THE CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

Throughout my work with CineMagic, I have been able to sample many facets of the film industry. Ranging from being present on a professional film set and lending a hand to taking photos and videos for their social media pages as well as providing a friendly face to keep up the good image of CineMagic. While I didn’t have much issue with the actual work at CineMagic, that isn’t to say everything was smooth sailing.

After beginning my placement in late July, I was able to balance work with CineMagic and with my other job, which was in a local cinema. However, when it came to the start of the academic year I had increased commitments. The year was early however so again while my schedule was filling up it was manageable. Yet when it came to October, CineMagic held its first festival I was a part of which I would help with over the weekends throughout as well as some weekdays. The issue was that my hours in the cinema were relegated mainly to the weekends already because of my commitments to the university. Each component was important to me yet there were times when I had to compromise and choose one of the other. Do I prioritise the placement itself and gain valuable experience? Do I keep up more so with the assignments that I have been set throughout that term? Or do I keep up my source of income with the cinema? And while I discuss this, I will be taking into account Kolb’s Experimental Learning Cycle as it has helped me previously.

Source: Google Images

Source: Beginning Reflective Practice, By Melanie Jasper

I was able to come to understand the split of what work experience would be for me thanks to the paper written by Paul E. Tesluk and Rick R. Jacobs. In which a proposed split into ‘quantative’ ‘qualative’ and ‘interactive’.[1] In which a balance needs to be struck to make the most out of the work experience while making it as enjoyable and comfortable as possible. Yet the paper goes on to discuss the ‘density’ of workloads.[2] Unfortunately, I was spread thin enough in October in I not only committed myself to CineMagic’s Film Festival, ‘The Magic Returns’. But I had to decline the opportunity to do a CineMagic hosted course in which you are placed into a group working with a director on one of their shorts. With the end goal of being able to work on the set. While I had been on a set already it would have been a great opportunity to do so again.

Source: Personnel Psychology: Toward and Integrated Model of Work Experience, by Tesluk, P.E. and Jacobs, R.R.

What to Choose

It was difficult to choose but ultimately, thanks to Kolb’s Experimental Learning Cycle, I observed and reflected on the issues. Thought about what my best course of action would be and prioritised my placement and university work at the cost of losing out on paid work. This issue reminded me of the iron triangle in which 3 points are marked on a triangle and only 2 options can be chosen. Cinema, placement and university. I was able to thankfully circumvent this slightly in that I would be able to work on Fridays each week, so I was not totally without, but this issue was my central problem throughout the year.

Source: Google Images

Pauses For The Future

There were also times in which the festivals and events were largely done, and I wasn’t needed. In particular around mid-December until around February was when I was relatively static. The issue with this was that I was losing out on the opportunities to practice. However, this space of time reminded me of a quote asked of someone in the industry where there will simply be times in which there isn’t much work happening at points. Remembering and learning from this will prepare me for the future.[3] Yet this year in February I was rewarded with being paid for the first time for some of the photography work which really boosted my outlook on the entire situation. It showed me that the work was paying off and this unexpected benefit was due to the amount of time I had put in as I was the sole photographer at times.

Looking back on the last 8 months since I began my placement, while I don’t regret anything explicitly, it is helpful to think about what I could have done to improve my situation. Mainly I would say I could have changed jobs over to something that I would be able to do throughout the week as my university days were few. Another path could have been to simply reduce the amount of time I would have been spending with CineMagic. However, I was hesitant to say no not just because I was accruing experience but additionally to that, I was concerned I would not reach the minimum 100 hours for the placement required by the module. Thankfully I have surpassed that particular requirement.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very grateful for the work I have been able to do for CineMagic. While the logistics at times could get complex and at times overwhelming they ultimately worked out and I can walk away with a lot of information and added skills. In a completely ideal world in which I could have chosen, I would have chosen to do it all and reap the most benefits from it. For example, the privilege to be credited as a small part of their short and be able to put that on CV’s for future jobs. Yet, I gained enough from my time with CineMagic to which I can step away happy with the results, and I feel all the more capable for it.

Bibliography

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[1] TESLUK, P.E. and JACOBS, R.R. (1998), TOWARD AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF WORK EXPERIENCE. Personnel Psychology, 51, pp338.

[2] TESLUK, P.E. and JACOBS, R.R. (1998), TOWARD AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF WORK EXPERIENCE. Personnel Psychology, 51, pp329.

[3] Gregory Georgina, Healy J. Ros and Mazierksa Ewa, Careers in Media and Film: The Essential Guide, SAGE Publications, Limited (2008), pp116.