at the end of 2020 to take voluntary redundancy from a full-time job at the BBC as a production manager to set up on her own… during Covid! Fortunately, ScreenSkills and Paramount came to her aid.   

“Working from home during the pandemic gave me a different perspective and made me realise I was stuck in a bit of a rut and needed a shake-up, so I put my name into the redundancy hat,” explains Caroline. “I was keen to get into scripted drama and was told that my skillset should be transferrable, so I took the plunge.”

She expected to wait about six months for a job, but fortunately within just three weeks she was offered work on Paramount’s major Hollywood film Dungeons & Dragons. Admittedly, it wasn’t a production manager role, but instead as an executive assistant to the executive producer Dennis Stewart, but it was a good start.

“Dennis said I was far too experienced for the job, but I told him I wanted to have time on set. So he took me to meetings, including with the heads of departments, and I got to see how everything worked during the production at the Titanic Studios in Belfast and on location across Northern Ireland. Soon he was trusting me to do other work, such as equity contracts. It was a great experience, despite the Covid restrictions.”

However, once it was over, the scripted roles didn’t flow in. She was just offered non-scripted again, but was determined not to take them. A brief attempt to do job sharing couldn’t get traction, so she took a few months off to spend time with her family and six-year-old son.

Time then came for her to return to work, but again no scripted work was forthcoming. It was at this point that she turned to Telly Mums Network Mentoring Programme, part of ScreenSkills’ mentoring network, for a helping hand.

The intention of Telly Mums is to help mothers from all levels, backgrounds and nationwide in the TV industry to get back to work after maternity leave, a long career break, or even a mum who has lost her way in TV and needs a helping hand. They aim to match a mentor to assist the mum feel more confident about their next career steps and navigate the juggle of parenthood and work.

“I had always followed Telly Mums on Facebook and had seen the mentoring side of it, helping mums like me move into scripted, which is really long hours and intense. Plus, at that point I had my doubts I could make it work with also being a mum. So I thought mentoring would help me work through that and decide if scripted dramas was the right choice for me at this stage.”

Caroline applied in May, explaining her situation, and was accepted soon after. A couple of months later she started her first of six sessions with Alison Grade, an experienced TV and film producer, lecturer, freelancer and mother, who had also previously worked as a production manager.

“Being paired with Alison was exactly what I needed. She’s really experienced as a freelancer, is great at giving advice, has previously worked as a production manager, and as a mum she gets it,” enthuses Caroline.

It was at this time that Caroline had decided to take a 9 to 5pm job on an unscripted production, but then just two weeks later got offered a production manager job on the CBBC teen sci-fi drama Silverpoint.

This was her big break. She was being given a lot of responsibilities, including looking after the child licensing, cast contracts and pre-contracts, managing PMI purchase orders, and generally assisting the line producer. It was a lot of work.

Fortunately, having Alison in the background providing useful tips and advice proved hugely beneficial. “It was perfectly timed as this was my first production manager credit on a scripted drama and there can be really long, intense hours. Alison was great at giving me the confidence to ask for and manage a better work-life balance.

“She made me realise I do have a voice and can ask for things that I need. Often, I’d just do whatever people wanted me to, but she encouraged me to speak up for myself and know what my red lines are and when to negotiate. Plus, acknowledging that my unscripted skills are actually very transferable. It’s been really helpful.”

That job lasted six months until November. But the sessions with Alison have continued and it’s thanks to her support that Caroline took the plunge to land her current, exciting job working on an American art-house horror film called One of Us, now shooting in Northern Ireland.

“The director reached out on a facebook message board for a producer or production manager to draft a budget for the film, which has an English cast and so they were looking to shoot in the UK,” explains Caroline. “I messaged him to see if he’d be interested in shooting in Northern Ireland and explained the benefits. Amazingly, he responded and now they’re looking to film here in February with local crew.”

Caroline is currently helping get key appointments and will receive her first line producer credit on the film, rather than production manager because she’s doing a lot more.

Her responsibilities include talking to Northern Ireland Screen and the BFI about funding, and ScreenSkills about using Trainee Finder, having previously had success with trainees from the programme on Silverpoint. Plus, she is setting up a production company and bank accounts and reaching out to location managers, casting agents, production designers and heads of department.

“It’s going to be an exciting few months, thanks in great part to Alison and ScreenSkills’ support, and hopefully I can continue in scripted going forward,” concludes Caroline.

The Telly Mums Mentoring programme is part of the ScreenSkills Mentoring Network which is supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funds as part of its Future Film Skills strategy.  The ScreenSkills mentoring team support included managing the mentoring programme administration and communication with mentors and mentees, matching mentoring pairs and delivering training webinars.