Cheerio, old chap. Brandt Leeds here; currently in Bournemouth, England. I’m studying Film Production at the Arts University College.
Bournemouth Station
My family came along for a vacation. This is my little brother, Brennan.
Technically in Poole, Dorset (just inside Poole’s city line), AUCB is an art university that is located on the southern coast of the United Kingdom, complete with sandy beaches and magnificent cliffs that look out to sea.
The beach at Bournemouth Town Center.
Oceanarium at the beach.
I’ve been at the University for three weeks, a fortnight of which was an induction period to get acquainted with the other international and film students. The first week I met students from all over the world who are studying many different forms of art at AUCB: fine art, graphic design, costume design, digital media, performance make-up, acting, film, photography, etc.
We went on a trip to the Jurassic Coast, where countless fossils have been found from that period. It was quite beautiful.
The group looking into a rock quarry.
The sea.
The group on top of a cave.
An inlet.
High up.
A lot of my international friends live in East House. Many of them are Norwegian. Don’t ask me why.
East House partay.
I was put in the West House, which mostly contains students that started classes a couple of weeks before I arrived. They are a part of the “foundation” curriculum and will be exposed to many different art forms, with the ultimate goal of deciding on a specific major at the end of the year.
The rooms are small but cozy… I don’t have to share it or a bathroom with anyone else, which is nice.
My room.
The shower is definitely different from home, though:
Pull cord to activate.
Other differences that were blatantly obvious:
• There are eight coins that are regularly used. The one and two pound coins are taking some getting used to:
1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2
• The (clothing) washing machines are near/under the kitchen sink:
Crazy talk.
• Clubs and parties:
Will it float?
During the second week I met a lot of the film students that were from the UK and our professors.
Film student social.
We’ve been slowly easing into the film curriculum, starting with the “One Still” project. The “One Still” is a picture that each student takes, planning for it to be the last storyboard of a twelve-to-fifteen-shot silent short film based on the words “arrival” or “departure.”
Mine was about a kid who chooses drugs over important things, choosing to depart from his problems:
My friend Francesco from Italy.
Eh, cheesy, I know. My group, Group F, ended up choosing this picture to develop a story from:
Girl on the beach.
Group F is now in the process of coming up with a simple story idea that will result in this picture being at the end of the film. Generally, the short needs to be around a minute and a half.
We will shoot on a Bolex H16 and will have roughly 100 feet of 16mm film to work with. Time-wise, that’s about 2 minutes of film. There will be no second takes.
Interesting tidbit — The Bolex is hand-cranked. With each full crank, the motor will run for about 25 seconds. The camera:
Ours has three lenses.
Once we convert the film to digital, I’ll upload the finished product.
I’m also taking a black-and-white photography class one night per week. We just developed our first negatives last night and will print them in the next class. I’ll upload the photos as well.
I’m really enjoying myself here. It’s much different… It’s a lot of fun getting to explore a new continent.
More to come.
Brandt