Mentoring Programme, Screen Academy Scotland

An industry mentoring programme was introduced for Screen Academy students in 2008 to help support them as new entrants to the film industry and to bridge the gap between higher education and the workplace.

Mentors help students make crucial career choices and give the students advice on how to progress after the Screen Academy. They also help students develop the kind of soft skills that are essential for the highly competitive workplace they are about to enter.

Mentors and students meet for 2 or 3 meetings over the course of 4-6 months, towards the end of the academic year.

If you are interested in becoming a Screen Academy Scotland mentor or would like to learn more about the mentoring programme please contact us on info@napier.ac.uk or 0131 455 2572

Past and/or Current Industry mentors include:

Drama-Producers/Line Producers/Production Management:

Steve Clark Hall
Margaret Matheson
Catherine Aitken
Wendy Griffin
Susie Brown
Clare Kerr
Carolynne Sinclair Kidd
Claire Mundell
Paul Welsh
David Smith
Arabella Croft

Drama-Directors:

Justin Molotnikov
Adrian McDowall
Morag McKinnon
Eleanor Yule
Peter Mackie Burns
Hope Dickson Leach
Annie Griffin
Zam Salim
Peter Mackie Burns

Screenwriters & Script Editors -Film & TV:

Andrea Gibb
Annie Griffin
Colin McDonald
Colin McLaren
Cameron Fraser
Aileen Ritchie
Charlie Fletcher
Adrian Mead
Graham Fitzpatrick
Ann Marie Di Mambo
Julie Fraser (freelance script editor)

Documentary-Producers, Directors & tutors:

Lucinda Broadbent
Leslie Hills
Tue Steen Muller
Nick Higgins
Louise Scott
Amy Hardie
Aimera Reques
Peter Symes
Doug Block
Sigrid Dyekjær

Film Distribution/Sales:

Hilary Davis

Cinematographers:

Neville Kidd

Animation:

Alice Nelson
Elizabeth Hobbs
Frank Gresham
Leslie MacKenzie
Dana Dorian
Mark Breslin
Iain Gardner
Bruce Husband

TV Production:

Eric Coulter (ex STV, now independent)
Stuart Crosgrove (Ch4, Nations & Regions)
Pauline Law (BBC Scotland)
David Collier (CBBC)
Cassian Hall (One Eyed Dog)

Feedback from mentors:

It was great to get to know someone and also in reminding them the value of what they had achieved, you are reminding yourself about what is important and not to stray off from where you own ambition lies. It is a great chance to have a dialagoue and develop new contacts.
I enjoyed it very much and would like to be involved again if there was a student who could gain from my experience.
mentoring helped the student "prepare for the market” in order to realistically move his career forward.

Feedback from students:

It was good and I learned about setting goals and having a good business plan to back the ideas, and to make goals that are achievable on the budgets in hand.
I think the mentoring went really well, and helped me to get a better understanding of how the industry works for real, and how hard it really is trying to break in. So, the mentorship really was good in that respect.