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Video Production in College
Hey Guys,
I am starting college in August and am currently majoring in Media Production. However, for the first 2 years, I will obviously be taking general education courses, before I get into my major. I have contacted the main production facility on campus and I will be volunteering for them, mainly doing live production, like sporting events. But I am not sure how often they will need me or exactly what I’ll be doing.
My question is this: What should I be doing over the next 2 years to enhance my skills so I can go into my major and eventually the industry with an advantage over others?
My general goal is to just have a career in production: writing, directing,shooting, producing, and editing pretty much anything. Not sure if I want to go into narrative media or documentary/public affairs mediaI did quite a bit of production in high school, from schools news, to sports shows, documentaries, marketing videos, and various other productions for local clients. So I do have some experience with writing, shooting, & editing. I learned how to use FCP 7 very well, as well as Apple Color, and Soundtrack Pro. I also know basic After Effects, but not really advanced techniques. I’ve also been learning Media Composer through the tutorials here on Creative Cow.
What is the best thing for me to do to improve my skills before I actually start the media production major in 2 years? Keep watching tons of tutorials on Media Composer and AE? Reading books on cinematography and lighting, like I’ve been doing?
Anything else?I’d greatly appreciate any feedback.
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20 Replies
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It sounds as if you’re doing the right thing. Get experience in every aspect of production and post-production that you can. Apply for internships at television stations in your area – there are often ones which tie in to colleges with strong Media Production departments.
Read everything you can find, and watch tutorials. If you want to write, read like there’s no tomorrow. I would suggest you learn Media Composer as well as Premiere Pro. There’s no telling how the production world is going to shake out in the future, so optimize your options.
Find productions that you like, and pick them apart, figuring out which effects were used, and how they were lit, shot, and posted. Get as much hands-on experience as you can, and don’t let anyone convince you that you can’t make a future out of media production.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
I was in the same situation as you – I took about four semesters worth of general classes before I got to really sink my teeth into the film program at school.
I took a lot of art and humanities classes, and a bunch of them ended up being film related. I took an “American Studies” class on Disney, another on horror films, a class on New German Cinema, all outside the film department. I took “Rock and Related” in the music dept., as well as a few recording classes. I also took classes on business law, government administration, journalism, theater, and I took golf as my gym class.
If you have a choice, defiantly choose a gym class that would otherwise cost money. Don’t take, like, jogging. You can jog for free. Take swimming, at least. Or bowling.
The other thing you need to do in the next two years is narrow down a career goal from “produce/write/shoot/direct any type of video.” There is no way to chart a path for that type of career. You need to imagine an outcome that you’d like, and then figure out a series of steps to reach that goal. Otherwise you’re just spinning your wheels.
It’s good to dabble in all the software you can. Don’t worry too much about mastering it – it will all be different once you graduate, and if you’re not using it all the time, you’ll just forget it anyway.
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[Mike Kozlenko] “I am starting college in August and am currently majoring in Media Production. However, for the first 2 years, I will obviously be taking general education courses, before I get into my major. I have contacted the main production facility on campus and I will be volunteering for them, mainly doing live production, like sporting events. But I am not sure how often they will need me or exactly what I’ll be doing. “
I have to say this is why I recommend Community or Junior college when folks ask me where to go to school for this industry. I spent two years at Community College actually doing production in the studios before I went to Syracuse and I was so far ahead of my classmates that I was teaching them stuff both in production and post. In fact I had a demo reel when I got to Syracuse, none of my classmates had even produced anything yet.
[Mike Kozlenko] “My question is this: What should I be doing over the next 2 years to enhance my skills so I can go into my major and eventually the industry with an advantage over others?”
Intern and volunteer as much as you can. Is there a film club / television club / etc… on campus? Get involved. Is there a local station / production company near the campus? Get an internship, even if it’s not an “official school internship.” Is there a user group like the Atlanta Cutters down here? Get your name and face out there so folks know who you are.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
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I agree with everything in this thread. Internships and loads of self-teaching in all your free time will pay off. Even if you can find a good group of filmmakers and make stuff with them.
The thing that I don’t think has been mentioned that I wish someone had told me: don’t get so wrapped up in getting to those two years of media production that you miss out on the first two years that set you up. Don’t push aside your various prereqs or scoff at seemingly unrelated electives. Take stuff that truly interests you, even if it takes more time. These are the things that will really set you apart. In my opinion, most of what you learn that will be useful in the real world happens in internships, on the job, or through self-learning. Not saying your two years of media production won’t teach you a bunch of stuff, it probably will. But being well balanced is important, and I wish I had taken a little more time to find classes that were interesting to me rather than rushing through to the end.
blog: kyleesportfolio.com/blog
twitter: @kyl33t
demo: kyleewall.com -
I could not really be bothered to read through all this thread after reading the first post.
Colleges filming local clients…. Probably for free.
This is the reason there is now no work or money in the business.
The rest of the other advice is all tosh!!!!!
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Andy, Andy, Andy – do not take your anger out on a young student with great hopes. It is not his fault that the industry has changed.
Mike, as several people has said, keep doing what you are doing and loads of it. If you are for the technical side of the industry, only hours and experience can put you ahead of the pack. If you are dreaming about directing, producing or journalism, I would go for political science, history or English university courses, rather than the media centric ones.
Andy, you need to step up to a professional level where the clients can’t get your expertise anywhere else, and the students will beg to follow in your footsteps.
My 10p
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
Love your attitude Mike!
Aside from all the tech stuff, learn how to communicate, how to truly listen & understand situations. Be the rational guy on set. Being able to communicate with all levels of people will get you places. It’s “who knows you”, not “who you know” become the guy people want to know.
Take a biz management course or 2, understand the biz from a bean counters point of view.
Steve
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Mike, if I was in your shoes, I would try to find core curriculum classes that will also help your major. Among these would be art classes in photography, art history and appreciation, film history or appreciation, composition or color, or sculpting, which is great to develop your 3-d skills… Or theatre: stagecraft/set design and/or lighting and sound. Music: appreciation, theory, or just learn an instrument – most editors I know play some kind of instrument or understand something about music. Try to get on the college radio station in some capacity. The school has a web site, see if you can make videos for them. The sports teams usually need someone to shoot games. In English, look for creative writing, something where you write or study scripts, or analyze good writing. Math or business? Take accounting, marketing, or business law: contracts are important to know… Languages? Take Spanish and/or Mandarin. Science? Take physics, learn optics.
And then also, take something just for the heck of it, because you’re interested in it, or curious about it. This is the time when you are learning who you are and what you like to do, and you won’t know what you like unless you sample new things. If the school offers travel abroad, you should go for it. That’s always broadening: meeting really different people. I went into college planning to be a lawyer, and flipped major/minors after freshman year because I felt a stronger calling to what I do now. Thank GOD I saved myself from going the other way, and becoming wealthy and successful! Ask yourself; what if after four years, I decide I don’t LOVE doing video anymore – what else do I have to fall back on? What’s my minor?
Every year, schools with media programs pump out hundreds if not thousands of new people wanting to get into media in some capacity. To stand out, stand apart, and find/learn/do things the rest of your peers don’t. Finding an under-served or specialty niche is key to getting above the entry-level jobs in this business. Get a skill that your competition doesn’t have, whether that’s underwater photography, a knowledge of dance, horsemanship, skill in 3-D CGI modeling, fluency in other languages, expertise in an obscure field, something…exotic.
As if you’re not already too busy, join a student activity to socialize, or find a small crew of like-minded folks with theatre majors, and make your own unofficial “club” to go out and shoot short little movies and music videos on the weekends or week nights, instead of getting bombed at keggers. You are making future job contacts this way.
Apply for every possible internship and practicum, paid or not. Participating companies tend to hire more from this pool than off the street, but even if they don’t it’s great for networking and getting recommendations/introductions.
Also, never mind Andy’s trolling: He blames the industry for his own problems in adapting to it. If anything, let his case be a cautionary tale for you: you are entering the workforce at a time when the old paradigm of the “social contract” and single-employer-for-life is pretty much dead. You live in a post-wave culture where you will likely undertake not just five different jobs, but five entirely separate careers. Careers where you will have to re-educate yourself, learn new things, and start at the bottom all over gain, time after time. A good portion of your coursework today may become obsolete in a decade. You are training now for a field of work that doesn’t even exist yet. What you are learning today, for the next four years, is HOW TO LEARN, how to become an adaptable, fully-sentient Professional Human Being.
When you emerge, you will have the tools to make a living at “something”; whether it’s actually your major or not. More than half of lawyers today don’t do “law” work as we think of it. The majority of Fortune 500 CEO’s have Liberal Arts Degrees; if they got MBA’s it was later. The school is not, nor should it be, a factory stamping out identical robot workers, ready to plug into dead-end work. It should be generating Renaissance Men and Women, people capable of adapting to and mastering ANYTHING.
Education in this sense never stops until you stop breathing. Everyone you meet is a teacher, of *something*.
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Mark hit the nail(s) right on the head. Adaptability is the key word – you’ll always find the Andys of the world poisoning the waters and telling you it can’t be done – move right past them and leave them in the dust.
No…it’s not going to be easy, but what worth doing is easy? I started out in music, earned a good living with that for close to 20 years, decided to settle down from traveling, and lucked into a job at an ad agency which specialized in television. It was a small shop, so I got to write scripts, do sales cold-calling, work as a grip on 16mm film shoots, (as film was transitioning to videotape), and do lots of voice-over work. I read all of the technical books I could find, did anything I was asked to do, and it turned into a career. I’m still learning every day – as soon as you think you know enough, you’re finished.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Hi Mike –
I will be “beaten” by this esteemed group on this forum for my opinion. But it’s my opinion. I am now 58 years old. My parents wasted a tremendous amount of money sending me to college. Like you, I was motivated. I wanted to be in this business. To this day, I have no idea of what college was about, or did for me, other than teaching me discipline about learning. I was always told “you will appreciate this one day”. I am still waiting for that day (I am an electrical engineer). Everything I learned was from internships, cheap entry level jobs, and going to work for guys that simply were not willing to hire a real professional, and took a chance on a “kid like me”, because they hoped that I could “wing it”. You already have a lot of basic skills. With motivation, that it appears that you have, you can continue to learn, and get real world experience, without a single day of college.However, college will give you access to meeting a lot of cute girls, and going to crazy party’s, that you might not have access to if you go to work right now.
With your background and knowledge so far, you can get an internship anywhere you want (like Biscardi Media !), and you will learn more in 1 year than you would in your 4 years of college. Trust me, you can get a GPA of 4.0, and not a SINGLE future employer will give a damn. They will only want to know what you can do (your computer skills with Adobe, AVID, etc.), and how cheaply they can hire you, so they can get rid of their “experienced” guy, because “this new kid” (you) can do the same damn job for a fraction of the price. And with experience behind you (like from Biscardi Media !), you will have CREDIBILITY, instead of saying “I got an A on my student film”.
You are young. You don’t really care about money now, and God only knows how much your parents are about to spend for college. You are better off picking your dream job right now, and go to work for them cleaning the toilets (believe me, you won’t be doing that for long if you have any skills, but now you are in), and your parents money will be better served getting you a place to live near your dream job. In 5 years, you will look back, and you will be a 23 year old in a REAL position, making REAL money, meeting REAL clients, and your fellow 23 year olds will first be showing up with their resume, and student films, trying to get the internship job you did 5 years ago.
And if your parents are just dying to spend that money that they saved all these years to send you to college, have them buy you a REAL computer, and Adobe CC, AVID Media Composer, etc. and TAKE DIRECT TRAINING CLASSES from them (or a place like Future Media Concepts) and practice, and THEN get an internship. You will kick ass, and wind up knowing more than most of the “professionals” that you meet. And employers will recognize this – because you are young and cheap, and you will get an opportunity because you are young and cheap, and your fellow 23 year olds will know nothing.
But hey, what the hell do I know.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com
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