Producing a PDF Portfolio

A large task for the current PPP module has been to produce a succinct PDF Portfolio explaining our work, which can be downloaded from our website, and printed out for distribution to relevant parties.

I started by contemplating the recipients of the PDF. I don't have a specific target audience, as I am still forming my career aspirations, so it seemed sensible to produce a document which sums up my course, describes the projects which enthused me, and displays a record of my commitment to individual creative work.

I sketched a rough layout for the PDF, considering which projects to showcase and in what order, and what text and how much of it to accompany the images. This was helpful in terms of providing me with an inclination of size of images, and hence how much space their would be to make adjustments with.

 

Putting together the final PDF was a fairly staright-forward process. I decided to give more information over less – thinking that if a viewer is not inclined to read all the text, they can pick and chose areas of interest based on the images, but the information is still available for those who want to read in depth. I've had little to no experience in designing such documents, and Microsoft Word is certainly not the ideal software for such an artefact. But with a bit of wrestling I managed to get to a presentable standard. 

Here's a few pages from the final version.

Degree Show Organisation

Here is a summary of the roles and responsibilities I took on for the planning and instigation of the Photo Synthesis degree show (exhibiting in both Coventry and London):

• Secretary – producing agendas and minutes for our meetings. Keeping track of overall progress, what tasks still need doing. Keeping everyone informed of proceedings.
• Treasurer – managing a group bank account, collecting money from all members, planning out and sticking to a budget, being on hand to cover expenses. 
• Gallery Venue Liaison – meeting with owner of London venue, arranging and confirming booking of space, maintaining communication to support smooth running of London show. 
• Graphic Design and Marketing Liaison – between photography group and design team, to ensure deadlines were met, aesthetics suitable etc. Marketing link, turned out to be a crucial one, for preventing the printing of a erroneous catalogue.   
• Coordinator of Photography Works for Auction – meeting with auction organiser from Fine Art course to: arrange suitable submissions of photography pieces, collecting donated works from tutors, organising volunteers from photography students, writing press releases for local press, and flyering leaflets around the city.
• Inviting Exhibitors and Writers – sending carefully worded requests to established practitioners, success with a catalogue introduction from David Campbell.
• Draft Writing for Press and Promotions – making use of language skills, working collaboratively with Joanna Ornowska, for proof reading etc.

I've enjoyed the organisational challenge of undertaking these roles, and learnt many skills through the process, which I feel I could apply in a variety of future job positions. 

We can achieve great things together.

This is a republication of a post from January (which was not submitted for another module – just to cover myself). The reason for reposting this is that the discussion on my positive outlook towards collaborative work has become all the more relevant following the 'knowing yourself' session.

'The Walk' Short Film



The people depicted here are my family. The story takes place from Summer to Winter. This is a short film I made using stills of their activity with each other, and with the outdoors. The most enlightening and exciting element of producing this was working in collaboration with the composer Brendan Beales. The photographs - their timing and running order - were edited to silence, I then provided Brendan with a total running time, as well as times for various cues and I gave direction for the mood, tempo, and tonality of the music. He did not know which images he was writing the score for, until the piece was completed, this was to avoid 'mickey mousing' the music. Essentially, this production has highlighted for me the pleasure and ability I have, working in collaboration with others towards a larger creative goal. The film and television industry calls all the louder.

Knowing Yourself

The first session of the PPP module required us to question ourselves on our practice, our working methods, and our thoughts about life after university. Breaking these areas down into fairly straightforward but also scrutinising questions proved to be immensely helpful when considering the future. Even if you don't have a particular career angle in mind to aim for – as I don't – these sorts of questions can very much whittle down what you can and can't do, what sort of area you will and won't fit into. Knowing what you don't want to do, is equally beneficial to its opposite.

These are my notes on working through these self-knowing questions. To summarise the key points:

• At present I am struggling to define myself to anything more specific than a 'creative'.
• Happiness is success, not the other way round.
• I would be content to have a 'normal' job for a living, and work creatively outside of hours, thereby removing the stress. However would be great if the two could come together at some point.
• What I want to do next is figure out what I want to do after that. 
• Need to work with others to keep driven, can't stand long and lonely evenings in front of a computer screen. Like collaboration, but only if the collaborators are hard-working and reliable. 
• Efficiency is not my strong point.

So plenty of food for thought, towards forming a plan for the near future.

Professional Practice Portfolio - New Skills

PPP for short, is a small module (the last of my course) which focusses on the process of taking ourselves, and our work out of a university context and into a professional one. It will be tagged on this blog as 'professional portfolio'.

I wanted to begin posting on this with a look back to some professional work that I've done, which although it doesn't relate to my own current practice, it certainly does relate to an area that I am keen to pursue – filmmaking.

Occasionally throughout the year I work with my cousin Jonathan Lee, (a freelance videographer, photographer, educator and such) to produce judicial training videos. I've written about this work before, but I wanted to bring it up again, as due to the job repeating, I have grown to be quite confident with the technical set up and running of the shoot, not to mention keeping calm when working with the high powers of the law system (no actors here).

Once my schedule frees up with the completion of my course, I would like to commit some of that time to further opportunities of assisting on such film work, with my cousin and other media producers. Below is a clip from the final film.