how to gain employment in the creative media industry

Jobs

You might be able to get into a creative and media job, such as sign writer or photographic technician with few qualifications. Competition for jobs in this industry is strong but if you have talent, enthusiasm and determination, you can work your way up!

Further education (FE)

You can do a course at a local college or sixth form that can lead to a career in creative and media. This includes general qualifications such as AS or A levels in design, music or English and specific qualifications such as BTECs in fashion or drama.

Higher education (HE)

To do some jobs in creative and media, such as animator, journalist or graphic designer, you usually need a degree, HND or HNC. You can study full-time or part-time alongside a job. It’s always helpful to get some work experience in your chosen area of work as well as gaining qualifications.

Self-employment

A lot of people dream of running their own business within this industry. You may want to work on a freelance basis — working for different companies on different projects. Like in any sector, being self-employed is very competitive and comes with a lot of risks. It’s a big step to take, and a lot of researching and planning is needed. It isn’t something that a lot of people go straight into after finishing school — most people gain experience of the industry first as an employee.

job roles and conditions in the creative media industry

There are three types of job roles within the creative media industry. Management, creative, and technical. The first is management. Management oversee the commercial aspects of the industry such as collecting royalty payments, sales and marketing, planning schedules, or commissioning freelance staff. One of the job roles included in production and management is a producer. The producer leads the process of turning ideas or scripts into finished work with the potential for commercial success. Producers initiate a project, assemble the creative team and oversee the entire production, dealing with financial, creative and practical issues. Producers have many tasks before a production starts they might come up with an idea for a programme or film, or select a script, discuss projects with financial backers to raise money for the production, commission a writer, secure the rights to a novel or screenplay, hire key members of the team such as a director and editor, find locations for filming, draw up shooting schedules, approve the final script and budget. Then throughout a production they will supervise the progress of filming, approve script changes, monitor the budget, oversee health and safety in accordance with regulations and resolve any problems that arise. Then once the production is complete, the producer will supervise post production work such as the editing and help plan the marketing for the finished production. Since a producer has a variety of tasks they have to complete, they need to have certain attributes such as being creative, an excellent communicator, be decisive, a leader and a negotiator, well organised, able to juggle priorities and be able to work well under pressure.

the structure of the creative media sector

There are approximately nine types of industries within media, they are: Film, Television, Music, Print, Computer Games, Advertising & Marketing, Interactive, Press and Radio. The Film industry and companies such as DNA, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures make products like films and documentaries. I think Warner Bros. Pictures make the most known and the best films such as Superman, Batman Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All these films are box office hits.

Companies and Television such as BBC, ITV and Sky make products like News, Drama Documentary, Comedy and Music.
 The Radio industry produces Music, Talk, Drive-Time and Soap Opera. These come from Radio stations like Classic FM, BBC radio, Emap and Virgin.
Music Sector and Products has Commissioned Music and some of the companies that music is listened to are Emap, Zomba Music, Carlin Production Music and Conrad Productions.
The Print industry has sectors products like Posters, Flyers and Books. Press is one of the most important industries in Media, this is because they report news and advertise. Companies such News International (which includes The Sun, News of the World, The Sunday Times and The Times), Trinity Mirror, Pearson, Emap and Johnston Press all include in the Press industry.

 The Computer Games industry is where most of money comes in media. Different genres like Fantasy, Action and sports are put into the games. The most known companies for this industry are EA Sports, Rockstar, Climax and Infinity Wards. My favourite company is Infinity Wards because they produced Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which is the most played games in Playstation 3 and X Box. It sold 7.4 copies in its first 24hours on shelves. Advertising & Marketing is well known in the media industry. Sectors like Television, Radio, Print and Web are used. There are companies like Emap and McCann Erickson used for this industry.

 The last Industry is Interactive. Sectors like CD-ROM and Websites are involved. Companies like Windfall Digital, Illumina Digital and KMP are included.

storyboard and idea

statistical graphs

 

Animation questionnaire. Primary qualitative research.

Animation questionnaire. Primary qualitative research.

1)      What are your favourite animations?

2)      What genre of animations do you like?

3)      Do you prefer 3D animations to 2D?

4)      What animations do you know that have a good story behind it?

5)      Do you prefer animations with clay or animated on a computer?

6)      Who are your favourite animators if any?

7)      What do you think makes a good animation?              

research

Primary research: primary research is when you gather information yourself like asking people what their thoughts and opinions are about something. The advantages of primary research are that when you get the information you can write it in a way that you find easier to understand and that you know you’re not copying something because you’re writing it up yourself, you’re also helping other people gather information.   

Secondary research: secondary research is when you gather information from a webpage like Wikipedia, it’s when someone else has done some research and uploaded it to a website and then you get information from that website. Some advantages of secondary research are that it’s easier to gather the information, it’s written in an easier to understand way and you have to do less work to get that information.

Quantitative research: quantitative research is when you get information from something like a yes/no question sheet. The advantages of quantitative research are that it’s one of the easiest ways to get information and it’s the most understandable.

Qualitative research: qualitative research is when you listen to someone else’s view on things and note it down. The advantages of qualitative research are that you can get detailed descriptions of what someone thinks so you end up with a lot more information that could be useful later.