Production coordinator Shelley Rees says she is “absolutely delighted” to have been selected for the ScreenSkills Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) programme. It's a three-year programme focused on providing comprehensive and tailored support to mid-level professionals working in high-end TV to give them the tools to progress to senior level, decision-making roles in the future.
Shelley has been acting in theatre, film and television since she was a teenager but after spinal surgery three years ago wasn’t sure if that would continue, and so decided to diversify.
She completed a short SkillsCymru production coordinator course and then worked on the film The Trick (made by Vox Pictures). “I absolutely loved it,” Shelley says. Then last year she was accepted on the ScreenSkills Leaders of Tomorrow programme and gained her first LOT placement as a production coordinator on the BBC drama Steeltown Murders. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with very supportive people who have been so generous with their time and support,” she adds. “I’m very excited by the work. I like to learn, I like the intensity of the work - even the long hours.”
Shelley believes her acting background helps her as a production coordinator. “As an actor, there was an awful lot of stuff behind the scenes that I hadn’t really thought about. You kind of take it for granted that issues are sorted out - and it’s usually the production coordinator doing that.”
She points to other transferable skills: “I’ve always been a people person and I’m really organised, which I always was as an actor too. I was punctual, I researched every role, knew its character arc and so on. I know the anxieties actors can have, and I’m the kind of person who likes to help people if I can.”
She points to how the Leaders of Tomorrow programme has already helped her. “With the bursary that comes with it I have been able to upgrade some of my kit, including my laptop and software training, and I've bought some good-quality wet-weather gear.”
Her mentor on the Leaders of Tomorrow programme is producer Adam Knopf, himself a graduate of various ScreenSkills programmes and is now the chair of the ScreenSkills Wales Working Group, who she recently worked with on the BBC's Lost Boys and Fairies - Shelley's second placement through the Leaders of Tomorrow programme. “I feel very fortunate to be working with him, and working on Lost Boys and Fairies was joyous,” she says.
“He’s incredibly supportive, and a natural nurturer. He has been preparing me to step up to production manager; from the start he insisted I sit in on the weekly budget cost report meetings and departmental budget meetings. Hearing the decisions being made and how that affects the budget is so helpful. And he gave me a few lines of the budget to manage - the chaperones and some of the music. It’s given me a very good insight.”
Shelley grew up in Ton Pentre, in the Rhondda, and is bilingual in Welsh and English. One of her first acting jobs was on the long-running Welsh-language soap Pobol y Cwm - “My acting apprenticeship” - and she is “passionate” about Welsh-language drama. She believes it’s vital that it’s supported by the industry.
On Lost Boys and Fairies, the Wales-set drama which has just wrapped, Shelley managed to combine both her careers; she was production coordinator but also played a cameo role. “It was fun,” she says.
In her next job - on the second series of Dal y Mellt (Rough Cut, the English-subtitles version, is the first Welsh-language drama on Netflix) - she is stepping up to production manager.
“I want to develop my skillset and step up to line produce and eventually produce. But I believe I should do all the steps to reach that point in my career, and to do it well,” Shelley says.
“I’m thrilled to be part of the Leaders of Tomorrow programme and it has already broadened my horizons. The support I’m getting from ScreenSkills is fantastic; they have an open-door policy where I can check in any time with them and get advice. I’m very grateful.”
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