“In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. You may rethink this dramatically – this is a good thing.”  You were asked this at the beginning of the semester. Now, could you review constructively what you got from this semester –  has the course lived up to your expectations, delivered what you expected, maybe even surpassed it?

“As with Film-TV 1, I wish to continue to expand my filmmaking knowledge exponentially with its follow up this semester.  I’m looking extremely forward to creating a documentary, and would like to employ much more artistic and creative expressions than that of the narrative film in the previous semester.  Although undetermined as to the subject of documentary I will be involved in creating, it appears that although there will perhaps be much more planning be done before the shoot, the shoot itself should be completed much more efficiently; an area I’d like to improve upon for this second film.  As director in the previous project, I learned much from the experience, and is a role I would be happy to take on once more, however, it could potentially be more beneficial for myself to work more with the technical equipment on camera or audio, to further expand my knowledge with the process.  I’d also like to take a more hands-on role throughout the editing process, having gained some confidence tweaking our last project.”

In many ways, this course exceeded my hopes and expectations for it, however as it comes to a close I do feel I could have achieved greater gains from it.  I found the documentary process highly engaging and enjoyed the opportunity to work independently on it, without the need of a large crew to organise during shooting.  Not having others to assist at these times was difficult in stages, yet at the same time highly beneficial towards my independence working as a filmmaker and using a variety of equipment and overcoming hurdles as they appeared.  I have also had a larger role editing the final piece than in our film of last semester.  I feel much more comfortable navigating and using the editing software of Premiere Pro, and when I don’t know how to do something am able to learn from others or research solutions to any problems with the software I encounter online.

Though our final film is still in its final stages of production, I do feel I would have liked to take a more creative and abstract approach to it, as I had originally envisioned, however being our first attempt at creating a documentary, I think it’s not a bad first effort.  Throughout the semester, I’ve become much more confident in using the SLR cameras more than the EX3 or Z7, and I’m unsure of whether this is an issue or not, as the tutorials were often devoted to explaining how to use the larger video cameras.  In future documentary filmmaking, I would definitely take on board these queries I hold and ensure to use the EX3 or Z7, so I can continue to develop my abilities with these better suited forms of equipment.