Last night, I went to a fantastic gig, with a friend, at Signature Brew Blackhorse Road, and got some lovely pictures, while I was there. It was great to listen to Buds., Carpark and Don't Worry, as well as to spend some quality time with one of my closest friends, that I've not seen for 8 months! It was a wonderful night, and the music was brilliant - even if I am now struggling to hear anything from my right ear, as we were stood far too close to the speakers! Apologies that I haven't posted much, in the past year. COVID, and a move to London, have both meant that I've struggled to take any photos, and without photos, I've got nothing to post! There will be a post, coming soon, about the TV audiences that I've been a part of, recently, so keep a look out for that. In the meantime, enjoy the photos from last night's gig!
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Monday 8th March 2021. For many, that marks the first day back on-site at school, college, or university, but for me, and a large number of creative students, that date marks the start of Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies' annual 'Industry Week', with this being the 15th year that Confetti have run the event.
Before Industry Week began...! For me, Industry Week began at the start of February when, due to there being so many television guests for this year's Industry Week, During the week, from the 9th until the 11th February, I had the pleasure of listening to 6 talks from a variety of different industry professionals, including Matt Teale, from ITV Central News, Sarmad Masud, who directed the second series of Ackley Bridge, Russ Taylor, who's a well-known Sky Sports journalist, Petra Mandova, who's the Business Development Executive of Mandy.com, and Sophia Thompson, who's the Senior Producer for a number of documentaries, including BBC's 'The One Show', Channel 4's 'One Born Every Minute', and Sky 1's 'Ashley Banjo's Secret Street Crew', as well as Richard Graham, edited the BBC One drama 'The Capture'. Listening to talks from the six individuals give talks about their work, and how they got to where they are today, in the industry, was incredible interesting, with their talks being informative, and engaging! Each of these talks was hosted by the wonderful Jamie Cash, who's hosting skills are fantastic, as he made sure that each of the guests both gave their talk, but also ensured that the right questions were asked, of the guests, to make sure that we, as students, got the most out of the talks. During Matt Teale’s talk, I shared a picture that I’d taken, of the talk, on Twitter, and after the talk had finished, Matt used that picture in one of his own tweets. I was honoured to see my photographs being recognised, and used, by someone who’s life is probably incredibly chaotic, but he had the time to look at my picture, and decided that he wanted to use it on his Twitter feed, which was surprising, but lovely, to see! Monday 8th March My Monday morning began at 10am with a talk from three ex-Confetti students, who each gave a talk about how they'd progressed from their university course, into their chosen career path. It was lovely to hear how well ex-Confetti students were doing, as it allowed me to be hopeful that, following my university course, I will be able to achieve the things that I want to achieve, and that I'm not going through a 3-year course for the sake of it! It was also interesting to hear how the three ex-students had managed to get through the COVID pandemic, with the lockdowns, as there hasn't been a lot of industry work available for them. Following this, later in the afternoon, I was lucky enough to have the chance to listen to Neil Oseman, who works as a Director of Photography. Neil worked on the 2020 film ‘Above the Clouds’, which I bought, and watched, that evening. I’ve got to admit that ‘Above the Clouds’ is probably my favourite film, at the moment. The cinematography in the film is wonderful, and without spoiling it, it’s incredibly bittersweet, and had me laughing (out loud!) and then it had me close to tears, 20 seconds later. I highly recommend watching ‘Above the Clouds’. I made a post on my Instagram page, following the film, and Neil Oseman left a comment, on the post, which was a nice thing to happen, and is another of a few interactions with the Industry Week guests, this year. My final talk for Monday was with Mark ‘Garvey’ Candella, who’s the Director of Education and Partnerships, at Twitch. I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet Garvey, just over a year ago, when he had a tour around Confetti, and Metronome, while I was doing some filming for BBC Music Introducing. Having met someone that has such an influential role, at such a well-known company, was amazing, and the fact that he loved the work that we were doing was something that I never ever thought would happen – especially while I was just doing some filming for BBC Music Introducing. I never expected that someone from Twitch was going to come and compliment the work that I was doing. However, during the talk on Monday, Garvey kept mentioning his visit to Confetti, and how amazed and impressed he was at both the teaching, and of the standard of equipment and facilities that Confetti have. He complimented the staff, as well as the students, and told us how Confetti is one of the best places to be able to study, and practise, work in the creative industry that we want to work in. Garvey finally stated something about ‘Confetti X’, but he’s not allowed to say anything about it, to which the gaming students went absolutely crazy in the Zoom chat. I wonder what ‘Confetti X’ is, and when it’s going to be announced! Garvey closed by stating that he hopes to be able to come back to the Confetti campus soon, to see everyone again, and to see how everything has changed since his last visit! Tuesday 9th March On Tuesday, I re-watched the talk with Sarmad Masud again, from the beginning of February, as his talk was incredibly interesting, and influential. Sarmad spoke about his work on Hollyoaks, as well as his time working as the director for the second series of Ackley Bridge, which was exciting. In the afternoon, we were honoured to have Noel Clarke give a talk, about his work in the film and television industries. Noel Clarke is an actor, as well as a director, screenwriter, and comic book writer. He played the role of Mickey, in Doctor Who, from 2005 until 2010, and played Sam in the Kidulthood, Adulthood, and Brotherhood films, to which he also directed, and wrote. Noel Clarke also writes, directs, and stars in the Sky One programme Bulletproof, which is currently being aired in the UK. Noel began his talk by mentioning issues with race in the industry. The BAFTA nominations were being announced at the same time as the talk, and due to Noel’s involvement with BAFTA, he was interested to see those that have been nominated for this year’s awards. It was shocking to see that there were hardly any non-white people nominated for awards at BAFTA, and this promoted Noel to talk about his experience with winning his BAFTA, amongst other awards, and discuss the way that he was treated, compared to the other actors at the same awards ceremony, and other winners of the same award. Noel continued to discuss the BAFTA nominations as they came in, while talking about his own work, including his acting in Doctor Who, and the ‘Hood’ trilogy of films, as well as discussing his directing and screenwriting work. Following the talk, I made a post on Instagram, about the talks that I have already seen, and about the others that I was excited to be a part of, throughout the rest of the week, and not only did Noel Clarke like the post, but he also shared the post to his Instagram story, which I was absolutely shocked to see. That was such a surreal experience, to know that, not only had Noel read, and liked, my post, but he also shared it with his 199,000 followers (as of 12/03/2021). Wednesday 10th March My first talk on Wednesday was with Simone Giampaolo. I did have another talk booked in for the morning, however due to technical issues, and issues with my WiFi at the time, I was unable to go to Paul Campion’s event, although I will most definitely watch it back, once it has been added to the ‘On Demand’ section of the Industry Week website! Simone’s talk had to be moved from 2pm, to 4pm, because someone in his local council had decided that they were going to start digging up the road, directly outside of his house, on the one day that he had a talk. Typical! However, once the talk got underway, there was no stopping Simone displaying his wide array of amazing animations and computer-generated images. I had already watched Simone’s show-reel before his talk, to get an insight into his work, however I got to watch it again, and when watching it a second time, I was equally as amazed at the work in which he has produced, as I was the first time that I watched it. Simone told us that "When I was 18, I couldn't even use Microsoft Paint properly", and now he created animations and computer-generated images for a living, which just goes to show that, if you want to do something, and you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything you want to! My question, at the end of the talk, also got answered, by Simone, which was a lovely way to end the talk, too. Simone also retweeted my tweet, and said that he hopes that his talk wasn’t too boring, to which I told him that it was incredible and that it was very interesting, but again, another Industry Week guest has shared my post, and has spoken directly to me, following the talk, which is amazing! Simone’s talk was the last Industry Week talk for that day, although that didn’t stop me from watching lots of different pieces of work that Simone had created, as well as from watching some of Alistair Darby’s work, as he was the next live Industry Week guest that I had booked to see, on Thursday. Thursday 11th March On Thursday, I had only originally booked to see Sophia Thompson and Matt Teale’s talks, again, through the Industry Week’s On Demand service, although one of the VFX and Animation tutors advised, on Wednesday night, that I booked onto Alistair Darby’s talk, as they thought that I would find it interesting, and they were right! Alistair spoke about his work as a university guest lecturer, as well as his work on a range of films and television series, including Paddington, and the Sky series Chernobyl. Alistair’s talk was, again, incredibly interesting, and although it was very VFX- and animation-oriented, it was still very interesting to listen to what he had to say. For Thursday evening, following Alistair’s talk, I worked on my uni essay draft, which was due on Friday 12thMarch, because if I didn’t do any work on it then, I’d never have finished it! (If you were wondering, I managed to finish the essay on Friday morning, and uploaded it at around 7:30am. I was awake super early because I’ve wanted to make sure that I’m all set-up and ready for the Industry Week talks, because I’ve not wanted to miss anything!) Friday 12th March Friday was the final day of Confetti and Nottingham Trent University’s 15th annual Industry Week, and in all honesty, that made me quite emotional. Industry Week is probably my favourite week in the entire Confetti calendar, as there are so many amazing guests, and it’s an honour to be able to meet them – whether that be in person, like most years, or virtually, like it’s had to be, this year. My morning started with Jon Holmes, at 10am, giving another VFX and animation talk, although in this talk, Jon actually showed us how he colour-graded, and white-balanced his work, using Davinci Resolve, which is software that I have briefly used in the past, but haven’t used extensively. I will definitely look into using Davinci Resolve for my colour-grading, and white-balancing in the future, though, instead of doing all of my work in Adobe’s Premiere Pro, as it looks incredibly simple to use, and it will be nice, for me, to learn how to use a new piece of software, rather than training myself to just use one. At 1pm, the main event had arrived. It was Russell T Davies’ Industry Week talk, which was something that I’ve been waiting for, all week! Each of the talks, during the week, have been fantastic, but Russell T Davies’ just blew everything out of the water. Not only was Russell T Davies’ talk fascinating, but it was also incredibly funny, too. Russell is one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, albeit virtually, and if I ever had the chance to be able to meet him, in person, I would jump at the chance. Russell T Davies was such an amazing guest, and there’s plenty of programmes that he has written, that I have found, and want to watch, because they look absolutely incredible, and as with the majority of Industry Week guests, if they’ve created some work that is still available to watch, I have made a plan to watch it, because they have given their time up, to speak to a number of college and university students, so the least that I can do is watch their work, and more often than not, I will enjoy it, as I have booked most of the talks through choice, so it’s going to be about something that I am interested and passionate in. Finally… Friday night… 6pm… Gamer Gamer! Last year, at Industry Week 2020, I had the pleasure of vision mixing the Gamer Gamer session, as it was being filmed, and even then, I had an absolutely amazing time, even though that would be the last time that I would see many of my friends, and classmates, as this is when the first COVID lockdown began. However, even though I knew what I was expecting for this year’s Gamer Gamer session, because I had been a part of the recording of last year’s, I was still blown away by the entire show. I cannot remember a time that I laughed so much, at something that, in all honesty, wasn’t even thatfunny! The highlight of the session was being able to see Jack Caroll, who reached the finals of Britain’s Got Talent, as part of one of my university talks. That is never something that I thought I’d ever come across. There was also Bethany Black, and Tez Ilyas, and Dave Longley, who are absolutely hilarious, and it made the end of industry Week 2021 amazing, even if it was all done virtually! To conclude, I’d just like to thank all of the guests that gave up their time, to give a talk at this year’s Industry Week, including those that I didn’t have time to see, as well as the lecturers who hosted the talks, and Q&As, and also, a massive thank you to all of the behind-the-scenes crew, who made sure that Industry Week was not only possible, as with every year, but that it was possible virtually, too! I can’t imagine the number of extra issues that everyone had to face, both during the week, but also in the lead up to the event, with all sorts of Zoom calls, backwards and forwards, as well as plenty of technical checks which wouldn’t have normally been necessary, if Industry Week were in person, as it has been for the past 14 years. All in all, I think that Confetti and Nottingham Trent University’s 15th annual Industry Week was fantastic, and I’m already looking forward to Industry Week 2022, where we can all (hopefully!) be back, at Metronome, Antenna, Confetti, and Space 2, to have lots of in-person talks, rather than virtual ones, again! To take a look at my Twitter moment, highlighting all of my #IW21 talks, then head on over to tinyurl.com/IW21Moment. To see my #IW21 Instagram Story Highlight, head on over to @edwardsphotographyUK, or follow the link on the ‘Social Media’ tab of the menu bar, on here! I hope that you're all enjoying the sunny weather, and the news that the lockdown is being relaxed slightly, in the coming days. As someone with Type 1 Diabetes, and the possible diagnosis of asthma, the only reason that I've been going out of the house, since my last day at college, on the 16th March, was to go to Morrisons, to do a weekly shop, and then return home, as well as a very occasional trip to the post box, which is about 3 minutes away from my house, to send some forms to Student Finance England, so to hear the news that those who're shielding are finally able to see people, it's music to my ears! Due to the extremely hot weather that we've been having, over the past couple of days, I made the decision to go on a walk, on my own, around the local area. I had anticipated to walk for about 15 - 20 minutes, before getting myself a cold drink, and then walking home again. Instead of this, I ended up taking a stroll down some walking paths, and ended up walking for about an hour and a half, before making the decision that it was probably best for me to return home, but not before going into the nearest shop, and grabbing myself a well-deserved drink, as I'd already drank my entire water bottle, that was completely frozen when I left the house, at the start of the journey. After I'd completed an hour and a half's worth of walking, it turned out that the place that I'd walked to was opposite to where I used to work! To walk to work, via the main road, it used to take about 25 minutes, however as I'd taken the footpaths, and had started walking in completely the opposite direction to the route I used to take to work, I wasn't expecting to arrive at that destination, at all! However, after getting my drink, instead of deciding to take the quicker 25 minute walk back home, via the main road, I decided that I would go back the way in which I came, so therefore spent yet another hour and a half walking back home. In total, excluding the time in which I was in the shop, I walked around 4 miles, which doesn't seem like a lot, but in the temperatures that we had yesterday, it felt like a lot! As always, whenever I go out for a walk, I had my camera with me, and I managed to capture a selection of lovely photographs! I wonder how long this nice weather is going to stay with us. now that the lockdown is being slightly eased, and whether there will be more opportunities for me to go on walks, with my camera, in the coming weeks... but not until after I've let my legs and feet rest, and recover, for a little bit!
Keep safe in the sun, and make sure to keep to the government's guidance surrounding Coronavirus! Ed |