Ellie Salt

Profile

Graduate

BA (Hons) Filmmaking

A person holds a film slate in front of a camera, preparing for a scene shoot in a well-lit room.

Ellie Salt is a filmmaker and runner who graduated from BA (Hons) Filmmaking in 2026.

Ellie is currently working as a runner for Love Productions. She credits the course with preparing her for life on a professional production, from the access to industry-standard kit to the working practices built into every project. Students completed risk assessments to borrow equipment and produced pre-production paperwork such as call sheets, even when working in small crews made up of friends and classmates. This professional preparation meant that when Ellie started in her role, she already understood how to read, write and interpret the paperwork that goes into a busy production.

"Doing the risk assessments throughout uni and all of the pre-production documents … has helped me massively going into this job. It's not the first time I'm seeing all these different documents, because they've drilled it into us within the learning environment."

Throughout her degree Ellie also took every opportunity to make the most of the resources available to BA (Hons) Filmmaking students. She worked collaboratively with students at the University and at Leeds Conservatoire, using the course kit to film live music and build her portfolio while the music students built theirs.

"The access to the kit was just incredible. And it's great because throughout the whole three years, everybody drills it into you to use the kit as much as you can."

Although not initially interested in making her own film, Ellie discovered she enjoyed taking on a directorial role in her final year, and her graduate film, 'That Funny Feeling', has since been selected for a BIFA qualifying festival.

"It was the first time I directed anything big outside of all the music stuff, and it was just a really nice environment. In terms of career progression, I would like to go into post-production so I think at some point my focus will shift into that, but after my film, I realised I really liked being on set and not just hiding in an edit suite, so I wanted to gain some experience on set to see what it's like."

Ellie really valued the support she got from her tutors whilst making her graduate film, which included weekly pre-production check-ins and edit reviews with different tutors. The course also provided practical advice on applying for funding and submitting work to film festivals, and the University continues to share these opportunities with graduates via social media, something Ellie thinks will continue to be useful as her career progresses.

"There were edit reviews, weekly check-ins before it's even shot. With the edit reviews, you'd have one with a different person every week, so you can get different viewpoints on your work. They're all different, our tutors, everyone comes from a different background … it's nice to have that because there's different people that you can go to for different sorts of advice."

'That Funny Feeling' screened in the Northern Spirit category at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival, held at The Light Cinema, Sheffield, from 25 to 27 September 2026. Read more about her work here.

Profile

Ellie Salt

"Doing the risk assessments throughout uni and all of the pre-production documents … has helped me massively going into this job. It's not the first time I'm seeing all these different documents, because they've drilled it into us within the learning environment."

"The access to the kit was just incredible. And it's great because throughout the whole three years, everybody drills it into you to use the kit as much as you can."

Useful Links

BA (Hons) Filmmaking

Ellie Salt