Eleanor Church, Filmmaker and photographer
Find out about Eleanor Church's journey into a career in film and photography.
Why I love my job: I love getting to meet lots of different people and hear their stories and then in turn finding the most creative and appropriate way to share it through film or photography. I also feel like with a lot of my work I am able to share people’s points of perspective that can help create positive change.
What I loved doing at school: Human geography and art.
Childhood hobbies: Drawing, painting, being in nature.
How to get into the sector: I went to art college. I thought that I’d be a painter (which felt a bit of a risk as I had no idea how you can make a living as a painter!) but my right hand stopped working so I had a reason to learn how to use cameras – which is probably what I really wanted to do all along but I didn’t know anyone who worked in this mystical world of film and photography! I worked hard and balanced blind optimism and my lack of self-confidence but kept finding ways to do things that I found interesting. At the end of the day, being interested can make you find a way to do anything.
Related jobs: I worked as a picture editor’s assistant for a long time and as an assistant editor whilst trying to do some of my own projects. I also worked for free two nights a week on a radio programme researching news stories and then went to work during the day at the picture desk. I don’t know how I survived that! I eventually did a part-time masters whilst working which gave me the confidence to think about my own work and taught me journalistic and documentary approaches. My BA was graphic design so I was pretty much self-taught. Working and then working and doing a part-time masters helped me keep learning through practical experience and education. I would say that low-level industry jobs are really important when you’re starting out because if you work hard and have a good attitude (don’t let people take advantage of you though), you never know when you might pop into their head for future work. It also teaches you the nuts and bolts of how production works. All work though has valuable transferable skills. I was a waitress for 10 years alongside uni and my early jobs and that was also useful.
Begin your career journey
Find out more about Eleanor Church and herr work in film and photography at Lark Rise Pictures.