Mentoring Pilot at LSM

Our media mentoring is an initiative between the Lincoln School of Media and the University of Lincoln Careers & Employability Service. The mentoring pilot is part of our successful LSM Network, which you probably know created this blog and started ‘Meet the Graduates’ to name just a couple of things managed by the network. The LSM has always been keen for our alumni to be part of our activities and events. The media mentoring pilot is another strand to enhance our link between industry and academia as we celebrate twenty years of media students into graduates. Thanks to all our mentors, majority of the twenty or so are our alumni, and student-mentees. We’re looking forward to hearing how the mentoring is going, so please share your experiences here! We’ll be reviewing the pilot’s progress later in the year. Our media mentoring was launched the morning of Meet the Graduates in February 2014.  LSM’s student crew, via New Media Lincs was Year 2 Rory McCarney, Year 3 Kirsty Gibson and Kamil Rewers, captured this summary about our mentoring pilot.

Listen up! Update from Matt North, Class of 2012, and ‘Headspace’

“I cannot remember a time when I did not have a love for sound” said Matt North.  He was in the first cohort of BA (Hons) Audio Production students and has successfully pursued his passion as a sound recordist. Matt is on LSM’s mentoring pilot (thanks again!), which links professionals with our students: “Media mentoring is going great. It’s good to be able to pass on advice to soon-to-be graduates using my knowledge and experiences. I would have found media mentoring really useful in my final year.” See Matt on-campus for ‘Headspace’.

Matt-North_APgrad_Marc2014He will be joining sound industry professionals on 30th April. Senior Lecturer Zara Healy’s organising the networking event for radio and audio students, which will be on a first come basis. More nearer the time, but you can see the audio & radio guest list below! First a career update from Matt:

“After graduating from AP in 2012, I started work as a Technical Operator for Ideal Shopping Direct, across their range of shopping TV channels including Ideal World and Create & Craft before being promoted to Audio Operator, where I mixed over 500 hours of broadcast audio across the company’s network until last June when I was fortunate enough to land a job as a Location Sound Recordist for a small kit & crew company called Videoheads, based in White City in London. Since then, I have been recording location sound for a wide range of TV programming, commercials, corporate and legal films with credits including Crimewatch, iTunes Festival 2013, The Gadget Show and have recently come back from shooting in the Philippines in conjunction with BBC’s The One Show & Sport Relief. I also work on audio post-production at home in whatever spare time I have for both short and feature films.” ‘Headspace’ is a joint LSM radio and audio event where students can meet 10 industry professionals, some are our graduates. Continue reading

Congrats LSM’s Rosie Turner 4Crew Social Networker & Photographer

LSM’s second year student Rosie Turner is on our mentoring pilot between industry professionals and undergraduates. Rosie’s media mentor is 2006 graduate Katy Atkinson who runs a successful not-for-profit media production company called The Reporters’ Academy, based in Manchester. Next month, Katy has kindly arranged a MediaCityUK tour for Rosie and the two will continue to discuss career strategy. For now, Rosie has this super story to share.

Rosie-TurnerHi, I’m a Television and Photography student. Here’s a little piece on my recent job success at Channel 4.  I’ll be working as a Social Networker and Photographer as part of the 4Crew team, travelling around the UK to film and document 4Talent Days.  

I had heard about the job whilst working for the 4Talent department last summer through work experience so when the opportunity was posted online in February I quickly applied and crossed my fingers. At the start of March I had an e-mail back saying I was successful and invited down to London for a day-long interview at Channel 4. After an initial panic because my train was over an hour late and a little jog from one side of Westminster to the other, I made it to the interview, where I met all of the candidates for all job roles (Reporter, Director, Production Manager & Social Networker) within the 4crew team. The first task was a pitch presentation and I was up first! Continue reading

VFX Freelancer Holly Smith, Class of 2010

Holly Smith I graduated from Media Production in 2010 specialising in Digital Media. My first role in the industry was as a Runner at a post house in Soho and whilst working there I showed everyone I could my showreel, most of the time just on my phone in one of the kitchens. This led to one of the VFX editors recommending me to the VFX Company he was working with and I gained a junior position at The Brewery VFX where I have been working up until a few weeks ago when I decided I was going to take the leap to go freelance.

Over the past 2 years at The Brewery VFX I have been constantly learning new skills and gaining invaluable experience working in the industry on both Film & TV projects. I also helped to establish and run the work experience scheme for the company, which gave me the responsibility of reviewing CVs and showreels & interviewing shortlisted candidates. I contacted one of my old lecturers at the beginning of the year because I was tired of seeing the same mistakes made on applicants CVs and showreels and I wanted to be able to offer my advice to students ready for when they graduate. I think it’s so important to have a strong showreel and CV, as often this is the only way you can showcase your skills. Don’t be afraid to get a job as a Runner but make sure you are armed with your showreel or CV ready for any opportunity that might arise. Continue reading

Aleysha Minns on her Internship, at MtG 2014 & LSM Media Mentor

Class of 2013

Class of 2013

February has been a busy month! I have just about completed my Production Assistant internship at Warp Films in Sheffield and I have had the best time, not just for experience, but because I am a huge fan of their films. I have experienced working in their head office with some extremely talented and well-respected people, such as multiple BAFTA award winning Diarmid Scrimshaw, the Producer of ‘Tyrannasaur’, which was such a highlight for me.

While I was there, I had the chance to work on a wide range of tasks such as, working with contracts and preparing paperwork for distribution companies, checking transcripts for DVDs, film development research and valuable administration experience. I also got to experience the feeling of excitement of a film appearing at film festivals and waiting for reviews and award nominations to come in. I learnt so much from this experience and have enjoyed every minute of it.  Continue reading

Meet LSM Graduate: Indie filmmaker Mike Henry, Class of 2009

Michael Henry_shooting Time&Place_Feb2014Currently shooting ‘Time and Place’ and here’s an extract from Quandary Productions online journal, which Mike posted yesterday (and he’ll be at LSM for our new Mentoring pilot and ‘Meet the Graduates‘ THIS Wednesday):

We’ve passed the half way point of the film now and it looks like the only major problem we could have with upcoming shoot dates is the weather. Our eleventh day was a bit of an odd one (even by our standards). We started off by shooting a quick few shots, which required Shaun Woodgates to cover his face in flour and lie face down in a field (he’s an incredibly dedicated chap so we knew we could rely on him). After laying, surrounded by several mounds of horse dung (and battling the extreme wind), we headed to Charles Cromwell’s house to finish off his remaining scenes. Continue reading …