Kyle Graham-Rainford grew up in Morecambe, Lancashire thinking a career in film wasn’t possible as he didn’t know anyone who worked in film and TV where he was from and didn’t know where to start. Kyle struggled to break into the film industry through a lack of contacts and experience. When he discovered the ScreenSkills Trainee Finder programme, he saw it as an opportunity to start following his passion!
He explained, “It just wasn’t in my head that this lad from a small town could work in film! I was going to go into military as that’s what my brothers had done but I took a step back and thought, what do I really want to do? And it clicked – it’s got to be film and TV.”
Kyle joined the Trainee Finder programme as an assistant director trainee and credits ScreenSkills with giving him his key first step in the industry, “Where I’m from, not many people I know are in the film industry, so it was initially very hard to get contacts to get a foot in the door. ScreenSkills helped me overcome that barrier through the film Trainee Finder programme. Now I’m working as an assistant director trainee on a Marvel film and getting calls back from people I’ve previously worked with to offer me work, which is amazing.”
When asked about the impact the programme has had on his life, Kyle said, “film was an escapism as a kid. It’s shaped my personality – so to work on a film that could inspire the next kid and give them that escapism would take me full circle. I’m currently working on a Marvel film and for me you can’t get any closer to the kind of film that gave me escapism as a kid. To now be working on one of those films is amazing!”