Final blog post
The three months of this semester have been truly enlightening. Learning and creating individually and collaboratively offered a wonderfully dynamic and engaging working environment that both helped develop new skills and also created a close and supportive cohort. Albeit the obvious, the main thing to take away from this semester is the ability to create media. Starting with a non-graded project allowed students to find their footing, whilst also illustrating the general composition of further project briefs. What was produced in aforementioned project to what is being produced now is night-and-day in quality. Staying very much on the safe side in the first few weeks didn’t allow for much creativity, rather, I simply followed criteria. As the semester continued however, inevitably more risks were taken as the process of filming and editing became far less intimidating. This improvement led perfectly to the collaboration process, which, for myself, was the most edifying experience in the course. It was the perfect forum to learn from peers whilst was also very beneficial for us as media practitioners — becoming accountable to others rather than just yourself.
The start of the semester saw me frantically attempting to make copious notes on the lectures, never fully engaging with the content. As the semester continued however, I began to allow myself to absorb what was taught, engaging as opposed to simply writing. It was this moment that the content began to click for me. I began to recap the lectures in my reflective portfolios, which were key to my understanding of the content. I felt, at times, I was lazy with the blog posts, dot pointing and skimming content, perhaps overwhelmed by the amount of writing I had to undertake throughout the semester. My organisational skills were pivotal to my learning process, leaving things to the last minute was something I quickly changed, and once I did the quality of what was being produced soon improved. The environment of the tutorials was very conducive to engaging with and learning the content for the semester; it was reassuring to know my peers were facing the same struggles I was.
The most challenging aspect of this course, for me, was time control. I struggled many times to keep up with the content and finishing all areas to a degree in which I was satisfied. The blog posts, unfortunately, felt the brunt throughout busier weeks. I struggled to write quality posts as the weeks continued; my strongest posts were, surprising, earlier in the course. Another aspect of the course I struggled in was pushing myself. I felt I could have experimented at times with different media and technologies to produce greater pieces of work. That being said however, the collaborating process really enlightened me about new and interesting forms of editing and filming.
Throughout this semester I have learnt that it is okay to take risks as challenging yourself is inevitable for improvement and growth in the duration of the course. I have also realised I can be creative and innovative with the right resources and time allotted. Ultimately, this semester has illustrated my ability to create and think differently and originally either individually or collaboratively.
