Dan became interested in film during high school and wants to pursue a career in filmmaking. His current course has provided him with skills in software like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, as well as experience shooting with cameras. For his final project, he created an advertisement for a mountain bike. The course has confirmed his interest in filmmaking and provided skills like camerawork, lighting, directing actors, and time management. He has also learned to work independently and in teams, gaining experience explaining creative visions to others. He enjoys mountain biking and is interested in its media side. University will help him further develop post-production, scriptwriting, and camera skills to pursue his filmmaking career goals.

1. Dan Richardson Personal Statement Draft
Films became a big interest of mine during high school when I was introduced to media and that has
lead me to want to go to university and pursue a career in filmmaking. I want to go to university as I
feel as if it is an obvious step towards to getting myself into the film industry by building skills and
experience at the same time which is something that really appeals to me.
On my current course, it has given me the building blocks of software's such as Photoshop, Premiere
Pro and After Effects. As well as being able to use a camera with higher technical efficiency allowing
me to create photos and videos in more specific aesthetic styles. It’s helped give me the opportunity
to try multiple different sides of media confirming that a career in film making is the right future
career path for me. When it came to making my Final Major Project, I chose to create an advert for
what would be a new mountain bike. Being the only person on the production side enabled me to
develop transferable skills such as, researching existing products to help influence and inspire my
own project. I found this was helpful for me as I have never created something like a mountain bike
advert so learning what camera angles work for what, what editing techniques would commonly be
used and script writing techniques helped me build my own advert. I enjoyed the challenges of being
out with the camera, working with lighting and directing an actor. I also enjoyed having the
opportunity to try software's that I wouldn’t have thought I would be interested in, for example
using the Adobe Audition software. I now have the basic knowledge of this software and I liked the
fact that my course gave me the opportunity. I believe that the course has given me what I feel is a
very good understanding on how to use a camera which is fuelling my want to progress into the film
industry.
Whilst at college, I have learnt how to work independently allowing myself to try many roles within
the word of making something film related. I’ve also had the opportunity to work as a team in a
project of creating an advert for an energy drink. It gave us the opportunity to work together and
use our strengths combined with each other which I really enjoyed. But I’ve also worked on projects
alone, putting all the pressure on myself and not being able to rely on someone else which leads me
onto the skill of time management. Each project would have a set deadline that I would have to
complete my work before, being in a more adult environment like college meant that it was on me if
I was going to complete my work by the deadline meaning I’ve experienced the feeling of pressure
from deadlines and know how to work round that. Also, with the mountain bike advert project, I had
to work with an actor, which meant I got the opportunity to gain the experience and the feeling of
discussing creative feelings with each other and how to approach explaining what I wanted.
I have a hobby, mountain biking, that I could easily say is a big part of my life. Which at times I would
like to try and explore the media side of. In the past two or three years I became seriously interested
in the media side of the mountain bike world. Unfortunately, I haven’t really been able to make any
projects off of my own back at home. But that’s so far. I did manage to create a product thought that
would fit into the mountain bike media world for my FMP. Being able to get a sample of the
mountain bike media world opened another door that I would potentially like to go through later in
life.
I want to go to university to try and build on the skills I have already gained. It will help me achieve
higher levels within subjects that I want to try and pursue like post-production, script writing and
camera work. I feel as if I am a good candidate because when it comes to something that I want, I
believe that I am very committed and confident and I’m not scared to ask for help when I need it
because I always want to improve.