Syncing Myself to the Music, My Initial Experience at Budget Music Videos

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel anxious when starting this module. The obstacles I faced when I began my journey to find a placement was something that I hadn’t prepared for. Indeed, I was either rejected or heard no response from almost everywhere I applied until I secured my spot with Budget Music Videos.

‘Well-structured academic texts usually follow a standard pattern with an introduction, main body, and conclusion in each element.’ [1]

This blog will carefully reflect on my experience using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) to document the events of my first few weeks in placement and the feelings I had at the time.

[2]

Making the Perfect CV

Before I delve into placement experiences I first need to highlight the importance of my CV. For this module, I had to build a film-related CV composed of a list of films I made, a showreel, and, skills I possess that would be of credit to a job in the film industry. To begin with, I did an internet search for the best visually appealing CVs and then made a plan of how I would build mine. I made sure to use clipart for contact details like I had seen in some examples because I think this helps draw the eye to key information. Another thing I implemented was putting my personal statement in a yellow box as yellow psychologically symbolizes enthusiasm and positivity.

Furthermore in a literal sense yellow draws attention and I wanted placement providers to understand me and what I can bring to a team. Additionally, I decided to include a photo of myself because I feel it’s important for employers to see you and decide if you would be a fit for their company or production team. So with this in place, I began to apply for placements and eventually got accepted by Loraa from Budget Music Videos.

Before Placement

The thing that made me feel comfortable when she reached out to me was the fact that she rang me in response to my email which instantly established a human connection as opposed to reading the words of an email. I got the sense that she was friendly, and easygoing but still professional at what she did.

Loraa explained what services Budget Music Videos provided for customers and that I would primarily be editing. Although I was very keen to get started the word ‘editing’ made me feel slightly nervous as I haven’t been an editor in any of my student films and have only used iMovie and AVID Media Composer, the latter of which I found to be intolerable. I used the time between our conversation and before I started placement to become familiar with the Budget Music Videos website so I could be as prepared as possible.

In the meantime, I made notes in the week one and three lectures on some professors’ suggestions for how to navigate difficulties I might encounter on placement such as listening keenly, work ethic, and social skills. One particular key point I remember distinctly was making sure to ask the placement provider about themselves and how they got into the industry and the obstacles they faced as this would be a good conversation starter. It proved to be valuable advice that I can take away from this module and use when I look for employment after university.

Beginning Placement

‘An essential difference between university and your placements is that you will be entering a world whose primary function is to deliver a service to its patients. While you are there to learn, and through observing and providing care under supervision, the others you encounter are there essentially to provide care.’ [3]

As Jasper says in her book, placement is about working under a supervisor to help deliver content to consumers. I was nervous heading into my first day at Budget Music Videos but I received a warm welcome from Loraa who immediately got me stuck into doing work. She discussed her plans for expanding the company which included a new user-friendly website and partnerships with companies like Reverbnation and Bandlab in order to target musicians just starting out in the industry who would need music videos to build their fanbase and allow for monetization. My first task was to go through her emails to find a customer called Mariano who has sent through footage he wanted in his remastered music video. The first issue I encountered was that the links he had sent through WeTransfer had expired. This was stressful for both of us because I felt like I had failed at my first task.

My next task was to sync the remastered version of his song ‘A Christmas Letter’ to the old music video via Corel Video Editing Software. I was cautious going in because I never used this software before. Loraa showed me the basics but I struggled to find the exact syncing of the song and Loraa stepped in to do it for me. It made me feel slightly incompetent so I swore to research Corel on youtube and learn from tutorials. Not what you would call a productive first day.

‘As digital content production becomes cheaper and more accessible, it’s becoming more attractive, and theoretically more possible, to do things your own way.’ [4]

Now from here on in, my placement experience improved dramatically. My next session with Loraa consisted of me editing some footage she had taken months prior in order to make a new stock music video. As Lucy Baxter states above, it is entirely possible to film and edit your own material, in this case, stock videos, and sell them to customers rather than use stock sites like Shutterstock which on average can cost $50 per shot. With my research into navigating Corel, I had a much easier time using it. I imported the clips I wanted and reduced the framerate to 25% so things like the rain-hitting flowers were more visually appealing to customers. I edited these clips using a copyright-free song from Uppbeat.io so that the footage would be easier for customers to add their song to as the clips followed beats typically found in most songs. Loraa really liked my edit and put it on her site for customers to buy which made me feel a sense of accomplishment.

On my third day of placement, I had the opportunity to use Reverbnation to accept or decline submissions. These submissions were part of a contest Loraa was running with Reverbnation where musicians could upload their song and description of their genre for the possibility of winning the chance to make their own music video with Budget Music Videos. However, even if I declined submissions I could still take the musician’s name, genre, and, email address and add them to the Budget Music Videos mailing list so that even if they didn’t win the competition they could still access the site and buy either stock music videos or one of the packages to film a new music video. I thought this was clever marketing and it’s something I can consider if I were to start my own business in the creative industry.

Another skill I picked up at Budget Music Videos was making gifs and adding them to the website so the customer can get an idea of what is in the stock videos and therefore they would be more likely to buy some. Now it is worth mentioning that I did make some mistakes in this such as downloading the songs instead of the pre-made gifs which set me back about an hour. Another error of mine was adding the gifs wrong so that the whole video played and caused the site to lag. Luckily this happened with the first video I tried to add the gif to so it meant that it was easier for me to go back on fix it. I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make a gif from a video if that video didn’t already have one made. I used Giphy to upload a version of the video from Vimeo and set the markers to cover 15 seconds of the video. I think exported the gifs to the download folder and named each after the relevant video. The example above was called ‘034 Candy Barbie & Ken’. I was proud of myself for picking up this skill so quickly and I feel it would be a good thing to add to my CV.

Final Thoughts?

‘The ability to use past experiences and information about our current state and environment to predict the future allows us to increase the odds of desired outcomes while avoiding or bracing ourselves for future adversity.‘ [5]

I feel like I have achieved several milestones in my placement from combating my anxieties and navigating new software. As Grupe and Nitschke suggest above, I can take my negative experiences from placement and use them later on as a pivot point in which I can make better, more informed decisions in the workplace. Overall, my experience at Budget Music Videos has been stimulating and informative. I feel that I have gained a better understanding of the ins and outs of running a business and how to deal with problems that arise. I think that I have gained the trust of Loraa as she has so far taken me to two of her meetings with Angel Investors Raise and Techstart Ventures from which I have gained a massive insight into finding investors and the means to scale a small company so that it can compete with a global market. In these meetings, I took notes for Loraa and discussed with her the steps she needs to take within the next six months so that she is ready to pitch her business to investors who will give her the funds she needs to upgrade her website and editing software.

I am very grateful for the lessons in business and work conduct that I have received from my time so far with Budget Music Videos. I feel that I have synced myself to the demands and trials of the business.

References

[1] McMillan, Kathleen (2013) ‘Evaluating the ideas of others’ in How to Improve your Critical Thinking & Reflective Skills, 1st Edition, London: Pearson Education UK, pp.131

[2] Gibbs, Graham (1988) Learning By Doing, A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, Thoughts Mostly About Learning [Online]. Available at: https://thoughtsmostlyaboutlearning.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/learning-by-doing-graham-gibbs.pdf (Accessed: 28th October 2022)

[3] Jasper, Melanie (2013) ‘Entering The Working Environment’ in Wiggens, Lynne and Day, Jane (eds) Beginning Reflective Practice, New Edition, Boston: Cengage Learning, pp.107

[4] Baxter, Lucy (2017) ‘Part One: Getting Started’ in Running a Creative Company in the Digital Age, Harpenden: Creative Essentials, pp.2

[5] Grupe, D. W., and Nitschke, J.B. (2014) Uncertainty and Anticipation in Anxiety: An Integrated Neurobiological and Psychological Perspective, National Reviews- Neuroscience, Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276319/ (Accessed: 29th October 2022)

Bibliography

Baxter, Lucy (2017) ‘Part One: Getting Started’ in Running a Creative Company in the Digital Age, Harpenden: Creative Essentials

Gibbs, Graham (1988) Learning By Doing, A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Thoughts Mostly About Learning [Online]. Available at: https://thoughtsmostlyaboutlearning.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/learning-by-doing-graham-gibbs.pdf (Accessed: 28th October 2022)

Grupe, D. W., and Nitschke, J.B. (2014) Uncertainty and Anticipation in Anxiety: An Integrated Neurobiological and Psychological Perspective, National Reviews- Neuroscience, Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276319/ (Accessed: 29th October 2022)

Jasper, Melanie (2013) ‘Entering The Working Environment’ in Wiggens, Lynne and Day, Jane (eds) Beginning Reflective Practice, New Edition, Boston: Cengage Learning

McMillan, Kathleen (2013) ‘Evaluating the ideas of others’ in How to Improve your Critical Thinking & Reflective Skills, 1st Edition, London: Pearson Education UK