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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Sharon Odams - My Story
by Sharon Odams
I decided to embark on a new career about three years ago. Making the decision and being in a position to be able to act on it were two completely different things, and were separated by about nine months, but since then I have been working as an aspiring screenwriter and film director (www.sharonodams.com) – and having much more fun.
They say that life is meant to come more easy when you focus on what you want to do for a career, rather than what you feel you have to do. I've found that in reality, most of the challenges are much the same: making a name for yourself, making contacts, building a reputation. I'm now 36, currently based in High Wycombe, still single and transitioning from being an IT Project Manager to my new and far more exciting and interesting career. The transition has been somewhat forced recently with the plunge in world economics. The IT freelance market is extremely tough at the moment. Where possible, I still work sometimes with large corporate customers, such as Orange, Boots and Ofcom as a freelance project manager, and in various other guises, mainly to support my efforts in the film industry. How I got there in the first place, as an IT Project Manager, is another story altogether. My father went over to Brazil in the 1960s and wooed my mother with his singing talents, creating what is still today a pop cult band in Brazil – The Galaxies – which my mother joined. He brought her back to the UK, and I was born a few years later in Alton, Hampshire, and started school in Iver, Buckinghamshire. I actually met my favourite teacher the other day whilst helping out backstage with the local pantomime. She remembered me, and my best friends at the time – I was 'Tarzan' (apparently she caught me swinging from the curtains one time), my friends were 'Muscles' (she was tiny in comparison with me – I'm almost 6 foot) and Woody Woodpecker (she has a fantastic laugh) – from more than 25 years ago. I'm not entirely clear what type of impression I made at the time. From there I went on to Langley Grammar School with an almost entirely scientific education. Drama and the arts were poorly represented at the time, although I did do my Art GCSE (I was the second year that did GCSEs) and we did a number of musicals through the school. I thoroughly enjoyed being in them, but it didn't really occur to me at the time to pursue it. My calling, I thought, and heavily influenced by my teachers, was elsewhere. The first real goal I had was to be the first woman fighter pilot. That was never to be due to mild asthma - and a lady called Jo Salter who beat me to it in Britain - so instead I did a degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Hertfordshire (Hatfield Polytechnic). It seemed a good idea, although I was never entirely convinced that it was what I'd always wanted to do. I thought I could support the pilots in the air, rather than actually fly the planes and helicopters. It's still a dream to fly a helicopter - and I have, on my own, for a grand total of about five seconds: a Robinson R22 helicopter. I graduated in 1995 with a 2/1 Bachelor of Engineering with Honours, and promptly turned down jobs at British Aerospace and the Defence Research Agency (as it was then) to continue a more lucrative and faster-paced career in IT. Since then, I worked in IT project management, doing training courses and qualifications such as PRINCE2 and MSP, working with large corporates and start-up companies. I did an MBA through the Open University whilst working, and started a company called Action International. It's a franchise business coaching company which originated in Australia, and is still going strong. But I still wasn't doing what I really wanted - there was a pestering artistic imp inside. I loved watching lots of films and reading. I went to an Anthony Robbins Life Mastery event, and finally got the courage to work out what I really wanted to do. The answer was unexpected - write and direct films that help bring peace to people through stories that are interesting and funny. I love laughing, there's no better thing - and it does seem to bring people together. Perhaps it gets to the centre of what life is really about. No point in hanging around. I made the quickest change possible and went to Los Angeles. I enrolled at LA Film School and did a total immersion course for a year. It was brilliant: hands-on, practical film-making right from day one when they put a movie camera in your hands. For someone who'd hardly touched one before, it was daunting. But brilliant fun! The first three months was about doing everything - including producing, editing, sound design, cinematography. Then you chose the subjects to specialise in. I wanted to carry on doing all of them, but in the end I picked screenwriting, directing and production design. I wanted to stay on after the year in the US – there's a lot of exciting stuff going on there in much higher volume than in the UK - but sadly I couldn't get a visa. Back in the UK I did freelance work as an IT project manager till August 08, then moved into script supervising. My theory is that as script supervisor (continuity), I can sit next to, watch and learn from the best directors in the business whilst I go up the career ladder in screenwriting and directing. Hmmm - still a little way to go. I've shot a number of shorts, some finished, some in bits (that may sound familiar to other filmmakers). The latest is called ‘Chances (www.chancesthemovie.co.uk, and on IMDB at www.imdb.com/title/tt1358548/). My first feature is in production - I Shaved my Legs for This…?! (www.ishavedmylegsforthis.co.uk) - about trials and tussles in courtship today. It's a light look at one girl's despair about men. Some of the similarities between the author's experiences and the feature film are probably no coincidence. I've finished - well, screenplays are never really finished till they're in the theatre - two feature screenplays. Thief Taker General is a dramatic look at London's first 18th Century crime lord. Saxophones And Golf Clubs is about dealing with bullying from school once you're grown up - and faced with your old enemies. I'm currently writing The Mission. It's sci-fi, with an underlying theme around positive mental attitude and 'The Secret'. Over the past year, I've discovered passions for photography and writing, and really want to develop as a writer - in screenplays, books, and articles. I've enrolled to do an MA in screenwriting for film and tv at Royal Holloway University, London, which will complete in 2011. Finding the motivation, and perhaps the discipline, to write can prove extremely difficult. I'm a bit uninspired by where I live, so I'm moving down to Devon (it's also slightly warmer). But where I live now there are good friends who I'll miss terribly by moving away. And - typically as you can imagine, girls - just when I'm about to leave, my love life suddenly starts getting interesting! I love the countryside. Well actually I love greenery, and preferably with mountains - with ski lifts, and white fluffy snow. But any kind of countryside brings calm; creativity seems to soar in that more natural environment. (A friend suggested it would be easier to sit in a garden-centre café.) Certainly getting out of the house helps with writer's block (not that I've had any - so far). Julia Cameron's work has really helped to me to move in the right direction, and feel more OK with allowing myself to follow the dream. Speaking of which, we're getting ready to head off to the south of France. The big one. To promote 'I Shaved my Legs for This...?!' for the next round of investment. Next stop - Cannes. END(c) Sharon Odams 27 February 2009
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012