Media students are constantly challenged with both exploring and applying academic theory, often linked to the study of a particular media industry and its business practices and conventions. On Friday 24^th November students were privileged to hear directly from John Moule, a highly experienced music video producer, and now commissioner, who has worked with many household names such as Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal and New Order, not to mention a wide array of less well-known names (e.g. Baaba Maal, M83, Ghosted).

An invited audience of Year 10-13 Media students were joined by others from the new BTEC Performing Arts course and Music to hear Mr Moule’s response to a wide-ranging list of questions posed by Mr Burrowes. So thorough and detailed were the responses that the interview lasted over an hour!

Rather than try to arrange for an extremely busy leading industry figure (overseeing a typical three music video productions a week from his London base, but often working with artists, record labels and artist managers based in the US and elsewhere), the interview was held over Skype, and recorded for the benefit of absent and future students.

Once Mr Moule had gone through Mr Burrowes’ questions (just the 3 pages of these!), he kindly agreed to spend further time directly answering questions from students, which ranged from how best to get into the industry, to the value of film courses and university generally and the practicalities of a typical video production shoot. He had also watched a full playlist of previous Media coursework, and passed on some great tips on how already outstanding work could be made even more convincing and reflective of modern industry practices. 

Our thanks goes to Mr Moule for all the time he kindly gave up, and the insight he provided to the students. Mr Burrowes has published a sample reel of some of the work his company has produced (see JohnMoule.com for full videos and a searchable archive) which you can view here.

If you have any contacts in the media industries (or have insight to share yourself) who you think might be interested in speaking to students via a Skype (or alternative) interview, please get in touch with Mr Burrowes via reception@st-georges.lu.

Feedback from our students:

“It was a very interesting way to find out more about an industry that we see almost everyday and to learn more about everything that goes on behind the scenes that we never get to see.” (James, Year 12 Media)

"It was very interesting to learn and know more about the industry from someone who has worked with so many well-known artists including some, like Sam Smith, I am very familiar with myself! His views on the accessibility of slo-mo effects due to technological convergence (for example, the GoPros in Media can film in HD at 120 frames per second) and the possible overuse of the effect was intriguing.” (Sam, Year 12 Media)

“I thought it was an interesting and fun experience to learn about the industry from someone who has 'made it' and its cool that he’s worked with names I know, such as the Arctic Monkeys and Dizzee Rascal! I was surprised to learn how short a typical a music video shooting phase is, linked to the budget changes that technological upheaval has caused.” (Simon, Year 12 Media)

“It was really interesting to hear from someone who worked in the industry, especially given how positive and uplifting he was. I liked how he encouraged creativity and great ideas, and his argument that tight budgets can encourage creativity – I think he’s right about the downsides of mega-budget ‘tentpole’ productions like the endless Marvel and DC Comics movies!” (Richard, Year 13 Media)