Hello!

I was so nervous when I arrived at Summer in the City this morning, I nervously wondered around looking at all the stalls and not talking to anyone and being very scared – I was absolutely terrified.

But then I went and chatted to Sammy Paul, who I met at MCM and we’ve chatted on twitter a couple of times since and I calmed down a bit – I felt a bit more comfortable and I braved going to speak to a couple of companies – I chatted to CoHost and Book Break and I went over to the Penguin table (the book publishers that is, not a table of arctic birds) and I wound up auditioning to be a Penguin audio book reader person? I just had to stand in a booth and read a 500 word excerpt from a book that hasn’t been published yet but I actually felt really comfortable doing it, I really enjoyed it! There’s a second stage at the Penguin Offices and if I’m successful I’ll get to go – all very exciting!

After that, I went to a panel on Monetisation, learning things such as: I should learn to invoice things, don’t get your YouTube channel banned and be very honest with brands and your audience. But in all seriousness, it was a very interesting panel that raised some really interesting points about brand deals and the ethics behind them.

I also made a note that everyone on the panel was so genuine – Luke Cutforth and Dodie Clark raised some really thought-provoking points and both had some very subtly hilarious reactions when Nash Grier was mentioned.

When the panel ended I went and sat and ate the sandwich I’d bought from Tescos last night and chatted to a couple of girls who noticed I was sat alone. Then I pumped into Pete Bucknall, the wonderful petesjams on YouTube, and he complimented me hair and we had a proper good chat and it was absolutely lovely.

And I resumed wondering, met up with a friend from uni and made some more new friends before going to a panel hosted by Sammy Paul (upon his recommendation when I saw him earlier) with a bunch of people who have really important roles behind the camera – Matt Ley (animator), Paul Neafcy (writer), Elliot Gough (editor), Becka Hewett (producer) and Ciaran O’Brian (director of photography/camera op/lighting/everything). It was very interesting to learn more about each person’s job and whilst I’m no technically good enough, it’s really riled up my passion for editing because at the moment I really enjoy it.

It’s all been very interesting and inspiring!

What I made notes on in that panel was that networking it a really important part of making short films, especially on a budget and on YouTube, leaving edits for longer doesn’t make them easier to finish, being critical of yourself and others and learning from it is a positive way to build on your skills and try not to make things personal and ‘yours’ if it’s not your project.

All very important things to note and made me really excited to start working on some short film content with my friends!

Once that panel had ended, I went and said hello to Hazel Hayes (who remembered me from her shoebox meet up!) and Dodie Clark (who also remembered me from MCM!) and then I hung around with the people before coming back to the hotel, going to get chips and coming back to the hotel again!

It’s been an amazing day and I can’t wait for SitC Day 2 tomorrow – tomorrow’s post might be a bit later because the main stage acts don’t finish till later in the evening, so I’ll write an update post as soon as I can!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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