Influenced by my father, who once was a manager responsible for corporate promotion and planning, my love for communication is basically encoded in my genes. It is his entrepreneurship and rich work experience that inspired me to apply for your program. With his support, I gathered a few books and tutorials and taught myself the use of design and video editing software in high school. Moreover, I was strongly committed to the compilation of our school newspaper and magazine as the editor-in-chief, filming and producing our school and class videos. I also took several initiatives in the field of communication: I set up the Jiamusi No.1 High School TV station, recorded and distributed a DVD of the Campus Art Performance Live Video as a producer and team organizer. I invested much time and energy in such activities, and my accomplishments further stimulated my enthusiasm for exploring and learning about media and advertisement.
Sheer curiosity about communication drew me to select the Communication University of China, a higher education institution known for journalism, art theory, drama, film and television. It has been renowned as the “Cradle of Chinese Media Talents” , and the key construction university of 211 Project and Double First-rate Project. To my pleasant surprise, I was accepted and became a media student of its Digital Media Arts program among the 985 Project Innovation Platform. Taking full advantage of the rich curriculum, I attended a great many courses closely related to communication, design, photography, planning and production of online video programs, advertising aesthetics, and film studies. I accessed numerous core courses in digital media, including television directing and production, advertisements planning and production, digital contents marketing theory and practice, digital audio and sound technology, photography and video, film synthesis and special effects, media applications. As a result, I am well acquainted with the overall production process of audio and video programs, and have learned how to plan and implement online variety or TV shows, and how to plan and product a fascinating advertisement or marketing program by analyzing the User Profile. I also became fascinated with and impressed by the production process of short film or micro movie(ten minutes or tens of minutes) in collaboration with lighting engineers, art designers, photographers and editors. I practiced energetically to develop this expertise, and became proficient in a variety of relevant software and professional activities.
Not only did these academic learning experiences help me build a solid background on this subject, but also paved the way for subsequent extracurricular internships and practical activities. I sought out practical opportunities in order to gain an intuitive understanding of potential future careers and to develop valuable skills wherever I could. For instance, in a film and television production project at school, I contributed to the coordination and production of an entire film called “The Summer Before College” as its producer. After considerable efforts, a production report of 40,000 words in total and 66 pages was completed so as to summarize and record the difficulties encountered in the production process. Such project experiences provided me with full understandings of the application of fundamental principles to practice, and greatly improved my overall management, coordination and communication skills.
In addition to project experience in film and television production, I interned for four months this year in the Planning Department of the New Media Center at the People's Daily (named one of the top ten newspapers in the world by UNESCO). In that time, I was assigned to the lens design and post-production of the micro-video named “China will not close its door to the world”. Then I endeavored to collect a variety of video and audio materials, had thorough exchanged of viewpoints with my supervisor (one of the senior editors), and eventually determined the script implementation and editing techniques for the final version. In the end, this micro-video was forwarded for the first time to the mainstream media such as Xinhua.com, CCTV, Phoenix.com and China.com after the promotion of the whole network; it was widely and favorably received, with over 100 million playbacks.
Benefited from such internships, I have discovered that new media has unlimited potential compared to traditional media. Advertising and new media are more like the crystallization of creativity, which can be applied to acquire a wider range of transmission and faster propagation with lower cost and more diverse channels of communication. Therefore, I anticipate devoting myself to the advertising and new media, and becoming a real participant and contributor later on.
I also curated an on-site interview with Yan Wen, the director celebrated at the 54th Golden Horse Awards on Dec. 5th, 2017. Based on the multi-dimensional survey conducted by other colleagues and myself over a week, I carried out an in-depth analysis of the award-winning film “Carnival” by Ms. Wen, and selected several questions to communicate with her with regards to the female theme. Ultimately, we reported the interview through pictures, texts, and short videos, and became the first media to interview the best director after the ceremony. This interview taught me much in the art and technology of program production and news interview and reporting in teamwork.
Apart from the above mentioned academic and extracurricular experiences, I have also benefited profoundly from my special interdisciplinary background in advertising. I not only learned marketing theory and practice in the form of digital video, advertising aesthetics, design and other advertising courses, but also participated in numerous extracurricular activities related to advertising. For instance, I visited the Brand Department of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. together with other directors of the University Associations in August 2017. This experience allowed me to understand the workflow of Huawei in greater depth, to promote their new mobile phones, and to independently plan and produce the publicity film for Glory V9.
Moreover, what particularly impressed me was that the public service advertisements that I planned and produced were shortlisted for a place in the First Prize of the National College Student Network Culture Festival. I was also dedicated to the commercial advertisements and won the Gold Award of the First Future Star National College Students Creative Video Competition. Those awards have significantly enhanced my confidence and motivation to learn advertising, encouraging me to spare no effort to engage in many other extracurricular activities, practical experiences, and award-winning experiences, as shown in my resume.
In view of my completed courses and credits, internships and extracurricular activities, I have built a solid background for a prospective graduate education and academic research in the field of Media, Communications, and Advertising. I have also demonstrated and refined my organizational management skills, teamwork capability, and extensive communication skills in a wealth of extracurricular activities and practical experiences. Having enjoyed every minute of the aforementioned experiences, I particularly look forward to entering your graduate program, and enriching my theoretical knowledge and practical experience in my chosen field of expertise. After completing my graduate studies, I intend to work in advertising or public relations for a large advertising company or internet company, fully committed to product or brand image promotion. In the long run, I anticipate running a self-media platform, engaging in advertising or film-related work, and gradually establishing a media-related startup that contributes to a thriving new media or advertising industry. If such an opportunity ever arises, I would also expect to return to the university classrooms, to instruct the students to share my experience of the industry while guiding and encouraging more students to engage in the media industry.