Ages
It has indeed been another year since I last posted, sad times. Therefore here is a quick update!
Me and Claire upped sticks from Newcastle and drove down to London with all our worldly possessions. We didn’t have work to go to so we set about looking for jobs. After graduation I had organised lots of interviews and proceeded to attend them, and one company decided to give me a chance!
Feed are a creative design company based in the beautiful Clerkenwell and after working here for nearly seven months now I’m absolutely loving it. My work entails everything that I enjoyed doing in my spare time and thus this job is perfect. All the people who I work with are great people and good mates; two who have sites are Danny Sturgess and Andy Forshaw (super ace famous illustrators in my eyes, if they don’t mind me saying).
I’ve already been heavily involved with large scale eBay briefs, MSN Homepage takeovers for feature films such as ‘The Boat that Rocked’ and the new Harry Potter. Mostly i’ve been doing video, animation and 3D work. The most notable being the below eBay Christmas campaign for which I made the presents in Maya.
We live in the Docklands at a place called Gallions Reach at the minute (yes, it does sound like a theme park ride) and are going to start looking for somewhere closer to central London i.e. Borough or Angel so we can walk to work.
Now seen as though I probably won’t update this again for another year you can follow me on Twitter which I update at least everyday and see my ongoing work on my Vimeo too.
This is crazy
I haven’t blogged in over a year?! I literally can’t believe it. Time flies when you’re having fun, even faster when it’s fun+busy! I’ve finished my placement year and been back to uni, working constantly from then on my final year project and other module work. I’ve also got a job working as a multimedia monkey for the uni’s marketing team, which is a great step up from where I would be doing other part time work; a la Game. Everything is going so superb at the minute though, very very exciting. I proposed to my then girlfriend at New Year in Paris, right under the Eiffel Tower’s watchful eyes. Not only this but my now fiancee has got a job as a buyer’s assistant for Topshop in London which is just brilliant. There is a lot more scope for a job for me down there and I’m so excited to move, which is not long at all; a matter of months! I’ve sent off my CV plus a link to pwns.org and a number of companies have got back to me saying come down and have a chat when I get my results which is more than I ever hoped for. Even MPC replied which is beyond cool, I would be literally living a dream if I got a job anywhere as good as them. I’m quite confident my latest showreel which is in the process of being put together will turn a few heads so, I just need to get it out there when it’s done and see what happens. We’ve been looking at loads of houses in North London and it’s totally affordable if we get jobs, and with our savings so far. With Claire getting offers left, right and centre for freelance writing jobs for various magazines and websites I hope she can prop me up for a bit while I look for work. The student loan is coming to an abrupt end soon, i’ll literally be fending for myself.All in all, life is very exciting at the moment, loads of risks but where is the point in living if you don’t take a chance once in a while? Mine and Claire’s life philosophy is a simple one. Work hard, party hard, make sure that when you come to the end of your life and you look back, you can’t find anything where you think ‘I wish I’d done that’. The bank statements don’t seem to like this idea but; you could get ran over by a bus tomorrow couldn’t you?
Christ on a bike.
Now, a report on how my career is going; so far it has surpassed all my expectations. I’m nearly half way through my placement year, in which I’ve learned and done so much, met so many different people and worked in so many situations; stressful and the opposite. The portfolio is bulging and I’m so glad I chose not to go straight into my final year. The experience really has been worth it, and the money is a very useful bonus. The summary so far is that I’ve worked with the BBC on film projects, worked with the North Tyneside Council on numerous projects, used tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit, taught many classes, worked with children of all ages and of special needs, been on a business trip to London all expenses paid and so much more all of which will be described in detail in my new portfolio and CV. It really has made me a lot more confident, professional and just ‘able’ in general. The thing that really opened my eyes was that when I was working with the BBC in their Look North studio, there were seven people doing all the jobs I do on my own in a day. I really can’t wait to get out into the world of work and see how far I can push myself. I’ve enjoyed the work I’ve been doing so much I’ve already changed my desired career path from design to film and media. London, here we come.
I’m really proud of Claire too, she has had a placement at the Sunday Sun, fashion reporting and styling. To date she’s had eleven spreads published, styled over fifteen models (male and female) and worked with the accomplished photographer Sally Adams. She has just been offered a placement with Dazed and Confused and also the Warehouse press team, both in London.
I’m getting up at six thirty every morning and getting home from work at six in the evening, so the portfolio site is coming along a bit slower than I would have liked, all the same it should be up soon.
On the entertainment side, watch Children of Men now. Listen to Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, CSS, The Rapture, Crystal Castles now. Marco Polo on Grey Street in Newcastle is the best Italian here we think, NumJai (or similar) near the Carling Academy is the best Thai here we think, Wagamamas was disappointing for a first try. Morrison’s is a horrible supermarket but we have to shop there because there is nowhere else about. ASDA, could you please open right next to our house please. Jukebox on Fridays at the Other rooms is the best night out. Book a holiday now, everyone has to have something to look forward too!
Oh, and we are now completely rid of PCs, the brand new Macbook Pro 15″ is so good it makes me cry a little. Everyone at work is slowly starting to agree with me, and I quote “Apple are really cool actually aren’t they” says Shaun, the mac hater, whilst playing with iTunes’ coverflow.
Taroo,
Jim.
Hot Chip Wallpaper
I’ve made a hot chip wallpaper and thought I would share it with the world. Give me a comment if you want it in a different resolution.
[UPDATED LINK]
983276362451 Things Have Happened
In so little time. I'm overwhelmingly proud to say i've secured a twelve month multimedia placement for next year.
At very last minute an advert for Marden CLC doing multimedia appeared and I managed to get an interview. They were all really nice people who, after sitting me down infront of a projector and telling me to talk through my work, shook my hand and offered me £13,000 for the year. I'll be teaching too, which should be interesting!
Somehow i've been appointed webmaster for the Queens of Noize. Actually its thanks to my girlfriend Claire for knowing the right people and being altogether brilliant.
Pretty much all of my time now all my assignments are finished is spent playing between Resident Evil 4, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy X and Crash Nitro Kart on my new Playstation 2 which my good friend James sold me. I'm like, a million years behind only just getting one now so I better get cracking.
Hot Chip are the win at the moment.
Claire and I are off to London soon, more of which i'll blog about soon.
Corporate Spam
After my months of anxiety regarding placement replies, I've had four in the past week; sadly from the same company, but I like getting post so who cares. All four state that they have received my application and are in the process of 'getting back' to people. I've heard that phrase so many times in the past year, every time it seems to gets less promising. I'm sure i'll post on here if anything comes up.
Been busy hard at work the past couple of weeks with uni work, making an advert for a fictional 'BBC Three Interactive' television campaign at the minute. Character rigging in Lightwave 3D is skull bendingly tedious, I wonder if them Pixar geniuses find it any easier in Maya or whatever they use.
Had a really long chat with some unbiased lecturers about my placement predicament late last week and it really helped me get my head sorted. The morning I went in I mentioned to everyone about me just settling for a placement as an IT technician or similar and they all tore me to shreds. I really didn't know what to do then so I asked what the lecturer's advice would be. To cut a long story short, they told me how the company I've applied to do menial tasks for has very strong connections with the digital media industry and how, if I do manage to get a placement there, I would likely be able to get chatting to some people in multimedia's high places. Also they suggested something which i'd never even though about; to apply for very short unpaid placements at new media companies over the summer next year.
Just to top it off, as I was walking out of the labs I noticed a poster for the very place i've applied to be an IT technitian. It told of how a student doing multimedia computing, similar to me, loved the placement last year and it taught him a hell of a lot of stuff, plus the salary is £12,500. Hope I get an interview and I really hope I impress them enough to let me have a job.
I hope they 'get back' to me. Wouldn't it be good if you could have Pixar skills, just for a day.
Very Bad News
Got a final reply from my desired placement company:
Unfortunately we’re still no nearer to knowing whether or not a placement would be available; and I’d say it is unlikely at this stage.
My advice would be to pursue other opportunities available to you – that way if nothing materialises here, you won’t have placed your hopes on it.
Good luck, and if anything does come up here, we have your details and will be in touch.
Oh well, looks like I’m going to have to settle for something along the IT route. I suppose I can work on my portfolio and get some money together whilst ‘assisting with office moves’. My covering letter and CV are in the post headed for a place down on the Quayside. Hopefully I will get an interview; anything is better than nothing.
Just sold my drum pedals on ebay to pay for my new powerbook, still loving it. Gone home to Mum and Dad’s for the weekend, firstly for Mother’s Day, secondly for a night out at The Empire, and it’s just so great having it with me. I just flipped it open, cracked open iPhoto and amazed the parents with the photos from Lanzarote. “Oooh, they’re moving? It feels like you’re really there” said Mum about the Ken Burns effect.
Anyway, the pedals sold for £105, so that is £495 minus £105 which leaves me with £390 still to make up. Selling my PSP when we get back to Newcastle, and ringing tomorrow to get the £160 worth of tax owed to me by Game. I really do feel sorry for accountants, finances are rubbish.
I’ll blog with what happens about this placement, taroo.
Flickred Lanzarote
Just a few of the more ‘photographic’ pictures I took whilst we were away, click the image below to look at them.
Lanzarote
Me and Claire just got back from Lanzarote and I’ve had one of the greatest weeks of my life, even though we were ill for a couple of days. It was red hot every single day, not a cloud in the sky the whole week. I’m just going to sort through the photographs now and bang the best ones on flickr.
Going to be really, really busy in the next few weeks so don’t expect many more updates. One little other thing, I managed to get a lovely shiny new Apple Powerbook G4 off ebay for five-hundred quid, bargain!
Going to ring the placement place in the next couple of days, I’ll post with what happens.
Oh, and just to add to the chaos of this post, I read ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time‘ whilst we were sunning ourselves on the beach, it was brilliant.
Placement reply, reasonably bad news.
Got a reply from the place I want to do a placement:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you; we’ve been extremely busy. We had a look through your portfolio and site and we like your stuff. Unfortunately, we just can’t look far enough ahead at the moment to guarantee a place for you. We will keep your details and we’ll be in touch if anything does come up.
Sent quite a nice reply saying I will do ANYTHING to get a placement there. Hope it works, at least I’m “on file” for in the future. Don’t know what I’m going to do next, got a test on Lightwave in a few weeks, better get cracking with the tutorials. Got our ideas finalised for the special effects showreel too, i’ll let you know when its done.
Much less posting, but better quality.
Now i’m back busy at uni with assignments et cetera, there are going to be less posts on here, but the ones I do post will be important ones. Just ones to let you know about how my career is going, designs i’m doing/done, and maybe some information about good books I’ve read/music I’ve bought/other random topical rants.
I’ve been asked to make flyer for a ‘birthday party’ with the Queens of Noize DJing. Keep your eye out for the finished design.
What the flock indeed.
Just downloaded and playing with this Flock browser. I’ve been reading about all this web 2.0 malarky and its all very interesting. Some of the ideas here are really great, the theme is a bit bleak but christ, i’m blogging from inside the damn thing, can’t be bad. I won’t bore you with any more details, go have a peruse for yourself at flock.com. It has integrated Flickr and Delicious support too by the way. Should be great when its finished.
The Deer Project.
Was getting really worried after mum rang yesterday and said “What are you going to do after Uni, come home whilst you look for a job?”. After chatting to Claire we decided we’re going to rent somewhere in Newcastle still, get full time jobs in retail or something and look for a ‘real’ job whilst we get some money together. I was wondering what type of jobs are available at the moment so I dived on monster.co.uk and there were loads of new media openings so that cheered me up.
Did a bit of vector art yesterday, click the image for a bigger version.
Spent quite a bit on amazon last week; bought an extra 512mb SD card for the holiday and a AA battery charger for my wireless mouse batteries. After getting this Microsoft intellimouse wireless bluetooth explorer effort I didn’t think the batteries would run out so fast, only about a week of heavy use. Also bought four new books to add to my collection: Life of Pi, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and The Kite Runner. I’ll let you know how they read.
Ten x Four Things About Me.
Four jobs I’ve had:
- Paperboy (Bells Stores)
- Stockroom Assistant (Next PLC)
- Sales Assistant (Game Stores)
- Sales Assistant for a second time (Game Stores)
Four movies I can watch over and over:
Four places I’ve liked:
- London
- Guisborough
- York
- Newcastle
Four Five TV shows I love:
- 24
- Lost
- Family Guy
- Friends
- Band of Brothers
Four places I’ve vacationed:
- Porta Rico
- New York
- The Lake District
- Center Parcs (All of them)
Five of my favorite dishes:
- Thai Green Curry with Sticky Jasmine Rice
- Haagan Dahz Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
- Bolognese
- Chilli Con Carne
- Sunday Dinner
Four sites I visit daily:
Four of my most Favourite Novels:
My four favourite albums at the moment:
- Deerhoof – The Runners Four
- Clor – Clor
- Caribou – The Milk of Human Kindness
- The Rakes – Capture / Release
My four favourite drinks:
- Chocolate Milkshake
- Coffee (in any way shape or form)
- San Miguel
- Tropicana (any flavour)
These things are always interesting to read, might as well jump on the bandwagon. None of these are in any particular order by the way.
Tax, debt and another set of adverts.
How crazy are adverts getting please. You sit down to watch something, after something like the first two sentences are spoken, another set of adverts begin. What’s the crack? At least the adverts are interesting sometimes, like the new Honda advert.
My debt isn’t as bad anymore, only five hundred into my overdraft. Would be better if I could get my emergency tax back from Game quicker though, damn P45. I was managing to get taxed thirty pounds for every one hundred I earned, how terrible is that.
Not as bad as some people though; Claire was watching This Morning this morning and sent me an email whilst I was at Uni, as below:
“There were these parents on; their son had hung himself two WEEKS AGO, all because of uni and DEBT. it was over xmas, and he hadnt got his wages through, and had gone over his overdraft by accident, and didn’t realise… and HSBC were flailing at his mum, and she said well let me give you a cheque and stuff, and they were like “no, we need to talk to the account holder etc etc”. SO after a week, the lad managed to get back home from uni to sort it out at his OWN BRANCH because the HSBC in his uni town refused to help! The people at his own branch said the same and because it was after 7 days or something, they took his overdraft away so his debt was like a LOAN. and it meant that he was in £1,600+ debt, with no free interest. How shocking is that. Anyway, he got stupidly stressed over it, and his parents were being supportive and stuff, but he was saying he’d have to drop out of uni and stuff and what else is there to live for? So he killed himself. HSBC just wouldn’t listen to anyone. GET INTO NATWEST JAMES!
All HSBC said on This Morning was “We apologise for the loss of your son, however, debts can’t go unpaid and its in the best interest of our customers that we provide the best service for them, and therefore everything was done to aid your son”. SURELY it would have been better to just WAIT TILL HIS WAGES CAME THROUGH?!”
Think she might be right; I should go change banks.
Claire and her course mates finished editing their fashion documentary yesterday, which I helped with a bit (transitions, titles etc) and it has turned out really well. Similar, if not better than daytime documentaries on ITV at the moment, I said they should send it in, but they were having none of it.
I’ve noticed three coffees on a morning really helps me to keep awake at Uni, something is fundamentally wrong about that. The coffee machine Claire got me for Christmas is great, quick and tasty when combined with Douwe Egberts filter coffee. Think I’ll have another now.
If I can stop shaking.
Five seconds of fame, starting from now.
Had a photoshoot a couple of weeks ago for the Northumbria University prospectus, and i’m featured with my girlfriend on page ninety-three. Take a look at the ‘Visual Culture’ section in an exclusive pdf here. Surely this counts for something in my Apprentice Project? It shows how I am keen to participate in curricular activites, doing the university a favour. And I’m famous, what company wouldn’t want to employ me?
Washing up, wishing I wasn’t.
I’ve never realised before how much time washing the pots takes. Including drying and putting away, washing up for two people takes roughly thirty-five minutes every two days, thats two hours of scrubbing crockery a week, thats four and a half days of washing up a year. Those four and a half days I could be watching television, or playing computer games, or writing this blog!
Am I doing something wrong here? Am I missing some trick which everyone uses to wash up in half the time? Imagine when I have children, even more pots, my life will be taken over!
If I ever miss a day posting on here, thats where i’ll be; locked in the kitchen, sporting marigolds.
Warning
Flickr and my blog are now bonded as strong as a child to its mother’s nipple. The picture below was taken on the London underground, I managed to get a telling off too. “Flash photography is strictly forbidden on the platform” said the tannoy. “Sorry” I said.
Bluescreen central.
Feeling better today, a couple of things cheered me up. Had a nice, interesting lecture about video formats and compressions; the highpoint of which being told our assignment involves special effects, bluescreens, ‘soft porn’ tv cameras (apparently nicknamed because lots of small companies use them, mostly for soft porn), 3d modelling and aftereffects! What a lovely combination. Having a brainstorming session next week with some coursemates on what our theme could be, I put forward the idea of shakycam war/disaster footage which was met with elation, which was nice.
Loving Deerhoof‘s new album ‘The Runners Four’, can’t stop listening to it, ‘Spirit ditties of no tone’ being my favourite track. Still no reply in relation to my placement, I need to find out what happens if I can’t get it. I can’t take a gap year because I wouldn’t be able to afford living without a student loan. Especially bang in the middle of Newcastle where living costs are right high.
The ‘Dirty Pretty Things’ tickets are still going for £21 on ebay, already more than double what I paid for them. I’ve uploaded the rest of my photography to Flickr, and also added all my bookmarks on delicious. Just going to update all my other profiles with my uptodate music tastes et cetera. Christsakes at this computer in the library being skull rendingly slow. Desperate for the oppertunity to do more creative work for people, get me emailed if you want anything doing, for free of course, i really need to get my portfolio built up with more recent work.
Don’t ever buy ‘Oats so simple’ honey flavour, they have an aftertaste like the smell of wallpaper/paint shops. I’m glad it was only a tester we got in the post. Right, i’m off to read my daily blogs/news now so.
Lanzaroteplzthnxbye.
Down in the dumps.
Still no reply, getting increasingly disheartened as they days go by. But on a lighter note, getting more and more excited about our holiday to Lanzarote; roll on March 9th.
I’ve added some more links to this blog, making sure it stays simple though. I don’t want loads of links for sites like Amazon et cetera which everyone knows anyway, thought I would just crack on the places I visit on a day to day basis. There are links to all my various profiles across the web, including Flickr, mySpace and Deviant Art to name a few. Now I’m just waiting for WordPress to let me customise the theme so I can give this page my own personal style.
Getting through Angels and Demons fast, loving every minute though. Dan Brown may not be a spectacular novelist but he doesn’t half know how to captivate the reader. May be something to do with the page and a half chapters, each with their very own cliff-hangers, but I can never put it down, brilliant.
Got a revised timetable today, made me fume. Originally Wednesday was my dog day, but now it is filled up with some dismal lectures about “Human Computer Interaction”; which I can tell is somehow just going to end up being scribbling down structure flowcharts for random imaginary companies.
On another lighter note, this time relating to my project; I’ve finished the flyer for the London DJ ‘Steffishambles’. She is one of Claire’s friends who is affiliated with the well known indie DJs ‘The Queens of Noize’ who I’ve met once. She asked me to do something pirate based, the end result is on my portfolio site (link in the sidebar). So hopefully my name and website will be fluttering around London in the coming months.
Roll on March 9th indeed.
Another day, another blog.
I guess a “hello dear reader” isn’t needed here seen as though there is only going to be me reading, so I might as well just crack on and explain to myself exactly what this blog is all about. My name is James Hill, and I’m a student. I’m currently in my second year of Digital Entertainment and Multimedia Computing at Northumbria University. Similarly to the Uni, my house is situated in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England, and similarly to me, my girlfriend Claire lives in the same house and goes to the same Uni. I want to be involved in new media after University and this blog is here to document what happens, if anything, along the way.
Let me get myself up to speed on the current situation; I began University and was told in my third year I would be going on a placement in industry. Upon reaching the beginning of my second year I was told a student is three times more likely to get a job after finishing uni if they ventured on a work placement whilst studying for their degree. Upon reaching the end of the lecture, I knew less than half the people in the room were going to get a placement, and I knew to get a placement in my desired field of work, I was going to have to do everything myself.
After months of sending emails and receiving disappointing replies, I am now waiting for the answer to my final chance at a placement. The very last, but the very best new media company in Newcastle. They have my portfolio CD, and the prospect sounds hopeful:
Hi James,
Thanks for dropping your CD in. We’ve not had a chance to have a look through yet but I’ll let you know when we do – I’ll definitely give you some feedback. As I mentioned, we can’t guarantee anything, but we may ask you to pop in for a chat if we think there’s a possibility of a place opening up.
Thanks.
Now, my future career stuck in limbo, myself knows as much as I do. I’ll post the reply on here as my project continues. Meanwhile, if anyone wants any flyers, leaflets, logos, banners, avatars, adverts or similar making, just give me an email on x at pwns dot org and i’ll do them for free (the time it takes to finish depends on how busy I am). A couple of examples of my work are here at pwns.org.
The Apprentice Project 