Enterprise "Life's a Pitch"

Well I haven’t updated this blog in a while, less director of awesome and more like director of boredom. Quick update for you all, I am now in the final year of study for my media course at Birmingham City University, exciting times for one and all but  believe me the work load is building up by the day. Big thing I would like to talk about today is my future business plans, my dastardly scheme to make lots of money and buy that helicopter I always wanted.

Since I have been toying with the idea of becoming a freelance screen writer I thought perhaps the best thing to do would be to make it into a business or at least as close to a business as possible. My plan is to build an online emporium of short story scripts that anyone can download for free, not only will they get the script but also a rundown of the resources and budget they will need. I am gearing it towards other media students who want to have a crack at producing something privately or for actual work. A bi product of this is the building up of a reputation and notoriety, getting me noticed in the industry and hopefully landing me with some individuals willing to pay to use my best scripts.

That’s the idea anyway, whether or not it turns out like I just said is up to me and whatever comes round the next bend. I feel that the idea is solid enough, it may not be a big earner but as an advertising tool it could be most productive. When I canvassed some college graduates who went on to university they said they could have done with that when they were struggling to come up with ideas of their own, then again they also said they would still want to work on something they made from the ground up. So the prognosis is thus, it will work but will need some more tweaking before it can be declared doable, my inclusion of the opportunity to upload finished video’s involving the script to the website is one such tweak.

If that wasn’t enough for you we also had to pitch the idea to our action learning sets, pitching is one heck of an uphill struggle. I had to cram everything above into three minutes of talking with no PowerPoint to back me up or use of gimmicks to throw them off. If I am honest I was not so worried, my idea in essence is just me so I was not worried about getting lost in the business side of things. Preparing the pitch was simple enough, with the research done all I needed to do was highlight the key factors such as the long term goals and what I hope to get out of it. I like to think I’m quite good at speaking to people and presenting so I went into this thing confident.

My action learning group consisted of six individuals including myself, Hannah Ustel, Carlie-Ann Hair, Carl Hemp, James Kenning and Amie Hession. All had their own pitches to do and we would all give each other feedback. I managed to get my pitch done in two minutes and forty five seconds, had I gone over three minuets then I would have been marked down. They all agreed that although I had spoken clearly and not with too many erm’s and ar’s. They also liked my body language as I spoke and also that I didn’t use any cue cards and spoke from my memory. All in all they said my pitch was good, not outstanding but good none the less, personally I felt that it needed a lot more work.

Next up after all this we will need to formulate a business report that outlines how we intend to get these business off the ground, one thing I’m going to do already is start getting these short scripts written, might put a few up on here and let you all have a look at my handy work. Truth be told though I think my major next goal will be to get more linked up with the Screen Writers Guild, learn more about potential allies and competitors, also to find out how best to get my name and talent recognised.

If you’re interested at all in my business escapades and want to know more about what I have got cooking up for the media industry then stay tuned to this blog as soon enough I will have more updates for you all. If you don’t hear from me then chances are I am knee deep in university assignments...go to BCU for higher education they said, getting a media degree will be fun they said.

Syndicate

With my third year project nearly a year away, I have decided to do something really big. One final film that will encompass everything I have learned. Something that I can hold up and say to everyone I made this and I’m damn proud of it.

You may be familiar (although I won’t hold it against you if you’re not) with the video game syndicate from 1993? Regardless of your feelings towards video games its storyline is worth a look at. Set in a completely corporate controlled dystopia you command a group of cybernetic enhanced agents and engage in violent industrial sabotage in a bid for world domination. The game recently got a reboot in which you play as one of the agents and get a first person view of what it is like to be more like a machine than a man.

That’s what I want to do; I want to capture that kind of dystopia where life has been reduced to a name and number. Where everyone lives in a polluted shattered world where only the corporations and their markets count for anything. I could also add to it the current real life concerns about government control and other political and social subject matters.

Plus I really want to go to town with the visuals on this one, push the boat out with special effects and high quality images to entertain and thrill the viewer. This will not be the first time a fan made film about a video game has been made, there are hundreds out there, some are standard films made in back gardens but some (which will hopefully include mine) are works of true art. If you find the time I suggest you look up Escape from City 17 part 1 and 2, a Half Life 2 fan made film. The visuals and effort they put into making the film is truly inspiring, I just hope I’m half as good as these lads when I reach my apex of ability.   

Although I have only thought about it and not written much of it down this is what I have so far

Sinclair is an agent of the Invicta’s Corporation; he awakes and finds himself strapped to a chair in a darkened room. His connection to the corporation’s network via his brain chip implant begins to establish himself; he has been captured, by whom he knows not. All he does know is that he has a mission to complete and he has never been known to never complete a mission. Suddenly a door opens filling the room with light, in steps a suited man smoking a cigar. He says nothing but Sinclair is already running through known face patterns in the Invicta’s data bases. His identity is unknown but Sinclair now knows he is an executive in North Eastern Hemisphere Global, bitter rivals with Invicta’s for the control of all of the European territory’s market consumers. The man takes a step closer, and introduces himself as Mr Brenan, expelling a mouthful of smoke into Sinclair’s face. He announces his intention to alter the programming imbedded in Sinclair's brain, turning him into an obedient spy and assassin within Invicta’s corp.

Well, that’s as far as I have got really, sounds interesting though, I hope I can add more to it later and turn it into a science fiction thriller.

What do you all think?
  

  

C.V

Education

Education facilities

Shelfield Sports and Community College
Walsall College 2004/2011
Birmingham City University 2011/2013

Courses and units

GCSE English Language
GCSE History
GCSE Maths
GCSE Geography
GNVQ ICT
BTEC 1^ST Diploma ICT
BTEC 1^ST Diploma Media Studies
BTEC National Diploma Media Studies
HNC Media Studies
HND Media Studies

Professional Experience

Walsall Christmas promotional video, Walsall College 2009
Editor, camera operator, production team member

Bryntysilio promotional video, Walsall College 2008
Editor  

Activities/hobbies

My hobbies mostly comprise of video games, mostly strategy games. I have also dabbled in target shooting and clay pigeon shooting. A more recent hobby I have started is building models. Although my most favourite and useful hobby is I write scripts for film ideas I have and short novels. 



Howdy

My name is Tommy, well you would know that from the title of my blog but it’s still polite to introduce myself properly.

Ever since I left school and went to college I always wanted to be someone creative, someone who can wake up in the morning with a really great idea and by bed time have about 500 different ideas to back that one up. However I didn’t know what I would be creative in until a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him on the colleges media course, then it just clicked!

Since then I have been learning and studying everything I can about media and how it is produced, from print to single camera drama I have knowledge about it. What I really want from all this is to become either a director or a writer, maybe both. For the moment however it is all about finishing my degree in media communication, Hollywood will have to wait.

Once I have finished my degree I will have spent 7 years in higher education and as a media student, it will then be time to put all those years of studying to the test. I don’t presume for one moment that the second I walk out of the university doors that I will land right into a big director role, that would be silly. My plan for the moment will be to acquire a job in television and hopefully use that to forge a future film career. in 3 year’s time I would like to think that I will be working on building my own film production portfolio and entertaining people with it on the internet (or at a well-respected cinema chain, you never know your luck).

Being a media student has taught me how to work in a team as well, creating a media product is like being part of a machine, and a machine can only work if all the cogs are working towards the same goal. My philosophy when it comes to film and media is if you haven’t enjoyed the making of it the audience is not going to enjoy watching it. I am of course not suggesting that play is more important than work but you don’t get a laugh out of your job then why do it?

Despite nearly 7 years of study and learning how to work in a team I would say that my work is still not at its apex yet, there is always something new to learn. I’m still a little rusty when it comes to using lighting in film production and Photoshop is still like an overcomplicated form of Microsoft paint to me, but like I said I’m still learning. Where I don’t need help is in the editing of audio and video, I have used a number of different editing software and have become competent with all of them.

This link below is not my latest work (I look a little older than I was in this video) but it is perhaps one of my best examples of enjoying a task and producing some really good work. This was also the second outing for my media company VFM Productions which stands for Vision Frontier Media (but between you and me it originally stood for value for money).  
 

By the end of filming I was nearly shattered after all the running we had to do for the video but it was one hell of a ride. I like to think that although this is a music video that my talent for creating single camera dramas flourished from this experience of working in a real group of likeminded individuals, I was given the space I needed to think up what would happen in the video and how it would tie into the music and when I had hit a brick wall they were there to help me. I would also like to mention that my presence in this video and most of my work was down to logistical problems, I don’t wish to proceed with a career in acting as in all honesty I’m a really bad actor.

Later on I may upload some of my latest work for your viewing pleasure; these will include my scd on a fictional world war 3 (epic) and another scd on the life of a grim reaper (really epic).

So for the moment I hope you keep checking in for the latest in my grass roots beginning of a media career and that when I upload my latest work you will give it a look.

See you around