On Monday 29th February, we all got an extra day. Some may have used it to meet up with friends, or catch up on work they were behind in. But for approximately 70 fresh-faced university students and I, it was our first lectorial to signify the beginning of a three year bachelor of Media.

 If the confusing public transport and hordes of milling people in the streets didn’t lead you astray, you were off to a good start. I decided that just to be sure I was on time, I’d leave home for this 10:30am start at 7:45, leading to a good two hours of purposeless wandering through the halls of RMIT. But I digress.

We were initially greeted by a classic music video, before being asked to write down a list of ten things we wished to be, achieve, know or do before the completion of our degree. My list was as follows:

  • Be able to create engaging narratives of all genres and be able to adapt these into films. I’ve always struggled with coming up with original ideas for narrative type scripts, this inability manifesting itself into often months long periods of attempting to come up with an idea before finally giving up and creating something unoriginal or ‘bland’. To then take an idea and make it into an engaging story from start to finish, with interesting character or story arcs, a gripping introduction and a conclusion that leaves the audience with a sense of finality on top of that? It has always been to me a whole other beast that I have yet to be able to tackle confidently. I hope that this degree will better equip me to come up with and then flesh out my ideas into fully realised scripts, whether through my classes or just through pure experience and trial & error.
  • Be able to create documentaries, narratives and music videos. These three genres / types are what most interest me currently in regard to what I want to film and create, so I want to eventually have the skills to become better at planning and creating them. I’m hoping that through learning and practice I can eventually choose which of the three (or a completely different path entirely) would best suit me to specialise in once I move on from university.
  • Be better at working independently. Though I always excelled at school, I often depended on others to initially ‘set me off’ before I could do any work by myself. What I mean by this is that I often need an idea of what direction others are going with work or projects to then figure out what it is I should be doing. I also often require prompting to then actually do my work. I’m hoping that the utter freedom university gives you over your own learning will spur me on to take some initiative and grow more confident in starting and doing work by myself to a time constraint.
  • Do a student exchange and possibly a study tour. Travel is one of my major passions alongside film. I’ve been to a couple of different overseas locations and adored every moment and plan on taking every possibly opportunity to extend myself and learn more about the world around me and beyond by studying in vastly different ‘worlds’ to my own. I think also, that perhaps the independent nature of a student exchange (going to another country by yourself) would take me out of my comfort zone and give me chance to grow.
  • Be more confident in my use of programs for media creation and more proficient in film making processes and editing processes. While I’m by no means tech-phobic, my proficiency in many programs used in media creating and editing is somewhat basic. If I want to excel in this field I need to further my skill and knowledge across as many different programs as offered and learn new ways to make and do things to diversify my films and work also.
  • Be able to be more innovative and original in my ideas and work. Originality in ideas, as I mentioned in my first goal, is a big struggle. I’ve found myself whipped into a script writing frenzy before, and upon re-reading my work realise that I’ve just rewritten the plot to ‘Good Will Hunting’ or some other work that already exists. Beyond just script writing though, I want to be able to edit and use equipment in an innovative way that doesn’t just involve ‘basic’ processes and shot types (e.g. my rudimentary colour correcting, shot reverse shot for conversations, etc.). My favourite film makers think outside the box and do things differently, I aspire to do the same.
  • Know how to engage and network with the outside (business) world effectively. While I’m a relatively confident person, in professional situations I get stage fright and revert to a quiet, shy person with very little to add to conversation. I want to develop my presenting skills and be able to connect with professionals and be able to network and communicate with them in a manner that will get me ahead rather than being the thing to hold me back.
  • Be able to broaden my horizons academically and socially. One of the main things about this course is that I’m open to everything. I want to be challenged, to relearn what I have already learnt, to expand my critical thinking and skill set. I also want to meet and get to know as many people as possible, both for the social factor (after all, how many people tell you that the best people you will ever meet will be at university?) and in a rather ambitious sense, as we all learn that the people you study with often become the people you network and collaborate with later in life.
  • Know that I have involved myself in as many co-curricular activities as possible to stretch my knowledge and skills. I never really participated in an awful lot in high school and for more personal than professional or academic gain, I’m eager to not repeat that mistake.
  • Take all opportunities to gain experience. I want to be able to appear well versed and experienced to those that could potentially employ me, and just build my skills and knowledge in a hands on way rather than letting opportunities slide like I have done previously.

Overall, I think I’m in for an interesting 3 years to come. Hopefully as this blog continues my documented journey will somewhat demonstrate the achievement of many, if not all of these goals set out.