CV

Name: Alex Hacking

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Nationality: British/Norwegian

D.O.B.: 27/04/1990

Sex: Male

Birthplace: Exeter

Address: 1 Vecqueray Street, Coventry, West Midlands, CV1 2HP -

Telephone: 07904205678

Email: aletim01@hotmail.com

Website: www.wix.com/alexhacking/media

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Personal Statement:

I am a hard working, punctual individual with a considerable passion for creating. I have a strong interest in all forms of Media.

I have plenty of experience and worked in various environments so far with qualifications/skills to follow.

I feel I have a lot to offer to any company, I enjoy a challenge, polite when dealing with customers/working with employees and have great enthusiasm towards the job in hand.

Educational History:

Coventry University – Media Production  -  2009 to Present

Godalming College – A Levels

Graphic Design – B

Media Studies – C

Rodborough Technology College – GCSE’s

Graphic Design – A

Maths – B

English Lit – B

Geography – B

R.E – B

Business Studies/ICT – CC

English Lang. – C

Sciences – CC

French – C

Employment History:

BBC Big Screens – Coventry/Birmingham

Contract – April2012/Present

JLP Events – Coleshill, Birmingham

Camera Operator/FCP Editor

Kerrang! – Birmingham

Live sessions – Camera Operator/Editor

Andy Hayes Productions

Camera Operator

Source Radio – Coventry

Radio presenter – February2010/February2011

Presenter, Interviewing bands etc.

Studio 113 – Coventry

Camera Operator – April2011/May2011

Camera Operator, setting up the studio, lighting

BCFA – West Midlands

Camera Operator – February2011/May2011

Camera Operator, Editor, Photographer

Migrant Media – Birmingham

Production Assistant – Febuary2011

Lighting, camera operator.

Spar – Elstead, Surrey

Sales Assistant – July2008/July2009

Roles – Serving customers on the tills, filling shelves, loading stock, taking stock, operating machines,  helping customers etc.

The Squirrel – Hurtmore, Surrey

Waiter/Barman – January2008/July2008

Roles – Serving Food/Drink, Cleaning tables, Polishing Glasses, Taking Orders

Finite Design – Godalming, Surrey

2008 – Present

Roles – Filing, sorting VAT, working with design programmes.

Surrey Advertiser – Hurtmore, Surrey

Godalming Tree Surgeons – Godalming, Surrey

Assistant Tree Surgeon – March2007

Roles – Cutting branches, moving logs/branches, raking etc.

Work Experience:

MustardPost (Digital Post Production) – Cobham, Surrey

 September2010

SitcomSoldiers (Music Video) – Soho/Vauxall, London

Runner – August2010

No Ordinary Trifle (Movie) – Chelsea, London

March2010

GREAT ESCAPE music festival – Brighton

May2009

Qualifications:

Qualifications in Health and Safety at work and a Premises License

Special Skills:

-Working with a wide range of programmes such as PhotoShop, Coral, After Effects, Final Cut Pro,  CAD etc.

-Work with cameras such as video camera’s and DSLR’s.

Hobbies:

Sports, Photography, Art, Films, Socialising, Designing, Music, Reading

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References:

Ken Fero – Documentary Film Maker

David Adelman – Godalming College Principal 

Paul Hacking – Finite Design Civil Engineer

James Hacking – Film Director/Script writer/Producer

Tony Swinney – MustardPost Designer

Ben Thornley – SitcomSoldiers Director 

Paul Needham – JLP Events

Paul Newman – BBC Big Screens

Working for such companies as the BBC Big Screens and JLP Events have lead me to believe that career path in events management may be worth looking into. Although in some cases now I think managing an event would be the last thing I want to do as I feel unqualified to do so, i need to look into the future and get a good understanding of what may come. I have been in situations where I have had to take control and direct a crew of people but not on the same scale as some employers do for me.

Responsible for:

Planning projects and events.

Salary:

£15,000 – £60,000.

Working hours:

Flexible, often long hours and sometimes through the night.

Again, just like being a camera operator, the hours can be unsociable and inconsistant. But this is certainly something I do not mind. In some cases on a job I have had to come back very late at night and early again the next day with plenty of travelling. I like the fact you do not know what to expect in weeks to come and enjoy knowing I won’t be in the office 9-5 each week. As for planning events, it is something I have come across, and have had training/placement with the BBC in doing so. In addition I have a qualification in health and safety in the work place on a previous job which will look good on a CV.

Qualifications:

No specific qualification although a degree or HND in event management can be useful.

General requirements:

Efficient, imaginative, good at multi-tasking, ability to handle money, ability to keep calm under pressure and good people skills.

Career prospects:

You could start up your own events management company.

I have been working recently for JLP Events, a company that specialises in event management and in my case media coverage of those events. For more information into the area I emailed co-founder/director Paul Needham about how he came to work in this industry, how he has succeeded in doing so and what advice he could give to people in my situation:

“I was very lucky to fall into the event industry after leaving school with a couple of A-levels. I floated around a number of jobs for a number of years but never really had the first clue of what I really wanted to do as a full time career.

When I ‘fluked’ a role as a technician in a live events company I seized the opportunity and very soon started rising through the ranks and overtook a number of my peers very quickly. I never saw myself as ever running my own event company – but now I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I have always found that dealing with what is put in front of you to the very best of your ability is enough. I have never really looked too much into the future and my philosophy has always been to try to do everything ‘better than the next guy’. I don’t believe that it is important to actually be better – but trying is usually enough to bring out the best that you can offer. Focus on being the best that you can be in the present – the future will take care of itself.

As long as you are delivering to the very best of your ability then I am confident that opportunities will always appear – in whatever field you choose to go into.

There’s a coupe of cheesy lines in there and its not exactly what I first came up with but hey – *****!!!!!!

Hope that helps pal.

Best regards


Paul Needham
Director”

Another area to consider when promoting yourself as a cinematographer, camera operator and in events management is to create a showreel. This will be a fantastic addition to the website and will be something employers may look at in deciding whether you are employable. Before editing, I wanted to make a start on researching into existing showreels that successful companies or freelancers have made in the past. I started with events showreels and a quick search on vimeo lead me to this video:

My first thoughts of the video were that it wasn’t the best of quality, it wasn’t edited at a nice rate, interlaced and often lighting and image quality was lacking. However, on the other hand, it did cover plenty of what the company does ranging from conferences, live music and set building. This is something I wanted to achieve in my video, showing how versatile I can be in filming events. I have been involved in plenty already and look forward to spending more time in shows such as these. With more events to my name, the better my showreel will grow. Off the top of my head, I can think of JLP’s event showreel and editor David Hanna has done a great job piecing together the footage:

The soundtrack is also something worth mentioning, the pace, mood and feeling of the song can give an impression of your work and effect it in different ways. Here, JLP has used an uplifting track with an exciting feel and plenty of energy. Giving the impression they are an exciting, busy and successful business full of promise. I wanted to create a similar feel to mine with music fitting to the theme of my footage. As there are a couple of bands present in my event footage I thought it would also be more fitting with some uplifting guitar music with no lyrics. So i went ahead and searched www.audionetwork.com for some suitable tracks that didn’t exceed 3 minutes. I bean my search in the ‘corporate & industrial production section and clicked ‘ispirational/stirring’. Here There were many tracks but what narrowed down my search was the length of them and description. I came across a track called ‘Rise Up’ by Chris Blackwell. The track of course needed to be paid for as production use and cost me just under £1.

http://www.audionetwork.com/production-music/rise-up_49257.aspx

Once I had the track it was time to bring in some footage that I had shot throughout my experience in events camera operating. I emailed JLP events to see if I could have some footage from what I have been involved in over the past few months. I was quickly helped out by the team which the gave me their dropbox details and put as much footage as they could find in there. This included stuff from:

• ReThink
• SightCare
• Harvey Nichols
• England Athletics Awards Ceremony
• BlueFin
• Jack Lord gigs
• H and J

Before I chopped up the videos I wanted a stylish opening title explaining who’s showreel it was and what it was covering. So keeping with the same font and theme as my final project with Jack Lord I opened up on a white background with ‘:a.hacking media:’ and then a soft fade into ‘:showreel:’, ‘events’. I then brought in videos, spacing them into different groups so there was consistency within the showreel and it was so haphazard. Indications to change of company or event was done by a fade back to white and then fade out again. Example:

I believe by showing off all the different types of events you have been involved in, shows how versatile you are and in my video I have tried to do just that. I am very pleased with the results and just need to upload it onto my website now which will look even more impressive and professional for employers to see. Here is the Event showreel:

Once uploaded onto vimeo, i also wanted to put it on youtube to make it available on my website as Wix wouldn’t allow other content. Once this was achieved I put it straight onto the website with no trouble at all. Here is the final result once put onto the website:

http://www.wix.com/alexhacking/media#!showreel    (Click Events)

Introducing the GY-HM700E, the world’s first professional camcorder that natively records Apple’s QuickTime (MOV) file format for Final Cut Pro. Files can be read directly into Apple’s popular editing system, and for compatibility with other NLE systems, the GY-HM700E also supports the MP4 file format. 

I see this camera as industry standard. Often, not out of preference, I have found that these camera’s are suited to live events and often regarded as expected by clients I have worked with. I was unaware that it recorded straight to Mov. format which is extremely useful when bringing footage down into the editing process in Final Cut (a software I am very familiar with using). Being able to support Mp4 is also useful and shows how versatile this camera can be 

Recording to twin SDHC memory cards, the GY-HM700E represents a new generation of camcorders that make continuous HD shooting and seamless software integration a reality. 

I have always enjoyed how the camera has a twin memory card reader, usually lasting 113-114minutes on a 32GB card, allowing for  3-4hours of recording time. Another feature I have become aware of is that once one memory card has run out it switches onto the next without any interruption of frames. Once it does this, the full card can be changed or copied across and then put back in while the other card is being recorded onto.  

The GY-HM700CHE combines JVC’s popular compact shoulder form factor with a new level of performance suitable for demanding applications in mainstream production, electronic newsgathering and cinematography. Weighing approx. 3.0kG include viewfinder, microphone and battery, the GY-HM700CHE rests comfortably on the right shoulder providing stable, steady shots. Add to that the convenience of solid state recording, the economy of widely available SDHC media, and the world’s fastest workflow, and it’s easy to see why the GY-HM700-series is today’s most complete and versatile professional camcorder.The GY-HM700 utilizes three precisely aligned 1/3-inch progressive scan full HD CCDs – one each for red, green and blue primary color. JVC engineers have developed a unique 1/3-inch optical block with Diagonal Offset and a patented exclusive Adaptive Pixel Correlation Technique that produces resolution comparable to cameras with larger image sensors.

I have always found the JVC camera comfortable to use, mounted either on my shoulder or on a tripod. The viewfinder has always been reliable as well as the microphone. However battery life I have always been wary of as it will usually last roughly 1-2hours before having to switch. Whenever possible it is worth noting that it is more reliable when attached to a main power supply and then it can be left on. It is easy to see why this camera is so popular, especially in the industry area I am looking into and to be confortable and competent using it is a must for me as for years to come I will be working with it.