Everyday's a school day

Happy New Year everyone!

As I've been tasked with the first blog post of the year, I'd like to start how I always start, with a little inspiration for us all. 

I know a lot of people set resolutions around this time, so let me add another to your list...try and learn something new.

Learning at work

• Everyone can teach you something. Yes we're all constantly learning things as we work, but have you ever consciously made the effort to talk to someone who has a different skill set to you and learn something from them? I cannot recommend it enough. If your work roles cross over in any way or you need their help with a task, ask to sit beside them while they do it, instead of just getting them to do it without you. You'll learn a little of their job, they might learn a little of yours, and KAPOW! You're a smidgen smarter than you were at the start of the day. 
• Knowledge has no hierarchy. I must confess, I really struggle with people who aren't willing to learn new things just because it might be coming from a person that they deem to be 'below' them. Maybe in age, in position, in experience, but does it actually matter? Knowledge is knowledge, no matter who it's coming from. We all have our areas of expertise, and if someone's willing to share theirs with you, take it! Likewise, if you're doing the teaching, remember to be patient and unassuming. Skills shared within a team will only make you more able as a whole, so there's no point in trying to catch people out! 
• Be more curious. I'm fully aware that this isn't always possible (due to time constraints and workload etc) but I'd encourage you to try and do more than just 'learn'. For example, I recently had some training in Google Analytics (thanks Pete!) so that I can go in and have a look at the media inventory we have running across digital platforms. Now I could have just logged in, got the data I needed and called it a day. Instead, I committed an hour to looking through as much of the site as I could manage, filtering data in and out, looking for nuances and shortcuts, experimenting with data that didn't even really concern me- just so I could know as much about it as possible. Now I can make observations of my own, plus I can keep up with others when they're talking about it, which is always a plus! Essentially what I'm saying is...don't just take what you need from something new and move on. Try and study and experiment with it if you can, you'll only benefit from doing so. 

Learning at home

• It's only a waste of time if you let it be. I appreciate we're all busy and spending time learning something new might seem like time wasted, so why not learn something that could help you at work? If there are any programs/activities it would benefit you to have a grasp on for your job, why not have a go at home? No one watching, no one to point out mistakes, it's kind of the perfect scenario. 
• Develop your interests. Be selfish and learn something that's only worthwhile for you! It's your time after all. I know that natural talent can come into play in these sorts of things, but I truly believe that you can achieve almost anything through learning. Want to be a photographer? Okay so you might not have an eye for framing like a professional might have, but get yourself a good camera, learn all of it's settings by heart, watch some YouTube tutorials about lighting and leading lines, and I know you'll have some pretty good photos to show for it all at the end. Or want to be a singer? If you can hold a tune (that's the natural talent part!), you can teach your voice to be more supple and reach higher/lower notes. Plus you could always try to learn some harmonies (again, YouTube is great if you can't read music), because quite frankly, I've never heard of someone NOT being impressed by a harmony. And boom! Now you've gotten even better at something you already love! Winning. 
• Brain training. Even if you don't have anything you're interested in or want to develop, you can still learn. Why not try to memorize all the countries in Europe? Or the American states? They're bound to come up in a pub quiz at some point! Learning in any capacity, I think, is good for you. You're constantly exercising your brain and it's capabilities, plus learning can train the mind to be more receptive and creative. That's all good stuff, right? 

So there you are. A little inspiration for your 2019! And if you ever decide to learn something new and need a little help or support, let me know, I'm always looking for something else to dive into! 

Until next time.

Over and out. 

Tips for video production if you have no idea what you’re doing

Anyone who knows me professionally knows that writing is my passion and one of the few things I’m good at. But sometimes I wonder if anyone is actually reading the press releases, blog posts or features that I put together.

One of my objectives for the coming year is to include more rich content in everything I do. So over the past few months, I’ve been filming and putting together short videos for the staff newsletter, press releases and social media using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Before I go any further, I need to point out that I am a complete novice when it comes to video production. Everything I’ve learnt has been down to trial and error. So I thought I would share a few tips for anyone who wants to produce videos but doesn’t know where to start.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to Michael Hann, who has joined the Communications Team as maternity cover. We have worked as a team – Michael has gathered excellent footage which I have then turned into videos. Without his help, this whole process would have been a lot harder, so thank you Michael!

You don’t need expensive equipment

This is the kit we use - you can buy it here

We don’t use a fancy camera – just an iPad. The tech available on smart devices like iPads and iPhones nowadays means you don’t need to spend a fortune on cameras. We recently purchased some equipment, like a tripod which is designed to hold smart devices and a mic, which all cost about £25 from Amazon. You don’t need to spend a fortune.

You don’t need to produce an Oscar-winner
People don’t except Spielberg standard videos, unless they have paid a company to make it of course! Don’t worry too much if your first videos are a bit rough around the edges – at least you’re trying! Also, you’ll find that the more videos you make, the better they will become. You’ll get the knack for what works (and what doesn’t) and the process will get quicker and slicker.

Less is not more!

When gathering footage for your video, get as many different bits of footage from as many angles as you can. That way when it comes to editing you’ll have lots of footage to choose from. Remember you can’t add what you don’t have, but you can always cut what is already there.

When in doubt, YouTube it!
YouTube is full of short tutorials on how to do anything and everything in Premiere Pro. So take advantage of this free resource if you are not sure how to achieve something with your video, like adding a fade or adjusting the volume of the audio.

Below are some examples of what I’ve produced over the last few months. Like I said, I am no expert, but I am proud of what I’ve made and I’m looking forward to making more!

The art of 'up-skilling'

I'll be honest, I felt a little uninspired when it came to writing my blog post this week. A great deal of the team's time has been taken up with the 2019 Undergraduate Prospectus over the last few weeks, and I think we've all gone a bit crazy and cross-eyed from the proof-reading! It's not quite ready to be revealed yet, so I'll leave that for one of the team to do when it is. 

Instead I thought I'd rather talk to you about some of the new skills Sara and I have been learning thanks to our manager, David. He has previously spent time as a graphic designer, and he has a lot of creative skills that would be incredibly useful to us, so has made it his mission to 'up-skill' us over the next few months. 

Photoshop  -

Although we have a working knowledge of Photoshop, we've recently been exploring some more unique design ideas, including something called 'double exposure'. I don't take to learning slowly, so I said I'd figure it out, and off I went. On my third (!!) attempt I managed to create this...

It's still a work in progress, but I could barely re-size a picture four months ago, let alone layer two separate images over each other! We're looking forward to being able to replicate these kinds of techniques in the campaign work we do over the next few weeks, so watch this space.

Dreamweaver/Coding/HTML (whatever you want to call it) -

The other skill David has been encouraging us to learn, is how to code. We write a fair few emails, and occasionally problems arise with them that can only be fixed by going into the HTML code, and figuring out what's gone awry. Designing them works in a similar way - the software we use has limitations, and knowing how to create tables and change text formats through code comes in quite handy. It's a complicated process and I didn't think I was taking any of it on-board until last week when I 'broke' an email, went into the HTML, and fixed it. Pretty cool, huh? 

I even just went into the code of this blog post to try and figure out why the picture above isn't centered like it should be. Ironically, I can't make any sense of it! But in the words of Hannibal Smith - "Give me a minute, I'm good. Give me an hour, I'm great. Give me six months? I'm unbeatable." So check back in with me in August, okay?! 

Me coding, funnily enough. Caffeine helps. 

And there you have it, as far as the art of 'up-skilling' is going, David's doing a pretty good job. We'll be better than him in no time. But I think that might be the point. 

Until next time. Over and Out.