The media industries I’m interested to work in are film, television, radio and animation. In all of these I want to be related to the creative sector, where I could be a director, an editor, or a producer.
My research will be focused on the movie and television
industry. In the UK the biggest companies that operate in this sector are BBC
and ITV. The BBC is a public service broadcaster headquartered in London and it
has the largest number of employees between all the world broadcasters, with over
22,000 staff members. They never produced big budget blockbusters, but they always
gave a chance to unknown writers and directors to produce an indie movie, but
with a big distribution. ITV is a free-to-air television network and it is the
biggest competitor of BBC and they always hosted beloved tv shows like The Voice
UK, The Chase, or Love Island.
In the united states, Hollywood controls big studios like Warner
Bros., Universal Pictures, or The Walt Disney Company. All these three are pluri-billionaire
companies that produce numerous block buster movies per year and they are the three
biggest distributors of movies of nowadays. Warner Bros are a multinational mass
media and entertainment conglomerate that has produced the whole DC Comics
Extended Universe, and the Giant Monsterverse, as well as the latest big budget
Christopher Nolan Movies. Universal Pictures is a film production company owned
by Comcast and it has produced the whole Fast and Furious Saga, the Jurassic
Park and Jurassic World franchise and it also owns the DreamWorks Animation
studios. While the Walt Disney Company is a diversified multinational mass
media and entertainment conglomerate, that produces all the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
this because it own the Marvel Studio, just as it own the Fox Studios, it has a
number of 223,000 employees with a revenue of $65.388 billion ( 2020 ).
A producer is the person who is responsible for a product
financially and logistically, while the director has more of a creative role,
more often than not, the producer is the one who hires the director, because
they think he is the most fit to direct the story they want to tell, because
the producer is the one who has the money to make the movie he wants. The
producer also has the option to commission a story to a screenwriter to adapt
it for the realisation of the project. They also have the important role of
helping the director to achieve their vision. The main producers are also
called creative producers, and they are the ones who are actually risking
money, so they must be the ones who hire people that work and fire the ones who
do not. Usually, producers do not put their own money, but they raise it from
third parties, which can be studios, stock market or private investors.
A director has the head creative position in a production,
he is the person responsible for the final creative outcome of the product. They
are the one who chose a cinematographer, the production designer, the wardrobe
designer, the casting director, the second unit director and the actors with
every other key creative position on the product. Directors check people’s
reels, resumes, they call them for meetings for tell them what their vision for
the product is. The director can change
the lines of the script, he can change the scenes or even where the setting is.
If everything doesn’t look like the director wants it to, he is the one who
tells people to change it. If a project isn’t working the director is the one
who has to choose if they should do it again or they should move on, it
happened with Back To The Future, when Zemeckis noticed that the vision he had
wasn’t been realised, so after a week of shooting he decided to do everything
again after casting Michael J. Fox.
A camera operator is the person that composes the shot, he
chooses which lenses to use, he is the one who comes up with the idea on how a
certain shot will be realised, he presents the idea to the director and waits
for he’s approval or denial. He also is in charge of managing the framing of
the camera on the scene and all the camera movements. When it comes to multi
camera studio productions, there is usually a team of camera operators that
capture the same action but from different angles. When the camera operator has
to film by working with some dollies, mobile pedestals, or trackers, he needs
to manage how these objects need to be used and how the camera movements are
going to be taken care of.
The sound recordist is the person that captures all the
sound on the set. They set up microphones and they have to deal on how to place
them, according to what kind of product they’re working on, they also have to
choose what kind of microphone they’ll need to use, and they also have to choose
if they want those microphones to be seen or not, so in that case they’ll
decide whether the microphone is going to be internal or external, one of the
most important things that a sound recordist has to do is to match the sound with
the visual so it can make sense, a sound recordist has the job to make everything
sound realistic, by also recording background sounds or sou sound effect to
make them match with whatever the visual shows. In studio production, some sound assistants work with the
director himself, while in smaller studio the sound recordists
work usually works with a camera manager to record everything
from the interviews to the group activities. When a company hires a sound recordist that shows dedication,
the company will prefer to work with them, and it will also help the camera assistant’s
preferences to chose who to work with. Only when the camera operator ad the
sound recordist are working together, they can easily match sound and picture
together during the editing part, so it can match al together, run smoothly and
make sense to the viewer.
A scriptwriter, is the person who
is in charge of writing screenplays for medias like tv shows, advertisements,
movies, radio, etc… They usually have some deadlines for when to hand those
scripts and to follow that deadline is extremely important otherwise the scriptwriter
could lose his job. While in the case of the theatre, we have a set designer
who designs and creates the set that appears in films, tv programs and on
stage. He needs to have the script handed in on time so he can prepare the
scene as it can be ready to work with, by doing this he will also have to communicate
with the directors, producers, costume designers and all the other members of
the staff. Usually when working on this kind of productions have a limited
budget, so every member of the cast and crew know that they have to be within
that budget, then if course the script needs to be about something that can be
doable in that budget.
When it comes to legal policies,
that’s when the Compliance officers take part. The compliance officers are who
need to ensure that our business follows legal and internal policies. Their main
duty is to oversee all the operations that are related to business, compliance
and conformance by also including policies and procedures, this also by regularly
assessing the efficiency of workflows and by recommending improvements, advising
management on the company’s compliance. Every time the company makes marketing
and advertising deals, the officers need to check all the legal aspects and
risks of every move, by managing permissions and analysing the target audience
of the companies. When it comes to advertising, from the smaller companies, to larger
businesses like Mercedes, they will need cast and crew to film a spot. Usually,
one of the most important legal aspect is copyright. Copyright is a type of intellectual
property that gives its owner the right to make copies of creative work usually
only for a limited time. When the companies are working on a product they have
to make sure that they are using non-copyrighted material, but if they do use
material with copyright then they have to make sure that they are allowed to do
that and they also will have to give credit to the owners or creators. If the
company ever used copyrighted material without giving credit, there will be
some legal action applied against them, and it will have a negative impact on
the company and their audience.
The Economics and financing of
media companies are one of the biggest issues in media management research and
practice. Just like any other economic sector, in the media industry, when a
service or a product is provided, that service or that product must cover all the
costs and create financial returns. The three most common legal forms of business
organisation are solo proprietorship, the partnership, and the corporation. The
sole proprietorship is the form of business that is being ran by only one
person and operated for profit. The partnership is the form of business that is
owned by two person considered partners and they operate for profit. The corporation
is an artificial being created by law with multiple owners, and it’s often
called legal entity. The legal form that the company decides to work with depends
on the goals that it wants to achieve, so the company needs to think about which
legal form provides successfully efficiency, organisation, profit, maximization,
economic growth, and economic stability.
The profit is the financial gain, especially
the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating,
or producing a service. The role of the profit is to measure the return to risk
when making an investment. Usually, the media sector isn’t naturally profit
driven. In the sector some of the industries
are regulated by the law to operate as non-profit firms.
Most of the media sectors advertise their job vacancies using
social medias, advertisement, personal contacts and websites. The biggest companies
like BBC and ITV advertise their job vacancies via their websites. This because
it helps them to sub categorise all the sector where people wan to work in, which
could be television, social medias, or websites. While film companies usually
tend to hire people who they already worked with, or people that they met
through word of mouth or personal contact. They do this because they want to
know better about people’s personal experiences and how they’re able to work in
certain situations rather than hiring someone who might have masters, degrees
or high qualifications in the media sector but can’t work under pressure. Hiring
someone they already worked with before helps to know how they are going to
work again, this because by knowing how professional a person is, the company
may have more effective products or the production process may run more smoothly,
this because of the familiarity of the style they work with. One of the biggest
media websites called The Guardia has its own careers website where people are
able to search and apply for a position. One other efficient way to advertise job
is through national press, by doing this, the company will reach out to a
mainstream audience by giving a wide group of people the opportunity to apply
for a job that might be popular and a chance for them to improve their skills experiences.
BBC, ITV, and The Guardian advertise their job opportunities on air or using
their websites. But other societies, nowadays, they use social medias because
of the huge impact and influence that they have on every person’s life. By
advertising their job roles on the web, they increase their audience, and a large
group of people will see it which is exactly what every company aims for. All
the mainstream companies have their online advertisements with their personal
accounts because it’s free and it lets them reach a large audience. Social
medias like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are the main sites that most
companies use to promote their work, as these are the most common platforms
that are accessible to the biggest number of people. And everyone is able to
share what they see on the platforms with their friends, which will also help
the company to increase their audience.
When you start working for a company, you have to fill some
legal paper works that state that you work for them, even if you’re working
part time, full time, temporary, permanent, voluntary or casual labour. There are
many types of contracts, from the ones that are more flexibles to the ones that
are stricter. When you work full time, then you’re considered a regular member
of the staff, the cast and the crew, this means that you also will receive the
company benefits like sick pay, holiday pay, maternity/paternity leave, and a
pension. Usually, he jobs that are available are full time and permanent. If
you’re working part time permanently, you’ll have less hours to cover but you
will still be provided with the same benefits as a full-time contract. Fixed
term contracts are similar to the ones mentioned earlier as they are temporary,
so they have to last for a certain period of time, but they still provide the
company benefits. Just like the fixed term contracts the freelance workers are responsible
for their own arrangements of payments and allowances. These types of contracts
are usually given to people who are part of the technical, creative, sales and
management part of the process. In films and tv productions, most of the work
opportunities will be freelance because of the short-term nature of roles in
production. These job roles also contain writers, designers, editors,
sub-editors, illustrators, technicians, etc. The commons method used to apply
for jobs are the websites that are available to help freelancers to find a job
opportunity in the media industry.
Show reels, are a short compilation of clips used to resume
and show all the previous work that a person has previously done, which can be
shown digitally on a website or on social medias, it’s used by a variety of
people involved in film making and other media sectors like acting, animating,
lighting, designing, editing and modelling. They’re usually used to show the skills
that a person can perform and have and highlight them, and it also shows off the
person’s creative to the employer.
A portfolio consists of all the work that someone has
gathered over a period of time and believes that certain work will express this
person in the best way possible. Employers usually want to see what a person
has done before in their life to make sure and now the capabilities of who they
are about to hire or not to hire.
Most of the people who want to work in the media sector,
after certain experiences they open a website, which allows them to gather and
organise all the past work they have done so it can be easy to look at and find.
If the employer is able to contact the
owner of the website or to leave comments, he will also be able to see the
feedback that has been left in the past and analyse how the person he’s
inspecting works and how the reviews describe him as a person and as a worker. On
a website it is also possible to upload documents such as Curriculum Vitae or
even a portfolio to help support your listed skills and abilities.
A Curriculum Vitae is a written overview of someone’s life
work. This consists of educational grades or qualifications, skills, hobbies,
interests, and most importantly work experience and job aims. To increase job
interview you must show your skills by listing them or even demonstrating them.
To create a better profile, you must include all the information and all the
data. Having references on your CV can also help you with more job
opportunities in the media sector, because it helps the employer to understand
the circumstances you already worked in and how you can manage those. This also
helps to prove that your skills are true, while a lot of people lie on their curriculum
about some of their skills, and when they are hired, they cannot do what they
said they could.
The letter of application, or also known as a cover letter.
It has the role to explain the employer why he should choose you over all the
other people, for the position that you are applying for and why you should be
selected for an interview. The key for a good letter of application is to have
a good punctuation and grammar and a fine terminology. The main purpose of the
cover letter is to interest the employer into yourself, your skills and you as an
employee
Employers want to trust and be sure about whoever they want
to hire for an available job role, that the employee would show dedication and
determination in the job, that they would follow the deadline and manage time
as appropriately as they should. During an interview, to show professionalism
is one of the most important features because the employers have to want to chose
you as a part of their tam. One of the ways to show professionalism is to add
the skill onto your CV and to make examples about when and how you used that
skill. You must show that your able to use software effectively, and to be up
to date with how they work and how they evolve. You need to be contributing to projects
by working as part of a time, along with colleagues and by showing how you’re
able to work with others, and how you’re determined to reach a team’s common
goal and how you want to make sure you will do that. Doing this will help you
succeed because you will show how your are taking on responsibilities and
executing the work that was required whilst working with a team of colleagues
by showing willpower to reach success. Having some leadership skills will also
help the working as part of a team feature. To be ready for an interview you
should get ready beforehand, by practicing your verbal communication, dressing
appropriately, taking care to answer questions. You should keep yourself organised
and have a plan of what and how should you go to work or get ready for the interview
itself to create a sense of effectiveness, professionalism, and efficiency.
One of the way to
getting a job opportunity is to create that job interview for the sector. This
because you need to be ready and you need to whatever you can to do what you want
to do. You need to be learning the skills required to fit into the sector, this
can open up the opportunities that will make you meet employers and those employers
need a reason to hire you. Education will not be the only key to be hired, you
also need qualities that will make a comfortable work environment. By being
professional, you will need to be ready to any kind of type of sector you will
share your experience with. A way of showing that professionalism is by
presenting your work by using show reels, your portfolio or your website so
that the employer will be able to understand who wants to apply for his job
position. Education and experience will build up your personal development and
just because all the sectors are in a continuity evolution, you need to evolve
yourself with them. That’s why you will always have to develop new skills to
show your growth into the system and to update your portfolio, your show reels
and your CV. The more experience in the media sector you will have, the more experience
you will gain which will lead you to work on national or international levels
of advertising or media producing. You will always have to update regularly your
CV, as you might develop your skills with the time and the experience and that the
employers will need someone who they can be sure to work with, and by having an
updated CV, you can make it easier for them and for yourself by giving you a
chance of being noticed and chose.
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