So Fare Films is a start-up led by JCU Professor Lindsay looking to expand the team.
News
By Isabella Capra / JCU alumna announcement
“Work experience is no longer an optional extra for university students, it’s an essential part of preparing for the graduate job market.”
Martin Birchall, Owner of High Fliers Research Firm
You’re a college student, living in a shared apartment, making new friends. You’re thinking about that upcoming essay, and the celebration after turning in said essay. The memories, skills, and experiences you are collecting during this time are invaluable and will stay with you for your whole life. However, as senior year creeps up on you, the main experience that matters for your professional future is your work experience. Now, don’t panic: this article is meant to give you a solution. But first, it’s important to explore the problem. We all aspire to check off all the entries on our bucket list of the authentic college experience—but the first few years, we focus too much on our social lives and sometimes don’t put enough energy into building a clear career path. We acknowledge that universities carry the responsibility of properly forming students to be ready to enter an industry of their liking but how can you know what you like without trying things out?
Before graduating, students need and deserve to have time dedicated to experimenting and developing within the workforce in a role that is related to their studies. Gaining experience as soon as possible is becoming more and more important as time passes. Post-pandemic, enterprises have been forced to cut down on vacancies for graduates. A study from the UK, completed by High Fliers Research firm, said recruitment for graduates fell 12.3% from 2019, the largest fall after 11 years. More than half of the 100 largest employers in the UK recruited fewer graduates than 2019 or no graduates in 2020. Competition is also growing because there has been a 41% increase in job applications from recent graduates, the highest annual increase recorded by High Fliers.
But this article is not meant to bum you out! Things might sound grim: between fewer graduate vacancies and intensifying competition, just how will you give your CV the proper edge so you can stand out?
The answer is clear. You must gain work experience before graduating, the sooner the better. Graduates with work experience are more attractive to employers than those without. Gaining work experience early in life does not only sharpen your CV but you learn a lot about the industry you plan on entering, and also about yourself. Anna Alanko, career services advisor at Rasmussen College, lists five reasons why an internship is valuable work experience:
“They include learning more about the industry you’re interested in, impressing a potential employer and learning about your own strengths and weaknesses… Perhaps you’ll find the industry so interesting that an internship will cement your career decision. Perhaps you’ll find the industry so boring that your internship will lead you to change your career plans. But it’s better to learn that lesson during a one-semester internship than as a full-time employee.”
If you’d like to apply for an internship or assistantship opportunity that is exclusively for JCU students, read further.
So Fare Films
We are So Fare Films, a production company with the mission to produce documentary films that touch on social issues about human challenges and relationships.
So Fare Films was founded in 2019 by Professor Jenn Lindsay, JCU Sociology and Communications lecturer. Professor Lindsay has been part of the world of reality television and documentary filmmaking for the past 18 years. Her film Quarantined Faith has won several awards, including Best Documentary from both the Picasso Einstein Buddha International Film Festival and Christian Online Film Festival, and a Special Jury Award for the theme of “Migrations and Coexistence” from the 23rd Edition of the Religion Today Film Festival.
So Fare Films also curates an educational program where independent filmmakers hone their craft, create content, and participate in a network of experienced storytellers. Through our documentaries and our independent filmmakers network, we hope to serve as a change agent by giving voice to the voiceless. We aim to communicate, through our own documentaries and the work of those who collaborate with us, that diversity is a richness and that each life bears an internal logic and makes a unique contribution to our shared human fabric.
The company has grown rapidly this past year, with 17 active members all connected with JCU and working in Marketing & PR, Crowdfunding, Business Strategy, and Video Production, with several films spanning development, post-production and on the film festival circuit. We have many more projects brewing, which you will definitely be hearing about in the near future.
We also hail from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities: our team is present in Madrid, the Ivory Coast, Texas, Hawaii, and all over Italy. Since we are female-founded and our international staff comprises a wide range of backgrounds and identities, we also promote a special mission to support underrepresented demographics in the male-dominated film industry.
Lavinia Giardina, JCU alumna with a degree in Communications, is part of the video production team and currently working on a short docuseries called Women in Progress that showcases the endeavors of creative women of Rome, said, “Working for So Fare Films allowed me to develop my editing skills in a professional environment and, thanks to the teamwork and the habit of giving each other’s works feedback, I took advantage of my colleagues’ knowledge and experience as we were all handling different tasks in post-production. I got the chance to learn much from them and get inspired by their creativity and ways of working.”
Martina Perelli is part of our marketing team talks about the opportunity So Fare Films has given her to explore a field she is passionate about, “… it has helped me get a clearer vision of what I want to do for my future. Having a hands-on experience is a challenge that has allowed me to explore what it means to work in a team and also be responsible with important tasks that help the project but also have space for my own creative input.”
To read more student testimonials visit the company’s LinkedIn page.
So far, we have been working closely with JCU Communications majors, but we want to collaborate with Marketing and Business students as well.
We are on the look-out for students interested in forming part of our Marketing & PR team and our Business Strategy team, but we also welcome those passionate for filmmaking who want to gain hand on experience. Some of the tasks our Marketing & PR teams handle are growing our social media platforms to more effectively engage with audiences, strategizing for the distribution of our films, exploring possible partnerships with other arts and educational organizations, and reaching out to publications to spread awareness about our projects and brand. Those who take part in the Business Strategy team would be in charge of creating a business model and business plan that organizes our finances.
We are also looking for strong writers or a journalist who would be interested in doing research and writing for our monthly newsletter; you would be learning and writing about gender parity and representation in the media industries, interviewing film professionals, and penning updates about our company operations.
Overall, So Fare Films interns learn a lot about the independent film industry, arts and digital media organizations, crowdfunding, small business operations, and the demands of a busy, vibrant start up environment.
If you wish to form part of the team, contact So Fare Films through the company email:
Get to know more about So Fare Films by checking out their social media:
Instagram: @sofarefilms
Facebook: @Sofarefilms
Twitter: @sofarefilms
Linkedin: So Fare Films
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