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!