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Week 10 EOC: Louder Than A Bomb

I am extremely confident with myself and my abilities up to this point. My years in school and personal experiences have shaped me into the confident individual I am today. Whether it is in the studio, on location, or in a live performance venue, I feel I could handle most situations confidently and effectively.
If I had to point out one weakness though, I think it would be my inability to speak out against someone, when I am very sure that they are wrong. I have come across many situations where the individuals that took charge decided to go a certaion direction with a project and although I know it was not the proper approach, I kept quiet and essentially let them fail. Whether they learned from it or not was ultimately on them but I always still feel I should have said something when it is all said and done. I enjoy helping others but for some reason I tend to stay quiet when others take control, possibly because I do not want to cause any kind of friction between coworkers and peers.
All in all, with my personal, professional and academic life, I feel 100% confident and will continue to grow my confidence in the years to come.

Week 9 EOC: 5 Networking Events I Need To Attend

1. NAB Show
The National Assoc. of Broadcasters. I have attended this convention twice and both times was an absolute mind blowing experience. So much information, products, and people, all working together to advance our industry. It was such a refreshing experience to talk to like minded people about anything and everything pro audio.

2. AES International
The Audio Engineers Society returns to New York for their convention. The 139th AES Convention is gearing up to take place October 29-November 1 at the Jacob Javits Center, and will bring together audio professionals from across the world. Attendees will be offered opportunities to hear from top audio industry figures while also sharing in the latest research and technology information through informative papers, tutorials, workshops and special events.

3. SPARS Asheville Summit
Society of professional audio recording services. This event is extremely popular and sells out very fast. Here, you can be trained on the latest recording equipment from industry professionals as well as ask any and all questions in a panel style conference with local and out of state recording professionals.

4. NAMM Show
National Assoc. of Music Merchants. This is the world's largest trade-only event for the music products industry. It is held every January in Anaheim, California, US at the Anaheim Convention Center, and is one of the two largest music product trade shows in the world. This event serves as a hub for people wanting to seek out the newest innovations in musical products, recording technology, sound and lighting. NAMM's activities and programs are designed to promote music making to people of all ages.

5. INFOCOMM International
I have never attended Infocomm but I would like to one day. It is the largest event for professional AV in the world, with over 980 exhibitors and more than 38,000 attendees from 110+ countries. This is a once-a-year opportunity to see the latest audiovisual technology, learn the skills that will advance your career, and grow your professional network.

Week 7 EOC: Career Goals

I have always had "Career Goals." Most recently, I have achieved recording a live band, scoring films, and recorded multiple vocal artists. My current goal that I am striving to achieve is to graduate college and receive my bachelor's degree. I have had this goal for quite some time and it feels very satisfying to be so close to the end. Over the years, I have juggled school with work, family and personal social time. This mix has turned me in a very good multi-tasker and even though I am not putting  in 100% of my energy to everything at once, I still am able to succeed with whatever I do. My ability to concentrate on many different things is one of my key factors that I will use to evaluate my next job opportunity.

Week 6 EOC : 5 Things That Can Enhance My Site

1. LOGO
Currently I have a very simple logo that simply states my name in a colorful way, but I believe if I were to collaborate with some of my friends in Graphic Design I could get a very nice, quality logo that will make me stand out above the crowd.

2. SLIDESHOW
One option that I have is to place a slideshow on my home with an autoplay feature, that begins scrolling through small screenshots of projects I've worked on, as well as behind the scenes shots.


3. BACKGROUND IMAGE DESIGN
So far, my initial design of the site contains 1 image of an audio console, panned to the left. The image is a tad bit bright and I feel takes away the focus of the site. I am planning on editing this image so it feels more natural and does not distract the viewer from my site information.

4. FLASH VIDEO
I have been thinking of changing my background entirely. Perhaps placing a Flash video that automatically plays and loops in the background will give my site a bit more flare. My initial idea for the video consists of a vinyl record slowly spinning on its current track.

5. FIXED/LOCKED HEADER
I am in the process of figuring out how to work the feature, but my main goal to have my menu's, logo, and contact information locked to the site so when you scroll, the information goes underneath them and you still have the menu's at your disposal whenever you want. Currently, if you scroll down to see a project, you have to scroll back up to select another project. If the menu was fixed, you would have immediate access. This would make my site flow a lot better as well as add a more 'professional' look.

Week 5 EOC: Deeper Meaning of Whatever Works

After viewing about twenty minutes or so of the movie “Whatever Works”, we immediately see one of our main characters, Marietta.  When we first see her, her clothes, her attitude, her hair, just everything about her has a very distinct southern, stay at home wife feel. She is so caught up in her life and in her ways that she never had the opportunity to fully explore herself and see what she really wanted out of her life. After her husband leaves her she moves to New York to start fresh, and after some time she changes completely. She was very specific with one of her lines, talking to her ex-husband, when she said, “I’m a new woman.” It is very clear by her external appearance that she has become a new person, and just by her mannerisms and the way she carries herself we can see she has truly discovered herself.

                This concept gives us a few very solid life lessons, we must take the time out of our busy lives and look within ourselves and we also need to constantly be networking and meeting new people. You never know when something as simple as a getting a cup of coffee could be a career changing opportunity for you and your life.  Everyone is busy, but in order to grow and advance ourselves in this world, taking time for self-discovery is essential. It may be hard to do but separating yourself from the material things in this world is one of the ways you can truly find yourself. Once you have searched and centered  yourself, a goal can then be determined and achieved. In this life it is very easy to get distracted and stray along a bumpy path, however we must do whatever it takes to achieve our goals.

Week 4 EOC: The Devil Wears Prada, Deeper Meaning

Today we watched a short clip of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. The video has a prominent fashion theme, however we can take many different ideas away from the opening scenes. Our main character goes in for a job interview, and she does a few things right, but a lot of things wrong.

She eats breakfast, brushes her teeth, reads the newspaper and properly dresses herself for an “Interview.” What she should not have done was have an onion bagel for breakfast, and she should have researched who she was having an interview with. This is by far one of the most important things to do, when it comes to going to interviews and she walked in there blindly. Another thing she did wrong was she never even read the magazine that she had the interview with. In the real world, common sense would hit anyone and tell them to perhaps look at the magazine that you are interviewing for. She also did not really speak onto her strengths of the position. The position was for an assistant, instead of speaking on her editorial experiences, she should have given examples of her multi-tasking skills or situations where she was overburdened with work and still excelled and met deadlines.

Again, we can take a lot away from this film, but I feel one of the most important things to take away is to do your research and play the role. With these two things in your arsenal you will be well equipped when entering a job interview in the future.