In the Field (Literally) and Speaking up
February got intense quickly. I finally got back in touch with BAFA, and they asked me to go to Loughborough to shoot some content. The turnaround was fast, found out Monday, travelled by Saturday. I had to prep and carry all the gear from central London up to the uni, and unfortunately, Tony couldn’t come last minute, so I was left to manage everything myself. I had to scout spaces, set up gear, adapt when it started raining, and negotiate with uni staff to find interview space when the original room didn’t work out. It was a lot. But I made it work, even if it showed me that maybe event filming isn’t quite my thing long-term.
On the D&AD side, we chose the On Running brief and were now meeting weekly to build out insights and direction. I started noticing how my thinking was shifting-less about the surface idea and more about the why behind it. Josh was still helping us shape things, and Eddy and Ria brought insights from their advertising lecturers too. Meanwhile, I was still loving every session of Venture Three. The Sky brief was really starting to take shape, and I felt like I was contributing strong ideas. One of the highlights was learning a creative ideation technique called “creative speed dating” from Abraham, super fast paced, but helped me and my team break past mental blocks.
That said, not everything went smoothly. I started having some frustrations in my Creative Shift group as people weren’t showing up to meetings or messaging if they were late or couldn’t come, even though we’d all agreed on the times. It was starting to slow down the momentum and honestly felt a bit disrespectful. I spoke to Sat (the Creative Shift leader) about it, and he gave me great advice on how to manage it and set boundaries. That conversation really helped me feel more confident about speaking up when something’s off. I might not be the first to want to do it, but I’m really glad I did this time