Why Travel?
James Heads For Oz!
10 November 1999

So why did I decide to resign from my position at Universal Pictures International (UPI) and travel?

Reason in a nutshell to travel

I don't feel I have to justify my leaving the UK to travel, but to some, my departure may have seemed somewhat inopportune given my recently acquired position at Universal and my prospective career there.

So, I will explain anyway, just so you all know the bigger picture.

I joined UPI back in September of 1996, straight from university. UPI, or Universal Pictures International, was formally known as PolyGram Film International (PFI). The first year was great as was the start of the second, but then Philips (the company who owned PolyGram Holdings) decided in their infinite wisdom to sell us. After a lot of hankering and shuffling forward and back, PolyGram was finally sold to Seagram (owners of Universal Studios). The whole sale was a sham from start to finish, as Seagram never really wanted the film and distribution side of PolyGram being that they already had United International Pictures to distribute their own films.

They reluctantly took us on anyway and we continued to work (more or less) as normal, as UPI. However, things weren't quite the same as before. When the company was structured under Philips, we had virtual autonomy on how the company was run. Now we had big brother in the US looking over our shoulder at every move. So of course things changed, and it was at this time I realised that I was no longer entirely comfortable working where I was and despite a couple of promotions I felt it time to leave before everything ended badly.

In hindsight, of course, I would have to say it was a good move resigning in October of 1999. Sadly, in January of this year, UPI was closed down.

But the question still lingers... "why move to Australia and travel"?

I had decided at this stage, given my age (then 25), that I wasn't getting any younger and that before plunging head long into another job/career, it might be the perfect time to re-appraise exactly what it was I wanted to do in the future. In addition to this, I was secretly very envious of the two years my brother had spent travelling in South America. With these rationales in mind, I decided that travelling for a year was what I wanted to do.