Retrospect is a series of posts Andy Hicks and I promised to write about a year ago now to review our time at Rose Bruford College. Unfortunately we never got too far with them, which is a shame. Especially as I know Julian Bryant our old course tutor has posted a few prospective students our way over the last few months to get a feeling for Bruford life. Shame all you’ve been able to see is my thoughts on Cars.
So for Julian, Prospective students, and the motley collection of friends, family and co-workers who wander by these them pages. Here are a few more thoughts in the retrospect style.
I woke up at 6:42 this morning, wondering why my alarm neglected to go off 12 minutes earlier. Fortunately i’ve been an early bird for the last few days and the body clock has adjusted. I stumbled out of bed, and found that my flatmates had mistaken last nights takeaway for rubbish. Shame! i’d had my eye on that for breakfast, perhaps that was for the better. Luckily bathroom duties had been delt with the evening before as i’d returned home the night before pretty grubby. I cleaned my teeth and swore at my reflection in the mirror. It’s far to early.
Time to leave, here comes the fun. I grab my backpack which is thankfully still packed from the day before. I check i’ve still got the power supply for my Macbook and hunt for the other assorted electronics i’ll need today at work.
- Macbook – Check
- Windows Laptop – Check
- UMPC – Check
- 2 TB Raid Disks – Check
- Camera and Lenses – Check
- Paperwork – Check
- Keys, Phone, Ipod – Check, Check, Check
Those who know me well will be aware that I love my gadgets. I may well have the perfect job. Still an extra backpack wouldn’t hurt. An hour and a half later and i’d negotiated the M25 (see previous note to all drivers for propper driving ettiquette). I wander out the car, hungry and tired into the beautiful surroundings of Wrotham Park. A huge marquee has been errected on the sloping grass behind the old stately home. When i say huge i mean HUGE. I’ve seen smaller tents containing less equipment at festivals. With the hill gently sloping away there’s plenty of room for a substage area. This is where we’ve built ‘dimmer city’ and ‘video land’.
I sit down on a flightcase and drink a really strong cup of tea. More technology. I take the plastic dustcover off my station and connect up my laptops and raid disks. I’ve got both my cinema displays with me on this one, i can’t feeling a bit smug through all the tiredness. Still, this isn’t a “monitor measuring contest”. Sat behind me to the right are arguably the two most prolific video freelancers around at the moment. They make the technology i’m driving look like a chalk and blackboard. 4 Mac Pros, all laced into a fibre channel SAN. They can churn out After Effects projects faster than anyone can think of the ideas. 4 days ago i didn’t even know some of this stuff even existed. Over my left shoulder is an Encore system and a pair of Cat Servers. Did i mention this was for a 13 year old kid’s barmitzvah ? Yeah, this is mega.
12 months ago (almost to the week) i was still wandering the hallowed walls of RBC. Its crazy to think where i’ve got to today. I’ve no illusions of grandure, i’m only a year in to a life time’s worth of work. But its pretty exciting already. Photos to follow soon no doubt.