What do you understand this Studio to be about?  What do you hope to get from it?  What skills, perspective and/or understandings would you like to have developed by the end of this semester?

As a Professional Communications student, I am definitely very new to the Media side of things. When it came time to choose a studio to participate in over the semester, the amount of options on offer left me slightly bewildered and lost as to what I should choose. Being my first major step into the media world, I decided to choose my studio based on questions and scenarios that i’d found myself deliberating when interacting with films and other media content in the past.

I decided on The Scene in Cinema as my studio, because not only am I appreciative of the aesthetic qualities of film, but I have found myself becoming increasingly interested in the technicalities of shots. The decision processes that are undertaken which lead to the visuals we see on screen are also intriguing to me. I often find myself wondering what creative brainstorming took place that lead to a pan, a bird’s eye view or a tracking shot. Is it because of financial reasons? Artistic expression? The amount of time available to actually shoot an interaction? These type of questions are what made this studio, and it’s investigation into coverage, stand out for me. I endeavour to find some sort of answers over the next 12 weeks, gaining an insight into the reasons why a director may choose to film from a certain angle or maneuver the camera in a unique way.

I also hope to refresh myself, and learn new skills in the technical aspects of using a camera. Most of the filming I’ve done in the past has been on a Canon DSLR, or small, handheld cameras, so using the larger equipment in class has been an eye opening experience. By the end of the semester I aim to learn the skills necessary to feel like I can make interesting and unique cinematic choices, leading to the production of work that I can feel proud of. I also hope that my work will show an advancement in my abilities over the semester.