Luke on his work experience with SAZ MEDIA

Here at SAZ MEDIA we've been hosting work experience placements with those who would normally struggle to gain access to the work and the media industry.

Through Pure Innovations (a company supporting those with disabilities or health-related issues to live a fulfilling life with a sense of purpose and belonging.) We have supported Luke to visit us twice a week over 3 months to gain media skills and a feel for the working world.

In this video Luke tells us what his work experience has been like. For more information about what we can offer, please fill out the contact form.

Jake our Production Trainee writes in more detail about Lukes Work Experience here in Greater Manchester.

At the start of Lukes work experience we introduced him to Photography, which plays a big part here at what we do at SAZ MEDIA. He had not used cameras outside of what is on your phone so we went to the local park here in Salford and began letting him take photos of whatever, just so he could get used to the equipment but also have fun and not feel pressured to do an amazing job on his first try. After viewing the images we introduced him to a software that he can use to edit the pictures he had taken.

We then spent a few sessions getting Luke used to photoshop and later Lightroom, to build up his confidence with using the software. He began to create some really cool and unique posters, using a blend of his pre existing art skills and his new ones on photoshop.

After a bit of time we gave Luke a task to create some positive affirmation posters that we could possibly sell at a stall in the future. He started creating them from scratch which included looking at similar pieces of work online and drawing inspiration from them, then going out into the local area with a camera and snapping pictures of anything he thought would make a good fit, he brought the pictures back and edited them on Adobe Lightroom, and then to finish off he edited them further and added positive affirmation text to his posters on Photoshop, as a result he created some great work that he himself can take away and look at and hopefully feel proud of creating.

In his time here at SAZ MEDIA we also took Luke on a few photography and filming jobs that we had, so he could gain better insight into what we do when we are out of the office and so he could gain that experience of working as a team, and communicating with others that are not the people that he is used to. As Luke is someone with Autism he found the days when we were filming and photographing an insightful experience, and he did a really good job of stepping out of his comfort zone and learning from these experiences.

Mental Health First Aid - Production Trainee Jake qualified :)

Film and photography production trainee Jake recently attended Impact Hub London for Mental Health First Aid training hosted by Social Enterprise ABC Life support. Jake really enjoyed this training and in his own words below wants to tell you why he’d recommend it.

Jake - ‘It was an enlightening and educative course that showed me a lot and how little I knew about positive mental health and the best ways to support people that are struggling. In the course we went over a broad spectrum of topics such as stress, anxiety, depression, Bipolar and much more. When going through the topics we learnt the ways that people may show signs that they could be experiencing these struggles and the best way for ourselves to identify these things and to approach the person that we are concerned about without making things worse.

One of the biggest things that I learnt is the massive difference between sympathy and empathy and how sympathy can sometimes seem condescending to the person you are talking to even if that is not your intention or it lacks sincerity as that may appear more obvious than intended.

One of the hardest things about the sessions were the practice conversations, we would group up in threes, one person role playing as the Mental Health First Aider, one person struggling with their mental health and the other judges the conversation and how you can improve as a First Aider, I found this particularly difficult as I am no actor and I struggle with mock up situations, this was obvious in my first attempt at the conversation, however by the second I found my feet a little bit and by the final attempt I felt myself massively improve, which helped to build up my confidence. From these practice conversations I pulled out a lot of knowledge and experience I can take with me further, but it also showed me how important it is to plan conversations so that I don’t just stare at them blankly and make things worse.

Overall it was an amazing experience to get to learn about how I could possibly help people in the future and how I can apply the knowledge I have gained from the course at work, the workshops that we provide at work, as well as my everyday life. I would also like to say aa big thank you to The Impact Hub London and ABC Life Support for hosting and providing this great Mental Health First Aid training course.’

Sara - We are so proud of Jake for completing this two day course. We think it's really important in every workforce that someone gets the opportunity to train in this area, you could be the difference between someone surviving or thriving and we all thrive when we are supported.

Social Enterprise Day 2023

Social enterprises are businesses that work to achieve positive social or environmental impact. They are primarily motivated, designed and driven by a desire to make a positive difference in the world. Like all businesses social enterprises seek to deliver profit by trading in goods or services, but they reinvest or donate at least half of those profits to their social or environmental mission.

Social Enterprise Day takes place on Thursday 16 November 2023 and is a global event celebrating the incredible contribution that social enterprises make to communities and the environment across the world.

SAZ MEDIA reinvests 100% of our profits to support our community and mission which is to be ‘the go to place for creative content that inspires positive social change’ we don’t just create lovely photographs or films for clients, we make content that carries a message, that inspires people to see things differently or make a change. We also up skill young people in digital media through innovative workshops, work experience, traineeships and through engaging our youth board.

This Social Enterprise day we will be making a difference within our Stockport community, we will be filming the Proper Good Business conference where businesses and Social Enterprises will come together to collaborate and see how they can mutually benefit to support the community and better the world we live in.

We look forward to sharing the content we create with you.

SAZ MEDIA IS A CERTIFIED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE :)