Why do people go to Uni??

No really, why do we? You spend 3 years, maybe more studying a subject, for what? To get a job? Well that doesn't happen straight away, many spend their time after Uni, working for a bank, or in retail under the watchful eye of some spotty teenager, who decided sod A levels, Sod Uni, when I can rule the world of retail. Ok, not the most inspirational job, but they have it sorted, fast track the system and before you know it they're earning the type of wages you long for when you finish Uni. We are told of how doing a degree will make us have a starting wage of £20,000 or more...RUBBISH!!! I've got a degree and I earn much less than that! What do I work as I hear you cry?? A trainee technical operator for a shopping channel...See RETAIL!!!

But on a happier note, in case any of you are school leavers hoping to go to Uni, those three years spent in Uni were good fun. Hard work, but good fun! I made the most amazing friends during my time there, and some pretty interesting films to say the least. I didn't do the average kid thing, by leaving home and living in halls, I stayed at home and commuted. Why pay out money, when you can save it! This way I have a student loan of about £3,000 to pay off, whilst others have much, much more! Now whose laughing??? MMMMWWWHAHAHAHA

Each year, you would spend the first day queuing and signing up for modules. Not always did you get the ones you wanted. This would take a good portion of your day, as you filtered from one lecturer to another. My mates and I on the other hand decided to get it done quicker we would go during the section of the alphabet that had less people. :) This meant we could have the rest of the day to do nothing!! It's amazing what skills you pick up in Uni!

Now my course consisted of 70% theory and 30% practical. For theory we would spend hours, watching films, discussing films, and reading about films! Oh and television as it was a film and television course. But it wasn't just the film/programme itself we talked about it was lots of theories around it, and case studies. I wont go into detail about it as it might bore some of you to death, I know as students we found it difficult to keep awake, especially during Media and Society lectures!

However, you did have your range of characters amongst the lecturers that taught you. There was the bearded professor who spent his days doing audience research and was obsessed with A clockwork Orange. The young one from Canada, trying to be hip and down with the kids, but a bloody harsh marker. One who adored television genre so much, he had written who knows how many books on it, and then there is the one who expects you to quote from his book and his book only, or you get marked down. In fact it is one of his essays that acts as the title of this blog. Yes, we had the essay title; 'The Camera Never Lies. Discuss'. Although that wasn't as bad as our first ever essay we had to write which was; 'Why does film matter?' Many failed that essay!

Alas it wasn't all bad. In our first year, we had to do modules from other courses, I decided to do Drama, seeing as I had a background in it. OMG why did I choose that! We were made to sit lectures about theatre and society, which was equally boring as TV and society. However, it did allow Jonny and I to create, MC PowerPoint! Based on a lecturer who would OD on PowerPoint lectures! From this point on, our little creation would have his own mini adventures, each drawn by Jonny.

As part of the drama we would also read a range of plays, Blasted, Mountain Language and even one entitled, Shopping and Fucking, and yes that's what it was about, except the shopping part not in the retail sense! Besides having our mind warped by the strangest of plays, we then got made to sit the most weirdest lectures. One was an abstract performance where they hung up a wardrobe in the air, and projected images and phrases on it, whilst they did this they did readings. All very strange! Then we were made to do an exercise where we all sat in a dark room with our eyes closed. We had to remember a sad event in our lives, then we had to think of a household object and shout out what we would do with it. I remember one quite clearly which was; 'I have a Biro, and I will stab someone with it and watch the ink slowly poison their blood.' Quite scary realising you are sat in a room of possible psycho killers.

But there was still a lot of fun to be had in the practical modules. In our first year we had to get into a group, and make a 3 minute film...this is how I met my good friend Jonny! We have been mates ever since the day we met in this practical class. Anyway back to the film... In our group was Jonny, Lex, an American girl, whose name I can't remember and me! Well we decided to do the American girl's story idea, big mistake! However, nice the American people may be, there always seems to be this tendency of taking charge, and listen to no-ones opinion but their own. I do apologise to any Americans who maybe reading this, if this is not you, but this seems to be the case with every American I have ever had to deal with.

everyone laughed. We had some laughs filming this, even if we were a little worried Anyway, the film was entitled 'Goodnight Miss Molly'. The story outline was basically about a girl suffering from nightmares, where she is chased round a castle ruins by a masked figure. She goes on to discover that her father has in fact been drugging her and sexually abusing her in her sleep. See Uni breeds strange people!! Anyway, we used two locations the castle ruins in town, and my parents' house. At the house we moved around the furniture, took light bulbs out of their sockets, because it gave the wrong lighting, as well as getting fake blood over their carpet - Oooops! I took on roles of makeup artist, creating bruising on the arm of one of our characters, cinematographer, and one of the editors. As cinematographer I had to shoot a scene that was from the POV of the girl, where she is lying on a stone altar and her father hits her. So to get this shot, there was me lying on my back holding the camera (I get all the fun jobs), then this huge rugby built guy standing over me! Well he went to do the slapping action, and lost his balance falling straight on top of me! There was me lying on my back crush by a rugby player, and everyone else laughing. We had fun times filming this, even if we were worried about the content of the film.

Over the years had fun and games, making various films, and working in large production teams for Studio Production. Our imaginations being used, coming up with a production that would challenge us. In our final year, we would spend hours having studio production meetings, trying to make each week more professional looking than the previous. I spent most of my time editing the scripts, making sure they were in the correct format, and adding the camera moves. Also, even found myself taking on the odd role of director, writer and producer. Apparently the group felt I was really strong in these roles. I think it was more to the fact I can be quite bossy, and I told our lecturer to be quiet so I could hear in the gallery. Won her respect after that, think she'll be quite unimpressed that I haven't made producer or director yet.













Before you knew it the three years had passed and we were graduating. Nothing prepared us for this day. Not everyone had jobs and some were going on to do MAs . The world was our oyster! At the time I was busy working on a Ceramics festival, with the intention to head off to Artts, where I was going to get more practical training. This didn't happen though, as the organisation went into liquidation a week before I was due to start. So job hunting it was for me!

So why do people go to uni? Well the intention is good, we hope to get a decent paid job out of it, but really it's more about the experiences we gain, the friends we make and the stories we'll be able to tell our grandkids. Thats the real truth of Uni life!

Water Colours in the rain, with a dash of Grave consequences!

In 2001 I finished my time with Heathcote School, leaving with not the most satisfying results. My confidence had been battered, and all I had as a plan of action was to move back to Aberystwyth with my parents, and start studying AS Media and Photography at Coleg Ceredigion. 2001 was to be the year of soul searching, and finding a new path in life.

We moved back to Wales, the weekend before I was meant to start College, we left our old house in Aston, and made our way to the beautiful hills of Wales. Within moments of arriving I was inspired, writing poems and a story that I never actually finished. Hmm maybe one day I will. I was full of excitement starting at the college, and meeting new people. I remember my first week in college, clearly, the sun was shining, we played introductory games, which consisted of throwing a beanie fish around the room, and I had made instant friends. The time passed and we had been enclosed in this bubble for the entire day, it wasn't until my folks picked me up that reality hit home. It was September 11th, and my parents arrived in a state of shock. They had been watching the telly only for the news to interrupt their programme, showing a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. When my parents told me I thought they were lying, it wasn't until I got home and saw the news that I realised it had really happened. It didn't seem real, more like something out of a film. Little did I realise that this day would go on to inspire some of my later work. My final piece for Photography, encompassed images from the day mixed in with images I had created, in order to create an anti-war poster, I then went on in Uni, which I'm still writing today, to write a script that deals with terrorism.

So they were the beginning days of college, where does this link with the title of the blog you may ask...Well the title of this blog is actually the titles of the first films I ever made. When I was younger I had made little animations with my next door neighbour, and all the kids in the street made ghost type film, but I had never actually done it properly.

So the first film I made was Grave Consequences, which Dean and Peter in our group had written, and Pip and I took on other roles within the production. My key role was cinematographer. The film was to take on the style of silent movies, this meant Pip, Dean and Peter could act in it with out having to speak, saved us a lot of hassle with sound, especially as we only had a simple JVC home camcorder. So off we went and spent a day working in the local graveyard. As the cinematographer, I had to get into the most awkward positions, standing on broken graves, and sitting on tombs. Scary stuff, there was even a weird sound on one of the recordings, very Eerie Indiana! As I concentrated on getting the best shots possible, the others dressed up in old suits and bowler hats. Pete was playing the ghost and so at one point we made him lay across an old grave. This we used and edited in Adobe premiere, creating a spooky effect making him look like he had slowly appeared out of the grave. It is probably still to this day, one of my favourite films I've made so far.

Water Colours in the rain, was something different. It was my first time writing an idea into a script and then producing it. And of course being my first full film, it was something quite complicated. A fault in most first time film makers. Top Tip - KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

The film dealt with the issue of drugs within young teens. I researched into the subject, and the story was told through my protagonist. The film was very arty in style, I guess that was my theatre influence seeping in. I also, did it this style so that it created the illusion or feeling of being under the influence of drugs. The sense of confusion, and things feeling out of reach. The experiences of making this film was hard work. I took on a couple of university actors, who played the role of Rizo and Lucy, and some college actors, one to play a smaller part and one to play the main protagonist. We filmed in various locations, night scenes shot at the castle, in the college, for class and bedroom scenes, and along the promenade for some. Aberystwyth is full of great locations, which is why it is the perfect spot to make student films.

The filming of it was very challenging, trying to get the actors together at the sames time, and being students not all of them bothered to learn lines. This gave moments of laughter on set as we ended up having to do several takes. The university students for instance couldn't stop laughing during the takes of one of their scenes together. What made even more amusing was the fact it was a scene where one of them had to be very angry and violent. Luke who played the protagonist, had line issues, as in he never learnt them. So every shoot with him, would have the first half hour spent quickly learning lines, and then getting the take. Some scenes he actually has the script on his lap, and he is reading from it. We just cleverly angled the camera so you couldn't tell. :) Genius huh?

After hours of editing, the film was finally made, and to be honest wasn't the greatest. The script was poor, some of the acting a bit rubbish. That's why I say: KEEP IT SIMPLE!! However, it was good fun to make and it did have an awesome opening sequence, its amazing the effects you can make from filming a lava lamp from different angles.

So they were the college years, September 2002 came, and it was time for 3 years of University film making fun!!

(I will try and get some pictures to add to this!)

Lets start at the begining!!

So where did this passion for working in the industry come from? Well it wasn't for the glam of it all thats for sure, although that does get to you sometimes.

No it all started from the simple age of 4 where I used to spend hours dancing and singing round the living room to my mum's records. Once I had mastered the record player, learning the correct speed to play them at, so Abba didn't sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks, I started to make up storylines linking the songs as key moments to the story. Playing all the roles, I sang and danced to my hearts content, well until my brother and sister arrived home from school insisting they watched the telly. As I got a bit older and took a keen interest in collecting sylvanians, I started to use them to act out Soap type stories.

By the age of 7 I started to join in with school theatre. My first role was as a country kid in the Evacuees. I loved every moment of it , the nerves, the learning of lines and the smiles on my parents faces at the end. I carried on with school acting for many years. My last role in Junior school was as Narrator in Joseph and the technicolour dream coat. It was my biggest role, and I worked really hard to get it. Although I did have to sing with a young boy called Colin, who lets just say, was not very good. Our singing teacher Mr Simms used to tell him off quite a bit.

As I ended my time with Junior school, to move into the realms of senior school, I decided to join a local theatre group at the Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage. There I had many fun times, making up plays, and working on major performances. One memorable moment was 'Around the World in 80 minutes' For this I had to do a dance to represent China. We had a dance teacher called Mary Tear. She used to have us in stitches, as when ever she taught us a piece of the routine she would go. 'Now it's one, two, three, one, two, three, tum, tum, tum, tum.' On the night of the performance though, the eye makeup we used made my eyes water like crazy, and so I couldn't see properly when doing the dance. Also, one of the lads called Steven ended up breathing in hairspray, and so when he came to speak his lines on stage he couldn't, as he had no voice. My days with the group were always fun, spooking each other out with tales of the theatre ghost, and dealing with bumping into famous people as they worked on shows. One experience was bumping into a certain well known actress who runs a pub, lets just say she wasn't impressed with us hanging around.

When I was 13 I joined a theatre group based in Hitchin, called Theatretrain. Here I spent most saturday afternoons doing, acting, singing and dance classes. I worked with various age groups, and we all got on really well. As part of the group we used to perform in the town square and used local schools as our main performance space for productions we would put on. It was imense fun, and I got to learn songs from various musicals, like Westside Story, etc.

In 1997, we performed at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane.
For this we had to sing a variety of Beatles songs. It brought together all the Theatretrain companies from across the UK together. We even worked with actors from Eastenders, and celebrated the career of The Beatles. The experience of doing this was amazing!!! My previous experience of performing in London was a couple of years previous, with my school choir. We performed at the Royal Albert Hall, as part of a gala concert. I thought that was scary, but this was worse. As I stepped onto the enormous stage, and looked out into the auditorium, I thought OH MY GOD! All those spaces were to be filled with people, looking at us! I then got told by the SM to look round, as I did I was confronted by a huge helicopter. Thats right a Helicopter on a stage, in a theatre, in London!! It was for the musical Miss Siegon. This was to be one of the most scariest, yet enjoyable moments of my life!

During my senior school years, I joined in with theatre activities as much as possible, playing various roles. From, Batty old ladies in '7 wives for Dracula' to a homosexual sailor in 'Twelfth Night'. I even played Father Christmas in a play that one of our teachers wrote. So not type cast at all!!



I enjoyed my time working on school plays, we all got on really well, and constantly played practical jokes on each other. One of the best times was acting along side my English teacher Mr Wilson, who asked me for tips on the acting, as he knew I had performed at the local theatre. He was very good though in 'Twelfth Night' and could easily of played the next Bond. ;)

It was the years I spent at Heathcote, that my interest in writing and directing began. Every time we wrote stories in English I was always told how I wrote them dialogue driven, and should think about writing scripts. When I did GCSE Drama I had the opportunity to do that. In our final year we had to devise and write a script for a play that we could tour round schools. Each one of us had to come up with an idea and we would vote on the best one. My idea, which was chosen was called 'Offworld'. It was about a group of greek Gods who are sent to Earth by Zeus to teach the Earth people about pollution, and looking after the planet. It was a comedy, that had the Gods dressing up as key characters in the celebrity world, they even did a Spice Girl routine.

During my A Levels, my passion for acting began to dissapear, as tense moments within my exams pieces rose, having to deal with unreliable fellow students, and being heavily criticised by one of my teachers. She said to me, and I quote; 'Leanne, you will never be a Juliet'. And thus it was from this that I decided acting was not the career for me. However, whilst I was in sixth form, an inter-house drama competition came up, and I was asked to direct a piece for my form. For this I chose to do Adult Child/Dead Child, mainly because I wanted to prove a certain teacher wrong. When our A Level group requested to do the play we were told; 'It's a play written for one person, impossible to make it work for 6 people.' Well I had 6 people to work with, and boy did I make it work! We only had to do a 15-30 min piece, so I went through the script and took the best bits out and put it together. Making everyone play a part of the character, and as each one spoke the others acted out what they were describing. The audience loved it, and were very dissapointed with the final decission, of us coming second in the competition.

After my days at Heathcote I decided to the next step, go to university and study Film and Television! But first I had to go to college, and get better grades!

Hello!

Hmmm..So this is the world of blogging?? I've never really got into this, until my brother started to send me links to his... He says he has started it to get his writing out there!

I have sat and read a few blogs, mainly my friend's travel ones and ofcourse now my brother's paranormal, and A Geek too complicated. All, very interesting reads, and full of fab photos and videos. After reading these i've always thought I should sit a write a blog, but then never could think of what to write.

Well...until today! What with the number of people fighting to get into a very competitive industry, thats right the Enteratainment industry, Theatre, film and television, I thought why not write my experiences... For there are many University leavers full of enthusiasm, thinking its a piece of cake to get in...Well here is some advice they never give you in Uni....ITS NOT!!!

If you thought Uni was hard work, you have another thing coming...Getting into the industry is where the real hard work begins!! But hey its not all bad...you can have a laugh along the way, just keep SMILING!!

So here is my hopefully entertaining reads of my experiences so far!!