Saint John Bosco College Media Club
Six Questions with filmmaker Anushree Shukla
1. What is your role/ what do you do on a daily basis and what do you like about it?
I work for the Welcome to Wandsworth journalism project (London Borough of Culture) and I help students like you discover what a creative freelancer is and how you can work in the media industry. I also work at a coffee shop part time as you need to keep financially strong while you explore and gain experiences in the media industry.
My favourite part of my job is meeting new people and exploring stories as this is what filmmakers do. You need to have that eye to catch what will work. You often explore a number of stories and some are good and some are bad and figure out which ones will work – where you can actually film it, have people in it and have a message behind it – that is what I love to do!
2. What inspired you to follow this career path?
My dad inspired me to this career path as I was always creative as I was a child. I used to draw, I used to take a lot of pictures. He also took lots of pictures and that was what inspired me to get into photography. He pushed me – he said: “You are good at this and you should go to art college”. So, I did a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts. When I decided to do a Master’s Degree he said that as I loved what I was doing that I should do Master’s in film production and that is how I got into this career.
3. Were there any difficulties you had to overcome to get to this role?
The only difficulty is understanding how the job market works. It is very different to when you are at university to when you are out there looking for a job or want to create something. You need to get real life experiences which are different from what you can study at college. You need to network and find out and get to know people who are already working in media. I am getting good at networking. I love to meet new people and collaborate and that is how I got into working for the London Borough of culture project.
4. What was your proudest moment? What has been the most fun?
There has been two. When my dissertation was finished and I completed my documentary and it was shown on a big screen with a large audience at the University of Greenwich. When it was finished I went up to my head of department and she gave me a big hug and said you have finally have done it.
The second one was when I recently won and International award from a film festival for the documentary.
The fun was all in between – making the documentary and sending it to film festivals I got to learn so much!
5. What would you like to do next? What are you plans for the future
That is a nice question. For my next film I would like to make one on leopard rescue. During the rescue of the leopard my dad got injured, there was blood everywhere and how he gathered his strength and how he went back to rescue him and also ensure that people were safe.
6. What tips and advice would you give to young people like us wanting to work in the media
Always look for original ideas for stories around you. AI is very prevalent right now but don’t use it to create ideas. Use it as a tool. You need to have the idea and think about how you might use AI. You mind can do wonders – try to be creative from your own perspective. People are always going to look for real and genuine stories. You need to harness your own creativity. You also need to check your facts and your sources.
Year 8 Workshop Review
Year 8 at St John Bosco College took part in a range of workshops on 12 March to learn more about a variety of careers in media and journalism.
We met Alan Wigley video producer and learnt about shooting videos. Alan said you don’t have to be a professional to film a story – just use the camera on your mobile phone. Take a nice shot close up. He also explained other camera angles we could use such as a close shot, medium or far shot. We then had a go a producing and filming a mini play about a boy being rescued from a bully. Taking part in filming was very fun.
We took part in a press conference run by Carrie from the Welcome to Wandsworth project where we got to ask questions of Anushree Shukla, a documentary filmmaker. Anushree told us how she had made an award-winning filming about a man-eating tiger escaping from the jungle and was very sacred and had killed 6 people in a village in India. It took a month to rescue it and take it to a zoo. The idea came as a result of her dad who had been involved in saving 10 tigers and elephants that had come into the village.
We also got to meet and work with broadcaster Nisha Patel who is a news presenter for BBC Radio London. We found out about how she works and also how you have to summarise the news to present on radio. We were then given a story to read and then had to pick out the top 3 points to use in a radio news report.
With Margaret from the Welcome to Wandsworth team we found out about Fake News and how to avoid it. We saw an example of AI used in a story. We learned about the 5 Ws of journalism – Who, What Where, When and Why and how we can use these in the first paragraph of a news story. We also learnt how we can also use these to check whether a story is trustworthy.
After the workshops the Media Club had an exclusive interview with award-winning filmmaker Anushree Shukla.
Media Club Students Visit CNN
20 students from St John Bosco College recently took part in an incredible trip to CNN News. We went to learn and find out about how journalists present the news and about a range of different careers in TV including those of camera operatives, directors, producers, autocue and lighting technicians. We absolutely loved it!
One of the coolest things was meeting the camera operatives and seeing the types of cameras they used and how expensive they are. One talked about the amazing experiences his job had given him, travelling the world, finding out about fascinating and scary news stories including filming in a typhoon and seeing a range of nature and wildlife that he would have not got to see in any other role. They showed us a variety of cameras and equipment. The two male camera operatives we met said that when they filmed years ago they had such large and heavy cameras that if they were not careful they could trip and fall. It was also a really hard process to transmit the information from one place to another and they had to carry bags to keep all the video tapes in. Now with light hand-held cameras they can do this within seconds. They said that they wanted to encourage and to see more women camera operatives.
We enjoyed being in the TV studio. We all loved getting a chance to practise and then see ourselves presenting the news by reading from the autocue to the studio camera. There was a whole gallery of cameras which were moved by remote control at so many different angles. It was fascinating to see how the backdrop manager changes the colours of the studio background depending on the story they were presenting - red for general news, blue and white for sport and green for animals and wildlife.
We also got to see the control room and how they direct, edit and transmit the news, move the cameras and autocue. They also had many screens showing what was going on in their studios in America and also what other news organisations are reporting.
It was such an amazing and inspiring experience. We had a blast and we learnt so much about a range of jobs in journalism. It was a fascinating trip and will be a long-lasting experience for us.