Starting a career within the creative industry can be fiercely competitive. Many recruiters look for people with lots of industry experience, as well as a huge portfolio of creative work. We believe it’s important to offer creative opportunities early so that students can build up a bank of experience before they head into the world of work. Getting hands-on experience gives real insight into work and agency life, which can help decide which career path is best. We were delighted to host three students for work experience placements throughout July, who all want to delve into filmmaking.

On week one, we hosted Charlotte, a budding creative digital artist who wanted to learn more about working in marketing, and later in the month, Evy and Ruby joined us, who both directed, filmed and edited their own videos for our social platforms.

Each placement week started by introducing the students to the team and giving a quick tour of the Harleys offices to familiarise them with the working environment. We then briefed them on projects they would be working on for the week.

Charlotte helped operate the camera for a video featuring our Content and Strategy Director, Cielle Bragg, which explores her creative obsession with crafting, a team insights series for the Harleys YouTube channel. Charlotte then got stuck in with assembling a video draft.

Later in the week, Charlotte and the team filmed some b-roll that included snippets of Cielle working on her sewing projects and a vibrant graphic projected onto Cielle to introduce the video. The projected style created an artsy effect that captured the idea of going into the mind of a creative obsessive.

When Evy and Ruby began their time with us, they were briefed on a few projects between them. This included another video for our Creative Obsession series, featuring one of our Creative Directors, Callum Easton, who discussed comic books and how seeing graphic illustration as a child inspired him to work in a creative role. The students helped setup and operate the camera, capturing interview footage and b-roll of Callum and his favourite comics.

Next up was a video for our YouTube channel, with Chloe Daniels, our Head of Strategy, and Stacey Williams, our Head of Content. They played AI detectives, trying to work out whether a poem had been written by a human copywriter at Harleys or generated by AI.

A poem from the video that was written by one of our Creative Copywriters Tom Thayer, inspired us to create another video about scones with a surrealist tone.

This was filmed outside, near a river, so both Evy and Ruby had to work out how external noises might impact the filming of the video, as well as consider possible lighting changes and public interruptions.

The opportunity has definitely helped me with future career aspirations as it has secured in my mind more of an idea of what I want to do, as well as being something I can reference as an experience in the future.

It was honestly one of the best environments to work in especially with all the people, as they were so lovely. I definitely learnt a ton of new ways and enjoyed every minute!

Across the two weeks, the students filmed, scripted and edited four videos, learnt about what it’s like to work in a creative agency, and found out about the different routes into a creative career.

We learnt how to ‘be cool around teenagers’ and what bussin’ meant (although we still have no idea).

To check out the pieces of content they made, visit the Harleys YouTube channel