MEDIAWORKS: JOB SHADOW @ VPC
MediaWorks producers participated in externships and job shadow days as part of their professional development over the summer. Read Tahir's reflection below.
Having the opportunity to shadow professionals in another workplace was a great experience. Myself and three producers spent the day at Video Production Consulting, Inc (VPC, Inc). VPC is in the media industry but they specialize in live event production, animation, and A/V integration. At Wide Angle, we aren’t focused on animation, especially 3D animation, so I was excited to see their process when doing projects with 3D animation. However, during our visit, I learned a lot about everything they do, from camera live switching to how to speak the client’s “language” and animation to editing. Having a better understanding of how to effectively communicate with a client helps me have the confidence to do more work in the future. It’s really cool seeing different paths I can take with the skill set I’ve learned at Wide Angle.
Live event coverage is a lot more interesting than I thought. I loved learning about what happens behind the scenes of live event production. I initially thought it was just people sitting behind a camera for a few hours but I learned that there’s actually much more than I expected. After seeing the process, I wouldn’t mind being a freelance camera operator for a live event, especially after hearing their rates! We also learned a lot of lessons from our visit, including an important lesson on wrapping cables from Howard, the VP at VPC, along with some life advice to apply to our careers. Despite my experience at Wide Angle editing videos, I even learned some things from Neil, the video editor at VPC. I got some helpful tips like not being afraid to try out new things and communicating with the client to give them a product we will both be happy with. No matter what field it is, successful professionals will always have some advice that will be helpful because, in the end, they are doing what they love and have experience getting to that point in their life.
A lot of the advice revolved around just doing what you love and not being afraid to take risk, which motivated me to do as much risk-taking with my interest as possible. On our way back from the visit, we all talked about being inspired to do more projects for fun, gain experience, and build up our knowledge for our careers/passions. Although we work with professionals at Wide Angle and learn something everyday, I’m glad we were able to visit VPC and talk with the professionals there. People always have different experiences, perspectives, and ways of doing things that you can always learn from - thank you Wide Angle Youth Media and VPC for the opportunity.
