I have been in contact with both Ian and Emma Macklin since meeting them for the first time on my London portfolio trip in March. They have both been extremely helpful with advice on how to approach the industry I am interested in working in. I asked them if they would be willing to look at my work digitally. This is the email i sent them:

Earlier on this year, I came across a filmmaker called Damien Serban and emailed him with questions about his work. I was especially drawn to his Experimental pieces:
http://www.damienserban.com/filmo/xp.php
He kindly emailed back with answers to my questions and told me to keep in touch.
I needed 1 more portfolio viewing, done digitally, through email, I admire Damiens work and I thought it would be a good idea to ask him to have a look at my own work and see what he his opinions are of it, and any advice he may have.
He has very kindly looked at my work and given me a response to it:

Hello Jenny,

I have watched your work online.

I like a lot of what I see... I feel a bit out of place to tell you what I think because I don't consider myself to be any kind of authority in experimental films or art in general... but you asked for it !

The body, as you point out has some successful parts and some less successful, what I like personnaly is when you don't understand what's going on on the screen, when you recognize just enough to think you know what you're seeing just to be proven wrong by a movement, a color, a change in shape. I think the parts where you fully understand where is the body and where is the video projection are less interesting.

The Rhythm of the Body seemed to me a little more "classic". The editing works well with the music/rhythm, but the overall film with flashes of eyes and dirty video noise looks a bit too "déjà vu" for me.

Rhythm of People is really nicely done, I like the feeling it creates. Maybe what this piece lacks is a clearer "evolution"... I don't know if you prefer your films to be shown in art galleries or in cinemas... I know I personally prefer the cinema, I consider my films to be... well... "films", and I consider myself a "filmmaker". So when you do a film, whether it is totally abstract, experimental, love story, comedy, documentary, whatever... you need to create something that will take the audience by the hand and bring it with you in your universe. This is only my opinion, but I feel a lot of experimental films in general, lack a sense of dynamics, a sense of evolution... basically a sense of storyline (even without a story).

I like your music quotes, and I like the fact that you didn't just satisfy yourself with one try, but experimented to find what you were looking for... And I think you've managed that in the 3rd quote and particularly in the 4th.
The 4th quote has everything it needs in my opinion, a sense of mystery/abstraction, you think you know what you're looking at but you don't really, a real evolution, you really get drawn in the film and want to see more, to discover what will happen, and of course the images are quite beautiful and go well with the choice of music. It's my favorite of your films.

I hope I'm making sense, and I don't seem to "know-it-all"... because clearly I'm not. But if any of my blabber is useful to you, I'd be glad.

Take care.
Cheers
Damien

My rhythm pieces were done in the 2nd year of my course, they were the very 1st pieces of film I had created, and I enjoyed it so much I realised that working with abstract film is what I would really like to continue with!
'The Body' and 'Music Quote' pieces are my most recent, I actually agree with Damien about the body comments. And once i've graduated I aim to re-edit the piece to let it flow more smoothly and contain more mystery! My favourite piece is also the 4th music quote, this is the most recent i've done, and i feel like i've learnt a lot from that particular brief and it's helped me to understand my own style etc.
I feel that Damien's comments were very honest, and there wasn't anything he had really mentioned that I didn't know already. I am definitely going to take on board his comments about 'Evolution' and having a kind of narrative/storyline to my pieces, I do feel as though I have learnt this already as I am including this within my Final Major Project. It has all been a big learning curve for me!

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.

I first came in contact with Eve Bennett after she offered to be a model for my Self-Directed project for me. It was only by chance that I found out that she is an artist herself, and specialises in ceramic installations for galleries. She has done this for approximately one and a half years professionally and she won 3 awards for her university work at Manchester.
I met her at a Coffee shop, and it was a really relaxed atmosphere - I was nervous at first about showing her my work at first, but she told me that she was very impressed by what she saw - She doesn't specialise in a moving image area, but she has experience in the industry that I would like to go into, she has shown her work in galleries and she gave me a lot of advice and information that I didn't know before - I found this meeting so helpful and I am really grateful that she found the time to come and sit with me and give some really good advice.

- She makes money from her gallery work by taking still photographs of her work - Similar to the one at the top of this page, and sells them on site.
- She told me to visit as many galleries as I can, only to look around potential exhibit spaces and imagine what my own work would look like in these potential spaces.
- One key aspect she mentioned was to be prepared to compromise with the exhibit space, all galleries are different so it is a good idea to make sure your work can be flexible.
- Because I will just be starting out, it is a good idea to start off small - look around small galleries or organisations around Manchester (E.g. The Cube Gallery)It is the worst thing if you try to do the top galleries first, it's too much pressure.
- She also told me that it is vital to put your foot down. It is your work, and shouldn't let other people involved in the gallery set up your work - She told me that just recently she had this experience where she let the organisers of the gallery she was showing her work in take over and set up her work for her - So when she got there, just minutes to spare from the opening show, she found that they had arranged her ceramic birds in rows, not in little clusters as she had told them. She found it very upsetting.

Overall the experience of just sitting down with someone talking about the industry I would like to explore more was very enlightening! Even showing her my work and receiving her opinion on it was good for my confidence.
When I met her in the coffee shop, she had just been shopping and showed me a little wooden bird cage she had found and asked me my opinion on it! It was a bit tattered, but beautiful in the same way, and she aims to use it in her next project. I am very grateful to her that she was so understanding and friendly about everything I needed to know.