Due to the fact that I hadn’t actually drafted a CV from scratch since the ripe old age of 16, I knew I’d have to put some extra work and time into making a professional film related CV that’s encapsulated my skills and knowledge that looked attractive to an employer. So after enjoying about a week of my summer, I got stuck in to writing up a brand new CV. However, I came to the realisation quite quickly that my on-film experience stretched to school projects I had worked on before coming to Queen’s. This lead to me filling the CV with skills I had acquired over education and qualities that would look attractive to employers. Looking back on this, I would have avoided trying to fill up space and just put down the necessary information, my attempt to over compensate for my lack of experience would not have gotten me very far in the working world. If I were to attempt this again, I would format the CV differently so that I could fit all the necessary information on it without needing to “fill extra space”. And while my initial attempt at a CV did secure me a placement opportunity, I would, if faced with this again, run my CV by my work placement tutor in order to optimise my chance of looking and sounding more employable.  

After what felt like an eternity trying to get the perfect CV, the next step was to actually send emails and contact companies. After reading  Gem Barton’s ‘Don’t Get a Job…Make a Job.’ (2016) a quote stuck with me, it inspired a mindset that I was determined to take into my potential placement; “Being mindful of your own goals and limitations is very important.” With this quote in mind while looking at the list, I became particularly interested in an Animation company; Enter Yes Animation. I had never had any experience with animation and was interested to learn about a film practice I wasn’t very familiar with. I felt like filling gaps in my film knowledge would help me come graduation and trying to find graduate film jobs. In terms of contacting them, I sent an email with my newly made CV attached, and within a couple of days, they offered me a placement! However, they asked for me to start with very short notice as their whole team had to isolate because of COVID, because of this, I was nervous to set boundaries as I didn’t want to lose a placement opportunity as good as this one. So I cancelled all my part time work overtime and was determined to make myself as available as possible for this (unpaid) placement. In hindsight, this was not a good idea and it caused me a lot of stress. Furthermore due to a lack of communication, I was left in the dark about whether or not I was actually joining what was left of their team on set. In future, if I was presented with this kind of situation again, I would set my own boundaries and ‘be mindful of my own limitations’. As well as that, on reflection I also would have given EnterYes a phone call rather than an email, in order to straighten out any miscommunication and also present myself as more approachable, as I feel now that in emails, it can be quite difficult to come across as enthusiastic as I could be in a phone call.  

And here we are, the first day of placement, I remembering being a mixture of nervous and excited. I was on placement with another girl in my uni class, this made the whole process easier for me as having a familiar face on set and in the same boat as me was reassuring. We were briefed by Kris, the owner of Enter Yes, on what we were meant to be doing there and were told to let on as if we worked in the VFX department of the company! Safe to say this didn’t help with my nerves. That being said, my fellow classmate and I were cast to play the T-Rex on a CBBC show, ‘Silverpoint’, which gave me a good barrel of laughs and lovely memories of the placement. Being on set also gave me a chance to talk (and have some craic) with the Director of Photography and the camera department, which led to me gaining meaningful connections that could be useful after I graduate! However, as mentioned earlier, we had to pretend as if we worked for the company, which led to awkward conversations with other crew on set. This taught me that I should have definitely done more research into the world of animation and VFX. As going into the whole placement blind and expecting to learn everything I needed to know was not the best approach and it could have hindered the look of enthusiasm and professionalism that I was trying to give off. I would in future also make sure to ask more questions, as upon reflection I realised that I was afraid to ask Kris questions in fear of looking unprofessional and incompetent.  

APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.) 
Gem Barton. (2016). Don’t Get a Job…Make a Job. Laurence King Publishing. 

Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Oxford Further Education Unit.