University!

So, I haven’t been on here in forever but I wanted to give you all another little update! I have finally edited my first scene at university and I am majorly proud of it! I am uploading it to youtube as we speak but it is going to take approximately 80 minutes which is a bit of a joke as I want to go to bed :( as I am waiting for it to upload I’m watching ‘’the descendant’s’’ which is turning into a really good film, I recommend that everyone watches it. Along with Amelie, as that is like my favourite film ever at the moment I think! It’s French but has subtitles and is really easy watching. It’s really quirky and clever.

But yeah, my editing... I spoke to my lecturers about it and got feedback and they were really pleased too which makes me even happier about it! Apparently my sound was one of the best in the class and they didn’t believe I have never edited something on my own before which made me happy. I have also never used Final Cut Pro X before in my life! Which as a new version of the software is not that bad, once you get your head around it is actually not that hard. I picked up quite a few sneaky tips through the learning process and have learnt some things. So all in all it was a pretty good lesson learnt. And I am extremely pleased!

University Assignments

Yet another blog post about university! Or more specifically, my university and my experience! The thing I am going to write about today – my assignments.

So far I have two assignments for pre-production, two for production, two or three for post-production and three for business and management. This seems like not so much written down, but bearing in mind I have to write a five minute script for one module, plan, shoot and edit a film for another module, pitch an idea and write a 1500 word essay alongside that and write two blogs alongside this one as well as the other small assignments and I only have about ten more weeks to complete everything it’s a lot!

I’ve actually panicked myself now writing it all down like this. One part of my business management blog is to go to 6 industry related events and write a blog post on them reflecting on what I have learnt and how it will help me in my future career. I am quite excited for this as it means I will get to go to loads of film festivals, script workshops, seminars and other events which will give me the chance to network and meet people who are already doing their dream jobs.

I’ve set myself up an account on withoutabox which is a website with a list of all the film festivals and script festivals on and through the website you can submit your own films and scripts to festivals and hopefully, if they are good enough, you can win awards and make a name for yourself in the film community. I am really excited about my future but I know it’s a lot of hard work away but I am more than willing to work at it.

Two assignments for pre-production are to write a production statement and to write a five minute script. The production statement has got to be handed in very soon, only a few short weeks until the deadline actually. This means that we need to decide on an idea very quickly. I already have an idea that I would like to do but we need to make a solid decision. Then after that we need to write up the script. I’ve kind of cheated as I have already written the first draft of a script for my idea and I am editing it alongside writing this. Yay for multi-tasking.

Production assessments are to pitch an idea in front of a panel, make a4 hand outs and do a ton of research and then make a film based on saving energy and working with the elderly. This is a three minute film and is going into Stoke Your Fires film festival. This is the worst assignment brief I have ever read and there’s hardly anything you can do with it. I am not looking forward to that although the deadline for the pitch is in 11 days and we haven’t even started yet which is really starting to worry me.

Post-production is a blog on my learning curve (xx-laurabeth.blogspot.co.uk if you are interested) and the editing of our production film. Hopefully the editing will make up for the idea and brief behind the film. Although, as long as we make an okay film I will be happy and just use it all as an experience to learn from and do better next time. Hopefully the briefs will get better.

And business we have so much to do! I’m sure there is not enough time for attending actual lectures, doing the studying, the tutorials, the actual assignments and two part time jobs let alone having an actual social life. But it’s the price I’m willing to pay!

Until next time (:

My First Script!

So, I have just written the first draft of my first script and I am really pleased! It obviously still needs a lot of work and extra bits added to it so that it fills the five minute time slot but I have the basic story line there. I wrote it up as a short story first which helped me to get the order and flow of the story line how I wanted it. As a story it is just less than a page long typed up but as a script, formatted correctly, it is 4 and a half pages.

I haven’t yet decided if I am going to use this script as the one I need to write for my assignment as it is a paired assignment and my partner hasn’t seen it yet. He will be the director and I will be the producer so as we both have important roles as well as writing the script together, he needs to be happy with the idea and story line too. Even if I do not use it for my assignment though there is nothing to stop me making it into a film at some point in the future. I am still so pleased that I changed course. I am a lot happier and less stressed these days even though I have more on my plate and deadlines coming out of my ears!

I have yet to find out what my role as producer entails but I am sure it will be exciting all the same. I love that I am getting to try out new things and develop different skills that might never have come to light if I hadn’t made some scary decisions  a couple of months ago.

I need to research different types of scripts and read some different ones from films, TV programmes and other things so that I know I’ve got the format right and also to see if there are things I have missed out on that need to go in. I obviously want to write the best that I can do to get the highest marks and make the best films. I’m setting myself some pretty high standards so we’ll see how far this gets me in the end.

Hopefully it will get me to where I want to be.

Thoughts Of Today

So, I’ve wanted to write on here again for a while now but I really have had nothing to say. I could do a post on working, but that’s boring so there’s not really any point. I will say this though, I am into my second week and I am not enjoying it half as much as I did because I can’t lift the chickens and I don’t want to do rotisserie.

I could do another post on my course at university but I have only just done one so there would be no point in doing that either has nothing much has changed. We’ve started some assignments now and I am excited about one or two but not so excited about another although it will be an experience so I can see why they have set it.

I also had a brief thought about doing a post on how much money students could save by buying smart price items when shopping instead of branded items but then how many people actually want to know this? I’d have fun doing it because I am a bit of a geek like that, but who would actually want to know that? Do other students buy smart price items? Or spend too much money when shopping? I’m not sure.

If anyone would like a post like that then let me know, either on here or through tumblr: www.xx-laurabeth.tumblr.com because that’s the site I check the most (:

Until that time I shall try and think of a more interesting thing to blog about, but I’m sure something will come to me eventually.

University So Far...

So I’m just sitting at home and I thought I would do a ‘’first week of university’’ post, sorry if this doesn’t interest you but I love writing and love the fact that people can read this if they want! So, this week was my first proper week of lectures and also my first week of work, it’s been hectic and I am so glad to have the night off tonight. I was supposed to be going out but I have a long shift at work tomorrow and I just want my sleep.

My thoughts on university so far are that I am absolutely loving it! I have a feeling that the next three years are going to be really fun and I am going to love it. I have no doubt in my mind that it’s going to be challenging but I love a challenge and if/when I do well it will just prove to myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to.

I have had one sick day already as fresher’s flu got the better of me. I missed a really important day filming however which meant that I did not have a group to be in. I wish I had gone in but I had no sleep the night before and was not in the mood for a 9am start. It seemed that I missed a lot as well which I am gutted about. However, I tagged along with a group on Friday and managed to get some editing done and get my name in the credits for one group’s film at least! I didn’t go to the screening though which meant that I did not get to see everyone else’s film or see the reaction to the group I joined. I have learnt a lot from the experience though as it has made me realise that I can’t just miss days and not expect there to be a consequence. There was one. I was way behind everyone else and I missed the lesson on how to work the editing software that we will be using. This just means I am going to have to practice on it to get my ability levels up. This is something I am more than willing to do.

I am enjoying the lectures so far, even business and management which I didn’t think I would do. One part of that module is to write reflective pieces on an online portfolio which I suppose is like writing blog posts so I am happy with that! At least I have had practice doing so. I also wrote quite a lot today and I feel that I will be able to do well in that particular module as long as I study hard to remember facts. Note taking is a bit of a pain when the lecturers go through the slideshows really quickly and do not provide print outs, but that is just another skill I will have to work on.

I am really excited to start making films as I want to work on my skills as a camera operator which is not something I thought I would enjoy as much as I seem to be doing. So far the only camera I have used is a Panasonic 151 which I struggled to use as I did not understand the controls. However I have heard that these are most likely the only camera’s I am going to be allowed to get out of stores being a first year. This means I will have a whole year to get to grips with the workings of the camera and use my knowledge to create great films. I also want to work on the editing side of the film. This is something I knew I would enjoy as I always enjoyed helping Scott out on his projects over the summer and I love watching him work. There’s something about seeing all the different separate shots coming together to make one flowing film that I really enjoy. How geeky does that sound? I am excited to learn how to use the latest Final Cut Pro software even though I don’t like it as much as the version before. It’s different but I’ll get used to it in the end, I’ll have to!

Overall I am just excited to get started and stuck into the lectures and tutorials. I want to find a group I really enjoy working with and a group that can get things done to a high standard. I am going to have to push myself to get to where everyone else is because although the lecturers assume no previous knowledge, a lot of the other students seem to know a lot more than I do.

Hopefully I am able to balance my workload alongside my shifts at work otherwise I am going to have to cut down my hours. This is something I am definitely willing to do as I am really feeling the strain of having a job and studying a degree even though it is early days.

I’ll update again soon.

23/9/2012

Okay so I’m getting really really mad right now at the other people in this house. All I want to know is why they seem to have no consideration for anyone other than themselves. I woke up this morning to them shouting (mistake number one) do not piss me off in the morning, I am NOT a morning person. Banging on the floor and telling them to shut up did not work (mistake number two) do not ignore me, I will only get madder! Then for the last 30-40 minutes all I have heard is the front door and the downstairs bedroom doors being slammed shut and opened and slammed shut again constantly (mistake number three) repeated noises will only increase my anger and you will more than likely break the fucking doors. Now they are in the kitchen banging around with all the pots and pans and singing (mistake number four and final mistake) do not bang around so loudly and sound so fucking cheery whilst you are doing it! You are infuriating me and I am trying very very hard to not come down there and bang a pot/door/shout in your face!

Please respect the other people in the house, I have been nothing but nice to you and you have done nothing but anger me since the second you moved in. Please please PLEASE shut the fuck up!

Coming Soon..

I am in the process of writing a Tips For Students post that I am hoping will be published soon so keep your eyes peeled :) It's already quite a bit longer than I expected it would be but I love writing so I am just going to carry on with it. Hopefully it will help people :)

MY CRAFT BLOG

So I made one, it has very VERY little on it at the moment but I literally made it 10 minutes ago. www.anchor-crafts.tumblr.com have a look :) follow it if you are interested, it will mean a lot to me! tiny update but that is all for now, keep your eyes peeled for more crafting things!

Hello Again!

Well, I am aware that I have not been posting on here like I should be and it has in fact been over a month since my last post! I would just like to say that in the time I haven’t been posting I have been extremely busy with other things and now feel that it is time to catch up with blogging! This may take several blog posts or this may just turn into one long post with several subjects.

First off, I have FINALLY got a new job which will HOPEFULLY be able to bend around my university timetable when I eventually get the timetable. I have a job at ASDA (UK supermarket, part of the Wal-Mart family) as a home delivery order picker. This job requires me to start at 5am two days a week and 6am on Sunday’s! At the minute the prospect of all those early mornings does not sound very inviting but it is only three days a week and once I get into the routine of it I’m sure it will get easier. I start tomorrow for one day of training and then go straight into my contracted hours. I am excited to start as I could do with the money and the job experience as this will only help me to get further jobs in the future. One downfall of the job is the ugly green colour ASDA’s uniform is! It’s cruel to make people wear this colour, it is horrific but I’m getting paid so I should not complain.

Secondly, I have started a few projects and sadly an old project has come to an end for now. My new projects I have started are nail art (only simple ones for now but hopefully as I get more experience with this I will be able to do trickier designs), crafting – finger puppets, decopatching and whatever else I set my mind to and the last one is writing letters.

Writing letters does not seem like much of a project but I am gaining penpals from around the world to write letters to and it will help me to learn about new cultures and new people and at the same time help me to develop my letter writing skills. So far I have only received one letter but I have two to send out and a few on their way to me so I am pretty excited about this!

Crafting is a hobby I developed before coming to university but unfortunately in the 120 mile move my creativity got lost and for the past year I have not made anything. Recently however my passion for crafts has come back from seeing blogs on sites such as Tumblr and from my mum and sister finding new crafts to do! I used to make sock teddies and felt finger puppets before coming to university but I could not fit my crafting materials in the car to bring with me so unfortunately they are at home waiting for my return. Now however I have picked up on decopatching which is basically decorating things with different coloured paper and it is really fun and strangely therapeutic! I am hoping to start a crafting blog on Tumblr when I think of a good name for it and when I have built up a collection of different crafts and photos of my creations. I am hoping to build up my craft supply once again now that I have my own room in this house where I can store all my things and use as a bit of a workshop.

Lastly, the nail art is something I just stumbled upon one day when I was trying to think up new ways of painting my nails. Painting my nails is something I have only just started to do as well as I never had the patience for it before but I have bought some superfast drying nail varnish which makes the whole process a little easier on my attention span. I have only done a couple of designs with a dotting tool but I am hoping to build up my nail varnish collection and hopefully with new colours brings new inspiration and new techniques!

As you can see I have a lot on my mind at the minute and plenty to be getting on with hence why I haven’t been giving this blog as much attention as I should be.

One last note before I end this blog post is that the business I have been planning has fell through as I do not feel I am ready to make such a huge commitment and settle down to one area so soon as I have not travelled and seen the country fully let alone the world! I want to get on with my new degree before deciding what I want to do with my future but I have thanked all the people who have supported me in the planning process and I hope to use their knowledge in the future.

Bye for now blogger! I hope to return soon with more news and updates on my life and how things are going.

Future Plans

So, over the last few days I have been getting extremely excited about my plans for the future and about setting up my business. I’m going to just put it out there now; my business idea is so set up my own Day Nursery childcare setting for children aged 0-4 years. I’ve e-mailed the council again to potentially set my meeting date as the 2^nd August 2012 which is only a few days away! I’ve sent out my questionnaires and had 14 returned to me which is so exciting! I’m hoping that there will be more coming back to me soon as I have two more to send out today along with the stuff I have sold on eBay that need posting.

Because of all this excitement I have been messaging loads of people on eBay about potentially sending me free samples of their arts and crafts products that I may need to stock my art area within the setting. Some people have got back to me already saying they will send samples and others have replied giving me buy one get one free offers which I am really pleased about! All these strangers that have been helping me recently has really got me believing that there are in fact nice people in the world and we just have not met them. They are all just living in different places to me or are older and more mature than a lot of the people that I know.

Anyway, the people that are helping me out are offering me such good deals which means that I will be able to spend more money on furniture and actually buying the building I want instead of spending loads of money on expensive craft materials. There are so many things that I need to buy and so many things that I need to find out but I have never been more excited. I should maybe go back to my old course but I just did not enjoy it. Instead I’ll get this other degree and then when I get the money I will go for a foundation degree because it means that I will be working alongside it and be able to complete the work to a good standard.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll keep this page updated when something else big happens that’s worth writing about!

Update on My Life!

So I have been neglecting my blog a lot lately, and it’s not like I even have anything interesting to report back! Which is quite sad considering I’ve probably not written anything in over a month. Oh what a life. I have had a few job interviews since I last wrote on here which I think have gone quite well so I am just waiting to hear back about them. Also this morning I got an e-mail inviting me to another job interview for a cleaning job which I am going to attend at the beginning of August. I’m going to have to plan my route to the building though as I am not quite sure where on earth it is! Oh well, that’s why I have a bike and booked the interview at the latest time on the day! The interview is only 15 minutes though so it should be fine, nothing too scary can happen in 15 minutes right?

Also, over the weekend I went back to my hometown for my friends baby’s christening. Wow. What a christening that was! I don’t even know what religion the church was but I know for sure I am never, and I mean NEVER going back to that church! It was the weirdest ceremony I have ever been to in my life! Everything about it was just creepy. The priest/vicar/man got members of the congregation to come up to the front and circle the parents and child and pray for them, it was very very strange. Pray for the child yes, but there is no need to circle them in such a ritualistic way! I would not want my child being circled like that in a religious place. It was very worrying. I have nothing against religion, I myself am a catholic, but this was some whole other level. I asked the father of the baby, after the ceremony, what religion the church was and even he didn’t know which does not give off a very good impression!

So apart from strange christenings and job interviews what else have I been doing? Well I have been working for the Student Ambassadors for my University quite a lot as that is my part-time job. However there are not many things to do over the summer which is not very good which is why I am looking for more jobs. Pay day in 6 days which is exciting! I am looking forward to this month’s pay so much! I’m going to be minted!

Also, I have been planning lots for my future business and have sorted out a questionnaire I am asking people in the surrounding area to fill out and quite a few people have got back to me to say they are willing to help me out! I am surprised by the amount actually, I have over 40 volunteers which will be such a big help!

That is all I am going to write for now. So, speak soon the lovely readers of my blog (if in fact there is anyone actually reading this) Have a nice day!

Soon

I am going to write something really exciting on here that everyone will want to read and like.

Well, at least I can hope!

Exciting Times Ahead!

Well, the plans are underway now! I’ve had the e-mail that I have been waiting for for weeks now and it has finally come! And what a better day then my BIRTHDAY so have received such good news! Trying to sort out how much money I need now and how much everything is going to cost me. Then I need to look at how to spend that money, how to write a business plan and all the other preparations I am going to need before going to this meeting! I can honestly say that this is the most excited I have been in absolutely ages!

 I’ve got ideas overflowing from my mind faster than I can even attempt to get them written down. I’ve got plans for how I can use different people that I know and how I can utilize their skills to help to get this up and running. Two years sounds like a long time when you say it out loud but realistically it’s not that long at all and I think that starting the process now means that I can have all kinds of things put into place by that time to ensure I am successful!

Helping hands are welcome! So if you would like to help, keep it in your mind and sooner or later I will be calling on volunteers and then will be your chance!

Job Search Cont.

Just applied for another 100 or so jobs! I hope I get one soon! My July payday from Ambassadors is going to be AMAZING so I just need to build that up and hopefully get another job otherwise its back in the overdraft for me till September!

It's strange that out of all the jobs I have applied for, the one I want the most is to distribute leaflets for a windows company. I just think that the freedom that job will give me would be lovely, much better then sitting around in an office all day anyway! I've got a ''ASDA Magic'' day to attend in July as well which should be good because hopefully that means that I am partly on the way to getting a job at ASDA? I can hope anyway!

If I get the leaflet job and the asda job then that would be even better because ASDA is going 8 - 12 hours a week so i'll still have a tonne of free time to do another job! That deffinitely means more money in the bank for me which is never a bad thing!I really don't understand who someone with no commitments can sit around all day and do nothing, I mean i've been doing this for a while now and I have been so so so bored! I've been applying for 300 jobs a day and going for interviews and working for Ambassadors.

Hopefully a job will come around soon!

Wish me luck!

My Tumblr

http://xx-laurabeth.tumblr.com/

Thought I would post my Tumblr on here in case anyone that reads this wants to follow me on there as well. I post different things to the different blogs. I haven't yet worked out how to insert pictures on this blog so I mostly post pictures to Tumblr and reblog things I am interested in on there.

I don't fully understand Tumblr either but hey ho, a blogs a blog! It's just somewhere I publish my thoughts, if no one reads it then thats fine but if people do read it then thats great!

Opinion

Whilst I was innocently looking for Reggio Emilia blogs to read on the internet I came across a blog named '''Good Job' and other things not to say or do (unless you want to ruin your kids life)”. I thought that i’d give it a chance and have a bit of a read. I was struggling through it even thought it went against all of my belief’s about bringing up children. I got to one bit and I just couldn’t possibly read any further. It basically said that if you ask your child to stop playing and tidy up, it will lead to your child becoming stressed and develop depression and heart disease. Who can make such sweeping statements like that? Who has the right to publish on the internet that asking your child to tidy up a mess they have made will give them heart disease of all things? Personally I find this ridiculous. If someone can say something like that what’s to say that asking your child to go to bed on time isn’t going to give them cancer?

I’m really mad about this blog! I’m sure some people may find this helpful but I for one do not!

Another Job Application!

Just applied for another job! This time behind the bar in The Butler's Bell (Wetherspoons in Stafford). ''Don't you know this is a classy bar?!'' The comedy line coming from the manager! Hopefully I get this job after having two rejections in as many days :( I wasn't too confident with my interview for the nursery but I was more confident with my interview for the £10 an hour student researcher job! Oh well, better luck next time Laura!

Hopefully I manage to do well with this job, although I suppose it doesn't help having no experience whatsoever, but I guess they'll train me up right? I hope so! I love eating in their pubs as well so really getting a job there would be a sort of dream come true! All the gammon, egg and chips in the world! And I would try my very best not to get people's order's wrong like they get mine everytime! I know how frustrating it is!

Wish me luck guys!

Interview cont.

As I said I would do earlier, here’s a post to let you know the outcome of the interview…unfortunately I was unsuccessful so to cheer myself up, I am looking online at dresses to buy for my birthday night out! However, doing this has made me realise that I want about 700 new nail varnishes and a billion new pairs of heels! (When did I become such a girl?) I want to paint my nails and look all pretty for my night out! I’ve found a ton of new stuff I want to try as well. This has almost made me forget about having to start my job search again!

On the plus side, I do have loads of ambassador work coming up which is exciting! Seriously cannot wait for the July pay day! Eeee!

Job Interviews

Something I have been doing a lot lately is applying for jobs! I must have applied for about 50 in the last few weeks and the wait to hear back is killing me! I applied for a job a month ago, got an interview and then never heard anything back off the company so I’m guessing that the interview was a big fail. That’s okay though because I learnt a bit more about how to go through an interview (I’ve only ever had two). Then last week I heard back from a job I applied for at University. They gave me an interview which I had on Monday and I am waiting to hear back from them today! This interview went a lot better than the previous one because of the things that I had learnt! This time round I wore something I felt a lot more comfortable in which helped me to relax a lot. I also tried not to think about the interview too much beforehand so that I would not get myself worked up about it as this would mean for sure that it would go badly. (A small amount of nerves is good but too many can make it go wrong). I also tried to plan the questions I thought they might ask me so that I had some idea of some answers before I got there. Someone I know had an interview for a similar job role so I used their experiences to my advantage, and considering that they got the job from that interview I think it was a good call on my behalf to get them to help me! Finally, if you are not feeling confident, just pretend that you are! Eventually you will realise that you are not pretending anymore and that your nerves have (almost) disappeared!

Hopefully I will hear back from these soon as the waiting is killing me right now. I want to know whether I was successful or not so I can try to plan what I am going to do with the summer (aside from apply for every job going). I will update again as soon as I find out. Here’s to hoping that it’s going to be good news!

60's Night!

Well, I’ve come home for the weekend and low and behold my family have landed it on me that tonight we are going to a 60’s themed birthday party for my Uncle! Naturally I left all my appropriate clothes back in Stafford thinking that I wouldn’t be needing them whilst I was here! So my heels, dresses, make up, straighteners and bags are all at home so today I’ve had to majorly improvise!

Last minute trip into town has gotten me a dress and some flowers for my hair. Unfortunately none of the proper costumes fit me or looked very nice and I was not up for wearing ‘’hippie pants and a top’’ as they did not look good! Fortunately, the dress I can wear again if we ever get a proper summer here in sunny old England! I’m pretty excited to go as I’ve not been to a family thing in a while however we’ve been warned that with it being a 60^th birthday party there is hardly going to be any people my age there which isn’t good but never mind. I’m sure everyone will have a good time anyway! My sister is going to look gorgeous in her denim playsuit, wedges and flowers in her hair. She’s so pretty! Again, I wish I knew how to post pictures on this blog! But maybe one day I will learn.

Over and out from me for now!

Things I Am Currently Doing..

The things that I am doing right at this moment in time are:

-          Getting excited about the future

-          Planning table heights (you will soon see)

-          Playing a game of budgeting

-          Trying to learn how to write a business plan

-          Checking my e-mails constantly for news!

-          Wondering what my results are for my Uni modules this year

-          And thinking of new things to post to this blog!

I seem like a pretty busy girl actually! I can’t help but be thoroughly thrilled about my plans for the future! I want to tell the world but if it doesn’t work out then I am going to be properly embarrassed. I want so so so badly for everything to work out as planned! I’m already trying to get a team together and buy supplies. Exciting times!

A bit about me...

New blog post wooo! Thought I would do a different topic now seeing as though I’ve ran out of things to say about Run To The Sun! I thought I would share my hopes and dreams for the future, as cliché as that sounds! Well, I attend Staffordshire University and have just finished my first year studying Early Childhood Studies (ECS) but as I already had my Level Three from going to college, I decided not to continue in this course as I did not feel like the degree would benefit me in any way. I have changed course and from September I will be studying Film Production Technology which is a three year course! This change was purely because I love being at Uni and being independent, I love my house and all surprisingly, being 100 miles away from my family is pretty good too! I wanted to learn something completely new and as I enjoy films anyway I thought I would try my hand at learning the technology behind them and make some myself! Hopefully that all goes well for me and I manage to do okay at it. I think it’s going to be interesting anyway so even if I am a bit rubbish at the actual making of the film essence of the course I will be learning new interesting things anyway and meeting a whole bunch of new people!

Alongside this course change I have been planning something very exciting and I am hoping to hear back from a few e-mails very soon! So if anything happens with that I’m sure I will be too ecstatic to keep it to myself any longer and I will have to post something about it somewhere! So far I have done really well and managed to keep it off Facebook which to me is a massive achievement. I’ve only told my family and my boyfriend as well so I’m doing amazingly well with that too! I can’t wait to find out if this majorly secret plan can go ahead or not but if it can I have a lot to learn and a lot to plan! So fingers crossed and keep your ears and eyes out for more news!

RTTS 2012 cont.

Sunday 3^rd June:

Last day of the festival today! And I still haven’t seen as many VW’s as I thought I would, it’s supposed to be a VW festival as well! I expected rows and rows of camper vans and beetles and hippies and it to be a place completely appropriate for a photo shoot or something equally as beautiful but although it was nothing like my expectations, I still loved every single minute of it. With today being the last day and us making the five hour trip back up to the midlands in the morning, we tried to tidy up the caravan a bit. We packed the suitcase as best we could and tried to decide what to do with the remaining things. After this we looked through the previous night’s footage and photos and again were ridiculously impressed by how good the photos looked! Neither of us are photographers but there really were some amazing shots of the fire poi. (As I said before, if I knew how to upload them to here I really would do so you could all share in the beauty of it). We got two newcomers to the caravan today as well as apparently they were supposed to stay the night before but ended up in one of the other caravans for whatever reason! So then there were six of us! For the rest of the day I tried my best to keep myself busy but I had read all of my book in the previous two days so I waited for Cyd and Amber to wake up and just spent the day sitting and chatting with them. It’s amazing how much you can get to know people and how much you can learn in just a few hours! They invited their boyfriends to the caravan so we were eagerly awaiting their arrival for most of the day. It took them about three and a half hours to get to us so we had plenty of time to listen to stories about them and their antics! It was really strange getting a mental image of someone knowing that you will be meeting them in just a few hours’ time. And let me tell you this, they were nothing like I imagined them to be! They were so so so so so lovely though! Once they got there, 8 of us were staying in the caravan! It was definitely cosy to say the least!

                Again once we reached about 9.30pm it was time to make our way to the main arena for the final time to film the magical moments of Area 51 and their performers doing what they do best. I can’t really remember too much of this night which is strange considering it’s the last one we spent there. I filmed as much as I could which wasn’t a lot as I had filled so many memory cards already and we couldn’t transfer the footage from my camera to the laptop because the programme was only installed on the Mac. The music was a lot better on the third night as well compared to the Saturday which was rubbish! I spent a lot of the time on this night watching the stage shows from the side lines and just admiring their ability to perform so well, capturing what I could on the camera. I was starting to get a bit more excited about editing all the footage together to make the final edit by this time. If you have never experienced this then you will not know the feeling you get from filming all the stuff that you can and then editing it together to make something amazing that people everywhere can view and enjoy (if they like it, if not they can offer constructive criticism on how to improve). Anyway, the costumes were fab as always! The performers were amazing as always! The performance was spectacular! All in all another pretty good night! I think everyone was just putting all of their efforts in to making the last night one of the best knowing that in the morning they would be travelling back home and wouldn’t be performing at Run To The Sun 2012 again!

                4am came along and then it was time to pack up the van! What a nightmare that was. There were so many costumes that you wouldn’t even believe, everything needed packing back into their correct bags and put back in the correct places in the backstage area. Then everything needed taking outside to the van in the proper order so that it was easier to pack back up. Then everything needed to be actually put inside the van without anything falling though into the seats in the front and ensuring that everything fit in the van and that nothing was left behind. It took at least another hour! Even with about 15 of us helping it took so so long! We kept taking things out that didn’t even belong to Area 51 because we were newcomers so we were unsure of whose stuff was whose and what went where. Nightmare! But when it was finally done we crawled our way back up the hill to the caravan to fall peacefully to sleep!

Monday 4^th June:

The last day in the caravan! This entry is going to be short and sweet as we didn’t really do very much. We woke up, showered and got ready for the day. Then we packed everything away in the suitcase again and made sure that we had gotten everything out of the cupboards in the bedroom and taken everything that was ours from the bathroom. We took all the food we wanted out of the cupboards in the kitchen and packed them safely away so we could take them home! (Ahh the life of a student hey! Always trying to scrounge food).

                Once we’d tidied everything away, we had to go on our rounds and say goodbye to everyone we had met! There were so many new people to say bye to, I hadn’t even noticed how many there actually were throughout the weekend, probably because they were all arriving at different times but now they were all leaving at once and the number of them seemed to have multiplied over night! We had to collect e-mail addresses to e-mail photos and footage and add everyone on Facebook. Once we’d said our goodbyes though we got all our luggage, made our way to the van and finally said goodbye to Newquay. I was quite sad to be leaving. I really enjoyed myself. Gutted that I didn’t make it to the beach though although once we were in the van I couldn’t wait to be back in my own bed at home!

Goodbye Newquay and thank you Run To The Sun 2012 and Area 51 for an amazing weekend! Hope to do it all again soon!

Run To The Sun cont.

Saturday 2^Nd June:

It was my dad’s birthday on this day which meant it was only 25 days till mine wooo! After about a billion turns to try get some signal it finally worked and I was able to wish him happy birthday! The signal was not very good at all though so it was a short and sweet conversation. Did we explore the campsite today? Oh no, we looked through the footage from the night before, put it all from the memory cards on to the laptop to free up the space for the next two nights! We put all the cameras on charge and showed the group some of the footage. All good news so far because they were all very impressed with what we had managed to capture of the night! Had another pretty chilled out time until about 3.30pm when I finally got my way and we went exploring down by the main arena. We went in the amusement arcade and put £4 into the 2p shufflers and managed to get £2.40 back out! That’s what I call winnings! After this I wanted a competition with Scott to see who could last the longest on one of them robotic moving bull things. I lasted 28 seconds and thought for sure I was the loser, till Scott got on and fell off after 10! Rubbish! He beat me on the surfboard though :( even if I did manage 72 seconds, I think I did pretty well but unfortunately not long enough! Then for the part that was even more fun….AQUAZORBING! Oh my gosh, this was the hardest, most tiring, sweatiest, warmest and most fun thing in the world! £10 for ten minutes for two people, bit expensive but still I would totally do it again! Every time one person stands up the other one falls over, it’s amazing! If you have never done it then absolutely go for it if you ever get the chance! Probably one of the major highlights of the whole weekend for me! After this we had a slush! Not had one of them in YEARS! Things have changed since I was little though considering I wanted to put vodka in this one, but I suppose being 18 does that to you!

Back to the caravan then to wait for the acts for the evening, more filming to do! We also got new caravan mates today: Amber and Cyd – dancers, stilts and FIRE! They were so lovely, I have never met lovelier people I don’t think! We had to wait for them to get ready though because they did not know where the arena was so we waited for them and walked them down. Amber picked up a drunken friend along the way but we soon ditched the friend when we went through the back stage entrance and she was not allowed in! As soon as we got there I went straight to the balcony and Scott went straight out into the crowd. The first act out were the giant lego men! And I have to say, these were definitely my favourite of all the costumes! If I knew how to post pictures and videos on here I’d put on some of the footage and pictures of the different costumes but unfortunately I have no idea quite how to work this yet! After this the FuturisChicks were out, the GloGirls, the dancers and the fire acts! Also the big heads of David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Freddy Mercury. These were AMAZING costumes as well, so so so good in the crowd, a real crowd pleaser! The best part of this act was the fact that a man was in the Winehouse costume so all the men in the crowd got a bit of a shock when they lifted up the skirt for a quick peak! Got an eyeful that’s for sure! There were more stage shows as well tonight. Consisting of fire, fire, fire and more fire! They finally got paraffin so there were fire poi, fire breathers, angle grinders and fire dancers! It looked so good. The finale show they put on was absolutely amazing and those who didn’t see it really really missed out!

                I was so glad to get to bed after tonight, so so tiring! Except with two more caravan mates we had visitors of other entertainers into the night who are so extremely loud! Must have just been hyper on the adrenaline for the night! The dancers must have lost some weight in water after the heat in that arena and the quality of their performance. 10 out of 10!

Run To The Sun 2012

Well, this is my first blog and for a while I was very unsure about what to write about, then it came to me! I recently went to Cornwall for the first time to Newquay to the ‘’Run To The Sun’’ (RTTS) festival with the elite entertainment company Area 51! (Who you may or may not have seen on Britain’s Got Talent) Basically they invited my boyfriend to film their sets at the festival and I got to go along as well and help! I’m going to split this up into multiple blog posts purely to make it easier for me to write it as it seems to be taking me foreverrr!

 If you don’t know what RTTS is, it’s basically this huge VW festival at the campsite 'Smugglers Haven' (ace name) and all the music is dubstep and drum and bass (that music is not my thing at all but it was still a really great weekend). Pendulum, Lisa Lashes, Shy Fx, Netsky, Judge Jules and Modestep were all playing over the weekend, and many many more that I just cannot remember!

It was an amazing weekend and was so much fun! And alongside that, a really good way to top up my CV! We set of for Cornwall at about 7pm on Thursday 31^st of May and the expected arrival time was 12pm! With two stop offs along the way we didn’t actually arrive at the campsite until about half one! The journey was so so so long! We travelled down in a van with one of the dancers from the group, two other members of the Area 51 crew followed behind us in the car. When we arrived we were told we had three caravans to stay in (ten more dancers/performers were following us down in the next few days). Anyway, once we were all settled in to our correct caravans it was off to sleep for lots of rest ready for the rest of the fun!

Friday 1^st June:

We had pretty much the whole day to do whatever we wanted to, I wanted to explore the campsite but that didn’t happen as other plans were in place! We drove into the town of Newquay to get some food in as we had completely forgotten to bring some with us! We drove straight past the beach and I wanted to stop the car and explore the town for ages but as I was not driving, this did not happen :( after the food shop it was back to the caravans for a curry lunch and a pretty chilled afternoon! I read a book and Scott messed about with his camera’s preparing them for the night ahead! During the afternoon more of the crew arrived! We were introduced and everybody was so friendly. I thought this would mean a few more people sharing our caravan but that didn’t happen either. I was shocked by the amount of smoking the entertainers do, but that’s all part and parcel of the industry I suppose!

8pm arrived and it was time to walk down to the car park to unload the van. All the costumes were in there and I was not aware they had so many! There were giant lego men, big heads, alien costumes, clowns (much to my distress), tonnes of pairs of stilts for the dancers to wear and so many more! There was so much that it filled practically every space in the back stage area! The entertainment started at 10pm and that time came pretty quick once the unloading of the van was finished! I was handed my camera and it was off to work we went! I went straight up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the main stage to film the entertainment from above. Area 51 were mostly doing walkabouts through the crowd in their costumes until later on in the night when there would be some stage shows!  I was pretty excited to see all the costumes, and having seen the entertainers getting ready I saw the costumes come to life piece by piece. They looked so so so good!

12-1am PENDULUM DJ SET!!! Our dancers and angle grinders put on an absolutely brilliant performance! The crowd went wild and everybody enjoyed it so much! It was a fantastic stage show to top off a fantastic evening, but the nights not over yet, oh no! The performers worked 10pm till 3.30am and we filmed it all! By the end of the night I was absolutely worn out and could not wait to get myself into bed! Just the long walk up the hill back to the caravans to go and the day could finally end. Was a brilliant start to the weekend and definitely provided an insight upon what the rest of the weekend would be like!