10 Struggles Only BMM Students Understand
Bmm- bachelors of mass media is a course that has risen up against other undergraduate courses like a phoenix since the past decade. While bmm provides a glimpse of the media world to the students and prepares them for it, there’s no denying the struggles that come along with it. Here are a few that most Bmm students might be able to relate to:
1. Making contacts.
Let’s just say that if there was a subject on this, everyone would gladly study it. Though, not in the syllabus, but every professor will have repeated this a several times to the bunch of naive lads: go make contacts! No matter which field, knowing someone from somewhere not only gives you a 50% chance of being able to get to where you want, but also a 100% chance of satisfaction. Only bmm students will know the true pain of having to interact with people, sometimes even when you don’t want to and watch their friends make more contacts than they do. Contacts sometimes might be prove to more useful than any subject you studied and aced in or any skill you have, which is painful to read but even more painful to live with.
2. Unpaid Internships.
Everyone knows about bmm students and their love (or necessity) for internships but what is less known is the number is unpaid internships they have to undertake in order to get to the paid ones. A person interested in photography might have done several unpaid photography assignments before landing his first wedding shoot as a person having a knack for writing might have written several blogs before actually writing articles that pay him/her. These internships don’t pay them nor might they be certified in their résumé, but they offer a hint of the experience that they require as serve as a starting step for them to follow their passions, a tough one too.
3. Grades don’t matter, but you have to study.
All year long, you will hear professors talk about being ‘practical’ and you wonder why don’t they apply this criteria while checking papers. We know that when we graduate, the O grade we acquire by sheer hard work or sheer luck will not result in helping us for the cause we want buy irrespective of that, we need to study and slog all 3 years and make sure that our grades are up to mark because lesser marks could mean you skip a year that will result in you studying the same things all over again. Let’s just say that a wise bmm student knows to take his grades not too seriously and not too lightly.
4. Too many projects spoil the broth.
A bmm student knows the true necessity of submitting all projects and knows how important it is to submit each project at the respective deadline. This, after immense research and development a day prior to the deadline for each project. The project’s practical approach is over the minute they are submitted, but that of course isn’t taken into any consideration. Projects are tedious, sometimes irrelevant, uninteresting and don’t make sense, which is why these projects take up a lot of time and patience.
5. Be nice to every celebrity you meet, you don’t know which one you might have to work with.
You know that fest or event where you’re volunteering and you see a celebrity throwing tantrums or having innumerable demands that you can’t fulfill but you have to be extremely nice to him with the thought that one day, you might go to him with your resume or might need him so you have to put up with him. Your mentality towards successful people in general changes due to the interest you have regarding their field. You have to be nice to people when you know you have to your job, but you have to be extra nice to people when you know they can help you with yours!
6. Have to learn how to operate a DSLR, whether you’re interested or not.
It isn’t out of the ordinary to stereotype people carrying cameras as bmm students but any bmm student would know how to operate a DSLR, just in case. It is one of the very firsts in the what to do in bmm 101 that every person involuntarily follows. Dslrs play more of an important role in the life of a bmm student than it appears to be. A lot of things in the media require recording and the right person with the camera at the right time will emerge victorious. Therefore, even if you aim to be either a director, editor, photographer or videographer, or none of the above, a little bit of camera knowledge doesn’t hurt, and this every bmm student is aware of, which makes it even harder to slog.
7. Attending film festivals/festivals to catch a glimpse of the casts.
Even if you choose a different path in life, the journey begins with the wish to explore into films. Films play such an important part of media because of which most people are associated with films which also makes it sort of mandatory to attend film festivals. These festivals where not only do popular directors showcase their films but also are involuntarily on the lookout for budding new scripts and directors. So if you’re a bmm student, you know exactly how important literary, college festivals and workshops conducted by imminent personalities are.
8. Too many options.
Advertising, journalism, filmmaking, writing, editing, PR, etc there seem to be ample options that are present for media students to pick from. But as they say, sometimes, too many choices spoil you. A lot of people join the course either when they aren’t able to cope up with any other or when they aren’t sure of what they would want to pursue which is why when you have a lot of things thrown at you, it adds to the difficult decision making. When you have too much to decide from, you tend to be more indecisive about what you need to do. A bmm student has a world of possibilities ahead of him which opens up everything for him and that’s when it can pose as a problem. When everything is out there and doable, its even more tough to make decisions.
9. Too less jobs.
A bmm student might have heard this more times in his life than he might have wanted it. First its his parents worrying about the jobs the course offers right after graduation and no guarantee of a steady pay, then its the friends then its he himself. It’s no secret that a BMM graduate has to go through the tiring process of looking for a well paid job as anyone, except it’s even tougher. It’s necessary to know exactly what you want to do and to know your subject which will then help you excel in it and lead to a career. The dearth of jobs in the media is something to take note of and therefore, must be pursued only if one is very sure about what he/she wants to do.
10. Everything!
This might sound a little too far fetched but if you’re a bmm student, you know you have felt this at some point. Even relaxing or bunking lectures will once have led to some anxiety. Right from the time you first step into the world of media, you are taken aback by the necessities and pros and cons that are required and the persistence that one has got to have. There are times when you doubt yourself because of what people tell you and then there are times when you doubt yourself because you feel question the things you might have to shoot, print, write or see but as time goes by, you learn to accept things the way they are, sometimes made up to impress, sometimes to express and that all you have to do is hold on and remember why you chose it in the first place and stick to it.
