CIU- WK3 – Social Media & Your Career

Although most social media is used to connect on a more personal level with others, it has also become a way to build an audience for your creative work.
This week revolved around  different ways to use social media in your career, and how it goes beyond promoting – it facilitates conversations, ask questions/advice, discovering technologies or techniques, and getting insight into the practices of other people within the industries you’re interested in.

The best way to grow the community interested in what your making is having clear objectives about what you’re posting and why. So it becomes more structured like a business and separate from a ‘personal’ account.
But social media, even used to promote a creative professional or their work seems to be less strict and is good way to connect with an audience further than presenting content to be consumed.

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For my own accounts I think it will be easier for me to use an ‘alias.’
Not so much an fake name but operate under the name of a company.
I find it is easier to discuss and write about myself and my work if I am a bit removed from it.
I think separating personal and professional media makes online users less likely to associate the person with their thoughts/feelings and more likely to view  the work as it is (or – a good way to avoid becoming ‘Phil Fish’).

SAE Institute – Tri 1 – A Reflection

Having completed Trimester one of BA of Audio at SAE Institute (BNE) I feel more confident in my ability to learn more than anything else.

CIU110
This subject can be mundane – defining terms and finding references will always be mundane. But I have a better understanding of why it is important to have well-rounded knowledge of what a term is and isn’t and gained a sense of why I need critical thinking skills to be successful in creative industries – something I had not considered before.
In particular I enjoyed the final assessment more than I thought. As i was reading academic and none academic sources about ‘The Shining’ and Sound design in horror films I learnt some of the reasons why I like the film and how it is practically affective.

AUD110
This was challenging. The 3 hour classes were very hard to stay engaged with, partly because the lecture slides were absurdly long – I don’t think there was a single week the class time allowed  for everything in the slides to be discussed. I found Adrian to be a passionate teacher but seemed to lack the ability to water down more complex concepts for the class and seemed to rely heavily on the slides themselves to communicate the idea.
I could’ve contributed to my own learning more in this subject as well with independent research.
This was quite disappointing as the concepts in this subject are a foundation and necessary in the learning of new ideas and other subjects.

AUD111
We spent a lot of time in studio as this class was aimed at giving students a better knowledge of studio equipment and signal flow.
I found AUD111 quite challenging as I hadn’t been in a position to use a console before.
I remember being monumentally confused  and overwhelmed in the first class and was wondering how I would ever grasp understanding in this environment.
Never the less – I passed.
The learning environment in studio is quite challenging as they’re are many students and not a lot of space combined with the fact that their is only two consoles. Class time is not the most effective in giving practical application of skills.
I under utilized my personal studio time allowances – I think because I was intimidated by the console – but avoidance is not going to teach you anything.
Once I was in the studio for longer I found ‘doing’ is the best way to learn anything, and that everything is figure-outable.
I now feel more comfortable in studio but I have a lot to learn about the equipment and how to use it.

AUD112
Definitely my favourite subject of TRI 1.
I credit this to the fact that I had some previous knowledge of protools and the fact that Rose is a truly FANTASTIC lecturer (no exaggeration).
Even though 3 hour classes are incredibly hard to stay mentally present in the entire time, I found this the easiest class to stay engaged with.
The info was concise enough to be contained within each weeks lectures and Rose contributes and communicates ideas very clearly with great visual examples.

Conclusion
The fact that SAE is a relatively small campus/uni has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the smaller cohort allowing for more communication with the educators. A major  disadvantage I found was being the limited amount of studio time available.
The first Tri was extremely challenging but quite rewarding and I look forward to building on my knowledge.

Wk1- CIU111 Overview of Industry (a.k.a How not to be an Asshole)

This was my first class back  and the trimester assessments were discussed – the most daunting tasks for me are making a portfolio, talking to industry professionals and writing a resume/cover letter.

I feel both the quantity and quality of the things I’ve made is sub-par which gives me great hesitation in presenting them in a portfolio (as discussed in class~ the imposter syndrome appears). But having attempted to see this in the perspective of myself two years from now, I imagine I will probably be relieved to have started so far in advance.

It seems as though I will be creating a portfolio of things I don’t love. I don’t understand how I will contact industry professionals or what I will say/ask. I don’t know how to construct a resume for jobs in an industry I have never worked in.
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The assessments were discussed with particular emphasis on the concept of a  ‘Professional Narrative’

Professional – having skills that match the abilities of a person who earns money from the thing.

Narrative – The composition/curation of a story (not always linear) as a opposed to a ‘story’ being a sequence of related events told in order.

Professional Narrative – How to curate your abilities and skills to hopefully get paid for it one day…

Professional Narratives seem to be crucial for people working/wanting to work within media/arts industries. How an individual is presented can heavily affect their employability. From this, I take the most important things in creating an employable professional identity are the strength of the portfolio, ability to network and adaptability.
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The R’s of reflective blogging:

• Reporting: What was said?
• Relating: Do you agree with it? Do you disagree with it? Why? What does it mean to you?
• Reasoning: What do people on the Internet say? How does their perspective affect your own? Why?
• Reconstructing: Where do you go from here? What has changed? What have you learned?

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*Things to note:
-Don’t be late or an asshole
-Aaron really likes Carly Rae Jepsen & David Lynch