FLASHBACK FRIDAY!

In 2001 I left my secure job in a pensions office with what was then Abbey National (now Santander) and began an HND in Television Operations and Production at what was then Glasgow College of Building & Printing (Now City of Glasgow College)

I had left Uni four years before, had got nowhere on the media path and felt I was destined for a career that I really didn't want in pensions, and so had taken the bull by the horns.

It was probably the best thing I've ever done in terms of my career, I was getting paid commissions before I left, I left with the course prize for best student, and it set me on the path I'm on now, making a decent enough living at a job that for the most part I love.

I'm posting a film I shot for my course-mate and pal Stewart McPherson who was directing. I was able to concentrate on the look of the thing rather than the narrative, and able to contribute a lot more visually, in terms of locations etc, and started to find my feet with the ENG cameras we were given to use in second year. It's far from my best work, but it was an early instance of feeling that actually, I might be on the right path, that I might be able to go somewhere with this...

I would say to any young person trying to get a start in the industry that they could do a lot worse than a vocational course at a good technical college; my degree did nothing for me at all, any doors that have opened for me can be traced back to the GCBP. Not dissing degrees as a concept, just talking from my own experience.

My time at GCBP was a very happy and productive time, restoring a very battered confidence, and gave me a fantastic grounding to keep learning.

I can't thank those who taught me enough: George Neilson, John McKenzie, Bill Kirkwood, George Muir, Dave Burns, Cliff Martin, the folks who I studied along side, some of whom I still count as close friends, and of course my Mum & Dad who were benevolent, supportive and encouraging throughout.