Summary

Over the course of this unit I have learnt a lot about promoting myself in the right way to have a greater chance of getting a job in my chosen industry, television. I have learnt that by making a little bit more effort, it can single you out from other candidates and give you a better chance. If you act confident, you’ll feel confident.

Although it is the end of the unit, I will still continue to write in this blog. Therefore entries after this one should not be taken into account when assessing my blog for the CPLAT unit.

Finished Showreel

Here is my finished showreel, which I uploaded onto youtube for people to view and comment on.

The making of my showreel

To make my showreel, I began by collecting together tapes of the work I have produced over the past three years of Uni. I found that I had a broad range of filming genres that would look good on my showreel as it shows that I have varied experience. From the tapes, I had footage of interviews, news stories, music gigs, CCI Live, nature, and documentary among others.

To make my showreel, I used Avid Media Composer, an industry standard software. Although I primarily want to be a camera operator, I also know how to use editing software, which is useful as multi skilled people can appeal more to employers.

The music I used on my showreel was a piece made by myself and Jamie Gazard. The track, entitled ‘Morning Glory Theme’, is an upbeat song which I cut the clips of my work to. By doing this, I think that it makes the showreel more entertaining to watch and will (hopefully) not bore the viewer. The showreel I have made has a variety of my work on it, including camera work, editing and music. I feel that by making the music myself, it shows the employer that I am committed to making work of a high quality. It also shows that I have made an effort to produce my own work, and not use music by an outside source.

I decided to make my showreel fairly short. This was so that the viewer could get a taster of my work. I also included other full pieces made by me so that if the employer likes the showreel, they can go on and watch the other clips in their entirety.

After finishing editing my showreel in Avid, I exported it as a QuickTime file. I then put it into iDVD to produce a DVD to send employers. When choosing a menu for my DVD, I selected one of the pre made templates that comes with the software. However, the theme that I chose is a style that would be associated with me. The theme is pink and black, with an image of myself in the background.

I have three sections to my DVD, Showreel, other work, and about me. The showreel section is the minute long montage of my work which showcases my work. It can be viewed quickly by the employer.

The next section on my DVD is the other work section. This is for the employer to view two pieces of my work in full. If they like my showreel, they then have the option to view full pieces of my work.

The two pieces of work that I chose to put on my DVD were my final year project, a documentary looking at the historic aspect of Southsea as a seaside resort, and a piece I made for the CCI Channel about the International Office at the University of Portsmouth. I chose these pieces as I feel they are my best work.

The final part of my DVD is the about me section. This is just a little reminder to the employer of who I am, my interests and my role. This section also has a link to my blog on it.

Once all of this had been designed, I burned the project onto DVD, ready to be sent out to employers.

Showreel Research

Definition: A show reel, is the motion picture or video equivalent of an artist’s portfolio. It is typically used as a tool to promote the artist’s skill, talent, and experience in a selected field, such as acting, directing, cinematography, editing, special effects, animation, or video games and other graphics. The showreel is frequently submitted with a CV to a prospective employer. When a reel contains scenes from actual productions, a shot list or credit list may also be submitted to describe the artist’s specific involvement in each portion of the reel. While the usage of video excerpts on such showreels can be regarded as a breach of copyright, it is generally accepted in the film industry to do so, as it is the only tool of an artist to actually self-promote her/his work.

Before making my showreel, I decided to check out some other showreels online. As I want to be a camera operator, I searched on youtube for showreels made by camera operators.

As you can see, over thirty thousand results were found. This meant that I had a wide range of camera operator showreels to choose from. I decided to look at a showreel made by James Price:

I decided to look at this showreel as he says he specialises in documentary and factual work, something that I am interested in. I was interested to see that James had travelled the world filming different cultures and people. The showreel had good music, it went very well with the images he had shown. One bad thing however is that I found this showreel slightly too long. Towards the end of the 5 mins 36, I was beginning to lose concentration.

The second showreel I looked at was made by Chris Hammond, and again, it was a specialist camera operator showreel.

Although this showreel was good, I did not feel it was as professional looking as the James Price one. This showreel almost felt too candid, like a lot of the footage was just filmed with friends having a laugh, or at a family wedding. I also felt that the music on this showreel was not suited the the camera shots I was looking at.

From looking at these two showreels, I now know that my showreel should contain a variety of shots, showcasing many aspects of my work. I have a range of genres of which I have filmed, therefore I should show this in my showreel so that the employers looking at it will be able to see my skills.

Here are the two showreels I looked at in their entirety:

Roles during CCI Live

Over the twelve weeks that the CCI Channel has been broadcasting live on a Wednesday, I have taken up various roles within the production.

Director:

I directed week 11 of CCI Live. I decided to have an international theme to the show as there are thousands of international students at the University of Portsmouth. I had a pieces on the International Office, the Akash restaurant on Albert Road, a feature on things to do along Southsea seafront, as well as local news and a showcase of student photography.

Autocue:

This role included writing part of the script for CCI Live, as well as making sure the presenter could read the autocue at the correct speed.

Vision Mixer:

In this role I had to cut between the studio and clips, and between the different camera shots within the studio.

P.A:

Whilst P.A, I had to line up the clips to be played on the show. Before the production, I also had to insure all the clips were correct, and in the right aspect ratio.

During CCI Live, I also had the roles of camera operator and floor manager.

Filming Experience on the CCI Channel

Over the last few weeks, I have been film a lot of things for the CCI channel. Working on the CCI Channel producing weekly live broadcasts and inserts for the show has benefitted me greatly. I film different things every week and this gives me a broad range of experience. I have filmed art events, live music, formal interviews, vox pops and documentaries among others.

The following are some of the projects I have been working on:

Jon Adams:

Jon Adams is a local artist who was exhibiting his work in the Space Gallery in the Eldon Building. The piece I worked on (as camera op) had an interview with Jon, where he describes his work, his background, and his plans for the future.

Front Page:

Front Page is an occasional feature on the CCI Channel which follows presenter Andy Bird around Portsmouth talking to the public and asking their opinions on front page news. I was again camera operator for this. Although the camera does not move much, framing is still an important issue with this programme. Which is something I had to take into consideration. The camera work can also be spontaneous as we do not know what the person will do, or where they could move to.

Lisa Traxler:

Much like the Jon Adams piece, I filmed Lisa Traxler talking about her art work which was being exhibited in the Eldon Building. I feel that this piece was much better than the Jon Adams piece, as we had more experience in making a piece on art this time around. Lisa spoke about her work, experiences and inspiration.

Street Talk:

Street Talk is an opinion programme, much like Front Page, where the public answer a question given to them by presenter Jamie Gazard. We would normally shoot Front Page and Street Talk on the same day, as this would be efficient. We would use the same people who appear on Front Page for Street Talk as well. As was the case with Front Page, framing was the most important part of filming Street Talk.

International Office:

As part of my week directing, I chose to have an International theme for the CCI Live Show. Part of this was a feature on the International Office at the University of Portsmouth. I filmed interviews with two International students, as well as a representative from the International Office. This piece gave a lot of information to the viewer, who may not have been aware of the amount of International students at the University. It also featured cut aways of the One World Event, which I filmed earlier this year.

CTDP Mash Up:

This event was the first art event that I covered with the CCI Channel. It was an exhibition of collaborative work by artists and musicians. I gained good experience in live broadcasting at this event. I also learnt valuable techniques on how to film art work.

How to write a good CV

CV’s are important when trying to get a job as most, if not all, employers request one from you when applying for positions. A CV should represent you and should be able to give the employer an overview of what you are like as a person.

If you are applying for a job within a creative industry, television production for example, try to avoid a plain design as this does not show much creativity and could potentially look bad. If your CV looks creative, colourful and well laid out, the employer can see that you have creativity and would be suitable for producing television programmes.

There is no need to put down every detail of your life on the CV. Employers in television do not care about when you worked in Tesco during college. Only put relevant work experience down which can show the employer what you can offer them. For example, I put on my CV that I worked at the BBC, running on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. This is relevant as it shows the employer that I have worked in a studio environment within the industry.

I have also put on my CV that I worked on weekly live broadcasts for the CCI Channel at the University of Portsmouth. Although not in the industry, this is relevant as it shows I have worked on broadcasts and had to work with deadlines, producing, planning etc.

Have your name in a bigger font at the top of your CV, that way, it will stand out to the employer and be more memorable.

Here is my CV:

Although my CV is not full of colour and innovative designs, I feel this CV suits my personality. The CV is straight to the point and is well organised. I am a well organised person, who likes to plan and sort things neatly. Therefore I think that this CV reflects my personality, which the employer will hopefully see.

CV Research

Before finishing my final CV, I went online to look at a number of CV designs.

Firstly, I looked at creative CVs at:  http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2008/09/the-20-most-creative-resumes-ive-seen-in-a-long-time-pure-inspiration/

This was a good place to start as it showed me that not all CVs had to be standard text in black and white. The following are some examples of some creative CVs:

I like this design as it is using pictures to show the persons skills. I haven’t seen anything else like this CV before. Employers will be more likely to remember you if you have a CV like this.

Although this CV would not be suitable for someone going into the television industry, like myself, it is still a memorable CV. It has limited information on it, but has the basics and shows the employer how creative the sender is.

This is my favourite of the creative CVs I have looked at. I really like the colours used and the character on the front. Again, it has limited information, but the CV is designed so well it will impress employers.

I searched on youtube and found that some people make a video CV. The following is a video CV I found online:

Although video CVs are a good way of promoting yourself, I don’t feel that this would be suitable for my chosen career path.

I also went over the booklets and information that Purple Door at the University gave me over the past year. They had plenty of information that was helpful when deciding how to lay out my CV.

Business Cards

Having researched some business cards online, I decided to start making some designs for my own cards.

My first design was made on Paint. It displays my name on the front with a patten made with the paintbrush tool. On reflection, I don’t think that this card is eye catching or professional looking enough to get printed.

My second design idea was to include colour bars with my name on the font.

I really like this design as it ties in with the industry that I want to work in (television production), and is also eye catching. However, I am not sure if I want to put my name on the front. The following are two design ideas for the reverse of my business cards.

On the reverse, I have chosen to put my name in a bigger font, along with my contact details and “camera – photography – editing”. This reminds the person who has the card who I am and what I do.

I ordered my business cards today from moo.com. 50 cards for £10.99 which is fairly reasonable as they are good quality.

I decided to go with the colour bars design as this links in with the industry that i want to get into… film making. I also feel that the colour bars design is eye catching and rememberable. By giving this business card to an employer, they will hopefully remember the design, and therefore, me. I decided against having my name on the front.

I decided to have just three details on the back, my name, phone number and email address. I decided not to include a title, such as filmmaker, as this could potentially limit who I give the cards to and what job I am going for.

How to get a job in the television industry

After graduating from Uni this summer, I, like so many others will be looking for a job. Personally, I will be looking for employment in the television or film industry. The following is some advice I have collected on how to go about looking for a job in this field:

The first question you need to ask is which area of television you want to work in. The requirements for different vocations are varied, so you should plan your training path to suit your ambitions.

Although, it is always good to keep your options open. Many people find that they end up with a completely different job to the one they had originally set out for. This is one advantage of beginning your training with a general media studies course. A media studies course will help you learn the basics and give you good foundations to go on.

A lot of people wonder whether experience or qualifications are more essential. If you asked ten different employers which they would prefer, you would probably get five answers of each. There is little point aiming to be Head of Programming at a large television company if you don’t first aim to acquire a formal qualification – you will simply be too disadvantaged against your competitors. On the other hand, if your goal is to be an excellent camera operator, you may be wasting your time at university.

Employers will predominately look for:

Experience – you can’t expect to get a job having no idea of how it runs.

Natural Talent – some things you can’t learn from a text book

People Skills – because television productions require a lot of people working together

Motivation and Committment – sometimes you have to do the rubbish jobs, or work for free. It may benefit you in the long run.

Network

Sometimes it’s who you know, not what you know. If you meet anyone who could potentially employ you, make sure you leave them a business card or contact details. Don’t be afraid to give them gentle reminders now and then that you’re still interested. Although not too often, as this can have a major negative effect.

So..

Working in television can be a hugely rewarding career. Don’t be intimidated, the people who work in the industry are normal folk just like you. If you have a professional, responsible attitude and are willing to learn and work hard then there is no reason you can’t succeed.

(Inspired by ‘How To Get A Job In Television’ by Dave Owen)