Emma Howard

I studied Media Production at the Lincoln School of Media. At the time a practically unheard of diamond in the university league rough, but as I left we were just about to mop up at the RTS awards with four undergraduate trophies. The leap into my instincts by choosing Lincoln was by far one of my best most resourceful decisions to date.

At LSM my range of ability increased on a daily basis, and through these skills I managed to land quite a few areas of work within a variety of fields. In the summer of 2008 I was offered a Photographer’s Assistant position where I was working on fashion shoots with Tony McGee for Conde Nast, and in 2009 I was offered to a Layout Assistant position for an independent kids’ lifestyle magazine. Despite being exposed to the seven practical areas on the course in the first year (photography, digital media, design, TV, film, radio and scriptwriting) and then having to narrow down our choices to a mere one by the third year, it did not hinder us from keeping our skills up in the other areas. In fact quite the opposite.

As the LSM network of students is much smaller, it meant you are constantly asked to participate or help with your peers’ projects. In my third year I helped three TV groups with their final assignments, a photography project and a radio show.

Not only did the LSM make it possible for me to work in the media industry, but they also provided the resources in order for us undergraduates to act as freelancers. In January 2009 a friend approached me to organise a camera crew for the Mancunian music festival ‘Pangaea’. I quickly arranged a group of us to go and asked the now Dean of the Media, Humanity and Technology Faculty David Sleight if he would be able to lend us a variety of equipment. We were given the go ahead (with serious repercussions if anything didn’t come back, of course!) and managed to get everything there, get some serious cramp from our camera stances, and back again. The outcome was worth it and a huge bonus to our show reel as it was all organised independently and off campus.

Currently I am living in Cyprus as unfortunately when I graduated the competition for media positions was ridiculous. It was either compete against thousands of other graduates, or “Hey! Saatchi & Saatchi has lots of internships this year. Just come and work for us for half a year where you won’t get paid but will be expected to live in central London!” I was a little anxious about moving to Cyprus as it is not as culturally prominent as my home town London. However, it turns out that the network here is a lot smaller and there are very few media practitioners on the island. So I have managed to boost my list of contacts and am starting to get some headway with some practical projects, with the exciting possibility of being paid for my time!