The Importance of Chances by Anthony Jones

When I finished university I had a goal, to make sure that no matter what i was going to work in video production. From my experience there is one factor that far outweighs experience and technical ability: Taking chances.

Once I had finished and had my degree I thought it would best get any job. When working in Admin for a small company in Manchester I realized that this wasn’t what I wanted. however Jobs like these can be beneficial for anyone trying to get into the creative industry, why do I hear you ask? To help you assess how you want your career to progress and to focus your creative energy on your productions and ideas.

When working in the office I would come up with many ideas and concepts for my own productions. As soon as I was home I would write them all down creating a book which had every idea I have had since 2001 in regards to media.

One day I had a creative block, the only thing that would play in my mind was that chances need to be taken. With that I started to look for work placements all across the U.K to try and obtain as much information as I could. Websites such as mandy.com I would keep searching so that I could gain more contacts, information and work within the media’s post production industry.

I sent my CV and cover letter to the company hoping for the best and the same week I heard back, I decided to book two weeks off work in august and go to maverick for a work placement. This gave me a month to sort out a place to stay and save money.

NEVER underestimate what lengths friends will go for you, two of my friends had moved To High Wycombe and said that it would be fine for me to stay at theirs for the duration of the placement. Though this did mean sleeping on a broken sofa for two weeks I knew it would be worth it.

Once the placement started I was very nervous, would I be making tea for two weeks? Getting in peoples way? Would I be useful at all? Of all of those thoughts I’m glad I was wrong about the tea making! For all the horror stories that you hear about placements I have to say that my experience with maverick media was fantastic one.

I was brought into meetings, given my own small projects to work on and given insight into the video game advertising industry. Not only did this give me the reassurance that this was the industry I wanted to be in , but I gained the greatest piece of advice from the staff who I worked with – ‘Get the most from your placements and gain as much experience as you can, not only in production companies, but make your own productions as well’. This would prove to be the focal point of my experiences for the following months and for future productions.

On the weekend of the first week of placement I decided it was time to take more chances, the first week had gone so well I thought ‘why not? What else could I gain?’ I went through my old emails from application for placements in London and emails addresses. I emailed 20 companies asking if they would like to meet or if they had any work for me in the future. From all of these I email I received two responses with one of them having work for me to start that week in my spare time. This work and valuable contact has helped me ever since with work, networking and expanding my portfolio.

If it had not been for those two weeks, the advice I was given and the chances that I took whilst there I would not be in the position I am today, so the advice I pass on to you is if you want to make your way into the media or any profession is this – Take chances, you never know where they could lead.