Contacting the students from last year seemed an easy task at the start of my project. I began by emailing my cohort of students and requesting their input into my work.
The aim of this study was to find out from the cohort that I had studied with last year what it was like working the way they did, what was that way of working, and how that way of working has informed the way they work now. I also wanted to link this work to my professional portfolio.
I have also been making contacts with various professionals this year including people who have just started out in the media industry as well as seasoned professionals. Their knowledge has been invaluable to me, particularly about freelancing. I have discovered the importance of getting a foot in the door, as well as understanding the need to start at the bottom. During the first few weeks of my project the replies from the students were slow to materialise. Perhaps this was due to the fact that they had to answer my questionnaire. Writing the questions was important because I needed to get the right responses from the group. Asking closed question wouldn't give me enough information to analyse. Additionally I phoned some of them, used Facebook and also used text messages. Persistence is needed to get what you want out of something and it worked in the end. When they eventually responded it was great to see that they had all got paid work after university. All graduates told me that they enjoyed the practical nature of the last year at Artswork. I have looked at other media courses that are more theory based but I think that they miss out on a lot of valuable experience. The professionals I talked to commented that media graduates needed to have practical experiences as well as the theory. The sample group all liked the professional feel of working on real projects during the last year. It seems that the course at Bath Spa University prepares graduates well to take the next step in their career.
Having technical back up from Ollie and Dani was mentioned many times. I know that when you 'go it alone', that crutch of help will be taken away. To have on tap advice and also trouble shooting know-how is really supportive for project work. Having to work away from the Artswork hub has been quite a challenge for me to complete this work.
Laura Crouchley, a freelance photographer, who has graduated within the last six years told me about her difficulties in setting up her own business. Going it alone can be daunting, and every penny is ploughed back into the business and sometimes work is very slow.
Back with my questionnaires; they were slowly coming together, although Rich seemed to be taking a long time to reply. I eventually found out he was away in China of all places.
From the sample group I chose to do a piece about one person's experience over the whole year and Jessie agreed to this. This also took some arranging as I am based in Plymouth and I had to co-ordinate the signing out of equipment as well as travelling to and from Bath and finding a venue to record my interview. This proved to be more difficult than I thought as some of the pieces of equipment were held at Bristol and some at Bath Spa. Travelling with lighting and camera equipment on a train was not going to be an easy task. Jessie could also only be available on certain weekends too.
I have learnt to be adaptable and to understand that for every problem there is a solution so I decided to make a radio piece. I managed to get a zoom audio recorder from Bristol and arranged to interview Jessie at her house. So that she was prepared, like an actor receiving a script, I emailed an adapted version of my questionnaire. I wanted to ensure that it was not just a question and answer session but that the talk flowed so that the listener would be interested.
After setting up the audio equipment so that I was not holding it, I asked the questions and she gave her replies. I put the microphone about half a metre away. We only had to return to a few questions for the purpose of the audio recording as I wanted to be able to cut out my questioning. It took about an hour to complete the interview with a few stops and starts.
I have interviewed a consultant before on camera and I wanted to produce a piece with a different feel to it. It was also a good learning experience as I haven't done much face to face interviewing before. When I began to edit using Soundtrack Pro I had so much audio that it took an extremely long time to edit. It was, however, a good experience using Soundtrack Pro. Editing from forty minutes to ten minutes was a big learning curve. Keeping the best information whilst editing a few 'ums and ahs' was a challenge but it came out well in the end.
Stream and download the Radio Piece here
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