Consultancy — Iyare, S.O.U.L. Film
A scheme is not a career.
I work with organisations in the screen industries on inclusion and talent development — the part after the announcement, where people either build a career or quietly leave. I don't refer talent to other people's opportunities. I run one, and I'm still in contact with the filmmakers who came through it.
The problem
Getting people in is the easy part
Most organisations I speak to can already point to an entry scheme, a trainee cohort, an open call. The numbers at the top of the funnel look reasonable. Three years later, almost nobody from that intake is still in the industry, and nobody can say precisely why.
That's not a recruitment problem. It's what happens in the eighteen months after someone arrives — who they report to, whether the second job exists, whether anyone has a stake in them staying. That's the work I do.
What I do
Four kinds of work
Most engagements are one of these. If your problem sits between two, that's usually the interesting part — say so when you write.
Talent development programmes
Designed to produce working professionals, not alumni. Selection, mentoring structure, progression routes and follow-through. Built so that the outcome is measured at year three, not at the launch photo.
Hiring and commissioning review
Where the funnel actually leaks. Where roles are advertised, who sits on the panel, what your criteria quietly reward, and which parts of the process filter out the people you say you're trying to reach.
Retention and progression
Why people leave, and what to change. Honest findings from the people who left as well as the ones who stayed, with a small number of specific recommendations you can act on this year.
Community and talent partnerships
Real relationships, not a media buy. Reaching communities that don't currently see your organisation as an option, through the networks, festivals and grassroots routes where that talent already is.
How I work
What I won't do
Being clear about this up front saves everyone a meeting.
- A one-off workshop with nothing attached to it. If there's no change to a process afterwards, the day was theatre.
- A report designed to be published rather than acted on. You'll get findings you can use, including the ones that are awkward.
- Speaking for a whole community. I bring my own experience, a festival's worth of relationships, and evidence — not a mandate.
Ways to work
Pick the size of the problem
Diagnostic
A short, focused look at one part of the pipeline. You get a written recommendation on where the loss is happening and what to do first.
Programme design
Build a development or progression scheme end to end, or rebuild one that isn't producing careers. Scoped and quoted after a first call.
Ongoing advisory
Retained across a cycle, or embedded with a team. For organisations who need someone in the room when decisions get made, not a document afterwards.
Chairing and facilitation
Conference and festival panels, awards, town halls, away days and masterclasses. Twenty years on the mic before six in the boardroom.
Formats and availabilityFor individual creatives
One-to-one coaching
I've been doing this informally for years — it's how most of the filmmakers above ended up where they are. It's now something you can book directly, rather than having to happen to meet me.
This is for filmmakers, producers and writers who are past the beginning and stuck somewhere specific: a first feature that won't finance, a short that did well with nothing after it, a decision about whether to hold out or take the job. It isn't a mentoring scheme and there's no cohort. It's an hour with someone who knows the terrain and has no stake in flattering you.
Single session
One hour on one problem. Come with the actual question. You leave with a view and, where it's useful, the names of people worth talking to.
Ongoing
Monthly sessions across a project or a year, for people who need continuity rather than a one-off answer. By arrangement after a first session.
Track record
The receipts
Every filmmaker below came to me through S.O.U.L. Fest or another S.O.U.L. event. That's the point: I'm not describing a pipeline from the outside, I'm running one — which is also why I can tell you where each of them is now, rather than where they were on the day of the press release.
- Corey Bovell Took his one-man theatre show Chicken Burger N Chips from stage to a BBC Radio 4 drama — later a Radio Times readers award runner-up at the BBC Audio Drama Awards.
- Danielle Goff Producer of four shorts selected for S.O.U.L. Fest, now working across shorts and features.
S.O.U.L. Fest — founder, director and executive producer since 2019, in collaboration with We Are Parable and The British Blacklist. BAFTA and BIFA-qualifying. Nearly 100 filmmakers platformed across seven editions, now running in London, Birmingham and Newcastle, with BFI Southbank as founding venue.
S.O.U.L. Cast — host and producer.
I write about this work as I do it — the decisions, the trade-offs and what they cost. Read the blog.
Start here
Tell me what you're trying to change
- Your organisation, and the part of it this concerns
- What you've already tried, and what happened
- The outcome you'd need to see to call it worthwhile
- Your budget, even roughly — it saves us both a call
I reply to everything within two working days.
Booking a chair, host or facilitator rather than a consultant? That's a separate page.