work experience

Work experience 

what is work experience and why is it important?

work experience is going out and working in the industry that you're studying. it shows employers your skills and enthusiasm to work in the industry. it helps give you more confidence going into your field and gives you a realistic view of how the industry works.



After seeing one of Laura's weekly emails, Me and two other course mates decided to email Andy Cross who is a therapist at the university. Andy was running a course about mental wellbeing in climbing and wanted a advertisement style film to be made. the film had no budget meaning we wouldn't be paid, however this didn't matter as we wanted to do it for the experience.




mental wellbeing in climbing film

For work experience me and two course mates took on the task of creating a short film to promote the wellbeing in climbing therapy course at the university, The therapy course was based on a German and Austrian movement to use climbing as a form of therapy which has grown quite popular recently, the university has ran the course for 3 years.

We met up with Andy (the therapist who runs the course) and spoke about his ideas and vision for what he wanted in the film and then set a date to film an interview at Eden rock. unfortunately Andy was very vague about what he wanted for the film and gave us "creative freedom "

We were warned previously that sometime in unpaid work you can get messed around. Unfortunately this did happen as on the day we planned to do the first shoot, Andy sent an email asking to postpone the shoot to another day, 4 mins before we were meant to start. however he did have a very valid reason and we used that day to shoot some gvs and actualities.

The interview was postponed until the Friday of the same week where we had a 1 hour 30 minute slot to shoot the interview,  Andy met us there at around 12:30, it took us about 40 mins to film the interview twice in different locations in the gym, we then filmed him and others climbing for the remaining time.

the editing process went smoothly although we did have sound issues throughout, we managed to get it fixed with some help and overall taught us some valuable lessons and techniques. 

Andy was very positive about the film saying "if this is the first film you guys have made, you have a very good career ahead of you". He has also asked us back to shoot some photos for a magazine and to potentially make another film in February 2025.








This work experience has helped me gain a better understanding on how filming projects like this work, how much time and effort is needed to get everything right. Although the film wasn't perfect by any means it has really helped me gain confidence to go out and film more. i found it very helpful to put my skills into practice so i can see areas that i need to improve in.

Andy was a lovely man but this project has shown me that sometimes in unpaid work you can be undervalued and messed around. the vagueness of what he wanted in the film and him not showing up showed that. However it has also taught me that working for free can create good connections and networks with clients that will ask you back for paid work.


 


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