Professional Experience Presentation
Professional Experience Presentation
At the beginning of the module, I was wondering what type of professional experience I would undertake. I had already had experience in the professional media industry so I was cautious to choose to do something I would benefit from. In the past I have done runner work for ITV’s “Jeremy Kyle show”, an actor for ITV’s “Confessions Of A Salesman,” a background actor for Channel 4 and a group of independent films. As you can see these are mostly in front of the camera or working for a TV station. After completing the short film module, I realised that I wanted to work either for my own business or independently, and this module was the ideal opportunity to put my foot in the water with that.
My original idea was to produce a short film from scratch with members of my short film module group. I even wrote a few drafts of a script in preparation for the project, but it soon became apparent that most of the group had arranged other projects and that there would not be enough time to complete a short film at high standards.
An old friend of mine who works for the Young Carers Centre mentioned to me months before the short film module about a project being set up by the Coventry Council’s Carers Centre. Their plan was to create a DVD to show the options available for people going into care. I decided that creating that DVD would be a great opportunity for me to gain experience working independently for a client. Just as I would have to if I had my own production company (which the future aim.) I had never made a corporate video before; my concentration was always on narrative films, so I was going into this project with little knowledge of corporate production. I decided that the best way to deal with this was to conduct it like I would for a narrative film.
I met with my friend to discuss the project and how would I be involved. I gave him my contact details so that the carers centre could contact me if they wanted me to produce the DVD. To my delight, I was contacted and a meeting was arranged for me to meet members of the carer’s team and to learn about the project.
From day 1, I knew I would need to assemble a team of film-makers to produce this DVD. I chose Dale Driver as my editor, someone I had worked with before, who was not a student but looking to expand his portfolio, Tim March as cameraman, and Steve Ringrose as cinematographer. I was very careful on who I involved, because I wanted my team to be as professional as possible. I briefed the team on how serious the topic of the DVD was and that will would be filming on locations that dealt with disabled people.
From the very first meeting with the carers to the weeks of production, acting like a professional media producer was very important to me. I knew that the council need a few DVD’s produced, so if I impressed, there could be an opportunity for me to be involved on later projects. Because of the nature of the DVD we were producing, I ensured that everything was planned to the last detail. From shooting schedules to equipment list. I wanted to impress the carer’s team enough so they would put my name forward to other departments needing a DVD.
After the short film module, the group that was involved decided to create a media production company. When starting off this company we would need to find ways to make money to purchase film equipment. We had group meetings, and decided that for the first year or so we would produce corporate videos for businesses and possibly the odd wedding video. I treated the carer’s project as a dummy run, to see if I could work in this environment, and if I would enjoy it.
I learnt a lot during the production. Mostly how to handle situations a professional media producer would face. Things like deadlines, time management, dealing with different types of people and meeting new people. At first I found it difficult to work with the mentally disabled people. The project called for me to conduct interviews that involved these people, and naturally they couldn’t take direction as easy as a normal person. Another issue I faced was that the people working for the council were sometimes over keen to direct the filming. Sometimes insisting on ideas I knew wouldn’t work. As they were the client I was unsure if I should take control or film what they wanted me to film. In the end I found a balance of discussing why I didn’t think a particular idea would work, and we got around the issue. The project was also very good practice to working to a brief. The DVD had to be 30 minutes long and had to include the five different options of care.
Now the project is over, I will take away a great deal of professionalism from this project. At no point producing this DVD did I feel like I was a student. I was a professional media producer. I took influence from the professionals I had seen when I was working in the industry before, and based my attitude on them.
At the start of the project I wasn’t confidence in myself to sometimes speak up when I should have. Now however, I have seen that as a media producer I have to, and can do it with ease. Because of weeks of pre-production planning and meetings, little things went wrong. I always had a back up in case something did. I feel that this project has turned me from a student to a professional. By that I don’t mean I am suddenly Steven Spielberg, but I feel I am now capable of managing a project in the professional world.
