The Week Where....I'm First Assistant Director

Hello, and welcome back…

The last three weeks have been such a blur that I’m not even sure I can recollect half of what happened during that time, but here’s to trying...

The last time I wrote, I mentioned having the task of guiding two actors through a scene. That however just acted as practise as we were then given two full weeks out of university to fully plan how we’d stage it including writing up lighting plans, working out the logistics of the actor’s performances and filling in the necessary paperwork. Last Friday, we carried out the task as part of our studio production module and it would be graded based on our organisation as a crew and how well the overall product turned out. Five lecturers were all stood grading us, and while it was your crews turn to carry out the task, the other four film crews would watch us while waiting for their own turn (therefore meaning there were around 30+ people in the room and all eyes on you!). I was dropped into the role of first assistant director and due to lack of much spare time to meet up, we weren’t the most prepared on the day and so while the other groups had their turn, me and the director were still sat scribbling notes on the scripts to make sure we had all things considered. Something you may not know is that the director’s role on set isn’t really anything to do with the crew. Their role is primarily to communicate with the actors on how they’d like the scene to go, and the creative control in how it all looks. It’s the first assistant director’s role to lead the whole crew which serves the purpose of taking the pressure off the director, so the director only has to focus on the actors. The role as first assistant director (also known as 1^st AD) means ensuring all the crew are ready on time for when the director is ready to call action. As this was my role, I had to learn all the protocols and we were marked on how clearly we carried them out…for example, I first shout ‘Settle, quiet on set, stand-by’, then as long as nobody has said anything to indicate they’re not ready, I’d say ‘Turnover’ which prompts the sound to begin recording. This is followed by the clapper loader (the person with the clapperboard used to sync audio and visuals) marking the start of the scene before the camera begins recording. Another interesting thing is that when the director says cut, that only prompts the actors to stop performing, however it’s the 1^st AD saying cut that stops the crew from recording (not sure whether this is true to the industry, however it’s how it’s done in university so would presume it’s the same!). Both myself and the director were so relieved to get it done and over with that we both headed to a burrito place to celebrate. I then headed home for the weekend as I looked after the house while my parents were away and so my friend came to keep me company where we spent the weekend binge-watching a series in Netflix and catching up on each other’s news.

Aside from this, nothing else overly significant has happened! Our flatmate had her 20^th birthday party last night and she was definitely wanting to do it in style. I woke up the next day to knocking on our flat door where our friends from a few floors up came down and we all headed out for a coffee to revive ourselves after what had been an eventful night. I left them early to head to a museum with another friend before crashing out and having a good two-hour nap as it was safe to say I was exhausted. Tomorrow will be spent solely on getting my written assignment in (which thankfully only has 200 words left to do!) and then I can relax a little for the week...

Until next time,

Victoria.

The Week Where I... Order Take-Away (a LOT!)

Well, howdy-doodly my lovelies! How is it all going?

This week - in fact, the last three weeks - have been an absolute whirlwind! You last caught up with me ahead of my last of three weeks off uni. I am back now. The learning is exciting! I am really proud of the session I had last Wednesday where we worked in groups of four to create and layout a newspaper article in a single day! It was difficult but I am really happy with the outcome!

I do love learning, it's just the whole "adulting and everything else" part of university that I'm struggling with. It can be exhausting if I'm perfectly honest, and quite a lonely thing at times.

But over the last two weeks, things have been looking a bit brighter (and I don't just mean there's more daylight hours now!). I went on a Valentine's Day date - my first one, believe it or not! It was lovely and you both know how it ends so I'll spare all of the details and tell you that it's now Facebook official. I am a happy bean.

I've also been trying to encourage my uni friends to hang out more when we're not in class. One of them has a boyfriend so I understand her reluctance, but another friend doesn't really get out much so I'm a little worried about her. Ideas of cute but cheap afternoons out are appreciated so I can see her more often, please!

While I've been quite the social person (I'm as surprised as you are!), I've let a few things slip. I've not been food shopping in a while and have instead taken to ordering Domino's/fish and chips... I did it three times in just over a week - although two of those times I was with friends/le boyf so it doesn't count, right? ...Right?!

I've also not written any letters in a while, so I hope to get back to that over the next week or so! I have, however, started reading another book. So that's two I'm reading now. I picked up 'Flowers for Algernon' recently, and I was so excited to start it!

I'm really enjoying it! I love the way it's written - it's first-person and written as a series of progress reports. You can see exactly how the main character grows and changes, and it's so thought-provoking. Plus it's an SF Masterworks book so it makes me look intelligent! Gotta love it.

I'm excited to watch the new series of Brooklyn-99 on Netflix next week. My pals and I are going to hang at someone's place and watch the first few episodes. My dudes, I cannot wait!

Apologies for being awful at communication recently, I need to step up my game a bit. Love to you all.

Dottie xox

The Week Where... I Learnt To Walk Again

Hi.

I began my week being able to put weight on my ankle after spraining it two days before. After a miserable Saturday I was looking forward to getting out of the house on Sunday and visiting my Grandma. We went to the local garden centre for coffee and cake although couldn't look around much due to my ankle getting painful. I then spent a few hours at my Grandma's finishing two books which I had been trying to finish for months. I felt such a sense of achievement and thoroughly enjoyed both books. The first was 'How to be your own best friend' and the second was ''The Last Wish,' the first book in 'The Witcher' series which I highly recommend reading if you like fantasy. Thank you boyfriend for lending it to me :)

Monday was my Mother's birthday. I made some coffee cupcakes and then we went out for tea to a restaurant. I hope she enjoyed her day.

Tuesday to Thursday I spent three days with my boyfriend. Wednesday I went and got my hair dyed! :O I decided to have a natural balayage look. As if my hair was sunkissed. I had my hair done at an expensive salon. You can tell it's expensive due to the options given such as free drinks whenever (free cocktails!) and the offer of a head massage. I turned down the head massage due to the sink hurting and putting pressure on my neck. Although the process was long and a bit boring, I'm very happy with the end result. I'll probably choose somewhere cheaper next time though!

Then, as usual, I worked Friday and Saturday. It was very busy Saturday and I cooked over double the amount of chickens I usually do! Absolutely mental. I'm spite of an exhausting day at work, I encouraged my boyfriend to accompany me to a local recreation ground...which was packed with kids. However, we had a nice time in the cafe and had a short walk around the sculpture trail.

This Sunday, today, I also enjoyed the blue skies by going for a walk and lying out in the sun whilst reading my book.

My book I am reading has brought much enjoyment to me the past few days. It's called 'The Cloud Spotters Guide' and is not only informative and easy to understand but funny due to the authors sense of humour. I encourage everyone to read it and learn to appreciate the beauty of the clouds above us. Happy little clouds.....

Thanks for reading. Coming up in my life is a holiday with my boyfriend in April which is something to look forward to.

See you soon.

Emma.

The Week Where I....Partied, Again

Hello once again, in a week that feels like it has ended before it properly began…

In the three weeks since I last wrote, I’ve been assigned two back-to-back film projects (a documentary and a fiction film, respectively), as well as a filmed interview to conduct and an essay on the analysis of film. The documentary so far however has only highlighted the shitty organisational skills of my university’s lecturers, as while all other film groups have seven members, my lecturer has somehow managed to arrange it in a way that means my group only consists of two people..yes, you read it right. This means that the two of us are expected to film a documentary alone, as well as complete seven people's worth of written work (around thirty pages) all as part of one of our larger graded assignments. So all in all university is great, £9000 well-spent if you ask me.

Aside from education, I was asked out for valentines and thought that there would be no harm in going. The two of us had a great time together (although I’m not interested in pursuing a relationship) and after a few drinks, we headed back to my accommodation to pick up our two friends before heading to a club. Cut to 4am and I arrived back at the flat, only to wake at 7am for my first lecture of the day with (yet another) dreadful hangover. In the session, we all gathered in the television studio and were expected to direct two actors through a short script. It’s not easy. You doubt your own ability when thirty others in the class are watching you and when two seasoned actors, who are used to experienced directors, are made to follow your directions. I’ve started to learn that faking confidence puts the actors faith in you and what you’re asking, and so pushing through the self-doubt is key even if you don’t believe in yourself. A bit of information you may find interesting is that you shouldn’t direct an actor by saying things such as “Use more body gestures”, which seems the obvious way right? Instead, for example, we had a script involving a man of a nervous-disposition (Actor A) trying to convince a gang leader (Actor B) not to kill him. Rather than saying to Actor A “act more desperate for him to forgive you”, you can give their character a motive for the scene such as telling the actor that their character is “chasing empathy” off the gang-leader, which then allows the actor to imagine ways that their character might do this (whether via body language or their vocals) and overall it gives them more leeway in how they perform the scene. I feel this also shows a greater respect to the actor in allowing them to do what they're trained to do. Although their actions may not come across how you initially planned too, many times it comes out better than you could have expected or even planned yourself, and so you have to be willing to adapt your initial ideas rather than getting everybody to stick to your plan in stone. I think it’s the ability for an actor and a director to learn to communicate as one that produces the best work on-screen.

After that day’s lessons, I arrived back at the flat to find the kitchen being set up for yet another party. Despite still feeling like crap, I guessed I’d get no sleep from the noise and so got dressed up and decided to tag along. A few hours in and a familiar face walks through the door, my valentine date’s best friend who came clubbing with us (and perhaps the absolute gayest person you’ll ever meet). Upon seeing me at the party he grabbed my hand and that was it, off we headed to the nearest gay club…who would I have been to refuse? A secret I can let you in on is that these clubs are some of the best as you can get complimented by guys who you know have no intent to get with you, something that I feel makes it hard for any girl to trust a guy's actions now-a-days as you never fully know where their intentions lie. A guy approached me with his boyfriend just to tell me that I had eyes that “he could get lost in” and that he hoped I had a great night, then after I thanked him (and joked that he should be telling his boyfriend things like this instead) they left me alone just as they had came with no strings attached. After much dancing, I decided to head home early as I had to be at the train station the next morning to meet a friend and that’s where the night ended.

So that’s been my rush of a week. I’m now home for the weekend so I can head to the doctors tomorrow in search of some peace of mind from the pain I’ve been having for the last two weeks, and then it’s back to university for another enthralling week.

Until next time,

Victoria.

The Week Where I... Kicked Back and Relaxed (Somewhat...)

Well hey there! 

Can you believe it's already been three weeks since I wrote here?! I definitely can't! Time has flown by and I'm finally trying to relax a bit. It's not going too well in all honesty. 

Today concludes my second of three weeks off uni (it's an inter-semester break and I get lots of time off because I don't do exams. Yay!). While I've had to work weekends and Mondays, I've actually had some time to be at home and catch up on sleep. It has been lovely. 

Having lie-ins and going to bed early is all well and good, but I like to try to fill my waking hours with things that keep my mind occupied. Over the last two weeks, I've baked chocolate fudge cake, triple chocolate chip cookies, and vanilla fairy cakes. It has been wonderful! I've also written two album reviews and some festival announcement pieces! I'm enjoying pushing myself creatively to write new things. 

Amongst all of the writing, sleeping, and baking, I took some time this week to head to Cardiff to see the lovely Victoria! The trains were a bit chaotic (read: annoyingly delayed - I could have slept longer!), but I got there in the end! We checked out some vintage stores which were quite cool! I've fallen in love with 90s fashion, oversized tees and looser fitting jeans. I think it looks ace! 

Anyway, I got a bit sidetracked there. Back to Cardiff. We also got to wander around the park. Now I don't know about you, but I always thought that a park in the middle of a city would be busy/noisy/not nice. Man, was I wrong! The park was so peaceful and pretty, it was so nice to simply be in nature. Our final planned stop for the day was a wonderful little coffee shop. They sold the best hot chocolates. I don't know how they did it, but it was like drinking chocolate. The flavour was incredible! I'd be tempted to move there just for that! 

Since the last time I checked in, I've finished two books ('Inferno' by Dan Brown, and 'Cloud, Castle, Lake' by Vladimir Nabokov). I've also watched all of the Netflix series 'Sex Education', which was really interesting - I'm all for teen drama! My next 'to-be-read' is 'Glue' by Irvine Welsh. It's a hefty book written in Scottish dialect, which makes for a difficult read! 

Am I up for the challenge?

I guess you'll find out in three weeks!

See y'all soon, 

Dottie

The Week Where... I Was Snowed In

Hi.

Well, my week began on Sunday when I went and visited Vicky. Thank you for having me. Hope you're feeling better. I was proud of myself for that day; travelling to and from Cardiff on my own felt like an achievement. Next stop is Bath!
           
On Monday I visited my Dad and we did some shopping. I bought some cool cargo trousers which I have been trying to find for YEARS! Most aren't what I'm looking for so when I saw these I couldn't resist, even though they were a little pricey.

The next few days I saw my boyfriend. We watched all the Ted Bundy tapes on Netflix although he fell asleep in 2/3 of them. It was fascinating. I have a weird interest in serial killers. I always enjoyed criminology so I was hooked. I need more! Perhaps on a different serial killer next time?.....

Then it snowed. And that caused disruptions to my life as my car was now trapped at my boyfriends house. I also had to plan to stay at his house for the next few days so I could get in to work. However, as I wasn't well Friday evening, I found a way to get home (thanks mum) and picked my car up on Saturday where I had to drive very carefully on ice. Yikes!

In terms of work, I was on the deli for 3 days in a row. I worked Friday afternoon, all day Saturday (as there was no one to do the afternoon shift) and the Sunday shift (which isn't usually mine...and is also all day). I get mood swings at work. One minute I'm jolly and then the next a customer or colleague comes along and annoys me and that's it for a few hours. I won't explain everything that annoyed me but the majority of the problems were the chickens this week. Stupid customers (and boss).

Finally, I would like to add that I've gotten really in to country music at the moment. Not sure it would be to either of your tastes though sadly.

Next for me is spending more time with my boyfriend, planning a trip to Bath and trying to find a few places to go on holiday!

See you soon.

Emma.

Theo

The Week Where...I Am Actually Outgoing

Hello, and welcome to my portion of the blog...

This week for me started when I moved back to the city, making the most of the freedom I have before university starts yet having had so much to do that I haven’t had time to take a breather. I moved straight into a new flat as the people I'd previously been sharing with had finally been fucking around for a little too long and therefore I took the chance of it being better elsewhere. Despite my room looking relatively bare of possessions, I found that I had far more belongings than originally anticipated so all in all it became a tedious five-hour process. The down-size of this new room is actually a favoured one; however I still grumble to my flatmate about no longer being on the sunset side of the building (which this old photo I took proves, I mean who wouldn’t miss a view like that?). Much to my joy, the new view faces a wall which, while depressing, isn't too bad as at least I
sleep somewhat better here.

After unpacking, I left for a gig with a friend which somewhat contributed to my attempt of a new year’s resolution which is saying yes to more. Being out with people I’m not familiar with isn’t one of my strong suits, yet with the help of a little intoxication I’ve started embracing these situations more, figuring it’s probably the best way to get out of the dreaded pit that is social anxiety. And hey-ho, I met some new people, listened to some good music and things went well. I was hoping to continue this philosophy by going along to a house party which in all honesty was a great way to meet great people and gave me something to do, but the house turned into clubbing and a few drinks turned into twelve drinks so needless to say I’m an absolute idiot and have never been so horrifically hungover or for that matter, black-out drunk. In addition to this, I have no clue how I got back to my flat which was a journey I stupidly made alone. But then you visited me Emma, and despite me ruining what otherwise was a great day with my everlasting hangover and consistent whining, it was more than great to have some company and I’m hoping you enjoyed it.

And for the most part, that is where my week ends…university starts again Tuesday (after a fourty-four day Christmas break, jesus christ) and I’m already counting down the days until I leave so all in all you'll be glad to hear that I am remaining positive.

Until next time,
Victoria.