Creative Futures week
It's that time of year again when creative futures week rolls around. This will be the third time I have attended these talks and find them interesting and invaluable to my future career prospects. There are many talks and workshops over the week but the ones that interest me the most are the photography, film and business ones because these relate directly to my interests as a photographer and film maker and also to my work with the Wrexham film and photography Collective.
The week of talks starts on the Monday with the opening address provided by Dr Stuart Cunningham, the head of the creative industries here at Glyndwr University. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the opening address because of previously planned engagements relating directly to my future career prospects. There were a few talks that I would have liked to attend including a mid afternoon session entitled 'All that you need to know about approaching galleries and craft shops' which was hosted by Tabitha Tansey. The other talk of interest was 'Business start up support' by Judith Alexander and Liz Wallens. I feel that there would have been some interesting points raised at this talk, fortunately one of my fellow students does have a recording of the session which I aim to acquire at some point.
Motivating yourself to get what you really want
by Denise Chiltern.
Denise Chiltern was a lady of middle age who originally worked in the financial services but following a mid life crises decided to change her career completely and set up a coffee stall instead. After her coffee stall started to be quite productive she again had a change to a life and business coach and within two years had won a small business award from Liverpool University.
The whole talk was about how to get motivated and how to succeed in the business sector of your choice. We underwent a number of tasks in the session including a motivation and goals map. This is where you place your desires in life on a kind of spider diagram to give yourself a visual representation of your goals and aspirations and the places that need improvement. I found this very helpful because it would currently appear that I am happy with my home and social life but quite unhappy with my current employment and financial situation. We went through what motivates and what is important to you in the talk and it would appear it is not always what you think it would be.
The next part of the talk was about where you are heading in life and Denise produced a 'smarties' list.
S specific and positive
M measurable and meaningful to you
A achievable
R realistic and right for you
T timed, targeted and thrilling
I as in 'my'
E exciting
S sensational
I found the talk fairly interesting but found myself lacking attention and enthusiasm towards the end. I did take on board a lot that was said and it was interesting to see how someone who felt stuck in a rut of daily work had managed to change everything for the better.
Self-employed: The basics by Andrew Gardner HMRC
I thought it was a good idea to attend the talk about how tax and national insurance works because it was something that always greatly confused me. Fortunately now it appears that it is not as confusing as I first thought. I had preconceived ideas as to what Andrew Gardner would be like as he works for the tax office but he turned out to be very funny which made the hour talking about tax to shoot by in no time.
Andrews main job is helping businesses get it right the first time, there are many things to be aware of before you start your own business, lots of them I was no aware of. Having always been employed by a company I have never needed to even consider the implications of correctly arranging your tax and national insurance before. Andrew first explained that the tax year runs from the 6th of April to the 5th of April and that you are given 10 months to complete your self assessment tax return form and the tax office always works 12 months behind.
The Prime minister Bevan introduced National Insurance in 1948 after world war 2 and everyone that is employed has to make national insurance contributions. Your national insurance number is basically an account number for your retirement income, this has to be paid from 16 years of age until you retire. The first £148 that you earn is national insurance free.
There are three golden rules with reference to your tax.
Rule 1
Set up a system to keep records and use account books and use day to day diary's, and separate day to day expenses from capital expenses.
Rule 2
Maintain your system to bring it up to date by using a receipt book.
Rule 3
Keep them for 6 years because you can be asked at any time to produce evidence of your earnings.
The next part of Andrews talk was to discuss what you can claim back tax for if you are self employed. He explained that this is bit of a dark area for some people because they think that they can claim back for things that the cannot. You cannot claim for entertaining clients, meals in the day time or new training. However enhancing knowledge is an allowable expense along with work uniform if it carries a company logo. Also if you use a car you can only claim for petrol that you use when it is related to your work and this is charged at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles. You can also claim only £4 per week for working from home.
There were many interesting points raised in this talk and I thoroughly enjoyed Andrews humour which made the hour seem not so boring considering the topic. One of the first things that Andrew said at the start of the talk was that statistically you will only remember 33% of today's talk on tax and national insurance. Thankfully I tried to write down as much as I possibly could because I am aware that my notes will prove invaluable in the near future.
Out of all of the talks from the week surprisingly this one proved to be the most informative and enjoyable, which I did not expect.
Make your own damn movie by Jason Devitt
Jason Devitt is a film maker with his own production company called Witchward Productions that he has ran for the last five years. It was interesting to hear that he started with no qualifications as a film maker and he has produced his own T.V series that was shown on sky and that is now being made into a film with a budget of 10 million pounds which he is shooting in Dubai.
The whole point of this talk, as far as I could tell, was to pick up tips on how Jason had became successful in his career. He started with lists of what to do.
1 Pre production
You need a good idea and a winning concept.
Make a film for your audience, if nobody is interested in the topic they will not watch it.
Realise what is popular.
Audience mentality is the same as an 8 year old, so keep it simple.
2 Script
Write it and don't read it or correct it until it is finished.
Expect at least three drafts of the script.
Show no one until you have finished at least the first draft.
Leave the script for at least two weeks before you look at it again.
All the above points seem valid but I couldn't help thinking that maybe what works well for Jason may not work for other people who are trying to write a script. The rest of the talk was filled with lists of what to do in order to secure funding to make your movie.
3 Funding
Know who to go to that will give you funding for your film.
Crowd funding like Amazon quick start.
Local business or rich family.
Film funders like the BFI.
Other major points that he described was to know your film inside out and to be positive and enthusiastic about what you are planning to do. You need a realistic estimate of the cost of the movie and also to include a sum for yourself because no one wants to work for free.
4 Key people
The crew are most important.
Director and producer, they need to be the dictators on the set.
Camera man, do it yourself if you are able.
Lighting to make the film look professional.
Sound is one of the most important things in a movie.
Runners, helpers and assistants.
Catering.
Make up and hair.
Storyboard artist is a god.
5 Legal
Insurance that you can find cheap online.
Contract are understood and explained.
Image release forms for people in the movie.
Image release forms for buildings.
Permission to shoot at a location.
Other points that were raised were finding good locations to film at and also finding back up locations. These are needed because of unforeseen difficulties such as bad weather of permission not being granted to film in that location.
I was looking forward to this talk with great enthusiasm but left feeling a bit let down. The whole hour seemed to be just filled with lists of what to do to make a movie. While I admire Jason for what he has achieved maybe the talk could have been a bit more engaging to the audience that were present in the room.
I think that this years Creative futures was the best and most organised that I have attended over my three years at Glyndwr University and enjoyed most of the talks that I attended. The most informative and engaging talk I believe was that of Andrew Gardner HMRC and the talk that left me slightly bored was that of Jason Devitt, Make your own damn movie.
The Wrexham film and photography collective were given the opportunity to have a stall in the foyer of the Catrin Finch which I helped out on for a number of days during creative futures week. During the week we made some new contacts and also landed a few new jobs for the collective which I believe was just as productive as watching the talks.
The whole point of this talk, as far as I could tell, was to pick up tips on how Jason had became successful in his career. He started with lists of what to do.
1 Pre production
You need a good idea and a winning concept.
Make a film for your audience, if nobody is interested in the topic they will not watch it.
Realise what is popular.
Audience mentality is the same as an 8 year old, so keep it simple.
2 Script
Write it and don't read it or correct it until it is finished.
Expect at least three drafts of the script.
Show no one until you have finished at least the first draft.
Leave the script for at least two weeks before you look at it again.
All the above points seem valid but I couldn't help thinking that maybe what works well for Jason may not work for other people who are trying to write a script. The rest of the talk was filled with lists of what to do in order to secure funding to make your movie.
3 Funding
Know who to go to that will give you funding for your film.
Crowd funding like Amazon quick start.
Local business or rich family.
Film funders like the BFI.
Other major points that he described was to know your film inside out and to be positive and enthusiastic about what you are planning to do. You need a realistic estimate of the cost of the movie and also to include a sum for yourself because no one wants to work for free.
4 Key people
The crew are most important.
Director and producer, they need to be the dictators on the set.
Camera man, do it yourself if you are able.
Lighting to make the film look professional.
Sound is one of the most important things in a movie.
Runners, helpers and assistants.
Catering.
Make up and hair.
Storyboard artist is a god.
5 Legal
Insurance that you can find cheap online.
Contract are understood and explained.
Image release forms for people in the movie.
Image release forms for buildings.
Permission to shoot at a location.
Other points that were raised were finding good locations to film at and also finding back up locations. These are needed because of unforeseen difficulties such as bad weather of permission not being granted to film in that location.
I was looking forward to this talk with great enthusiasm but left feeling a bit let down. The whole hour seemed to be just filled with lists of what to do to make a movie. While I admire Jason for what he has achieved maybe the talk could have been a bit more engaging to the audience that were present in the room.
Evaluation of Creative Futures 2013
I think that this years Creative futures was the best and most organised that I have attended over my three years at Glyndwr University and enjoyed most of the talks that I attended. The most informative and engaging talk I believe was that of Andrew Gardner HMRC and the talk that left me slightly bored was that of Jason Devitt, Make your own damn movie.
The Wrexham film and photography collective were given the opportunity to have a stall in the foyer of the Catrin Finch which I helped out on for a number of days during creative futures week. During the week we made some new contacts and also landed a few new jobs for the collective which I believe was just as productive as watching the talks.
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