From cleaning at festivals to filming at them! 

A student from Barking & Dagenham College has gone from being a cleaner at festivals to filming at some of the best festivals around thanks to a new found passion in digital media.

Ilie Gorea, 24, arrived in the UK four years ago, unable to speak English very well and with no idea what he wanted to do as a career.  Ilie worked at a hotel but when Covid struck, he was left unemployed and moved back to Moldova to live with his mother and brother.  Returning to the UK when he could, Ilie found jobs cleaning at festivals and doing bar work, but he knew that it was going to be hard to succeed without qualifications.

Ilie decided to apply to Barking & Dagenham College to study English and maths with the goal of going to University.  The College helped Ilie look into different subject paths, and when they suggested Digital Media to him, Ilie thought ‘why not?’.

Throughout the course, Ilie was supported and motivated by staff, including his Learning Mentor, Gemma.  He was also quickly appointed as the Creative Media Student Union Officer and within a month he was made Vice President of the Student Union.  A year later he became the President of the Student Union!

Guest speakers and career events are often organised as part of the course, and through one of these, Ilie met DJ Sophie Lorena, who he has since created videos for her social media platforms.  He has also been a videographer at fashion shows, worked at private parties and with other DJs and composers and also gained valuable skills thanks to work experience with Film Barking and Dagenham and Barking and Dagenham Council.  This saw him work on projects for Netflix, Warner Brothers and Apple TV.  He has travelled to locations like France, Spain, Ibiza and the Netherlands to work on productions such as Heart of Stone, Squid Games The Challenge and I Hate Suzie.

Ilie says: “Sometimes you meet the right people at the right time to help you to find your goals in life. I have gone from the guy who cleaned at festivals to a guy who films at the best festivals.  This same guy has been a part of the biggest movies, motivates other students to try new ventures and at the same time this guy studies at Barking & Dagenham College and is now looking forward to a new adventure this September at Ravensbourne University.”