Production Buyer
PRIMEVAL
Bronwyn F
00:00:03 My name is Bronwyn F and I’m a production buyer in the film industry. I’m the person in the supermarket with the weirdest trolley, I’m the person that people stop to look at because she’s wandering down the street with 10 jumper leads or, you know, what I buy never makes any logical sense. People don’t understand why I’m buying it.
00:00:28 I love the freedom, I love the fact that I have to find these things. It’s quite often a mission impossible. I mean, going down to buy some milk for the set is easy, you know, you know where to buy milk but if you’ve got to find a 1960s microscope then that’s a bit more of a challenge.
00:00:51 I was great at mathematics and all those managerial skills I spoke to you about earlier. And that’s what I thought I was going to do. And then somebody came along and mentioned dentistry and that came out of left field and all of a sudden I thought, “That’s what I’d like to do,” so I went and became a school dental therapist. By the time I finished my sort of compulsory three years after gradation because they paid me to do it I’d had enough. And I think my greatest lesson is that I have learnt that there is a reason for everything that happens in your life and you must embrace it, good or bad, and grow from it. And I wanted to go overseas and have another adventure and I travelled all over the world, cycled around England, worked in Africa for a year. Because it was an adventure. I worked with the IMF in the World Bank doing a cost recovery study in the Sudan, which was very hot, very dirty, but it was a major adventure. I was then employed by the Australian Film Commission as their second in charge, using my managerial skills, to help run their London office. From there I was head hunted to go to Australia to help set up a distribution company which I did in Melbourne for two or three years. Then moved to Sydney with my new partner who was in the art department and for many years I worked in the art department, originally managerial positions running the art department but it wasn’t as much fun. And that’s when I decided I wanted to go out with all the others who were buying because they were having much more fun than I was.
00:02:37 Well, I started producing children after that. I had babies. I’m a mother and that, if you’re going to ask me at all what the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life was having children. I have two and that was fantastic. So, I spent many years bringing them up but that was one my greatest adventures. I approach that as another adventure and it really has been. When my daughter couldn’t decide what she wanted to do at university the question I asked her is, “What would you want to do more than anything in the world, even though it seems to be impossible?” And she said comedy so she’s going for a degree in Laughter and I think that’s fantastic. So, my advice to my kids is always think out of the box, what is it that’s going to make your heart sing and go for it. Don’t take second best and don’t take what people tell you you should be doing. “Shoulds” are never usually what you should be doing.
00:03:47 If I could do anything in the world I would like to be an opera singer. And I’m not very good at even normal singing but somewhere in my heart there is an opera singer trying to get out. And I don’t think I would be very good at it at all but I would love to be able to sing beautifully, even if it was just to myself.
ENDS
Bronwyn F is a Production Buyer in the film industry, currently working on Primeval. “I’m the person in the supermarket with the weirdest trolley.” She’s had a long and diverse career from dental therapy to managing an art department. Then she realised that the buyers working for her were having much more fun than she was.
More information about Buyers and procurement officers
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Attends trade fairs, shows and demonstrations to research new product lines and suppliers, checks catalogues;
- Keeps up with market trends and chooses products/services;
- Assesses budgetary limitations and customer requirements and decides on quantity, type, range and quality of goods or services to be bought;
- Assesses bids from suppliers, finds suppliers and negotiates prices;
- Helps negotiate contract with supplier and specifies details of goods or services required;
- Looks at ways to improve supply networks, presents new ideas to senior management team;
- Ensures that delivered items comply with order, monitors quality of incoming goods and returns unsatisfactory or faulty items, monitors performance and makes sure targets are met;
- Supervises clerical, administrative and warehouse distribution staff, deals with recruitment and training;
- Works closely with merchandisers who allocate stock and develop sales forecasts;
- Maintains records and prepares reports as necessary.
