Professional Practise 3: Visiting Professionals Notes

 Professional Practise 3
Visiting Professionals and Talks Notes

• Over the past several months, we have had professional come and give talks as part of our course and I have been making notes on most talks. I have decided to collect them all together, here, for future reference.
• I found that I was able to make networking connections and learn many things about my role in the industry and how I can improve myself going forwards, because of these. It also allowed me to feel more confident in my work. I will continue to contact these professionals in the future and continue to access networking events.
• Here are my notes!

Professional Practise 3: Formal and Informal Presentations

Professional Practise 3
Formal and Informal Presentations

• This week:
• I presented my informal presentation in the studio, in front of a part of the class. I found this incredibly helpful for putting my formal presentation together. Michaela told me to include the year journey into my formal presentation, to demonstrate how my experiences this year have influenced my plans to graduate.
• I think that if I were to present again, I would go into more detail and explanation about my branding. I should also practise speaking more fluently, as I do pause a lot in the recording and final presentations.
• Here is my informal presentation from this year:

• Here is my formal presentation:

Professional Practise 3: Developing Freelancing

 Professional Practise 3
Developing Freelancing

• Updating Commission pricing
• In order to update my commission pricing, I wanted to fully calculate how much I would be spending per month if I were to live alone. With the help of my parents, I went through the general costs of the car, insurance, rent, etc. I put together a final cost sheet, which gives me a better idea of my daily and hourly rates, so I know how much I should be charging for commissions when I finish.
• Here is my costing sheet:

• Branded Invoice:
• In addition to updating my commission pricing, I updated my Invoice to be much more on-brand with the rest of my work. I decided to keep it simple, still, with just the added brand colours and Ozwald logo. 
• Further improvements:
• I think I would try to add the green colour in the future, or try to lay it out similarly to my CV, however I think this works well for now, because of it's simplicity.
• Here is the updated invoice:

• Developing an upload schedule for Social Media
• In order to develop on online schedule for Social Media, I needed to understand the times where my audience are most active. I also need to understand the best times globally to upload to social media. I found this website which analyses the overall traffic for Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more. 
• Here is the link to the website: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
• This website also covers the changes to social media due to COVID-19. This is particularly important if I want to understand the best times to post and grow my online presence.
• Here is what I found:

• In order to develop a more detailed understanding of engagement, I additionally looked at my statistics on Instagram, which shows the times your followers are most active. I found that my followers are most active on Sundays and Fridays. On these days specifically, they're most active at 6pm. They're also most active at 6pm on Wednesdays.  If I wanted more global engagement, I would post based upon the times listed from SproutSocial.com.
• Here are the statistics for Instagram:

• Based upon these statistics, I will continue to post every Sunday at 6pm, however if I have additional work to post in that week, I may post based upon the global engagement times, which would be 9am on a Friday. 
• Developing personal work
• In order to develop my personal work, these past few weeks, I've been creating fan-art, mixed with personal art. I think this is a great way to develop my following and grow my online presence. Some fan-art I have done is for Disney and Video Games. Here are some work I've done over the past couple of weeks:

• Overall, what went well:
• I have developed an efficient and well thought out upload schedule for posting work to social media. I have also understood now my daily and hourly rates and therefore can charge accordingly with commissions.
• What could be improved:
• I think I need to be posting more animation content to my social media, which will be something I will focus on after finishing work for University. I would like to do more animation studies and try to build my skills that way!

Professional Practise 3: Applying for Danish Studios

 Professional Practise 3
Applying for Danish Studios

• Overall, what went well:
• After researching further Danish Studios, I have decided to try applying to multiple roles. In the emails I try to come across professional, but friendly and engaging. I think that I did a great job of showing my personality.
• Here are my applications and descriptions of the work.  
• AFilm - Copenhagen
• As they were only accepting applications by email, but not for any particular roles. I have sent an CV and a link to my portfolio to their job email.

• Copenhagen Bombay - Copenhagen
• Copenhagen Bombay don't have any current job opportunities, however I found their contact address and tried emailing them about internships.

• Ja Film - Aarhus
• Ja Film states they are open to Interns, so I have sent them an email enquiring about this.

• Nørlum Entertainment - Viborg
• Whilst they don't have Internship Opportunities, I sent them an email enquiring about entry positions!

• Skjald Animation - Denmark
• Skjald is a 2D Animation Studio. They frequently accept freelancing positions, therefore I have sent an email enquiring about this.

• What could be improved:
• I need to heavily consider the studios I am applying to and whether I need to tailor what I will be saying or presenting to them, based upon the studio itself. I felt that some of the studios were more formal and open to contact than others, so this is something I will need to take into consideration when making future contact.