The Creative Media Sector
This blog has been set up to support and inform Creative
Media students about the Creative Media industry with a focus on the different
sectors that make up the Creative Media industries and the range of job roles
and skills that are available.
Task 1
The Creative media industry can be divided into various
sectors, this blog will give students the opportunity to explore each sector
and how particular a skill set can be linked to a job role. The sectors are as follows:
- Television
- Radio
- Publishing
- Film
- Interactive media
- Computer games
- Photography photo imaging
- Advertising and marketing
- Animation
Television
Television is the most popular form of the entertainment and
informative industry. The British television industry not only recruits its
personnel from all over the UK but also attracts people from across the world.
Thirty years ago British television was run by very few companies, the BBC was one of the
biggest contributors to what we could view – running channels BBC1 and 2. The BBC is a public company which has been a
national institution since the 1920s in the UK and now sells lots of its
television programmes and franchises to
overseas networks – eg Strictly Come Dancing. The BBC is publicly funded with
revenue coming in from the tv licence payer.
As well as being a national network the BBC also makes programmes with a
local interest such as Look North. In
the 1980s competition came from ITV and Channel 4 who gain revenue from
advertising products produced by other industries.
Since the introduction of digital television competition
between networks has increased as there are a greater number of television
channels and television production companies that produce different shows. Most
of our favourite television shows and programmes are produced by individual
production companies, eg Channel 4, Tiger Aspect etc . Some of these companies
are large public companies like the BBC, some are very small independent
companies specialising in producing a particular genre eg Acorn media –
historical drama. Live shows are also still
produced, eg BBC news and local news programmes etc and this requires a team of
people to ensure shows go out successfully.
In 2009 over 78% of the world population owned a television,
with an increase of 5% from 2003. Because
of its popularity television is used to advertise products produced by other industries, ie commercials
(adverts). The UK Television industry
generated £17.5 billion in revenues in 2012.
This
is an example of a successful television produced by a smaller, independent
production company
Film
Film is one of the most popular forms of entertainment and
has universal appeal for people aged 3 to 99.
There are many types of genres in film, eg horror, sci-fi , ‘romcom’, thriller etc. The film
industry or ‘motion picture industry’ is made up of the technological and the
commercial institutions for filmmaking, eg film production companies, film
studios, cinematography, screenwriting etc and actors, crew and directors.
The greatest ‘box office’ numbers are in the USA, China and
Japan, but the countries with the largest film production are India, Nigeria
and USA, with other countries for example Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and
France also being leading film producers.
The film industry is one of the most successful and
entertaining sectors of creative media.
The film industry in the UK contributed £4.3 billion to the UK’s economy
in 2006. In 2007 516 films were
released in the UK, a 58% increase in the past decade.
Some of the most
successful films are produced by studios owned by multinational companies –
such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers produced the seven fantasy
novels – Harry Potter – and made numerous successful films. Some smaller film studios have produced
successful films – Four Weddings and a Funeral – which have then been
distributed by larger multinational companies, eg MGM. Though Hollywood studios have the largest
revenues to produce expensive, large scale films employing large numbers of
crew to work on a particular film the UK has a smaller scale studios, such as Pinewood
Studios, Shepperton Studios etc. Many of the world’s most profitable and
best-loved films have been made at Shepperton Studios. Often described as the ‘home of independent
film production’.
As the film industry becomes more successful in the UK so
this provides more opportunities for smaller film studios and production
companies to compete with larger companies, eg October Films, a small
independent London based production company and Bloomsbury Studio – a London
based film studio.
Warner Brothers film Harry Potter
Radio
The ‘radio industry’ can be split up into two different groups - commercial
radio and public service broadcasters. Public service
broadcasters are funded through
public money, a license fee, eg the BBC. Commercial broadcasters, also called Independent Local Radio, are largely funded through the sales of advertising on their radio station. Commercial stations
often have local appeal. The BBC
provides a universal network and not only provides public information and news
but also provides popular music, drama, debates, documentaries, classical
information, comedies etc. Smaller commercial
radio stations also focus on local news, local events and charity raising,
broadcasting popular music, providing some competition against the BBC radio
network.
In the UK, the radio
industry regulator
Ofcom are looking to establish
a third type of radio, called ‘community
radio’. These radio stations will be fairly small and run by community groups, eg
‘Community Voice’, based in Middlesbrough and BFBS the radio station to support
British Forces and their families.
Community Radio station
Publishing
The Publishing industry is responsible for making information, music, ‘stories’ etc available to the public. The UK industry of publishing was worth £10
billion in 2012. The value of services exported by the publishing industry in
2012 was 1.2 billion pounds.
There are many types of publishing, such as traditional forms of publishing, production
and marketing of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works
and less traditional forms such as software and electronic media.
Publishing companies range from large, well established
publishing companies such as Penguin Random House, Pearson, Oxford University
Press, Scholastic etc to smaller independent publishers (indie publisher) ‘Ice
Cube Press’.
‘Pearson PLC is a
British multinational publishing and education company based in London, and the
world’s largest book publisher and education company. It is the largest
education company and the largest book publisher in the world. It was founded
by Samuel Pearson in 1844.’
Games
The UK is Europe’s second largest video game market and the
fifth largest in the world. The first games were released in the 1960's and in
the 1970's. They became a firm favourite
in the UK.
The gaming industry took $9.5 billion in the United States
in 2007, rising to $11.7 billion in 2008 and $25.1 billion in 2010. This shows the growing popularity of the
gaming industry. As video games have
become more popular the quality of production has also increased, eg graphics,
the game itself ( ie the plot). A videogame
is where a person interacts with a game using electronic images on a
screen. Like other forms of media there is a large
range of genres for games content.
As videogames became more popular in the home, PlayStation
became the most popular console in the late 1990’s to the 21st
century. PlayStation sold over 100 million consoles worldwide. This was replaced by the PlayStation2 and the
new Xbox console. In the 1990s the video
game industry generated sales of about $21 billion worldwide.
The gaming industry employs thousands of people worldwide. With growing popularity each year this means
more job opportunities. Also the types
of job available become more varied.
Japan has the biggest game industry in the world with large
multinational companies like Nintendo and Sony being huge contributors. “Many
individuals have also benefited from the economic success of video games
including the former chairman of Nintendo and Japan's third richest man: Hiroshi Yamauchi. “
Today the global video game market is valued at over $93
billion. The most popular
games today are Halo and Call of Duty.
However “indie games continue to have a significant impact on the
industry, with sales of some of these titles such as Minecraft exceeding
millions of dollars and over a million users.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry
)
From 2000 the video game industry was becoming more varied
with greater availability and access, ie through Facebook, mobile phones, small
handheld machines etc. 
Interactive media
Interactive media is normally known as ‘products and
services on a digital computer which responds to a person’s actions, by presenting
content such as texts, graphics, animation, video, games audio etc.’ Interactive media is where user and machine
are linked and both have an active role developing a task/product. Interactive media is linked to computer
technology – eg through different forms of software. Though board games, books, games books and
flip books are an example of a printed interactive media.
The biggest contributors to this area of the industry are
multinational global giants such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat
etc. This area of the industry is
continuing to expand rapidly as the public are demanding more and more
opportunities to use interactive media.
Interactive media is expanding in schools and this provides
opportunities for less known and smaller independent companies to produce more
specialist forms of interactive media which are particularly suited to more
individual businesses and professions.
In the UK there are 39,750 people
employed in 8,000 businesses in Interactive Media. The workforce is predominantly younger with
58% of the work force under 35 years of age.
Interactive Media is a growing industry in the UK, particularly in the West Midlands. Independent
companies that are successfully competing in the UK include Blitz Games and
Codemasters.
facebook logo – social networking and
interactive media
Photography
Photography is the art of capturing an image using a
camera. The photography industry has,
from 2009-2014 had an annual growth of
4.1%. The revenue generated is around £1
billion. Employment within the
photography industry is approximately 24,000, with over 8,500 businesses involved. Over 60% of photographers are self employed
in the UK, with about 1 in 3 people working a part time job in 2012. There are
many aspects of a photographer’s job. Such as:
- Marketing and adverting services to attract clients;
- Analysing and deciding how to compose a subject;
- Using various photographic techniques and equipment;
- Capturing subjects in commercial-quality photographs;
- Enhancing the subject’s appearance with natural or artificial light;
- Using photo enhancing software;
- Maintaining a digital portfolio, often on a website, to demonstrate work.
This area of the Creative Media is dominated by small
businesses though larger contributors are associated with journalism and other
businesses eg fashion.
Animation
Animation is often used in film or on television. Animation is a genre often used for
children’s films or television programmes.
There are many types of films that use animation, such as 'Chicken Run,
Wallace and Gromit etc, produced by Aardman Productions, Lion King produced by Disney
and Toy Story by Pixar films etc.
Traditionally animations were produced from hand drawn images, each image
photographed separately. Images were
then displayed in a rapid succession, normally up to 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames
per second. In the last 20-25 years
digital images are now more commonly used.
Pixar was one of the first companies to be successful using digital
images which it used in the Toy Story trilogy.
In the UK the animation industry is worth over £70 billion. Animation is a growing industry in the UK
with a larger number of smaller independent companies – eg Blue Zoo Animation
which is a multi- BAFTA award winning studio in London. http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/
Wallace and Gromit – Aardman Animations
Advertising and
marketing
Commercial companies use advertising and marketing to sell
their products to the public. This involves using a range of media for example TV, games, CD’s, photography
and films etc. The advertising industry has spent over $4.36 billion worldwide
in 2012. In 2013 this rose to $9.60 billion, an increase of 120 percent in just
1 year.
Advertising is a form of marketing communication which is
used to persuade the public (the audience) to buy a product or to do something.
Advertising is usually paid for by sponsors and is viewed in various media, such as newspapers, magazines, television
advertisement and radio advertisement etc.
Though radio advertising is very popular as it can be
accessed by a large percentage of the public throughout the day, television
adverts are supposed to be the most effective in mass marketing and therefore
are the most expensive. A 30 second
advert broadcast during a national football game was said to have cost about
$3.5 million in the USA in 2012.
There are numerous advertising agencies, each specialising
in particular areas of media marketing.
Some smaller independent agencies can specialise in online adverts – eg
Sense Advertising and Marketing in London, allowing them to compete against
global giants such as Saatchi and Saatchi which was founded in London but is
now based in USA. Larger companies can
produce a range of different forms of advertising. Saatchi and Saatchi’s most famous adverts
were for British Airways and cigarettes – Silk Cut.
Task 2
This particular section of the blog looks into the types of
jobs available within different sectors of the media industry. Types of jobs within the media industry can be categorised
as follows:
- Creative – script writer, writer, costume designer, set designer, cinematographer, director, actor, web designer.
- Technical – technical director, technical editor, cameraman, sound recorder, gaffer, lighting director, boom operator, web developer.
- Editorial – tv/film editor, magazine editor, newspaper editor.
- Sales and Marketing – film publicist, film promoter, public relations officer, marketing assistant, marketing executive, publicist.
- Managerial – production manager, floor manager, location manager, station manager.
- Financial – Producer, production accountant, financial controller.
Jobs available within the industry are employed on the following
contracts:
Permanent, full-time – regular contract, 39- 40 hrs a week, with
company benefits, sickness, maternity/paternity and holiday pay;
Part-time – Same as full-time but with reduced working hours in the
week and reduced benefits to reflect less time at work.
Fixed term – employed for a set time period with access to company
benefits.
Freelance – employed for a set time period where you are responsible
for arranging your own sickness and
pension benefits.
Within the media industry shift work is common where your hours are set
to certain times of the day, particularly if the company is broadcasting for 24
hours a day such as radio or television.
The creative media and entertainment business is
dominated by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with two thirds of
employers in the industry operating with between 2 to 4 people.
Examples of well-respected companies operating in
the UK media sector include:
- Film: Archer Street Films, Blue Print Pictures, Ealing Studios.
- Production: Aardman Animations; Bristol Media; Slurpy Studios.
- Radio: Bauer Radio; Global Radio; UTV Radio.
- Television: BBC; BSkyB; Channel 4; Granada; ITV; Virgin Media.Publishing contains a mixture of large companies and SMEs. The Pearson Group is a world leader in print publishing. It is responsible for: the Financial Times and the Economist; Pearson Education; and Penguin book publishing.Large businesses that exist in the publishing sector include:
- Books: Faber & Faber; HarperCollins; Kogan Page.
- Booksellers: Amazon; Blackwell UK; Google Books; Waterstones; WHSmith.
- Educational: Macmillan; Oxford University Press; Wiley Blackwell.
- Magazines: Future Publishing; Hearst Magazines; IPC Media.
- Newspapers: Johnston Press; News International; Trinity Mirror.Graduates entering the media and publishing sector can expect:
- a creative and dynamic industry combined with deadline and target driven pressure;
- to earn an average of £18,126 in artistic and literary occupations and £17,497 as a media professional (journalist, editor, broadcaster), six months after graduation.
- a large amount of travel if working in television and film production;
- long or unsociable hours when approaching deadlines, for example, in late night television and radio production.A number of examples are included below to illustrate the types of job available in each category, their responsibilities and pay. By clicking on the weblinks you can explore individual case studies and how people have developed their careers within the Media industry. These case studies have been taken from http://creativeskillset.org/TV and FilmThere are many job roles in the television and film industry. A look at a film or tv crew and cast list reveal how many people are involved. Within this collection of cast and crew there are employees who are employed in various different contracts, some on permanent contracts, others providing their services through freelance contracts.Creative
- Casting director: Casting of the actors and is the first crew member on the project. A casting director earns up to £49,400-£52,000.
- Director: Directs on the film or TV project and instructs the actors how to act/perform on stage in front of cameras, is responsible for the actors and the film production. The director also decides where he wants to film the location and tell the cameramen where to roll the cameras. Directors will get paid up to £60,234 per year.
- Actor: Acting on stage in front of the audiences and been told by the director how to act and what to wear. It depends which company the actors work for so sometimes the actors might not even get paid to act, but normally they get paid to around about £14,000- £100,000 per year.
- Make-up artist: Make-up for the actors. The make-up artists also works with dress designers, hair stylist and also the dress technicians. A makeup artist works 10 hours a day. The salary for a makeup artist is £19,820 per year.
- Production designer: responsible for all the production visual appearance. The production designer is also known as the set designer because he or she does all the design for the background on stage. The salary for a production designer is £33,048 per year.
- Set designer: Designing the background for the stage for the actors to act on. A set designer’s salary is £15,000 per year.
- Costume designer: Design the costumes for the production. A design assistant will get paid £16,000-£17,000. A junior designer will get paid £24,000-£25,000 per year. For the senior designer they get more paid than the other people so they get paid up to £41,000-£85,000+.
- Screen writer/Script writer/writer: Creates a story and the characters and what type of genre the story is. The writer’s salary is 26,968 per year. Screen writers and script writers create a short or maybe a feature length screenplay for films and television programs. The screenwriter’s salary can be above £100,000 per year if they have established reputations.
Technical
- Associate Director: Makes sure that all the props, the set and all the technical equipment are safe to use on stage. The salary for associate director is £50,000-£75,000 per annum.
- Cameraman: Shooting or filming for TV and films but also they also do some editing of the films. The salary that cameraman get paid are around about to £11,500-£40,000 per year.
Managerial
- Location manager: What the location manager does is too pick which location to film and which studio to use. The salary for a location manager is £33,297 per year.
Editorial
- Editor: Works post-production. Edits raw footage of film, works with director to produce final version of film. Starting salaries for those employed by a television or post-production studio are in the region of £18,000 to £25,000. With experience as a film or video editor, you could earn £20,000 to £35,000. At a senior level, you could reach potential earnings of £37,000 to £70,000 but the higher end of this scale is only available to senior editors working on high-status projects.
Financial
- Producer: Works with Director and helps coordinate, financial, legal, administrative, technological and also the artistic aspects of a production. The salary for a producer with the starting salary is £18,000-£25,000. The people who have got more experiences will get paid £40,000-£55,000, but for the department heads they get extra with the amount be £60,000-£80,000. The amount of money that will be per week will be £1,062-£1,812. If the producers want to work full time then the amount of hours will be 50hours per week.
Within the TV and film industry
jobs need to be flexible and are constantly changing, which means job contracts
have to be more flexible than contracts in more traditional jobs. Job roles more likely to be permanent are the
jobs within the financial and managerial categories. Job roles more likely to be free lance or
fixed term are within the creative, editorial, technical and sales and
marketing. Some creative, editorial
posts etc may be permanent if you work for a production company like the BBC.
Hours of work can be long and unsociable to ensure a film/programme can be
filmed to schedule. When filming on
location work might start very early in the morning or late into the
night. Extra money may be offered for
irregular and anti-social hours.
Radio
Some examples of jobs within
radio and broadcasting, representing
media job categories:
Creative
- Actor: Interprets and brings a script to life to make the acting entertaining to listen to. Actors might not even get paid to act, but normally they get paid to around about £14,000- £100,000 per year.
- Radio presenter/DJ (disc jockey): The voice of a station or a programme. They create the tone and style of radio output and establish a relationship with listeners. Salaries can rise from £14,000 up to £100,000 for well known names.
- Radio broadcast journalist: Researching and presenting the stories to the whole country maybe even the whole world. The journalist’s will be travelling all over the country even the world to find out more information and new stories. The sort of grades that you will need to have this job will be English. Salary ranges from £15,000 - £20,000 with 10 years experience up to £52,000.
- Radio commercials producer: What a radio commercial producer does is creating advertisement in the response to the client’s briefs and the station promotion for radio stations.
Managerial
- Agent: What an agent does is to represent the performers and also the creative team members who work with the film, television, radio and also theatre.
- Radio broadcast assistant: What a radio broadcast assistant does is working in both speech-based and music radio and offering practical support to the producers and also the presenters. The radio broadcast assistant carry out a wide range of key administrative tasks to ensure that the smooth running of a live and recorded radio programmes and also help with the research, planning and production. To get this sort of job you will need a degree for this sort of role. Salary can range from £13,000 with top pay at £30,000 for 10-15 years experience.
- Radio producer: What the radio producers do is creating programme content and they also manage the whole production process for both live and recorded radio programmes. At graduate entry £16,000, rising to £45,000 for more experience.
Technical
- Sound engineer: responsible for audio output, eg music. Salary starting at £16,000 - £18,000, rising to £35,000. Freelance sound engineers can earn £230 - £500 per day.
Editorial
- Radio news editor: What a radio news editor does is overseeing and directing the work of a news team of supplying news content for one or maybe even more different outlets.
Sales and Marketing
- Radio marketing executive: What a radio marketing executive does is to undertake a wide range of different activities to market the services and also the products of the radio station or maybe even a group of radio stations. Starting salaries from £18,000, rising to £37,00- £40,000 with directors receiving more than £75,000.
Contracts and hours of work will
be similar to television, see above.
More permanent positions may be available, such as the producer,
broadcast assistant and marketing executive, particularly if they are employed
by a production company like the BBC.
Gaming industry:
Creative
- Animator: What the animator does is to give life to the characters and the creatures but they are also applied to other elements for example: objects, scenery, vegetation and also environmental effects. Salaries rising from £18,000 rising to £26,500.
- Game designer: The game designer designs the games to make them very realistic and trying to catch the audience’s eyes so that they buy it to make a profit. Salaries starting from £18,000 rising to £45,000 with some senior designers and developers making £70,000
- Game artist: The game artists create all the objects on the games for example: people, animals, weapons, vehicle’s and the background of the game.
- Lead artist: The lead artist is responsible for the game designer, the outlook of the game and the sound of the audio in the game.
- Creative director: The creative director is pretty much the one person who judges the game on how it looks and how it sounds on the console to play. Average salaries around £45,000+, starting at £29,000.
Technical
- Audio engineer: The audio engineer does all the audio for the game for example they do the recording for the actors, gun sounds, animal noises and also vehicle noises. Starting salary £18,000 rising to £35,000.
- Game programmer: The game programmer design and write the computer code that both runs the game and even controls the game. The game programmer also does all the text stuff for example adding in the title of the game and the credits at the end of the game. Salaries are similar to games designers and developers with salary starting from £18,000, rising to more than £70,000.
- Lead programmer: The lead programmer is the team leader who is in charge of all the job roles in the game industry to make the game really good and realistic.
Managerial
- Assistant producer: What the assistant producer focuses on the areas of the development process. They also include, handling communications which is between the publisher and the developer.
Sales and Marketing
- External producer: The external producer delivers all the games to all the game companies and the games company by the purchase off them to make a sale to the audience.
Contracts may be more permanent
for designers or workers in the Creative sector as different genres of games are
associated with particular styles of features and graphics.
Animation industry:
Creative
- Animator (2d drawn animation): The animator for this job does hand drawing images for example: models, layouts and refer to established designs. Starting salary of £15,000 rising to £26,500 for more experienced animators.
- Animator (3d computer animation): The animator for this job is doing computer animators producing images which are recorded in a sequence and projected to create an illusion of a movement.
- Animator (2d computer animation): The animator does everything relating to the scenes for example plotting the camera moves, editing the soundtrack, charting information and producing a composited image.
Managerial
- Assistant animator (stop motion): The assistant animator is stop motion animation support the animators and help with the work of the department to run clean and smoothly.
- Animation director or supervisor: The animation director is responsible for the quality of the film so that the film isn’t too fuzzy to see and the animations are clear to see.
Technical
- Animator (stop motion): What the animator does for this job is doing stop motion animation by bringing the models or even the puppets to life.
- CG modeller: For this job the people do the three dimensional computer models of everything that will be needed for a CGI project.
- Compositor: For this job the people are responsible for constructing the big final image by combining the layers together of previous created material.
- Digital painter: For this job the people add in the colour to the lines, the curves and also the images so that the audiences can see the image properly and see all the different colour quality.
Editorial
- Editing assistant (animation): The people who do this job are the assistants of the editors helping them with the video by shortening the film or making it longer and adding in stuff for example: a title and the credits at the end of the film. Salaries can reach up to £40,000 for more senior editors.
Most contracts within the
creative area of the animation industry are fixed term or freelance. However within particular studios – such as
Aardman (Wallace and Gromit) or Pixar (Toy Story) contracts may be more
permanent or fixed for a longer term as creators are associated with producing
a certain style or type of animation, eg clay 3D models (Aardman).
Publishing:
Creative
- Author/Writer/journalist: Produces the article within a magazine or newspaper. Author of a book – fiction and non-fiction.
- Book cover designer: Artist or photographer producing book cover to appeal to reader. Book cover links to book genre.
- Illustrator/Photographer: Produces visual images within a written text.
Managerial
- Features editor: is responsible for the content and quality of their publication and ensures that stories are engaging and informative.
Editorial
- Sub-editor: cropping photos and deciding where to use them for best effect, and writing picture captions; proof reading. Editors can earn up to £800 per day for editing a full page spread with illustrations.
- Art editor: What you do in this job is that you are checking the magazine seeing if you can see the images clearly and seeing if the story makes sense so the readers understand what they are reading.
- Commissioning editor: What they do in this job is that they are responsible for commissioning and overseeing the installation of the system, plants or equipment. Salaries on average around £26,000, but start at £18,500 rising to £50,000.
- Copy editor: What the copy editor does is checking the newspapers or the magazines seeing if it needs any correct punctuation and need any spelling checked and seeing if it makes sense. Copy editors are paid an hourly rate, rising from a recommended £21.40 to £30 an hour
Technical
- Printer: Setting the typeface and formatting to produce newspaper or publication . Salaries start about £20,000 - £25,500, rising to £50,000 for experience.
Sales and Marketing
- Bookseller: What they do in this job is that they sell books to the audience who are interested in the book. £14,000 - £17,000 rising to £40,000 with 10-15 years experience.
Within this sector of the
Creative Media industry freelance contracts would be given to the writers and
journalists and also illustrators and photographers. Long, unsociable hours would be normal for
the editorial staff, particularly for regular publications when meeting
deadlines. Printers would work on
contracts where shift work would be required to ensure publications are printed
to deadlines around a set time period.
Photography:
Creative
- Fashion photographer: What they do in this job is that they take pictures of garment photos and also interpret photos of the underlying ideas or the themes of the season, the clothing range and the designer or maybe even the brand. Photographers can earn up to £65,000 with a starting salary for assistants of £10,500.
- General practice photographer: What they do in this job is that they are commissioned by private individuals, small businesses and a local organisation to take on a wide range of variety of assignments, portraiture and wedding and commercial photography. Freelance rates can vary according to market demand. Photographers can charge up to £400 per photo session with printing costs on top.
- Corporate photographer: What they do in this job is to commission to take some photographs for the company’s advertisement, promotion and also documentation purposes.
Managerial
- Business development manager: What they do in this job is bringing in more and new clients to the job within advertising, broadcasting, publishing, education and the new media.
Technical
- Digital imaging specialist: What this job does is involving colour correction and the digital manipulation of images for printing or archiving.
- Digital imaging specialist (picture library): What you do in this job is working in a picture library that are responsible for all the downloading, colour management, digital manipulation, colour correction, keyword tagging and an input of photographic images for the storage in the library’s digital archives.
Editorial
- Advertising and editorial photographer: What the editorial photographer does is producing images that support a marketing idea that answer to the photographic brief to given to them by the client, a designer and an advertising agency. Editors can earn up £1000 per day for editing adverts.
- Photo imaging: What you do in this job is that you take many photos in the outside world and you are editing them by changing the colour, the fonts and changing the background.
- Assistant photographer: What the assistant photographer does is helping the professional photographer by taking images with them and doing some editing with the photographer.
Sales and
Marketing
- Customer service assistant: What you do in this job is that you give people advise, enquires and helping people about there complaints.
- Customer service manager: This job is exactly the same but in this job you work longer hours and get paid more than the assistants.
Interactive media
industry:
Many roles in this particular industry have been covered in
other sectors, eg see gaming, animation and photography. However other areas may be:
Creative
- Web designer
- Fashion and textiles: Plan and create your product that you designed.
Technical
- Web developer
- VFX: What VFX stands for is visual effects and what you do in this job is that the process which is in fact imagery is created and is manipulated in the outside content from a live action shot.
Sales and
Marketing
- Sales reps: Selling finished products to the public, business, schools etc.
- Publicists: Marketing and advertising services and products.
Advertising and
marketing industry:
Creative
- Brand manager: In this job there are variety of skill in this job you have to research and they have to design and also they organise the events like photo shoots and also launch parties. They can get paid up to 30K-40K. Plus they can earn an extra 10K which will be 50K.
- Advertising photographer: What they do in this job is that they produce images that support a marketing idea in an answer to a photographic brief given to them by the clients, a designer or an advertising agency.
- Advertising account planning: What this sort of job does is bringing in consumers into the process to develop an advertisement.
Technical
- Lighting, sound effects, cameraman, digital imaging. (Similar roles can be found in TV/film, radio and publishing.)
Managerial
- Event manager: What you will do in this job that is developing production and the delivery of the projects from the proposal up to the delivery. The starting salary for this job is between £19,000-£25,000. The people who know some experience will get up to £25,000-£45,000, but the people who have more experience will get up to £50,000-£70,000.
- Advertising account executive: What an advertising account executive is an employee of an advertisement agency who acts as the main link between one or maybe even more clients and maybe even the rest of the agency. The executive is primarily responsible for the day to run one of the clients to advertise campaigns.
Editorial
- Advertising copywriter: Writing a copy for a purpose of an advertisement or marketing. The copywrite person is to persuade the person to buy there product or to influence their beliefs. The check and edit work where appropriate to ensure a quality output. Up to £1000 per day can be earned for editing an advert.
Sales and Marketing
- Marketing assistant: What you do in this job is that is you are writing online content, arranging the promotional events. The amount of salary they get paid between £18K-£30K per year.
- Advertising media buyer: What this job does is selling the product but your spreading the product to the audience by newspapers, cinema, television and magazines etc.
- Advertising media planner: What you do in this job is that you decide whether you think the product is good enough for your employers and reaching your clients audience by TV, radio, mobile or maybe even online media.
- PR (Public relations): What you do in this job is that coming up with PR strategies. Bringing in new business opportunities. The total salary of this job is between £16K-£24K.
Financial
- Account manager: What you do in this job is advertising, digital and a direct marketing and an account manager who has the vital job link between the clients and the company. For this job you salary will be about 45k.
Task 3
In this part of the blog we will
look at the qualifications needed for posts within the media industry of TV and
film, the skills that are needed, the experience and also how to apply for the
job that you want to do. Skills stated
are transferable life skills and qualifications required.
Television and film:
The type of transferable skills
that you will need in the television industry will be:
- A good knowledge of the production process;
- Excellent planning and organisational skills;
- Show leadership and management;
- Creative and proactive;
- Good communication and interpersonal skills;
- Being able to work as part of a team and work alone as necessary;
- Able to work under pressure and to a deadline
- Flexible, calm and level-headed and enthusiastic
To work in the TV and film
industry there are no guaranteed routes of entry, however there are two main
routes to follow: Through an
apprenticeship, or you may want to come
into the industry at graduate entry level.
You would be expected to have an interest in creative media,
photography, art and possibly drama. If you already know
which area of TV or film you wish to work in it you will need to find whether
you need any particular qualifications to do that role, for example working
as a lighting electrician where you
would need qualifications or an apprenticeship as an electrician. By watching the following film clip you can find out about one person’s
experience in becoming an electrician on a tv film set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y_xAztZkDM
Apprenticeships are available, you
could work in the TV industry
while you learn both on the job and at college, so as to give you really strong
foundations on which to build your career. There are four apprenticeships for
TV:
If you enter at degree level then make sure your course has the
industry’s quality mark that is awarded to enable you to be ‘fast tracked’
within the profession.
If
you've been on an approved degree course, such as TV production,
Pre-production/Screenwriting, Post production, Media business and technology
courses etc. or already have some TV
industry work experience, you could be eligible for a scheme that offers
trainee placements in the TV industry, the scheme is called ‘Trainee Finder’.
Trainee Finder matches individuals
to industry placements in TV, film, animation, games and VFX. You are
recommended to apply to the scheme and if you're approved, you'll be added
to the Trainee Finder database which companies can search to find the right
trainee for their business.
If you are chosen, the company will
offer a training placement including a training allowance that will
cover the cost of living. And placements can last anything from a few
weeks up to several months.
One of the biggest employers in the
UK in the TV and film industry is the BBC.
The BBC Academy offers courses through
its College of Journalism, College of Production, Centre of Leadership and
Centre of Technology. Courses range from Facebook for journalists to running a
production team. The training is usually for BBC employees only but due to the
BBC’s Charter Agreement they also teach the wider industry. Using the following link you can find out
more specialised courses the BBC offers the creative media industry and how to
access them -
http://www.bbcacademy.com . 
Getting work experience within a production company or local TV
station will give you the skills that employers require but will also allow you
to hear about potential internal vacancies.
The BBC offers a limited number of work experience
placements. These can be viewed at BBC Work Experience - http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/work-experience . Channel 4 also has various work experience programmes and you
can find out more at ‘4Talent’ - http://4talent.channel4.com/
Channel 4 also has various work experience programmes and you
can find out more at ‘4Talent’ - http://4talent.channel4.com/
You can also find contact
details of production companies in key industry resources such as:
- Kays - https://www.kays.co.uk/
- The Knowledge - http://www.theknowledgeonline.com/
- Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) - http://www.pact.co.uk/home/
You can also keep up to date with industry news by reading
the media publications such as Broadcast - http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/.
Websites I have used:
