Yes, I WOULD Prefer Not To.

The past few weeks have been eventful, to say the least. I've filmed a music video,  made a 24 hour trip to Dublin, attended a BAFTA event at The Royal Albert Hall, and joined a pillow fight in Trafalgar Square!

Let me preface: I have a wise friend, who once told me "Say 'YES' more often. It will change your life." I've been trying to take this advice. Sometimes that is saying YES to a friend's invitation and sometimes that is saying YES to myself. In my continued efforts to save money, I find myself being really picky about the events that I choose to be a part of.  There are so many great opportunities available to me, but I'm always hesitant to say 'yes' without taking a look at the budget.  This isn't a bad thing, but I need to remember that I'm not just here for to apply for school. I'm also here to EXPERIENCE living in London. Honestly, school might not work out and I don't want to regret not taking advantage of SOME of the perks of living here. Not all, just some. In the end it's just money, right? *sigh* Right.

So, how has all of this come about? Well, the first is due to two very talented friends that I have had the pleasure of meeting here. One is a singer/songwriter from the USA and the other is an actress from New Zealand. Add my film training into the mix and it's a match made in heaven.

The Musician, The Techie and The Actress

In an effort to get some show reel footage for herself and turn the singer into a YouTube sensation, the actress orchestrated a music video. And by orchestrated, I mean that she said to me "We should make a music video!" and I said "Sure. I can film and edit, but you have to make a shot list or I'm not doing it." That's my "1st AD" side showing.

The beautiful view from the flat of South London and Battersea Power Station. 

We're also blessed with a friend who owns a piano and lives in a beautiful flat in Chelsea, so we filmed the interior shots at her place and then walked to Hyde Park for the exteriors. Along the way, we received life/career advice from a random guy in McDonald's who turned out to be a professional video editor for itv and BBC, then hi-jacked one of our guy friends on the street to be in our music video, and used the torch/flashlight apps on our iPhones to light the evening-turned-night-because-of-random-McDonald's-guy scenes.

If I ever finish editing the darn thing, I will post the link in an upcoming blog :-) 

Now: Dublin. I know what you're thinking. "Megan, you've been there 3 times already. In fact, you were just there in January. Pick a new destination." To you I say, "Go there and tell me you don't want to go back." There. Now that's settled, we can move on.

Dublin wasn't at it's most charming, but it was at it's most Irish.I wandered the city on foot,
focusing on free attractions to save money and relishing each new discovery that
you just don't see from a bus or read about in the guide books.
Even though my umbrella broke and  I was wet for most of the day,
I loved every minute of it! (Despite the above expression!) 

But you're right. I have been there many times, so why go back so soon? Well, back in October, before I came to London, I tried to buy tickets to see Miranda Hart's live show. I couldn't get tickets to the London show, so I decided to buy tickets to the Dublin show. I didn't know if I would still be in London in March and if so, I could just fly over right? However, I later managed to find a ticket for the London show on a re-selling site and decided to keep the Dublin ticket and just sell whichever I didn't need when the time came. Well, the Dublin ticket wasn't selling a week before the show, so after I'd worked out the cost of a flight, hotel and food for the day, I decided I'd rather spend £175 or so to spend the day in Dublin rather than swallow the €45 cost of the show ticket. Really, did anyone really think I was going to pass up an opportunity to go back to Ireland? 

Arbour Hill Cemetary: Memorial Wall with the declaration of the Irish Republic.
 The leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising are buried in a plot adjacent to the wall. 

St Patrick's Cathedral

Stairway to the Pipe Organ, St Patrick's Cathedral

Small chapel, St Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Cheap admission.
A warm chair to sit on & dry off.
A lovely choir to listen to.
An Irish tour guide to laugh with.
Beautiful architecture to photograph.
Happy Megan.

St. Stephen's Green 

Merrion Square 

Getting ready to see my favourite comedian, Miranda Hart!
It was AMAZING. The London show is tomorrow and
 I'm so excited to see her perform again! 

The River Liffey, from O'Connell Street Bridge, Dublin. 5:00am

When I say I spent less than 24 hours in Dublin, I'm not exaggerating. I landed in Dublin around 9am on Saturday morning and flew out on Sunday morning at 740am. Which means that I woke up at 4am on Saturday and at 5am on Sunday to catch my flights. I completely skipped church and slept all day.  It was a crazy weekend, but  it was absolutely worth it. It'll be a great story to tell the kids someday :-)

On the Monday following the Miranda show in Dublin, I attended a "BAFTA Conversation" at The Royal Albert Hall. This was probably the best £10 I've spent in London. The composer was Michael Price, who has been a Music Editor on "The Lord of the Rings", "Children of Men" and others. More recently, he is known as one of the two composers who have created the score for BBC's "Sherlock."

At first I thought it was a white piano lit to red.
When the lights went up, I realized it is just a very RED piano.
Apparently, it belonged to Elton John. Of course. 

The evening was really interesting. It consisted of an interviewer doing just what the title implies, leading a conversation with the composer. They showed clips of his work and discussed processes, experiences etc. It was interesting to hear what it was like to work on "The Lord of the Rings." Howard Shore was the main composer for the films and I love his work. Michael shared what it was like to work as part of such a massive team, but said despite Howard's brilliance, he doesn't agree with that kind of process. He learned from that experience that he likes the smaller team setting. I think that may have been what led him from being an editor to composing his own material. I really liked what he had to say about "finding yourself." (My phrase, not his.)

Our experiences shape us and it's often the ones that teach us what we DO NOT want to do that are the most valuable. I thought I wanted to be a photographer, but then I sold cameras to a lot of photographers and realized I didn't want that life. So I tried film school instead. I thought I'd work in camera and lighting. Two projects in, I decided I'd rather be an AD. But that still wasn't quite it. Something was still missing. Now, I'm pursuing theatre. I hope everything works out, but if not, I know it will lead me to where I should be next. My point is that you never know where your experiences, good or bad,  will lead you, so don't be afraid of trying. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. Or two. Or three...

The last portion of the evening was spent discussing his work on "Sherlock." He played some bits on the piano and explained the "Four Chord Themes"  that each of the major characters have. He even brought a cellist on stage and they played "The Woman" live. It was beautiful. He also took a few questions from the audience and told one music student to buy a nice moleskin notebook to compose with; "Stationary Porn", he called it. Basically, get a nice notebook that you WANT to write in and sit at the piano to work out your themes before you even go near a computer. Also, Beryl Vertue, the Executive Producer was in the audience and politely raised her hand to ask him a question, her own employee! She's a sweet lady. Michael proudly announced her presence and said "She produces "Sherlock" and well, pretty much all of TV. It's like the Queen is in the room." 

Last but not least, how did I end up in a pillow fight at Trafalgar Square? Well, it was International Pillow Fight Day and London's designated spot was the square. I had read about it earlier in the week, thought it was funny and would make for some good photos, but honestly admitted I would only want to go for the photos and promptly forgot about it. I spent that morning innocently enough. I helped a friend to move house and we went for breakfast. When we finished she said some other BritBound friends were meeting up for the pillow fight and asked if I wanted to come along.  I'm an introvert by nature, and honestly, when someone invites me to do something even remotely out of my comfort zone, in my head I'm already thinking this: 

The inner monologue of every introvert I know.
I almost bought this t-shirt on sight.

I couldn't say no based on money. A cheap pillow would hardly break the bank. I had to ask myself "Why am I saying 'No' to this?  What else will I do? Go home and do my laundry? I'm already living in a foreign country, I can take one step further out of my comfort zone."

So I joined the mayhem. I opted not to buy a pillow (the stores were nearly sold out anyway) and instead dubbed myself as the official photographer for our little group of foreigners (mostly Aussies and Canadians). I can only describe it as madness and complete lunacy, but it was great. I might even go so far as to say it was brilliant. 

 Everyone was having fun and strangers were interacting with other strangers. Seriously. The English were making eye contact with strangers and then happily smacking each other with a pillow. I think I witnessed a miracle.  Also, I'm sure I will never again see a tough looking man hide behind a bull dog pillow to avoid the fuzzy green attack of little girl with a backpack.

My crazy Aussie friend and I buried in feathers.
This is all her fault. 

So, the moral of the story is: The next time you're debating, what I call "Expense over Experience" or  are invited out of your comfort zone, say Yes! You never know what will happen!

Or say "I would prefer not to." You never know what will happen.

PS: Drama school update - I am now on the short list for RADA and LAMDA! That means I have a 1 in 5 chance of getting into each school... so 50% plus 25%... no, divided by...? Subtract 25 from....Add? No.....  um. Ok, so there's a reason I'm going into the arts.