Where to next?

Hello Everyone,

Not long before we are done now J. Most of us will be graduating after this semester but what next? Some of us have a job waiting for us but for others are still are waiting for the perfect opportunity to come their way. I thought I would dedicate this blog to exactly what we are all thinking about now, “What next?”.

A lot of us have hoped to get a job out of our placements. Since I did my internship in India, I was never too hopeful of that opportunity. However, after I had completed my internship I had been back to visit my supervisor during my second visit to India. What started off as a casual conversation about what’s new, ended in a job offer within the PR department at Prime Focus. I surely was happy, but at the same time I started to think. Did I really want the job? Did I really want to move to India?

It was a perfect job opportunity for me, as I would be working in one of the world’s biggest visual entertainment companies. As I had mentioned in my first blog, I have always wanted to work within the entertainment industry. The job offer is clearly my dream first job. But at the same time do I want to leave Perth? Many questions arose in my head and I became more and more confused with each passing day. I thought I should leave it to destiny, but soon came to realise that destiny is all based on choices. A choice is what I need to make.

What do all of you think? Should I take up this opportunity or give myself more time? I would love to here from all of you.

So this is it, my last blog. I’ve had a wonderful time sharing my experiences and reading the blog posts from all of you. I look forward to read more insightful blogs in the next couple of weeks as everyone finishes off their placements/reports.

Wishing everyone all the very best for the future.

Cheers,

Srinali Kinariwala

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It's All Part of a Learning Experience!!

Hello everyone,

It’s nearly the end of the semester and I‘m sure everyone must be working away on the report so good luck to all J

I’m sure everyone has come across days during their placement which were so challenging they didn’t know how everything would work out in the end. Or moments when you were unsure of what to do, but also weren’t sure if you should ask too many questions. I came across many challenges during my placement and would like to share with all of you once such incident and what I learnt from it.

I was asked to write up an interview background for the President and CEO of Prime Focus Technologies, Ramki S, which included a background on him and a detailed outline of the topic he was to present at INXPO (a broadcast trade show in Las Vegas). My supervisor briefed me over the phone as he had not come to the office that day, and I started off with what I understood. I tried to get my head around the concept but kept getting lost. As I mentioned in my first blog I had to understand everything behind something called ‘Cloud computing’. Well, that is exactly what Ramki was going to talk about in this speech. I wrote my first draft and showed it to my supervisor (I was very scared while doing so). He very nicely told me that basically everything I had written was well… wrong. He helped me through and explained to me what was actually needed and I went ahead and wrote my second draft. Once again I showed him and he once again told me it’s not quite right (in terms of content). I was quite scared to be honest. I thought he would think I’m useless and don’t know what to do. Instead he told me to just relax and not worry about it as it happens. He asked me to work on something else after that, so I thought he didn’t want me to do it anymore. He later came to me after he finished his work and went through the whole write-up step-by-step. In the end we ended up writing most of it together and the rest he left for me to do once he knew I had got the hang of the topic. Not once did he put me down, but instead guided me through and helped me learn.

Though the toughest day, it was also the best day for me. He kept asking me for my input and I asked him questions throughout when I didn’t understand anything. I did find the link to the interview online which made me very happy so I'm posting it here!!

I believe it is so important to ask questions as it will only help you learn. You rather ask questions, than not knowing what you are doing and it will definitely not make you look like you don’t know anything rather that you’re willing to learn.

It would be great to hear about any such experiences anyone else has had.

Until then,

Srinali Kinariwala

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A Day in the 'Jungle'!

Hello All,

We are nearing the end of the semester and with only 3 weeks to go, everyone must be stressing about assignments. I hope the week off helps us get through them all. So with my second blog I thought why not give you all an insight into my ‘typical’ day at Prime Focus (PF) and the kind of work I did.

My day would start off with trying to find myself a ‘rickshaw’ (the common-man’s form of transport in India, also referred to as a ‘rick’ in Mumbai). One problem, my office was located in a ‘jungle’ within a place called Aarey Colony, and rick drivers would often refuse to go that way (though they aren’t technically allowed to say no but they still do). Initially I would have to make several attempts to get a rick but towards the end of my time in Mumbai, I believe I had mastered the skill of getting a rick, as one attempt was enough J. I have added a picture I had taken during one of my many trips through the 'jungle'.

I had mentioned in my previous blog that my start times were quite late compared to normal start times here in Perth. However, I forgot to add that the travel time made up for that. I would spend hours in traffic on a daily basis as non-peak hour traffic in Mumbai is equivalent to peak hour traffic in Perth. So you can only imagine the traffic in Mumbai. This also leads to time factors in Mumbai and the reason why it’s most perfectly fine to be late to meetings in most cases.

So once I would get to the office I would read newspapers and get my daily dose of what’s happening until my supervisor got to the office. Also, there would be staff from the office café around the office space just incase anyone needed anything. Tea and coffee would be offered several times a day which I initially used to refuse however, two cups of tea slowly became a part of my daily life thanks to PF.

My supervisor would give me specific tasks and I would begin work on them. He would guide me through everything that was required and helped me with anything I didn’t understand. I mostly worked on writing about the work PF has done which would often be in alien language for me. ‘Cloud computing’ and ‘CLEAR technology’ were terms I had never heard, let alone understand. So before I started writing anything I was required to understand the concept myself so I could write about it in a way in which the ‘layman’ would understand. At my time at PF I wrote write-ups for the website, a speech background for the CEO, interview answers on behalf of the CEO for a story in the Economic Times, several award nominations and an advertising proposal.

Lunch time would be anytime between 1 and 5pm (yes lunch could be fairly late). Mostly, we would go for lunch as a group to the office café. This was by far one of the best times for me as everyone from the corporate office would come together and share their experiences which allowed me to make some valuable contacts within the industry. Also, I learnt about how the industry works and the role of PR within different organisations from everyone’s personal experiences. These ‘talks’ were not possible during work time as everyone would be busy with their own meetings/deadlines/etc., however lunch time provided for a breather for everyone. A note to all wanting to do PR work in the future: these casual conversations prove to be some of the most valuable.

My day would finish at around 6pm but there were days when I was at the office till 10pm, as deadlines had to be met even if it meant working till late. I understood the importance of deadlines through this placement, as missing a deadline could mean missing out on a valuable award or story in a magazine or newspaper. Waiting for a rick in the jungle in the dark is by far the scariest things I have ever done so I would often try to get a lift out with someone from the office.

So that’s it, a day in the ‘jungle’ was somewhat like this!!

Good luck to all with the reports J

Srinali Kinariwala

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A little late...But here's my first Blog!!

Hey everyone, I’m Srinali and here I present to you my first blog.

I did my internship earlier this year but only just got to starting my blogs. I know, I know, I should have started earlier but I guess better late than never!! Through these blogs I’m hoping to give you all an insight into my experiences and hope to receive some feedback for all of you.

So I did my placement in India at Prime Focus, which is a global visual entertainment services group. This basically means that they provide an end-to-end service within the entertainment industry, which includes visual effects, video and audio post-production, digital content management and distribution, creative 3D conversion, Digital Intermediate, versioning and adaptation, and equipment rental. So from pre-production to final delivery of movies, commercials, TV shows and any other forms of broadcasting is done at Prime Focus. Pretty intense, right? I didn’t understand anything at the beginning and it took me a while to get my head around it all. The first couple of days were spent just reading about the organisation. I came across many interesting things, but there were times when I did get quite bored. Nevertheless, I think all the reading paid off when I started doing ‘real’ PR work for the organisation.

I spent a month in Mumbai in India, the entertainment hub of India. I’ve always wanted to work in entertainment and this was the perfect opportunity for me to experience it and start networking. I was based at the global headquarters of Prime Focus, which meant many major decisions were made there. At the same time though, I noticed how a lot of collaboration took place amongst the different offices around the world to ensure work was completed in a manner to suit each geographic region. Cultural differences are something we’ve learnt about during the course and I got to experience this throughout my internship. Though the working environment was very professional and I guess I could call it ‘westernised’ at Prime Focus, there were things that really stood out to be different culturally. For example, you’d expect that there would be a high level of power distance in India, but Prime Focus was very laid back with open work spaces and low power distance. However, the time orientation in India is very different to here is here in Australia. 10am could mean anything up to 11am or even 12 noon. I would get to work at 10am very morning (because that’s the time I was told to start), however I would be the only one at the office that early and others would be there closer to 11am. I've added a picture of the office above!!

Well I guess that’s it for my first blog. I’ll be writing more about the work I did in future blogs. Now that the introduction part is done, I will try and make my next blog less dry and write more about the work I did J

I’m glad to read about everyone else’s placements through the blogs.

Goodluck everyone J.

Srinali Kinariwala

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