It's alive!

The website is finally live! What a long and interesting journey it has been. I think the mistake I made was starting to set it up too early, I was at a point were my work was still based around my student work and I was only just beginning my freelance career. I am still in the starting stages, but at least I have some credited work (which will appear in another blog post). Thank you very much to my web designer/developer Sam Kelham for putting up with me all this time. I definitely recommend him if you need anything like this done and can visit his website here: www.samkelham.com

So if you want to take a look, you can visit my website here!

Also, now I have a website, it is giving me the motivation to keep this blog up and running. The past few months have been a bit of a whirlwind and I have been finding it really hard to keep on top of it all but I will be updating what I have done.

Just a final comment: today marks the day that I have officially registered as self-employed! Ahhhh!

Vikings everywhere!

Since the 8th April this month has just zoomed by! Where the hell has the time gone?!

I've been quite busy again recently, I had my my first day working with 4Crew at the 4Talent day in Ravensbourne. Was so much fun and got to interview Alex Brooker! It was a real learning curve and I'm so excited to find out who my mentor is and get back down to London for some more training!

Also the book trailer 'God of Vengeance' by Giles Kristian went live on Youtube! I was 1st Assistant Director on this with Urban Apache Films and I loved every minute of it and I am so proud to have been a part of it. Link it below if you want to have a look!

A few more things are on the horizon and I am still coming to grips on how to be a successful freelancer, it is consuming my every being at moment as my lovely boyfriend has just secured an amazing full time job and I want to go with him. Hopefully if I get the result I want from an interview, that shouldn't be a problem for much longer. I can dream!

Ugh, just slap my wrists...

I started quite strong when I said I would keep up with this but then from July last year, I just lost it! Ugh, bad Leash! *slaps wrists*

However, there is a very good reason for this. If I was my July 2013 self, I would not believe what has happened in the past 9 months and I'm sure the blogging world would forgive me when I say I have been a very busy bee. Buzz buzz...

So! What have I been up to? I always feel that lists can convey information effectively but I shall start with a picture...

Yes, I am driving a bus! But I assure you I have not changed career paths

So since I last posted I have:

• Graduated with a First Class Honours in BA (Hons) Media Production in September
• Helped out a Cottingham High's summer school
• Worked as a Marketing Assistant Intern at H&H Communications
• Got a job as a Runner on a Channel 5/The Garden Productions documentary about EYMS bus company (hence the photo). Went from part-time to full-time position and worked for over 2 and half months.
• Conducted 6th Form university talks and lectured at Lincoln University
• Held a talk at St Marys school for BTEC Media students
• Became a media mentor for a new university initiative 
• Production Assistant Internship at Warp Films (1 month)
• Made a short film for Sundance London
• 1st Assistant Director for "God's of Vengeance" book trailer with Urban Apache Films
• Gained a place on Skillset Film Trainee Finder as a Locations Trainee
• Became 4Crew Production Manager (but more info on that soon)

Phew! You can see why right? However, I do promise not to forget to blog as I have an exciting year coming up with some possible great prospects also on the cards! Oh yeah, and that damn website- this does not reflect well does it...

I nearly dropped my iPad...

So, after the last post I have had rather a busy and exciting time, so apologies for the lack of blogging!

So in the big news, I got a First Class Honours degree!! I actually did it! I almost dropped my iPad in shock and nearly screamed the house down with joy. Many happy dances were had, I can assure you that.

I also went for an interview with Frequency Festival for a Production Assistant internship, however I was unsuccessful and was very gutted about it. Even though it was not the outcome I wanted, I did come in the top 2 and had such a good experience and made some valuable contacts from this. They have not heard the last of me as I am now applying for other roles within the festival.

And then another blogging activity! I was asked to put my article about my 'This Morning' work experience on my University website. You can view the article here and see all the other talented people at my university! I think I might have this self- PR malarkey underway and I am trying anything just to get a chance to work in my dream industry.

Also I have something on the horizon that I will blog about in the next few days!

Best laid plans...

So we are coming towards the end of June and all of a sudden my life has started to take a change in direction. Just as an update, I went for an interview in Leeds for a Photography Internship which I really wanted, but had to turn it down due to financial aspects *gutted*.

I was randomly emailed the other day too. A member of the university blogging team had found my posts online about the film Forlorn, that was in the last post, and had asked me to write about my experience as a student film producer! Very excited and it went up online very quickly, something of which you can see here.

I have also applied for a lot of internships or summer placements, I have found that I can't just walk straight into a full-time job so will build up my experience while I am back at home in Hull. Got an interview which is on wednesday, as well as waiting to hear from several other ones.

"Almost 40 minutes! You've got to be joking!"

Yes this was my reaction when I discovered how long our final film for university was going to be. We thought we were going to struggle for 20- 25minutes so this was a shock!

I am sat writing this from my hometown of Hull, having a welcomed break from Lincoln and the life I have just left behind. The film 'Forlorn' has been my life for the past 6 months or so and as the Producer, I still cannot get the film out of my head and have been on a promotional campaign for a few days now. No words can do justice to how much this film has tested and strained the resolve of myself and the director as well as how much of my heart, soul and every waking moment has been put into making it a reality. I wish I had kept a blog of our progress but we needed every single second!

So, what is our 37 minute and 50 second epic about? Well 'Forlorn' is a gritty psychological drama which tells the story of aspiring photographer Ben Broadhurst. When an event dramatically changes his life, his world falls apart and he has to deal with the physical and psychological effects. Ben's career and relationship start to fall apart as he struggles to deal with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). When forced to seek help by his wavering girlfriend, he visits a therapist, but things take an unexpected turn for the worse.

Just as a little summary, we had a 14/15 strong cast and crew, which is rather large for a student production, as well as being partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, thanks very much to our backers! We have also just displayed our work publicly at the University of Lincoln Media Degree Show, a trailer of which you can see here and we briefly appear in it too. Over the 3 days, we received some fantastic feedback about the film and we were over the moon.

This is the dream team of myself, Nev (editor) and Dave (director) outside of the screening.

This is the box file that we submitted for our final piece. Yes, the box file almost didn't close and a lot of that paperwork was completed by me and was all designed by me too.

So, what's been happening since then? Well we put our film online, a link that is displayed at the bottom of this post, and within a few days we had over 200 views, something we were not expecting from a 40min film on Youtube. It was not our first choice of displaying the film, however for other sites we have to pay and we cannot afford anything over than film festival entries. We have also submitted it to the university to be considered to be put forward for the Royal Television Society Student Awards, which we have our fingers crossed for. It's quite crazy the response we have received and are so grateful for all of the feedback we have. I have also been asked quite a lot of questions from other media students and practically had an interview over facebook from an a-level media student!

So, here is the film! I could fill hundreds of blog posts all about every stage of this film, but I wouldn't want to bore anyone to death. Forlorn Link!

#graduateproblems

So, I graduated from my Media Production course at the University of Lincoln around 2 weeks ago. It feels weird to not have a purpose anymore but apply for any sort of job going. I know some very talented and deserving people who walked straight into a job but I thought I would write a blog post based on a few tips that have helped me now I have graduated.

1. Be Selfish

This is your time to get your head together and have some time for yourself. After 3 years of jumping through hoops and working hard it is time to take a break. This could be anything that you want to do; I chose to have a few gaming and film days as well as get myself back into shape after abusing my body with food, alcohol and lack of sleep over the past 3 years. By re-charging your batteries, it really puts into perspective how much you have left to do, but gives you the brain power to do it. Over this time, it’s good to have a think about yourself in general, think about where you want to go with your life, career and all the wonderful things you are going to say about yourself in CV and interviews. If you feel you need more work experience, get it in this time before it’s too late!

2. Don’t be afraid to make the jump

The jump can mean anything such as deciding to move back home while looking for a job, moving away for a job or deciding to stay in the place that you studied. Every decision at this point is a big step so no matter how small you think it is, just take it and embrace it.

3. Get yourself into a routine

One thing that I have been finding is that I love sleep-ins! How amazing are they?! But it comes to the point where you fall completely out of your sleeping pattern and have nothing to get up for anymore. You need a routine, end of. So what I do is get up at a decent time, go to the gym every other day, shower, do some job hunting and then apply to anything I find. The rest of the day is then mine to be selfish with but I have got up and felt I have accomplished something. I think that this is something that a pro-active graduate needs to do and will help when you finally get that job.

4. Sign on

So, we have worked for 3 years on getting a degree and what do we find at the end, becoming unemployed. It is a horrible feeling knowing that you’ve probably spent your last student loan installment and do not have any other money coming in the near future. A misconception is that you must wait until your graduation ceremony (in my case September) to claim, but this is not true. There will be a completion date for your course, which you can find out from your university, and it would be a good idea to sign on at the job centre. This is a way to keep funding yourself and will give you some financial help when it comes to traveling to interviews and general living expenses.

5. Keep positive!

There is nothing more important than keeping positive and this means about everything that you do. Just keep the faith and always keep on eye on the light at the end of the tunnel.

So it's been a while!

So my last post really has not come true. I have not posted in quite a while as I have had such a busy year. So where do I begin. Well, I have just finished university for good! It feels so strange to be waking up with not a lot to do and knowing that I will have no more student loan coming in! I have my degree show on 5th-7th June, which is where we will premiere my final university film.

So what's been happening over the past year? Well a lot really.
- work experience at 'This Morning' which featured on the homepage of www.mediamoose.co.uk
- another Cineclub award
- still trying to set up my website (so many things getting in the way)
- moved into a new house with some great housemates that are taking up all of my spare time! (excuses I know)
- earned a Lincoln Award
- finished a 10,000 word dissertation on reality TV
- successfully got in the ITV Talent Pool
- general filming and work
- I turned 21! (eeep)

I will go more into my latest film 'Forlorn' in later posts as we start to show it around and will link the film to my blog but for now, I have some pictures of my favourite week of this year so far!

On the road again...

I have clocked up a lot of milage in the past week! Last Tuesday and Wednesday I went down to Dorset to interview the legend that is Oswald Morris with one of my lecturers and two other media students. It was fantastic and I actually got to interview him and ask him questions! After studying someone for such a long time, it was nice to meet them. I also took a copy of my Research and Development file for cinematography to show him and he was over the moon and was very impressed at the information I was able to find. I can actually say that he said, I am "...a very clever and extremely talented girl." *egoboost*

Here is a picture of us at his house:

Whenever I look at this picture, all I can see is the shiny shinys in the background!

Goodbye 2nd Year, Hello Wonder Twin

I cannot believe how long I have not posted on here, but I have to say it has been a crazy past 2 or so months. Here is a quick update:

- The fiction piece got handed in stupidly close to the deadline and was a nightmare of 12 weeks- I feel I have learnt tons from this (even though our mark was less than good)
- I made the experimental film and I am extremely proud of it! Click here to see it.
- Digital Media was a huge struggle. We spent 1 week non-stop, which included an all-nighter on the last day, to get it done. We vastly underestimated the time that it would take. I have not to that online yet, we are going to re-make it.
- I did my cinematography work all on my own! Got a first for my presentation and my folder is yet to be marked.

So, I have finished my 2nd year at university and I feel quite deflated. It has not been the best year, possibly one of the worst in terms of work I've produced, but I have made some of the strongest friendships in the process and I am glad I went through the rubbish for the glimmers of great things.

I have started work at Cottingham High School again as the Media Arts Technician. Not sure what to say apart from that it is just great and I love every second I spend there.

I also got an amazing opportunity to meet the cinematographer that I studied! I am going next week to film Oswald Morris, a legend in British Cinematography. It is going to be his last ever interview, as his health is deteriorating (pretty good for 98 though!) and it was just so lucky that I chose to study him, and my tutor loved my presentation that I did, so he asked if I would go!

Lots of exciting things coming up, including a reunion with my Wonder Twin ;) the wonderful Matt Needler, one of the Minecraft Duo, FyreUK.

Watch this space!

A wise man...

A wise man once said:

"At university, you think you are going to learn how to use the equipment but it is the people that you learn to deal with." - Ronnie Fowler, Single Camera Tutor.

Truer words have never been spoken.

I have learnt this with the single camera project I am doing at the moment. As you may recall from the documentary, I have a rather difficult group, but different from each other in many ways. I am not going into it as I like to keep this blog as a record of events and it is public, but I assure you it is an experience I will never forget. To be fair, it was about time that I was placed with a difficult group. All the way through school, 6th form and my first year of uni, I was very lucky with who I got to work with.

It is 1 week and 4 days now until my deadline. It has gone by too quickly and various shoots have been cancelled or have not gone to plan. I have a few pictures and stuff that i will upload but I just wanted to do a quick update about it.

I also have an exciting prospect that I hope will come true! I am doing my cinematography work on Oswald Morris, an absolute living legend and my tutor Brian has said that he is going to film some interviews with him and since I am studying him, he would like to take me along! Such great news, just hope he remembers/ I can get to do it!

Not long until easter now...

My first week of being 20

Since the last blog, there has been a lot happening and other blogs to cope with. I have started my digital media blog, mainly for my research and development file to track my progress through the project. That has taken up quite a lot of my time, I just find the topic so fascinating! The blog link is in my profile :)

On the university side of things, I have received some results back. I have definitely been graded a first for the documentary (woop!) I got a first for my Ugly Betty essay and 2.1 for my Prince Essay :) For digital media I got high 2.1s on both my Maya and App projects, still got to hear about the set extension :) So all is good on that front!

An update on the script, I've stopped doing it. I feel the idea was not good enough and another person in my group had a brilliant idea so we're doing that instead. I decided to take on the editing role for the fiction project as I really need to learn avid and doing this will push me into learning it!

I can safely say it's been a great first week of being 20!

Everyone needs a pair of fluffy socks...

Halfway through my first week back and I am writing a script, and I want to tear my hair out. I just feel the pressure of making the script good, as I am the only one actively writing one in our group so far. Bad scripts= bad films and I do not want to be the source of that.

However, this book is a gods send:

Crafting Short Screenplays that connect by Claudia Hunter Johnson is my bible, but I can't absorb myself in the whole writing process because I don't really believe in myself, I just think I'm a bit shit at writing. I think I try too hard.

On a lighter note, my new fluffy socks make my feet feel like they are in heaven =D

"Do not fear mistakes, there are none..." - C.H.J

Happy new year and all that...

So my last post was over a month ago, and who could blame me. I've been stuffing myself with food, alcohol and having a good old rest to recover from the past few months. I am now up, and for the most part, ready to go. I am 20 in 1 week 2 days, so my dreams I had when I was 14 of becoming a media child prodigy have quickly died along with the majority of my years of education behind me. Quite scary to know that in a year and a half I shall be cast out into the world on my own, to find my way into media to do whatever I want with my life.

But I know I am slowly getting there. My last post was a giant rant about people not taking me seriously and all that jazz. However, as I learnt today, my struggles have not been in vain. I was pulled aside at the end of a seminar  to be told that people were very pleased/ impressed in what I had done in the documentary project and complimented me on how I handled such a challenging group. I was also told that as the confident one, I need to take charge and put people in their place more often, which is certainly going to happen. I was also told that my initial grade is a First which i am overjoyed with, let's hope it doesn't change too much in the 2nd marking phase :)

So all in all, so far this year has been good so far :)
(and I won my first ever amount on the lottery: £10 woop!)

Blogging with beans

While I am sat here eating my very student stereotypical bowl of beans and sausage (so, it's bloody cold outside and I'm working!) I have had a realisation.

Today was our presentation of our final documentary. To be very honest with you I am not happy with it, at all, but that is because I know it could have been something much better, if people would have actually listened to me. This is the biggest problems I've faced over the past few years. At first, when I started doing media properly when I was about 13, I actually just thought  I was trying to be a control freak and should step back because other people know better/more. Now I'm at uni, I am quite young in comparison to some of the people I work with, but I have been doing media much longer than them and it just makes me want to scream when I do not get listened too. I may be younger, but have you thought that I actually know what I'm on about?! I am now one of the people that knows something.

To take the most recent example, this documentary for my single camera project, this has happened yet again, but not because I wasn't assertive (believe me, I was). I have been saying from the beginning about certain things not going to work or not having enough screentime etc. I kept repeating myself practically everyday, and in the edit this didn't change.

So as I sat in my presentation hearing feedback on our film I had to hold myself back. My tutor was picking out everything that I had warned the group about and been saying was not going to work. If anyone was to look at me they would have thought I wanted to tear the room apart with my mind, I was holding back that much. I just wanted to burst out!

But I've realised how I've become a bit more professional in the past few weeks because of it all. I have never had to shout at someone I worked with before. I don't take members of my group to the side to 'criticise them as a professional' when I'm actually gonna tell them how awful they are or always tell members of the group to always act professional. (There are 2 types of people: 1: professionals- that don't bang on about being professional and do it   2: idiots- who actually know nothing and have to cover that up by saying the word professional as many times in a sentence as they can)

I am now just sat in my chair, smug in the comfort that I was right and I know that I was. At least I know I have really grown as a person.

But mark my words, I will never be spoken down to again...

Step 1...

Well After Effects and I had a little tiff yesterday. I was in the middle of something and didn't realise that somehow my motion track had disappeared so everything went to pot and had to start again right near the end as it just would not go back to normal. But I am glad to say I have finished it now! I am not happy with it though, I just don't think my idea is good enough and would have loved to change it, but I just don't have the time. My tutor said as long as we covered the skills he taught he didn't mind, and I think I've done that.

So here is a screen shot of each of my stages!

                                                                   My original footage

                                                                       Final Image

I have learnt a lot but it could be so much better.

Oh the pain of being a perfectionist...

Time to open my toolbox...

As you may fully be aware, After Effects and I have a love/hate relationship. But we have been to relationship counselling in the form of Graham my Digital Media lecturer. I used to look at it as a massive obstacle that I had to do all in one go, but I realise that it isn't. He explained that every tiny skill he learnt goes into his 'toolbox' so when he knows how to do something like keyframe the position of something or how to scale something then that's a skill, and you use all of these to do bigger tasks like set extension.

And I just did my first ever After Effects work on video yesterday and today :) even overcoming some of the worst problems ever! I am really pleased with myself, eventhough the piece of work could be better I learnt:
- Sky replacement
- Using masking (auto and by hand)
- Motion tracking
- Null objects
- Chromakeying properly
- How to use curves to add depth
- Change my image to black and white

And that's from a 20 second project!

My toolbox is starting to fill up nicely...

Do you have a weakness?

Wow! I am in week 7 of uni now, I was going to blog more but the documentary has taken up a lot of my time for single camera.

So what has happened the past few weeks, well, I didn't go any further with the Campbells Soup competition (I didn't place in the top 6) and I also haven't got anywhere with the Pepsi competition either. My time has been taken up by the Parkour documentary I am currently working on and digital media has already moved onto the 3rd project! I'm about to start my after effects work to be handed in for thursday.

These past few weeks have also made me realise something, a person is determined on how they deal with weak moments in life. Around week 4/5 I had a time where I thought I couldn't do it anymore, there is too much work and I didn't know how to cope. But I got through it. And the other day my friend went through a few days of turmoil, but he got through it too. It just makes you realise how strong minded you can be if you put effort into it and the weak moments you have can shape the person you are.

Let's stay positive :)

What a weekend!

From wednesday onwards it has been a crazy end of the week/weekend. I shall make a little list of what happened:
- Got on the team for the LAFTA's
- My Campbells Soup viral ad has got the final of the competition
- My camera came and I went straight out to take some photos of Hull Fair
- I finished the temple in Maya after 6 hours! Pictured below:

Phew! Been rather crazy. I'm in Lincoln now, chilling for a few weeks, mainly so I've got time to do my digital media project. 1 week to go and my creature hasn't even been built yet! However, I have made my little model to help me build it in the programme. Here he is:

Bring on week 3 of uni!

I'm expecting!

A Canon 550D that is! Ordered it yesterday and I'm so excited. I'm coming back to Hull on thursday to pick it up, just want it to come asap. To be honest, I have an extremely busy week ahead so it'll fly by! Today alone has been really busy, 3 lectures and then making my model for digital media. We have to create a creature to animate for our mini project, i find it hard to think of drawings as 3D so I'm actually making my model out of childrens modelling clay! Photos are going up tomorrow of all the different stages :)

I also went around to my friend Daves to work out Maya. I'm sort of getting through my temple! It's coming along okay, just taking me a really long time to understand it but I started going through it quicker just before I stopped. Here is the screenshot before I saved it:

I also applied for the LAFTAs, Lincoln unis media awards ceremony :) I have my interview on wednesday afternoon so I'm gonna be preparing myself for that tomorrow.

Busy busy week!!!