Eventful Me

Everything has been go go go recently, since the last time I blogged I have been to the Victoria and Albert Museum, seen Avenue Q, attended Canterbury Anifest, visited Tate Modern, taken a class of sixth formers, had my first experience of TGI Friday’s, seen Despicable Me, Done an Open Day, gone out dressed as a pirate, bowled very poorly and then done kareoke very poorly as well. After all that, whilst also attending university, it is time to start another week.

Canterbury Animation Festival was a good experience. There was a fun behind the scenes look at Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a screening of The Gruffalo, a session with the children of Oliver Postage and Peter Firmin (the people behind The Clangers and Bagpuss among other things...) and of course the competition screening. There were some really good films from aspiring animators in both 2D and 3D. I have to say however, that amusement won out for me and my favourite was called Polished Off.

On Tuesday I overcame a couple of nerves, I was a little bit worried about doing a personal statement workshop with some sixth formers. On the day one of the ambassadors from another university didnt turn up so I had to take their talk also before mine. However, I’m not complaining, the sessions went really well and I think its an example of how working whilst studying can be beneficial for your skills and confidence.

I have been waiting for a long time, as I know a few others have been for the release of Despicable Me. It can be worrying when you have high expectations for a film, it’s dissapointing if they dont meet them. However, that was not a problem in this case as this film absolutely met them. I thought it was fantastic, beautifully done and really funny.

Work Begins

This week has been a busy one but it feels like the exciting stuff is still to come so I won’t be able to tell you about it until next week. Friday evening I am going to see Avenue Q with friends, to catch it before it ends. This Saturday I am going to Canterbury for the Canterbury Anifest (short for Animation Festival).

I am looking forward to the festival very much; there are three sessions before the showing of the submitted films and awards ceremony. There is a behind the scenes look at Wallace and Gromit, a showing of the Gruffalo and also a session called Children of Small Films. This is where Oliver Postgate (Clangers, if you didn’t know) and Peter Firmin’s children come and talk about their work.

However as I have been pretty much at university, then work all week, apart from Thursday when classes were cancelled because of a power outage in the building, Sunday will be a day of homework and catch up. I don’t want to get behind in this second year; we already have a lot to get a grip of. Once I get into the work I will enjoy it, but there’s always that problem of getting started!

I had a nice déjà vu moment this week when I realised I was doing a repeat event as a student ambassador. My first event last year was a HE fair at Lambeth College and I found myself back there again this year. I look forward to many more.

On a last happy note, I finally received my student finance for this term! Drinks will be on me tonight.

Invaded by Pirates

This week I sat in class as several soldiers from the East India Trading company of Pirates of the Caribbean marched past the window. Captain Jack has also been surfing a car past a blue screen in the middle of the campus. So life has certainly not been dull, although walking the whole way around the outside of the campus to get to classes is not such a ball.

It is incredibly interesting for film and multimedia students to see the production going on. They have a couple blue screens for special effects and a huge piece of scaffolding covered in blue which I suspect will be an entire 3D building. I can’t wait to see the film and see how they have made the site into a set, it will be brilliant.

It is going to be the weekend again, last weekend I went on a puppet making course at the Film and Video Workshop in Islington. It was a lot of fun, and I came out the end of it with a fully animatable puppet who due to his black outfit and woollen hat we have decided to name Bertie the Burglar. Our tutor had worked on several things for the BBC and it was interesting to see a puppet from House of Mouse and that the puppet actually just had marbles for eyes.

It was the first proper week back this week. I like this time of year because it is full of inspiration and hope about all the potentially great things that you will have learnt or made by the end of the year. At least it is for me, others I know it fills them with dread at the amount of work they are going to do and whether they will be able to pass the courses.