I have been in contact with this film maker and media artist Max Hattler. I first contacted him while I was doing my 'Self-directed project' as I had seen a short experimental film that he had created called 'Drift' - When I was looking into who I could contact to visit in London it had suddenly occurred to me that I had read that Max was based in Germany and in London also, so I contacted him just to ask if he would be in London on the dates that I went down to London, and whether he would be interested in meeting up with me to view my own work and give me some advice. Here is the email:

Hello Max!
I got in touch with you last year about your film 'Drift', I don't know if you remember me?!
As part of my degree course in moving image, we need to show our portfolio's to people who are in the industry that we want to go into. Throughout my degree course I have realised that experimental film, showing them in galleries and at festivals etc would be my dream area to go into!
I am visiting London between the 28th February - 3rd March this year, to familiarise myself with galleries down there, and show my work to get as much advice as I can. I thought I would ask if it would be ok if I met up with you to show you some of my work, and receive advice and information about how you got your foot in the door and the processes you went through to get your name out there?
I realise you are a very busy guy, but if you are in London between those dates, and you have a bit of free time you could spare me, I would be SO grateful! :o)
Please let me know if you would be willing to view my work.
Thank you for your time Max!

Jenny

Jenny Huddart Stockport college BA HONS Moving Image. 3rd Year. Manchester.
Reply:
hi jenny,

I might be able to meet on 28feb, 1 or 2 march. can you email me nearer the time? then I can tell you for sure.

cheers,
max
At this point the meeting wasn't set in stone, and I was a little bit worried that it would fall through at the very last minute because he is such a busy man!
So I did what he asked and emailed closer to the time:
Hello Max,
I was just wondering if it would still be ok with you to meet up at the beginning of March? I have realised now that the best day for me would be the 2nd on Tuesday.

Also, my classmate Mike Williams has asked me to see whether he could come with me if we met up? He is interested in VJing and Concert Visuals, he has looked at your webpage and thinks it would be a good opportunity for him to get advise on his own visuals from someone who is already in the industry.

Would this be okay, For both me and Mike to meet up with you on the 2nd March?

Thank you again for this opportunity Max,

Jenny

Jenny Huddart Stockport College BA HONS Moving Image. 3rd Year. Manchester.
My classmate Mike is interested in concert visuals and looked at Max's work and asked me if it would be okay with him to join me in this portfolio viewing if it went ahead.This was the reply he sent me:
hi jenny,

yes 2 march should be fine to meet you and mike. I don’t have a studio at the moment so I’m trying to think where would be best. I live near old street tube so somewhere in that area is probably good, maybe 1pm?

cheers,
max
At this point it was set in stone and I was really pleased he decided to meet up with us! A couple of days before we were due to visit London, I emailed him asking where to meet, but didn't here anything, so I sent another email giving him my mobile number for him to contact me while I was down there. It was on the Monday when I received a text message off him telling me to meet him at a coffee shop near Old Street tube station at 1pm on the Tuesday. It was all last minute and I had been worrying so much that I wouldn't hear from him!

So when Mike and I met up with him, I was nervous at first, but gradually relaxed talking to him about living in London and how his work is coming along. We sat in a coffee shop, which was quite noisy and the sun was shining so brightly it was difficult to both see and hear my films, but we managed it somehow.
To begin with I showed him my show reel:

Showreel 2010 from Jenny Huddart on Vimeo.

His advice was that it is a bit too long, and that maybe I should include snappier visuals, he pointed out my fire piece where I included the little glows of light, and told me to rather than include the glows, include the actual 'BAM!' of my piece, where the flame ignites the material instead, just to help catch peoples attention.
I then showed him 'The Body' piece:

The Body from Jenny Huddart on Vimeo.

He really liked certain aspects of it, such as the abstract visuals I used where you cant really tell what you are looking at - He didn't really like it when you got the full view of my models body, it had ruined the illusion for him. He especially liked the ending where the face is distorted on the models body and it twists and turns in different directions. He also like the contrast between the slow ambient music and the fast jittery visuals of the veins on the feet and hands - He said he wasn't expecting it, and it had kept him engaged in the piece! Another criticism he mentioned though was that he preferred the footage where I had projected the visuals onto the body and liked the originality of it, whereas he didn't think too much of the parts that I had layered on top of each other - He could tell that they weren't original.
The last film that I just had time to show him was my 'Fire + Embroidery' piece:

Music Quote 04 from Jenny Huddart on Vimeo.

He told me that he really liked the idea behind it, and was impressed with the experiments I had done and liked the overall look of the piece, the only negative he had mentioned about it was that he didn't like the fact that you could see the white fabric when the flame ignites at the end - the glow of the fire lights up the fabric around it, Max had said maybe it would have been better to use black embroidery fabric to help conceal it more, it would have been better to have the audience still guessing at the end.
Overall he did say that it does need a bit more work, make it more abstract and don't give away so easily what the audience are looking at, keep them guessing for a much longer time to keep them more engaged within the piece. I am extremely grateful for this advice that he has given me - The positive points have given me that extra boost of confidence whereas the negative points have given me the inspiration to look at these pieces from a different angle and improve the quality of them!
I sent him an email when I got back from London:

Hi Max,
I just wanted to thank you again for meeting up with me!

It was a fantastic experience, and you made us both feel very comfortable and welcome, and you gave us the opportunity to look at our own work from a different viewpoint. Thank you for giving us your honest opinions, you have given me the inspiration to re-edit my body film and add more abstract visuals.

I hope we can still keep in touch

Take care,

Jenny

Jenny Huddart. BA (HONS) Moving Image. 3rd Year. Stockport College. Manchester. UK.
This is what he replied with:
hey jenny,

thanks for your email. and glad you got something out of it!
do keep in touch and show me the finished films in the summer.
good luck with it all!

max
I think that's brilliant that he's still willing to keep in contact with me! He had also told me that he doesn't really meet up with students to see their work ... I had asked him why he decided to meet up with me?...'You were very persistant!' What a fantastic experience.