-

1. UNIT B1: PERSONAL PROGRESSION – EVALUATION
Research into future options
One of the foundations to this project relied on my research and applications to future steps.
Firstly, I researched jobs that I am interested in within a media industry. Upon doing so, I found that
jobs would mainly ask for some sort of professional experience within their job area- for example, a
social media producer job would ask for a strong online presence on social media as well as IT and
editing skills. This was something I would need to build on and gain more experience on, which may
be accessed through a university course or apprenticeship. This way, I would also be put at an
advantage due to having a qualification in a relevant subject.
This leads me on to discussing my experience with applying to university through UCAS. Before
doing this unit, I was very much drawn to doing an apprenticeship over going to university and
didn’t even really think about applying. However, the more I researched courses through UCAS, the
more I would find ones that I actually thought might suit me- these were mainly practical based
courses as I would prefer a more hands on experience, which I
thought would only really be obtained by an apprenticeship.
Now, I am in a much better position to think about my options
after college. I have three university offers and will be applying
to apprenticeships later in the year (that have start dates after
July) as the only ones I can find at present have start dates that
are too early for me. I have also been able to visit one
university which gave me much more insight into what the
course would entail and the sorts of facilities that would be
available to me- these were very impressive, and I am now very much considering taking University
as my next step after college. To do this, I did need all the physical projects I have produced in this
unit such as the logo and showreel in order to show my digital competence and that I had the
common materials to show in my portfolio. I also believe that the mock interview that took place
the same week as my university interview has massively helped in my confidence.
In finalising my final plans after leaving college, I have decided to go down the route of an
apprenticeship. For this, I went through four stages with the BBC in applying to their Broadcast
Operator apprenticeship. I submitted my CV and application, a video/written interview, a
psychological assessment and then a final panel interview. I have now been offered the space at
Newcastle for the role which I have now firmly accepted. I found it
helpful that I had already completed some networking
opportunities, especially with David Longworth who was on the
interview panel for this job. In being familiar with him and
interacting with him for some small projects, I felt more at ease when completing the interview and
was glad that he remembered me and my class. I had previously completed a mock interview with
him in the first year of the course too, and so had some idea about his interview styles and how he
likes people to approach his questions.

2. Speaking of the mock interview, this was another part
of the original brief. I believe I had performed well in
this due to the research and coming up with answers
to given questions. I think I was able to both give a
more professional answer in this informal setting but
also drop in other points such as my interests on
Channel 4 and some perception into my work life
which would all be beneficial in a real interview, even
if not specifically asked about by the interviewer.
Coincidentally, I had two real interviews that same week- one for a placement and another for a
university application. They were both successful and I do thoroughly believe that my mock
interview built up my confidence and allowed me to perform to the best of my ability in a real-life
setting. This is part of my professional practise, as I showed good communication, body language,
etc.
This unit also gave me a chance to find or expand on some
industry inspirations and, more specifically, explore the
reason why they actually inspire me. I did focus on 3 current
lower-level industry professionals in my PowerPoint on
inspirations but have more recently focussed on one of these
and a director- Grace Wells and Hitchcock. These are now up
on my Wix website for viewers to see. These have also been a
common theme in my interviews as people have seemed most
interested in people already in the media industry and finding
out why they inspire me as a beginner. In this unit, I took the
time to find out more about these people and decide what it
was about them that inspired me in particular, which I then went on to use in interview questions. I
felt a lot more relaxed as I had already identified some of their strong points and say what made
them stand out as industry professionals and would even sometimes spark conversations which
made the interviews feel a lot less daunting. I feel like I am a lot more knowledgeable about people
like these and can easily talk about them and their work. This was also a requirement of the brief
and I feel like I have met this well by identifying and being able to talk about the work of 4 existing
industry professionals. It shows that I have a genuine interest in the industry when talking about
these people to employers.
Network Opportunities

3. The personal progression unit gave me the opportunity to talk and interact with industry
professionals. The three main people that I was able to do this with was Leo Pearlman, Sam Horton
and David Longworth. I was able to sit in on a talk given by Pearlman and one by Horton where they
discussed their expertise and were able to give advice to people trying to break into the industry.
This has certainly helped me with my journey into media as it was well worth listening on how
exactly they were able to make it and what they would
advise others do. I was especially grateful to talk to and
gain some 1:1 advice from David Longworth- a man who
does recruitment and training for apprentices within the
BBC. For this, our class was tasked with creating a new
piece of content that would appear on any of the BBC
channels or radio stations. I came up with an presented
my idea for a new show on a BBC TV channel and David
was able to give me some strengths and improvements
for my presentation. I found it valuable to be able to
receive such personal advice and it is certainly something that I would use in future. He also talked
about an upcoming apprenticeship at BBC Newcastle as a broadcast operator to which I applied- I
have been successful in this and have been offered the role at the Newcastle Site. This meets the
brief well as I have evidenced interactions with multiple people across different areas of media and
it has paid off to network with people who are already in the industry.
Extra projects outside of college have also allowed me to work with and practise my skills in content
making across multiple areas. I have started doing
some work in my free time for my dad’s band
‘Diamond Dogs’ which have so far included a
photoshop project for a Facebook cover photo and
some amendments to a gig poster. For this, I was
able to send across multiple prototypes for the
cover photo and within interacting with the client
(the band), amend where necessary to fit their ideas
and accommodate their request as much as
possible. This gave me some insight on working with
some more real-life clients which was very appreciated. As well as this, it gave me a chance to
practise my skills in photoshop more, something that I haven’t really used much since first year. The
Halloween Parade in October ’21 also gave me a chance to practise some more live filming and
editing. I am very set on doing a practical based course or apprenticeship so am appreciating every
opportunity to work hands on as opposed to researching or planning. The same went for the
Winter Fair which we filmed in December. I am particularly happy with the outcome of the
Halloween parade video and felt as though I had captured a range of people, props and costumes
which really gave any viewers a feel for what the parade was like to be follow. All of these examples
are part of the ‘commissions undertaken’ in the brief- whether they were specifically asked of me
or not. They are also evidenced of my AC3: Technical skill and show my technical competence and
improvement.

4. Creating my Brand
Creating my brand identity has also aided me in my future steps and has already started to pay off
in real life settings. In designing my logo, business card, website and showreel, I have begun the
creative process of making a name for myself as well as brand familiarity which I now have the
option to use in the future. For example, if I were to go down a photographer pathway, I already
have a business card and logo which can be easily implemented into my work at any point. In terms
of professional practise, I also had the chance to improve my CV and write my personal statement
which has already benefited me both in work and higher education settings.
With regards to my CV and personal statement specifically, I have used my research and feedback
on these to amend and upgrade my works to a more professional standard. I have received offers
on all three courses that I applied to and two of them didn’t need an interview, so I had to rely on a
solid personal statement to make up for this. I had the statement looked at by three lecturers who
each were able to give me separate feedback based on what they thought I could improve on which
gave me a wide range of things to go back and adjust. I am happy with the overall outcome, and it
has definitely played a major part in securing my places at university. In my university interview, my
interviewer was able to ask me questions about multiple aspects of my statement such as to
elaborate on one of my inspirations- Hitchcock. I now have a range of opportunities available to me
after I finish college and even have one solid place no matter what grades I get at the end of the
year. For my CV, I was able to research the difference between good CV’s and those that are more
unsuccessful and learn which aspects I should include or avoid. This has also worked in a real life
setting as I have recently used it to apply for and accept a new job working at a theatre. One thing I
did take from my research on CV’s was the condensing of the CV down to one page. I believe that it
was unnecessary for my CV to be two pages, as it was originally, and makes it look a lot more
professional and easier to read as one page. I also think that with regards to how it meets the brief,
the two products show who I am as a creative practitioner in a more professional and literary sense
as opposed to actual products. As well as these two products being a part of the actual brief, I think
the two show more of my academic ability (general English competence, interests and motives for
going into media) and gives reason to all of my practical work.
My logo and business card have gone
through a creative process and have added
to my brand identity. In creating these, I
have started to give myself an image. This
can be used in the future if I decide to go
down a creative pathway (for example,
production, photography, editing) and I can
easily tag my logo onto different pieces of
work that I have created as well as give out
my business card to potential clients or people interested in my work. To do this, one of the major
things I adopted was a brand identity colour (fluorescent pink, black, white) to which I am now
implementing into most of my works. I hope that in doing this, it creates a constancy to the viewer
who will start to recognise these colours among different bodies of work. In doing my research on

5. this, I found that mostly all companies that are successful have colours that are consistent with
their brand- for example, McDonalds is red and yellow, Ikea is blue and yellow etc. This definitely
adds to my professional practise as I am now
conforming to the same ideologies as other
companies. I created my logo before I created
my business card so that I could adopt my
creation and colour scheme to be consistent.
Looking back, my skills in photoshop and
creative thinking have also improved. The logo I
have now looks a lot more professional than the
logo I created first. This was mostly a trial-and-
error process and I tried out different techniques
with my logos- for example, I originally tried
including an image, tried giving the logo different shapes etc. This made for a lengthy creative
process and so could be something I would improve on next time-I feel like I had overcommitted to
creating a logo I was 100% happy with which may have taken time out of other projects which don’t
have a consistent level of commitment. This is mostly evident in my website, due to feeling as
though web design is not as strong a skill as photoshop or video editing. Something I feel like I could
improve on both my logo and business card was gaining more valuable feedback as I received only
one suggested improvement between the two projects. Though this could of course be seen as
good news, I do think it is more valuable if people are able to give constructive criticism as it could
absolutely make my products better. I value getting my work looked at by different perspectives, so
I would certainly push for more responses to my forms.
This leads me on to the creation of my showreel. This was another product that went through
several exports before I was happy with the final product. I received feedback on this, which I took
on board and worked on two suggested improvements in particular- one which suggested a slight
change in music, and another which suggested a bigger font for my text on screen. The music
change allowed me to branch out my software usage and work on Adobe Audition to implement a
key change and stronger drum beat for the second half of the soundtrack. I think this was well
worth spending time on as the music for my showreel is a lot more interesting to listen to and has
also given me some insight on how to navigate
Audition as a software. The text font size was
slightly difficult due to the way the showreel had
been exported and it meant that some of the
original text is visible when the new layer of text
with a bigger font fades (see picture). This is
something I would improve if in doing another
showreel- making sure to go back and improve the
original Premiere Pro session rather than exporting
and working on top of the exported project. However, on a whole I do really like my showreel and
think that I have done mostly everything possible to make it to the best standard I can. It now
shows a wide range of works (even including some sound design work), displays titles where I feel
are necessary and also includes a better introduction. Instead of simply having plain text saying ‘my

6. showreel’, I thought that a stylised moveable title would look much better and even changed this to
represent my brand by changing the colours to pink and white. This project is part of my digital
promotional materials, as asked of in the brief, and has benefitted me at a university interview. I
was able to talk about multiple aspects of the showreel and my interviewer asked me to expand on
some of the projects that were shown. After this interview and presenting my showreel, I now have
an unconditional offer with the university.
The final part of creating my brand identity was with the construction of my website (online
portfolio) using wix. This is perhaps something that I would have liked to improve if I were to do this
project again. Though I have little experience with web design, I do think creative freedoms were
restricted by using wix as a website builder due to the limited
designs available to me. For example, you can only use one font
at a time and things such as bold, italic and shadow effects are
very restricted to basic options. I feel as though I did not have
the ability to express as much creative freedom as that of the
showreel, logo design etc. Sections all must be set out in ‘one
after the other’ order and there is no option to merge or have
vertical sections such as like the one I analysed for my research
on digital profiles. However, I do believe that my website does
still contain all necessary information for viewers to find out
more about me and my work. I think I also did well in
accommodating the feedback that I received and did go back to improve on all the suggestions that
I was given. This included the removal of social media links (due to not having these socials) and
also changing the font to be less simplistic. Something I do think has worked well on the website
was the practitioner’s statements. I believe they are in depth and give viewers a good insight on
how I produced each project, why it was made and the software I used. I think this was certainly a
credit to the research that I originally completed on digital profiles as before this, I would not have
known what to include on my website. My website meets the brief as it gives me an online brand
identity, which is something that the brief asked for in particular. Designing my logo, business card
and showreel have built up to all be displayed on my website and my brand ‘SLG Media’ now has an
online presence that is available to viewers using the internet. This could be something I could
expand on in the future as I now have a solid foundation to my online presence, which I can now
build up from.
In conclusion, I believe that I have overall had a valuable experience in completing this unit. I have
undertaken opportunities that may not have been available to me in first year such as real-life
interviews and networking opportunities with industry professionals. I am more knowledgeable,
have a much larger body of work both for clients and for myself as a brand and have been able to
improve my skills and practise more on software’s that are useful when entering the industry. I
have found myself to be more confident, especially within interviews in comparison to last year and
am grateful for both the mocks and live ones I have taken part in. I also believe I can present a
portfolio well, as I did in my university interview. It is mostly all collated on my website, but I also
hold the raw files so can access this without the need for internet, as a result I think my
organisation is now stronger as I have prepared for multiple interviews with these files and they are
ready for more future use. I have made good progress in taking my next steps. Not only have I

7. thought about future jobs and what they ask of me, I have taken action in working my way up to
them- such as applying for and gaining places at university. I now have multiple options for what I
want to do when I leave college and I am on track to joining the BBC.