Thoughts After Film School

This article found its way into my inbox a long while ago and it was really something I thought long about. The writer, James Benton discusses four captions that best define the photograph below that was taken on his graduation day.

I definitely agree with his first caption, Now What? Having graduated from university a short 3 months ago my first thought and my parents first question was what now? I even did a short post on it here.
He then goes on to talk about earning a stable income but how being a filmmaker and making good money can take many years, and can require various different sources of income and this is something I talked about in the linked post above. I said that I didn't want to go into working freelance and being paid per job and then perhaps working a second job in-between, I feel as though I want to know what I'm getting paid and to know when I'm getting paid.

After a lot of thinking over the last few months I've decided what areas I want to work in, and to help me with that I have an exciting opportunity coming up in the next coupe of weeks but I'll tell you more about it next week.

To read James' article find it over at Raindance here.

Graduation

 

So it's been well over a month since I graduated so I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures from the day. I did actually take pictures of my outfit without the gown on but they came out really bad and I couldn't be bothered to take any more.
 

So this is the dress I decided to wear for my graduation, I just happened to stumble on it while browsing ASOS and I managed to snag the last one in my size. I was a little worried as graduation day came closer as it was starting to get ridiculously warm and there I would be in a long sleeve dress, but even though it was a hot day I actually stayed quite cool the whole day.

The shoes were very last minute, I had been deceiding on whether to wear black or white shoes and in the end I decided in these cute New Look ones that I had delivered two days before graduation. As nice as they look they were not the best shoes to wear, pretty much as soon as I got out of the car my feet were slipping and I could feel my toes on the ground. As you know I'm not really a big heel wearer but I ashamed to say that I didn't even last 3 hours in these.

Dress, ASOS - £28 | Shoes, New Look -  £18

 

So What Comes Next

So that's it. After handing in my final piece of university work ever at the end May, my 3-year degree officially ended on Wednesday 16th July when I graduated from university with a 2.1 BA Hons in Film Studies. So what comes next?

Like many students fresh out of university I don't have my ideal job all set up, ready and waiting for me, but I'm not letting it get me down as I'm still not completely sure of what career path I am going to take.
Over the past three years my degree made me realize that the practical side of film is where I am most comfortable and where I feel I work best.

Ideally during my time at university I would loved to have done production work outside of my normal university work; but I found it difficult to manage and even harder in third year when I started working part-time in a department store, although I did manage to get a couple of small jobs in.
So what comes next?

Ideally I would like to be a production manager, 1st AD or 2nd AD, but I would also like to do a something within fashion, so I think the best way to describe it until I find that job is something media based. I feel the next step for me is to get some more experience in things such as management and event organizing; and to assist with this I managed to get myself a 3-month work experience as an Arts Project Assistant, although this has yet to start.

But I'll stop before this post gets way to wordy. Have any of you graduated from University? If so what are your plans?

The End of an Era, Well 3 Years

So it's official. Well it's been official for a month but I'm only just getting round to writing this post, but I finally finished university on April 30th and I graduate on July 16th!

April was jam packed for me what with writing an 8000 word dissertation, a 2000 word essay, visiting friends and family and celebrating my 21st birthday, so I took the first 2 weeks of April off work to give me a bit of extra free time to get everything done.

Fast forward a few tears and panics I had finally finished my dissertation, but actually submitting it was a BIG BIG hassle. First the file was too big to submit online; secondly when I went to print it the printer I used somehow managed to change the font to an Arial 9 and the rest Arial 12.
After a panicked phonecall to my dad, he resent me the file and I ran to a different shop to print it out (which ended up being a lot cheaper, although quite a bit longer), before running to Rymans to get it bound for a lovely £3.69.

Thankfully I didn't get caught up in the tube strikes when I made my way to submit my bound copy an HOUR before the deadline (which I was amazed by, seeing as I don't live close).

I thought that was the end of it until. The day after I almost had a heart attack when I received an email from my supervisor saying that I failed to submit my bound copy. She thought it was strange that I wouldn't submit work and not email her if there was a problem. I told her I did indeed submit it and she managed to find it a couple of hours later... right where I submitted it, in the drop box where it was supposed to be submitted. I mean honestly.

Recent Projects - For His Sake

So if you read this post you'll know that I went to Liverpool back in February to film my final year university production and you may also know I didn't really have a good time there. Thinking about it now that it's not so recent I can't help think about the good times that I had and the amazing people I met. Everything is a leaning curve and I wouldn't change anything that happened.

We handed in our finished copy sometime in March but I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the finished version here, so in the mean time here's some stills from the film.

(The actors in these images are Vikki Earle, Tao Wignall and Samira Saeed)

Terminal - Production Photos

So I'm back!!! Well for now anyway, but this post has been in my drafts for a while as you can probably tell.

I've been so busy these last few months with general classes and preparing for my dissertation, but then on top of that having to prepare for our next production. After filming our 90-second short I'm A Stranger Here Myself our group went into pre-production meeting up once a week to discuss script, auditions, crew and all that jazz.
Finally after weeks of planning November 16th came and filming began which meant 12-13 hour days.

Living in Essex when the rest of your group lives in London has it's downside.

Anyway here's some pictures from the set!!

These were taken on a shoot I did with Kes for the cover of his characters book which you'll see further down.

L-R: Sylvi Kim, William Snape (yes from The Full Monty), Raphael Ruiz, Maria Helle Spence, Alexia Turchi, Hannan Atlkaboud, Jamie Weston and Kes Baxter

All images belong to me, do not use without my permission

Outfit | Cropped

Quilted Sleeve Jacket, Primark - £25 | Cropped Jumper, Primark - £10 | High Waist Denim Jegging, ASOS - £28 | Chelsea Boots, Primark - £10
Another post that's been in my drafts for over a month!! Uni is taking up so much time it's unbelievable.

I wore this outfit on a long day at uni, this cropped jumper is amazingly warm and I love that it has that slightly oversized fit. I've been umming and ahhing for months about whether to get Topshop Joni jeans, I wasn't very keen on the price so I decided to buy these similar ones from Asos. They're comfortable but I they're too big up top, I got a W30 L32 and I probably should have gone with a W28 instead.
I'd seen bloggers like Kavita wearing a similar coat from sheinside and when I got back from holiday I found this beauty in Primarkand I'm obsessed with it, although I would prefer if the buttons and zip were in silver but hey ho.

"I'm A Stranger Here Myself" - Production Photos

Three weeks ago I started my third and final year at university. We were given the first assignment for my year long production module in the first week, we had to make a short film under 5 obstructions, in the style of Lars Von Trier's film Five Obstructions.

- 2 hours pre-production

- 2 hours shooting

- 2 hours post-production

- All set in a studio

- No more than 90 seconds

We spent Saturday morning and early afternoon completing our task, despite an insanely early start at 7.30 I had the most amazing time on set and we worked with a fantastic crew. Here are some of the pictures I took during the shoot and I'll show you the finished film in a couple of days.

Louis Lagayette

Benjamin Skyrme and Alexandra Agass

Michael Koltes, Noor Lawson, Raphael Ruiz, Jamie Criss, Rachel Halfpenny and Jessica Wilson

All images belong to me, please do not use without my permisson.

I'm Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So after a 3hour exam yesterday I have officially finished my second year at UNI!! It has been such a difficult year for me as I found myself struggling with every essay and doubting my writing abilities, but 7 modules, 2 scripts, 1 production, 6 insanely good friends, 1 exam and countless essays later I have survived. Whether I've past or not is a different thing :o

Hopefully I have, but I won't find out for a few months.

That means I'm free to do whatever I want! Well now that's not really true. I'll be able to get back to my blogging and I'll make more of an effort to comment on blogs that I read, making art which I'm really excited about and I'll actually be able to watch the ridiculous amount of unwatched DVDs that's building up on my shelf.
Well I don't know how I'll get on with that last one seeing as my dvd player no longer works.

Now onto my big news that I mentioned in this post. After years of searching I finally managed to get a part-time job!!!!! I am officially a style advisor for Mint Velvet at House of Fraser, Oxford Street. I've been there a few weeks and I am really loving it. The brand I work for is relatively new and most people I know haven't heard of it, but I'll do a post on them some time soon and I'll take some pictures of where I work.

I'll be back tomorrow with the first installment of my new blogger feature!

Film | In the Cinema - May #2

I haven't posted in almost a week and my views have steadily been going down :( wahh. This is going to be my only post until my exam on tuesday so please hold on until I return. Got a few cool posts to put up when I get back and I finally get round to telling you my good news :) Before then enjoy this second instalment of In the Cinema!!

May 17th

Fast & Furious 6 - Agent Luke Hobbs enlists Dominic Toretto and his team to bring down former Special Ops soldier Owen Shaw, leader of a unit specializing in vehicular warfare.


May 22nd

Epic - A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world -- and ours


May 24th

The Hangover Part III - This time, there's no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.


May 29th

The Big Wedding - A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their family unites for a wedding.


May 31st

No One Lives – A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnap a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to shockingly discover that things are not what they seem.

The Purge - If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? Over the course of a single night, a family will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home.

Byzantium – Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.

Life as a Film Student #4 | History X Production Photos

So last week we did the filming for our final production of this year. We filmed on Monday and Tuesday from 9am to 5pm which meant that we had to be up at 5am to get to the set for 7am.
My role throughout the whole project has been production manager which meant that I had to find people to come to casting and I had to keep in touch with everyone we met with, so when it came to filming days I wasn't realy going to have that much to do so I made sure to take lots and lots of pictures on set.

So here's part 1. Enjoy!!