So everything happens to strike twelve right in front our eyes; week twelve and the time when this is due. The learning graph above provides this objective visual of my first semester learning experience in this Media course. Indeed, everything seems to be heading into the positive direction and upon reflecting on my media blog, I realise that five more semesters of this isn’t as overwhelming as it seems. Probably the biggest realisation for me is realising how broad media actually is and to recognise these four components from a visual perspective, goes to show how much I’ve grown as a media practitioner and will continue to throughout these next two and a half years.

Of course, technical skills don’t develop overnight. Prior to this course, I’ve had experience using Premiere Pro software but was a little rusty without having used it for quite a few months. Through the Haiku exercise, I was able to reinvigorate these editing skills in an abstract and simple way. I mainly focussed on using transitions and text that resonates with the beat of the background music, and experimenting with using black and white rather than colour. I’ve always had this love/hate relationship with sound in the past that I was keen on this sound interview activity. Moreover, being introduced to the Zoom H2n microphone was the first time it felt like was the beginning of what I consider; my journey to becoming a media practitioner. From this exercise, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve hired and used the mic for project briefs and for initiative projects. As we progressed from smartphones to camcorders and DSLRs, we combined camera techniques, sound and editing through an interview and in preparation for project brief three. As a result, I was particularly proud of the outcome of project brief three. With my expanded knowledge and a few weeks of practical experience, I became confident enough to utilise my skills in an initiative post on a recent overseas trip (check out Frame by Frame). With this particular week focussing on photographs (one of my favourite weeks), I decided to focus on my post-production skills in a micro sense by paying attention to even the smallest of details. As soon as project brief four rolled around, I volunteered to be the main editor for the video essay. My Split Screen post describes how this task enabled me to have a creative outlet and utilise Premiere Pro in much more complex ways. Although my technical skills have significantly improved both during production and through Premiere Pro and Audacity, I still have a lack of experience in other editing software and essential production aspects such as lighting.

Personally, professionalism has been the biggest learning curve and I’m glad that this course had put us in the deep end from the beginning. Critiquing everyone else’s PB1 and reflecting/comparing it to my own was a task that wasn’t necessarily hard itself, but rather positioning myself to be put in that mindset in order to improve and grow with future projects took some getting used to. PB2 wasn’t one of my proudest outcomes in both the video itself and my written reflection (and partially because it was a self-portrait), but I guess we all have to start from somewhere right? Once PB3 (an interview yay!) was proposed to us, I became overwhelmed by the bombardment of paperwork and being introduced by the reality and complexity of copyright in the media industry. Having worked independently for the previous weeks, PB4 reflected what I would regularly encounter as a media practitioner – being forced to work individuals you wouldn’t necessarily choose to work with. Thanks to my lucky stars, I was amongst a hardworking and dedicated group of individuals, which truly reflected in the rough cut feedback we received from Louise. Professionalism may not be the most exciting aspect of the course and I still need to adjust, but it allows me to stop once in a while to absorb the bigger picture.

Again, this would not be the most thrilling aspect of the course but studying and discussing about the conceptual/theoretical side of media was definitely some nutritious brain food for me. At first glance, I thought this was just going to be some repetition of Year twelve media, boy, how I was wrong. Week one came to me with an embrace and reassured me that my decision to study media (instead of science) was indeed the right decision (as you can check out), and discovering how much I was more of a hyper-attentive learner. As the weeks progressed, the readings became longer and at times, difficult to complete but the lectorials became more engaging and hands on in order to dissect the complexity of these various concepts. The one reading and presentation that has impacted me the greatest, is the comic book and editing presentation.  This lectorial and reading became pivotal towards how I approach editing and depict narrative in a more thought-provoking and appreciative way now. Likewise, my cinema studies posts not only impacted me the same way, but has also ruined the way I watch movies and shows (in a bitter-sweet way, of course) through the “art” of noticing. Although, this aspect of the course has blown my mind more times than expected, I do hope that the next semester will be more practical based.

The sense of my media practice would have to be my personal best and flows through my initiative posts. From my initial post,  I was able to showcase my train of thought by creatively bouncing off someone’s ideas – in this instance, Brian’s love for the eighties. The Melbourne moment exercise was when I realised that spontaneity is something I need once in a while to extend and ooze out my creativity in all forms of media (such as my “Frame by Frame” post I mentioned earlier). Since a blog isn’t restricted to a certain form, I decided to create a game post and was my first attempt to engage any of my (potential) readers or whoever just came across the post on their dashboard. My recent Bag Raider’s music review was my attempt at being more intimate in discussing something that I was passionate about and was inspired by a recent e-mail about work placement.

Ultimately, semester one has further cultivated my passion to work in the media industry and my own creative freedom. I’m looking forward to the engaging and practical aspects of this course that the studios will provide, and the work placement aspect (that I will hopefully get organised very soon!)