Week 4 passed by and I felt so much better about where the course was headed. It just kept getting better and better. I’ve been down with a hectic fever for the past few weeks. Feeling weak and unmotivated, the Media 3 class was around the corner and I had to pace myself to try to keep up with whatever was coming my way. I won’t lie, I did have trouble paying attention to my morning lectures due to sickness; but somehow knowing that paul and robin’s classes always tend to get students up on their feet and keep their hands busy doing exercises, I knew I had no choice but to toughen up and get to it!

Unfortunately, since i’ve missed out on a few classes, I was not present for the actual shoot. So I wasn’t well aware of what to expect. Robin displayed several outtakes of everyone’s work. I was actually really impressed to see how my colleagues pulled off some of the scenes. They were very diverse in what they were doing and it just seemed visually pleasing.

Shortly after the screening, Robin split us up into groups of 9 and handed out sheets to everyone present. After we all joined into our groups, we immediately started to figure out what everyone’s role was. As we picked our names out of a hat with a delegated role, I ended up being camera assistant which is something I am completely comfortable with. I did realise that this WAS a student task and thought it would be great to try something I’ve never tried before but it was too late to switch roles with anyone. Anyways, next thing we had to is write up and quick shot list of the scene at hand. My group members and I were very professional at handling our tasks. We communicated, shared ideas and made our way down to the “set”(RMIT edit suites) to get a better idea with what we were working with. Once we started camera plotting, Robin came to us with another challenge. The same group had to switch roles and film another scene without having to use similar shots from the previous shoot. My new role for the next shoot was handling sound, definitely out of my comfort zone but couldn’t complain.

Finally, 9:30 on a Friday morning, everyone was in class excited and ready to go. After having robin and paul brief us about safety issues and what not, we were on our way to the edit suites to start filming. Not only was it an exciting experience, it was also a great learning curb. Really gave us a sense of working in the industry which I find very essential. Once I started rolling the camera, all the actors, boom and sound operators, DOP, first AD and director; were all in position. Again, communication was not the issue at all. Coming to think of it, it couldn’t have been a better shoot. Everything was organized and on time. Being sick for a while really took a toll on me. Physically, after handling the camera and filming multiple takes, I was tired. But that didn’t stop me from doing an impressive job and at the end of the day I was very pleased with what I have done. As always, I enjoy any task involving myself with a camera. When I was doing sound, I wasn’t worried at all, I got a hang of using the mixer in no time. As a matter of fact, we wrapped up the second scene with plenty of time to spare. So I proposed we do some safe shots and to experiment with tracking shots using nothing but a chair on wheels! And it worked!!

None of my group members, and myself might I add, are professional filmmakers. We are all in this course to learn new things everyday. If there is one thing I could take from this experience, it’s that no matter what anyone’s experience is like, as long as you communicate with one another, there is always room for trial and error. Situations are less of a hassle to deal with if people spoke comfortably about their weaknesses in doing specific tasks. On another note, it’s always good to mingle with new members. Thanks to Angus, who was DOP and camera assistant, he has introduced me to RMITv. I cannot wait to jump on board in one of their projects in the following weeks. Not only would that look good on my resume, I would gain so much experience working in the industry here in Melbourne.