The last portfolio visit London was at the world famous Mill. After the timings and struggles of finding the last 2 visits I thought I get there very early. Find The Mill then hang around the area until it was time to speak to someone. When I arrived I saw the building and how fantastic it looked. Now I had found where it was (funnily enough it was near the Pizza place that Goolge told me was Rushes studio) I had a little wonder round to see what else was around as I know how close all the studios are together. After 5 minutes I stumbled across the studio of BBH which was another of the companies I asked to visit as they produced the advert I used for my research for my Nexus project.
BBH Studio
ANYWAY... Back to The Mill. I went back and turned up a little earlier than arranged but I thought being early just shows how keen I am, hopefully working in my favour. I sat in the reception area waiting for my contact Kate Hopkin to meet me. I sat there and watched the hustle and bustle of the vast studio. Even the customer area I was sat in (next to an Oscar) was huge with space for tenants to work and just gave me a clue into the scale of the whole company. It had a great welcoming feel to the company as people were asking after me and making sure I was ok. This is great to see even in a company that is world renowned.
I was then joined by Kate and Lisa and we sat in the tenant area and they asked about me and what I did and where I saw myself in the future. I'm not sure if they do this with everyone but it really made me feel like they were trying to get to know me before they started to show me around the studio. I asked what they did and they were there to look after the new talent in the company and make sure everyone was happy in what they are doing. Immediately I knew the opportunity this was to impress and see what the industry was like.
They passed me onto one of the runners at the studio called Robin who took me around the whole studio and showed me what to offer. It was a great opportunity, he showed me all the different sections, right from the underbelly/technical side right through to the smoke and flame suites. I used this time to ask him about the experience of being a runner and where he came from and how he got the place. I was really nosey but you have to be to get the most out of the experience. One point that really stood out to me at this studio was that it was a 24 hours a day studio, they work day and night as a lot of their customers are overseas with huge time differences they want to be flexible to the customer. This is great for their customer relations but must be hard on the staff. I was told about the rotation they were one and the kind of work they do. They are basically there to ensure the welfare of all the employees. They make food for people all over the studio, take people around, move things from different sections of the studio and then they also get to sit with someone and actually learn from them too. Robin mentioned that in they're spare time they are welcome to find space to work and work on they're skills and that they are asked which area they are most interested in and that is the area in which they can learn.
After this I was taken back to Kate and Lisa's office where they had obviously had a little chat about me and what I was like as they offered me a week's placement commencing the 20th July. What an oppertunity that is, Kate offered to give me details of places to stay and they have offered to pay for my travel on the tube so this could be a fantastic experience that I snapped up. It's something I can really look forward to and I have found when I have mentioned it to people in the industry it really makes them sit up and listen so hopefully this could help me in all kinds of ways.
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