Job Roles in media

Jobs in media are very diverse and cover many things like music, video and film, art and many more with many job opportunities to explore, ranging from video editing, graphic designers, journalism, web developer and web analyst.

Within the media industry there are many departments that all serve a purpose to help with the creation of media projects and to section the work load to those who are best fitted to handle them.

The type of media departments are:

• Creative - writer/scriptwriter/designer/concept artist/soundtrack artist
• Technical - location sound/camera operator
• Marketing - advertising co-ordinator
• Managerial - runs a film company
• Legal - deals with contracts/copyright
• Financial - accounts/flash cow

With many job roles also means there are many types of employment, these range from:

• Full Time (paid regularly)
• Voluntary (not paid)
• Part-Time (paid for the part time)
• Fixed term (employed for a set amount of time)/Temporary
• Freelance (self-employed)

Full time work is when you are hired by the company and working daily and getting paid regularly.

Voluntary work will help you find a job however you wont get paid for the work as it is voluntary.

Part-Time is a lot more flexible than full time though you do get payed less due to less working hours.

Fixed/Temporary jobs are for when a company hires you for a select amount of time to work on their projects (usually done in game studios).

Freelance is when you are self-employed allowing you to have a lot of freedom with both your holidays and work hours however you do not get paid sick pay if you fall ill as well as freelancing being very competitive.

Employment opportunities

When looking for a job the many ways that you can possibly acquire a job is through:

• Apprenticeship
• National pass
• Trade press
• Trade fairs/exhibitions
• Personal contacts
• Networking
• Word of mouth
• Internet/social media

Creative careers

I have chosen three different career choices to talk about for my research on professional portfolios, these three are related to what I wish to try and find a possible job for in the near future.

The first choice is a games tester, this career path doesn't rely on having level 3 qualifications and is rather easy to attain if you look online for job applications.

What is expected of a game tester is to try out games they are received by the company and spend a handful of hours to make sure the game is running smooth and report any bugs and glitches that could break the game, They will also need to accurately report their experience of playing so that it can be used to iron out the games kinks before being published publicly.

Game testers work along side QA technicians and report to the gameplay programmer, they also work with other technicians and programmers who require specific aspects of the game to be tested out.

I believe that I have the experience and skills to perfectly fit into this job as I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember both as an enjoyable hobby and as a game tester, this also requires a lot of communication which will be very easy when coming to smoothing out the game.  

The website I used to collect this information is linked below.

My second choice is a video editor

This career path requires experience wether that be self taught or learnt from education, making this job a bit more harder to look for as there will be many with varying experiences trying to get the same job.

 A video editor is someone who splits and combines raw clips and videos to create an entirely new video out of them whilst also using some effect edits to either add context to something or for various other reason, A video can take many hours to create, however this is dependant on the machines hardware as well as the editors use of imagination.

Video editors are either freelancers looking for work by looking for requests online or they're hired by companies to help in the production, this doesn't just mean editing videos as this field will also open the opportunity to be in the film industry.

This Career path does require experience in both a college/uni course and being self taught and entry requirements being between 1-3 A level degrees. 

I also believe that I can confidently do this kind of job as I have been doing video editing since 2016 and have learnt how to edit by trial and error as well as being self taught and learning more advanced editing skills in my media projects at college, like the use of after effects animation as an example. I can do video and audio splitting as well as some basic audio editing, which I hope to develop more, use of green screen, transitions and intros, static & animated text and many more.

information about this can be found in the link below.

My third and final choice is a editor in the Film an TV Drama industries

This career at a first glance has some similarities to the video editor but it requires a lot more experience and higher grades in order to get into the work field.

The role of film editor is similarly like a video editor but on a larger scale focused on one massive project rather multiple small ones and requires a lot of communication with other editors as well as patience and a keen eye for detail in each scene.

Film editors are usually are hired for a fixed term until the project has finished post-production and is ready to screen, one way that a film can be hired is to have a portfolio showcasing information about yourself as well as show your previous works (it's also advised to create a YouTube channel to put your works onto for the portfolio).

This career path requires higher grades than that for video editing, requiring a diploma in creative media.

The skill requirement is similar to the video editor so I am confidant I can do this job as well and fit the requirements to do the work I would need to do.

more information can be found in the link below, the same page where I collected this information from.

Hero Banner

A hero banner is the first thing you see on a website of any kind, it is the main logo used by the website as well as the websites form of branding.

Website Reviews

Website #1 - Ashlee Masons Group

The website itself is rather simple and doesn't have much to go with other than three pages each containing links to other sites, the design is simplistic and the website lacks a hero banner that really draws the users attention.

Overall the website is very simplistic and lacks anything to draw the users attention.

There is not to go on with this site in particular, the design is basic with the only animated graphic being a hyperlink that highlights when hovering over with a cursor and sending you to another page with more hyperlinks to other sites.

Website: https://ww38.ashleemasonsgroup.com/

Website #2 - Bespoke Banter

Bespokes website has a lot of information it provides to the user, it has it all in different pages relevant to that page, the front page has a video that introduces the user to their site and tells them what bespoke does, further below is more information about bespoke as well as their list of clients (their clients being well known companies around the world).

The website has a hero banner in the top centre of the page with the bespoke website name in a unique font that fits with the layout of the website, the website provides contact details on both the bottom of the page as well as in the contacts page, making it easy to reach them.

Bespoke's site doesn't have many forms of animated graphics besides a few videos scattered throughout the site as well as hyperlinks and highlight glows when hovering over a video or image, They also have a hefty list of all the clients they have worked with on their front page with plenty of them being very well known brands.

Here is the client list:

Website: https://www.bespokebanter.com/bespokebanter

Website #3 - Book Depository

The website is very easy to navigate, the featured books are split into genres and sections making easier to find what book you're looking for.

the design is very festive and is updated regularly and offers free delivery regardless of where you are, this site also has constant sales and discounts for both old and new customers.

As with all websites, book depository has a hero banner/logo in the top left corner of the page consisting of a graphic of a a blue book with the websites name next to it in white bold text making it appealing and makes it very recognisable.

The websites choice of colour and layout design I personally find very appealing, the website has several drop down menus on the front page that you can see with the first is selecting categories and second and third ones being able to change the websites language setting and change the displayed currency

The website also has a little window that tracks real time purchases from their website worldwide so you're able to see what others are purchasing from their site which Is a neat addition.

The website is very user friendly and is a website I regularly visit from time to time as it has very affordable deals and sales along with the promise of free delivery with every purchase, they also have a page specifically for manga that can be found on the front page as well sorting them into their own categories by target audience and publisher making it very easy to find which manga series you are looking for.

Here are some example images below

Website: https://www.bookdepository.com/

Practical work

16.11.21: Today I was tasked to create a animated graphic with the Netflix logo as I followed a tutorial video provided by the teacher to learn how to do the editing techniques, with this I was able to create a custom Netflix animated graphic which Is linked below the text.

I believe that I did a good job on creating the animation in after effects, and I am happy with the end result.

22.11.21 and 23.11.21: I created an animation using a template from freepik and using it as reference work for my portfolio.

The individual layers were altered by using Adobe Illustration and adding in animations by later using Adobe after Effects.

A lot different from previous works but still enjoyable to work on, came out a lot better than i initially thought, though I wish the small city had taken more space on the screen so the animations could be seen clearer.

We also did some gifs as a test for our google sites we'll be using for our portfolios.

This was done by downloading specific images related to the task and editing them in Adobe After Effects and rendered using the Adobe Media Render to properly export it, once that was done we use a mp4 to GIF converter that we are given access to from our colleges modules page, once the file is turned into a GIF file we uploaded them to a test site to try out GIF backgrounds on google sites.

here is one of Deadpool that we were tasked with creating as a starter (due to limitations of Webnode I can only upload the mp4 version):

I also have photo evidence of creating and using this GIF that were used in a google sites project site:

30.11.21: Media - I was tasked to create an animated graphic logo of ACDC, this was done by using Adobe After Effects to edit and animate the images to create this logo.

Graphic Design

This section is for all the graphic design related that is done in sam's lessons as well as what graphic design is.

There are five main types of graphic design, these are:

1. Colour theory

2. Visual Communication

3. Layout & Composition

4. Typography (+fonts)

5. Aesthetic Appeal

Colour Theory

Colour theory is an arrangement of different kinds of shades that blend together, These shades are more commonly and professionally known as "hues".

There are three types of colour circles, these range from the standard primary colours to secondary colours and tertiary colours:

Primary Colours:

Red, Blue, Yellow.

Secondary colours:

Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Magenta.

Tertiary colours:

Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Magenta, Violet, Purple, Turquoise, Forest Green, Tan, Burnt Orange and so on and so forth.

Visual Communication

This form of graphic design is used in logos to catch the viewers attention with the brands hidden message, a popular example is Amazon's logo having a curved arrow pointing from 'A to Z' this indicates to the customer that amazon has everything in stock from A-Z. 

When a brand creates a logo it needs to be something that sends out a message of what you can expect from them or to be intriguing and eye catching to new customers.

Layout & Composition

This is important for your website design as you'll want consumers to easily navigate and find your brands logo, a sure fire way for your brands logo to be seen is to position it in the top left corner of the page as a majority of people read from left to right making the brand logo a lot more easy for them to find.

Typography

This is needed to keep a consistency in the font used for the brands logo and promotional material by using a unique signature font to stand out and be easily identifiable by users, this stems from something known as Calligraphy which is having small differences and details in lettering which in turn transforms it into a unique font.

Aesthetic Appeal

This'll be very important when you are creating design's and logo's for your brand, as what you wish to aim for is to create something that pulls in users by thinking outside the box and use various colour pallets that compliment one another.

Graphic Design work

2.12.21: Media - I was tasked with creating a PNG of a medal as part of my practical work, this was done by using Adobe Photoshop and following the tutorial our tutor gave us.

Whilst I was watching the tutorial I was doing the task at the same time and once I had finished the work task I exported the project into a transparent PNG file and uploaded it to both my One Drive and Webnode site.

In one of our lessons we were tasked with creating a logo in Adobe Photoshop, I created this logo below using said software, Once I created it I uploaded it to my webnode and I have also used this PNG file for my Youtube Channel Logo.

I decided to make my logo design simplistic and easy to make, I also used my initials in the logo and used a shade of red and blue that best fitted one another.