The Art of Walking Silently...

Ok so so far this shedding my day job thing isn’t going particularly well. I’m applying for loads (and there is plenty of media jobs, even entry level ones, out there for those who look) but so far have not heard back from any.

This, however, has not put me off. But one thing that has become apparent is; when you’re getting feeds of information from multiple sources, twitter, email, RSS Feeds, one thing you need to do is figure out some way of processing it all. So today I spent about 3 hours sorting through all my information gathering methods, distilling them into chunks of information I can process easily. I created twitter lists dedicated to just those feeds which send me job information. The harder part was configuring my Mac Mail app to organise all the jobs alerts I get via email. I am yet to see how well it works but will update as soon as I know.

On a brighter note I have pushed forward with several ideas that I’ve had over the last few weeks and I am pleased to say that I now have 4 scripts in production. Hopefully I’ll be able o start shooting on at least 1 by the end of the year.

One other thing I have realised is that it is important to maintain a social media presence, one of the reasons why I keep this blog, so Facebook, twitter, google+, Vimeo and this blog are all being exploited their fullest.

I have recently had a major reality check with regards to finding film work.

So I’m going to have to put my short film that should have been my Virgin Media Short on the back burner. For the time being at least.

Anyway, after doing loads of research, reviewing my CV and writing loads of cover letters I will hopefully be able to leave my day job behind pretty soon. Then people should start taking me seriously when I say I’m a film-maker.

I’ve used websites like The Knowledge (http://www.theknowledgeonline.com/) to find as many production companies and post houses as I can and not only emailing them with a punchy cover letter but snail mailing them one too.

I’ve contacted the film offices in Manchester in Glasgow with the aim of finding out the contact details for the production managers on films shooting there in the near future (including new Brad Pitt movie ‘World War Z) with the aim of getting runner work on those films.

Hopefully someone will begin to notice me and give me a chance.

Today I am beginning to teach myself how to use Blender.

Blender is 3D animation software available to download free from here: http://www.blender.org/

It looks pretty complicated but I should be able to get my head around it. Once I do it’s going to be used to make a short animation to be entered into the Virgin Media Shorts competition. Information on which can be found here: http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/

I will post updates on my progress as I create characters and environments.

Ok, so here goes. This blog will be used to document my film career. From where I am just now, which is no where, to hopefully where I want to be.

I will post regular updates with current projects I am involved in, comments and opinions on films I have seen and general film orientated chit chat about cameras, techniques and whatever takes my fancy.