So long (and thanks for all the fun)

So here it is, my final ever post for this here blog, as my own Life at Southampton comes to a sad, but hopeful end.

As of this week, I’ll no longer be a Hampshire resident, and as of 14th July, I’ll be a fully-fledged graduate of the University of Southampton. Scary, yet encouraging stuff.

I started my time here in September 2013, and over the past three years I’ve encountered a lot, and all supposedly for a shiny piece of paper and the ability to put a few extra letters at the end of my name.
Well, that’s what a lot of people see a degree as anyway, but weirdly enough, not me. Not anymore.

Going to University just feels like the next logical step for a lot of people, especially those who find themselves powered by education and academia from a young age. It’s only when you get here that you realise that it’s so much more than simply just another qualification.

There’s a fairly standard psychological understanding amongst a great deal of the general public (which may be in actuality, very wrong, so apologies in advance if it is) that as a human being, you learn and experience more new things in the first five years of your life than you do over the entirety of the rest of it. In the grand scheme of adult life, university is essentially this early learning period.

Freshers week era Ben, pre-beard and so full of energy. A lot has changed!

When first moving in to Montefiore halls in Freshers week 2013, I barely knew how to cook, clean or even simply just manage my own time. Within weeks I was quite the opposite. Within months I was even, dare I say it, more comfortable in my new life than my old one. Now I can very happily state that within years, it’s been the biggest positive change in my life to date.

It wasn’t just about waking up every morning and doing the bare minimum either. Once you have basic survival down (usually in a matter of hours/days), life at university becomes just as much about embracing every opportunity given to you. It’s a hotbed of activity, and your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to ride every wave possible.

In the last three years I’ve had articles published online and in print magazines for several different publications. I’ve launched original TV and radio shows alongside friends. I’ve made films, interviewed Hollywood superstars, created my very own annual student film festival and even managed to spend a week standing in the background whilst some insanely talented and important people shot scenes for the latest Mission: Impossible.

That’s not forgetting the crazy-amount of lifelong friendships I’ve formed whilst studying here, or the First Class Honours degree I’ll be walking away with either.

My heartfelt farewell to Avenue Campus was soewhat obscured by scaffolding, but I guess the sentiment remains

My life at Southampton has been irreplaceable, and I honestly couldn’t imagine a better way to spend three years. Obviously though, as I feel that I must point out in almost every single one of these blog posts; this won’t be the same for everybody.

Over the past year I’ve enjoyed sharing my university experiences with each and every one of you. Blogging has kept me sane during deadlines and helped to put a whole bunch of big-picture things into perspective, but I am fully aware that I am just one person, leading one particular path.

To quote a very famous wizard from a very famous trilogy, ‘All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you”. If you’re an explorer, explore. If you’re not, you really don’t have to. University is one of the first times you can really just embrace your personality: just be you, whoever that might be.

A degree is not just a piece of paper, it’s an induction into adult life, and it’s entirely what you make of it.

Now, before I start rambling on even more, I should probably just save us all a bit of hassle and be on my merry way. Southampton, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I guess it’s finally time to turn and face the strange.

So long, and thanks for all the fun.

Ben

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

Active resting: staying busy while taking time out

Sitting still has never really been my forte, but with the Easter break now slamming into us at what feels like a million miles an hour, it seems that at least some rest was very much on the cards.

I mean, it is needed; calling this past semester ‘mad’ would be something of an understatement, but with so much still to do I decided to take a more active approach to resting.

We all need to slow down once in a while and catch a breath; it’s not healthy to keep pushing it, even if you’re absolutely certain that you can manage it. At some point, you will just stop working effectively and become some sort of malfunctioning robot.

There are ways to keep yourself busy whilst still relaxing though. It’s what I’ve dubbed ‘active resting’, and it basically involves switching off some parts of your brain (the bits concerned with the extreme worries that you need a break from) but keeping others firmly awake. Not exactly scientific I know, but hear me out.

Dissertations, graduation and other third-year worries have been bubbling away at the forefront of my mind for a very long time. When Easter finally rolled around, it seemed sensible to push them aside – if only for a little while. Without these things concerning me, life quite honestly felt a little empty, so in order to stay active, I decided to rack up some more work experience and have a wander through some fields too.

That’s the active part: resting from one thing, but staying busy with something else. It keeps things interesting and dynamic, but still allows the necessary parts of your thinking to get some much needed recharge time. This past week has seen a cross-country road trip to the heart of Devon with some friends, and more press-related antics in the capital.

Hiding out in the countryside with some friends was a great way to switch off, but keep active.

Driving nearly 500 miles over Easter weekend proved a little more work than I first expected, especially given the mass amounts of traffic on the roads (I should’ve seen this coming I know). However, getting out into the countryside and away from emails, phone-calls and even just my desk was simply perfect. Staying active with some decent scenic walks certainly kept my brain awake too, so it was very much the best of both worlds.

Swiftly following my return from Devon was a trip into London for the press junket of the new film The Huntsman: Winter’s War, meaning that I got to sit in a room filled with famous people and feel important for a little bit longer. This opportunity came from The National Student, a student magazine a little further afield than The Edge. Again, it kept me sincerely motivated to work, especially after finding myself face-to-face with a few of the film’s stars for some one-on-one interview time.

 Work experience helps engage different parts of your brain too. In my case, the fan-boy side.

The whole time these things were going on though, I felt oddly rested. It was as if in doing all of these relatively active things, I was somehow relaxing. This is proof that you don’t have to be lying down or doing absolutely nothing in order to recharge those mental batteries.

So, if you know you need a break from university or school work (we’ve all been there, there’s no shame), but for whatever reason you don’t want to stop, you don’t have to. Just occupy your brain with something else, that’s challenging in a different way.

Anyhow, I’m nearly at the final sprint finish now. I guess that means that all this active resting should probably take a break itself until the summer.

The end is nigh, after all!

Ben

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

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

Getting back into it - the start of the final semester

It’s been several days now since my last deadline passed, and we’ve still got a few days before the new semester kicks into play, leaving life somewhat adrift. It seems I’ve become caught in some strange sense of limbo; the twilight zone between assignment work and the return of lectures, seminars and general structure.

To let this time slip on by seems almost too wasteful. It may be important to get some serious rest in before the start of the new term - what promises to be the busiest yet - but equally, this little pocket of dead space has proven mighty useful for ticking off a number of things I’ve been pushing myself to do, but never quite got round to. More pressing matters always seem to end up getting in the way, but with the deadlines now all pushed to one side, the hunt was finally on.
 

Those little green ticks have unleashed a whole new world of nothing

Jobs

Yeah, I used the ‘J’ word. This week I finally addressed that ominous spectre that seems to somehow float above the heads of all third-year students, taking some of this spare time to polish up my CV and even send off a few application forms. I won’t lie, gathering up the energy to start seriously thinking about my future hasn’t been particularly easy, but once that first form was perfected and sent off into the ether, everything became that little bit more manageable.

A quick flick through the University’s Careers and Employability Service website also proved mighty useful, giving me a necessary kick in the right direction whilst also letting me know about upcoming employability events. Knowing that there’s plenty of recruitment fairs between now and the summer helped ease a few worries for sure.

Dissertation

Oddly enough, I actually owe a lot to the fact that I have to hand in the draft of my dissertation in just over a month (a slightly scary thought now that I’ve seen it written down). Between all the research and garbled rewriting, dissertation work has not only kept me sane, but it’s also helped to maintain at least a sense of focus in my otherwise structureless days.

Occasional meetings with my tutor ended up encouraging me to head on back over to Avenue Campus, which still looks just as pretty as it did last year, despite the sudden sub-zero temperatures. The actual work itself helped me to feel productive on days when otherwise, time would have simply slipped on by. Apparently this whole dissertation thing isn’t nearly as terrifying as I’d first heard. In fact, I think I might be becoming rather fond of it.

Semester two

Otherwise known as ‘the final semester’ (cue dramatic music, thunder, lightning etc.). Suddenly having no lectures and no deadlines for a bit has of course left me plenty of time to plan out how I’m going to spend my final term here at the University.

Drawing up a timetable for my next set of modules seemed like a good way to start, but from there it seemed to mostly dissolve into a Southampton bucket list - something I’ll no doubt share with you all further down the line. Rest assured though, SURGE, The Edge and SUSUtv will hopefully remain heavy fixtures in the coming months.

It’s been a strange few weeks, but with lectures returning really rather soon, I’m sure some much needed routine will follow just as easily.

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

Recharging your mental batteries

As Emma pointed out in her last post, we’re now roughly at the half-way point of the semester, or perhaps just past it. Half way between the excitement of Freshers’ Week and the joy of Christmas, and it’s usually at this stage in the term where things start to lag a little bit mentally.

It’s perfectly natural to start to feel a little tired by this point; in fact, it’s highly likely that you will be, I know I am.

This doesn’t mean you’re bored, or you’re fed up; it just means that you’ve had a lot of fun, you’ve worked really hard, and now you’re more than welcome to take a few days or so to recharge that mental battery.

This won’t be true of everyone, obviously: we’re all different; beautiful and unique snowflakes as a strange, fictional philosopher once said. So if you’re not feeling the urge to slow down just yet, that’s perfectly fine too. The important thing though is that if you do find yourself losing the capacity to work or if you start to feel jaded at all with anything in any way, do allow yourself some time off. We’re all human, after all.

I say this now because just this past week, I took some time off myself to refresh and re-energise, re-evaluate my working mindset, and you know what? I’ve never felt better.

Part of this came from the fact that I happened to be graced with a reading week (basically, a week without lectures), and so, with so much extra time suddenly to myself I figured I would do something I’d never really done very much whilst here at the University: visit home.

My reasons for not doing so more often are pretty varied; from the fact that it’s quite a slog on the trains, and that I usually find myself too busy to make the trip, but this semester all the pieces just seemed to fall into place and so, I found myself Essex-bound for the first time in nearly two months.

I never thought I would miss this empty little train station back home 

Aside from the trip being a pleasant change of scenery, it also really helped me to kick into play what I just talked about: recharging those mental batteries. Again, it differs from person to person, but for me, home is very much one of the only places I can properly switch off my brain and just enjoy doing nothing of importance, so it was insanely lovely to spend a weekend doing so. With my deadlines pretty much out of the way for the time being, and a decent-sized gap before the next set, it was the perfect occasion to relax and regather some enthusiasm.

It’s safe to say that it definitely worked. After even just a few days in the comfort of home, away from producing radio shows and editing articles, I felt very much on top of things again; 100% ready to conquer whatever work awaited me back in Southampton. Even the journey back was more painless than ever as that good old positive mindset took over. There is really no match for being well-rested.

Catching the fireworks in my local park at home was a perfect way to end a relaxing few days away

So, the moral of today’s post is simply this: allow yourself the time to rest and recharge. Whether it’s a weekend away, an afternoon with Netflix or an hour spent power-napping, take care of yourself and all the wonders and challenges of university life seem to take significantly less effort to master.

Even if you can’t manage a trip home, there are plenty of ways to keep yourself smiling.

Ben

Alternative Tips to Staying Sane During Assignment Fever

There are many upsides to pursuing a university course like mine that’s assessed entirely through coursework, namely the fact that you never find yourself getting sucked into the January/Summer exam panic. It does mean instead, though, that when assignment deadlines do finally come around, they’re not exactly the nicest things in the world.

Of course, the first bunch of this year’s deadlines are now fast approaching, so work-mode has very much been initiated. This obviously means different things for different people; we all have our own working methods. Whereas some like to hibernate away in the reclusive work pods of Hartley Library, I find my brain better suited to locking myself in my room and chaining myself to my desk for the foreseeable future. Okay, it’s really not that dramatic; there are no actual restraints to speak of, it’s more about remaining focused mentally.

So without much further ado, here’s a little breakdown of the things I personally do to keep sane during these slightly heavier working days.

Dance Breaks

From even as far back as GCSE level, the concept of taking frequent breaks whilst working is drilled into our brains. You obviously don’t want to burn yourself out, and we all know when we’ve reached that stage where nothing productive is actually really happening. The trick is in noticing this as soon as possible and then… dancing.

Stop laughing. It’s actually incredible helpful. I mean, this is probably a little bit harder if you’re in a crowded library (in which case, I’d recommend sneaking off to a quiet corridor or toilet cubicle), but the theory behind it is solid.

When we take breaks, we so often find ourselves getting incredibly distracted, what with the internet existing and all. So a 5 minute Facebook stalk suddenly becomes a half-hour cat-video-fuelled odyssey through the weirdest reaches of YouTube, and then your whole working persona is shattered.
Dance breaks, however, are far more structured, provide you with plenty of great exercise and, most importantly, they wake your brain up considerably. Pick one or two particularly funky tracks (extra funky if you’re the sort that listens to music whilst working), maybe something you can sing-along to if you’re in a particularly empty spot, stand up from your work space, and just go to town.

Just let yourself go and enjoy the music, letting all your fears and worries about revision and essay writing completely slip away. All you care about in that moment is the rhythm of whatever you’re listening to.

Five minutes later, lo and behold, you’re cured. Suddenly you can return to your desk with your brain reset, fully prepped to get back to work.

There is no shame in boogieing away your essay stress.

Talk To Yourself

This one’s definitely a whole lot weirder if you’re in a crowded public space, but I’ve found over the years that having brief conversations with yourself about certain topics can actually help cement in your mind exactly what you want to say. This works particularly well with more abstract concepts and theories; having to explain out loud exactly what it is you’re trying to say is a great way to help you articulate it more clearly.

Obviously you could go and find another human being to talk to, but this could well lead to further distraction. A conversation might erupt. Suddenly you’re not talking about gender politics in Die Hard anymore - you’re discussing dinner plans, or your unexplainable hatred of that guy in The Apprentice. Or worse…you’re on Facebook, and the cat videos are back and once again your entire work focus crumbles.

Better to be safe than sorry. Those cat videos are mental poison.

Cloning not 100% necessary. 

Bring Your Deadline Forward A Few Days

Okay, this one is very easily the trickiest to do properly, and requires a lot of mental self-manipulation but if it works, you’ll never miss a deadline again.

I’ve found since first year that almost every single one of my assignments is due on a Tuesday afternoon and I’ve always been one for fail-safes in almost everything I do. If I need to get a bus or a train somewhere, I always get the one scheduled to arrive before the one I absolutely have to get. If I need to set aside some money to pay a certain bill, I’ll always set aside a little bit extra, just to be safe. And the same works for deadlines: if I have a deadline on a Tuesday, mentally my deadline is actually Sunday. Thus, no matter what happens, I have an extra two days packed in just in case something goes horrifically wrong. Like those cat videos taking over again.

This is a particularly hard one to pull off, because a lot of people (students in particular) need the stress of impending doom to actually get up and do something. To force yourself to do something early requires quite a bit of self-control, and so, if you don’t feel like you can manage such things, here’s a simple, although not exactly 100% foolproof solution: lie to yourself early on.

When you first get those deadline dates and you’re putting them in your calendar, bring them forward a few days. If your lecturer says it’s due on Thursday, put it in your calendar for Tuesday. This way, every time you check to see when your essay is due, you’ll always be thinking a few days ahead. As much as you might trust your own brain, fail-safes are always a good idea, just in case.

These are just a few of my own methods for keeping on top of things during these harsh working months. Feel free to give some of them a go but do remember, we all work differently and so we all have our own ways of remaining sane. Some of your methods might even be better than mine!

I do recommend that you try a dance break though, even just once.

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

Jumping into the year ahead

Somehow - and I still don’t quite know when or how this happened - I woke up and it was late August. Whether you’re a third year at university or a third year in secondary school, you’ll recognise such a date to be the universal sign for summer basically being over.

No matter how you fight it, it always seems to just creep up out of nowhere, but I guess at least in realising it this time around I can start to put things in place for the new semester. Doing so is - surprisingly enough - actually pretty exciting when it comes round to it!

Maybe I’m just the kind of person that has a weird fondness for making to-do lists and generally getting myself organised, but even if you’re not, the thought of a complete change of pace from your home/work life must surely be enticing.

The new year at university always seems to offer so much adventure in such a small space of time, whether you’re a veteran like myself or totally new to the whole experience (that means you, incoming Freshers; congratulations and welcome to one of the greatest places on planet Earth!).

So anyway, I guess the question from here became: how does one get themselves ‘organised’ exactly? Well, with moving in still a long way off thanks to that significantly shorter housing contract I just had to have, thoughts became more focused on the academic side to things; preparing for my upcoming modules and making sure everything was in place mentally for the start of that first semester.

For those not yet aware, in a standard semester at Southampton your course is split into a series of what they call ‘modules’ - units of study, all about differing subjects within your main field. As far as my Film course goes for example, in the past I’ve delved into the delights of world cinema, women in film, and documentary, whilst other courses will obviously vary. English may have a module on Dickens and another on Shakespeare and Maths will probably have something on big numbers and… I don’t know, shapes or something. Maths was never my strong suit. My point is, you choose which modules interest you, and build your course through them.

 I think I find making to-do lists a little too fun...

The best way to prepare academically is to look forward at what modules you’ll be tackling first and doing some reading (or in my case, watching) around the subject. In fact, in some cases you might even have access to a module outline or reading list, meaning you can get a jump start on the actual things you’ll be studying. Otherwise, like me, it’s all about getting creative and reading around the topic. For example, ahead of my Music in Film module I’ve listened to so many film scores and arrangements that every ambient noise has just started to sound like a trumpet. Curse you, Hans Zimmer!

Then there’s the elephant in the room. Above all else academically speaking, third year means dissertation time - that gigantic essay I have the whole year to do but feel a bit weird going near since overall it’s actually pretty daunting. But this week I took the first proper leap and, believe it or not, I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself!

The dissertation may seem like a rather gargantuan undertaking, but it is ultimately about a subject of your choosing, meaning it’s, in reality, pretty easy to find interesting. This is what university is ultimately about after all - finding what you love and exploring it further. Gone are the days where work was just work: something you suffered through to reach an end-goal. Now it’s… well, fun!

With the first big step towards reconfiguring my brain now taken, it feels almost as if the new academic year couldn’t come soon enough.

Next on the list - a stationary run to Southampton’s finest on-campus bookshop John Smith’s, soon after which I will no doubt be drowning in post-it notes and funky marker pens. Now it’s begun, the excitement never stops.

Enjoy the final whispers of your summer and if you’re joining us in September for the first time, don’t be afraid to say hey! It all starts here - after all, to paraphrase a formerly popular and now extinct mobile service provider: the future is indeed bright.

Ben

New beginnings

This may well prove to be the most awkward blog post I ever write and that you ever read, but please, do bear with me. Everybody needs some sort of introduction, so I guess here’s mine.

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