I moved to London from Paris to do a BA in Fine Art at the University of the Arts London (formerly London Institute). I knew many friends were studying on the Film and Video course and started making my own videos, and enjoyed this much more.
After I graduated I walked around Soho looking for a job, handing my CV to every Media-looking company, including a Doctor’s clinic which I had thought was a production company! I was given two days training, unpaid, as a runner at The Mill, which is a large post production house near Oxford Street. On my first day I poured coffee all over one of the clients. I thought this is it, I’m fired, but he just laughed. I kept apologising and said it was my first day, but he just kept laughing and I got the job.
It is all about your disposition, and the way you are with people. Then in the evenings and downtime, you can use the equipment. The senior staff members will stay behind after work and show you how to use different programmes, almost all of them started as runners too.
I want to become a commercials editor, and edit adverts. I am currently looking at possible courses in film and video production, as I can receive a credit from Skillset towards paying for the training. I can use Avid and Final Cut Pro, but would like to learn more about stories and editing, not just from a technical point of view. I am looking at courses offered at the new Centre of Media Excellence at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College which is near where I live.
If you want to work in the Media, be prepared to do any sort of work, and expect to have to work hard to find an opportunity. Also, things like being able to touch-type or speak a foreign language (I am French, and can speak Spanish as well as English) can be as appealing as having studied on a Media course, maybe even more appealing. Ultimately, the reason I got my job was because my CV stood out from a design point of view – it was the only one they’d received that week which used colours, not just black and white.
