Professional Practice: Application process/ Requirements
Professional Practice Unit: Commission Application Process
As part of my professional practice unit I have chosen to do 'Commission' instead of a work placement. There are many reasons for this, one of which is because I wanted to secure something whilst it was available instead of rushing to find one at the same time as everyone else. Another reason for my choice was because two representatives from the Custodian Data Centre came in to tell us about the company as well as the opportunities it can give you whilst producing a video for them. The idea of potentially being offered future opportunities to create more content and gain exposure was definitely a selling point for me.
What I found interesting during their pitch was the idea that they would require footage of their machines but they also wanted to show that there is more to the company than machines. This for me became a challenge that I was willing to accept as I have never had to make static objects look interesting. My precious experience only really allowed me to have people as my subject. I was ready to take on the challenge of learning something new. After telling them that I was interested, my next step was to create a CV as well as a showreel. This was my next challenge as my current CV at the time was not updated and it did not include any of my experiences within television.
My next step was to do research on how to correctly construct a CV that is good enough for a corporate company willing to hire me for a service as well as learning how to create a showreel as I have not done that before. At first I was quite worried about this because although I am confident about my work, I worry that it may not be good enough for a company that will require professional work. My worry soon came to an end after completing all the necessary research.
As part of my professional practice unit I have chosen to do 'Commission' instead of a work placement. There are many reasons for this, one of which is because I wanted to secure something whilst it was available instead of rushing to find one at the same time as everyone else. Another reason for my choice was because two representatives from the Custodian Data Centre came in to tell us about the company as well as the opportunities it can give you whilst producing a video for them. The idea of potentially being offered future opportunities to create more content and gain exposure was definitely a selling point for me.
What I found interesting during their pitch was the idea that they would require footage of their machines but they also wanted to show that there is more to the company than machines. This for me became a challenge that I was willing to accept as I have never had to make static objects look interesting. My precious experience only really allowed me to have people as my subject. I was ready to take on the challenge of learning something new. After telling them that I was interested, my next step was to create a CV as well as a showreel. This was my next challenge as my current CV at the time was not updated and it did not include any of my experiences within television.
My next step was to do research on how to correctly construct a CV that is good enough for a corporate company willing to hire me for a service as well as learning how to create a showreel as I have not done that before. At first I was quite worried about this because although I am confident about my work, I worry that it may not be good enough for a company that will require professional work. My worry soon came to an end after completing all the necessary research.
Creating a showreel
One video that really helped me was;
This video really helped me understand exactly what a show real is and what it should do. He described it is;
- "A showreel is usually used to give people an idea of what your skills are like without them needing to watch every single film you've worked on"
- "Making a reel usually consists of going through everything you have and picking out the absolute best parts and editing them together in a type of montage"
- He also made another really good point that "why not show your skills within story telling and editing instead of just putting together lots of nice shots". so you can put the best thoughts and pick the themes within them. You don't need to create a story but you can have a mixture of scenes such as "fun scenes, happy scenes, sad scenes" to show the ability to create a variety of tones. This was a very interesting point because my understanding of a showreel was that you'd just put all your best clips together but the idea that you can highlight the different tones of your work was a well was a great idea and a little new for me.
He gave an example of clips he had, saying that he grouped all the shots of people walking together.
He then gave an example of themes that you could look for such as "water, animals, or anything you can do to organize things and show continuity without grouping each project together. " This for me was great advice as it really opened my eyes to all the possibilities a show reel could be.
One of the main points he made was about the suitable length. It never really occurred to me that you shouldn't make your show reel too long just because you have a lot of content that you want to show. I now know that I need to make necessary selective choices on what shot types to include instead of cramming shots that I don't need.
Another thing that I was stuck on was whether I would need music or not. He made a great point about cutting to the pace of the music and how it becomes repetitive and expected so you can match the actions with the beat instead. It is something that I never really did before so I will attempt to do the same in my reel.
With this information, I had a better understanding about what it was and what I had to do about my show reel, so now I will attempt to create a good show reel.
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