CPD Lecture 2

Peter Cadwell

In the second week , our visiting lecturer was writer, producer and actor Peter Cadwell. Growing up in Cornwall eventually he went on to study at the " Central school of speech and drama " and was at the college to talk about his experiences in the television and film industry. a lot of the focus was on his first work as a producer, " The Fighter's Ballad " ( Dir. Ukpo T.S. 2011)  for which he was securing distribution.

I found him to be a very engaging presence, who 's experience in the theatre certainly helped him to maintain the group's attention. He was candid about the many obstacles he had to overcome in his professional career and the personal sacrifices he had to make to be able to commit to his work.

As many of us, are looking into directing, writing and producing, it was extremely helpful to have Peter tell us his stories and give us advice and tip on how to survive in the entertainment industry.

He engaged us in some worthwhile exercises, some of us were asked to pitch our ideas whilst he acted as an executive looking for new projects. He asked us individually why we were  on the course, which although seemed a bit obvious out of context here but on the day it served to be something of a challenge amongst the students.

By the time of this lecture, I had enquired about a possible PGCE placement within the college, which quite frankly I didn't think would be a possibility a few months earlier. So I had already been looking about carving myself a possible future, so although I wasn't intent on trying to get myself work within the industry straight away, I found his story extremely interesting and  in fact,  some of things he said did make me think about how important the opportunity to further my studies would be if I was offered a placement and how it may mean making some serious personal sacrifices.

Overall, I found it to be a very informative and entertaining lecture that I think gave my peers and myself a lot to think about.