Society farewells and Media Ball 2016

Somehow, and I still can’t quite figure out how, it’s May already. This of course means that my time here is rapidly getting shorter and shorter, and a major part of the whole transition out of university life is to hand over my current roles to some (hopefully) enthusiastic newbies.

My time as Film Editor of The Edge has been, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary and eye-opening experiences during my university experience, and to be honest, even though I’ve still got a month or so left of editing and scheduling, it already feels like I’ve kind of lost a limb.

Obviously I can’t hold on to it forever though, and with The Edge AGM last week, a new committee of super-talented and mega-capable writers was formed, who I know will totally embrace the roles and make them their own.

It wouldn’t be a proper farewell without a jolly good send-off though, and so all of the core media departments: The Edge, SUSUtv, Surge Radio and Wessex Scene, joined together to host a wonderfully wild night of incredible food and well-deserved awards. The Media Ball 2016 was held on Monday at Fantini’s restaurant in Southampton, and it was the most perfect, truly epic farewell possible.

A small group of Edgelings, suited up and ready to party!

A huge turnout of Edge writers and committee members, both past and present came along, dressed to the nines and ready for a true evening of wonder. Aside from the seriously awesome three course meal though (not forgetting free champagne!), the biggest moments of the night came from the ongoing awards ceremony, hosted by our very own team of sabbatical officers from the Students’ Union.

With a wide spread of different awards and a nominations list so long it was nearly visible from space, the whole room was totally pumped to find out the lucky winners. Judged by a team of external experts, including our very own media alumni and members of the Student Publication Association, the awards were a pretty big deal, and it was seriously amazing to see so many Edge writers being recognised for their work.

I was even lucky enough to grab a few awards myself: Best Review for our work on Reel Opinions, and Best Event for all the work put into the University of Southampton Student Film Festival over the past year. Arranging the festival was very easily one of my university highlights so, as you can probably guess, being recognised for it made me uncontrollably happy and made the night somehow even more terrific.

As far as awards go, I’m very, very proud of this one.

Ultimately, our friends at SUSUtv picked up the award for Best Media Department which was very well deserved, and certainly helped to end the night on a high.

Being a part of a number of these societies has made my life here at Southampton not only that little bit sweeter, but it’s also fed me the experience needed to take on jobs in the wider world, and getting to hang out with my friends whilst doing so was certainly a bonus.

Life at Southampton doesn’t necessarily have to end with your degree, and there’s always so many fantastic opportunities waiting just around the corner.

Looking back, I can’t recommend a role in SUSU Media enough.

Ben

My Southampton highlights

Apologies for the seemingly never-ending “it’s all about to end and I don’t know what to do with myself” posts, but I guess if we can’t talk about this stuff now, when can we? This week I’ve been reflecting on my time here at the University of Southampton as a whole.

It feels strange picking only a few select moments from three years of incredible happenings, but in doing so it also encouraged me to look back over everything, so it proved a really useful way to kick-start that much needed retrospective.

Also it’s pretty obvious that I’m not quite done yet, and with a whole bunch of exciting events still to come (the Media Ball and the EVAs just to name a few) I’m sure there’ll be space in this list for even more fun stuff.

But for now, like some sort of cheesy, X Factor-style greatest hits montage, here are my “best bits” from my life at Southampton. Cue the reflective piano music.

Freshers’ (duh) 

It’s practically impossible to run through the highlights of my time at the University without at least mentioning how it all began. Freshers’ week might well have been one of the craziest and busiest weeks of my entire life - but in the best way possible.

In the space of less than 7 days, I learned how to dance, learned how to cook (well…sort of) and managed to meet an incredible group of people who have gone on to become some of my closest friends in the entire universe (a university family, if you will). That one week of intensity changed my entire perception of life altogether, and pretty much single-handedly set up a lot of the fun stuff that came later on. So yeah, worthy of highlight status I think.

Halloween/Christmas/General Holiday-themed merriment 

Any opportunity to celebrate has always been embraced here, between our own DIY-Christmases to some dodgy Halloween costumes and the occasional spot of green face-paint for a certain Irish holiday. Narrowing it down to just one is impossible!

The upside to being away from home means that as a student, you get to do a whole bunch of these things twice. I even blogged about the wonders of a ‘Uni Christmas’ back in December, and how magical the entire celebration is; the Campus Christmas lights will never be forgotten. It’s become an ongoing tradition every year here that I’ll miss hugely - celebrating two weeks early over awesome food and mismatched cutlery is something you can only ever really manage as a student, and here in Southampton we truly mastered it as an art-form.

Our first uni Christmas will never be forgotten!

Press Antics 

Aside from my degree, easily the best thing I did work-wise whilst here in Southampton was to join The Edge - our on-campus entertainment magazine. Little did I know when I first wrote a pretty shoddy review of the TV show Dexter in Freshers’ week 2013 that some years later I would be Film Editor, rolling around in screener discs and rubbing shoulders with famous people!

Thanks to The Edge I’ve found myself going all-access at the BFI London Film Festival not once but twice, interviewing some insanely interesting people and even organising an entirely student-run film festival (easily the most triumphant highlight!).

Not only has it awoken my voice as a writer (due thanks must go to this here blog too!), but it’s also helped me find a career path through a multitude of experience, which is basically irreplaceable in my books.

The Edge got me this close to Chris Pratt and James Gunn meaning I will always be indebted to them

Film-athons 

The one thing I really can’t get enough of is the film culture here in Southampton. When I first joined the University, I was a relatively shy film nerd with huge ambitions that I never really thought possible. Now, I feel like I can tackle anything, and a major part of getting to this point has been down to meeting so many like-minded people.

I guess it helped that I chose to study Film here, but also through societies like The Edge and SUSUtv I met a whole heap of other film nerds and together we conquered so much, taking on the Union Films Halloween All-Nighter every year (that’s non-stop horror films from 8pm-8am!), and an entire multitude of midnight screenings and other marathons!

The Reel Opinions review team attempting to make sense after staying up all night

The ultimate highlight came this time last year though, when a group of friends and I stayed up through the night for a midnight screening of the latest Avengers film (Age of Ultron), before keeping ourselves awake and hiding out in Hartley Library thanks to its 24-hour opening times, so that we could film our SUSUtv review the very second the SUSU building opened. There’s very few people who would be nuts enough to join me in such endeavours, and it feels like I could only really have ever met them here!

Then there was the time that Hollywood came to Southampton (quite literally) as the Tom Cruise-starring Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation started filming nearby in Fawley. They auditioned a ridiculous amount of our students in the Students' Union for roles as extras and I was somehow lucky enough to be picked! I’m still not really allowed to talk much about what went on, but it was quite possibly one of the most incredible weeks of my life.

I feel like I’m using that phrase a lot, but it couldn’t be more true. Over my three years here, Southampton has graced me with some of the most standout moments possible.

Looking back, it’s going to be sad to leave it behind, but the memories will always be here, and I’m sure there are more adventures yet to come!

Ben

How being a ‘Life at Southampton’ Blogger has made my university experience

It is strange to think that it was over a year ago I applied to become a blogger for the University of Southampton, and now the time has come to recruit for new writers! How time flies by.

Thinking about the fact that my stint as a working blogger is coming to an end has made me contemplate just how much of a tremendous impact the job has made on my life here at Southampton.

At the same time, I’d like to encourage as many people as possible to apply for this life-changing experience!

So, why is being a blogger so great?

Blogging has boosted my confidence

It has given me the voice and the confidence to approach new people to learn about new things. The job requires you to come up with interesting content regularly. When I am running out of ideas to write about I have found that reaching out to people around me and checking out what they are getting up to makes for exciting content and an enjoyable experience of learning on my part. Not only has this built up my network here at the University, but it has also helped me make new friends.

Getting to know Enactus Southampton!

Meeting with AISEC and other societies for SUSU’s Culture Week. We chatted about activities for guests at the International Culture Night and the Global Village

Blogging has taught me the benefits of introspection

The more you blog about your life, the better you see and appreciate details that you take for granted. They say that your time at university creates some of the best years of your life. Taking some time to be mindful about what is happening right now has not only helped me understand myself but also get a better idea of where my life is going beyond Southampton. What’s more, this reflectiveness and the constant need to generate ideas has helped me think clearer.

Blogging has challenged me to be more disciplined

We all have to do something challenging at some point. Before coming to university I was not the best person at disciplining my use of time. Procrastination was my enemy, indeed. In addition, I can have the tendency to be lazy about connecting with people and keeping schedules. Since becoming a blogger I have an incentive to show up, meet with people and write.

At the same time, I have had to challenge myself to become better at time-management skills. This is essential as, in order for you to have a social life at university as well as managing academic work, you need to really have a good grasp of how you spend your time.

Holding the Filipino Society’s first Halloween party

With the FilSoc committee

Blogging looks good on your CV!

A project like this can really sell your CVs in job applications and helps with employability. Having the title of a “professional student blogger” on your CV makes you stand out from the pack. It shows that you learnt something outside of academia during your time at university.

Maintaining a blog also shows commitment to employers. Not only this, but because the theme of the blog is geared on student life, it says that you are emphatic to your audience and mindful about current events.

Blogging helps other people

This digital age is a wonderful era to live in. Your content can reach many people from different continents and cultures. The idea that your personal thoughts touch other souls is gratifying to say the least.

By frequently sharing an inside view of what life really is like as a student, and openly sharing moments about your life, you help potential university undergraduates decide if this is really the path that they want to take after high school or sixth-form college.

What I am up to now: obligatory dissertation hand-in photo! Can you say I 'got diss'?

Applying for the position

So, if you want to do something challenging, fun and generally make your student experience a hundred times better, you can do so by applying to be a blogger!

As my time here at Southampton is nearing its end, I can honestly say that I am very proud of becoming a Life at Southampton blogger!

Rylyn

Realising projects: The University of Southampton Student Film Festival

Some time ago I spoke quite broadly about a project I had been putting together as part of a cross-collaboration between the University’s entertainment magazine, The Edge, and its film making society Wessex Films. Planning started last September and last week the dream was finally realised. The first (hopefully annual) University of Southampton Student Film Festival went off without a hitch, and I couldn’t be happier or more proud!

I won’t go into too much detail about the planning stages, since I’ve touched on them at least a few times in the past, but the actual event - an evening of celebrating the best student films the University has to offer was held last Tuesday 15 March, and it seemed to finally come together wonderfully.

Despite slight worries in the week leading up to the festival, due to the fact that we rather bizarrely ended up with too many submissions (I honestly never thought that would be possible!), all ran smoothly on the night thanks to a carefully-formed shortlist.

In the end, after 25 submissions, 14 films, ranging from comedies and horrors to documentaries and music videos, were chosen and screened in their entirety to much applause and fanfare from the surprisingly large audience. Co-founder Pippa and I had been keeping our hopes relatively modest in terms of attendance numbers, but were totally bowled over when we began noticing the room filling out. Exact numbers are still a little hazy, but it was definitely far more than we had ever anticipated!

 

Our fabulous live audience at the very end of the night!

As one of the hosts for the evening, I tried my best to keep things light. I found myself frequently surprised by not only the quality of the films we showed, but also the audience’s reactions to them. They laughed and cheered along in all the right places, applauded every film as it ended and proved generally supportive of every filmmaker in attendance. It seems silly, but little things like this are what made the event such a success in the end; when everyone is enjoying themselves it makes hosting and organising everything so much easier!

Following the screening, there was a short break for the attendees to mix and network with one another over free wine and food. At the same time, the judging panel disappeared off to a hidden room to discuss who would be walking away with which awards.

Myself and co-founder Pippa - the hosts for the evening.

The panel consisted of myself, head of the Film Department Professor Lucy Mazdon and senior lecturer Dr. Mike Hammond, with input coming in from Southampton alumnus Jonny Ramsay, the current Sales Coordinator at Universal Pictures who unfortunately couldn’t make it on the night. It was truly a testament to the quality of the films entered that deciding the lucky few took some time.

Eventually, with the winners’ names tucked away safely in a series of envelopes, the award ceremony could finally begin.

Thanks to some rather lovely sponsorship from other creative societies including Surge Radio, SUSUtv, Union Films and FilmSoc, as well as the Film Department themselves, the awards consisted of not only little trophies and certificates, but also a series of different assorted prizes, ranging from cinema vouchers to DVD bundles and even a vinyl player!

One by one the winners were read out in eight categories: Best Sound/Music; Best Editing; Best Cinematography; Best Screenplay; Best Acting; Best Directing; Best Film and the Audience Award, voted for by the audience themselves during the break. With huge cheers for all the winners, it seemed that the crowd agreed with the judges.

Our incredible, award-winning filmmakers!

Words cannot describe how happy and relieved I was at the end of it all. Six months of planning and stressing had been entirely worthwhile. It shows how these big projects may seem crazy when you first start them up, but with SUSU’s unparallelled backing they came together beautifully. There are too many people to thank and hug, but to anyone who was involved with the Festival in any way, shape or form, from the deepest depths of my heart: thank you.

To anyone who has ever had a cool idea that they thought was too extravagant: give it a shot. You’ll be surprised with how far you can get, trust me.

Now I’m just going to curl up into a ball over here and sleep for the whole of Easter…

Ben

Change Your World and International Women’s Week

March is inspirational month here at the University of Southampton. The University is currently celebrating International Women’s Week (IWW) 2016. IWW will see programmes rejoicing the contributions of women across the world. In addition to this, SUSU is hosting ‘Change your World Week’ ; a week jam packed with events to inspire personal sustainability and social progress.

All of these events have made me deeply consider what “progressive” means and how this whole idea materialises in real life. Yesterday was International Women’s Day, the whole point of which is to cast off the taboo of feminism. It sheds light on things that are standing in the way of true equality. It’s about fostering recognition for the incredible contributions and achievements women have championed despite social, cultural and economic barriers. That’s the difference between misandry and feminism and the difference between social stagnancy and what is progressive.

A few days ago I had the pleasure of attending a panel event called ‘Inspiring Women’.

‘Inspiring Women’ is an annual event held by SUSU which features a line-up of successful women who are in leadership positions across varying fields. The night consisted of a panel telling us about what they have learnt on their career journey to reaching the top. The aim was to encourage you to accomplish your ambitions. I cannot stress how valuable the night truly was for everyone who attended, both men and women alike.

Before the event started. Smiling from the complementary canapés!

Challenge your perceptions

 

One of the women who spoke was Lynne Parker who owns a comedy company called Funny Women. They run comedy workshops for workplaces to aspiring female comedians from Edinburgh to Brighton. Lynne set up the company when someone told her the reason why only a few women are in comedy is because women simply aren’t funny. Nearing her 60th birthday, Lynne asked the audience to challenge their perception of older women – just because someone tells you that you may not look the part, doesn’t mean they are right!

Just get over yourself!

 

With over 10 years of experience working in film and television, Emma Smithwick was the youngest in the panel. It was surprising when Emma said she actually did French and Law at university and even worked in the law industry in France before she decided to get into creative media.

With effort and perseverance she found herself in the BBC working on Saturdays and Sundays on other people’s productions for free just to get experience. She even had a part in the creation of one of my favourite films, Little Miss Sunshine, by being the first to see the potential in its script. A few years later she found herself working on set of the popular Channel 4 show Hollyoaks, and was offered the position of executive producer. She turned it down a couple of times, thinking that they must have been mad to have even thought about offering it to her.

Then Emma told us about a networking event where a lady spotted her in the corner, hiding away from the rest of the crowd. The lady apparently approached her for friendly chat. After mentioning her fear of networking the lady, in all of her well-meaning, said “No one in this room is singling you out and thinking ‘we don’t want to talk to her’… we’re all strangers here so take this fear and just get over yourself!”

Sometimes you are the only barrier to your own success and sometimes you just need to get over yourself! Emma took the job with Hollyoaks in the end.

All were welcome to attend; it was nice to see daughters coming to the event as well. 

Some of the lessons I learnt from the panel are things I will take away with me for a long time. Younger people can especially benefit from them.

You’re not an imposter

Paula Claisse, a regional head in the South for KPMG, was the last of the panellist and she gave what is quite possibly the best advice about confidence. She pointed out that you may sometimes dismiss your success through luck or timing or as a result of deceiving others into thinking you’re good enough. In actual fact, you are good enough. This inability to accept accomplishments is actually quite common among high-achieving women and men, and has been coined as Impostor Syndrome.

It helps knowing others experience it too. Now that I know this is a problem, I am going to find more time to look at things from a wider perspective so I can better accept what I have done well and where I can do better.

The women in the panel were TV producers, company ownders and more. However, they were also mothers and sisters. They were different ages, and different shapes and sizes. What the event has really highlighted was that reaching the top does not necessarily equate to money, but can mean doing what you enjoy or doing what you’re great at.

Look out for the event again next year and I guarantee you that you won’t be disappointed.

Rylyn

Film on campus

February is rarely the most exciting of months, and with dissertations and other end-of-year projects swallowing up a great deal of my creativity, this week I decided to reach into something that has always sat at the centre of my University experience, but one that I’m oddly yet to talk about at length on this blog. I am of course, talking about the University’s incredible film culture, that seems happy to sit bubbling away just under the surface.

As a Film student, a lot of this came to me pretty quickly upon joining up in Freshers’ Week. For those not instantly in the know-how, I thought I’d provide a little overview of what great film-related antics are going on in and around the University right now. It’s actually a pretty exciting time for film on campus!

Firstly, it’s difficult not to breach such a subject without giving The Edge, the University’s student entertainment magazine, another little plug. As Film Editor for both the magazine’s website and print issues, I see a lot of really great film journalism popping up all over the place, relating to everything from contemporary releases, to older efforts and even comment pieces about the filmmakers and stars themselves. If reading about film has ever interested you, or you fancy a student perspective on what’s hitting cinemas soon, grab a copy of The Edge - they’re dotted around our campuses in colourful stands and sometimes we’re even kind enough to give them out in person!

The Edge is extra colourful this month!

Obviously this crosses over nicely into an event I may well have mentioned in a post just before Christmas, but one that is now very much up and running - the very first annual University of Southampton Student Film Festival. Set up by a winning partnership of The Edge and the University’s legendary filmmaking society Wessex Films, the festival is essentially a platform for students to showcase their work to a live audience, and in the process, be nominated for a whole bunch of awards, decided by an expert judging panel.

The first annual University of Southampton Student Film Festival is finally up and running.

Aside from now having a name, the festival also has a date - 15th March - so if you’re interested in immersing yourself in the University’s great film-making culture, pop along for the screening (doors open on Avenue Campus at 6:45pm). If you’re feeling brave, maybe even submit a film yourself! There are plenty of details available on Facebook and on posters and flyers being circulated around campus as we speak, or just drop a line to film@theedgesusu.co.uk if you have any major questions. The University’s entire film culture, from FilmSoc to the academic Film Department themselves are all chipping in, so it should hopefully be a great celebration of film on campus.

Lastly then, no appreciation of the silver screen is complete without a huge shout-out to the amazing folks at Union Films - the University’s very own student-run cinema. This week I was lucky enough to nab a ticket to their midnight screening of ace superhero comedy Deadpool, on the very night of its worldwide release, and couldn’t think of a better way to see the film for the first time. Tickets are cheap, the film selection is on-point, the atmosphere is always lively, and the volunteers always know how to put on a great show. Who needs the Odeon, eh?

Union Films’ midnight screening of Deadpool was certainly a hit!

So as you can see, the University’s film culture is thriving now more than ever. Whether it’s our academic department still holding strong as #1 in the country, our student filmmakers and critics showing off a whole range of varied talents with Wessex Films’ and The Edge’s backing, or even our student cinema being one of the finest places to catch a new release in all of Southampton, film on campus is the biggest it’s ever been.

At the risk of sounding like a cheesy advert, whether you love to write about, create or simply sit back and watch films, the University has you covered, and I couldn’t be more proud of what’s going on to celebrate this.

Ben

Society Projects and SUSU Funding

With December now very much up and running, and Christmas cheer still being firmly spread across campus, this week I found myself a little more busy with other things. Top secret things.

Okay, they’re not really that top secret, but the sense of mystery does make it all seem that little bit more exciting. To be more plainly obvious: this week I’ve been working quite extensively on a project to help boost the University’s focus on film and film-making and to encourage increased collaboration between the creative industries. It’s still a little way off but it’s certainly still an encouraging prospect!

What this post is really about though, is my surprise at how straight-forward it is to go about setting something like this up. Without sounding like too much of a hard-sell, the University and the Students’ Union (SUSU) really do hand you the tools to help you realise a whole range of possibilities. Well, it has to be firmly within reason obviously, but the fact is, if you have an idea for an event or project that you think will benefit the University and/or SUSU, there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a go.

This all started a few months ago now at the very beginning of the semester, at the Creative Industries Induction week held by our lovely SUSU Creative team - you’ll find I blogged about said event all those weeks ago! During a team-building exercise, the creative societies in attendance were asked to come up with ways to encourage collaboration with each other, and it was at this point that myself as Film Editor of the University’s entertainment magazine The Edge, and Pippa, the president of the film-making society Wessex Films, hatched an ingenious plan.

 Together we started to brainstorm ideas for a University-wide student Film Festival.

Pippa and I, hard at work on our ideas for the festival

It may have started a little ambitiously, but we soon found that actually, the University itself has everything we would need to run such an event, from a cinema in the form of Union Films, to support staff, a bar and of course, most importantly of all, funding.

Things always seem to become significantly more complicated when money is involved, but SUSU’s funding process was surprisingly pretty straightforward. All you need is access to a society computer account and the forms are all submitted online. After some hefty research to make sure our maths was right, everything was sent off for approval and I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Sending the funding forms off was surprisingly straight forward.

It’s very easy to bat these things away as impossible dreams, but when you sit down and actually begin to plan, it all becomes a lot simpler. The University, its campuses and its many, many societies and services form a condensed version of the wider world. Everything is in one place and within reaching distance (including people to help with the process) making it the perfect time to practice setting up an event or project like this.

So, to end with some wise words from the contemporary poet Shia LaBeouf: “Don’t let your dreams be dreams”. Being at University is the perfect time to give ambitious things like this a go. You’ll always find support around should you need it.

Obviously, keep an eye out for the soon-to-be-named student film festival coming to campus at some point in the new year!

Ben

Interviews, press conferences and transferrable skills

All of Rylyn’s talk about the careers fair and employability in general got me thinking about my own future this week, just in time for some rather exciting opportunities to float my way.

Getting wrapped up in the University itself is always a fun and rewarding experience, and my course alone has given me plenty to keep busy with; but every now and then, especially now that I’m hurtling through my final year here, thoughts seem to shift towards what on earth I’m going to do when I leave. I’ll be honest, it’s a scary prospect - anyone who said otherwise would very likely be lying - but this week I came to the conclusion that almost everything I’m doing will have some worth when I’m out in the big wide world, hunting through the job market.

On a more basic level, the social experience of University has certainly had an overwhelming effect on how I engage with other adults in general, and sticking to numerous deadlines - whether they are for assignments, my own projects, or even this here blog - has definitely helped to master those pesky organisation skills.

More obviously though, I’ve been given the opportunity over the past week to embark on a couple of exciting ventures which, in themselves, have proven to be more directly useful in tooling me up for that eventual job hunt.

The first of these opportunities came in off the back of my coverage of this year’s London Film Festival for The Edge - which I talked about in more detail in my last post - wherein I somehow ended up in a room with some of the film industry’s most celebrated figures, to support the release of Universal’s new film Steve Jobs.

A press conference for the new Steve Jobs film proved incredibly star-studded.

Maintaining your cool and suppressing the urge to ‘fanboy’ whilst staring in total awe at Danny Boyle, Kate Winslet, Aaron Sorkin and Michael Fassbender is surprisingly difficult, but somehow I managed it.

It quickly became an exercise in professionalism; if I wanted to really pursue a career chasing film (which I very obviously do) then being casual around some of the industry’s current greats would no doubt be expected.

In fact, after a while it grew a lot easier, as it became clear that these individuals were just people after all, and for all the fame and glamour that surrounds their lives, they are - on the most basic level imaginable - simply just other human beings doing their jobs; following their own careers. Lesson well and truly learned.

Accidentally bumped into the man himself outside afterwards. 

Professionalism was maintained, fear not.

Exciting venture #2 then came just a few short days later in the form of more journalism-based fun, when I was given the chance to chat with even more interesting people currently working in film in a few shorter one-on-one interviews. Whereas it was slightly easier to remain calm here since the “talent” (apparently this is industry speak for ‘person of interest’) were a lot more low-key and everything was done over the phone, such things did present some new challenges.

Chatting to someone you’ve never met before at length one-on-one can be pretty tough, especially when you can’t see their face, so this one became all about communication: being as precise and clear with my questions as possible. Whilst, at the same time, juggling a phone in one hand, a semi-ancient voice recorder in another, and shouting as audibly as possible into both.

Rest assured, things seemed to go relatively smoothly - other than the fact that mere minutes before one was due to take place, the fire alarm in the Student’s Union building went off leading to some mad dashing around. Luckily, Highfield Campus has plenty of quiet spots though and I managed to duck into the University’s Valley Gardens. Despite apparently breeding busy-ness by its very nature, silence is never far away here in Southampton.

The glorious Valley Gardens (photo courtesy of ex-blogger Joanne’s old post - found here)

These experiences definitely gave me a wider insight into what may prove to be my future career, and it was a nice release from the stresses of course reading, ahead of the impending first round of assignments. Maybe job-hunting won’t be so scary after all.

Ben

Balancing the fun

It comes as no real surprise that now we’re somehow already three weeks into term, things are starting to heat up. Every single time anybody, staff or student, asks me how I am, I end up replying with just one word: busy. And right now, I really mean it, for a whole number of reasons.

I should probably point out now, before we get any further, that I am very much one of those people that enjoys being busy. I actively seek it out and thrive on the very act of being busy. Not everyone’s university life will be this hectic; that’s the beauty of your time here, it’s exactly what you make of it and if you don’t enjoy that sort of thing, you really don’t have to follow such a path.

But for those who enjoy wrapping themselves up in as many activities as humanly possible…well, this is your time to shine.

As my last post will have no doubt indicated, lectures are now in full swing - all of my four modules (dissertation included) are well off the ground and the corresponding reading/writing/doodling is ticking away nicely. Thus, in a dramatic turn of events, I have well and truly found my feet with work. Everything else however, is a little more up in the air.

This past week has seen me broaden my horizons further and take on an exciting new project in the form of a Surge Radio show. Having conquered print and visual media, radio seemed like the next logical step. With the University’s award-winning student radio station attracting attention from BBC hosts Chris Stark and Scott Mills last week, it seemed like the perfect time to get involved. So, our SUSUtv-lead film opinion show ‘Reel Opinions’ made the jump from the screen to the airwaves, and despite a few technical mishaps (soon to be ironed out), playing music and chatting live on air was a surprisingly exhilarating experience.

So much so, in fact, that it’s about to become a regular occurrence; make sure to tune into Surge Radio at 8pm every Tuesday to hear yours truly playing some of the best music film soundtracks have to offer!

The Reel Opinions team feeling at home in the Surge Radio studio. 

Now drifting back to my first love of print media; the past few weeks in fact have seen some interesting and exciting developments. Back at the University’s own student entertainment magazine, The Edge, we’ve been working hard on gathering together the designs for our future print issues, whilst the second of the year has finally arrived in all its glossy glory.

Our first printed magazine of the year flew off the shelves during the Bunfight and the Freshers’ fayre - so much so in fact that we don’t have a single copy left - and we’re hoping for equally great things from this latest effort. Wrestling with Adobe InDesign for many, many hours is definitely worth it when this is the end product!

The cherry on the cake, however, is something that has been stealing almost every free hour of time I’ve had since late September. Yes, in spite of warring lectures and design deadlines, the last month or so has been largely populated by trips into our nation’s capital in order to cover the 2015 BFI London Film Festival for The Edge.

One of the many perks of being the magazine’s Film Editor is handling press contacts, and this year we were granted an all-access press pass to all of the films screening as part of the festival, meaning I’ve been to a lot of free screenings, and have been writing a lot of corresponding reviews. It’s a pretty hefty undertaking, and it has meant cramming in work at every available opportunity (even whilst standing up on trains), but that’s all part of the fun.

My press badge for the festival - my most valued possession. 

After all, this is what University has really been about for me recently; juggling responsibilities and balancing the fun. There are so many incredible opportunities being offered up by the University, and with this being my (deep breath) final year here, it seems only sensible to embrace as many of them as physically possible. I’m sure that soon enough I’ll have a bit of a rest - the festival comes to an end this weekend so there’s plenty of sleep scheduled for then - but until then I’m still firing on all cylinders, and loving every minute.

Ben

Getting involved in the Creative Industries

After all that waiting, it’s finally here. The legendary Freshers' Week is now very much upon us. In fact, by the time you’re actually reading this, it’ll most likely already be on its way out. Even as a Third Year shuffling through the unbridled madness for my final time, it seems sad to see it go; the sheer enthusiasm and energy is unlike anything else university has to offer. But, of course, all good things must come to an end, and I guess there are these little things called degrees that we’re actually supposed to be getting on with too!

In fact, for me, the first few weeks re-settling in to the university way of life have actually been about one thing and one thing only. No, not that damn spaceship oven again - I’m talking about the Creative Industries.

As Southampton students will have no doubt noticed by the sheer size and scale of this year’s annual Bunfight (that’s the Union’s societies fair to anyone else), there are an awful lot of societies on offer, ranging from the subject-based to the downright insane. The Creative Industries is built up of a much smaller section of all of these groups and deals with, well, anything creative. This stretches from my own loyalties as Film Editor of the University’s entertainment magazine The Edge, to the likes of SUSUtv and even as far as the circus society.

Of course, in the spirit of creative collaboration, this year saw my first attendance at the annual Creative Industries Induction Week, wherein all the committee members for all of these creative-minded groups hang out in a gigantic room and talk/learn about how to be the best at what we do. It’s a pretty jam-packed week full of all sorts of fun stuff, covering everything from the likes of media law to simple team-building and beyond, giving everyone involved an almost encyclopedic knowledge of our own societies.

The Edge Editorial Team was certainly out in force too, as we took advantage of some incredibly useful workshops on how to use industry-standard software like Adobe InDesign to lay up our latest issue. It may have been slightly fiddly at times, and I may have become rather irate with a certain computer, but ultimately everything just about fell into place, and the new-look designs are pretty incredible. Our first issue of the year has been distributed throughout Freshers week (look out for the odd review inside from yours truly) and our second is on its way to the printers as we speak - so look out for more entertainment-related fun hitting Southampton very soon!

Our stand for The Edge at the Bunfight was a thing of beauty.

Just in case that wasn’t enough, the whole week was topped off with the team-bonding session to end all team-bonding sessions - a DIY laser-quest tournament held within our very own student club The Cube. Equipped with some classic retro Aliens-style laser guns and with plenty of inflatable barricades and camouflage netting around to hide behind, it certainly was a rather epic way to pull the week to a close. Our mixed-society team may have ultimately lost out on the top spot, but we definitely learned an awful lot about communication and team-work along the way.

With the induction over, it was over to the Bunfight to spread the word about just how great the Creative Industries are. I may have been standing around for a shocking amount of time, repeating the same pitch to what felt like hundreds of confused-looking faces, but spreading the word about one of my closest passions, and sharing our work with the University community certainly filled me with an incredible sense of pride and achievement. Joining a society and becoming a part of something bigger really enhances the university experience - I couldn’t recommend it enough!

The Edge and SUSUtv joined forces for some bunfight fun (Image courtesy of SUSUtv)

Freshers’ Week is just a mere taste of the extra-curricular opportunities on offer from the University, and based on the turn-out and enthusiasm so far, it really feels like this is going to be a fantastic year.

Ben