First Impressions of BTEC Media

My First Impressions of BTEC Media

Due to the fact that in the last few months I have gained a great interest in media and the media industry in particular I knew that choosing some sort of film, TV or media course would be the correct choice for me. Since around January this year, ive had it completely in my mind that I wanted to do something within the media industry either within TV or film which is also why the choice to take this course in particular has coincided with my choice to take film studies. Both course are a mix of both theory and practical work which was another deciding factor to impact my decision in taking these subjects. I am a firm believer in learning by doing rather than just by sitting and constantly taking note and/or annotating things every single lesson which is why I knew that taking these subjects would be a smart choice. I have taken part in helping friends in the past with their media projects and I have also used the  knowledge I had in the past in order to complete projects at school in a video based outlet rather than the generic Word Document or PowerPoint so therefore I knew the course would be engaging for me personally.

There are many different types of media outlet from text/picture based advertising through photo editing software to music both on radio or on video all the way to film and by taking both media and film it felt as if they would be a gateway for me to learn in depth about those different industries and use the knowledge and skills that I gain in order to hopefully one day pursue a career within the industry. My main interest at the current point in time is in TV and Film however Im sure that by taking the Media Course over the next two years my interests in this field will broaden.

As for why I took the BTEC instead of taking the A-Level, well as I mentioned before I learn best by doing rather than by note taking. For certain subjects, media in particular, it can be rather tedious to write vast amounts of notes that I will either forget by the time the exam comes around or the information will mostly be irrelevant as it is not included on the exam meaning I don’t remember the information that did not come up next year. I simply do not do well under the stress of exams and I feel like by doing coursework and being set assignments for deadline dates it also helps to get an idea of real life situations especially in this field as a lot of it on the production side of things is very hands on. I don’t feel as if exams truly ‘examine’ my full abilities and they only test how much I can remember. I don’t feel its fair to have my whole future put down to whether or not I perform well on one specific day. I agree that the theory obviously does help and teaches me why certain things are done the way they are, that makes perfect sense to me. However I would rather that than getting endless amounts of theory that I do not find engaging.

My first two lessons have been very informative as for what the course is going to be like and after seeing how people got on with media at my old school I am genuinely looking forward to actually getting on with the course. Both teachers seem like they are very experienced in this field and I look forward to receiving the knowledge and guidance necessary in order to do my best and get the grades and experience out of this course as much as possible