Free Downloadable Film Resume Templates and Expert Writing Tips
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Films have the power to engage an audience through the materialization of the artistic vision and effort of the creators. Likewise this guide will help you materialize a resume that shows your capabilities as a film professional and land you your next role in film creation. We’ll walk you through the resume-building process so you’ll end up with a competitive resume that encompasses your skills, specialization and expertise in the film industry. With career-based examples, resume templates and role-specific skills, we’ll help you create a resume that’ll get your foot in the door.
Best Free Downloadable Resume Templates for Film Jobs
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Positive showing
This free resume template features distinct sections and a hint of color. Help recruiters easily gauge the scope of your skills by marking your level of proficiency and quickly read through your professional experience by letting their eyes get drawn to the orange text highlighting each job title. -
VIP
This neatly organized free template uses green headers to separate each resume section. Make a good first impression and demonstrate your organizational skills, eye for detail and professionalism by downloading this template and turning it into your best resume yet. -
Majestic
This free resume template looks like a page straight out of a story book. Customize this resume to show your creative side while easily displaying your proficiency level per skill and showcasing your relevant social media links. -
Blue side
Featuring a minimalistic design and aesthetically pleasing font, this free resume template is ideal for film professionals interested in showcasing their organizational skills at a glance. Download this template and replace the filler text with your career details to feature your phenomenal work history front and center. -
Fine points
Clearly defined sections and a splash of baby blue categorize this free template. Draw attention to your work history and your skills equally by placing them side by side and distinguishing them with color. -
Multitasking
This free downloadable resume template exudes a sense of elegance. Highlight your best skills and experiences and draw attention to your job’s tasks, strengths and achievements.
9 Film Resume Examples
Resumes are essential for getting your foot in the door of the job you want, regardless of your profession. Every resume is different, telling the story of professionals with different experiences, abilities and merit. Depending on your unique career level and strengths, you can organize your resume into one of three resume formats: chronological, combination and functional formats. Each format organizes your skills, career background and qualifications differently to feature your best professional attribute first.
We have resume examples for chronological, combination and functional format so you can clearly see how they emphasize and de-emphasize different aspects of your professional identity.
Chronological Resume
The chronological resume emphasizes your work history by describing your career accomplishments, achievements, responsibilities and application of your skills. It’s ideal for professionals with a consistent and established career (i.e., over 10 years of experience).
By focusing on work history, this format brushes over your skills and education. However, it’s an excellent format for candidates with extensive careers as hands-on experience is crucial for film professionals to assert their presence in the film industry.
These resume examples will demonstrate how chronological resumes can be utilized for certain roles:
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1. Art director - video: The chronological resume is excellent for displaying Luigi Rossi’s expansive career history which started as an assistant art director and has progressed into a senior art director role. If you’re career shows a similar progression, this format is for you. Download this resume template and change the prewritten content with your information. And, like Luigi did in his resume, ensure you only include past experience and skills that are relevant to the role to keep it concise.
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2. Producer (video): Rihana Adler’s rich and established career stands out with the chronological resume. This format sheds light into the different tasks that she performed in her different roles that can contribute to her potential new job, like having produced and edited over 30 projects.
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3. Program manager: In Maeve Kellett’s case, the chronological resume is ideal to disclose her journey from lead video editor to digital media program manager. Maeve’s strong qualities can easily be seen in her clear and detailed descriptions of her past tasks, responsibilities and achievements.
Combination Resume
The combination resume gives equal importance to your skills and work history and is ideal for a film professional with a consistent yet early to mid career level (i.e., less than 10 years). The combination resume is best for seeking promotions, switching fields and applying to new companies or for entry-level positions (if you have informal, academic or internship experience). This format is not suitable for candidates with long gaps or without some experience in their desired field, however.
The following resume examples can help you understand how the combination resume format benefits certain roles and experience levels:
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1. Animator: This combination resume allows Hallie Alvarez to display her skills and career history equally by placing these sections side by side. Hallie is at the midlevel of her career with a consistent career record, making the combination resume ideal for her.
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2. Location manager: This combination resume aids Essam Dawkins by stressing his skills without downplaying his professional journey. He began his career as a location scout and worked up to a studio set designer, accumulating a strong skill set along the way, making the combination format his ideal choice.
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3. Videographer: Videographers require a strong skill set to establish a career in the film industry. The combination resume is beneficial for Rylee Dawson to highlight her relevant top skills while showing she also has experience in the field.
Functional Resume
The functional resume is ideal for professionals lacking experience in the film industry and attempting to kick-start their careers. This resume is preferred by recent graduates (with no experience), or those applying for part-time and entry-level roles.
A word of caution: the functional resume is not applicant tracking system (ATS) compliant nor a recruiter’s favorite format. With that in mind, it may still benefit you if you have the skills to do the job but your career history would hurt your chances of getting called for an interview.
We have the following resume examples depicting how the functional format substitutes the work history for an expanded skills section effectively:
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1. Boom operator: The functional resume is best for Constance Geller as she has minimal experience. The descriptive skills section demonstrates how she has used her skills to perform the tasks of the role she’s after, proving she’s a capable professional.
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2. Compositor: Cora Godfrey has cleverly used the functional resume to position her very limited work history at the bottom. Cora’s qualifications, education and role-specific skills are emphasized to pull focus away from the limited work experience and prove she can do the job.
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3. Prop supervisor: Marco Adams has an entry-level experience, thus he adopted the functional resume to showcase his qualifications, skills and education over his limited experience. By starting off with a summary of qualifications and his listed skills next to it, recruiters pay less attention to Marco’s work history until they’ve made it to the end.
What Can You Earn as a Film Professional?
Knowing how much money you can make by realizing your dream as a film professional is helpful. Many variables determine the salary range for professionals in the industry, including your position, skill set, geographic location, specialization and experience.
The following table demonstrates the average salary of film professionals differing by role and experience levels:
Role
Average Annual Salary
Experience 5-9 Years
Experience 10-19 Years
Average Annual Salary
$45,935
Experience 5-9 Years
$48,834
Experience 10-19 Years
$55,628
Average Annual Salary
$49,432
Experience 5-9 Years
$51,763
Experience 10-19 Years
$60,085
Average Annual Salary
$85,285
Experience 5-9 Years
$89,397
Experience 10-19 Years
$99,958
Top Film Skills for Your Resume
Skills are crucial to demonstrate your capabilities to perform the job well and have positive interactions with your team members. In order to give a thorough view of all your top skills, you should incorporate a balanced mix of soft, hard and technical skills throughout your resume’s sections. Here’s how to do it:
- Opening statement: The professional summary or career objective statement includes two to three of your most relevant and best skills. Suppose you are applying for a videographer’s role; you can emphasize your video editing, sound mixing and camera handling expertise in your opening statement. Likewise, producers can underline their project scheduling and budget planning skills.
- Skills section: This section lists six to eight of your role-specific skills. For example, program managers can list their project management, supervising and budget planning expertise. Similarly, producers can highlight their filmmaking, fundraising and crew managing skills.
- Work history: This section talks about how you’ve used your skills to perform the tasks and responsibilities of your previous roles, including how they aided in your achievements. For instance, a producer can express their supervising skill by saying, “Led a team of 10, including sound, video and graphic editors, to produce the final cut.”
Remember to diversify your skill set by adding from all three types of skills. Here are three lists of soft, hard and technical skills film professionals could have:
Soft skills
Soft skills determine your approach to work and how you relate to others. They also facilitate your interactions and relationships with your crew, peers and artists. Soft skills are crucial in building lasting relationships and getting work done efficiently and on time. The following soft skills are essential for any film professional:
- 1. Effective communication
- 2. Outstanding negotiation skills
- 3. Creative and artistic
- 4. Attention to detail
- 5. Empathetic
- 6. Good leader
- 7. Collaboration
- 8. Time management
- 9. Multitasking
- 10. Socially aware
Hard skills
Unlike soft skills, hard skills are job-specific and require training, education and experience. Hard skills differ based on your role, specialization and experience. However, the following hard skills are prevalent in film-based professions:
- 1. Shooting/ recording skills
- 2. Video editing, trimming, merging
- 3. Mixing music, sound, graphics with video
- 4. Graphic design
- 5. Animation and visualization skills
- 6. Pre and postproduction logistics management
- 7. Equipment knowledge (Camera, lighting, stands, recorder, props)
- 8. Project planning
- 9. Film marketing and promotion
- 10. Casting (actors, writers, designers, key members)
Technical skills
Technical skills are your proficiency at using the technical tools of your trade such as softwares and equipment. Professionals in the film industry rely on the following technical abilities:
- 1. Editing software proficiency like Pinnacle Studio 16, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Creative Suite.
- 2. Proficient in graphic design software like Affinity Designer, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, CorelDraw.
- 3. Video planning software proficiency like Celtx, StudioBinder, Gorilla Scheduling.
- 4. Social media literacy for marking and promotion.
- 5. MS Office like Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
- 6. Proficient in online meeting software like GoToMeeting, Webex Meetings, Skype, Google Meet.
- 7. Budget planning software literacy, i.e., NetSuite, QuickBooks, Dynamics 365.
- 8. Proficient in real-time 3D creation tools like Unreal Engine, Maya, GameMaker, Blender, 3DS Max.
Best 5 Certifications for Your Film Resume
Certifications can validate your credibility. Therefore, showcasing role-specific certificates in your resume can add to the competitiveness of your candidacy. These five certifications can benefit different roles in the film industry:
- Apple Certified Pro (Final Cut Pro)
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Certified Budget Specialist
- Certificate in Animation and Visualization
- Adobe Certified Associate (ACA)
Customer Reviews
FAQ
Updated: July 20, 2022
What are the top three soft skills of film professionals?
The must-have skills of film professionals are determined by the role’s needs, your experience, work setting and education. However, these are some of the essential skills in the film industry:
- Impeccable communication skills
- Outstanding network/ relationship building ability
- Filmmaking and production knowledge
What do film professionals mention under a summary statement?
A good summary statement states your skills, qualifications and education, and how it can benefit future employers. Therefore, a film professional can mention the following:
- Include two to three skills that were mentioned in the job advertisement.
- Add your job title and years of experience.
- Mention your best achievement from a previous role and quantify your success if possible.
What are examples of duties of a film professional?
Film-based professions involve individuals with diverse expertise and skills who perform some of the following duties:
- Planning the budget for producing a project — movie, short film, documentary, TV series, drama.
- Filming/ shooting/ recording video footage and developing the final cut by video editing.
- Managing the pre and postproduction logistics.
- Coordinating and collaborating with a team/ crew to bring a project to life.
- Casting actors, writers, designers and other key members.
- Planning and managing the promotion and marketing of the project.
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