Hand In

 I just handed in my final piece of work for module 3 and i feel really good. I read through my report one last time and i'm happy with it. I think it shows a clear narrative, despite it being non-fiction haha! and i'm definitely proud of myself! Now to focus on the presentation in january which i think will be a lot easier than the rest anyway. But best get preparing anyway! I can't wait to finish and i can't wait to find out my final grade and i can't believe i've actually gone and got a degree. well bloody done me! 

Sailing to the finish line!

 So close to finishing now!

i really feel like my whole report is cohesive and has a clear theme. I've really enjoyed writing about my inquiry and have found that it's actually opened my eyes more to who i am as a person and my personality traits that may be detrimental to me at times. Now i can see this though, it allows me to find ways to combat it and i already feel a shift in my pattern. I am intolerant to uncertainty and it shows up in all areas of my life. I'm finding ways to be live with it and breathe through those moments when i really struggle with it, and it's helping. I'm grateful to this inquiry to bringing it to my attention.

Interviews Continued

 So I’ve now done nearly all of my interviews. so thought I’d write a blog on my thoughts and feelings so far. I can’t remember what I’ve written in the other blogs so here’s to repeating everything ! Woohoo!

What I didn’t expect in this process was how difficult it would be to actually get people to interview. I chose to make it on zoom so as to not disrupt people’s lives as much however I really struggled to get people to send their consent forms back, without being pushy. In hindsight I should have given them a ‘return by this date’ but we learn and move forward. Because of this I haven’t interviewed everyone I wanted to interview. However I did find that whilst I was putting people into specific categories, a lot of them actually fell into more than one. So unfortunately I could only interview one recent graduate, however someone I interviewed as being currently in work happened to also have recently graduated, they also are coming to the end of their contract so it allowed us to discuss being out of work too! I also had someone who was able to share experience as a performer, agent and casting director ! So although I didn’t interview as many people as I wanted, I’ve found it quite interesting to hear these stories that spread across the industry.

Ive found a lot of words repeated between each of my interviews which I find really interesting and then on the flip side I’ve loved hearing one person say they love ‘this’ and another say that’s exactly what they don’t like! It’s going to give me some great things to write about, with some great connections to module 1, although I’m not sure how relevant they are to my inquiry! 

As an initial thought, I think it’s really interesting to see that those who haven’t long been in the industry are a lot more positive and optimistic than those who have been in it longer. Those who have been in for EVEN LONGER than that have kind of come out the other end where they understand the downfalls but don’t allow them to bother them anymore.

I also found it very interesting as my inquiry is based on uncertainty, whether people spoke about the pandemic or didn’t. 

Choosing to do interviews on zoom overall has worked in my favour as people with busy schedules were actually able to partake however technical issues in a couple were a bit annoying, one with constant freezing throughout and one where my internet died completely and we had to pick up where we left off after a few minutes which may or may not have lost the flow of the conversation. I didn't feel like it did personally, however i'll never know exactly what they were going to say before it got cut off. 

After doing some reading for my literature review, I found that there were connections between what people were saying and what the books had written on the topic.

I think I’ll concentrate on my literature review more now and then go back to analysing then interviews once they’re all completed.  

Second Interview

 My second interview went a lot better, I was able to listen more and find moments to ask them to expand or give any examples allowing the conversation to flow better and for more to be uncovered. 

I struggled with not wanting to mention the word uncertainty as i wanted them to bring it up themselves, however it is in the title of my inquiry so felt like actually i could use it as long as i wasn't pushing them into a certain answer that i wanted to hear. 

I also wanted to mention the process of getting the people to interview as this was a lot harder than i expected. i found that a lot of people were initially interested and happy to help but when it came to either setting a date or receiving the consent form back there was silence and i didn't want to be pushy so decided to find new interviewees. Some catagories for my interviewees i found harder to find than others and some I realised actually span over a few categories which made their answers really interesting. 

First Interview Experience

So i just finished my first ever interview and it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. It moved VERY quickly and whilst I had space for an hour slot it only took half an hour to get through everything. I'll still keep the hour slot just incase but may now mention to future interviewees that it may run shorter. 

Something else i noticed was how hard it was for them to actually tell stories. I wonder if there's a way i can rephrase my questions to make them more conversational because i really wanted them to go into more detail on their own personal journeys. However as this person was a recent graduate there perhaps wasn't much to their personal journey yet meaning there wasn't much to share. So I'm still confident that i'll be able to use this method with other people. 

One thing I noticed was being an inside researcher meant i struggled when asking to expand on questions because i myself already understood what they meant by it as i'm also in the industry but for the purpose of the research project i needed them to say it out loud and explain it properly. I know i can do this more in future interviews

Overall a really good start to interviews. 

Welcome Module 3

 Back to Uni, final module, here we go. Feeling quite confident in it at the moment as I have a clear structure of what I need to do and for when. Lots to get stuck into.

I had my first 1-1 with my supervisor a couple of days ago which was an extremely strong start to the term. We discussed my inquiry which created more questions to ask my interviewees and also allowed me to think deeper about what i wanted to gain from my inquiry.

We discussed the difference between the module 2 and 3 lit reviews being that in module 2 it's use was to find your inquiry and in module 3 it's use is to prove there's a need for it. This helped me a lot and allows me to focus better on what literature i need to be finding. 

We had a small talk about the artefact for this term as it is something i worry about but am feeling more confident overall now heading into the new and final term!

Hand In

 Here we go! I made it to the end of the second term! woohoo!

Reflecting on this term, it's been a lot harder than module 1 in terms of content. I came into this module quite overwhelmed by the amount we had to do, I really had no idea where to start as it was all brand new to me. This meant I had to do a lot of initial research simply to understand what this module was asking of me. 

Once i got to grips with it i found it wasn't too stressful after all and that it was just a matter of reading up alot around my topic. This gave me the tools and knowledge to work through the module.

As we come to the end of the module I've found it quite stressful with feedback coming back that I was unable to get clarification on. Because of this I've had to trust in myself more and believe that my changes and corrections are good enough and trust that i know what i'm doing. H

Here's to module 3!