You don’t need a huge budget to create a masterpiece, and you can spot continuity errors from a mile away, but can you prove it to the recruiter?
As these roles can be competitive, you need to go above and beyond if you hope to secure an interview – and we can help you do this.
Check out our guide below to learn how to cut together an impressive application, including a filmmaker resume example to inspire you.
Guide contents
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Filmmaker Resume Example
This example Filmmaker resume gives you a general idea of how to structure your own resume, along with the type of content you need to include.
Sticking with this resume format will help you to get noticed by employers and ensure that they can quickly see the benefit of hiring you.
Now, lets walk through a step-by-step guide on how to write your own winning resume.
Filmmaker resume layout and formatting
Formatting is often overlooked when writing resume, but it’s a crucial element of it”s success.
Creating a document that not only looks good, but is easily comprehended, is the key to gaining and holding the attention of busy hiring managers.
Use these formatting tips for best results.
How to format your resume
- Length: Keep your resume to 2 pages or under. You’ve probably heard that recruiters and hiring managers don’t have lots of time to read every resume, so keep yours brief if you want to ensure that they read all of the important info in yours.
- Font & text: Nobody likes to read huge unbroken paragraphs of text – and recruiters are no different. Break your resume text up with bullet points and use a clear simple font.
- Design & layout: Allow recruiters to skim through your resume with ease, by dividing the page into clear sections with headings and borders. The design of your resume should be eye-catching but not overly complex – keep the style and color scheme simple and clean.
- Photos: It’s not mandatory to add a photo to your resume in the USA but it if you’re applying to organizations within the creative fields, it can be beneficial.
Quick tip: Achieving a professional look for your resume can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want to create an attractive resume quickly, try our quick-and-easy Resume Builder and use one of their eye-catching resume templates.
Resume layout
When you write your resume, include the sections below.
- Name and contact details – Pop these at the very top to ensure recruiters know how to contact you.
- Resume summary – An eye-catching paragraph which summarizes your most valuable attributes – placed near the top of your resume
- Skills section – A bullet pointed list of your most in-demand skills, enabling recruiters to see your suitability from a glance.
- Work experience – List some or all of your previous jobs in reverse chronological order – voluntary work and college placements can be included if you have no paid experience.
- Education – A summary of your professional training and academic qualifications.
- Additional info – An optional section for anything that may boost your application, such as relevant hobbies and interests
Here’s what you should include in each section of your resume.
Resume Contact Details
Keep your contact details short to save resume space and include the following.
- Name and profession title
- Cell phone number
- Location – Add your local area such as Silicon Valley or New York, unless you are looking for work in a different location
- Email address – Keep it professional and don’t use an old address that you thought was cool in high school, but now looks a bit embarrassing.
You can add a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one – you do not need to include personal details like date of birth or marital status.
Filmmaker Resume Summary
Your resume summary is like an elevator pitch. It’s your chance to sell yourself to employers within a short space of time.
Achieve this by summarizing your skills and expertise, whilst highlighting your abilities that closely match the jobs you are aiming for.
3 tips for creating a resume summary that will get noticed:
- Keep it concise: Your summary is intended to be a high-level introduction to hook readers’ attention, so keep it brief (4-7 lines) – save the details for later in your resume.
- Tailor to target jobs: Recruiters will be scanning for the skills and knowledge they mentioned in the job description, so add as many as you can to your summary.
- Don’t use cliches: Recruiters always see cringey cliches like “hardworking guru who works well in a team or individually” – they don’t mean much to anyone, so focus your summary on tangible skills and experience.
Example resume summary for Filmmaker
What info to include in your Filmmaker resume summary?
- Summary of experience: What type of organizations have you worked at? What types of roles have you done and what have you contributed to previous employers?
- Relevant skills: Scatter your most in-demand Filmmaker skills through your summary to ensure they are noticed quickly by hiring managers.
- Vital qualifications: If your job requires any qualifications such as a professional course or a college degree, mention it briefly in your summary.
Quick tip: Choose from hundreds of pre-written summaries across all industries, and add one to your resume with one-click in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder. All written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset and style.
Core skills section
Underneath your summary, write a core skills section to make your most relevant skills jump off the page at readers.
It should be made up of 2-3 columns of bullet points of your relevant skills.
Before you do this, look over the job description and make a list of any specific skills, specialisms or knowledge required.
Then, make sure to use your findings in your list. This will paint you as the perfect match for the role.
Top skills for your Filmmaker resume
Storyboarding – creating storyboard panels to visualize the films storyline explaining everything that’s going to happen in each shot and speeding up film production.
Screenplay Adaptation – creating films based on pre-existing material/adapted from another source, such as from a novel, any other type of book, a memoir, articles, short stories, TV series, and other films.
End-to-end Production – overseeing the work, tasks, logistics and processes that contribute to the successful completion of a film, from original conception through to public release.
Commercial & Independent Film – working on both mainstream cinema release films and independent films which are entered into local, national and international film festivals to gain exposure with distributors who may then buy the distribution rights.
DaVinci Resolve/Adobe Suite – highlighting use of key software packages which provide professional video editing, color correction, visual effects and audio postproduction.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy Resume Builder contains thousands of in-demand skills for every profession that can be added to your resume in seconds – saving you time and greatly improving your chances of landing job interviews and getting hired.
Resume work experience section
So, you’ve grabbed the recruiters’ attention with your summary, now it’s time to show them what you’re really capable of in your work experience section.
List your previous jobs from current to oldest, showing off the impact you made at each organization.
If you have tons of experience, you should just list the most recent an relevant jobs – but if you have little or no experience, add it all and even consider putting in voluntary work.
Structuring your job descriptions
Resume job descriptions contain lots of information, so its crucial to structure them well.
Use the structure below to ensure hiring managers can consume the information easily.
Job outline
Each role description should begin with a qucik summary of the job and company, along with how the job fits into the strucuture of the organization.
Key responsibilities
The bulk of the role description should be comprised of bullet points that explain all of your duties in the job.
Keep the sentences short and simple to make them easy for recruiters to digest.
Key achievements
Finish each role by highlighting some impressive achievements you made whilst in the role.
Anything that benefited the employer can be included from making financial savings, to winning new customers.
Quantify your achievements with facts and figures if you can, e.g. “reduced call wait time by 10%”
Example job for Filmmaker resume
Outline
Film maker at an independent studio in San Francisco that produces 32 Avant Garde and contemporary shorts and features each year, developing new film proposals and overseeing the end-to-end creative process and production.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee the end-to-end creative production of short and features
- Plan and deliver direction for actors during rehearsals and on set
- Read, discuss and select proposal scripts from internal and external screenwriters
- Work closely with writers to edit screenplays and translate them to film, incorporating and encouraging individual creative voices
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
After your work experience, add your education section.
If you are an experienced professional, you can keep this part short – adding basic details of each qualification.
If you have little or no experience, bulk this section up by adding more detail and highlight important skills and knowledge for your target jobs.
Additional information
At the end of your resume, you can add any extra information that might be relevant to the jobs you are applying for.
This could be hobbies, interests, publications, clubs or memberships.
This section is optional and doesn’t need to be added if you have nothing more relevant to add.
Writing your Filmmaker resume
Writing a Filmmaker resume can be challenging but following the steps above will ensure that you land plenty of interviews.
If you want to speed up the process and use an attractive professional template, try out our quick-and-easy Resume Builder.
Good luck with your job search!