Michael McWilliamsFilm

Michael McWilliams

 

Film for me is much more than just setting up a camera and capturing a shot, for me it is
about capturing moments and being part of experiences that are not so every day. Since I
started doing my own work outside of education I experienced some great things and met a lot
of great people. Sometimes its hard to think the friendships and connections that may have
been missed if not for filmmaking directly or in-directly.
 
One of the things that made me want to get into filmmaking so much, was my love of music and
how the song's story is told and how this could be translated into moving image. When I first
started getting serious about filming I decided I wanted to work closely with local musicians
and offer them photographic and video services. Since then I have shot and edited a number of
music videos and acoustic sessions with some very talented people. It started off as a hobby
but, as I made more and more of these videos I started to make connections to people in the
industry in my town. This lead to me getting one of my first proper well-paid jobs, for a
company, called Culture Tech. I was commissioned to shoot twenty acoustic session videos over
the course of their festival. This required me to organise times and places for bands and solo
artists to perform their songs and for me to film the performances. It was a hectic four days
of shooting, with the odd cancellation here and there and having to organise other performers,
but in the end I produced a great set of videos, which I think really showcased the talent in
my town. After the long editing process the response to the videos online was positive, and
Culture Tech was very pleased with the results. For me, it was a great learning experience
working alongside a professional organisation.
 
Whilst studying in college we also had a few opportunities to take on some client briefs,
these sometimes included working with other students on narrative based projects, or sometimes
on event coverage. This gave myself and another classmate the opportunity to make video for an
art company to be given to the BBC for an arts commission piece.
 
Alongside studying film and running my own small business I have been working a Monday to
Friday part time job in support services for the HSCNI. Sometimes it has been difficult to fit
this around everything else, but because of this job I was able to save and buy high-end video
cameras and other equipment like lights, tripods, microphones and steadicam equipment. All of
this equipment going back into improving the quality of the videos I could produce. I feel
like I am now in a comfortable place, having a lot of my own equipment which I've paid for
with income I have earned myself, and a high technical knowledge on how my cameras and other
equipment works.
 
In my spare time my hobbies include playing guitar, bass and collecting vinyl records
especially by artists from the 1930-40s. There is just a certain class about music from that
era that you just don't come across nowadays. I always like to try and incorporate this type
of music in films I make when I can and it is appropriate.
 
I believe that film is the industry I will work in. I aim to run my own production company in
the near future with a skilled team producing industry standard work for clients and
professional organisations.