(Patrick wrote this on my hand after my final assessment was over - he wrote it upside-down and backwards, so excuse the messiness and over-all illegibility: it reads "Not A Student")Only fitting I should finally sit down and decide to update my blog - apparently, my last post was also a 4th... though, of course, it was *May* 4th. (whoops!) Not a lot happens in... four months... right? ;)
Well, let's do the super-fast recap, shall we? By the end of May, I finished up the second unit of my MA course, then in June headed out to Hawaii with my parents and friends Julia and Ciaran -
Why yes, I did get a little pink, didn't I? :) We had a lovely time, wandering Hindu monasteries, snuba-diving, snorkling, visiting the Most-Rained-On spot in the world (well, getting pretty dang close, at least), and only once getting heat-stroke! (huzzah!) It was absolutely glorious to see the folks again, live in a flat with a dishwasher, and enjoy the absolute gorgeousness of the South Pacific.
Two weeks later, I returned to Bournemouth which - happily - was also having a bit of a warm patch. The beach was glorious (if packed with people), the Halls were empty, and I had a fun bit of work to get on with! Delightful! Having decided that my final project would involve art direction in photography (and not knowing much of anything about cameras beyond point-and-click), I found myself a photographer off gumtree (the UK version of craigslist), and got to work. Six images were shot, printed, framed, and installed in a smaller space within one of our exhibition studios. I'd post the images here, but then I'd have to explain them - and, I have to say, I just finished writing up a 20-page research paper and 71 pages of "personal development" about these images - I don't think I have any words left to describe them again. I promise, I will do a post explaining what I've put up, but I need a short break from having to do so. :)
That said, the two-and-a-half months of this final unit have encapsulated a HUGE amount of work and, despite the fact that the exhibition hang and supporting work deadline was last Thursday, and the absolutely final Assessment Presentation was this past Tuesday (and, thus, I have NOTHING further I have to do for my MA, apart from show up to the opening gala night, drink plenty of champagne, schmooze with gallery owners and professional artists [an oxymoron if I've ever heard one - grin], and wait anxiously for my marks to come in), I nonetheless am only *slowly* de-tensing and relaxing. The idea of being able to read a book - for FUN - is so strange and foreign, yet utterly delightful. :)
If you would like to see our website, however, you can follow the link from here...
(www.fiftynorthonewest.co.uk)
So, what are you doing in the meanwhile, you may want to ask me? Well, I am still keeping myself busy...
Four of us from the Costume MA group (Sally, Aleks, Eva, and I) are helping out one of the film professors over at the Bournemouth Uni, who is working on his PhD. For the experimental part of his PhD, he's taking a modern script of Doctor Who ("Tooth and Claw" - the Queen Victoria/werewolf episode), and filming it with the limitations present in the 1960's series of Doctor Who. (All shot in one live take in a studio, in black-and-white, etc) While I am helping out with the scene painting and costume sourcing, I am officially in charge entirely of the Werewolf - giving me the absolutely fantastic title of "Creature Effects". :D Making this even more fun, the "shooting live" requirement of the series requires The Host and The Werewolf to be played by two different actors - so Andrew's asked *me* to play the Werewolf! (hee!) This works out great for me, as I infinitely prefer working with special effect make-up, prosthetics, and wigs on myself, rather than an actor. (Also means that, in about a month, you'll probably get images up here on my blog of me as a werewolf, running about the TARDIS - woot! My geekdom overfloweth!)
MEANWHILE, I'm also starting the process of looking for a flat in London, while I start my follow-up work on looking for employment in said city. For about the past month or so, I've been sending out my C.V. to various London theatres and making houses, though I've always had to add the proviso to the cover letters that I wouldn't be finished with my MA (and, thus, able to leave Bournemouth) until September 9th. Come Monday, I'll be starting up with the wonderful world of cold calling, hoping against hope to catch somebody *right* at the moment when they need a new maker/wardrobe staff. (fingers crossed) I have, however, started the ball rolling towards looking for a new flat; I have to be out of Bourne Chambers by no later than September 20th and, while many of my friends here in Bournemouth have offered me the use of their spare rooms / sofa-beds, the truth is that no theatres in London are going to want to hire me until I'm actually within a reasonable living distance. (Two hours by train, then probably another 20-30 minutes by tube is *not* a reasonable commute time, especially for dressing jobs that end at 10:30/11 at night!) So, it's just a million times easier to find myself a little one-bedroom, hire a moving van to cart all my books over there, and delight in once more living in a big city! :D
I'm sorry I'm not including more images this time around - I'm only really just surfacing from the summer; images of my typing at my computer are not nearly as fun as they might sound, and I sadly forgot to take my camera with me to the Air Festival. (And I do promise to get pictures of Milford-on-Sea [my friend Sally's house on the cliffs - it reminds me so very much of the English version of Camp Casey], but I keep going over with my laptop, which takes up nearly all the space in my bag).
But much is coming up in the next few weeks - opening night galas! Friends back here after the summer! Trips to London! Werewolf make-up experiments! Birthdays! Talk Like a Pirate days! TARDIS... es...? (Tardi?) I will, I promise, bring my camera and post pictures as they happen. I will also keep all and sundry updated on the flat/job hunting, so long as everyone promises to keep praying / keep fingers crossed (as your religious choices dictate). God willing, within a month or so, I'll have to change over to blog to something titled more accurate to my living arrangements... :D
