Jeffery
Senior Project: Career Exploration or New Skill?
At my school, all the seniors have to do a senior project. As a Junior who is interested in majoring in film and animation, I do not know whether to make my senior project Career Exploration or a new skill. Which one would be best?
A note: Students at my school have different opinions on this. Some say to do one over the other because the latter is less demanding than the former and vice versa. However, I want to make the most use of my senior project. #college-major #college-bound #animation #film-production #cinematography #seniorproject #personal-development
4 answers
Jenn Hatfield
Jenn’s Answer
It depends what you want your senior project to be useful for. Do you have a good idea of what you want to do after graduation? Then maybe you don't do the career exploration and instead develop a new skill that will be useful for that career. Do you have a developed skill set (or maybe a collection of more random skills), but aren't sure how you can apply them to a job? Then maybe you want to focus more on career exploration.
Every senior will have different goals for their project, so don't be too concerned with what your friends are doing. Think about what questions you want to be able to answer once you're done with your project, and design your project to help you answer them.
Thank you for the advice. There is still many skills I have yet to learn and how to apply them to a job. I will think this over.
Jeffery
Thanks for your answer! I did career exploration and shadowed an acting coach/director. Although the experience was great, looking back I would have done a new skill knowing now that my interests have changed. Regardless, both options are good!
Jeffery
Alireza Shabankareh Bandari
Alireza’s Answer
As a person who has spent more than 20 years in film industry, my advice to you is first make sure your interest in film is not just a hobby. There are three kind of people who try to enter into film business:
1. Those who want to be famous or rich
2. Those who look at the cinema as a hobby and think "let's make a movie and have fun"
3. Those who have real passion of cinema and ready to work hard to create great art, because they care for audience.
Of these three groups the first two soon will be disappointed if not will lose and lose, a few of them get lucky but remain mostly nobody.
The third group includes hard working people. Creating a movie is not a simple task. It includes sleepless night, long hours and severe stress. However, they all will. E paid off when you see the movie, which is the result of a good team work, on the screen.
If you are serious about working in a movie set, my advice to you is try to understand which of these three groups applies to you. Then you need to find out what career in a movie you want to do. There are plenty jobs in a movie set and each are equally important. A movie is not just the creation of a director or a writer. It is a complete team work, from the cinematographer to busboy all work hard to make something great. You will not receive a call if others don't believe you are completely dedicated. So go in search, find out what do you wanna do. When you understood, then start experiencing from a small position, educate yourself and learn, learn and learn. In cinema learning never ends. Great names come out of hard work, knowledge and dedication.
Great advice! The senior project showed me that film would be more of a hobby than career calling. It is important to ask the questions you posed to learn what one really wants to do!
Jeffery
Corey Everett
Corey’s Answer
If you want to go animation, pick if you want to do 2D or 3D. We all start out in the fine arts and then go to the computers, but there are some people who cannot draw but are amazing animators (as in just moving the characters in 3D). Just as there are some who cannot draw but are amazing 3D modelers.
Fine Arts, I suggest practicing foreshortening, drawing anatomy, even practice in 100 different styles of drawing yourself (google it). Try mediums like charcoal, india ink, pastels, oil and water based paint.
3D, practice modeling first. I hate to say it but if you don't have funds go ahead and get Blender but explore other free 3D programs too. I am really tired of hearing about blender. You know what, no, you do not have to start modeling. If you want to do other things in 3D then do a quick research of what jobs are available in 3D and then pick one you want because there are many.
Thanks for the answer! Since doing the senior project my interests have changed, but exploring what is out there has been really valuable!
Jeffery
Shannon Richard-Howell, EdS
Shannon’s Answer
Hi Jeffery! I believe this could be a little bit of both. According to CAREERwise Education, "A skill is a learned or natural ability to accomplish a particular task...there is a difference between occupational and employability skills. Occupational skills are a set of knowledge and skills that employees need for a specific job or occupation. Employability skills or workplace skills prepare individuals for any job." With that being said, if you have an innate ability for animation, creative arts, technology, graphic design, or just an artistic flair, these skills are important to possess when exploring this career field. In other words, if this is a natural talent or peaks your interest enough to take it on as a career consider going for it beyond high school and develop your skills and knowledge in this area. As for your Senior Project, this would be a great opportunity for you to thoroughly research the career and interview individuals in this career field. This will help you decide whether to explore this option as a career field or simply as a hobby or side interest. Hope this help! Good Luck in your journey!
source: https://careerwise.minnstate.edu/careers/skills.html