Friday 18 August 2017

My hiatus

Once again, I find myself making another Blog Post, 2 years since the last one. I guess I'm a commitment-phobe, albeit a selective commitment-phobe. When it comes to regularly creating YouTube videos, writing blog posts or even maintaining high marks in assignments, I'm useless. But on the flip side, I committed to taking a photograph of my ageing face every single day since August 2012, with 5 full years worth of photos detailing all the changes from age 21 to 26. My facial hair fills in, my acne clears up completely and I go through three separate periods of growing my hair out, each time leaving it longer until I chop it all off. From December 2015 to December 2016, I left my hair to grow long for the first time ever. My "face a day" project is one of my many ongoing film projects that will never be completed. But, hitting the 5 year mark is pretty significant so I'm planning on completing the sequence so I can export a video finally and add "experimental art film" to my filmography. Other projects include my lost in limbo Vietnam War horror movie and my "Grand Theft Auto set in the UK" video game that has been in development since 2014.

So what have I been up to since July 2015? Around that time, I applied to my University to go back and do a masters which I started in September of that year. I began a master by negotiated study course that confuses a lot of people when I tell them what I do. In simple terms, it's a "do whatever the hell you want" masters where you're given complete freedom to study everything and anything. With my interest in special effects and visual effects that was only briefly touched upon during my undergraduate degree, I decided to look at green screen and digital environments in order to become better acquainted with the technology. I like being in an academic environment but I know I can't be a student forever which is why I want to get into lecturing, specifically film visual effects. Returning to university has also opened up many job opportunities and I'm currently working as a barista (coffee not law) in the Student Union cafe along with my job as a student ambassador. 

But, University is not the only thing that I've been doing since 2015. Around the same time, I got my foot in the door at the local football club. And no, I don't mean a minor village team, I'm talking about a Premiership Football club with its own 30,000+ capacity stadium and a dedicated media team. My Dad knows people. He's been working in the football industry since before I was born, before the Premiership was even born. Nepotism is a great thing when it happens to you. Football is big money in the UK and I am very fortunate to have tapped into it. During August 2015, I went along to observe a game and shoot a pre-match interview that was then edited an hour before it was due to go out onto the big screen in the stadium. Though I wasn't paid at the time, the feeling of having something you created play out to tens of thousands of people was surreal and extremely satisfying. 

Fast forward to a year, and I find myself back at the stadium but this time, I'm getting paid. I'm there on match days creating graphics for the the big screen and updating scores, times and player lists but the content that I film and edit is also getting played out to all those fans. I'm filming and editing on a regular basis now and it really gives you such a strong sense of achievement doing something that is directly related to your degree. I struggled for several years with finding work but persistence pays off. You may get rejected after attending many interviews for jobs (like I was) but sometimes, opportunities present themselves via non-conventional means and all it takes is the willingness to say yes. Believe!