Welcome, Creatives

I suppose introductions are in order. Lets get to know a little about me.

I’m Ben Hatfield, and I’m overjoyed to be sharing this little corner of the internet with you.

My Day to Day

My day to day is quite a juggling act. I’m the Co-Founder and Creative Director of a UK based media production company. We create video content for a variety of industries and a plethora of niches and clients within them. Our activities range from corporate videos, social media content, and adverts, to series pilots and short film productions. This company means I’m writing briefs, working with clients, and developing scripts on a weekly basis with CTAs (Calls to Action), KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and ROI (Return on Investment) in mind. I love writing with purpose. I aid clients in discovering their unique angle, their customer and prospect journeys, the reasons people should invest emotionally in their successes, and the narratives they need for their online and in-person presence to flourish. I’ve been doing this since 2018.

In addition, I provide support to the college and university local to me. I frequently visit and speak to the students, offering insights into the media industry, my company’s activities and experience within it, and how they can map out their own career progression. It’s a mix of an external educator role and a work experience provider. Through my company I facilitate work experience for media students. Each year I go in and conduct mock interviews (which, for many college students, is their first taste of a job interview situation) and then pass on briefs to the students. These briefs discuss real life client projects which they can get involved in, either as liaisons, project managers, script writers, recce crew, videographers, sound and lighting techs, and/or editors.

I’ve written, produced, directed, and acted in a range of productions.

Outside of my company I also freelance on the evenings and weekends. You see, although my company satiates a lot of my need for creative pursuits, it doesn’t quite tickle the spot as regularly as I need it to. So these endeavours sit in my freelancing time and include photography (a now distant love of mine. I used to be a self-employed photographer prior to my company’s formation in 2018), non-fiction writing, and education. I’ve educated actors and writers on how to create scripts that are ready to sell and produce. Talking of…

Education & Experience

Lets skip over school. Sure, it instilled passions in me but beyond that I don’t actively use anything from it for my career.

College is where I started to niche down my focuses. I studied 2 years of Journalism & PR, which provided me with a lot of fundamentals and foundations to build from for narrative structures, analysis of prose, and (most importantly in my opinion) creating products with the end user’s purpose in mind.

University was a quick switch up for me. I never intended on going. Not really. But during my time at college I got to spend time learning from one of the most creative people I’d met to date. A lecturer I can comfortably call a friend by the end of my academic journey. He taught me the basics of scriptwriting during college and could see my passions were not isolated to just writing but all sorts of creative pursuits. After producing a factual programme (a cooking show in which I starred as a more emo Gordon Ramsay), he convinced me to take film HE (Higher Education) courses into consideration. I ended up studying TV & Film Production at Staffordshire University for the next 3 years of my life.

This was a mix of good and bad. Lets start with the bad.

I have quite an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. You’ll see this once you reach my hobbies section (which may just be little more than a long list of since abandoned pursuits). But this meant for the first year and a half I sat there quite unchallenged. I had already self taught a lot of this information just through my hobbies. But eventually I did get some great stuff from the course. And, once again, it came in the form of lecturers going above and beyond for me.

Challenges are hard to come by for me. That’s why I adopt this poly-working approach to life. It was the combination of an industry expert-turned-lecturer in the second year and a recently returning course leader in the third year which changed up my approach. I could use this time to explore the things I struggled with. Why bother practicing what you’ve already got nailed down when you can start focusing your assignments on areas you have no clue on and actually learn something new in the process.

I remember having a conversation before my dissertation about points. The way the UK university system works for non-exam oriented courses is that you’ll accumulate points over time through course work, practical application, and assignment gradings. I had strongly evidenced my understanding of the industry and practices throughout the course, frequently hitting distinctions in my assignments from the start up until my dissertation. My lecturer conducted one-to-one conversations with each of the students to tell them where they were currently at, how many points they needed from their dissertation, and what they can expect if they graduate. Many came back in the room knowing they needed to hit 70% to get a first class degree or 55% to meet the requirements for a 2:1 etc…

I sat down for my one-to-one. My lecturer scanned through my accumulated points. She looked up and let me in on something.

I could absolutely coast this dissertation and still meet a first. That sentence would be a sign off for many and I do recognise that. But for me that was a green light to do something risky. To really push it and see just how wild I can go with my dissertation without fear of negative repercussion or failure.

And that led to me creating the piece of academic work I’m most proud of. An exploration of ‘Non-Chronological and Accurate Presentation of Narrative from End to Beginning.’ Plus I made an entire script and short film to support it. I graduated with a First class degree with Honours.

Hobbies / Skills

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of my hobbies come and go. my friends used to refer to them as the ‘6 skills a year’ because I’d be learning something new every two weeks. So here’s the (incomplete) list of hobbies, skills, and fixations through the years

• photography
• videography
• skateboarding
• model painting, oil painting, and digital painting
• cooking
• recurve bow archery
• guitar
• writing
• project cars
• learning languages
• weightlifting
• lockpicking
• 2d motion graphic animation
• coffee art

My Intentions & Clarity

My aim is to build a community here where everyone can converse, collaborate, give and receive advice, and essentially provide you all with a supportive and inspiring environment.

I also work with a business mind so, for transparency, my aim is to go about this journey to build a pre-existing audience primed for book launches. From that I’ll also be introducing courses, digital assets and templates, as well as documenting this entire publishing journey ready to pass on to you.

https://www.youtube.com/@benhatfield

If you want to follow along, check out my YouTube channel for a bunch of valuable information on how to prime yourself ready to be an author, creatives. I hope this space serves as a catalyst for your creative journey.

– Ben H