Happy Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Pancake Day! Happy Valentines Day!
Errk!
Soooo I've not been guiltily avoiding this here blog due to distinct lack of blogging going on.... nope not me! :P
Major changes:(I'll post a pic and whatnot later)
Mum and dad moved house
My brother got his first job (and annoyingly gets paid more than I do...grrr)
I'm one of the organisers (well all I really do is put a film on on sunday) of Film Club
Stuff:
Well I am still alive!
Still training for the marathon
Still at university
Still working
Still with The Boyfriend
Still having driving lessons
Still crafting
Still trying to work out what I want to do with my life
So a lot still the same then!
One interesting thing recently was
Ffresh. For those that don't know, Ffresh is the student moving image festival for Wales.
I was originally just going to visit the festival as I thought it would be a good experience for me (considering I'm doing media production MA and all), but on a whim I applied for the
Pitch To Win competition and amazingly I was shortlisted!!
The first day of Ffresh was fine, some interesting presentations and I tried to swallow my semi-shy nature and get stuck in. There was, however, a slight issue with accommodation. The accommodation was a hostel 5 miles outside of Aber, ok fine, but apparently not so good when you're on your own.
I had decided to go back to the accommodation earlier than the others as they were not due back until past midnight and I wanted an early night to prepare myself (ie panic) for the Pitch to Win the next day. I managed to get a lift to the location and entered the hostel. Unfortunately the house (or rather manor house) was COMPLETELY EMPTY, all rooms devoid of life (and lights).
Added to that was the fact that the hostel itself WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE and you start to get the picture of general creepyness. I needed to find the woman who ran the whole thing, which is easier said than done when there were no external lights. In the middle of the countryside there are no streetlights, due to its very nature there is no light pollution and so using the moon to guide you to the next cottage in a place you have no knowledge of proved to be quite an adventurous task in itself! The first cottage proved to be a red herring, but the bloke was kind enough to point me vaguely in the direction of my required destination.
Finally after shuffling carefully in the dark, skidding around in the mud, I managed to locate Mrs Twig (fantastic name, and to me provides a good general indicator to you readers that she was completely bonkers). She managed to show me to my room which was unlocked in the first place. She then bade me good night and left me to my own devices.
So I'm in a very old manor house which is used as a hostel. There are numerous bizarre floors to the house and upon investigation about 20 odd beds (bunkbeds and normal). I know there are others that are staying in the hostel because one of the rooms has things in it but every room is completely empty and all lights are off.
I pick a bunk, get ready for bed and try to sleep as quickly as possible (Which was actually surprisingly quick).
It's a good thing I'm not afraid of the dark....
The second day of Ffresh was rather nerve-wracking as the Pitch To Win events were spread throughout the day. Naturally I awoke at 5am in order to organise my panic into distinct levels of terror to pace myself for the day ahead.
The first session of the Pitch to Win wasn't really that bad, all the shortlisted students (there were 10 this year) were given the chance to talk to each of the judges individually about their idea. After talking to all three it became evident that one of the judges didn't really seem too keen about mine, he didn't really like the idea of crafts in the modern sphere.
The second session proved to be more intense. After waiting hours we were to go a theatre hall and sit with the audience (comprised of students and industry people), the judges were seated just off centre stage and a podium with a microphone was placed in the centre. The host declared that out of the ten shortlisted only three would be chosen to pitch their idea in ten minutes live on stage (Oh did I forget to mention that all this would be recorded?! Silly me...).
The first name was called.... I watched the pitch, it was ok, the idea was sound but he seemed to lose the thread of his debate half way through. He answered the questions and everyone politely clapped. Then the host came back on and said the dreaded phrase: "And the next student finalist is...." and then called out
MY NAME.... "Bugger".....
Managed to get onto the stage without making a spectacle of myself, and started my pitch. It went rather smoothly, I kept to the point, I stated my intentions, but then I hitched... I stumbled at my next point, I forgot my place, my palms immediately became sweaty as the stage light unforgivingly shone in my face. I knew I would be unable to pick up where I left off without stumbling around foolishly so I did the only thing I could and moved straight to the questions, I know I've always been strongest at that.
As luck would have it, they didn't ask me some of the harder questions I had constructed in my mind that they could have asked me, so that was a plus. However the judge who, earlier didn't seem to take to my idea, questioned whether crafts was an old past time, something that grandparents do and thus would not be of interest to the 16-24 demographic (I'm guessing he's never been on Craftster.org!) Initially my brain struggled to find an argument but then without permission my mouth took control:
"Actually You Are Wrong! And in fact I think it's those sort of ideas that is old fashioned!"
Now arguing your corner is all well and good but I think I need to point out two distinct facts. One: I'm a lowly student and Two: The judge happened to be a commissioner for the BBC.....
So you can imagine my brief horror when I realised that my mouth had seemingly betrayed the cause! I managed to finish the pitch and return to my seat, while the third and final student clamboured to the stage the days waves of fear and anxiety slowly ebbed away.
Luckily it worked in my favour in the end. Afterwards I received lots of business cards from some of the audience industry people, and many praised my defense of my idea. It was a real boost to have people come up to me and praise my idea, to actually specifically say I had done well. So maybe my mouth knew what it was doing afterall...
The final award ceremony a few hours later reminded me of the traditional award ceremonies you see on TV, the host reads out the category, the guest speaker reads out the names of the finalists and a short clip is shown of their work. Then the speaker makes some little quip about how exciting it all is and the name is called out, the winner flounces onto the stage and 'says a few words'... all in all a standard format.
Yet being an actual nominee, thinking that you might have a chance of winning one of those awards? Its a whole new world. Naturally the Pitch to Win results had to be the last to be announced, so naturally my mind twisted the event. What if I won? Would I have to give a speech? Were people expecting something witty and off the cuff clever? If I did win, what on earth was I expected to say? Do I even have enough wit to pull off a clever little acceptance speech?! This of course grew to also include:
Would I have to then make my idea a reality (even though it was an idea that just shot through my brain a day before the pitch submission deadline)?
"And the Winner is...." "NOT YOU."
It was a rather odd feeling... I had not won the grand prize. Yet I was not upset, slightly dissappointed in what could have been but definately not upset. Yet I was also relieved, relief that I didn't have to go on stage, relief that I didn't have to commit myself to my grand idea and then return to the next Ffresh and present how my business was doing since last year..... I was a finalist, not the overall winner and I was very proud and happy of that, but most of all....phew....
Although a trophy would have been nice....
