University Is Over

University Is Over

The amount of relief I felt throughout my whole body as our graduate film was submitted was indescribable. The hand in day was a long day, the lecturers had for some reason decided to push the hand in time further and further into the afternoon. But we finally handed it in, and I could have cried with joy.

The reasoning for my joy was that the project was very stressful and very tiring. It was initially a fun and promising project, our film plot and subtext seemed pretty strong and won over a few of the lecturers. The filming locations were going to make the film look great as well. I was very excited for this project.

Once again, as before in previous group work, things started to go slowly downhill. Transport turned out to be the biggest issue, as we were filming in the Forest of Dean, and none of us knew enough people to lend a hand. In the end, family members of the crew lent a hand, and became our transport more than once. I guess you could say that they saved the film, and the whole project.

As the shooting days passed, the plan for the film did also. Weather, sound and crew/actor availability saw to this. Most of the crew stopped turning up for filming days, leaving myself (The sound guy) and our cinematographer to take control. We were filming all the time in the cold weather, taking few breaks if any at all, to get our graduate film finished. Just like the Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King, just when we thought it had finished, there was still more to come. Our editor told us that we needed a few more shots, so we took a few more days to film a few scenes. This time, because of transport issues, we chose to film at a nearer location, which was in fact in Newport. We spent that final day working very hard, actors included, and it was done. Me and the cinematographer shared an emotional hug at the end. Well deserved.

Post production came around, and I was very looking forward to smashing the sound design out on Pro Tools. I had to wait for our editor to finish the edit first. And oh boy did I have a long wait. I was finally given the final edit (After many problems and being messed around, which I won't go into) and spent every available hour of every day in university. Considering the amount of time I was given, and my lack of knowledge on Pro Tools, I did a pretty good job with the sound, and was given a recommendation from the sound lecturer. I was working with a music composer, and what he composed was fantastic, it captured the tone of the film exactly the way we all intended. It was all put together, rendered, saved onto an external hard drive and ready for submission, with a day to spare.

I didn't watch the film during the screening. I guess I had had enough of watching it over and over again during post production, so I stood outside as it played. It went quite well though. It wasn't the best film, but it was better than a few of the others.

It was finally over. Three years of fun, stress, living poor, making and losing friends had come to an end, and I had learnt a lot about life. I have come out of university a lot wiser, and have a completely different outlook on life. Now a new chapter in my life begins, goodbye education. It's been a long ride, but we made it.