Professional Practice
In the Media Production industry, you are required to have experience in every aspect of audio, pre-production, editing and filming. Not only you are expected to have experience in these areas but you are also expected to have Degree qualifications or higher and your own portfolio of work to a very high standard. Qualifications and education is very important but what is key is experience and previous job in the industry, contacts; different people and branches which could benefit you when doing your own projects and trying to get a job and lastly your portfolio. No matter how the majority or minority of your education, if you can really edit or design and you have a portfolio of your own work then you are immediately at a great advantage from other people who may have qualifications but not great skill. The media Industry is mainly about practice and building up your work skill and portfolio that can be shown to higher powers in the Industry that may want to employ you. At the same time of building up my skill levels, I am also currently studying at college and plan to go to University. Video editing requires some talent as no matter how much practice and experience you have had that can go onto your creative cv, if you are not naturally talented or gifted then you may be at a disadvantage if you want to go into that field.
This is a job opportunity that I have recently looked into to see what skills and qualifications it requires.
Effects (FX) Technical Director (TD)
As you can see, this job has very specific skill requirements that the company would want the employees to have. This detailed list of requirements mainly suggests that the employee needs to be professional when working as the job is placed in a serious working environment. Qualifications provide proof of your skill level, however may not always be completely necessary if your skill level is to a very high standard and you have your own portfolio to prove it. Qualifications provides further information to put onto your cv so you are able to get your chosen career easier than someone who may not have them.
If I wanted to get this job then I would need to build upon my ability to work out how to approach a problem with a series of steps and have a strong understanding of further editing programs.
The second career opportunity I was looking at was Blizzard entertainment and gaming. Here is the student page from their website: https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/students
Blizzard entertainment allows students to be employed into their company straight from certain Universities if your skill level is worthy to them. https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/students/graduating-students This link goes straight to the student page on the Blizzard website where the company picks students straight out from multiple Universities. The page shows descriptions of the careers in which are available to the students whom have no experience after studying.
https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/students/internshipsThis link goes straight to the page in which is where the company offers internships to students. Internships is the American vocabulary for work experience in which you are not paid for. This means that while you are studying at University, you are able to gain experienced in the company and the Industry in which you want to work in while still studying. Lastly, on the student page there is a link which is called Student Contests. https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/students/contests This link takes you to the page where they offer the big contests which allows you to win the grand prize and for your name to be noticed. The contests allows you to build upon your skill, gain experience in doing so and if you win or come close then it allows for people and the company to recognise your name by the work in which you produce. Winning a contest puts your name out there in the Industry where you are able to be recognised. At this current moment there are two contests running. A environmental contest where you have to creatively conduct a new environment for the World of Warcraft game and second the character contest. The character contest is where you have to create and potentially animate a character to fit into the World of Warcraft game and the winner could potentially see there environment or character in the new upcoming updates of the game. This is what they offer to the students. As you can see Blizzard entertainment works very closely with students and Universities as they like to recognise talent that is out there and to be able to employ or give as much work experience possible to passionate students.
These are the different job roles in which they offer: https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/
You choose which category you fit into and want to get a career in then you can scroll through the job opportunities available. Here is a link to the character animation career in the Art, Animation and Sound category. https://careers.blizzard.com/en-gb/openings/oSBG4fwX This link shows you the requirements and responsibilities in which you have to be committed to if you want to take this career opportunity. As you can see by the requirements, you need plenty of experience and demo reels for them to look at when you send them your cv. You need to have professional and expert skill and knowledge within 3D editing software and should be able to draw and design the characters too.
Here is their introduction to the Art, Animation and sound career category.
This shows that not only you need lots of experience in the Industry, contacts, good recommendations, kill and talent but you also need to have dedication, patience, passion for your subject and too be inspired by their work they have already created. Here are some animated shorts that Blizzard entertainment have created before releasing their latest game; Overwatch. These shorts introduce the game and their characters.
Above are some of the animated shorts introducing characters and game play. Blizzard entertainment is one of the most well known and successful gaming development and animation game companies out there as their work is truly inspiring and amazing to anyone who watches it.
As of this current moment, I do not know which career pathway in the Media Industry I would like to take. What I do know is, I will be practice my motion graphics, web design, animation, character and environment design, 2D and 3D animation as well as logo design and visual/sound effects through this college course, my own time and at University. While I am at University, I will be looking into getting work experience here to potentially grow a career at the end of my studies.
