What would I like to get out of Exploding Genre? I would absolutely love to walk away with a better understanding of directorial as a practise. I have always loved musical theatre but have never really been into the movie musical because movie musicals are always trying to wrap something slightly absurd in a medium we almost exclusively associate with realism. This Semester in Exploding Genre, I have decided to study the movie musical. I think movie musicals are extremely complex from a technical perspective but also have the ability to be profoundly moving.

I would really love to hone my skills in colour. Really nailing the construction of colour within the frame and I think colour is a really important aspect of the musical genre. I know that colour is probably one of the easiest elements of filmmaking to overlook, and I know I have definitely overlooked it’s significance in my own work. I would love to keep studying the effect that different colour looks have on the final film and even how using coloured light can influence the emotional undercurrent of a scene. I’m not sure how I would form an exegesis around a musical film because it would require original source material, but I’m kind of excited to tackle that, assuming the musical is the genre I get to study for the semester.

As for the technical, I would love the opportunity to use “real” lights in a film environment. I’ve spent a lot of time around cheap fluorescent bulbs packed into floodlight assembly from a bunnings somewhere but I’d really love to use some real lighting kit this semester.