What I learned from "FutureLearn"

As part of our college assignment to create short movies we were tasked with signing up to an online course on a website called "FutureLearn" and documenting our findings here on this blog that I've been updating so regularly recently. The course provided insight to the film industry and roles, jobs and methods of success to advance and hone your skills to turn you into the best filmmaker it could, and throughout my time with it I feel that it helped clear up an understanding of some things that may be unfamiliar for somebody wanting to enter this industry, such as a student going to college in Britain, for example.

Personally, I found that the site gave a vast understanding of all the necessary information to advance a career in the industry, such as ideas on how to move up the ladder from lower jobs to higher jobs, by doing what is necessary for your role in a production, what is asked of you, and, should the opportunity arise, more than is necessary to make you stand out. The industry is largely about standing out and taking opportunities, so by being the runner that makes the coffee with the grated gold in it to meet the director's extremelyhigh and unusual standards, he'll take notice of you, and you may end up with a powerful friend that can help you move from being a runner to having a more desirable job. These little things can all build up into making you a more prominent and popular figure on set that is seen as reliable, hard working and useful, and will get you into the right places.

There's other insight onto things that may be confusing to a newcomer. For example, many people find certain roles that pop up in credits to be very odd. We all know the job of the actors, the directors and the cameramen, but sometimes the large number of producers, designers and cat whisperers on set can really dilute the understanding of the industry. The course thankfully clears up any confusions with a run down on what each role does, telling you exactly the types of designers there are who may work on make-up, props and costume, or the producers that work on different aspects of management and distribution of products. Regrettably, it does not provide any insight into the role of the cat whisperer.

For this I would say that FutureLearn served it's purpose in teaching me about the industry, and that as well as being entirely necessary to pass my course which I would very much appreciate, may also prove entirely necessary later in life.

And, to clear things up, this is not an advert for FutureLearn, I wouldn't recommend using it because they haven't paid me to say so, I'm just detailing my experiences with it, and what it could potentially provide for the people out there who read this.