The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. I've been making loads of videos for loads of different people. And you know what? For the first time in my life, I am pretty damn tired of making them.
I should probably lead by stating that, at the moment, I work part time at DMU making videos. This started off as a six-week internship where I was meant to produce one video and that'd be that. But you know me, audience, when do I ever give up on an opportunity to make videos?
At the very beginning of my internship, I learned that I was, in fact, meant to be four people. Great, I thought, I'm fucking brilliant at making videos and other people just slow me down. Time to show this faculty who's boss. I very quickly came to love the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, the folks I'm now working for. Within my first week I was talking my way into the Curve Theatre to film the graduation ceremonies and to interview graduates. Bear in mind that I had been hired to make a video for July's graduation ceremony here. I was out making a video I hadn't even been told to do. Everyone was very impressed with my work. My goal was to put out a better video than the university-wide video maker did. And I think I scored a home run with three wickets to spare in extra time after advantage Federer.
Sports lingo.
So anyway, I earned myself a reputation very quickly. On account of being four people, I had video requests from all over the gaff from what felt like every member of staff and lecturer in the faculty. I became the big man on campus. The guy who went from losing an election to be a student officer to bloody working at the joint. I gained access to everywhere I wanted to go, just because I could!
I do often worry how easily I manage to talk my way into places. Maybe I should start doing that with vaginas totally something else.
What made that job brilliant was the freedom I had. My manager was the Faculty Manager, and therefore I only actually saw her once every few weeks, and so I could pretty much come and go as I pleased. Of course, that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. What I mean by that is, I went from having her as my manager to the marketing coordinator, who lives in my office. So instead of hopping around campus like a loon and submitting as many hours as I wanted (within reason, of course), I was suddenly being watched. This, for whatever reason, made the job way more stressful. While I'm still allowed to work on what I want, I have to inform her what I'm doing all the time, and come up with weekly plans before the week has even started! I know! That's not how videos work! They take an amount of time to film, and an amount of time to edit. Sure, now I can take a pretty good guess how long it'll take to make a video, but it never works out like that. Being restricted to 16 hours a week really hampers editing.
Anyway, so that's my day job now. Don't get me wrong, it is fantastic, and I suppose it is a better insight into how this job might work were I to do this sort of thing full time, which I'm definitely looking into, but some of the fun has been sucked away. I guess that's just called being an adult.
With that explanation out of the way, I suppose I'd better tell you what stuff I've been working on, which is the entire point of this post.
With DMU at the moment, I'm working on the graduation ceremony video, which is my baby. I've emailed just about every lecturer in the faculty asking them to pick their favourite students (I didn't, but they gave me their favourite students anyway for fear I'd find some of the idiots and make them look bad) to be in my video. I'm doing a sort of cinematic thing with fancy camera angles and funky editing, rather than the usual talking heads video of just "I enjoyed my time at university because I got to feed the ducks every Tuesday morning." Read that quotation in a stupid voice.
I'll give you a moment to process.
Yeah, those videos are stupid. I'm doing it better. Other than that, I'm also putting together talking heads of lecturers introducing their course to the new intake. Not the most exciting project in the world, to be honest, but it keeps me off the streets. I'm filming it on green screen and putting a backdrop of their labs or wherever so that they can read off of a teleprompter and look like they're standing in their own room. Cool, right? I'm putting way more effort into it than necessary. And I like that.
A couple of weeks ago I filmed a music video for Flying Kangaroo Alliance. For free. I never make videos for free any more. But alas, that Keeley Knight is a pretty girl and she is a super good friend. I'm also pretty glad I'm doing it for free, because not only does it take the pressure off, but it also makes it fun. I haven't done a music video in years. Heck, I haven't really made a video that wasn't for marketing purposes since like... September. It's crazy. And you know what? It has been the most fun I've had in a while. Hanging out with my friends, making a fun video and listening to cool music. And it's certainly the best music video I've ever made.
When we filmed the all-important band shots, the lead singer managed to convince a whole bunch of public to come along and dance in the video. I've never had that happen. Wait. Once. But that was a video I'd rather forget. In any case, I got to put my director hat on again. In this particular case, the director hat was, in fact, a tiara.
Pretty fly, right?
Look how damn professional I am.
So fucking professional.
This is it right here. My business. This is what I do for a living. I love it.
So not long after I filmed this, I was down at Wicksteed Park filming a video for the grand re-opening of the Lake. I can say that now, right? Am I allowed? Yeah. I can. I still own the copyright, so it's all good.
Anyway, I make videos for the Park like, all the time. They're my biggest client. So I couldn't refuse an opportunity to get some filming gear out and make pretty pictures magically appear from a dull, lifeless lake. In the summer it'll look great. But it's not summer yet. And so, the great tragedy of this time of year has once again occurred. Things happen, and they don't look good. On this particular adventure, I was aided by the beautiful Natalie Castka, who for some reason wanted to help me. I know, it staggers me too. A person, nay, a pretty person, wanted to help me with nothing in return? This doesn't happen. I guess on the day before I did stand around in a Ring Master's outfit looking pretty and signing bits of paper all for her benefit. Eye for eye, I guess.
Being pretty seems to be a fast growing theme in this blog post. Lots of pretty final years in the graduation video.
So, after two weeks of constant filming, the editing phase began. Why it worked out like this is completely beyond me. I had a tonne of fun editing the Flying Kanagaroo Alliance video. It felt all nostalgic. Making a video to try out new things and edit really well. A video I can watch a thousand times and point out every mistake, and yet still enjoy it. But I tell you, it soon got very tiresome.
Recently, I've also become quite financially inept. In February, I didn't get paid nearly enough to break even. How I'm still alive and £400 up is beyond me. So it's been a struggle. And it's also been very lonely. I haven't been able to just nip to the pub and have some grub with my mates. I've just been sat at home, drinking all the alcohol I can find. When I'm alone, my brain does some stupid things to me, which I'm sure I'll one day reveal, but not yet. The point is that I started to really miss people and drove myself a little mad. It hasn't been aided by the fact that what feels like a million of my pre-arranged meet ups were all cancelled or forgotten about.
I embellished a little there. It wasn't a million. I was just sad.
So on Tuesday evening, my house mate, Mike, came home with a Ray and we got very drunk and very not sober. This cheered me up a little. Then, yesterday, I hopped on a train to visit another very pretty lady called Hayley. We hung out all day and you know, for once I was able to just chill out without the need of alcohol. It was good just to be in a genuinely great friend's company and forget about the world and everything in it for a while. That really turned my mood around. I was happier than I've been in a while.
So there you have it. I'm all good, don't worry. It's Easter soon, and that means I'll be working at Wicksteed's again and the chaps will be coming back from their various universities around the country. I'll actually be able to work and regularly be in the company of others, which is something you really miss when you're hired as a solo video maker. Things are, right now, on the up. Maybe it's time to work on a new video project?
Or take a break. A break would be nice.
Pete out.
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