Researching job roles and responsibilities
In this unit I will be looking into the different sectors of the media industry and partaking in my own independent research as it will help me plan more clearly what my choices could potentially be in the future when my time in college comes to an end as well as have a more clear understanding of my progression and whether or not I am heading in the right direction to pursue a career in my eventual chosen field. To expand on this I will also be looking at to how to self promote myself to potential clients by experimenting on Canva and creating myself a logo, poster and CV which I could use to spread my name across to a wider audience.
Job roles & responsibilities
Sports photographer
For those who love both sports and photography, being a sports photographer is a great profession which can combine the two passions together. The field in particular is not an easy career for a beginner of photography to immediately succeed in, but for those who are up to the challenge, the job can be one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable positions out there with in the media sector and one I would defiantly like to do myself.
A key skill to succeed in this kind of job role is having a good attention to detail, this is important as sports photographers must focus on every small detail such as the levels of lighting as well as making sure that you are in the best position possible both of which are needed to create compelling images. Another skill to mention is also to have the best timing possible this is because you are expected to be taking action shots of fast movement and must capture each movement clearly. These skills are extremely important to be successful as this industry has become vastly more competitive over the years due to the quick development in technology. According to "Neuvoo", the average salary for sports photographers in the united kingdom is around £26,000 per year, with entry-level positions starting at around £14,400 per year.
Pros
if interested, you would be doing something you love. Sports photographers tend to love both the sports they are shooting and the photography itself
For more established sports photographers, the profession can be a well paying and stable job.
Some sports photographers are also photojournalists and will write articles to accompany their shots
Cons
Photographers who are interested in more still photography may find sports work difficult due to the fast paced environment
Sports games, especially on the more professional level will be happening outdoors as they are usually played in stadiums and games are not delayed in certain sports because of snow, lightening, rain so it can be hard for photographers to adapt to these kind of conditions.
Sports photography requires telephoto, quick lenses which are unfortunately the most expensive kind of lenses.
There is no set educational requirement to become a sports photographer but it is important that an individual understands what it takes to get a good shot particularly in an often chaotic environment. A sports photographer may receive training on the job in terms of how to get the best shots in specific environments or on the sport itself but to get started it may be helpful to have a degree within photography or at least some classes, but in most cases its common that an organization or sports team will want to see a portfolio of work more than anything else.
I found a video on YouTube about a guy who works for the Olympics as a sports photographer and he gives a useful insight of his profession in the "day in the life of" format: https://youtu.be/yV9vF3GyBEo
Film Director
When creating a film or tv series or really any form of story telling entertainment there are many job roles that go into completing such projects, this can be anything from being a lighting manager to being apart of a team of editors but before all that begins its a film director, who's job is to bring everything to life by recruiting and guiding a crew to make sure everything is exactly how they want it. There are no degrees required to become a film director but a creative mindset and experience in managing budgets will help a lot in this media sector.
Pros
You are your own boss and are in control of what goes on
The income in this job role is potentially unlimited
You decide on who your team members are for your projects
interesting work and lifestyle
Cons
You are expected to make ALL of the decisions
No steady pay check
You are responsible for the success or failure of a project
The competition is fierce
The expected key skills for a film director involves a great knowledge of media production as you are the one who holds the creative vision throughout the whole process and its their job to ensure that it truly comes to life in the way they intent it to from pre production to the final edit. You will be helping the rest of the crew as well as the actors to get the best out of the people around you meaning you also need to have leadership skills along with the ability to work well with others as nearly all projects that you are assigned to will involve working with a large amount of people for nearly the whole duration of what you are all creating. One example of this is you will work with the producers and casting directors to select the right actors for the roles as well as collaborate with the director of photography to develop the filming style which will consist of things like discussing camera shots, script changes and what type of equipment is to be used and the location of that equipment.
On top of all of this a director also has the job of instructing other departments of the crew like discussing the type of clothing the actors should wear to the costume design team, talking to the lighting team and set team about what environment you want to create for each of the scenes and talking to the editors about the technical aspects and effects you want included throughout the performances. Typically it is estimated that successful directors can earn between $250,000 to $2 Million per project. And the new and inexperienced typically earning between $250,000 to $500,000 per film.
When in the process of researching this job role I also stumbled across this interesting YouTube video featuring famous movie director, Quentin Tarantino to which he explains the process it takes for him to write and create movies : https://youtu.be/6V1Sm0WCtHU
Task 2 - Research progression opportunities
Pursuing a job in the media industry is a competitive process, so first hand experience in the field will help you stand out from the crowd. It will equip you with skills such as operating camera work, basic teamworking skills and simple knowledge that will gear you up for a fast-moving industry that requires you to change with the times. This is done through an apprenticeship which will give you the opportunity to go straight into a professional working environment where you would be expected to learn on the job whilst even getting paid for it in the process.
One of the ways you can begin an apprenticeship is by searching for them online on job websites such as :
"Indeed.com"
"Totaljobs.com"
"Flexjobs.com"
"Monster.com"
These websites offer a wide range of apprenticeships as well as full times jobs across any genre and in most cases all that is needed to apply is a CV which you send through the website to the company that are advertising the job role. After some searching I found the following Apprenticeships :
Digital Marketing / Social Media Creator Apprentice
"TRIPLE ZERO TAXIS LIMITED"
"The Successful candidate will be primarily creating social media posts across our 3 companies and managing the digital and online presence of these companies. Assisting the management team on a day to day basis and helping discuss the direction of the companies online presence. Marketing the company to a range of private and commercial clients."
Weekly wage of £165.00 per week
Mon-Fri Job
22 week duration
Social Media & Content Creation Apprentice
"APPRENTIFY"
"Working as one of a team of three, you will help to tell the story of the Pure AV organization and solutions. You will play a vital role in creating digital marketing content to keep existing customers engaged and attract new prospects.
A varied role, you will have the opportunity to get involved in a range of different marketing activities, from copywriting to photography and video creation."
£16000 per year
15 Month Duration
Mon - Fri job (8:30-5:30)
Degree courses in media and photography
An alternative to an apprenticeship as a career path would be to go to a university that accommodates a course that you feel would be the best for the sector you wish to go to.
PROS
Higher training, higher employment.
A first long term experience away from you
The best place to meet interesting people
A unique opportunity to see the world
CONS
You can end up in debt
long time commitment to the subject is needed
you wont be guaranteed a job
you are given an intense work load
Personal production & Self promotion
Personal Production
When I first got into photography I knew very little on the basics such as composition and also the post editing stage on software's such as photoshop or Lightroom but with practice I felt like since then I have improved quite a fair bit over time through just practicing until I was happy with my work. But after reflecting on all this I had noticed that one of my weaker points was using natural light to my advantage in photos as my photos would some time look either too bright or too dark, for example...
The problem with these images were they were either too dark or too bright and this was my mistake as I wasn't using the right angles nor was I having the main focus point of the image in a certain position that would have let the natural light onto it. So understanding where I was going wrong I then waited for the perfect time to shoot some pictures by my living room window which was around midday as the sun perfectly shined through allowing me to use it to my advantage and capture some great detailed images that are shown below.
Self Promotion
An important thing in the media industry in making sure you are having your name and your service out there as much as you can in hope that eventually it can reach potential clients. There are many ways of doing this which can include posting your work on your social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and twitter, doing so in this modern age makes it really easy for clients to contact you.
Which is why I have created my own Instagram page called "@DylancoxMedia" so that I can post all my best work in hope that it is seen by future clients.
I have also took time to explore Canvas and have created myself a logo, poster and a CV that is mostly aimed towards what I want to do. When creating these I wanted to have a theme to create a professional look as these are what clients will see first so I want to set a good impression upon the first glance.
Logo
To begin creating my promotional material I chose to create and design my logo first in case I wanted to have it showcased on my poster and CV. To begin I opened Canva and begun the thought process, did I want a icon based logo? or was I to have it only made from text in a eye-catching font? I could not decide so what I did was make a few to decide on.
After taking my time to decide what I liked most I finally chose the following because I was happy with the icon and how I thought it overall looked the most professional with its colour scheme and design.
Poster
Now that I had my logo I could begin planning my promotional poster which I had planned to show a few of my favourite shots from past projects. I wanted to keep the same kind of design through-out all of my promotional pieces so I stuck with the same colour scheme that I had given my logo, White & a blueish grey colour. As well as all this I wanted to make sure that the people who saw my poster had a ways of easily contacting me to I put both my email and Instagram username in the bottom corner of the screen.
CV
Finally once both my poster and logo were complete I then begun designing my CV. Just like everything else I stuck with the same colour scheme, still maintaining my "brand" in that sense. On my CV I included information such as my education history like what high school I studied at as well as what current course I am taking in collage. I then included my skills in IT as well as my experience using editing software's like photoshop, premier pro and Lightroom to fit more into my audience aim as it would hopefully interest the specific industry I would like to be involved in.
Final Designs
Task 4 - Project Evaluation
In this unit 3 I talk about the research I have done on potential careers in the media as well as the requirements to begin them this involves information such as what education is required, what salary you will earn a year and just an overall insight into what its like to work in these specific job roles, doing this helped me get a better understanding on what its really like to work in the media and understand the positives and the negatives to take into account when I'm deciding on what I wish to do or achieve.
Also, expanding on the educational pathway to these careers, I also looked into local apprenticeships and looked up on job websites what is available in which doing so would help expand my knowledge on my potential next steps to take in the future after I have finished this course. After I found a few I then wrote down the key information such as the duration of these apprenticeships as well as the weekly wage and how many days you will be required to go in.
Then finally to complete my unit work I focused more on my current skill set and where I could improve so I looked at some past projects of mine and decided on what I could do better. I then realised that my usage of natural lighting was poor so I decided to plan a project where I would pay more attention to lighting and take shots that I personally thought were a improvement in comparison to my old work. Then once I was happy with my shots I went to canva to then create my own branding/ promotional material which consisted of things such as a Logo, poster and a CV to help promote my projects to an audience in a appealing way that suited my services.
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