I think in first semester we did...
analysing documentaries where we'd make like...
We learnt more about sound
and the different elements of filmmaking.
Yeah, I guess the seminar tasks that we had given each week
where we had to...
You get given like a small task and you basically have
full creative freedom on what you then do.
Usually like a short 1 minute 30 second thing.
And, although at the time you're kind of like...
they don't seem that significant, it's more about the skills
that you're learning which you then do apply at the end of the year
on your bigger projects.
I think for Stage Two my favourite module is
Gareth's...
identity module, that module.
Because each week he taught us a very heavy
theoretical issue.
We also did Film Theory in first semester and I really...
And then we went on to do it again in second semester
and I really loved that module because we did more fiction films
and learnt about that.
I think that module opens up the way for me to
inspect the world around me and unpack the...
the issues that are happening right now using those heavy theories.
Well, I did the semester abroad in Stage 2
so I went to Lillehammer in Norway for five or six months
and kind of had the best time ever.
And would really really recommend it to anyone else.
And then going into second semester
I really liked the two practical modules there.
I had quite a few challenges making those films
but it was a great learning experience
and definitely carried me forward to third year and gave me some
yeah, really valuable experiences to build on in future.
In Stage Two, I made a film about a beauty salon
in Newcastle city centre. I think the task was to make...
I think we all got given a timeslot from...
sunrise to sunset. I think mine was early evening.
And it had to be about Newcastle in some description
and that was the brief, basically.
So complete freedom on that. Yeah, we chose the beauty salon
to look at, sort of, the Geordie culture but it ended up to be
more about, sort of like identity...
of the self rather than of Newcastle.
Ideas to Screen...
I think the main thing that's really good about Ideas to Screen is the
the idea that you can pick
pretty much any subject you want.
You've got quite a blank, creative licence to...
make a film of your choice.
They let us...
experiment more with doc... non-fiction films
instead of just normal documentary
so it's more artistic and abstract so
yeah, I quite enjoyed that new module, yeah.
We got put in teams where you're each...
I was director producer. We had a cinematographer
a sound person, an editor...
And it's cool working in a team
because although you're in that role you do get...
to do all of the jobs and you need to
because sometimes someone won't be able to make a shoot
sometimes you have to film
because someone else won't be able to.
I really learnt a lot about...
filmmaking and learnt a lot from my mistakes that I made in films...
previously.
Like I really learnt about patience and...
I learnt how to...
film sound as well which I hadn't done before.
And then the highlight was definitely just learning lots of
different ways of looking at film and different ways
of looking at cinema and, more than anything
that encourages you to think differently
in your own filmmaking and think about
different ways of applying what you've learned and different ways
of thinking about things so whether that's starting right at the beginning
with Eisenstein Soviet film theory and Pudovkin
and thinking about ways of cutting images together
and the meaning that that conveys.
Or whether it's thinking about post-modernist
or even cognitive filmmakers who are
really interested in narrative and ways of bending narratives
and shifting time and chronology to
make films more interesting and
different and just have a different perspective on cinema
and what it means to make a film.
I really liked the experimental films because you could see
the different avenues that everyone was interested in
and it was kind of an opportunity for everyone to kind of
go or find the direction that they wanted to follow.