Studying Media Production in lockdown

The year of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have been very challenging for all of us, there is no doubt about it. And I am no exception to that! I am on my third and final year of BA (Hons) Media Production and it has been full of surprises and challenges to overcome, but also filled with learning, and sometimes a type of learning that transcended the course itself.

Whilst writing this, we are now well underway lockdown 3.0 which I am finding a bit different than the first one back in March 2020. It feels like there was no proper break between the first and second term of my course and that is a reflection of me by being a lot more tired and some days even more anxious. So, I am trying to always check in with myself and often with people that I am working with, as well as friends and family. I believe this is so important to help stay healthy during these times.

My course has always been very practical, so lockdown has made me and a lot of us in similar courses to be creative and think outside the box. Some things are certainly a bit harder, like getting equipment out of the Media Hatch on campus as it has been closed for parts of the year. When it was open, it was very well organised and up to standards with government guidelines and it made us feel safe with all the cleaning and scheduling in place. For the time being, we can’t access it, but we can see how supportive the University and teachers are, by doing necessary changes to our briefs and by supporting our health first and foremost. This has happened throughout the past year, with the University communicating frequently with us making sure we knew how everything was working and the developments along the way. We all know and feel the downsides of online learning, however, I think it brought a new way of communicating with our teachers and this perhaps even made us all work more and stay in touch more often.

As this is my final year, I also have been working on my Final Major Project, (FMP), which is a drama fiction video and it has been definitely challenging since we can’t really do all the things we could have done in life before the pandemic. But like the rest of my experiences, it has also shown and taught me a lot of valuable lessons such as communication - which is key in everything, particularly in projects like this that mean so much to me. Having an open mind is very much needed as well and being creative, which is probably even more relevant now than ever, to make sure I can achieve the best results possible.

So, for all of you in the same situation or the ones who will be in it in the future, do the best you can, because that’s all you can do really. Work hard but make sure your wellbeing is always being looked after because without it you won’t be able to do everything you really want to do, and also, find ways to enjoy your time at home and the things you are doing, that will help you along the way.

Carolina