This blog post guides students preparing for the Visual Media Business Department with specific strategies and examples on how to effectively showcase creativity and practical skills through experiences and portfolios.
Writing About Academic Experience and Reflections
“Leaping Toward a New Dream in the Film Business Department”
I majored in Film Business while attending Culture and Film High School. Since middle school, I was active in the broadcasting club, dreaming of becoming a future film director. During my high school entrance exam preparation, I gained hands-on experience in video production, which helped me adapt well to the high school curriculum. The subjects I studied included foundational video education like Video Directing and Video Technology. For practical courses, I learned Video Cultural Content Production and cultivated practical skills through field participation classes.
This curriculum enabled me to define my own career path. There are various fields and genres a film director can enter, and understanding these required diverse studies and experiences. Therefore, I made a concerted effort to participate in as many experiences as possible to find my path. I never missed an opportunity to attend classes, including electives and supplementary sessions. This allowed me to take all the elective courses offered: Animation Production, Computer Game Programming, and Digital Photography. Through these experiences, I also developed an interest in independent filmmaking utilizing photography and animation.
For core academic learning, I remained dedicated to the regular curriculum. This curriculum was designed to cover every stage of broadcast and video production, teaching pre-production, mid-production, and post-production phases. Through this process, I learned foundational subjects essential for a film director: design basics, video fundamentals, computer graphics, and screenwriting. Furthermore, I developed practical skills by taking courses focused on hands-on studio production, broadcast systems, cinematography and lighting, and video editing. Particularly in these practical courses, I completed numerous individual and team projects. These projects allowed me to express my individuality and collaborate with teammates to create high-quality content, thereby enriching my portfolio.
Major School Activities and Reflections
“Studying in the Advanced Video Production Class”
I studied in the Advanced Video Production Class during my first year of high school. In my first year, school teachers primarily led us, assigning practical tasks and guiding us through relevant hands-on exercises. I also began pursuing related certifications, developing an interest in Photoshop certification and the Photographic Technician qualification. This advanced learning and exam preparation were possible because I could pursue deeper studies in the advanced class.
At our school, an additional selection process was held within the advanced video class to operate a gifted class starting in the second year. I received high evaluations on my practical assignments and advanced to the video gifted class, where I gained diverse experiences through advanced video studies. First, I could form a study group to prepare for the certifications I had been working towards. I organized a study group with friends also placed in the gifted class to prepare for the Video Editing Technician and Information Processing Technician certifications. The Information Processing Technician certification was particularly challenging due to its difficulty and the sheer volume of material, making self-study difficult. However, dividing the study time with my group members made it much easier.
Beyond certification, the video gifted class primarily focused on participating in film festivals and contests. We received information about youth short film festivals and UCC contests and were guided to submit entries. While I sometimes felt bored with the constant video production classes and advanced studies, participating in these contests motivated me and sparked a desire to create new works. Unlike the advanced class in my first year, the programs in the gifted class prioritized student-led, active learning over teacher-led instruction.
Furthermore, while the advanced class typically involved many tasks requiring individual study and preparation, the gifted class featured more group projects where we worked together in teams. This was to establish project-based learning and familiarize us with the collaborative process of video production. So, while studying in the gifted class, I worked on project assignments monthly, switching groups to team up with different friends. During these classes, we divided roles like film director, cinematographer, producer, art director, and music director. Each person completed individual tasks suited to their role, then we came together to finish the overall project.
Around the time I was getting used to project-based learning, I also had the chance to meet video professionals directly. Lectures featuring experts—like an active drama producer and a commercial director—were held within the gifted class. Despite studying video production, I had never met professionals up close before. So, being able to listen to lectures and ask questions right in front of them was thrilling. During this time, I also met someone who runs a film company specializing in independent films. Hearing about their work and company operations made me think I wanted to grow into an independent film director myself.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections
“Collaborating to Produce a School Promotional UCC”
During my sophomore year of high school, I studied in the video gifted class and participated in various hands-on video production exercises. At that time, I entered several internal and external school contests, one of which involved creating a promotional UCC for the school. Although it was an optional assignment, all my close friends in the class expressed a strong desire to participate. The reason was that if our promotional UCC was selected, it would actually be used on the school website, providing a great sense of accomplishment. So, I formed a group with friends in my class and began producing the promotional video.
We proceeded through the production process by holding meetings. First, we confirmed the key requirements specified by the UCC production contest. The school promotional video had to include content and phrases that introduced the school to the outside world. Additionally, it was a condition that a model representing the school’s image appear to introduce the school’s facilities. So, we first decided to create an advertising slogan to promote the school, and then select a model within our team to film the video. While creating the promotional slogan, I proposed a simple yet instantly recognizable English phrase. The phrase included key words like TRENDY and MOVIE, and I felt proud when it was used in the video.
To select the promotional model, a vote within the team chose the female student and me as models. We practiced the latest dance moves and expressions together to properly convey the promotional slogan. When introducing the school facilities, we also moved dynamically to avoid boredom and express professionalism. We staged scenes like climbing onto filming equipment to shoot the facilities with a camera and filming movie production scenes in the studio. To achieve this, the friends in charge of directing, sound, and editing all pooled their efforts and did their utmost to complete the work. As a result, our promotional video was selected as the school’s promotional UCC, giving us a great sense of accomplishment.
Two Books That Left a Deep Impression and My Thoughts
“Positioning, Jack Trout, Alice”
I read many advertising books during high school. As a student in the Visual Culture Department, advertising videos were also part of my studies. I actually produced advertising videos and submitted works to contests, and among the advertising books I encountered during that process was ‘Positioning’. ‘Positioning’ is a term signifying a new trend in the advertising world, and it was also a book that greatly helped in writing impactful copy. While many books introduced the concept of positioning, I read this one thoroughly because its structure was the simplest. I focused particularly on the case studies, and the idea that Coca-Cola’s use of the word “the real thing” made all other beverages seem fake left a deep impression. The book explained that successful positioning is possible when you select a single word that instills a brief, powerful recognition and firmly anchors it in the customer’s mind. So, based on this book’s content, I applied a positioning strategy to make our school promotional video number one when we actually produced it. I proposed the word ‘trendy’ as the video’s tagline, gained agreement from other team members, and integrated that phrase with a trendy video. This strategy succeeded, and our video was selected as the school’s promotional video. Thus, this book was immensely helpful for my studies in advertising and promotional video production.
“Making Independent Films, Robert Rodriguez”
While producing many videos during high school, there was one piece of advice I heard most often in class: “Be passionate about the field you’re studying.” Honestly, genuinely loving, caring about, and pouring passion into my field of study was the hardest thing. Though I started studying because I wanted to, the more time and effort I invested, the more it gradually became studying for the sake of studying. So, I often tried to rekindle my fading motivation by investing time in contests or reading related books. The book I encountered then was ‘Making Independent Films’. Written by Robert Rodriguez, a Hollywood blockbuster director, this book was published way back in 1998, yet it still holds profound meaning today. He became an aspiring filmmaker at 23 and produced an independent film with a mere $7,000, detailing the immense effort that went into the process. I was deeply moved reading about his passion for film, his pre-production work, and his story of relentless effort. As someone who studies pre-, mid-, and post-production for video projects myself, I could relate deeply. Finally, I applauded the sense of accomplishment he must have felt when his work received acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival. It made me grateful to be studying at a younger age than him, supported by my parents.
