Ufuk Gokkaya

“I don’t consider filmmaking to be job… To me it’s just a part of living”

Ufuk Gokkaya is a 24 year old with a passion for films.  He has just completed his six month Future Jobs Fund placement as Assistant Film & Theatre Director at Making Theatre Work.

Ufuk has a BA in Film & Video due to the fact that his ideal job would be making films.  His main passion is the craft of making moving images and is very keen to get his hands on all aspects of film production.

“My ambition is to keep making films till the day I die”

The Biggest challenges Ufuk faced in finding a job in the film industry was that he felt

Nobody was keen to hire him at an intern level with no experience, but you can’t get the experience if employers will not hire you. He overcame this by doing a lot of voluntary based work; whilst this would demonstrate commitment to the art and a passion for filmmaking - it can be very challenging especially in tough financial times.

After being interviewed for three different jobs and being offered all three he had to analyse which of the three jobs he wanted to commit to,  he decided to go with MSFT. MSFT are a new and unique acting agency as well as organising a number of theater based events for emerging talent.  As a filmmaker he felt this would be a perfect opportunity to improve his actor-director relationship, meet new people through the events and also expand his performance knowledge into theatre as well as film.

“In total I shot and edited over 40 videos”

Ufuks job role as assistant film & theatre director was to shoot and edit showreels for the agency actors, promote the events online, design posters and info flyers. MSFT also works with other agencies such as Mad about Talent, which is the youth acting agency, this gave him the opportunity to work with young people and share creative ideas with. In total Ufuk shot and edited over 40 videos that are all available to view on MSFT’s you tube channel.

Most of the job relied on skills which I already had, shooting and editing short films from previous years, but I also think that one can never get enough practice or experience in this so I could easily claim existing skills have improved. However, I don’t think I’ve learn new skills so much, but rather I’ve had to adapt to a new mind set of how a business is run. As an artist I place my vision and creativity first… however running a business is very different and this job has exposed that line between art and business very clearly for me.

Very rarely do you come across a job that you’re good at, love more than any other job, are paid full wages, and all without any long term commitments.”

The working environment is very easy going, as an agency that works within the arts everybody within the office gets along as well as supporting each other or simply share opinions and thoughts. Another great aspect of this role is that we’re not always at the office. On Saturdays Ufuk attended the drama school in Finchley, events take place in open and sociable spaces and so constant change of space and people has made it impossible to get bored of the job, even for someone who can get bored sitting in an office all day, the possibility of traveling is one of the key reasons I got into filmmaking.

Ufuk found the coaching to be an excellent tool, it provided an alternative other than those at the organisation to express any worries or thoughts he may have had during the placement. He found some of the exercises to be very interesting as they often revolve around ideas which previously he thought about but didn’t’ have someone there to share with.  For young people such as Ufuk who are only starting to getting into the working world coaching support can be absolutely valuable experience… this proved even more so with his coach who was from the USA -  this was a perfect as he’ll soon be going to America… there was always plenty to talk about.

Ufuk found this to be a great experience as it’s not only helped improve his skills and knowledge in this particular field, but also provided him with a portfolio of evidence of works he has created for the organization. He found that a 6 month placement was taken more seriously than other placements which only last anything between 2 weeks to 2 months. He felt he made a number of new contacts over the 6 month period, and that he will be able to attain a positive reference from his experiences.

“I’ve met so many new and interesting creative people who I may easily collaborate with in the future. I’ve learnt a number of skills that will help me run my own business I’ve recently set up and I also have several new videos to include in my own showreel.”