After the final year of university study, I completed my Final Media Project, which has prepared me for a career as a media worker, so I want to do some career planning for my future. First, I want to make clear my strengths. In university courses, I learned some production skills, such as skilled use of some shooting cameras, such as Blackmagic, Canon and Sony, etc. Also, I could use sorts of editing software to edit film frames and sounds. In my Final Media Project, I had the experience of directing the actors to shoot, so that I could learn certain techniques, such as plan and schedule projects and team leadership. At the same time, I also have some experience in screenwriting and can write my ideas into the script, and seek opportunities to shoot these scripts. In addition to these technologies, another important skill I learned in the course was to keep in touch with people in the media field and build my networks. University gives us a lot of social media platforms about the media production, for example, I join some groups on Facebook, FAH Skills Circle (Facebook 2020), and Film Forum West Midlands (Facebook 2020), I will look at some other Film workers posts on these social networking platforms,, and seek the opportunity to work with them, at the same time, I also post my posts on these platforms, such as recruiting for film actor and crew.
In the future career planning, based on my personal preference and skills, I want to be a freelancer, and the specific field is documentaries. In the initial stage, it may be possible to try some different production roles, such as film editor, sound designer or producer. This is what I learned from conversation to people who have worked in the media field for years. Ben Duff (Instagram2019), he is a professional photographer and I got to know him when I was shooting a documentary for a football club. His advice to me is that after graduation, I can charge different roles in some production and learn about these roles, so that I can lead the team to finish excellent works in my production in the future, and meanwhile expand my career scale and provide more opportunities. After that, I will set up my production team and seek funds to make my documentary. But I need to find a job first after graduation, in the current job market, there are still many jobs for media. For example, I saw some jobs on Mandy website (Mandy 2020). There is a short film production team, and they need a producer, the location-based in Wales and London, 300 pounds per day, the production start from June. The film story is about 2 brother and their father. They both want to be a pilot. One gets killed and the other has to pick up the pieces. I thought I could do it because I had been a producer a few times and I can be the producer with my professional skills and experience in this film also. Also, there are many job opportunities, such as director, photographer, editor and so on, and my plan, I will pay more attention to the role of director and producer.
To create more opportunities for my future career, I need some necessary contacts and networks. First of all, I will apply for some film festivals for my films, such as the BFI film festival (BFI 2020). I hope I can show my films on such large and professional film platforms, get to know more professional filmmakers, exchange experience with them and seek opportunities for cooperation. In the following year, I will continue to study the postgraduate course of the documentary, and also participate in more film production as a freelancer. I will choose London as my location for both study and production because there will be more opportunities and resources. I know it is not an easy process to do all this, I need to overcome many difficulties. But before that, my goal for the future is to finish my postgraduate studies excellently, to get a first-class degree, to produce two or three films (at least one documentary) at the same time, and at least one of these works can be nominated for the film festival. To do this, first of all, I will set a clear time-schedule, so that I will not waste time, second, I will get to know people who have the similar goals as me, so that we can work together, even in my own tough time, someone will encourage me and give me suggestions. Self-confidence is very important also, believe in my ability and my goals, then firmly implement it, and when I encounter obstacles in my study or production. I will listen to others' Suggestions, look at my problems from different perspectives, and learn from people who are professionals in their area.
Reference:
Facebook.com. (2020). FAH Skills Circle. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FAHSkillscircle/ [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020].
Facebook.com. (2020). Film Forum West Midlands. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmforumwm/about/ [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020].
Instagram.com. (2020). Ben Duffy. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/benduffyphoto/ [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020].
Mandy.com. (2020). Producer. [online] Available at: https://www.mandy.com/uk/job/654044/producer/561540 [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020].
Whatson.bfi.org. (2020). BFI London Film Festival [online] Available at: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/ [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020].