USW Content Creators

A Day in the Life of a Performance and Media Student

Spend a day in the life with Maddi, a Performance and Media student, as she takes you through a typical day in the life as a USW student.

USW Content Creators Student Life
A selfie of student, Maddi, smiling and holding a takeaway coffee in Cardiff.

I’m Maddi, a second-year performance and media student at USW. Every day on my course can be different from filming projects, theatre projects and workshops. This is what a typical day in my life looks like. 

I normally wake up around 10/10:30 since our lectures start at 1pm this year. It takes me around 30 mins to get ready and within that time I brush my teeth, brush my hair and get changed. Depending on the day I either wear comfy clothes such as joggers and a hoodie but when we’re doing workshops (like we are this week) I tend to wear jeans. I then like to watch tv for a while to wake myself up ready for the day.

I live in student accommodation which is only a 5-minute walk from uni, but I like to get there early so I can sit outside and chat with my course mates before we go in, so I leave around 12:30.

This week, we have been doing a workshop on virtual production. We had to set up lighting and sound, use false colour and green screens and learn about exposure and lighting a subject. This is a very hands-on subject, as is most of our course.

Performance and media students working on a production with a green screen background.
A close up of a mic used for recording audio.
A microphone on a stand. There is a person stood near a green screen in the background.

We all got to try out each aspect of what we learned. I had fun trying out sound and using boom mics and adjusting light temperature to see how it affected the scene we were creating. This workshop lasted about 3 hours and after that, I made my way back to my accommodation.

I live with one of my best friends so when I get back, we usually go to the gym together and then around 7pm we make some food. I met my friends in my first year at our old student accommodation and we have been mates ever since. Our other friends live in a separate house in Cathays this year, so whenever we get the chance, we go up there for movie nights, going to the pub or for predrinks for a night out. 

When I am at my flat, I tend to chill and watch tv or talk with my roommates, but I also do some editing at home for my projects, so I make sure to set reminders and have allotted times to do my work before I go out. 

I really enjoy university, and I have made so many friends here. Doing small things like movie nights or a couple hours talking at a pub is a great way to get out of your head and relax in between doing uni work. When balancing uni and a social life I would always recommend setting certain times to do your work, as well as setting reminders. This helped me keep on track with the things I have to do at home with enough time to spend time with friends afterwards.

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