Advancer Spotlight: Trine Schou
Advancer Spotlight: Trine Schou
Making film production work across formats, channels, and audiences without losing quality or creative edge requires a team that can adapt quickly, collaborate seamlessly, and make the right decisions along the way.
Few people know this better than Trine Schou, Head of Film at Advance. Since joining as a freelance producer in 2008, she has helped shape our in-house film department into a skilled, agile team that delivers more than 50 high-quality productions a year.
In this Advancer Spotlight, Trine shares how close collaboration with clients and creatives, a strong eye for quality, and a commitment to bringing in new talent help Advance’s film department keep finding better ways to deliver high-quality film content for our clients.
How is Advance’s film department structured?
We are a seven-person, well-functioning team, and we work very lean. We have full-time specialists covering everything from production through to post-production, and we bring in external specialists where it’s needed.
This is especially important given the diversity of our clients and projects. Our work ranges from editing films and stills to tailoring content for different media formats, which means we need to stay flexible while always having access to the right talent to deliver high-quality results. In an industry that is constantly evolving, our ability to adapt and tailor our team to each type of project helps us stay agile and flexible.
“In an industry that is constantly evolving, our ability to adapt and tailor our team to each type of project helps us stay agile and flexible.”
– Trine Schou, Head of Film
What does an in-house film team make possible for clients?
It allows us to stay very close to our clients. Based on previous productions, we understand their preferences, giving us valuable insights beyond the budget and brief, and helping us identify the best path to strong results.
Being part of an agency also means we work closely with our creatives throughout the entire process. This keeps us aligned, reduces friction along the way, and allows us to adjust direction early if needed.
How do you approach a wide range of formats while keeping quality high?
We constantly deal with the complexity of adapting communication across a wide range of media. Even when the core idea is the same, each platform comes with its own set of requirements, from different formats and time constraints to storytelling rules.
The diversity of our daily work requires clear decision-making and tight collaboration. We work closely with Directors, creatives, production, and project management to stay aligned on where effort should be focused to get the strongest result across all outputs.
“The diversity of our daily work requires clear decision-making and tight collaboration.”
– Trine Schou, Head of Film
How do you make room for young talent on your team?
It is important to me that we help bring the next generation into the industry by giving them real exposure from the start. Here at Advance, young talent works side by side with experienced producers, creatives, and managers, and being given responsibility early on helps them develop quickly through hands-on experience.
We also try to make room for what they are genuinely interested in, whether that is editing, filming, colour grading, or motion design. Of course, there is always practical production work involved too, but that is a realistic part of the job. It also helps build holistic skills like structure, format understanding, and collaboration.
“It is important to me that we help bring a new generation into the industry by giving them real exposure from the start.”
– Trine Schou, Head of Film
What excites you the most about film production right now?
The teamwork. Film production keeps changing, and that is part of what makes it exciting, but it also makes it crucial to have the right people around the work. Working with skilled, collaborative, and genuinely nice people on a daily basis keeps the quality high, and it’s what keeps me motivated to do the work, and do it well, every day and for many years to come.
