Find out about Sophie Roome - BA (Hons) Film Production student on placement as a Creative Media Assistant at CLAAS UK
What is your placement role? And who do you work for?
My placement is at CLAAS UK, which is an agricultural company that manufactures farming machinery. It may not sound incredibly 'filmy', but I work in the academy department where they hold training courses for apprentices, and my role is to make videos, imagery, animation, etc. to assist with training the apprentices. Don't worry, you don't need any knowledge of agriculture to apply!
What do you do in your role?
My role here is very varied, and I think that most people would be shocked if they see the amount of equipment that I get to work with. There is a greenscreen studio, cranes, Steadicam vests, and all sorts of different cameras such as a Canon C200, Blackmagic Studio cameras, DSLRs and PTZs.
How is your placement related to your university degree?
I think that Film Production students would learn a lot of technical skills here, since you will get to work with a television production style set-up in the greenscreen room, which we don't get to do in our degree. I think that TV Production students would like the practice of using the studio as well as getting the experience of using a single camera set-up. I am the only one making the content, so I am involved from pre-production to post-production, and I control the camera, audio - everything, which is a challenge, but my boss will always help me if I don't know how to use a certain piece of equipment.
How have your skills developed so far?
I have also become quite skilled at using the Adobe Creative Cloud, getting used to Premiere Pro, Audition, Illustrator and InDesign. The academy is also working to build a 3D virtual studio using the greenscreen room, so I have been dabbling in Blender, practising making 3D environments.
What project are you currently working on?
My main project at the moment is making a series of videos to teach apprentices how to use the equipment and make tools that they will need. I am using a multi camera set-up to film these and it is a huge project that will continue until after I leave, and it has been a great opportunity to practise my project management skills, general knowledge of filming, data wrangling, editing, and especially audio (which I'm definitely not good at).
What are the benefits of being on a placement?
Before this placement, I had great ideas about visuals and cinematography, but I didn't know how to execute them because my technical knowledge wasn't great. Here I have learnt so much about how the equipment actually works, and I am still learning how to make the most of the equipment I have to achieve the look that I want.
What is your advice to students considering a placement year?
You don't need to be at the biggest filming companies to have a good placement, and personally I think that the smaller companies can be an even better choice - because there are less employees, you will likely have more support and attention from your higher ups, and also be given more responsibilities that cover a wider range of skills, it is definitely a great chance to learn, both hard and soft skills. So just go for it!