field trip

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IMC@SLC In Toronto

This past Friday, IMC@SLC students went on a field trip to Toronto, along with a few second year students from the college IMC program.

The first stop was Dundas Square where students were given time to explore the area and try to complete a scavenger hunt. A few things that I found on the scavenger hunt were; an ad-free spot in Dundas Square (picture available in gallery), a flyer being handed out in front of the Eaten Centre (Black History Month flyers), an ad that is steps away from purchase (H&M – pictures available in gallery), and also estimated which ad(s) cost the most; those being probably the H&M ads that would be $1 million per print ad (of which there was 3) plus the moving/video ad with them that would be more than $1 million, or the Air Transat ad – which had 3 very large parts to it.

The next stop was Fuze Marketing. Here we got a tour of the building, and then got time to talk to people who work there (a creative resource manager/digital project coordinator, a copyrighter, and someone from the creative team) before having some pizza. Things I took away from this visit was that to get a job in this area it’s all about who you know and your connections. We were advised to get to know as many people in the business as you can and have good standing with them/keep in contact, and that doing internships are a very good way to get hired. Though the tip we were given about internships is to get involved as much as possible; if you sit and wait for people to come to you with work, it won’t happen – go to people and offer to help them, ask what you can do, etc; get as involved in as many projects as you can. Essentially just make it more trouble for the people you are working for to fire you than to hire you full-time.

After Fuze Marketing and a lunch break, we went to Bell Media. After a very (unfortunately) brief but very interesting talk with the marketing manager at Bell Media, we were given a tour of the building. We saw the Toronto breaking news room, the business channel studio, e-talk, the Marilyn Dennis show studio, and finally, got to be in the audience at Much Music for the Much VJ search after show. This was a very interesting experience. It was neat to see the inside of all the studios and how small they actually are though they appear very large on TV. A thing that really caught my attention was that there wasn’t cameramen in most of the studios; the cameras were remote-controlled robots that were either controlled by the person onscreen, or from a control room. Much Music was the only place I saw cameramen. It was also a little.. odd? To see first-hand what it’s like being on live television and realizing how fake the VJs or personalities really are, along with how the audience must be fake as well and act happy and excited no matter how bored or grumpy they are.

I think the three key takeaways from the trip for me would be:

  1. A work week is never only the hours it is “supposed” to be, and your day never ends when your “shift” or whichever is finished – work is until the projects is done (which is never because there are always more).
  2. Professionalism is key. Don’t fangirl over celebs if you work with them, don’t come to work in sweats, etc.
  3. Connections are important. Network, network, network! Positive influences and impressions!
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Radio Station Field Trip

Our class’ field trip to CJAI Amherst Island Radio Station, and Corus Entertainment was interesting.

CJAI was a very small radio station, but kind of cute. The information we were given there was very informative and told us everything we needed to about the station, the commercials, our client, and our target market. The people were super friendly there too.

Corus Entertainment was my favourite part of the trip, though. Everyone was so intrigued by all the “pretty colours” but I just thought they were a cool bonus – I wasn’t starstruck by them or anything. Just thought it was a cool touch to a place instead of using boring plain colours. I really enjoyed being in the radio stations and hearing them be live on-air. It was interesting to see that they actually smiled while they were talking to make them sound more excited and enthusiastic on air.

Going to the guy who recorded and edited the commercials (I forget his name….) was awesome. His little studio was pretty dark and I think it would be hard to be in there all day every day with that lighting and no windows… but it was pretty cool. Hearing Jim record that commercial was awesome too because I realized I hear him do commercials all the time – his voice is like my standard one I know for radio commercials.

The newsroom was by far my favourite part, though. It was soo cool to be IN the actual studio they record the news. It was not at all what I expected though. I expected a room with a window, kind of, even though I suppose I knew in the back of my mind it was green-screen and stuff. It was much smaller and more “ghetto” than I imagined it to be.

A fairly small room overall considering. And kind of funny how “ghetto” it was – almost like a really sketchy drama room that has so many random things laying around in it and almost kind of creepy.

I enjoyed the field trip – it was really cool.