Finished Christmas temping.

Finished my last shift at Boots this afternoon, the hours flew by quickly.  Christmas is over but there were still an overwhelming amount of customers - all hoping to bag a sale bargain though most of our shelves are bare.

We temporary workers received a Boots 'goodie bag' at the end of our final shifts, a really thoughtful gesture, the perfume, make up and nail varnish much appreciated.


It was a little sad when handing over my locker key and discount card, but we all kept our red shirts and identity badges.

I've already asked to be considered for any future temporary work - fingers crossed :)...

College 'Prize Giving' evening.

Just got back from my college 'Prize Giving' ceremony for 2012-2013 achievements.  Sadly quite a few of the old A2's couldn't attend as most were still away at university.

Receiving my award from Mr Ryder - our college Principal.

I had a really good time tonight, it was nice being there with my family, friends and tutors, but best of all I won a prize for excellent work and effort during my AS Media Studies - YES!! :)

2012-2013 AS and A2 students.

Christmas Temping...

I can't believe I'm over halfway through my Boot's Christmas job.  It's kept me busy every weekend, what with stock movement, stacking shelves and running for 'on line orders'.  Till work is a blur sometimes with the huge amount of Christmas shoppers, but the day passes quickly.  I've met some lovely people, both customers and staff and can honestly say I will miss working at Boots when my contract ends :(.

Every shift brings a challenge, most people are patient with me when I juggle cards, money, vouchers and 'Boot's points' at the till, quite a lot laugh when I can't seem to get the knack of separating, never mind opening, the plastic shopping bags... :)  I'm confident I've got the hang of most things, which is great because now I have more time to help and chat with customers.





Children with their parents are my favourites, it's really cute how excited the kids get when passing me mum's money and card.




Best of all their eyes light up when I give them the shopping bag (making sure it's not too heavy of course - some of these kids can barely see over the counter) and then they reward me with a big smile :).

I also like helping elderly customers choose Christmas presents for their grandchildren.  They appreciate the product advice I give them - based on my own experiences. Feels good knowing I'm helping people.

Running for 'Bloom'.

I recently received an e-mail from Rob, 'Sic-Infit' films, requesting all the crew and cast get together in January 2014 to discuss our new film - 'Bloom', plus run through any thoughts and ideas.  I'm looking forward to meeting up with everyone again and being introduced to new members of the team.  I'm also getting excited about filming 'Bloom' as it's quite a dark, mysterious story, so I anticipate a challenge and hard work ahead.

Rob, our producer/director has already sent out 'call sheets' for filming in January - he likes to keep everyone informed so we can organise our own work schedules.  After the 'get together' as film 'Runner' I'm expecting to put in a lot of research, use my initiative and imagination when finding appropriate props and costumes. The film location is easy enough as the story is set inside a house, which I think Rob has already organised :).

Here is one of Rob's call sheets - looks like we are all going to be busy over the January weekend...

AS Media Blog = 'Example' for new students

I was talking to a fellow Media student from our college AS year today, she told me that my old AS Media blog is posted on the college 'Learning Box' website as example' material for the new students.

I must admit I was really pleased and a little flattered when hearing this, especially when she told me she regularly views my old blog and finds it helpful when making her own :).

Making our zombie film trailer

After many months of preparation, arguing, and discussion, my Media group (myself, Aimee B and Amy J) and I are finally cracking on with filming our zombie trailer :). This group work, plus individual blog and magazine cover is for our A2 Media Studies unit 3.

With Christmas fast approaching by the time college is over it's dark outside.  We needed to film some daylight scenes, so yesterday our Media teacher kindly let us film during lesson time.

Here we are in the children's playground in a nearby park.  I wanted to film an eerie and empty scene, with swings moving on their own.  The idea is to make our film trailer audience realise something is wrong - where are the children, why is everywhere empty, what's happened ????

Gemma, our film trailer protagonist, came into college today and during our lunch break I styled her hair and gave her some cuts and bruises - not real ones -  I like Gemma :)...

Amiee and Amy prepared our film equipment and some of the props.

Here we are shooting some early trailer' scenes in our college library and wash room.

This was the best part of today... we decided to shoot a scene in subway tunnel - it was quite a spooky atmosphere and sound echoed.  Here we have Gemma in front of the camera and I'm the creepy looking figure right in the background - here was my chance to act like a zombie :).

Here I've suddenly appeared (in zombie mode) behind Gemma, where she turns round quickly, see's me and screams - however as you can see things didn't go to plan in this shot :)...

More of our filming exploits can be found in this following link A2 Media Blog.

Employment.

"Please no photo's, I'm tired..."

Completed my first working weekend yesterday :).  I'm now employed by my local 'Boots' as a temporary Christmas worker. 'Boots the Chemist'. I was really scared my first morning, but everyone was nice and the manageress showed me all around the store and helped me with some training.  After lunch I started work on the checkout - I'm getting the hang of things and my confidence is already improving when helping and talking to customers.







Later on in the day I was left alone to help replenish shelf stock - didn't realise 'Soap & Glory' had so many beauty products!  I'm starting to think that working for Boots with all the lovely perfumes and make-up etc will mean I'll be spending my wages before I've even earn't them ...

Thought I'd add some free advertsing...

I don't have to go back into work until next Saturday, phew... although my manageress said my hours will steadily increase when it gets nearer to Christmas and I'm on my college holidays.

Further A2 Fine Art and Graphics journal pages

I've had to crack on and complete my Fine Art and Graphics journal pages because now we have to move on to our final project development.

A2 unit 3 Fine Art journal pages.

Inspired by 'City Life'...

City themed collage.

Collage created with items collected during college London trip.

Had to include collages representing Manchester! :)

Altered photograph images of Manchester, using stitching, bleaching, burning, scratching, sticky tape and cloth transfer techniques.

 A2 unit 3 Graphics journal pages.

 Inspired by events that took place during my college trip to London.

Travelling down to Euston.

London underground experience.

London college trip to the 'British Board of Film Classifications' centre.

We enjoyed a cultural evening watching the musical 'The Lion King' at the Lyceum Theatre.

Zombified!!!!!!

Practised applying zombie make-up tonight for my Media Studies film trailer.  Scared my mum to death when she saw me :), don't know what's up with her...?

More of my Zombified photos are on my current A2 Media Blog.

A2 Fine Art and Graphics

Got lots of A2 work to do, here's some samples of my Fine Art and Graphics so far...  Interestingly both courses require we 'collage' our summer holiday experiences and our London trip.  This is brilliant for me because I love this style of work :) :).

Links to my AS and A2 Media Studies work can be found within this blog.

Fine Art  multi-media collage.

Teesha Moore introduction for Fine Art.

Fine Art 'city' collage using photograph printing techniques.

Fine Art collage of rainy Manchester street using coloured paper and acrylic paints.

Graphics collage representing Manchester School of Art graduate exhibitions.

Graphics collage representing Manchester Metropolitan university open day.

Graphics collage representing Salford university's Media City open day.

Graphics collage using mixed media, representing a Manchester shopping trip.

Not had a chance to work on London themed collages yet, will post these later.

Film Running...

I don't mind admitting but I'm really tired now, it's been a really busy week what with my earlier London trip with college and Film Running.

Late on in the college holidays I contacted and met up (together with my mum) with a local guy called Rob who's seriously looking to set up, direct and film a short story he had written together with Kym - the leading actress in their film called 'The Empire'.

To start everything off I had to find a location suitable for a small nightclub scene - thankfully I managed to secure a pub venue for the Sunday morning shoot, but most time consuming of all I've had to source and locate props for the film - not an easy task but Rob and Kym were very happy with my efforts :).

Anyway, filming took place in and around Manchester last weekend right after my return from London :(.  I had to help set up equipment, move furniture, make all props readily available, make sure things ran smoothly as directed on the call sheet and when filming took place I helped out as script supervisor.  Not to mention being the 'go-fer' for coffee and food etc...

Call Sheet for 1st day of filming.

We (Rob's team) managed to complete filming as per the schedule - which made Rob happy, I had a fantastic and interesting time but I'm really glad it's over... until the next time that is...........:):)

Used my film running experience to create a Graphics 'collage' journal page.

Even though film running was really stressful it was also exciting and great to be part of a team helping to create something.  I'd recommend 'running' to anyone interested in Media work.

Trip to London :)

Just a few lines, mainly photographs, to tell you a little bit about my college trip to London.  Only arrived back this late afternoon so still feeling a bit 'train lagged' :).

Needless to say I had a brilliant time in London, never done so much walking and sight seeing but we managed to cram in lots of educational stuff too....honest ;)

The trip was arranged by my Graphics, Fine Art and Media Studies college tutors. After an early meet Wednesday morning outside Platform 1, Piccadilly train station, several struggles to fit large suitcases into tiny compartments :), shrieks of 'where we sitting', 'can I swap places' and 'I wanted the window' we set off via Virgin train and arrived at Euston for lunchtime.

In a nutshell, my group visited Leicester Square, where the film launches/red carpet events are held, the 'Saatchi Art Gallery', the 'Paper' exhibition was really fascinating, the 'British Film Museum' - where we learnt all about how films are viewed then 'certificated', i.e. 12a & 18 years etc, so that younger people are not allowed to view films that are unsuitable for their age.  The 'London Film Museum' was also really interesting viewing, looking at original costumes worn in popular movies, I was particularly interested in the 'horror' department and their make up special effects - this will help me with my A2 Media Studies film trailer about 'zombies' :).

We all went out for a group meal, got high on chocolate in M & M world, took in a musical (like you do) - 'The Lion King', almost front row seats :), wandered round Covent Garden, viewed the street art around Brick Lane and Whitechapel, experienced the tube crush and very best of all went to the 'London Dungeons' - which was 'v' scary, especially at the end but educational - of course :)...Learn't all about the Black Plague, Jack the Ripper, Sweeny Todd the odd torture technique or 2 - hasn't affected me at all...

Had a brilliant time, was nice to spend a couple of nights away from home - except for Amy's snoring :), would love to go to London again soon.