This semester I have learnt so many new things. Last year at school, when editing my final year 12 media studies film I used final cut pro on mac, which is similar to premiere but not the same. This is why it took me a while to navigate around the program and use all the tools as affective as possible. When I look back on my PB2 video, I think it’s boring and and plain with no excitement and it doesn’t define me whatsoever. The main reason for this is because I read the criteria and followed the exact amounts of video clips, still images and sounds that were required. It wasn’t until I watched other people in my class’s videos that I realized that was just the basis of things I had to include. If I had known this I would have made it so much more exciting, used heaps more videos, images and edited it as creative as possible; which I know I can now do. I didn’t know that ‘archive.org’ existing which I know is so sad and pathetic to admit but it’s true. My pb2 was essentially just a pathetic little slide show that looked like it was just thrown together at the last minute. It makes me so annoyed because I could have made it so much more ‘me’ which is what the criteria required. It makes me happy though because comparing my pb2 to my pb3 shows how much I developed in my skills and approaches to tasks. It makes me excited because it will only get better from here.

I am very much a visual and kinesthetic learner. With regard to projects or assignments, I find it’s a lot easier when I see previous examples. I can then see what the expectations are and what I can actually do, and provides me with some sort of guidance when completing mine. I’m really good at (in the most modest way possible) thinking of ideas when it comes to assignments (depending what they are but PB’s for example) so when I’m given an example one, I am good at using it as a tool rather than something to copy. For PB3’s documentary for example we watched three examples from last year’s media 1 class in lectorial. I loved this because it allowed me to visual see rather than just read from the criteria sheet what the task consisted of and what I was allowed to achieve. I then went home that night and planned out my video based on the layout of the three videos we watched and their structure. This is evident when comparing my PB3 to the ones from last year we watched in class, because they are entirely different with different camera shots, angles, cut away shots, topics and settings, even though I used theirs as a basis for mine.

The most challenging aspect in the course this semester would have to be the first two weeks in general. It was such an incredibly huge step from school in terms of the layout, structure, work load, programs and expectations. I didn’t properly settle in and get my bearings until about week 6.

After completing this semester and the activities within it I have realized my creativity lies in quite a few places.

I have discovered that now that I know how to use premiere and navigate my way around it that part lies within editing. I felt especially with my PB3 it was evident that the use of cut away shots were so necessarily placed in where they were, and the way I was able to show some of her talking and cut away to a shot relating to what she was saying with her dialogue playing over the top was engaging to audiences. I found this when we showed our PB3’s in tutorial, a mini screening, and everyone (or those who spoke to me) thought it was engaging due to the fast paced edits and use of cut away shots.

After completing PB3, my creativity also lies in camera work, and choosing specific shots that intertwine or reflect with the context of what I am creating. For example, there was one shot in particular in my PB3 documentary, a slow paced, downwards pan shot of music sheets hanging from the wall and markings on the wall of the kid’s height over the years. Although this looked like just a random cut away shot to fill up time, but it worked so beautiful with what my subject was discussing. My subject spoke about loving her family and her family values etc. and as she was doing so, this shot was included as it reflected her family and the chaotic yet beautiful family values within her house.

In PB3 my cut away shots were engaging because they weren’t all found footage; majority were from footage I took myself of aspects that really related well with what my subject was saying.

I have always had a passion for making short films and video clips, but after PB2 I really wasn’t sure if this was still the case after not putting my own creative interpretation on the instructions and completing the bare minimum required. However, after PB3 I was so incredibly happy with it and I enjoyed it so much I immediately wanted to do it again, reassuring myself that I still do in fact have that passion.