Editing My Time

Introduction

My opportunity with my placement provider, Sean, was twofold. I assisted Sean with video and sound material for Youth Action NI but mostly assisted with his own independent podcast productions for several Belfast based comedians. Throughout the placement he has given me plenty of opportunities to grow and improve in my role. Rather than just having me observe, he gave me plenty of hands on responsibilities, which I found beneficial and may not have gotten from another placement provider.

“…education and training providers of work experience have to recognise that students need to learn in ways different to those in which they learn in school or college.”

(Guile and Griffiths, 2001)

When reflecting on my placement I found two challenges that I faced which were significant for me in this experience. For this blog, I will use Borton’s Model (1970) of reflection because I believe it has encouraged me to be succinct in my memory and analysis of my placement and any lessons I can take into the future.

First Challenge- Time Management

What?

The first challenge I faced was with time management. When it came to podcast and radio recordings, they were not at set times each week as each recording would be based around the availability and schedule of each of Sean’s clients. As I had other responsibilities such as university classes and projects as well as my part time job, I had quite a few things to juggle. There were certain times in which recordings would happen on days that I had very little going on but mostly on days where I would be going from classes to a recording, to my job. On those busier days I was often left quite exhausted and had decreased functionality.

So What?

One of the aspects of my life that I could see suffering the most with a busier schedule was my university work. Because I knew there would be days where I could not get much done and be too tired work on projects at the end of my days, I saw it important to ensure that what little time in which I was free, was being dedicated to my classwork. This led to me being more focused to ensure I did not waste time. While I felt stressed at times, I found myself less prone to procrastination as I was aware that I did not have time on my side.

Now What?

Even though I have been stressed trying to manage my time effectively, I realise that is often a big part of life and is something everyone must do more and more if they want to succeed. As a result, I have improved in my ability to focus better on the task at hand and not let other aspects of my life distract me. Going forward I think it would be better to keep a calendar so that I can carefully plan my life when juggling several responsibilities and ensure that I can set certain times for other things such as projects and assignments. As Claessens et al. state, “setting life goals and keeping time logs were important techniques for effectively managing one’s time” (2007, p. 2).

Second Challenge- New Editing Software

What?

The second challenge I faced was regarding one of my roles Sean gave to me. This was with the editing of recordings. Over the course of my degree, I have been able to improve my abilities in editing using several different software such as Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro. One software I had not had the opportunity to use was Davinci Resolve. Fortunately, this was Sean’s preferred editing software to use. As a result, I saw my placement as the best opportunity to become more familiar with it and build my skill at using it. Some of the tasks he gave me to do was editing full podcasts, which weren’t particularly difficult to complete. The more challenging tasks came with editing clips for each of his clients’ social media accounts to promote their personalities and podcasts. I was challenged by creating clips ,that should be no longer than one minute, from hour long podcasts, which meant being quite precise in my choices to make sure I met the necessary time.

What?

Because editing was not the only responsibility of my placement, there would often be time going by in which I was not able to improve my use of Davinci resolve. Several weeks would go by without doing any editing and when it came to get back to it, I sometimes found myself forgetting what I had previously learned and so had to ask Sean to give me some reminders on how to do something or how he liked things to be done. Getting reacquainted with the software often meant it took longer than I would have liked to get some videos done which was frustrating.

Now What?

I am now much better editing on Davinci Resolve thanks to my placement, having at least a basic understanding of the software. Looking back, I think that I could have ensured my ability didn’t fall so far behind as it did, if I had perhaps found stock footage to practice editing with. This is something I intend to do with some of the spare time I can find. Doing this will not only allow me to improve what I can already do with the software but perhaps learn editing skills that will be useful to me if my career pursuits will involve editing.

Bibliography

Borton, T. (1970) Reach, Touch and Teach.  London: Hutchinson.

Claessens, B.J., Van Eerde, W., Rutte, C.G. and Roe, R.A., 2007. A review of the time management literature. Personnel review.

Guile, D. and Griffiths, T., 2001. Learning through work experience. Journal of education and work, 14(1).