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.