This week the level three audio production students were joined by Helen McCarron (Careers and Employability Adviser) & Claire Butler (Student Enterprise Co-ordinator). Their lecture was based around freelance work and the support services available for self employment.

This lecture showed the class a lot of statistics relating to freelance work that allowed us to understand how viable freelance work  can actually be. For example,

• 30% of people working in creative media are freelance’. Creative Skillset Workforce Report 2014
• 67% in Audio, Sound and Music

We were also advised on to how much we should charge employers for our work and how to sort out our taxes. All of this information was extremely useful and made me aware of the  support The Careers and Employability centre actually offer.

Claire also explained how the class are all eligible for a £2500 grant to help us become freelancers, we will also be given support from a mentor.

This week the level three audio production students were joined by guest lecturer Lucy Johnstone. Lucy is a freelance sound editor & Re-recording mixer, her work has been credited  on TV shows such as Top Gear and Eastenders.  For the lecture Lucy focused on post production sound for factual television, she gave us a detailed explanation of her workflow and told us what to expect if we wished to pursue a similar career.

The lecture  gave a detailed explanation of the different techniques to use when editing voice overs, music and sound effects in post production.

“30% what you know 70% how you are”, the importance of being professional when working in the media industry has been a common theme from all the guest lecturers this semester.  Lucy stressed the importance of conducting yourself in front of directors and respecting their wishes even if you don’t always agree.

Lucy was kind enough to show us screen shots from some of her Pro Tools Sessions and I personally was amazed at how many tracks were present, she advised us on how to keep our Pro Tools session clean and easy to understand.

Our guest lecturer this week was Lol Hammond, Lol is a Music Supervisor at Vertigo Films he has worked on multiple productions including films such as Bronson. Lol defined a Music Supervisor as someone who is responsible for the composition, sound design and sourced music present on a film/TV production. Because of the nature of his job he has to wait for the film to be in assembly, he will then sit down with the director  and decide which scenes would benefit from music and which would not.

He described his job as “50% creative and 50% negotiation” he explained how he spends a lot of time talking to record companies/publishers trying to clear third party music for use. He went on to say how it can be very difficult sometimes trying to negotiate rights for a piece of music and sometimes the price set by the publisher/record company is out of budget, so he will have to find a similar piece of music that is easier to obtain.

To be a successful Music Supervisor Lol suggested you should have a wide range of musical knowledge in multiple genres, he also talked about how important it was to have good networking skills so you can gain more work.

The guest lecturer this week was Luke Pickering, an ex student from the University Of Lincoln. Luke currently works as an assistant engineer to Paul Epworth at the famous Church Studios in London. Luke graduated for the Audio Production course about five years ago, before landing the job at Church Studios Luke said he was struggling to find relevant work and did a lot of little things to keep him busy this included free lance work and being a lecturer at the University, he actually teached me studio techniques in level one.

Luke talked about the importance of being persistent when trying to land a job, he suggested we do anything and everything we can and take any opportunity if one should present itself . Luke suggested that we sign up to a studio agency called Miloco, this agency offer work experience programs within studios.

One of the key things I took away from Luke’s lecture, was the concept of thinking about the industry as a “service industry” he said we should understand that a company is taking a chance by involving us with their client’s experience and when we are delegated tasks, no matter how small they are we should take them very seriously.Working in the studio environment will require us to be proactive and out of the way.

This week’s guest lecturer was Emily Wilczek, Emily is a lecturer within the Lincoln School of Film & Media. This week she talked about the ways to approach an experimental audio project in relation to this module,Emily broke the experimental project down into three segments concept/process and realisation.

Concept: The concept of the project relates to what the idea is actually going to be, this is then followed by the exploration of this idea e.g what kind of techniques/technology are you going to experiment with. Lastly what are the opportunities this kind of project can present to you as a creative e.g, what  kind of funding/commissions would be available.

Process:The process relates to the creation of the project, it consists of the research you should do before creating an experimental piece. For example finding out what experimental audio pieces exist already can inform and educate you, allowing you to experiment with your project and develop it.

Realisation: The realisation is the logistics of the actual project e.g who will hear your work and where will it be heard. The advertising,presentation and information of the audio project  are all relevant here, without the proper realisation you will be doing a disservice to your audio project.

Emily went on to talk about the best way to present your work, she told us we should  identify our audience and  actively take steps to get  our work in front said audience. For example she suggested creative  locations such as the 22 channel sound wall present in the Collection are ideal because these locations are built for experimental. By placing your work in relevant areas such as galleries your allowing your work to be accessed by people who have an interest in this field, this allows your work to be appreciated. She also suggested writing some information about an experimental audio piece next to where it is displayed to give it some context.