I finally had the strength to attend my first Media class of the semester and it was Friday afternoon’s Translating Observation. Upon arriving in class, I was relieved to see a lot of familiar faces; people I’ve worked with over the course of my degree and acquaintances that I potentially have a chance to work with.

I walked into the class reviewing group work that I have unfortunately missed out on but it was interesting to see the work that was presented, whilst listening to Robin’s feedback and my peers’ own review of their own work:

Screenshot from Exercise Two

It has been definitely productive for me to watch these videos and view how my peers’ collaboration has produced videos like these. Of course, there is a brief to follow but seeing everyone’s creative direction all mesh together makes it exciting to work with them throughout the semester.

Moving on to the practical part of the class, the operations of Sony EX-3 were also an important part of the lesson – Robin divulged into the various operations of the camera like the ND filter, the gain, peaking, brightness and contrast. These were things that I actually already knew, but hearing a cinematographer’s explanation gave me more clarity. However, putting all the theory into practice is the most necessary part of this process:

Having missed the first few classes, everyone around me was already familiar with the operations of the camera which gave me the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. The individual exercise will give me a lot of chances to discover the little bits and pieces that I need in order to be fully comfortable with the camera.

Robin also gave some really profound advice about operating a camera – and even if it is just as little as operating a camera, it really stuck to me:

“It took me nearly a lifetime to familiarise myself with the camera. This information doesn’t come to your overnight”

… or something along those lines. The reason why this stuck to me was because it took Robin years to be comfortable and master the camera, whilst we as Media students only have three months to take in as much information as we can. So it is best to soak everything in, as much as I can.

I’m looking forward to hearing more life lessons from Robin!