An Annoying Unskippable Advert
It’s the final blog post… do do do dooo, doo do doo dooo dooooooo, if you can’t tell that, that’s me trying to make a parody of the legendary song Final Countdown by Europe. Doesn’t really translate as well across text, but I AM hoping that the challenges with work placement will be able to be communicated across decently throughout this blog post. Now it is time for… you’ve guessed it… how I’ll be doing this final blog post. It’s of no surprise that I’ll be using Gibb’s Reflective Cycle (Gibbs) and a bit of How to improve your critical thinking & reflective skills (McMillan, Weyers) as Gibbs, McMillan and Weyers are my ultimate besties when it comes to critical reflection. So for the last time, sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Setting The Scene
There are two key areas I’d like to focus in on with regards to the challenges of this placement.
Firstly working in a self-driven manner without much direct supervision.
Secondly, learning how to adapt my current skill sets and knowledge into a very similar medium but one that is not without its differences.
As I wrote about in my 1st Blog Post, I’m a bit of a serial procrastinator, often needing looming deadlines to get me to kick myself into gear. But with the creation of this YouTube channel there wasn’t as much of a ‘final deadline’ so to speak. Not like the dreaded canvas notifications that let you know how much time you’ve got left until you HAVE to pull an all-nighter to bust an essay or project out of nowhere. This is something I’ve known about myself for a long time now but has offered me a little bit more of an insight into the future of my potential career.
This, combined with the fact that I although I do have an idea about the world of online content creation, (cough cough, I’m a ‘professional’ streamer), I had to re learn and to re-teach myself some basic skills that you’d be surprised about. The three years I’ve spent studying Broadcast Production has given me a lot of insight and developed my skills in editing and to an extent, marketing for a broadcast landscape, but the internet is a very different place and has it’s own unique vibe and feel which meant that I had to learn how to adapt the skills I’d developed over this course into a different format whilst also building on to them and investing in new ones too!
As Hollis says very well; “Content creation takes time so you need to make sure you have the right motivation in place.” (7)
Stubborn as a Mule
Much to my own downfall, I overestimated myself with regards to how this placement would go. I felt like I’d developed a good idea of how content creation and the setup behind it and that this would be a breeze but as always, life finds a way to make things more… interesting? (hellish)
Much like a stubborn child who refuses to put his shoes on to go play outside, although I was confident in my abilities, I did come to the realisation and felt like I needed to expand my horizons and learn some new tricks of the trade within various editing softwares to make sure that this YouTube channel was a good as it could be. Believe me, feeling confident and then tearing yourself back to down to reality is on one hand very mature (go me, adulting correctly) but also a bit soul destroying, acknowledging your own limits from the get-go.
My preferred editing software throughout was definitely Premiere, which is backed up by Quinones. “Because of Premiere’s huge popularity, there is an enormous amount of content available (e.g., YouTube tutorials, blogs, etc) to teach you how to use it.” (2020)
An Achilles Heel
However soul destroying being my own worst enemy was, it did make me evaluate a lot about myself. The fact that I’m not the best at being self-driven (which is nothing new but is useful to look at again) and that I have a tendency at times to over-estimate my own abilities. I’d like to think it’s not cockiness but there are trace elements there.
Whilst I do think that the end result will be good, I need to try remind myself what it would be like if this were my actual job. The expectations and results that would be required to not let the company/person down and to provide something to the highest quality that I could possibly provide. The placement has definitely opened my eyes up to the future in a sense and has made me re-evaluate a lot about myself and my own work ethic, which is something that will ultimately benefit me in the future.
Kai: Licenced to Procrastinate
Whilst I’m very happy that although it was a gradual process, that I did end up taking the time to improve my skills and get a feel for the online landscape in terms of content creation, which as I’ve mentioned is similar in aspects but different in others, it’s made me come to a realisation.
At one time I was really enamoured with the idea of doing freelance work, media type jobs that aren’t necessarily creating news pieces or documentary but exist more in a fluid creative sphere. Would I have the self-determination to see everything through to the end and provide a quality piece of content that both I and the client could be happy with? At the moment, I’m not sure to be brutally honest. But it can be my work in progress.
A Bittersweet Goodbye
Finishing up my last blog post (which I’m definitely not secretly happy that I don’t have to hyper-analyse my flaws again in a public way) going forward it’s pretty clear what I need to do.
I have to work on myself as a person, which I’ll admit does sound very wishy-washy, but it’s the only way I’ll improve the quality of the projects I create. I need to have the drive and work-ethic to commit 100% to anything I do from the very start, in order to make something that I can be proud of.
And to finish off on a wee quote,
“I want to be the very best, that no one every was” – Ash Ketchum, Pokémon.
References
Hollis, A., 2020.The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation.
Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford.
McMillan, K. and Weyers, J.(2013) How to improve your critical thinking & reflective skills. Harlow: Pearson.
Quinones, I., 2020. BL Blog | Online Camera Gear Rental, News, Tutorials. [online] BorrowLenses Blog. Available at: <https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/how-to-edit-video-for-beginners/>
