Well,it's been well over two months since I last blogged. For a blog that was meant to be chronicling my entire first year at university, that's pretty poor. I would like to point out, however, that this blog was not my first attempt - oh no. I've tried at least three or four times to get a blog up off the ground, but for various reasons (mainly due to poor hosting sites/editing tools) those attempts weren't sucessful.

So this is in fact blog Mk. IV - one more Mk than the Iron Man armour in the latest film (which was pretty good, by the way).

Nearing the end of the first year now. Officially, there's about a month to go, but I've got two essays to hand in on the 11th June and then I'm done. To be honest, I didn't expect this year to go by so quickly. I thought the months would go by slower than start of The Wizard (obscure videogame film reference ahoy!), but it went by faster than the time it took me to realise that Indiana Jones IV had lost the magic of the previous series (i.e. when he SURVIVED AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION BY SHUTTING HIMSELF IN A BLOODY FRIDGE). If you catch my meaning.

That said, this short year has provided me with some pretty good grades. Here's a rundown -

Images Unit
Script - 62%
Essay - 47%

Narratives Unit
Script - 65%
Essay - 58%

Audience Unit
Script - 67%
Essay - (results pending)

Script into Production - 66% (group score)

I'm incredibly chuffed with these marks. I had expected to get grades within the 40%s, and just scrape by into next year, so to achieve more than 60% on all three of my script projects is great. Hopefully next year will prove to be just as sucessful (and hopefully it'll feel a bit longer too).

For each of the main scripts, I remember saying to myself 'Dan, for goodness sake, get the first draft done with at least two weeks to spare for redrafting'. Did I listen to myself? Did I bollocks. I'm sure I'm not the only person guilty of it, but I seem to be motivated only by a huge, looming deadline a week or so away. My first drafts were always finished two or three days before the deadline, with redrafting going on in the days between.

It's something I know I have to grow out of. In the industry, people aren't going to be happy if I take so long to finish a first draft. It's just un-professional, and I understand that.

At present, I am working with my Summer Project group to finish of our Three Minute Wonder. That's going well. Is it wrong to decide who presents the project next week based on a three-way rock/paper/scissors game? Call our group wrong then.

That's about all that's on my mind right now. There follows a list of additions to the AWESOME list below.

Grand Theft Auto IV
Subway
Entourage
Posters that cover stuff up that shouldn't be on my walls.
The thought that one day I'll be lucky enough to have money.
Toffee desert sauce
Zero Punctuation
The Spoony Experiment
That Guy With The Glasses
Starship Troopers
Ray Liotta