Today’s class was a bit of a mental challenge. The room that we were scheduled in was blistering hot which always puts a bit of a dampener on one’s ability to focus and concentrate. The arrival of camera and tripods in the class allowed me to feel motivated to really get into the groove and get the creative juices flowing.

The thing that really put this course into perspective from this class was how important collaboration is to the film industry. We were put into groups of 4/5 and told to create scenes from scripts with limits on how many shots we were able to use whilst only being able to tilt and pan our camera. Our group meshed really well and made really good creative decisions to formulate an effective scene. The final product looked cohesive and it was evident that we really put our all into it. The film industry is essentially, for the most part, one big collaboration so it really became obvious to me how great films rely on a team that not only gets along, but shares the same creative vision.

In terms of the technicality behind the camera… I was surprised to discover how relatively easy it is to shoot and playback videos, yet also unpleasantly surprised to find out how difficult it was to navigate the camera menu functions, especially deleting clips. Such a tedious process that really infuriated me/my group. If anything positive came out of this annoyance, it’s that it motivates me to attempt to get everything perfect ‘in camera’ as opposed to relying too much on post-production/scrolling through clips and deleting them.

At the conclusion of the very first class, my understanding of what ‘The Scene In Cinema’ encompasses became a lot more clear and concise. I initially believed that the throughout the semester in the studio, we as a class would be looking at different scenes from various modes of cinema and exploring the contextual ideas represented in the films, through motifs and symbolism. We would be assessed on how proficient we were at deconstructing these films through writing and discussion.

After the first class, my idea of this studio changed enormously, and for the better. I learnt that in this studio, we would be looking at the different ways that scenes are created from the foundation upwards, through the use of camera shots and other technical aspects of film. I thoroughly enjoyed in our first class how we were introduced to the HD cameras and were thrown straight into the deep end by creating and exploring a “scene” that we as students were asked to act out. This practical element allowed me, and i’m sure others, to see how different angles and camera shots create meaning in a scene. The way a scene is constructed allows the producers of the scene to control the way that the audience interprets a scene and filters what information is fed to them.

I’m feeling confident about this semester. By the end of it, I hope to have developed a range of technical skills in film making which allow me to create a number of scenes that form a cohesive body of work. By the end of semester, I want to come out with some different forms of media of substantial quality. I also want to allow me creativity to freely flow, allowing me to create my work as opposed to letting good ideas just rot away in my imagination.

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