As the little picture to the left has no doubt already pointed out, my name is Ben, and I’ll be one of the new student blogger elite (the ‘Fantastic Four’ if you will) taking the reigns of this here blog. Obviously saying goodbye to James, Robin and Kristin can’t be easy - they’ve kept you all informed and entertained for the past year-or-so, but with this new team comes a new beginning, and I can guarantee that we’ll do our very best to be just as enlightening and entertaining!
So without much further ado, I suppose we should be jumping to it. I am an undergraduate student on the verge of pouncing into my third year, studying my one true love: Film.
Before my days in the South, I originally hailed from the commuter-town metropolis that is Billericay, Essex; a small and pretty empty place that was weirdly put on the map by the BBC comedy series Gavin & Stacey some years ago. Life in my home-town is still fun, and offers plenty of opportunities with London just on the doorstep, but when UCAS came knocking I realised I had to escape to somewhere a bit more exciting.
But why Southampton, I hear you ask? Forgive the next few sentences for sounding a bit too much like a tourism advert - I can assure you they’re all entirely true. Southampton is a city steeped in culture, offering not only the best nightlife I had seen from any end of the country (Jesters alone is worthy of my place here) but also the most eclectic mix of shopping spots and cinemas. For an aspiring Film student, finding somewhere with a Picturehouse cinema and a gigantic IMAX was something of a godsend.
The amount of time spent within the walls of the cinemas in Southampton cannot be exaggerated.
Not to mention that the University itself ticked all of my boxes too. Situated just far enough away from the city for some peace and quiet, but just close enough to enjoy its many opportunities, the main Highfield Campus is green and inviting and Avenue Campus, largely inhabited by Humanities students (where I now spend the majority of my time) seemed to give me very much the best of both worlds - proving small and easy to navigate.
Then there was the course itself - content-wise, the most expansive and varied academic Film degree I could find.
Even on a Film course, there’s plenty of books to get stuck into!
As much as it may sound like a degree focused around simply watching films all day every day, that isn’t necessarily true. The University’s Film department has an incredible bank of expert staff, the course itself is just as much about reading as it is watching (all those long nights perusing the shelves of Hartley Library can stand as my proof) and, rather neatly, Film at Southampton was just ranked #1 in the country in The Guardian’s 2016 University Guide. Rest assured, no laziness here!
So to move away from my role as marketing whizz/travel agent extraordinaire... other than slaving over essays and trying my very best to understand foreign art cinema (Jean-Luc Godard, we will never get on), my time is usually split between hanging out with my rather glorious team of housemates and attempting to get involved with as much on campus as humanly possible.
As of June this year, I was elected in as the new Film Editor of the University’s official student-run entertainment magazine The Edge; a move that - as cheesy as it may sound - proved to be something of a dream come true after being involved with their writing team since first starting here in Freshers’ Week 2013! On top of this, myself and four friends have formed our very own topical Film panel show for the University’s award-winning TV station SUSUtv, entitled ’Reel Opinions’, which publishes weekly content in a number of different forms. As fun as it may be, it certainly is a busy life!
The Edge’s new committee is ready to roll!
Now, in-between juggling these many projects, my degree and of course, enjoying Southampton itself, the next year will also see frequent updates from me on this blog.
Third year seems a little daunting, with dissertations and final assignments lingering just out of shot, but it’s certainly my every intention to make it the most fun-filled and exciting year yet. So it seems rather ideal that I’ll be taking you all along on this journey with me!
I hope these posts prove to be as insightful as humanly possible, and that my life at Southampton works as something of an adequate representation of how student life genuinely is, both down here and around the country.
Now, I could make some feeble Titanic reference, or start quoting Willy Wonka to finish off, but instead I think I’ll just save them for another day. The new beginning starts here, and I hope you’re just as excited as I am - it’s going to be a great year.
Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment