Lacey Drake
Whether it’s filming out on exercise with the Royal Marines or designing military recruitment materials, no two days are the same for Lacey Drake – and that suits her just fine.
Two weeks after completing her course in Creative Digital Media, Lacey found a job that combined all the skills she’d learnt in her studies in a field she had never thought of working in before. She’s been in a job she loves ever since.
“I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no idea at the same time,” said Lacey. “I was looking at any media jobs and this job popped up. It was something I didn’t think I’d get. They wanted a lot of experience, which obviously I didn’t have. A week later they called me for an interview and a week on they told me I’d got the job.”
Lacey works as a Media Developer for Raytheon UK, which is contracted to work on behalf of the Royal Navy. Day to day she is at a Royal Navy base in Devon.
Her work covers many skillsets: designing certificates and recruitment posters, creating videos, photography and graphic production pieces. On some days she might find herself in the office writing voiceovers for videos, storyboarding, scriptwriting or editing. On other days she’ll be out and about doing test shoots, shooting videos or taking photographs.
Her work occasionally takes her off base, such as Royal Marines training in Plymouth or Scotland and occasionally abroad, such as Norway. Filming tasks can include training camps, passing out ceremonies, commemorative events, the Navy’s sports teams in action and royal visits. She has produced many promotional and educational videos.
“Every day is different here, it just depends on what jobs come in,” she said. “It does take months of planning to do major video jobs.
“I love my job, I love what I do. I get bored of things very easily and I have never found I’m bored in this job. There’s always something new – new equipment, new
ways of working. It’s definitely fast paced, but it’s hard. Everything has got to be done pretty quickly so I have had to get used to a very fast working environment. I wouldn’t have it any other way, it’s a very unique job.”
Keen to study a vast array of different media fields, Lacey was drawn to the Creative Digital Media course at Worcester. “I like to have a challenge, I like to do multiple things,” she said. “I chose the broadest range of modules that the course could offer. The course allowed me to do Graphic Design, Fine Art, filmmaking, photography and illustration in one. When I was in college and looking at universities, quite a lot of the courses were just graphics or just video with potential options to support that in other areas. It was really the only university I looked at that offered this kind of course. It was nice to have that freedom to explore what I wanted to explore and to have so much variety. I wouldn’t be able to be in this job if I didn’t have this range of skills that I learnt at university.”
She said the course had particularly brought on her skills in graphic design, which she didn’t have much confidence in, so much that it is now something she excels in.
“The course itself was great. All my lecturers were very supportive. They would always challenge me. I wouldn’t want to challenge myself. I’d do it and I’d love it. They always push you to try things. They probably know you better than you know yourself in third year.”
However, Lacey said it was still a learning curve once in her job and she has picked up many additional working skills since. “That poster at university, you’d have three weeks to do it,” she said. “Here I have got two days to do it and it’s got to be better; nothing can be out of place or unbranded. This job is an extension of my course at university and I’m continuing to grow my skillset in many areas.”
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