Unit 11

In terms of progression routes that are available to me, the way I see it I could make the diploma I’m working towards at the moment entirely pointless and go into full-time work that I wouldn’t enjoy, or I could go to university. Considering Film is what I would most enjoy professionally, I decided to apply for the undergraduate Film course at PCA. Here is the personal statement that I composed for this application:

The reason I am applying for this course is that I find Filmmaking one of the most expressive and arresting mediums humans can engage with. Film incorporates so many different skills, from pre-production through to distribution, all of which are exciting challenges leading up to the reward that is seeing the finished product, and the promise of doing that professionally is what drives me to undertake a degree.

I have always been interested in watching films, but it wasn’t until I created a short film in Year 8 as part of a ‘challenge week’ that I discovered how exciting it is to produce a film.

I believe I am suitable for this course because I am driven to pursue my creative interests and develop my skills enough to be a viable candidate for work in the film industry, whether that’s freelance or with a company

I am presently studying Film, Animation and Media Production at the Plymouth College of Art Pre-degree campus, which plays a large part in my choice to continue studying Film. As well as that I studied Media at GCSE level, which covered a lot more of the theory of making films/TV shows, whereas FAMP is mostly a practical learning experience.

I have taken part in several film workshops at the PCA main campus, which is partially what inspired me to apply for this course. It was interesting for me to see the equipment used in the main campus and examples other students work at university level. As well as that I have attended a few IntoFilm workshops, learning about programming in an independent cinema and watching niche films that I might have otherwise missed.

I am a founding member of the Pre-Degree Media Agency at PCA, a group of second-year students from a range of courses tasked with creating and managing a media agency that would eventually connect with real clients and potentially warrant paid work. I helped in key branding decisions and coordination/filming of film-based projects.

In July I was the producer in a small film crew at Ocean City Sounds, working on behalf of Plymouth city council to produce two social media adverts and one short documentary for the music event in question. I really enjoyed this job as it was the first time I was able to exercise my filmmaking skills in a professional environment.

 

In order to create this personal statement I looked at other examples provided on google classroom, and I also utilised the UCAS personal statement widget, which provides question prompts. Below you can see evidence of the fact UCAS have accepted my application:

As well as that I have produced a CV as a means to apply to part-time jobs.

I was working on a showreel that included footage from the redux version of last year’s FMP, as well as footage from the Ocean City Sounds advertisements that I worked on, however, I found that I didn’t have much other footage to record. I am currently working on a music video that I filmed at the Eden Project, which I plan to include in my finished showreel.

Here is a screenshot of the current editing timeline for my showreel (including a clip from the aforementioned Eden Project music video and a short video shot at ‘Santa Trees’ in Liskeard.)

I have chosen to apply for the film course because I wish to undertake a career in Film, and I believe that the knowledge I gain on the degree course will aid me in getting the skills and connections to do so.

IntoFilm Workshop

Although I enjoyed seeing what films the Arts Centre would have to offer next year, and it will presumably be interesting in the future to see whether they take up on the feedback given to them by the class, we didn’t really learn or produce anything, so I’m unsure as to how I’m supposed to write any more about this.