Working In Spain

As the prospects website says “it’s currently very difficult to find graduate work in Spain”. I am fully aware of that fact but as I will probably be having my Leonardo Da Vinci EU Work Placement in Madrid I have to delve deeper to dig up where the jobs might be.

One way that I haven been keeping in touch with the Spanish media industry is through a networking site called Cinemavip. Jobs, festivals, castings, competitions and collaborations are continuously posted up there and sent to me via an email bulletin, it’s very useful.

Also, I’m signed up to most of the job vacancy websites listed here so that employers can find my CV and I can search for vacancies. To be honest though it hasn’t proven to be very succesful so far. Either my CV is lacking a few things or the job offers are just not being advertised online.

In conclusion, my best chance is to go on the EU Work Placement and make enough contacts so that I can find a job at the end of it. I will be looking for work again in the UK when I come back from my placement. The first few port of calls will be the prospects, mandy, talent circle, shooting people and bbc-jobs websites. Also The Guardian on thursdays advertises jobs in the media.

If after all of that I don’t make a succesful entry into the media and film industries, I will start to resort to my alternative plans mentioned in previous posts.

The Missing Atom Production Company

Under the recommendation of Sha Masood and George McCluskey from our Better With Beer production Myself and Mark Cooper have begun forming our own production company.

We already have a website for our Better With Beerproduction that has been a very successful networking tool. The actors explained that it was one of the main reasons they took the project seriously and became interested. In the future we will include a trailer of the film, production stills, credits and much more. Then we will start to search for Sponsors to help us enter festivals and competitions and maybe fund future projects. However, in order to find certain types of funding it’s much better to apply as a production company and not as a couple of individuals. So at the moment we are creating the designs, ident and web page for The Missing Atom Production Company.

We will be looking to expand the number of members of the company. Already, we have sent messages out to students of the University through Harminder Kunner looking for specialists such as audio technicians, music composers and 3D designers that wish to get involved with us.

The reasons for the name are varied as our brainstorming sessions took us on a voyage of invention and self discovery. Symbolisms such as the alienation of our youth and our passion for skepticism and knowledge of the universe are quietly present. Yet the main reason is that it is a catchy name that makes for an excellent logo and ident.

Leonardo Da Vinci EU Work Placement Scheme

Leonardo Da Vinci EU Work Placement Scheme
The funding in order to go to whale watching in the Canary Islands actually comes from the Leonardo Da Vinci programme. For more specific information about the programme itself please visit the Leonardo/Erasmus Scheme section in the CU Portal under the Careers and Employability Service page.

Most of my progress and thoughts on this project I have carried out on paper so I am writing this post in retrospective.

It all started in December 2008 when I went to the information session in the Goldstein Theatre in the Alan Berry building. I knew that this was the programme a couple of my colleagues had used to go to the Canary Islands on a Sea Life recording project the year before. I also knew about the Erasmus schemes from the experiences from people in Spain where its a lot more popular. Unfortunately, I was a year too late to go on an Erasmus exchange because I am final year student.

The talk was very enlightening and I was very impressed. The opportunity to gain support with finding a work placement in any European country with the Leonardo Da Vinci Scheme is too good to be missed. I began making my plans, discussing them with friends and family and they all agreed it was very good. My tutors offered their support as well.

In order to get onto the programme I had to go through an application progress which I wanted to do as quick as possible in order to find a film production in the summer I could join. My focus for the work placement was to find a large film production company where I might be able to find paid work at the end of the placement, or at least gain valuable skills. For more details on the research I conducted and my intentions please read my Leonardo application. The research of the companies I carried out myself by ringing them and via the internet. There is also a copy of my current CV.

I had help with building my CV from one of the careers officers in the student centre. It was extremely useful to speak to her and we have kept in touch via email.

One result of the research I conducted was that I needn’t rush to get a placement on a summer production as they are organised almost on a last minute basis once their funding has been acquired. So I could take my time to build up my portfolio which is waiting for my final project called Better With Beer and finish my degree.

My application for the Leonardo Scheme was successful after having an interview with one of the coordinators, Jean Bernard Adrey. I had to present him with the research I had conducted and the plans that I had for the future. He was very impressed with my enthusiasm and method of working and congratulated me.

Yesterday, we had another talk in the Goldstein Theatre about how we should progress with the programme. For specific details visit their section in the CU Portal where you can find all the materials and powerpoints from the talks. The conclusion that I came too was that once I have finished my film and included it in my portfolio I will ring the production companies again, conduct some futher investigation and establish the best possible placement.

Update on Language Through Lenses Competitions

I managed to enter the Language Through Lenses Competition held by the European League of the Institue of the Arts  in time but I was not selected for the next phase. Looking back upon the work I submitted (which you can download the Zip file of here and read more about it in the Research and Development Category) I realise that the project was rushed and could have been polished a lot more in order to impress the judges. However it was an exciting opportunity and I have learnt a lot from it. Even though they didn’t really give me much feedback back, just the process of organising my creative thoughts and trying to portray them across was very enlightening for me. I look forward to doing it again in the future, and probably better!

In fact the ELIA are currently running another competition. This time it’s a chance to showcase our work at the Neu/Now Arts Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania. The online application portal should have opened on the 15th of April as stated in an email they sent me but for some reason it hasn’t gone live yet. This led to me being embarrassed in front of Steve Dawkins after asking for his support with the application (it is a requirement for the applicant to be put forward by the University) and him not being able to do so because we couldn’t access the forms. The deadline is the 10th of June now but Steve warns me that he has little time. We receive a £5000 grant in order to attend the festival from the ELIA so I will make sure that we enter the competition one way or another. The project that I am submitting is the Better With Beer production.

Update on teaching English in Malaysia

I have been in contact via email with the person in charge of the English Language project at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia http://www.utm.my/ . They are still running the project and will be for some time. All I have to do is send them a suitable email with my CV.  As they are looking for graduates, I don’t need to be a current student at Coventry University to join them. Therefore I am leaving this project as another plan B for the future.

To build upon my skills and CV I have applied to join the Training for Trainers project that the Leonardo Da Vinci programme is offering in order to gain language teaching qualifications and hopefully I will be imparting Spanish language classes in June. I enjoy language teaching and I have always considered it as a career path since I am bilingual.

ELIA SHORT: MELISA

This is the finalised and aproved script for the ELIA competition. It is 3 minutes in length and influenced by the videos in the research post and Amelie. I am very ilusioned with this project and it would me amazing if it gets comissioned.

Melisa

          INT.CAFETERIA, SPAIN

          A quiet young woman named Melisa is working away serving
          tables and making hot drinks.

          Jesus, a male student who is there drinking coffee and studying,
          is object of her fixation.

          She imagines herself chatting to him, falling in love, meeting
          his parents, starting a family…
          This is portrayed in animated images of them on the
          breakfast menu she is reading, as if she could order it from
          the kitchen

          …But before she gets the chance to round up the courage to
          speak to him, he’s gone.

                                                    DIP TO BLACK
          INT.CAFETERIA, SPAIN

          Melisa is feeling brave and chance has given her another opportunity
          to speak to him.

          As she approaches him she notices he writes in Greek and
          stops dead in her tracks.

                              MELISA
                    Hablas Español?

          Jesus shakes his head from side to side smiling apologetically.
          She quickly thinks up a plan and jots down a time and place
          in the order book, rips out a page and leaves it on the
          table.

                              JESUS
                    Gracias?

          She walks away as he reads the note. A name of a park, a time
          and a date. He looks at her getting busy again working and
          they exchange shy smiles.

          INT. BEDROOM MONTAGE SEQUENCE

          Melisa is going to learn his language as quickly as she can.
          By using books, interactive language programs, internet
          websites, listening to audio-tapes and watching subtitled
          films she gets ready for the date. Even on the day she takes a
          translation dictionary with her.

          EXT. PARK

          Anxiously she paces up and down the street waiting for him
          and wondering whether he will turn up.

          She begins to confuse other men in the distance with him and starts
          to become disillusioned.

          He is hiding behind a wall. Nervously reading his dictionary and
          rehearsing Spanish. Just as she starts to walk away he
          finally rounds up the courage and strides towards her.

          As they great each other awkwardly they notice they’re both carrying
          the same dictionary and can’t avoid smiling and laughing. As
          they become quiet again Melisa latches onto his arm and they
          walk together into the park.

ELIA Project – Love Story

This is an example of the research I’m doing for the ELIA project. Seeing as my project is a non dialog short film, I wanted to see how other directors have made things similar.

I thought it was a semi-interesting concept. Obviously a good plug for Schweppes (the main sponsors I imagine), very light hearted and non critical. Interesting use of music however I much prefer the following video for sound. Noodles has a very rich sound scape and uses music very sparingly and purposefully.