Day 1 - Monday 7th March 2011.
Academic Leader, Dr Stuart Cunningham gave us a breakdown of exactly how big a part Creative Industries play in British business - in the Wrexham area alone, there are 400 businesses that come under this heading. He told us that 69% of all employee's in the business are graduates - showing that although you can enter the industry without formal training, you probably stand a better chance with. He gave information on the skills needed, the positive attributes associated with being in this line of work, and set out exactly what steps the Welsh Government and the University itself, are taking to ensure that the best opportunities are offered to existing and new businesses, and students.
Where the university is concerned, we have the newly built Creative Industries Building - and I must admit, for students who are hoping to study several of the fields within Creative Industries, the facilities offered here sound amazing - TV facilities, 3D workshop, IT workshop, and the links to community projects that are planned, including GTV (Glyndwr TV) are exciting . However, I was disappointed that the only mention of photography being catered for was for photoshop in association with e journalism - however, as Dr Cunningham only had so much time to deliver his address, and possibly couldn't include everything that this new building has to offer, I am hoping that there will be other facilities there, just as exciting and offering us 'snappers' similar opportunities to all the other area's of Creative Media Industries mentioned.
Keynote Speaker - Dr Barry Purves - "Passions and a Passport"
Dr Purves is a Producer and Director of stop motion puppet animation, with over 30 years experience. He has been involved with projects such as the children's TV animation 'The Wind in the Willows', numerous adverts and short films, and the feature film 'King Kong'. His enthusiasm and obvious love of his chosen career was actually very inspirational, and his passion made him an entertaining and amusing speaker.
He shared several short film clips with us, all animation, and although I actually enjoyed just about all of them, one in particular has really stuck in my head - to the extent that I have watched it at home, several times. It's called 'Overtime' and is a tribute to Jim Henson, by an animator called Damien Ferrie. During the lecture, at my first viewing, I thought it was 'OK' - but by the end of the film, something about it made me want to see it again - and each time I've watched it, with the understanding of why it was made, it has become more beautiful and poignant. And every time I've seen it, I notice more details - Dr Purves mentioned the 'big chicken' that appears in one scene - I had to watch it 3 times to spot it - but I spotted the 'giant ant', on my second viewing:)
The embedding code has been disabled on Youtube, But you can find this video HERE.
If, as a photographer, I can produce just one photograph that is as beautiful, thought provoking and emotive as this film is, I will be a very happy snapper !
Showreel, Portfolio and CV - Advice for Finding Work by Harriet Buckley, (animator)
Although this was presented primarily from an animators point of view, I actually found a lot of the info given in this lecture could be applied to several genre's that come under the heading 'Creative Industries'. In particular, advice about knowing the company you are approaching, tailoring your portfolio/CV to area's you know that they are active in and presenting your work in a way that shows how your talents can perhaps benefit them in these area's. Advice on how to approach companies on an 'off chance' basis and how to strike the balance between following up your queries in a manner that is acceptable rather than being deemed as 'being a nuisance'. A list of pro's and cons to either presenting your work on a DVD or online in the form of a website or blog, advice on the size of portfolio's, about tailoring what you show to specific job requirements - all these things are applicable to any creative media, and I found them extremely informative and helpful .
At this point, due as I said, to having to miss nearly two days worth of lectures, I have to skip to the one lecture I got to on day 3.
Day 3, Wednesday 9th March 2011.
Motivation - Get What you Really Want - Denise Chiltern
I think this could have been quite a useful lecture, in terms of boosting confidence and giving you a technique to help you focus on your goals - but unfortunately, the hour allocated to cover the topic really wasn't long enough. Denise was eloquent and knew what she was talking about, but it was all so rushed because of the time pressures, that I don't think she was able to cover things in the depth she would have liked to, so the benfit of this lecture was largely lost, which was very disappointing .
Day 4, Thursday 10th March 2011.
Seven Months In and What Now? A Photography Retrospective - Phil Barrat
This was the first of two lectures I attended today - and from my point of view, the absolutely most useful of the whole week. Phil graduated from Glyndwr last year, and had started a business in photography during his final year here. He covers weddings, portraits and fine art, and was able to show examples of and give us some extremely useful advice in all 3 area's .
He described the 'Wedding arm' of the business as his 'bread and butter' - very important for his survival budget, and he gave some fantastic advice from both a photographic and business point of view. I've been ask to do several weddings over the last couple of years, and have (luckily) so far had every one I've done liked by the couple involved - a few were done simply to get a portfolio together - according to Phil, this is a good way to start, and a worthwhile investment. Some were done as 'gifts' for friends, and two were done as 'jobs' - and where the 'jobs' were concerned, Phil outlined some of the 'pitfalls' that are common (and which I'd encountered) and gave advice on how to deal with them. For example - the assumption that wedding photography involves nothing more than turning up with the camera for the day, that all it requires is a decent camera and the ability to point it in the right direction, and the reluctance to pay what some people consider 'a silly amount of money for it' - I've encountered that attitude, and what Phil said has given me the confidence to stick to my guns and charge a price that reflects the amount of work that in reality, goes into photographing a wedding successfully. Although not decided on what path I will follow, the idea of a business something similar to what Phil describes is not outside the realms of possibilities for what I may do in my future- I've considered wedding and portraiture as a means to allow me to make a living, whilst still giving me time to explore landscape and macro photography in Nature - and his lecture gave me several solid pointers that could prove invaluable to me, in achieving this, in the future. In talking about his portraiture and his fine art work, Phil again gave many useful bits of information that I can well see as being of value to me, in the future.
Keynote: State of Art (Photography) - Terry Morris.
This was the final lecture that I attended during creative Futures week. As in the previous lecture I attended with Terry speaking, this again was a lecture I really enjoyed. This time, Terry showed us a selection of his photographs, and then invited us to ask questions and hear him talk about any particular ones we wanted. Terry is an entertaining speaker, very down to earth and obviously believes very much in what he has to say , and I really enjoyed his insights into how the concepts for particular pictures had developed, and how some pictures were just as a result of opportunity. He really brought home the message that whichever way you work, with enough drive and self belief, you can make a success.
So - that was the end of creative futures week - and what did I learned?
The importance of social skills and making use of networking. Having self belief and confidence, and the will and ability to work hard is as important as your creative talent. I found some people inspirational, just as a result of their enthusiasm and self belief - left me feeling 'Hey - I CAN do this'. There are several topics raised that I intend to look into in greater depth, and some advice that I know I will take on board and use.
Most of all, the week made me think about my future in greater depth, and showed me steps I can take to make a success - if I work hard !
Next - Plastered in Paris !
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