MISSY MCNAUGHT
Film | BA Filmmaking
How did you find out about Transitions?
I found out about Transitions through the director of a youth theatre group I attended.
When did you get involved with Transitions?
In 2019, I successfully applied to become a Transitions student and then, with the help of Transitions, I earned a place on the Junior Conservatoire Filmmaking course in 2020.
What was the most useful thing you learned about your artform and yourself?
You must be able to share your work with others. I have often found it difficult to allow people to read my scripts or struggled to share my ideas with them. Art can be very personal, and it is very easy to get into your head about what other people will think of it. In the past I have let anxiety about other people’s opinions of my work get in the way of me doing what I want to do. The most important thing I have learnt is that you will never please everyone and trying to will only cause you unnecessary stress! Using feedback to inform your work is helpful but allowing fears of what other people might think of it to dictate your choices is not. Having confidence in your work is important. Throughout my time with Transitions, I have grown more confident with sharing my work and I have seen that being able to collaborate with others is vital to improving.
Why should someone think about joining Transitions?
A lot of people are hesitant to go into the creative arts and it can be extremely daunting, especially if you don’t feel like you have the means or opportunities to be successful in it. Joining Transitions gives you the support to experience what studying your art form is like and can give you the confidence, guidance and knowledge you need to pursue your aspirations. Transitions can help to expand your understanding of the creative arts as a whole, one of my favorite things about the opportunities they offer is that they are often interdisciplinary, and you are able to watch performances, take part in projects and meet performers from art forms out with your own. Transitions are there to help you navigate the application process to RCS if you wish to apply to study there, It was through the opportunities and support Transitions has provided me with that my confidence in myself and my work has grown and I have been able to gain experience that was vital to my successful application to the BA Filmmaking course!
What is one piece of advice would you give to any current student on Transitions?
My advice to current Transitions students is to make the most of every opportunity! Watch as many performances as you are able to and take part in as many projects and activities as you can, everything I did through Transitions helped me to improve my filmmaking. Even performances or activities that seem unrelated to your artform can give you inspiration and there are still many transitions experiences I refer back to for ideas! Get to know as many other Transitions students as you can because you never know what could come from it! There will be lots of students in a similar position to you and you could learn a lot from them, having creative friends to discuss ideas with, collaborate with and get feedback from is really helpful and being surrounded by like-minded people in Transitions is a brilliant opportunity to make them!
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently within your time with Transitions?
There isn’t much I would change about my time with Transitions, but I would make sure to take more opportunities to go to performances! It is only now that I have not been able to see as many live performances that I have realised just how much I was influenced by the experience. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have gone on many more performance trips and been more open-minded about the type of performances I went to see, some of my favourite performances I saw with Transitions were ones I didn’t necessarily expect to like. One of my favourite Transitions memories was when I took part in a performance myself with two other transitions students from different art forms, trying things out with my comfort zone and collaborating with other students is something else I would do more of.
If you’d like to find out more about how to apply for Transitions, visit our pages on ‘How to Apply’ here.
