In conclusion to my Professional Practice Portfolio assignment there are things that I have done well and other things that I haven’t done so well.I think the point of this assignment is to jump start thinking about your career more by looking at how to get noticed and using similar approaches that professionals already use.
I have been putting off making a website for years and this assignment has pushed me in the right direction allowing me to create a on-line portfolio for employers to see. The idea of making a website scared me as it’s not one of my talents and I wasn’t sure of how I should approach it. Even if at this point the website isn’t everything I wanted , the module has gave me an understanding of how to produce this product and distribute a professional standard portfolio.In the future I can keep adding to my existing portfolio or create a new one, either way this has given me a better outlook and knowledge of how to produce a website or on-line portfolio.
This module has also given me the chance to experiment with my filming techniques, which is really one of the reasons I got in to Media Production. I want to get out in to the industry and keep practising my techniques to get better at cinematography after all I think practice makes perfect.Getting involved with different people with different requirements aids me to think in a different way about what is needed to make their video a reality.
I have grown better but am not completely confident in my networking skills. I have had some responses from my emails but I can do much better in my networking. I admit that this is my weakness in this part of the assignment and I did struggle on getting noticed by professionals. Before this module I didn’t realise the importance for networking,Now after a long module I can go on and try to use these skills to network correctly .The challenge for me was putting myself out there and not being scared of what people think.My spelling and grammar has always held me back with networking but I feel this course has helped me feel more confident and I’m actually pushing myself to get involved with things.
Another thing that held me back was I started with the intention of doing sound recording I still have an issue but with no responses from companies or students. I feel that this is partly my fault for not correctly applying the techniques at the start. Looking back I can see how important this portfolio is , I didn’t have a lot of examples to show with sound apart from the sound on my films , my music and a few pod-casts which I was still learning about.I Deciding to go down a different route and include Cinematography which in turn saved my portfolio. I had built more contacts here and I think people are more aware of what’s visual , even though sound is a massive part of film,I think sound is harder to obtain. Like I said the body of work is really important in getting work and just from my portfolio at the minute , I’m lining up some wedding videos and short films as well as continuing with my own work.
I think this module has a massive impact on your identity in this industry and its helped me believe in my ability a bit more.Now I can feel confident that people actually want to use my skills and offer me wages I must be doing something right?
One thing I could definitely look in to more is using on-line groups to my advantage. I did try using the groups but other than call the shots which I spoke about before I had little response,a few likes on statuses but that’s it. I think this shows how competitive the groups are and sometimes you just might be lucky in responding to a post or someone my catch your work on a page and think I want to use this person. That’s how I met ‘Life is art films’ a few years ago, I watched a video he had made that was very good so I messaged him.Just doing this course has allowed me to meet new people, I met some on the college HND course and some here at Coventry University .
There is a lot of luck in film making and it’s all about being in the right place at the right time. I’m still thinking what can I do to be better and what makes me stand out and be unique, I can see my talents and I’m not going to give up.My outlook is to be persistent with it , I have a nice portfolio to send to people now and I can use this to get to another chapter in my life.
From what I had at the start of the module I didn’t have a proper online space for others to see my work so it was hard for people to gage what I was about. Now I believe I have more ability and more knowledge to take another step in the right direction.The main result for me is using the skills I’ve attained on this course, Id advice anyone to go down the same route as I have . Each day I look forward to learning more about being professional and how to improve my portfolio and body of work.
Link to Online Portfolio
markleeyr3 