Résumé Advice

[Vanessa Ward]

Hello All,

 

Could you please take a look at the attached résumé? While I would like to be a cinematographer, I am still a student and would be using this for general crew applications or even rental house positions. As of now, I feel it's a bit too busy, too congested, but I'm not sure what to cut or how to rearrange. I have been a DP for a few student films, should I include them? I have left out other experience in the Production department and Editing, because I'd rather work towards Camera or G/E positions. Should I try to stay focused or include the experience anyway?

 

Any advice would be appreciated. Font, design, format, content, whatever.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

~Vanessa

VWard_Résumé_12_07.pdf

[David Mullen ASC]

As a former back-up typesetter in a forms department, plus an English Lit major...

 

The resume is OK but the layout is a bit clunky and lacks a certain "parallelism" -- you have a category on the left column and then the credits start on the same line, but starting with CURRENT WORK, the credits start one line lower. And then in current work, you have a job of operator/editor would could be considered another category like PA or AC.

 

The amount of text is fine but you don't need to use as large a font. You could put CURRENT WORK on two lines so that there's room to start the credits on the same line as CURRENT.

 

Or since there are so few credits overall, you could just list them without categories, just in chronological order, most recent first, with the job title in the text, maybe first or last. You could also use italics instead of all caps for the project titles. You could also use a slightly less ordinary font as Helvetica, just don't go nuts or weird.

 

The flow of information should follow a logical and consistent pattern. That's why I'm bothered by job categories as headers but then using CURRENT WORK as a header, which is not a job category. Either you list by job type or by chronological order so current work is first.

 

And if you aren't going to use a chronological order, then put your best credits first.

[Brian Dzyak]

Take this for what it's worth ;)

 

 

I see a resume like this as having to do with illustrating that you have some level of production experience more than anything else. With that in mind the specific dates are secondary to the job itself. And it's likely that, unless you have a few blockbuster features on there, nobody will pay much attention to what the projects were or who produced them.

 

So if it was me, I'd reorganize the presentation to first highlight the crew position followed by the project and finally a month/year in that order.

 

For example:

 

Focus Puller, 16mm Arriflex Shiner Highway Ends Films, July 2006

Grip Cappers Eggwork Productions, November 2007

 

 

That arrangement gets the gist of your experience out in a quick and clean way. If they like you (that usually comes first) and want to know more about any of the projects on the resume, they'll ask.

 

Skills are always good, but if it doesn't have much to do with the job you're going for, then it could just be clutter they have to skim over, which takes work to do.

 

And education is always a plus so that they know they're getting someone with intelligence and motivation and not some schlub who just thinks it's "cool to be workin' on movies." ;)

 

But that's just my .02 cents ;) Good luck!

[Vanessa Ward]

Thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate your time and guidance. I feel much more confident with these changes.

 

Happy New Year! :D