Below is a report of a Practicum that I achieved through experience in the workplace. It is divided by week starting with the first week dated Jan 10, 2011. The company I worked for was Blatant Media.
This practicum began on the tenth of January. I believed that I was going in for an interview on the current practicum when in fact I had already been hired. All that I needed to do was sign a few papers and meet a few people. The first person I met was Mike Owens, Co manager of the company. He introduced me to Darren, head of the media division that I was working for. Then Daman introduced me to Heather, head of accounting. We had a few resolutions solved including payment. Yes I was getting paid for this, $15 an hour. The next day I started working however the software they needed for me hadn't been uploaded to the computer I was working at. So they had me transferring pictures to a folder in the images folder of the current project that they were working on. It was a hunting e-learning site for Remington and the IHEA (International Hunter Education Association). It was their second project that they had done for that very company. Also during my first day on the job I met the team, which included Diane whom I got to know very well. On Wednesday afternoon I finally got the software needed for the project. I was to do work on lesson eight of chapter seven of the project. I was to follow a storyboard that the IHEA gave us. I was told at the end of the day that the audio of the project did not need to be edited in any way thanks to the tight deadline. I did not know when that deadline was, but I assume that the deadline was before the end of the month. The final day I fixed the audio and finished getting up the photos from the site that the IHEA gave us for the current lesson. At the end of every day, I told Daman of my progress and he said he'd look at the work I did so far and let me know what I needed to do. There were only 83 hours left in the Practicum.
As the second week of the practicum began, the deadline for the project for Remington drew closer and closer. Since I was new to the company, Daran and Daine gave me a few tips on balancing my work and key points about the presentation. They had me working on low-budget lessons for the e-learning program. Low-Budget means that transitions between text and images are almost instant. High Budget means that the transitions between texts and images are detailed. I was also working with a hint of audio but they didn't want me working on the audio too much because of the tight deadline. Other than that there wasn't much to report. Only 70 hours to go.
As the project with Remington came to a close, we were all satisfied with a job well done. But there were still some problems like Remington not giving us the photos for a certain chapter. So I was told to work on something else. The City of Calgary wanted two projects to be converted into WMV format. After being given a short introduction on how to continue with the conversion, I began working straight away.
Remington was still not giving us any photos for the chapter on their project. So I continued with my City of Calgary project. I managed to finish the project and my work was apparently done at least for now. They would give me an e-mail and phone call when more work would arrive for me. They also knew about the 96 hours I had to make before April. So far I had 60 hours fulfilled on the practicum and I had only 36 hours to go.
I was called in to help with more work. Apparently Remington was starting to send in photos for their latest chapter. They wanted me to download and prep the photos for those who would continue to work on their project. I managed to finish within the day and so they sent me away again. It was the same deal as before where they would phone me and give me an e-mail as to when I could return. So far my total hours on the practicum had reached 63 and I only have 33 hours to go.
Things had been really slow over at Blatant Media. Not only that but they hired a bunch of programmers so I couldn't go to Blatant to work. Thankfully they had something for me to do. I had to look up photos for technology from the past taken by modern cameras. I searched and found about 30 photos that were appropriate. I found all the photos within one hour and sent them via the new lightbox system to Blatant.
After a slow streak over at Blatant, I got a major assignment. My goal was to illustrate a few pictures using a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator. I had to illustrate the pictures in Illustrator first and then color them in using Photoshop. And so I began my long hours of hard work illustrating.
After coloring and illustrating for a few weeks, I managed to get in a bunch of hours. Only twelve hours remain on the Practicum now. I've also been sending in the Illustrations as Gif files on a regular basis to my boss Darren by e-mail. With high hopes of finishing before Showcase, I continue my work.
Whew... finally finished. I have finished everything Blatant has given me. The illustrations are finished and Showcase has come and gone. Part of my practicum was for a representative of Blatant to show up to Showcase. In my case Darren, my boss, showed up on April 19th. He said I actually came at a great time when projects were coming in from Blatant. He also said my skills with the Illustrations were exceptional. Hopefully thanks to this experience I can get a job that can help me get my ideas out to the world. This practicum was a welcoming experience not only for my flash skills but improvements on my portfolio as well. I would like to thank Blatant for all thier efforts they've given me.