I was absent from the first 2 weeks of class this semester so did not complete a formal goals/desires blog post. However, I did come into Film and TV 2 with a strong desire to familiarise myself with the camera. I had as yet, had nothing much to do with operating the camera through Film and TV 1 and Broadcast media and I wanted to finish up my degree with as much knowledge as I could in setting up and operating the camera.
I am really happy with the progress I have made. I now have an understanding of all the steps I must go through before pressing record (White Balance, Exposure, Gain, Focus etc) – which makes me feel a lot more competant! That being said, a lot of the routine of setting up got thrown out the window when shooting on the fly with our documentary subject. I took out the X3 and the Z7 early on in semester to play with the camera at home then I managed most of the filming on location for the documentary – something that would have been hugely daunting for me last semester. I can go forward knowing I have the basic skills required to further experiment and play with filming and hopefully be of use in a professional setting in the future!

I had also wanted to take advantage of the resources available to us at RMIT like access to the Lynda tutorials and ensuring I was involved in the editing process- gaining skills in Premiere Pro. I have found the Lydna tutorials really useful and wish I had time to watch more of them. As it was the “Documentary Editing with Premier Pro” was hugely helpful in making cutting a rough cut together an efficient process, particularly learning that I could scrub through footage in the thumbnails and being more relaxed about just grabbing the basic idea of something. It was also prompted me to focus on cutting together a visual story first and then worrying about the narrative. This goes against every instinct I have but i think sped progress along and gave me a framework to bare in mind when it came to editing the narrative (how much footage vs narrative we have to work with etc.)

My goals for this semester were quite simple: I wanted to work on someone else’s idea to enable me to consentrate on enhancing my technical and practical skills. After writing the script in Film and TV1 I wasn’t ever able to step away from worrying about the story and focus on other things so it was nice to have the opportunity to acquire new skills. I also wanted to make sure I was involved in the editing process because I hadn’t had the opportunity time wise to contribute anything of any use last semester to the process. I am happy with the progress I have made through the semester and am looking forward to developing my skills further in future projects!

 This semester I would like to gain better experience with the technical side of production as well as follow through on writing and have the courage to actually apply proper effort and not shy away due to a fear of failure. In Particular:

Develop my proficiency using a camera

• take time to conceive and frame shots/ consider white balance and focus and maximise the potential of a shot.
• if someone else is responsible for the camera be mindful of what they’re doing rather than  denying myself a passive learning experience.
• actively involve myself in the areas I feel less competent so I can learn.

Don’t allow lack of effort to be an excuse to fail, or even to not succeed to the extent I would like to.

• Dedicate an appropriate amount of time to play with ideas and give my imagination room to move
• write proactively so as not to end up doing a “rush job”

Recognise when I need to work to achieve other people’s vision and engage in that and enjoy the process. 

LOOKING BACK

I have really enjoyed Film and TV1. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve been able to enjoy the technical aspects of film. I appreciated the consistent attention we gave to learning skills in the tutorials and lectures. It was great to have the opportunity to revisit things the next week to solidify the process in our memory.

I think I did a good job with taking the opportunity to learn about other roles than my own by observation. I would have liked to learn more about lighting and editing but with the lighting it was a case of needing to let people do what they had to to get things done. The editing was poor time management and, my experience so far has been that for the most part it’s a one man job. We weren’t very productive when it was an edit by committee situation and Kai did a fantastic job of bringing our film together. I’m hoping next semester I can be more involved in that aspect.

I have really loved this course but it has been a bit overwhelming in terms of workload. I think I burnt myself out a little bit so that by the time filming was over I didn’t have the energy I would have liked to have to put into post production. That I think is probably just a reality of the course, that a lot of work needs to be done combined with my not knowing how to alleviate time pressures else where to give myself the proper time to work on Film and TV.

Going forward It would be nice to have a more comprehensive list of the assessment and due dates for everything that needs to be done through semester. I found on several occasions this semester assessment pieces/deadlines took me by surprise and it was more difficult to give things the attention I would have liked to because I wasn’t able to map it out in advance.