1. What areas of media practice across the term have you excelled at, why do you think you’ve done well in these areas and what do you need to do to continue to develop?
The thing i think that i excelled at most was the video editing aspects of the course. including the advert dubbing. i still have a lot to learn but i finished these the quickest and i think this was because i enjoyed these tasks the most. i need to continue developing in this though because there is a lot to learn for example colour grading and eventually i would like to learn premier pro. I thought i was also good at creating the character profile due to the fact that it was a creative exercise. Writing stories is something i greatly enjoy and do sometimes in my pass time so this task was something i greatly enjoyed doing. 2. What areas of media practice across the term have you found a challenge, why do you think you’ve found these areas challenging and what do you need to do to continue to improve your skills and understanding? I need to develop my skills in after effects as it was the thing that i got most frustrated at. This was a very challenging program to use just because there are so many parts to it. i learnt the basics but the fact that i didn't know all of the basics impacted negatively on my ability to use the program. I also found doing the Vlog rather difficult. This was because of the whole aspect of talking in front of a camera. it is something that i am not used to so to me it was difficult but i think it was necessary because it helped my confidence in being in front of a camera and i know it is something that will become easier the more i have to do it. 3. From your research and the talks and focus on professional practice, what skills and qualities do you feel are essential to enable you to make progress towards your career goal? What do you need to do in order to develop these and how can you be supported in this? Some of the skills needed to progress towards my career goal include: learning final cut pro - I will use online tutorials in my own time to achieve this Learning premier pro - I will use online tutorials in my own time to achieve this Learning how to digitally improve picture quality through editing good communication skills between editor and director All of these, I believe i will be able to achieve through either online tutorials or through the teachers and friends in SGS college. Some of these skills could also be learned through the course if they are on the specification. Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships give you the opportunity to learn the skills in a job through working at that job. the difference between this and just getting a job is you can get a qualification out of it which can bee seen as the equivalent of a levels sometimes. Apprenticeships are extremely useful as they show a future employer that you have experience in the job that you might be applying for and in the creative industry it is very useful as a lot of employers will look and experience and skill rather than qualifications. sometimes in an apprenticeship at the end you may even be able to work there permanently due to the employer hiring you due to the hard work that you have put in. Degree Courses With a degree course you get a qualification for building skills needed to work in the industry by doing hands on experience or studying as to build up knowledge. this is seen as a much easier way to get into the industry compared with an apprenticeship but apprenticeships surround you with new opportunities to learn the intricacies of the workings in the job. Trainee Placements To do a trainee placement you need industry experience. Trainee placements are more for people who know what they want to do in the industry and what they want to get trained in. It enables you to be added to a data base in which potential employers can search you up to hire you as a trainee and, if you are appropriate for the job or fit the part, you can start a plan of training. My opinion...
i think that regulations and censorship is important depending on context. i think things like the watershed are necessary as to protect people that may be negatively effected for example children and the pay-pal advert. I think that we have a good balance that means that we are able to censor the necessary things as to make people happy but not to the point of infringing our right to our freedom of speech. i think we need things like censorship and regulation. if we did not have this then it could lead to things like libel and slander and this would have a more serious effect than if there was no censorship at all. Libel and slander could include things like a misrepresentation of a person and if this happened in, for example, a documentary it would mean facts would be misrepresented and could severely damage both the person or persons is about but could also have a negative effect on the documentary genre altogether due to the lack of trust that would grow in the genre. in conclusion censorship and regulation is import but a balance of how much should be censored needs to continue or our freedom of speech will be infringed or vice versa people could be negatively effected by a lack of it. Otto Bathurst, director of an episode of black mirror and director of peaky blinders came into our college and spoke about his career and the industry and answered some of the questions asked by members of the class. here are some of the things that i learned from this experience.
I learnt that in this industry it is useful to have a vague idea of everything that is needed to make a film and get practiced in as many things as you can as the more knowledge you gain in each thing the more of an idea you get for what you want to do and how a film is made. I also learnt that it is okay to start from the bottom. Otto said that he started as a runner and this helped him gain knowledge in all of the areas needed to make films and got him to where he is today as a successful director. I learnt that it isn't always who you know and instead it is a lot about having the right attitude. if you show a genuine excitement for what you are doing and in the media industry all together then it is a lot easier to get further and meet more people. it also means that people are more likely going to want you to work for them or want to work for you. Otto showed us storyboards with some of the ideas for the upcoming robin hood films that he will be directing. he told us that he showed the people who will be funding the film this and that these were pretty much what got him the directing role in the films. this showed me the importance of planning and the amount of work you should put into selling the idea for a film or tv show in the first place. Overall the experience was really great, it was very interesting meeting someone in the industry and finding out about the inner working and how someone who is now a successful director got into the industry in the first place.
In this conversation i discuss how my plan A in terms of job choices would be video editing. through this exercise I didn't necessarily learn about my plan a job but i learnt a lot about the other jobs in the media industry especially about special effects. One of the other people in the conversation wanted to work in special effects and i learnt some of the skills and qualities needed in the job for example patience and time management are very important in this job.
Over was on of a series of films in the encounters film festival that was based around the theme of immigration, which is arguably the hottest topic in the news at the moment. i watched at least ten films about immigration and 'Over' was by far the one that was most powerful even though it was arguably the most simple from a filming perspective. Over is based on a true story of a stowaway thought to be from north Africa who fell from a plane and landed in a quiet suburban street in London. throughout the entirety of the short films it keeps you wondering . this is achieved because of the way the film is set in reverse chronological order, starting with the dead man. this immediately evokes the question of what happened in the audience and keeps you guessing. keeping you guessing is something that the film pulls off perfectly due to the lack of information given on why this man has died. this information is not given right until the end in which the information is slammed into you with a loud and shocking view of the body hitting the car which made almost all of the audience jump. the film manages to pull you in and lead you along without holding your hand which is something that makes this film stand out from many of the other films in the encounters film festival. the film manages to be intriguing whilst still maintaining the serious nature of the topic of immigration. overall an excellent film at staying intriguing whilst still successfully delivering a message of the seriousness of the immigration crisis and the desperation of some people. Overall the encounters film festival had some very interesting and thought provoking short films and animations which all varied in type and style. whilst some films were less 'to my liking' overall the film festival had many powerful messages put to the audience to provoke questions of morality and the world we live in today. the encounters festival is something to learn from and come out of with a new state of mind and the encounters film festival overall was successful in doing this.
|