My name is Sam. I am a second-year Film and TV production student from Sheffield. Recently, I completed some work experience at Visualised it.

As a film student, I’ve worked on lots of university projects including short films made with other students, and other projects outside of my course.

This has provided me with a good grounding in filmmaking technique, but I felt it lacked in one key area: Much of my university education tended to focus on narrative content, traditional formats like film or live TV, but I had no experience of corporate filmmaking, something which I thought was an oversight, as many of the jobs film graduates might apply for will be with companies that produce corporate films, adverts and promos, like Visualised it.

The chance to experience a shoot of this kind was, therefore, a fantastic opportunity.

As part of my work experience, I assisted with a shoot covering the IKIC Big Challenge in Barnsley. During the shoot, I was working alone to capture B roll of the contestants’ presentations to the judges.

I found the experience to be extremely useful. For much of the day, I was working alone, while interviews with the contestants were conducted in a separate room by members of the company. Much of what I shot was left up to me, and I so had to use my initiative to capture useful footage for the finished product.

Having to move around the room and very quickly set up and frame a shot without disturbing the judges or contestants was a learning curve that I found very informative, as I previously had little experience shooting events.

Overall, the shoot with Visualised it was a very positive and beneficial experience. I was able to gain hands-on experience with video production which I haven’t been able to obtain through my degree.

It also helped me further develop my technical filmmaking skills in an area that I hadn’t previously experienced. Going forward, I hope to use what I gained from this experience to potentially secure video production work in the future.