Due to the freelance nature of our careers, many directors experience periods of uncertainty over work, when job opportunities can feel hard to come by. Feelings of rejection, insecurity, and that ‘the phone has stopped ringing’ can present real challenges to self-confidence and motivation.
This session will focus on resilience and how unhelpful thinking patterns can influence our bounce-back-ability. It will offer tools that can enhance resilient thinking, showing how implementing positive changes can encourage personal growth. Click here to open up that page.
In 2019, the Film and TV Charity’s Looking Glass research revealed that 87% of the Film and TV workforce had experienced a mental health problem and, of these, more than half had considered taking their own life. A 2015 report found that workers in theatre and performing arts experience symptoms of anxiety ten times higher than the general population and symptoms of depression at a rate five times higher.
For directors in stage and screen, there are significant stresses associated with our job: long hours, often working away from home, the highly pressurised environment and expectation to perform, the lack of control over working conditions and culture. It can also feel a very isolated role and these pressures can present huge challenges to our mental, as well as physical wellbeing, our work/life balance and our ability to lead fulfilled professional lives.
Directing is also a job that comes with a high degree of job insecurity: short-term contracts, irregular work, rejection, and a lack of transparency around hiring processes mean many directors – even outwardly successful ones – will have periods when they struggle to find work. The financial and emotional stresses can have a huge impact on a director’s mental wellbeing for significant periods of their working life.
DCF is committed to opening up the conversation for directors, and breaking down the stigma. Directors rarely get to work alongside other directors and share their experiences. We want to help create and be part of an environment that fosters strong mutual peer support.
We also want to empower directors to deal with these issues in the future. We are forming partnerships with other leading organisations and professionals in this field and, with them, we will be providing resources that will be of specific interest to directors in stage and screen.
There are events and seminars being planned with some of our partners. Do keep an eye out for announcements on those activities both on our News page and via our social media channels.
