Oxfam Trailwalk 5th-6th April - YouthLaw team

I went down to Lake Taupo on April the 4th with mum. Neha had organised a walking team for YouthLaw consisting of:

Herself
Nick
Effie
Me

We also had a support team of:

Jeanie (YouthLaw)
Harvena (YouthLaw)
Luke (YouthLaw MSG)
Robin (My mum)

It was quite an experience. We woke up on Saturday at 5:45am ready for the 7am start.

The walk during the day was good, we were all in high spirits and the support team at each checkpoint did a wonderful job of feeding us and giving us massages. After-dark was a different story, I must've injured my knee at some point and this kept getting worse the more I walked. I carried on for another 20km with a limp, but gave up at around 2am, having done 65km of the 100km walk; the st johns officer said I'd torn a ligament and it could be permanent damage with risk of more damage if I kept walking. So Neha, Nick and Effie kept going through the night, finishing the walk, with no sleep, just under 32 hours later at around 3pm on Sunday.

What an effort! Check out our team page here:

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=15&teamid=3204

2nd April: Internship (5th lecture at Unitec)

Today was good, we discussed how to write proposals. It was good to be able to tell everyone about what I've been up to, how it's been unfortunate that I didn't get a job at Saatchi & Saatchi etc. I talked to Julian about the Oxfam Trailwalker, so I might see him in Taupo! I also talked to Sheena about the Comedy Festival, that will be cool working for her and earning a bit of money to keep me going. Not much else to report, I'm desperate to actually get into the YouthLaw offices now and start working on this project! But I've still got the rest of the week working for Saatchi & Saatchi before I can do that.

26th March: Internship (class cancelled)

No class today :)

19th March: Youth Social Innovation meeting

I went along to the first ever Youth Social Innovation meeting tonight at the Media Design School. Unfortunately, I had to arrive late because I also had a YouthLaw MSG meeting that night. Anyway, I arrived in time for the important stuff: beer, pizza.

I caught up with Jade who is working for a small design company (4 people www.initiatedesign.co.nz) and we talked about the YouthLaw project. She said she'd be willing to help out during the editing stages of the project. Jade also introduced me to Lisa who is doing some cool community work in South Auckland, they are applying for funding with the city councils to run media workshops with kids. We exchanged numbers and she might be able to source some fun actors for the films.

I ended today completely zonked, Unitec Internship course, work at Saatchi & Saatchi, meeting at YouthLaw then the Youth Social Innovation meeting. I'm tired and going to bed now!!

19th March: Internship (4th lecture at Unitec)

Today we were visited by someone (I forget her name!) from the Careers and Employment Centre. To be honest, I was stressed out outside of Unitec, the last thing I wanted to do was attend class. But I did and I regretted it. It was really boring. The worst thing that can happen for me when I’m stressed out, needing to get things done, is to get stuck in a boring class or traffic jam. Not that it was the fault of Sara or the person taking the class from Careers, it just wasn’t what I needed to focus on at that particular time. I needed to get back to Saatchi & Saatchi to get through the work I’d been assigned for the day. I wrote in my notebook, “this feels like alcoholics anonymous”, not that I’d had anyt experience of those particular meetings.

Having said that, and getting it off my chest, I actually did learn a bit:

The key idea of a CV is to get an invite to an interview. You can structure a CV like so:

- Name, Address, Phone
- Key skills (match these up with the job description)
- Quals

I also found out about some sites that might help with my project and my life in general:

http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/ - online community for creatives
www.writerfind.com/nz - freelance writing site
http://www.freelance2008.co.nz/ - I found out about this conference through the freelance writing site above
http://www.talentonline.co.nz/ – in case I can’t find any actors (I don’t think this will be a problem)

18th March: TV production meeting at Saatchi & Saatchi

I was lucky enough to attend a TV production 101 meeting at Saatchi & Saatchi today, some of the material might be relevant. It was mostly advertising focused, but still interesting and possibly relevant to my project. I learnt that most talent is valid for 12 months, after that you need to renegotiate royalties (unless it’s already specified in the contract). Copyright for songs is normally two-fold, one from the artist and one from the producer or label. There will be no more 4:3 dispatch from April 1st 2008, meaning everything will be shot and dispatched in 16:9 – but we still need to keep everything 4:3 “safe”. By 2012, 4:3 will be obsolete. Digital Post and Oktober are the only grading suites in Auckland.

12th March: Internship (3rd lecture at Unitec)

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to class today.