“From script to screen” for Netflix and ScreenSkills

The film and TV industry is a vibrant world, with an exciting range of career opportunities. New starters need to have the solid foundation-level knowledge and understanding to be successful in their roles.

To meet this need, a brand new standardised, scalable, global curriculum for trainees was jointly funded by Netflix and ScreenSkills, the UK’s screen industry-led skills body. Acteon was the design and development partner right from the start of this ambitious and complex project.

We worked closely with the Netflix Grow Creative team to create world-class online learning for new starters at Netflix, as well as a non-branded ‘universal’ version of the learning that ScreenSkills could share with other film and TV companies. This kind of initiative was ground-breaking in itself, and has set a new bar for collaborative projects for skills development that benefit a whole sector.

New generation learning

Together with Netflix and ScreenSkills, we defined a vision for the new curriculum, and we set about designing and developing a set of game-changing interactive resources.

The core content is a series of 12 ten-minute modules. It helps people learn about the big stuff:

• How content gets made
• How an idea goes from script to screen
• How a film set is run
• Set etiquette

And also the simple but crucial things like:

• Who to talk to in the production office about getting paid
• What to wear
• When to visit the ‘honeywagon’

A diverse range of characters host the modules and guide the learner through the experience, which is filled with rich animation, video, audio, music, interactivity and storytelling. We bring a complex world to life in ways that make it relevant and that spark curiosity, and the style is playful, premium, and professional.

Much of this content is freely available on the ScreenSkills training website.

Designed for scale and inclusion

Acteon worked with industry experts and a global taskforce to ensure the content was accurate, inclusive, and accessible. The curriculum includes:

• A 'Family Tree' – an animated reference guide to all the departments in a scripted production.
• Interactive Glossary – a guide to terms that trainees need to know, that they can look up as soon as they hear something they’re unsure of. It’s a bespoke piece of development work, built as a responsive SCORM module for easy integration.
• Mobile-friendly and translatable content – ready for global rollout.

We developed a new approach to multi-device content in Storyline, making it possible to deliver the same experience on desktop and mobile in both landscape and portrait formats.

Impact and feedback

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with average ratings of 4.6 out of 5 for both course quality and likelihood to recommend.

Learners praised the visuals, tone, and storytelling, and appreciated how the modules empowered them to take control of their careers.

Here’s how the first group of Netflix learners responded to the course...