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.

I finished my final year project, a guide to Newcastle in the North East of England. It’s already getting a bit of attention, and even a Spanish site has blogged about it: here

If you do watch it, could you please fill out my really short questionnaire: here

Watch the video here

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?  

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.

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]

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.

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. 

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.

Just a few of the more ‘photographic’ pictures I took whilst we were away, click the image below to look at them.

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.