Kanika Andrew - El Bandito

OK so we are finished, and I must say I am relieved!!! It has been a hard year but I am very pleased with the outcome of the film. So let me take you back to how it all began.......

"And the films are......Matt Fidler 'El Bandito'......Kanika Andrew 'Glitched'.....IM SORRY WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!!! mmmmm decisions decisions.

I was extremely taken back at the fact that my film had been picked, and was very humble at the fact that Mike Smith believed in my ideas and thought it had the potential to become a good short film. However me and the other members of El Bandito had always wanted to work together for the final 3rd year film. We spent the whole summer before meeting, coming up with various amounts of ideas and we had already made a decision based on what we would do if a scenario like this occurred (i just didn't think it would be me that would have to make the hard decision!!). Matt was very understanding in the sense that even though we had spoken about what we would do in a situation like this before, he made it clear that if I did want to change my mind and work on my own film he would not hold me to our previous agreement.

In the end I decided that I wanted to drop my film and work with the guys of El Bandito, and told Mike in the very first week that I would not be doing my film. However there were a few people who initially wanted to work on Glithched, Alex Bedminister, Principe Short, Natasha Monk and Mehmet Izmen. I let these people know immeadiatley that I would not be making my film, and I would be working on El Bandito; however in a strange turn of events they still wanted to make the film. I was pleased to here this and said that I would supply them with all the work which I had done for the pitch but I would not be the director of the film. So in the second week of the first term Alex took the role of Director. Throughout the year Alex had been updating as to the progress of the film and had let me know of the vast changes they had made to the story to make the filmic language receive better to the audience. I was delighted to hear that they had incorporated their own story ideas, and cared enough to make the story even better. I would just like to say thankyou to the guys at glitch (what they renamed it) and Kanika AndrewS, cannot wait to see the finish product.

So back to the Banditos! The first term was very much about getting the story right, we had everyone look over the anamatic!! Dan Dali (about 5 times), Mike Smith, even the industry lecturer from Aardman. We wanted to make sure that the story was right before we took further steps to start modelling.

Second term, this was the hardest term, mainly because of the dissertation. It took alot out of the film making process, but as a group we had timetabled in when we were going to focus on the film, and when we were going to focus on the dissertation. I don't think if it wasn't for the extreme organisational skills (particularly from Sam Harvey) and the group determination to not let the dissertation get in the way of our film, that we would have been in the moderately strong position we were in heading for term 3.

Third term, this term to was hard. Towards the end it got extremely stressful, and although there were a couple of disagreements, it never crippled the production of the film, we knew the show must go on and it showed how much passion we each had for the film we were producing. It would have been ludicrous to assume that we were all going to agree on everything all the time, and I feel that it made the final product much stronger than it would if we all sat there and did what was asked of us in silence.

All in all I had a blast working with the following guys...............Matt Fidler, Sam Harvey, Sam King, Joshua Collinson and Tony Trimmer thanks for making my last year at Ravensbourne hell...I mean a blessing!!!

Love you guys and I wish you the best in all that you do......Kaniks