University
17/11/22 on UCAS page (20 Project Bravura hours)
- Extensive University course research
- Is University for me questions
- 10 Initial Choices
- 10 Choices Map
- 5 Final Choices
By completing this task I was able to prepare for university and make an informed choice about what university I wanted to go to. I asked myself if I wanted to go to university first and then ultimately deciding I did want to go. By doing research on multiple universities (looking at reviews and how highly rated the universities I chose are) I was able to narrow down my 10 initial choices to 5 final choices. I also did a mind map of where each of my 10 choices for university is so I'd know how far they are from where I live
At first I found this task to be very stressful due to not knowing if I wanted to go to university or not at the time, but after doing the task I feel much more confident about going to university and am planning to after college. I enjoyed looking at other courses that the universities provided, even if I wasn't interested in all of them
UCAS Create Your Future Fair
04/10/22 in London (8 Project Bravura hours)
- Speak to course experts and explore hundreds of course options
- Watch live performances by current students
- Get involved in creative workshops
- Take part in student talks and live Q&As with industry experts
- Meet current students and apprentices - find out what university, conservatoire and apprenticeship life’s really like
- Meet universities, conservatoires, employers and colleges!
It was an opportunity to explore hundreds of creative courses, apprenticeships, and careers in design, music, and the performing arts. The aim of the fair was to get people inspired and find out what a future in the creative industry could look like via talking to current students, industry specialists, and course leaders, and get expert guidance and questions answered
I was able to look at how many university options I truly had with this event and could ask them questions about the courses I was interested in. At the time I was mainly interested in University for the Creative Arts and University of the Arts London as they both provided courses I was interested in (digital media). I talked with many different universities at the end but only browsed through a few of their sites, for example I was invited to an open day at Buckinghamshire New University. This event helped me a lot with making my final 5 choices and made me felt more confident in them
UCAS Application Process
17/11/22 on UCAS page (5 Project Bravura hours)
- Meet the UCAS application deadline
- Ensure the correct information was on the application
- Complete all of the choices in the application
The main goal was to complete the application process. I had to make sure that the information on the application was correct and hand in important documents like certificates to the universities I was applying to. I also had to finish the entire application in a timely manner as the application process is only available for a limited time each year
Making sure that all the information in my application was the most important thing so I factchecked everything in my application before sending it. Since most of my application was just filling things in about myself, I mainly learnt about the UCAS website and how it works
Industry Talk – Kallan Summerfield
19/10/22 in Barnfield College (3 Project Bravura hours)
- Career progression - route to industry from Barnfield College media student to freelancer in the media industry (video)
- Working with professional clients
- Professional behaviour
- Professional equipment
- Showreel
- Student guidance to working as a freelancer- the positives and disadvantages of this contract type
- Student question and answer
From the industry talk I was able to get insight into working as a freelancer in the media industry, specifically videography. Summerfield also brought in his professional equipment such as a drone he uses to take camera footage, he allowed us to experiment with holding and controlling them
I learnt about how to behave professionally around clients and what makes for a good showreel. He talked about his journey from being a media student to a freelancer and how he did personal projects to build up a portfolio. I enjoyed being able to experiment with the professional equipment he uses. Even if I don't plan on becoming a cameraperson as a job, I was still able to get insight into being a freelancer in the media industry through this talk
Creating a Personal Statement
17/11/22 on UCAS page (8 Project Bravura hours)
- Writing multiple drafts for my personal statement
- Writing my final personal statement
- Presenting myself clearly
I wrote multiple drafts of my statement so that I'd be able to have it proof read and edited before sending it off to the universities that I was interested in. After working with the feedback I got from my personal statement, I was able to write my final version of it
Writing my personal statement is extremely important for me as its what the university will look at to decide if I'm fit to join them. At first I wasn't sure what to write which was why my first draft was so short, but after the feedback I got I was able to write a much more adequate personal statement that I felt confident in afterwards. After I sent my UCAS application I got offers from all five of my choices
Industry Talk – Matt Maude
22/11/22 in Barnfield College (3 Project Bravura hours)
- Insight into contemporary professional practice and documentary film making
- What goes into making a documentary
- How he was able to get into the media industry
Matt Maude presented a session focused on production methods for documentary and how to gain entry to the media industry. He specifically talked about documentary making and good practice within the media industry
By attending the industry talk I was able to get insight into a specific style of filmmaking, documentaries. I hadn't given documentaries much thought previously so I was surprised when there was an industry talk for documentaries specifically. I heard about how Maude was able to join the media industry despite his background as he was very passionate about filmmaking, which was inspiring. I was able to learn about what goes into making a documentary specifically, like getting B-roll footage and how to find stories suitable for a documentary
Bute Street Film Festival - Youth Film Programme
18/01/23 in Barnfield College (3 Project Bravura hours)
- Learnt about the programme
- Learnt what Bute Street Film Festival is
- Offered to attend the Youth Film Programme
Bute Street is a festival dedicated to showcasing independent film, art and music videos. Over the short years we have been running the festival we have realised as much as we love putting on a festival each year, we also wanted to create a hub of upskilling for creatives and for people with budding interests. As part of our plan this year we have collaborated with Youth Network supported by the BFI, The ICO, and supported by The Culture Trust and our lovely friends Festival Formula to create a project called the Youth Film Programmers project. This project is aimed at young people ages 16 - 22 who are interested in film and festival organisation. Over the course of 8 weeks it gives the group the opportunity to learn practical event planning, camera skills and presenting skills whilst learning more about independent and mainstream cinema. The second part of this project will be to put the power into the hands of the group, with support from our youth leaders, to create their own showcase of films that they can then share with family and friends
I personally learnt about Bute Street Film Festival for the first time and about the Youth Film Programme they had. The programme mainly focused on creating and showcasing films, which wasn't something I had much experience in myself. I wasn't interested in filmmaking but still felt intrigued by the programme and I appreciated the opportunity
RTS Masterclasses – BFI Southbank
26/01/23 in London (8.5 Project Bravura hours)
- Insights into the inner workings of the television industry, from presenting to camerawork
- Speaker 1: Lewis Arnold
Lewis Arnold is a director and producer. In 2021 he directed Jimmy McGovern’s TIME starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham, which won a BAFTA for Best Mini-Series and Best Leading Actor for Sean Bean. In 2020 he directed DES for New Pictures and ITV, having created the three-part drama with writer Luke Neal. The series won the International Emmy Award for Best Performance. It was on graduating from the National Film and Television School in 2013, that Lewis embarked on directing his first TV project, directing with two episodes of BAFTA-winning C4 show, MISFITS. He has also directed hit shows BANANA, BROADCHURCH and HUMANS
- Speaker 2: Nima Elbagir
Nima Elbagir is CNN's multi-award winning Chief International Investigative Correspondent. She joined CNN in 2011 as a Johannesburg-based correspondent before moving to the network's Nairobi bureau and later London, where she is currently based. Elbagir was named the 2020 Royal Television Society 'Television Journalist of the Year' and received the prestigious 2019 Alfred I. duPont - Columbia University Award in the Investigative category for her reporting on human rights abuses, with the jurors citing her "fearless reporting across Africa, from a modern day slave market in Libya, to child labor in Congo, and a smuggler's network in Nigeria, documented rarely seen exploitation and corruption."
- Speaker 3: Sohail Shah
With 20 years’ experience in the industry, Sohail specialises in factual entertainment, factual and popular culture programming; and has credits on all 5 UK terrestrial channels and numerous digital channels worldwide. Alongside commissioning & production, Sohail has been a successful Head of Development, heading up development departments for BBC Studios, ITV Studios, STV Productions and October Films amongst others. Since 2018, Sohail has also been a Non-Exec Director for Elstree Film and TV Studios, helping the world-famous studio to expand; culminating in the launch of the brand new ‘Platinum Stages’ in 2022. He has also served as part of the Edinburgh Film and Television Festival Advisory Board several times, as well as being a committee member for the ‘Ones To Watch’ and ‘The Network’ Talent Schemes which take place during the annual media event
The event was extremely insightful as I was able to hear three different talks from industry professionals about different mediums. This diversity in topics informed me about three of the many sectors in the media industry (directing drama shows & short films, journalism and the entertainment industry). I enjoyed hearing all of the talks I was able to attend, but the talk I enjoyed the most was Nima Elbagir's as I found her journalism interesting and daring. I'm not that interested in journalism for myself but I also felt like I learnt the most from that talk as it was the closest to what I actually wanted to do (which is mainly designing magazines, although I do have to write articles for them also which can count as journalism)
Portfolio of Progression Materials
02/03/23 on Progression page (10 Project Bravura hours)
- Researching other freelancers in the sector I'm interested in
- Creating and designing my own brand
- Designing my own logo, business card and an ident
- Filling in my own LinkedIn profile
- Looking at other showreels and analysing them
- Creating an effective showreel
I did research into other freelancers who are magazine designers as that's what I want my brand to be revolved around. After doing so I was able to create my brand and design my logo, business card and an ident for it. I made a LinkedIn account and filled out my profile with information such as the projects I've done in college and the skills I've acquired from doing them. I looked at other people's showreels on YouTube before making my own as I was able to analyse what I liked and disliked about each one I looked at. Looking at others showreels made me realise what makes for a good or bad showreel and helped me with making my own
I was able to learn a lot about what it takes to make an effective brand and how to brand yourself, especially as most jobs in media are mainly freelancers. I enjoyed designing my logo and business card even if they weren't effective branding, however I also made a lot of mistakes in this unit. My logo doesn't imply what my brand is about, the text in my business card would be too small to read and it contains too many details and my ident is very simple. At the time I found making the showreel difficult as freelancers in my sector don't make showreels, but I think it was the best thing I created in this unit as I was able to animate the pages in a fluid way and present my magazines so far
Real Talk
Multiple days on Work Experience page (60 Project Bravura hours)
- EP1 New Build (09/11/22)
- EP2 Christmas Wrap Challenge (07/12/22)
- EP3 Prime Energy (11/01/23)
- EP4 The Last of Us (22/02/23)
- EP5 Bute Street Film Festival (22/03/23)
- EP6 Season Finale (03/05/23)
Real Talk is a show hosted by West Herts College and we recorded short segments for the episodes of the show. Throughout 2022/2023 I was the sound technician for Real Talk. I was able to learn about what the role would entail and do my job professionally
Being the sound technician was very difficult. Since we had to record inside the building, the sound wasn't the greatest even with the lapel microphones. Being too close to the cafeteria was a major problem as it was very loud there and filming at certain times (during lunch) made it worse, but we had to work with the times we were allocated. Going outside wasn't an option for most of the vox pops as I was interviewing people from different floors and outside didn't sound great either. During the latter episodes I tried getting people to quieter spaces, but that mostly meant bringing people closer to classrooms and there were many times where a door opened loudly in the middle of recording
I don't want to say I expected this role to be easy since I know sound is a vital part of any video. If its just the visuals that are bad people can at least do something else while listening, but if the audio is bad then no one will want to watch or listen to it. There were many times where a vox pop was going well but we had to restart it because the sound was terrible. Being the sound technician also means being very still since I'm working with the rode mics and they're very sensitive and will pick up any movement I do
Overall I was fine with my role but it wasn't easy and looking back there were still things I could've done to make the sound better, but I'm not sure if it would've helped much overall due to the factors out of my control. I enjoyed the first and second episode the most as that's when my job went the most smoothly, I also thought the second episode was the funniest