#TVFUTURES

Joe Watson

Author: Joe Watson

Published 1st April 2014

by Joe Watson Issue 87 - March 2014

So while my colleagues on the course have been writing about what they\'ve been doing at college, I\'m going to write about what I\'ve been doing out of college which is mainly work experience. Since I started the course back in 2012 I have had quite a few breaks acquiring work experience in the media industry. In May of 2012 we were contacted by AIR.fm radio station who were having a 2 day launch event on Weymouth beach. We were asked by them to film the whole event and edit the footage into a small promo video for the stations YouTube channel and web page. The event was pretty much a concert of live music from bands in the Dorset area. We were required to provide our own equipment and be down at the main stage at around 7am which was really a wake-up call for everyone on the course as to how you have to be ready to go when you are working in the industry. We were equipped with three Sony PMW-EX1\'s and two Vinten Pro-5 tripods, plus a couple of personal SLR cameras with steady rigs. We were working under the supervision of photographer and musician, Ty Xanders. He pretty much told us what we would be doing and when everything would be going on throughout the two day shoot. Though it was a long shoot (roughly 9am till 10pm on both days) it was worth the experience. We really got to grips with the effort that has to be put into filming live performances.
After working on Airfest, we were contacted by Carl Greenham, head of Air.fm, saying he would love to have us on board to film their live sessions in the studio every Monday evening. I leapt at the offer thinking it would be an easy shoot once a week and to then edit it the same evening, syncing the broadcasted/recorded audio to the video. As soon as I started working there I also purchased for myself a Canon EOS 600D, thinking that purchasing a camera for myself would be a good step towards not just working for others but for working for myself. Being able to go out and just take photographs, to make short films, to not keep booking out equipment from the university. It seemed so much simpler.

While working at Air.fm I also had the privilege of doing the photography for the stations carnival show. For most of the carnival show I was working once again with Ty and it\'s through him that I gained even more work experience. Ty had been trying very hard over the whole of 2013 to get his own company off the ground and since I had been working with him at AIR.fm over the previous months, he offered me a paid job there. The company is called HIBIKI Entertainment - a Dorchester-based production studio for all types of media and I am currently a photographer and cinematographer for the company. So not only am I gaining work experience, I\'m doing paid work that involves what I love doing.
At HIBIKI Entertainment I have worked on a photo shoot for Juicebox which is a company that builds custom designed amplifiers for their customers, been a representative for the company at the PLASA convention at the ExCel in London, a video shoot for a live band in HIBIKI Entertainment\'s studio and also a location video shoot in Dorchester for the towns Christmas festival. Future projects include a photo shoot of hair styles for a magazine and also working on HIBIKI Entertainment\'s own gaming channel where we review games on the recently released Sony PlayStation 4. I am also in charge of HIBIKI podcasting which we are currently developing and I hope to record the first podcast very soon featuring the rest of my university group as presenters.
So it\'s not just Uni keeping me busy, I have a lot going on outside of class, as well. The fact that I found work experience in different areas of media is honestly amazing. I was thinking it would be incredibly difficult to find any but really it sort of just showed up and I\'m quite grateful for that.

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