Can you believe it? CAN YOU? Today was our LAST DAY OF FILMING. Well, we’ve probably got a couple more shots around the city that we need, but this was our last actual shoot, as it were. Given that the university and the students make up such a large part of the city, both in terms of population and culture, today we filmed interviews with two Cardiff uni students – one postgrad, one undergrad – and a small part of the Go Global event, a week long celebration of Cardiff uni’s many multicultural societies.

The day started off with a quick stop in to beg some kit from our good friend, Tom Betts. He introduced me to his daughter Zoe – the first hip hop baby I’ve ever met. She only sleeps when hip hop is playing. Only. Tom runs the Darkened Rooms nights – putting on films in weird places around Cardiff. You should check out the Darkened Rooms website for details of their upcoming shows.

We then headed to the Science Library in Cardiff uni’s main building, where we interviewed a lovely postgrad student from America called Stacey. She’s from Kansas. She loves Cardiff, but was unprepared for how much it rains here. We got a nice sneak into the hidden rooms of the library, including some amazing hidden stacks and REALLY OLD BOOKS. I also found the best named journal I have ever seen – the Journal of Sedimentary Research. Big fan of this.

I was a student at Cardiff (many years ago) so I always feels a little bit nostalgic coming back into the uni’s buildings, especially the union, where I spent many (many) hours as an undergrad and a postgrad. One of the rooms I had spent a bit of time – the games room – had been completely renovated into a lounge area – complete with SKYPE PODS. LOOK AT THESE THINGS. AMAZING.

We had wanted to film an interview in one of the pods, but unfortunately it was a bit too dark. We settled for a sofa in a room in Solus (the one that used to be called The Junction when I was a student, no idea what it’s called now). They hadn’t cleaned up from the night before, so there was a bit of detritus lying around. Nothing too serious though – Dave still insisted on filming sitting on the floor. Well, ok, he didn’t insist. I sort of made him.

I didn’t make him sit in this though. I do have a heart!

We then headed down to the Great Hall, where the Go Global event was about to start. I’ve got a lot of fond memories of the Great Hall, I’ve been to a lot of awesome gigs there – Leftfield, Groove Armada, 2MandyDJs. Dave recalled the first gig he had ever been to there was Therapy?. Remember them?? I must admit, I was pretty jealous. I was a big fan of theirs!

They had prettified the space a lot for the event…

… and then my phone battery ran out, OF COURSE. So those are all the sneak peeks you’re getting.

But for now … all YOU need to know is that … WE DID IT! After a year of filming, we’ve only gone and flipping done it. I’ll be honest – there were points were I very nearly jacked it all in … and I’m so glad I didn’t.

Now onto the actual work … the editing. I don’t know how on earth they’re going to do it. Last count, we had eleventy billion hours of footage. OH WELL! All you need to know is that:
- we’re still fundraising to try and cover our costs for the film, so if you’re feeling flush with cash, PLEASE invest. You get awesome rewards and gifts in return, including a NEW reward which will get you a copy of the film’s soundtrack, all by local Cardiff bands! INVEST IN THE FILM HERE.
- THE LAUNCH PARTY WILL BE IN MAY. (probably). MORE INFO WILL APPEAR HERE CLOSER TO THE TIME. SO KEEP THOSE EYES PEELED!

for now, this is phoenix, over and out.
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