Just to begin: I know this post is a couple of months late, but I feel like you'll understand once I get into what happened in my second week at BBC Three.
Monday I was rearing and ready to go - I had done week 1 and I was almost excited to go back to my familiar underground route and see what the second week had in store.
The daily drop meeting with all the weekends social media feedback and statistics was really interesting and I nearly got invited out on a shoot that I had to turn down because it would have meant I wouldn't get back till nearer 3am and I had to be up at 6am to get ready to get the train.
I spent most of the day typing up all my ideas for Amazing Humans and sending them off to the film team - they were super helpful and they said they really liked some of my ideas and I got really good feedback.
I then spent the rest of the day working predominantly on researching press emails for film, music and TV companies to get their releases for the next six months, to see if BBC Three could do a collaboration to promote any new releases. As well as this, I did some research into who played the original Teletubbies sun, as the show was being remade and a new baby had been cast, and tried to get in contact with her.
At this point, I got to go to an editorial meeting similar to the one I went to on my first day in Week 1, but this week I got to pitch some of my ideas. They really liked some of them and one idea using a new music release to re-promote an older story on social media went really well.
Monday evening is when the week started going downhill (and why this post is so late) - I rushed through my train journey to try and make it to the last hour of dance training, I'd paid money for a taxi and literally ran to be there and then the team spent the last hour pratting around and I had no idea of the new part of the routine and it felt like a huge waste of my time and I was exhausted.
Then, in short, when I got home my mum rung me and told me my nanny was very poorly and I needed to go home to say goodbye.
So Tuesday morning I set off into London Waterloo from Southampton and at the end of the day I took a completely different route to London King's Cross and home to Peterborough from there.
During my day at BBC Three on Thursday, I worked a lot on contacting film companies and sorting their responses into a Google docs spreadsheet. It all felt really formal and I really enjoyed it - something about answering emails makes me feel official and a little bit important and especially when you've got 'BBC' in your email address.
I also did some research for my story idea about the mainstream media ganging up on Zoella, based on a Guardian article that called her the reason children's literacy rates are declining because her books are too easy (don't get me started - why attack the YouTuber that runs a book club? Anyway!). I also researched another idea I had, using the Nintendo Switch launch as an anchor to talk about older gamers, as there's a community of gamers aged 60+.
I then left a little early to get a train home.
My nan and my family didn't want me sacrificing my time at BBC Three for anything (I asked probably a thousand times), so I was up at 6am again on Wednesday leaving for the train station. This morning more than all the others I was absolutely exhausted and I really struggled to engage and focus.
Ironically, Wednesday was the day I was asked to write something for the website - alongside finishing off the film releases and doing research for a story one of the other writers was working on, I was given a video by the head of Editorial and asked to write it up into a listicle style piece as a way to guide more viewers to the YouTube and BBC iPlayer videos that were published about six months ago and didn't do so well.
This story was posted after I left, but it was so beneficial to be able to work with the writers and see how they adapted my words into their style and I started to take on their house style.
Thursday was one of the most exciting days for me in my placement - I got to go on a film shoot for a video for Comic Relief. This post has taken me so long to write that the video is now out - you can watch it here - I'm not in it at all (obviously) but it was a really interesting day. I spent the whole day watching kit but talking to the crew and seeing how it all works and understanding a lot of what they're talking about because I know a lot of TV people at uni was just so interesting, I loved it. I'd love to do more shoots in the future and I'm hoping to get involved with this at university too.
However, the journey home was an absolute nightmare as the underground was manic and all the National Rail trains were delayed and I didn't get home till really late and I was really tired and not in the mood for anything.
But I got up at 6am the next day and did it all again - I had lost my work experience pass so I had to get a new one in the morning, I was nearly late for the daily drop meeting because one of the underground lines had completely shut down at my stop so I had to find a new route, but 90% of the office were delayed too.
I started by catching up on my emails that I missed because of the shoot day, I did some more work on the listicle I wrote and carried on adding films to the Google docs spreadsheet.
Friday was my busiest day - I was given another listicle to write, I was given some factual research about videos BBC Three made last year for a variety of American sports events.
And in the evening I met up with my sister and we went to go see my favourite band on their first night of their UK tour. It all feels so long ago now, they've released two more songs since then.
Sorry if this post sounds a bit formal - I'm in the mindset of assignment writing right now and writing this post is a little bit emotionally draining for me!
I've now basically finished second year - most of my classes have ended and I only have one assignment left, but I have notes on each week from the rest of this semester and I fully intend to write them up by the end of the month!
Thank you for reading!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Monday, 6 March 2017
Week 18: Adulting at BBC Three!
If I were at uni this week, I would have had Enrichment Week, which is basically a bunch of workshops on lectures to help us with employment and other key skills and I'd have had to go to a meeting about my options for third year. Basically a week off.
But I wasn't there for Enrichment Week. This week was my first of two weeks at BBC Three for a work experience placement - I was commuting into London every day from Southampton (I now spend minimum four hours a day on trains and it hurts my heart, mind, body and soul).
Because I have to make a work experience log for university, I've been writing a summary of what I've been doing every day which makes this blog post really easy to write (even if it is a couple of days late, sorry about that - the weekend was spent doing a shift at work and trying to catch up on sleep!).
This post is probably going to be very long but it's really useful for my work experience log and if you're interested in what I've been doing at the BBC, you'll get a detailed description!
Monday was terrifying - I had to wake up at 7 to be ready to leave at 8 and get a train at 8.30 that was delayed, so everything was a bit daunting on day one. Of course I was scared - it's the BBC, they're one of the biggest broadcasting companies in the UK and I might get something wrong and rule myself out of the industry forever!
But I made it onto the train and after taking a very long winded way round, I found the building that's tucked away in a little corner. And as soon as I arrived I was thrown in headfirst - I was meeting people and being told names and departments within BBC Three and it was all very intimidating but only in concept, everyone was absolutely lovely and asked me what I did and what my favourite parts of my course were and took a genuine interest in making the most of my work experience.
What surprised me most was how much of what I do in the news room was relevant in this office too - they were talking about vox pops and editorial teams and SEOs and copy and everything else.
I was set up with a computer and emailed a bunch of information to read up on and that's what we did until lunch (if I start referring to 'we', it's because there's another girl doing Work Experience the same weeks as me so we've been doing most things together). After lunch, we went to an editorial meeting where they pitched a bunch of ideas and it was brilliant - I love meetings like that (don't know why, I just like discussing content ideas with a team) and I felt so involved even though I'd only been there for a few hours and had nothing to contribute.
Later that afternoon I made myself a list of three things I wanted to achieve by the end of my two week placement and then I worked on research for the BBC Three show Amazing Humans (it's amazing, genuinely - I thoroughly recommend it) within different themes so I spent a lot of the afternoon Googling.
Then it was time to get back on the underground and head home - on Day 1 I wasn't so familiar with my route so I missed the train that would have got me home about an hour earlier and didn't get home until 9pm. It was a long ass day.
Tuesday was my first proper day commuting - getting up at 6am to leave at 7am for the train station and a 7.30am train and the only thing I've got in my notes to reflect this are the words 'early mornings might break me' and that just made me giggle a little bit.
The earlier start meant I was there early enough to attend the 10am Daily Drop meetings which made me realise three things: 1) The news room on news days at uni are really reflective of the industry, 2) the stats of BBC Three are insane like oh my actual goodness wow and 3) I want to work in this industry somehow, taking part in and leading these meetings. Yes please.
I then went on to continue my Amazing Humans research from the day before, whilst also doing some research into festivals and conventions for one writer, Nick, and mapping out film, TV show and music release dates over the next six months for another writer, Cat.
The last thing I was told about on Tuesday was how to write up a Rights Report - I was sent the template and given an episode of something that hasn't aired yet (very exciting) and I decided I would leave this till Wednesday because I didn't want to have to start and leave it half-finished.
I sent off my research to all the relevant people and deliberately left a little bit earlier so I could make it to the train that got me home so much earlier, starting to learn the underground route off by heart.
Wednesday was a much more productive and driven day and I could focus really well (despite how tired I was). The day started with the Daily Drop meeting and my notes say 'again, so cool to be in the environment'. Yes I am a massive dork but it's also true.
I started the day with the Rights Report like I said I would, I had a chat to the assistant producer of Amazing Humans to do more research for them - the feedback I got back from my other ideas was really positive so I was glad to have more themes to be looking into.
After the first Rights Report, I was given two more episodes to write the Reports for and it was a chilled but productive afternoon watching two more episodes of the show I was writing the report for. At this point I made a list of other teams I want to work with in the next week and a half but I'm not sure how well this is going to go.
Thursday is the day I have the least notes for but probably the day I did the most - again, started with the Daily Drop meeting, but then went back to do Amazing Humans research before Cat asked me if I was busy. I said no. She asked me to transcribe an interview and I'm like yeah sure - their articles have as many quotes in as the stories we write as uni and we do five minutes interviews, it will be fine. It was not fine. The interview was 42 minutes long and about a topic that isn't exactly soft and fuzzy. So the day dragged but I finished it, six hours later, and the response I was greeted with was 'wow, that was fast' which I wasn't expecting at all.
And all of a sudden it was Friday and week 1 was coming to a close - I was really starting to feel the early mornings and not having a grip on what time I fall asleep at night but the Daily Drop meeting was a bit longer this morning so I had a little bit longer to wake up. It was interesting seeing them plan ahead for the weekend and decide what content was going up when no one would be there over the weekend.
Then it was back to working - I checked over the transcript for Cat which sounds like a quick job until I remind you that it was a 42 minute interview about a heavy topic. I had to have some breaks in the middle so it was nearly lunch time by the time I'd send it all over.
That afternoon I went back to doing a variety of research for a variety of people with a little break to treat myself to lunch in the canteen but, I'll be honest, it was not worth £5.51. I've had much better fish and chips for less but it was hot food so I'm not going to complain too much.
The rest of the afternoon was a bit slower - I was really starting to flag after a week of commuting into London and it has been an emotionally taxing week too; work experience at BBC Three is a big deal!
But the one fun thing I did do on Friday afternoon was talk to some of the guys that actually go out filming stuff, and I learnt all about filming with a C300 which is a bit like some of the cameras we use at uni. I've used a C100 about ('used') but it was really fun, hopefully I'll be going on a shoot in my second week but I'm very, very excited to see more of the production side of things because it's not something I've ever really been involved with before.
And that was the week over! I got the train home and we made dinner and went to bed and I was absolutely exhausted.
Somehow I managed to wake up naturally at 9 the following day which made getting into work for 12.45 much, much easier! I then worked a five hour shift and had a nice easy night in and Sunday was a proper lazy day with a proper lie in.
Week 2 has got off to a pretty good start but I'll feedback on that hopefully at the weekend, but I'm trying not to bully myself about getting content up by a certain time on a certain day so sometime at the weekend or early next week.
Thank you for reading!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
But I wasn't there for Enrichment Week. This week was my first of two weeks at BBC Three for a work experience placement - I was commuting into London every day from Southampton (I now spend minimum four hours a day on trains and it hurts my heart, mind, body and soul).
Because I have to make a work experience log for university, I've been writing a summary of what I've been doing every day which makes this blog post really easy to write (even if it is a couple of days late, sorry about that - the weekend was spent doing a shift at work and trying to catch up on sleep!).
This post is probably going to be very long but it's really useful for my work experience log and if you're interested in what I've been doing at the BBC, you'll get a detailed description!
Monday was terrifying - I had to wake up at 7 to be ready to leave at 8 and get a train at 8.30 that was delayed, so everything was a bit daunting on day one. Of course I was scared - it's the BBC, they're one of the biggest broadcasting companies in the UK and I might get something wrong and rule myself out of the industry forever!
But I made it onto the train and after taking a very long winded way round, I found the building that's tucked away in a little corner. And as soon as I arrived I was thrown in headfirst - I was meeting people and being told names and departments within BBC Three and it was all very intimidating but only in concept, everyone was absolutely lovely and asked me what I did and what my favourite parts of my course were and took a genuine interest in making the most of my work experience.
What surprised me most was how much of what I do in the news room was relevant in this office too - they were talking about vox pops and editorial teams and SEOs and copy and everything else.
I was set up with a computer and emailed a bunch of information to read up on and that's what we did until lunch (if I start referring to 'we', it's because there's another girl doing Work Experience the same weeks as me so we've been doing most things together). After lunch, we went to an editorial meeting where they pitched a bunch of ideas and it was brilliant - I love meetings like that (don't know why, I just like discussing content ideas with a team) and I felt so involved even though I'd only been there for a few hours and had nothing to contribute.
Later that afternoon I made myself a list of three things I wanted to achieve by the end of my two week placement and then I worked on research for the BBC Three show Amazing Humans (it's amazing, genuinely - I thoroughly recommend it) within different themes so I spent a lot of the afternoon Googling.
Then it was time to get back on the underground and head home - on Day 1 I wasn't so familiar with my route so I missed the train that would have got me home about an hour earlier and didn't get home until 9pm. It was a long ass day.
Tuesday was my first proper day commuting - getting up at 6am to leave at 7am for the train station and a 7.30am train and the only thing I've got in my notes to reflect this are the words 'early mornings might break me' and that just made me giggle a little bit.
The earlier start meant I was there early enough to attend the 10am Daily Drop meetings which made me realise three things: 1) The news room on news days at uni are really reflective of the industry, 2) the stats of BBC Three are insane like oh my actual goodness wow and 3) I want to work in this industry somehow, taking part in and leading these meetings. Yes please.
I then went on to continue my Amazing Humans research from the day before, whilst also doing some research into festivals and conventions for one writer, Nick, and mapping out film, TV show and music release dates over the next six months for another writer, Cat.
The last thing I was told about on Tuesday was how to write up a Rights Report - I was sent the template and given an episode of something that hasn't aired yet (very exciting) and I decided I would leave this till Wednesday because I didn't want to have to start and leave it half-finished.
I sent off my research to all the relevant people and deliberately left a little bit earlier so I could make it to the train that got me home so much earlier, starting to learn the underground route off by heart.
Wednesday was a much more productive and driven day and I could focus really well (despite how tired I was). The day started with the Daily Drop meeting and my notes say 'again, so cool to be in the environment'. Yes I am a massive dork but it's also true.
I started the day with the Rights Report like I said I would, I had a chat to the assistant producer of Amazing Humans to do more research for them - the feedback I got back from my other ideas was really positive so I was glad to have more themes to be looking into.
After the first Rights Report, I was given two more episodes to write the Reports for and it was a chilled but productive afternoon watching two more episodes of the show I was writing the report for. At this point I made a list of other teams I want to work with in the next week and a half but I'm not sure how well this is going to go.
Thursday is the day I have the least notes for but probably the day I did the most - again, started with the Daily Drop meeting, but then went back to do Amazing Humans research before Cat asked me if I was busy. I said no. She asked me to transcribe an interview and I'm like yeah sure - their articles have as many quotes in as the stories we write as uni and we do five minutes interviews, it will be fine. It was not fine. The interview was 42 minutes long and about a topic that isn't exactly soft and fuzzy. So the day dragged but I finished it, six hours later, and the response I was greeted with was 'wow, that was fast' which I wasn't expecting at all.
And all of a sudden it was Friday and week 1 was coming to a close - I was really starting to feel the early mornings and not having a grip on what time I fall asleep at night but the Daily Drop meeting was a bit longer this morning so I had a little bit longer to wake up. It was interesting seeing them plan ahead for the weekend and decide what content was going up when no one would be there over the weekend.
Then it was back to working - I checked over the transcript for Cat which sounds like a quick job until I remind you that it was a 42 minute interview about a heavy topic. I had to have some breaks in the middle so it was nearly lunch time by the time I'd send it all over.
That afternoon I went back to doing a variety of research for a variety of people with a little break to treat myself to lunch in the canteen but, I'll be honest, it was not worth £5.51. I've had much better fish and chips for less but it was hot food so I'm not going to complain too much.
The rest of the afternoon was a bit slower - I was really starting to flag after a week of commuting into London and it has been an emotionally taxing week too; work experience at BBC Three is a big deal!
But the one fun thing I did do on Friday afternoon was talk to some of the guys that actually go out filming stuff, and I learnt all about filming with a C300 which is a bit like some of the cameras we use at uni. I've used a C100 about ('used') but it was really fun, hopefully I'll be going on a shoot in my second week but I'm very, very excited to see more of the production side of things because it's not something I've ever really been involved with before.
And that was the week over! I got the train home and we made dinner and went to bed and I was absolutely exhausted.
Somehow I managed to wake up naturally at 9 the following day which made getting into work for 12.45 much, much easier! I then worked a five hour shift and had a nice easy night in and Sunday was a proper lazy day with a proper lie in.
Week 2 has got off to a pretty good start but I'll feedback on that hopefully at the weekend, but I'm trying not to bully myself about getting content up by a certain time on a certain day so sometime at the weekend or early next week.
Thank you for reading!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Week 17: What a week!
Feel like a kind of 'not' week this week - the beginning was very productive but writing this on Saturday I'm feeling very groggy and tired because another dance competition but let's chat about that at the end.
Monday was a lot better than last Monday where all my lectures were cancelled - Lifestyle PR was on this week and it was brilliant, I love my tutor and she's brilliant but also I worked with my group and we feel a lot more on top of things now. Annoyingly, I"m not going to be back in Lifestyle PR for three weeks now because of my work experience but we're all going to work on it and come back together in March.
Music journalism was another story - we were all sat down in the lecture and then someone popped their head round the door and said that Jerry was 'so ill' and wasn't going to make it in today... why couldn't he have told us this earlier? I'm now not going to see Jerry for about six weeks because he's so ill and I've got work experience. Is Jerry ill or is Everett True, his pseudonym for music criticism, ill? Because he views them as two different people and it's creepy. I love music journalism but he's the most useless tutor I've ever had.
Tuesday was slightly better - it was a Mettricks morning and I waited until today, deadline day, to start editing my package today. Though, I cut the video down pretty quickly and the audio didn't take long at all, I wrote the script for the video and audio voiceover and made a start on the copy. I'd done 90% of the editing before I went into uni that afternoon but then I was given quite a lot of video editing to do by my tutor who was giving me brilliant feedback to work on before hand in and it was all uploaded with more than half an hour to go. Good job me.
Wednesday was another live news day, I was on the TV bulletin and I was really excited about it because I love being on the TV bulletin. I did the 3pm bulletin that went quite well, I think - I had to do a live link with someone at a university football game and I used my own package story that I'd submitted the night before about the Family Orchestra workshops and I got to talk about my dance teams which was really fun. On the 1pm bulletin I played the videos over the script and on the 5pm bulletin I was vision mixing, which means I picked which screen is live out of the two cameras, the VT videos and the outside broadcast live link - it was a job I hadn't done before and I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope I get to do it again in the coming weeks.
Thursday saw me leaving Southampton for the weekend - my boyfriend and I left our flat at 10am to get a 10.30am train which got into London at about 12pm, we went from Waterloo to Kings Cross by about 12.20pm and then waited to get on our train at 1pm. This is where shit hits the fan. Storm Doris ruined our day - we sat on our train for nearly an hour before being asked to 'detrain' and no train was leaving until 5pm but somehow we got on a 3.22pm train that actually left the station but took a really long as time to get to Peterborough and our three and a half hour journey turned into an eight hour stress fest. But it ended with my dad's shepherd's pie so it wasn't all bad.
Friday was fab - had an amazing lie in, very chill day, went into town in the afternoon and went to my favourite bakery and bought some new make-up and tried to do a photography project but it didn't work. Essentially, my plan was to take pictures every 20 paces and put it all together into a cute video and overlay it with my monthly covers that I make on my YouTube channel but I'm not sure how well that's going to go. I'll let you know.
Then this weekend is a busy one - I've got another dance comp today (Saturday) and it's much later in the day so I won't get there until about 4 and we're not dancing until gone 7.30 and Lucas and I are getting a train back very late tonight.
And tomorrow I've got work and somehow I've got to prep for my work experience with BBC Three next week. I'm trying not to think about this one because I'm very scared so, again: I'll feedback next week.
So in reflection, this week has actually gone pretty well but I'm very apprehensive about next week - it's just hit me that I'm going to the BBC in two days and I'm very scared, like really, really scared. But a little bit excited.
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday was a lot better than last Monday where all my lectures were cancelled - Lifestyle PR was on this week and it was brilliant, I love my tutor and she's brilliant but also I worked with my group and we feel a lot more on top of things now. Annoyingly, I"m not going to be back in Lifestyle PR for three weeks now because of my work experience but we're all going to work on it and come back together in March.
Music journalism was another story - we were all sat down in the lecture and then someone popped their head round the door and said that Jerry was 'so ill' and wasn't going to make it in today... why couldn't he have told us this earlier? I'm now not going to see Jerry for about six weeks because he's so ill and I've got work experience. Is Jerry ill or is Everett True, his pseudonym for music criticism, ill? Because he views them as two different people and it's creepy. I love music journalism but he's the most useless tutor I've ever had.
Tuesday was slightly better - it was a Mettricks morning and I waited until today, deadline day, to start editing my package today. Though, I cut the video down pretty quickly and the audio didn't take long at all, I wrote the script for the video and audio voiceover and made a start on the copy. I'd done 90% of the editing before I went into uni that afternoon but then I was given quite a lot of video editing to do by my tutor who was giving me brilliant feedback to work on before hand in and it was all uploaded with more than half an hour to go. Good job me.
Wednesday was another live news day, I was on the TV bulletin and I was really excited about it because I love being on the TV bulletin. I did the 3pm bulletin that went quite well, I think - I had to do a live link with someone at a university football game and I used my own package story that I'd submitted the night before about the Family Orchestra workshops and I got to talk about my dance teams which was really fun. On the 1pm bulletin I played the videos over the script and on the 5pm bulletin I was vision mixing, which means I picked which screen is live out of the two cameras, the VT videos and the outside broadcast live link - it was a job I hadn't done before and I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope I get to do it again in the coming weeks.
Thursday saw me leaving Southampton for the weekend - my boyfriend and I left our flat at 10am to get a 10.30am train which got into London at about 12pm, we went from Waterloo to Kings Cross by about 12.20pm and then waited to get on our train at 1pm. This is where shit hits the fan. Storm Doris ruined our day - we sat on our train for nearly an hour before being asked to 'detrain' and no train was leaving until 5pm but somehow we got on a 3.22pm train that actually left the station but took a really long as time to get to Peterborough and our three and a half hour journey turned into an eight hour stress fest. But it ended with my dad's shepherd's pie so it wasn't all bad.
Friday was fab - had an amazing lie in, very chill day, went into town in the afternoon and went to my favourite bakery and bought some new make-up and tried to do a photography project but it didn't work. Essentially, my plan was to take pictures every 20 paces and put it all together into a cute video and overlay it with my monthly covers that I make on my YouTube channel but I'm not sure how well that's going to go. I'll let you know.
Then this weekend is a busy one - I've got another dance comp today (Saturday) and it's much later in the day so I won't get there until about 4 and we're not dancing until gone 7.30 and Lucas and I are getting a train back very late tonight.
And tomorrow I've got work and somehow I've got to prep for my work experience with BBC Three next week. I'm trying not to think about this one because I'm very scared so, again: I'll feedback next week.
So in reflection, this week has actually gone pretty well but I'm very apprehensive about next week - it's just hit me that I'm going to the BBC in two days and I'm very scared, like really, really scared. But a little bit excited.
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday, 20 February 2017
Week 16: A Week of No Progress
This week has been a mixed one - writing it now, a week later, it feels like far more than just one week ago but this is why I document it I suppose!
On Monday I woke up so ready for the day - the week before I'd been ill and I was ready to come back and smash it today, but I got an email from my tutor for my first three hours today and she was ill so it was cancelled... so I carried on getting ready, just taking my team a bit more then I got another email and my tutor for my second three hours of lecture and seminar was ill too and all of sudden - my six hour day at uni had whittled down to a sudden day of nothing.
I tried to use that time productively - sitting at my desk and working through a bunch of admin stuff (finally getting the confirmation of my work experience at the BBC!) before going to see Busted in Portsmouth that evening. I wrote a review on my personal blog sophie counts clouds if you're interested!
Tuesday felt more like an accomplished day - I went to Mettricks, my favourite, favourite cafe, for about 9.30am, I made a long to do list of things I needed to really focus on. It was only 7 or 8 things long (that's a short list for me) but I still didn't finish a lot of it, I'm finding it very difficult to focus right now and then I get sad and feel more unproductive and I feel even less focused, I'm working on it.
I did get a little ahead in blogging and write my post for Wednesday in advance and plan everything a little bit more, so I feel a little bit like I had more of a plan - one of my unfocused coping mechanisms.
Wednesday was News Day, I had a somewhat mediocre story that was managed to pull together, we did a live link with the TV bulletin meaning I was live on location, presenting to the news room which was very fun and a little bit scary. When we got back to the news room we tied the story together and I also helped with the 3pm and 5pm TV bulletin too.
That evening I helped one of the third year's film an interview for their FMP package and then went to another friends house because it was an emotional day. I needed love and attention.
Thursday was a new start however! I had work during the day and I remembered how much I love my job and I enjoy it so much right now, then in the evening I worked at my uni's cinema, showing Split, the new James McAvoy film.
Thoughts on Split: incredible performance by McAvoy, if it had been released a few weeks earlier he would definitely have an Oscar nomination, but the rest of the film was very disturbing, unnecessarily sexual and a horrifically negative representation of mental illness, even though it's meant to be exaggerated, almost supernatural it paints a very negative image of mental illness.
Friday was meant to be my day off - late Valentine's lunch with my boyfriend then a chilled afternoon getting on with some work before my first dance comp the following day, but I ended up going straight from lunch into work then having to rush everything in the evening. Still waiting for a day off day!
Saturday, however, was my first dance competition of the season and even though I hated most comps last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Future Cheer was so much fun, getting up at 4am actually made me feel quite good, I like being up early and then it was a busy morning of make-up, costumes and dancing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then came in the top half for our jazz dance and improved on last year's hip hop placement, though the winning hip hop team did tell us they thought we should place higher and that they didn't expect to win, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself...
Sunday was a more chilled day - stayed in bed all morning, went to Asda over lunch then spent the afternoon trying to get some stuff done (again, not to much success).
This week is going to be much more productive - I've got another dance comp, I'm going home for the weekend and next week I start my BBC Three work experience. It's all looking up now!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
On Monday I woke up so ready for the day - the week before I'd been ill and I was ready to come back and smash it today, but I got an email from my tutor for my first three hours today and she was ill so it was cancelled... so I carried on getting ready, just taking my team a bit more then I got another email and my tutor for my second three hours of lecture and seminar was ill too and all of sudden - my six hour day at uni had whittled down to a sudden day of nothing.
I tried to use that time productively - sitting at my desk and working through a bunch of admin stuff (finally getting the confirmation of my work experience at the BBC!) before going to see Busted in Portsmouth that evening. I wrote a review on my personal blog sophie counts clouds if you're interested!
Tuesday felt more like an accomplished day - I went to Mettricks, my favourite, favourite cafe, for about 9.30am, I made a long to do list of things I needed to really focus on. It was only 7 or 8 things long (that's a short list for me) but I still didn't finish a lot of it, I'm finding it very difficult to focus right now and then I get sad and feel more unproductive and I feel even less focused, I'm working on it.
I did get a little ahead in blogging and write my post for Wednesday in advance and plan everything a little bit more, so I feel a little bit like I had more of a plan - one of my unfocused coping mechanisms.
Wednesday was News Day, I had a somewhat mediocre story that was managed to pull together, we did a live link with the TV bulletin meaning I was live on location, presenting to the news room which was very fun and a little bit scary. When we got back to the news room we tied the story together and I also helped with the 3pm and 5pm TV bulletin too.
That evening I helped one of the third year's film an interview for their FMP package and then went to another friends house because it was an emotional day. I needed love and attention.
Thursday was a new start however! I had work during the day and I remembered how much I love my job and I enjoy it so much right now, then in the evening I worked at my uni's cinema, showing Split, the new James McAvoy film.
Thoughts on Split: incredible performance by McAvoy, if it had been released a few weeks earlier he would definitely have an Oscar nomination, but the rest of the film was very disturbing, unnecessarily sexual and a horrifically negative representation of mental illness, even though it's meant to be exaggerated, almost supernatural it paints a very negative image of mental illness.
Friday was meant to be my day off - late Valentine's lunch with my boyfriend then a chilled afternoon getting on with some work before my first dance comp the following day, but I ended up going straight from lunch into work then having to rush everything in the evening. Still waiting for a day off day!
Saturday, however, was my first dance competition of the season and even though I hated most comps last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Future Cheer was so much fun, getting up at 4am actually made me feel quite good, I like being up early and then it was a busy morning of make-up, costumes and dancing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then came in the top half for our jazz dance and improved on last year's hip hop placement, though the winning hip hop team did tell us they thought we should place higher and that they didn't expect to win, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself...
Sunday was a more chilled day - stayed in bed all morning, went to Asda over lunch then spent the afternoon trying to get some stuff done (again, not to much success).
This week is going to be much more productive - I've got another dance comp, I'm going home for the weekend and next week I start my BBC Three work experience. It's all looking up now!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Saturday, 11 February 2017
Week 15: Finding My Own Feet
It's been a very mixed bag this week - it started slow and self-pitying and ended on a surprisingly hard working and self-sufficient end.
Monday was a slow day - I got out of bed ready to go to uni for 10am and I managed about 5 minutes out of bed before I crawled back to my boyfriend in tears because I felt so ill and the day was done. I didn't go to uni, I barely ate and then I went to watch my dance training class because I definitely didn't have the energy to join in.
I didn't blog, I didn't edit any videos, I didn't do any uni work and I didn't eat any real dinner either - Monday was a write off.
Tuesday morning didn't fare much better - I stayed in bed and did my best to try and recover, slowly preparing myself to be at uni that afternoon and I managed it, 4-6 I was in university and 6-8 I went to watch another dance class because whilst I made it into uni, I'd still barely eaten in the previous five days so I wasn't going to make myself try to dance for two hours.
And I was also mentally preparing myself for Wednesday - News Day, the 9-5 day that I was hoping wouldn't be too strenuous or difficult. And luckily the story I was on wasn't strenuous or difficult - I was on a story about how Southampton is going to become a dementia friendly city, we got a really good interview and then we spent a casual afternoon writing copy and editing the interview and sourcing pictures. Pretty chill.
Thursday and Friday I had two full days at work (bearing in mind I usually only work four hours a week, so it really knocked it out of me), Thursday evening I was still working at Sonar and Friday evening my boyfriend and I made pizza for dinner and it was really fun but I needed another early night.
Saturday morning was another early start because I went to a Family Orchestra Workshop just outside Southampton city centre to film, take photos and do a few interviews for my first assignment package. I now have over a week to edit it all together and that makes me very happy.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are going to be my chill days - I'm still getting over whatever this illness is and I'm very excited to have the rest of the weekend to recover a little bit before a manic day again on Monday.
Next week is set to be another really manic week with my new Monday with a changed timetable, hopefully I'll see the end of this illness and I've got my first dance competition at the weekend!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday was a slow day - I got out of bed ready to go to uni for 10am and I managed about 5 minutes out of bed before I crawled back to my boyfriend in tears because I felt so ill and the day was done. I didn't go to uni, I barely ate and then I went to watch my dance training class because I definitely didn't have the energy to join in.
I didn't blog, I didn't edit any videos, I didn't do any uni work and I didn't eat any real dinner either - Monday was a write off.
Tuesday morning didn't fare much better - I stayed in bed and did my best to try and recover, slowly preparing myself to be at uni that afternoon and I managed it, 4-6 I was in university and 6-8 I went to watch another dance class because whilst I made it into uni, I'd still barely eaten in the previous five days so I wasn't going to make myself try to dance for two hours.
And I was also mentally preparing myself for Wednesday - News Day, the 9-5 day that I was hoping wouldn't be too strenuous or difficult. And luckily the story I was on wasn't strenuous or difficult - I was on a story about how Southampton is going to become a dementia friendly city, we got a really good interview and then we spent a casual afternoon writing copy and editing the interview and sourcing pictures. Pretty chill.
Thursday and Friday I had two full days at work (bearing in mind I usually only work four hours a week, so it really knocked it out of me), Thursday evening I was still working at Sonar and Friday evening my boyfriend and I made pizza for dinner and it was really fun but I needed another early night.
Saturday morning was another early start because I went to a Family Orchestra Workshop just outside Southampton city centre to film, take photos and do a few interviews for my first assignment package. I now have over a week to edit it all together and that makes me very happy.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are going to be my chill days - I'm still getting over whatever this illness is and I'm very excited to have the rest of the weekend to recover a little bit before a manic day again on Monday.
Next week is set to be another really manic week with my new Monday with a changed timetable, hopefully I'll see the end of this illness and I've got my first dance competition at the weekend!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Sunday, 5 February 2017
Week 14: We got a house!
Let's just jump into this, because I'm actually quite ill right now and I know it's a day late (will try and get back to Saturday uploads, sorry!) so I'll just start with Monday.
Monday is my busiest day at uni - I went in for my 9am however my tutor wasn't going to be there till later but we got some extra work done before she showed up and then I had to leave a bit early to go to a house viewing. We'd been to a viewing on Friday of a house that we loved but we just wanted to check this house to see if it could compare to the one we'd seen but we all left the viewing on Monday saying we were going to apply for the one we saw before (trying to describe this without giving the addresses is proving difficult!) and by Thursday we'd finished the application for the house and on Saturday we were told the landlord wants to proceed with the application and we paid our deposit so we're just waiting for the house to come off the market now.
So after that viewing, I went back to uni for my music lecture and seminar - still super creeped out by my lecturer, this week on 'what did he do now?': telling us about how he and Chris Martin of Coldplay talked about losing their virginity... I don't want to know.
And after this seminar I had to make a visit to the council for a news day story and it was mostly a waste of time but I did it. I then went to Asda and did a weeks shop and then I had to rush dinner before I went to dance and I was very tired. I was emotionally drained and felt like the whole day was awful even though we started the process of applying for a gorgeous house and I am excited about it but I wasn't on Monday.
Tuesday saw the return of Mettricks mornings - 10am I was ready and working and I struggled a little with focusing and getting things done but I got something done and that's better than nothing, I then took a little walk to get the rest of the footage for the news day story I was working on, I had uni at 4, dance at 6 and I really wanted an early night but I don't think I got one.
Wednesday was my first live news day of the semester and it wasn't too bad - we were given a story about how the Northern lights won't be visible from the UK by 2050... Yeah, I didn't know you could see the Northern lights from the UK either. But we managed to make it a story about how global warming is effecting a lot of the worlds most beautiful natural phenomenons and you can read that here if you're interested!
On Thursday I was working from 11-3, I went to drop off the last of our house application at the letting agents and then I walked a very long way to my dads hotel and spent the afternoon with my dad and then I was at Sonar Film and finally saw La La Land, I wrote a full review on my personal blog if you're interested! La La Land review
Friday I went to Sainsburys with my dad and he bought me shopping (yay) and then we picked up the boys (how I refer to my flatmates) and we all went for lunch and then I went home for a nap, then we went and met my dad for dinner and then we went to the pub and then I went home.
Friday was the day I really started feeling really ill, I kept getting stomach cramps and I felt really tired and week and this only got worse.
I barely slept that nice, I was up 9 times in the night because I was in so much pain and I felt horrific. I tried to spend more time with my dad on Saturday but he could tell, I knew, everyone knew that I wasn't in the right space to be out of bed. So he dropped me back at home and I collapsed back in bed, I called in sick to work on Sunday because I knew I couldn't rely on my health for the next day and called the day a write off.
And today (Sunday), I am actually feeling a lot better - I slept through most of the night last night and I'm not as completely knocked out today but I definitely wouldn't have made it at work today and I'm very, very grateful for the day off.
Hopefully today will be the last day of whatever it is I've got and I can kick off next week with a bang, but having our house application approved was definitely a nice positive to make up for the end of the end of this week!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Monday is my busiest day at uni - I went in for my 9am however my tutor wasn't going to be there till later but we got some extra work done before she showed up and then I had to leave a bit early to go to a house viewing. We'd been to a viewing on Friday of a house that we loved but we just wanted to check this house to see if it could compare to the one we'd seen but we all left the viewing on Monday saying we were going to apply for the one we saw before (trying to describe this without giving the addresses is proving difficult!) and by Thursday we'd finished the application for the house and on Saturday we were told the landlord wants to proceed with the application and we paid our deposit so we're just waiting for the house to come off the market now.
So after that viewing, I went back to uni for my music lecture and seminar - still super creeped out by my lecturer, this week on 'what did he do now?': telling us about how he and Chris Martin of Coldplay talked about losing their virginity... I don't want to know.
And after this seminar I had to make a visit to the council for a news day story and it was mostly a waste of time but I did it. I then went to Asda and did a weeks shop and then I had to rush dinner before I went to dance and I was very tired. I was emotionally drained and felt like the whole day was awful even though we started the process of applying for a gorgeous house and I am excited about it but I wasn't on Monday.
Tuesday saw the return of Mettricks mornings - 10am I was ready and working and I struggled a little with focusing and getting things done but I got something done and that's better than nothing, I then took a little walk to get the rest of the footage for the news day story I was working on, I had uni at 4, dance at 6 and I really wanted an early night but I don't think I got one.
Wednesday was my first live news day of the semester and it wasn't too bad - we were given a story about how the Northern lights won't be visible from the UK by 2050... Yeah, I didn't know you could see the Northern lights from the UK either. But we managed to make it a story about how global warming is effecting a lot of the worlds most beautiful natural phenomenons and you can read that here if you're interested!
On Thursday I was working from 11-3, I went to drop off the last of our house application at the letting agents and then I walked a very long way to my dads hotel and spent the afternoon with my dad and then I was at Sonar Film and finally saw La La Land, I wrote a full review on my personal blog if you're interested! La La Land review
Friday I went to Sainsburys with my dad and he bought me shopping (yay) and then we picked up the boys (how I refer to my flatmates) and we all went for lunch and then I went home for a nap, then we went and met my dad for dinner and then we went to the pub and then I went home.
Friday was the day I really started feeling really ill, I kept getting stomach cramps and I felt really tired and week and this only got worse.
I barely slept that nice, I was up 9 times in the night because I was in so much pain and I felt horrific. I tried to spend more time with my dad on Saturday but he could tell, I knew, everyone knew that I wasn't in the right space to be out of bed. So he dropped me back at home and I collapsed back in bed, I called in sick to work on Sunday because I knew I couldn't rely on my health for the next day and called the day a write off.
And today (Sunday), I am actually feeling a lot better - I slept through most of the night last night and I'm not as completely knocked out today but I definitely wouldn't have made it at work today and I'm very, very grateful for the day off.
Hopefully today will be the last day of whatever it is I've got and I can kick off next week with a bang, but having our house application approved was definitely a nice positive to make up for the end of the end of this week!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Week 13: I've finally got something to do!
So it's been a good month or so since I wrote one of these posts! And for the first time in a while, it's not because I'm running super behind or I forgot about it, I just had a really long Christmas break.
Let's have a catch up - at uni last semester I did three units, Concept to Commission, Producing the Package and Who's the Boss. I've now finished those three units and I ended up with a 1st and two 2:1s overall so I'm very happy and now I"m starting three brand new units, a compulsory one called Production and Content Management (which is a continuation of Producing the Package) then my two optional units that I chose, which are Lifestyle PR and Music Journalism. Now we're all up to speed!
The other piece of news I have is that on January 13th I was offered a two week work experience placement with BBC Three! I'm still waiting for HR to get in contact with me and provide more details but it's all very exciting and I wanted to share (I'll be sure to document it here or on my personal blog sophiecountsclouds).
So let's get in to my first week back at uni!
Monday is my busiest day for seminars, with both of my new units on those days - first was Lifestyle PR which was brilliant, PR is definitely an industry I'd love to get into in the future and I'm really excited that my assignments involve presenting a PR campaign and designing a press pack. My group are doing a campaign based on a new hotel resort opening in the Maldives so I get to write and make content regarding travel as well, which is really fun.
Music Journalism I'm in two minds about - the assignments and the unit itself seems fine but the lecturer is so creepy. In our first lesson he gave off the impression that he loves Donald Trump and teenage girls, he refers to his pseudonym as a separate person, he swears all the time and he was talking to us about when he lost his virginity and it all just feels a bit inappropriate. I'm focusing on the assignments - which are an assessment report (analysing the work of three critics and comparing them to each other, to my understanding) and producing a portfolio of music journalism content.
Then Tuesday was actually my boyfriend's birthday, so I spent the morning with him as I'm not in uni for Production and Content Management until 4pm (in future, most Tuesday mornings will be spent in my favourite cafe doing work, just like now when I'm writing this post).
Production and Content Management is fine - the lecturer is absolutely brilliant and I'm really motivated to keep improving as I started to at the end of last semester so I'm not worried about this unit.
Wednesday was the only kind of 'chilled' Wednesday I'm going to have for a long time - it was a News Day planning day, so we were given stories to work on before a live News Day next week and eight more live News Days in the weeks after that.
This week I get to do a story about how bin collections might be changing from weekly to fortnightly and students aren't happy about it. I volunteered to do the video and pictures on this story so I'll include a link to the story when it goes live in next weeks post.
I'm very lucky this semester in that I get a four day weekend and I'm using this to the best of my ability - at the moment, I'm trying to organise and secure a house for the next academic year so I spent the end of the week at house viewings, I did a couple of home workouts and I was baking for the little birthday party we were having for my boyfriend on Thursday evening, alongside doing a few bits and bobs of uni work in the odd hour or two I had spare.
And then the weekend I was working - I have a job now! It's in the clothing store Saltrock and so far I'm really enjoying it and it's nice to have a little extra money coming in, especially when my money situation is so tight at the moment.
I also uploaded a new cover to my YouTube channel - I've been making weekly content again for four weeks consecutively now so if you'd like to have a look at my YouTube channel it would mean a lot!
My amazing friend Nikki also wrote a post on my student blog 'The Student Seat', called '10 Ways to Help Your Mental Wellness' and it's brilliant so I thoroughly recommend giving that a read!
Today, I've just uploaded a blog post called 'top 4 tips for starting a health kick' because of the diet I finally got myself on so I'd recommend that too, but I may be a bit biased.
These posts will go back to being uploaded on a Saturday from now, with being back at uni, haven't lots of dance training, a job and a fairly busy schedule I need to manage my time to the best of my ability but with starting a bullet journal this year I'm finding ways to make this as easy as I can for me.
I'm excited for second year and can't wait to see if it ends as brilliantly as it started!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
Let's have a catch up - at uni last semester I did three units, Concept to Commission, Producing the Package and Who's the Boss. I've now finished those three units and I ended up with a 1st and two 2:1s overall so I'm very happy and now I"m starting three brand new units, a compulsory one called Production and Content Management (which is a continuation of Producing the Package) then my two optional units that I chose, which are Lifestyle PR and Music Journalism. Now we're all up to speed!
The other piece of news I have is that on January 13th I was offered a two week work experience placement with BBC Three! I'm still waiting for HR to get in contact with me and provide more details but it's all very exciting and I wanted to share (I'll be sure to document it here or on my personal blog sophiecountsclouds).
So let's get in to my first week back at uni!
Monday is my busiest day for seminars, with both of my new units on those days - first was Lifestyle PR which was brilliant, PR is definitely an industry I'd love to get into in the future and I'm really excited that my assignments involve presenting a PR campaign and designing a press pack. My group are doing a campaign based on a new hotel resort opening in the Maldives so I get to write and make content regarding travel as well, which is really fun.
Music Journalism I'm in two minds about - the assignments and the unit itself seems fine but the lecturer is so creepy. In our first lesson he gave off the impression that he loves Donald Trump and teenage girls, he refers to his pseudonym as a separate person, he swears all the time and he was talking to us about when he lost his virginity and it all just feels a bit inappropriate. I'm focusing on the assignments - which are an assessment report (analysing the work of three critics and comparing them to each other, to my understanding) and producing a portfolio of music journalism content.
Then Tuesday was actually my boyfriend's birthday, so I spent the morning with him as I'm not in uni for Production and Content Management until 4pm (in future, most Tuesday mornings will be spent in my favourite cafe doing work, just like now when I'm writing this post).
Production and Content Management is fine - the lecturer is absolutely brilliant and I'm really motivated to keep improving as I started to at the end of last semester so I'm not worried about this unit.
Wednesday was the only kind of 'chilled' Wednesday I'm going to have for a long time - it was a News Day planning day, so we were given stories to work on before a live News Day next week and eight more live News Days in the weeks after that.
This week I get to do a story about how bin collections might be changing from weekly to fortnightly and students aren't happy about it. I volunteered to do the video and pictures on this story so I'll include a link to the story when it goes live in next weeks post.
I'm very lucky this semester in that I get a four day weekend and I'm using this to the best of my ability - at the moment, I'm trying to organise and secure a house for the next academic year so I spent the end of the week at house viewings, I did a couple of home workouts and I was baking for the little birthday party we were having for my boyfriend on Thursday evening, alongside doing a few bits and bobs of uni work in the odd hour or two I had spare.
And then the weekend I was working - I have a job now! It's in the clothing store Saltrock and so far I'm really enjoying it and it's nice to have a little extra money coming in, especially when my money situation is so tight at the moment.
I also uploaded a new cover to my YouTube channel - I've been making weekly content again for four weeks consecutively now so if you'd like to have a look at my YouTube channel it would mean a lot!
My amazing friend Nikki also wrote a post on my student blog 'The Student Seat', called '10 Ways to Help Your Mental Wellness' and it's brilliant so I thoroughly recommend giving that a read!
Today, I've just uploaded a blog post called 'top 4 tips for starting a health kick' because of the diet I finally got myself on so I'd recommend that too, but I may be a bit biased.
These posts will go back to being uploaded on a Saturday from now, with being back at uni, haven't lots of dance training, a job and a fairly busy schedule I need to manage my time to the best of my ability but with starting a bullet journal this year I'm finding ways to make this as easy as I can for me.
I'm excited for second year and can't wait to see if it ends as brilliantly as it started!
Personal blog: sophiecountsclouds.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/
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