Oh how this week went. After watching Cal Newport talk about how “Follow Your Passion” is a bad advice, it got me thinking on what he really meant, because I have always been following my passion. The thing is I had always wanted to do something in film and media, ever since I picked up a camera at age 10. I use to record short films on my phone back then in the lowest res quality, but I though it was an achievement because I was able to make a story come to life. I have always had a passion in the media industry. My parents being the stereotypical Asian parents have always told me to try and pursue a career of being a doctor or a lawyer, but I have always refused that path as it’s something I’ve never been interested in. I’ve always stuck to my goals, and every little thing I do, I always think as its a step closer to my goal. I have Youtube channel, even though I know my content maybe boring and definitely not appealing to the majority of the audience, but it’s one way to let my creative side out, by just simply making content. I just really like making videos, and it’s always my passion to keep going from it. So I’m exactly 100% agreeing on Cal Newport, but I can see where he is coming from. I’ve had a goal since I was very young, I have always been following it and improving myself along with it. I think the moral of the story is, never give up on your goals, no matter hard it is. Push through it and think of ways on how it can be done, because nothing is impossible, don’t let your dreams be dreams. Now I just sound like Shia Labeouf. But to be honest, that speech a couple of years ago, even though it’s a great meme, it was actually pretty motivating.

One thing about me is I’m a huge Jpop Idol fan. Although I don’t follow many groups in the idol industry, the ones I do follow, I follow to a point of worshiping them. For those who don’t know, Idols are basically pop stars, usually in the Japanese or Korean music industry. However it’s not just limited to them, other countries throughout Asia have them as well, its just that Japanese and Korean are the more noticeable ones. Idols are usually presenting as pure celebrities, meaning they can’t be a scandal or even be involved in a relationship. Because idols are for the fans and their fantasy. Every idol is required to meet the requirements of being pure, although there are some exceptions to some idols. Why do I love idols? Well maybe because their music is catchy, or maybe because of the cute girls, but honestly I kind of just love the culture and sometimes the fanbase. I’ve been to an idol concert, in fact I’m the picture above. I’ve been to screenings with other idol fans and cheered the group with many other fans. Honestly its the fandom which I can get behind, because the majority of us are so supportive to them, we feel like we’re part of the group, because we can also make the concert a show by using the penlights to light up and chant in rhythm with the singing.

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about Idols all of a sudden. Because in our Media lectorial a couple of weeks ago, we talk about how media is everywhere and influences us. Idols are part of the media industry, the media wants to present them as pure celebrities, we can always look up to and not worry about a scandal, because they bring smiles to our hearts. But also Idols have a lot roles to play as well, besides singing, they are often asked to participate in many other activities, such as advertisement and game shows. Because Media is everywhere and it got me thinking, Media is also within other Media, and the cycle can just continue.

So in week one we talked a lot about hyper and deep attention, and it got me thinking on where I fit in this category. I remember growing up I have always been Hyper attention. I remember during the days after school, my mum will always tell me to do my homework straight away. I would do them, however I would never do it in silence, because when the room is just quiet and there is no sound to be heard, it just bothers me and I cannot focus properly. Maybe it’s because I have a short attention span, I usually can get bored quite easily. So I would always turn the tv on, and have some music playing in the background. I know right, you’re probably asking yourself, how could this guy focus on his work when all these noise and distractions are playing. Well it’s true I do get distracted sometimes, but I’m able to multitask efficiently with entertaining myself while also boring my self with homework. I could never really get down to focusing on one task at hand. I remember the days where I would have to write essays in silent, and I would literally get bored and start dozing off while writing it. However, with the addition of something playing in the background, I was able to finish properly. Even in Lectorials now, I sometimes can’t focus properly, unless I’m checking the time every once in awhile and pretending to sing a song in my head. I try to resist the urge to check social media, but it’s just a part of me now, so I’m always checking it up. I think with growth of social media, most people tend to be hyper attentive, because it’s now just in the palms of our hands, considering the majority of us have phones.

So I came to class a bit late today, I miss out on the reading discussions.

So today was finally the last day for us to get feedback on our project brief 2 self portrait. We were all able to share what we have created and able to give feedback to each other. The point of this workshop was to let us show our finish product, although finished is an understatement. Because of the criticism and suggestions we got from each other, most of us, if not all of us went back to our editing timeline and made the few adjustments we heard from our fellow peers. I myself enjoyed my criticism and they were able to answer the problems I had with my self portrait. So I went back to Premiere Pro and began editing and touching up the parts my fellow classmates picked up on. With clock ticking down on our first assessment, I can already feel some pressure towards my last minute touch ups before submitting.

In this week’s media lectorial we were more guided into the world of media. We didn’t really learn anything too new. Instead were given tips and advice on how to approach media for our future careers. A video was shown to us in the lectorial. It was a video of Cal Newport using Steve Job’s advice of “Follow your passion” in a negative way. He explained how “Follow you passion” is not a god advice. Why was it not a good advice? He was simply stating the fact not many people who have passion by then, so there is no passion to follow. How could we follow something, when there’s nothing to follow. I like how he went on to explain it’s not where you start, but where you go from where you are at. He even made Steve Jobs sound hypocritical, as he mention that Apple was just another tech company to Steve Jobs, but it blew up in a big way, and from that he was able to keep working on from that, which in turn became his passion. At first Apple was not Steve Job’s passion, it was merely a stepping stone.

Even though this talk about “Following your passion” is a bad advice. It’s really only. Bad advice if you have nothing to follow and have no idea where to start. I know many people in my family and friends who still don’t know what they are looking for even after completing high school. I for one was lucky and found media as my passion when Inwas young. I simply picked up a camera when I was 11 years old and started filming. It was from that, I discovered my passion for media and film making.

I can agree to some degree with what Cal Newport said that “Follow your passion” is a bad advice, but then I have to disagree to some parts. Because following your passion is a good advice after you found it.

In week 3 of our workshop we spend the seminar watching previous years workshop and analyzing our own rough cuts. We watched some completely different self portraits. Some very dramatic to artistic ones. When I compared them to my own, I was very disappointed….at my own work that is. I was looking at mine very rough cut and saw I don’t really have some of the creative touches the ones we saw in class. So after looking at my own, I decided to pretty much scrap it and re shoot some of the shots. I rewrote the script and planned ahead on what I wanted to shoot, rather than just having random shots for the video. After getting some feedback from my classmates, I decided on what I wanted to do for the self portrait. So it was nice having been able to see previous years work, because I definitely got inspired by them. I may not be as artistic as them, but I like to do something with a simple look, but can make it fun and still enjoyable to watch.

As for last week in our Media Lectorial we were given an in depth tip into the world of editing. It was nice to learn how editing can be used for various things in media. And changing meanings behind simple editing could create a whole new meaning into a piece of work. We learnt things such as a obvious edit, when we saw a picture of a potato and then Donald Trump signifying the two as similar beings. Then we learnt about smooth invisible cuts, in one of the film sequence that we watched, it showed smooth transition between the characters and position, there will always be a specific spot the characters will be standing all for continuinity.  We also watched two different films of the same genre and setting. Both of them were about cowboys robbing a train cart. However the old one was just shot from one angle and there wasn’t too much suspense. The second one showed a lot of different cuts and shots and with the added music showed a lot more suspense. From that we were able to see how editing has effected film throughout the decades.