/, Our Work, The Family Support Fund/Film and Television Charity Family Support Fund Awardee Rosie Toner – On Bridging their Childcare Needs

Film and Television Charity Family Support Fund Awardee Rosie Toner – On Bridging their Childcare Needs

Rosie is an Artist/Filmmaker who has screened her work at venues including the ICA, Tate Liverpool and Camden Arts Centre as well as the international festival circuit. Rosie is currently in development with her first feature film The Saviours funded by Film Agency Wales.

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I found out about Raising Films and the Film and Television Charity Family Support Fund through Twitter and it came at just the right moment.

I have been working as a filmmaker for the past 15 years and combined this with working in TV & Film as well as teaching.

I had my son Walter four and a half years ago, which has been a fantastic rollercoaster of emotions, sleepless nights and a washing machine that never seems to stop!

Having a creative type as a partner (he’s an artist) is fantastic and our schedules have been pretty flexible for the past few years when Walter was in nursery part time and we had projects and contracts we could work around.

We had no external support as my parents were too old and infirm to help out and 45 mins away and Richard’s Mum has Alzheimers. He is her primary carer. My Dad passed away in 2016 and then this year my Mum went into a care home. There was a lot of running about after the oldies, looking after Walter and holding down jobs and continuing in projects. It was exhausting but we managed to get through.

Add to this for the past few years I have been developing a feature film, The Saviours and was lucky enough to attend a variety of development workshops like EAVE (European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs) and Feature Expanded, again stretching ourselves to the limit when I had to go off to these for a couple of weeks at a time with the amazing Rich holding the fort.

This year I got selected for FIVE@5 an initiative by Short Film Talent Network in Scotland for women filmmakers to make a five minute film at a budget of £5000.  My producer and I thought it would be great to use this as an opportunity to work on the themes of the feature film and make a stand alone short film.

This was going to be great but the low budget and taking the time out to make the film wouldn’t be enough to pay for extra child care and Richard couldn’t help out as he was very busy at work. We had an occasional childminder Rachel but we weren’t sure if we could afford to pay for all the extra help.

I found out about Raising Films and the  Film and Television Charity Family Fund Support Fund through Twitter and it came at just the right moment. Debby Mulling at the Film and Television Charity listened to my situation and was hugely helpful and told me that I could apply for monies to help out with childcare for the shoot as I had no other support.

It meant I could pay for Rachel our childminder to pick up Walter from nursery, get him home, bathed fed and tucked up and we weren’t going to be out of pocket. We also managed to get a day of grading thrown in by the facilities company, and so needing extra help and finance, the fund helped again and luckily Rachel was free too.

Its been a very difficult couple of years, both mentally and financially. Trying to juggle a toddler, three ageing parents and careers but Raising Films and the Film and Television Charity Family Support Fund were so helpful, came at the right time and let Walter enjoy spending time with the lovely Rachel.

This Summer I attended the Frontières Fantasia in Montreal where I was pitching The Saviours at a film market. We got loads of interest and are sending scripts out to companies who want to meet us. My pitch even got chosen as one of the top five by film mag Screen Anarchy!

We can send the script to them with a link to the FIVE@5 short ‘I AM NOT’ to give them a flavour of the feature, so thanks Raising Films and the Film and Television Charity for allowing me the time and space to do this with your generous help.

I also thank Richard who deserves a medal!

If you have found yourself in a caring position and in need of financial assistance to bridge a pay gap. Raising Films and the Film and Television Charity have collaborated on the Family Support Fund. A rolling fund which, is open to parent/carer professionals working in Film/TV/Exhibition and will contribute up to £75 a day towards the cost of caring arrangements, up to a maximum amount of £1,500 per beneficiary/per annum.

For more information and how to apply click here.

Learn more about how the Film and Television Charity support can transform your work/life by reading our testimonials from screenwriter and carer Pete Jordi Wood and mum and Production Coordinator Kerri Burbidge.

2018-11-12T12:59:24+00:00October, 2017|Development Stories, Our Work, The Family Support Fund|