Each student will prepare and post a substantial final reflection that considers what they’ve learnt; and critically assesses the studio experience, their own performance and, the success of their film project in relation to the methods employed.
This semester has been equal parts challenging, interesting and immersive for me. My previous knowledge of media practice has grown exponentially; ideas and techniques I had been exposed to in in the past 1.5 years have been further explored, challenged and built upon. I have improved my competency with technical aspects of documentary making such as using industry standard cameras such as the Sony X-200, and audio devices such as the Zoom H4N and radio microphones. Alongside learning how to function this equipment properly, my post-production skills also improved. I became more familiar with functions on softwares such as Premiere Pro CC and Adobe Audition. Most importantly, I became more adept at organising myself and making proper use of my time, I learnt to simply take charge and make things happen rather than simply sit back and wait for it to.
At the beginning of the semester, I set three goals for myself:
- To become more adept at filming and using equipment
- To experiment more with software such as Premiere Pro
- To become familiar with the process of making a documentary
Upon reflection, I can say that I have definitely made ample progress in achieving these goals. When I chose this studio, I was a bit nervous about filming and fabricating my own documentary. I had never done something of that scale before and wanted it to be something that both myself and the artist were proud of.
In order to achieve these goals, I began to hire out and use more of the equipment that was available to me, whilst also taking out my own Canon 6D and filming more things in my spare time, in order to experiment with different shots and build up my own personal archive of footage. I made an effort to become more savvy with audio technology such as different microphones, and expanded on my knowledge of using mixers in order to produce properly equalised sound.
I also ended up purchasing Adobe Creative Cloud and started experimenting on Premiere Pro CC. I learnt how to properly construct a documentary, by being able to sync together the audio obtained from the Zoom H4N recorder and the visual footage obtained from the Canon 5DMKII and Canon 6D. I learnt how to work with footage to construct a narrative arc, whilst using music and other audio sources to creative a cohesive piece, both with ample information and spaces for dramatic pause. I learnt how to properly master audio in Adobe Audition through the use of sound prints and import this audio back into Premiere.
Throughout the semester, I began to learn about the process behind creating your own documentary. I became more familiar with creating production schedules, sound sheets, editing scripts, production scripts, and got into the habit of creating progress reports for myself. Learning this process has proven to be invaluable to me, as I feel as though I could organise and conduct a series of shoots in order to create something substantial, something that I definitely lacked confidence in before. Additionally, I began to learn and value the importance of the administrative qualities of shooting a documentary. I began to comprehend the necessity of obtaining certain documents such as location releases, safety reports etc.
I feel as though my performance grew at an exponential rate this semester. Having started the semester 2 weeks behind the rest of the students, I had a slow beginning both because I was trying to catch up, whilst also trying to organise the beginnings of my artist video portfolio. My performance was also stunted by the lack of response that I received by not one, but two of the artists I was assigned. This was a disheartening experience for me, and hard not to take personally, but became a great source of motivation for me to take matters into my own hands and create something that I had organised myself. My performance began to grow when I independently sought out an artist for my project. I always try to relate my studies to the industry that I want to be aligned with once I graduate, so by reaching out to an artist I was able to fulfil my requirements for my studio, but also improve on my networking within the fine art field. As I began to organise my own shoots and scripts, I began to gain momentum and I feel the quality of my performance also began to improve.
I feel as though this translates into my final piece. My video portrait on Robbie Rowlands is something that I am quite proud of, purely because it was the first time I had created something that did not look completely amateur. I was finally beginning to understand the different elements that went into creating a short documentary and became more confident in my abilities, something that I am usually lacking in. Upon reflection, this is largely due to the immersive quality of the Capturing Creativity studio. Louise was extremely helpful and understanding, but she also did not tolerate laziness and forced us all to immediately step outside our comfort zones and get into creating something. I feel that although the studio suggests that we are capturing the creative nature of various artists, we are also realising the creative natures of ourselves and manifesting that creativity within our projects.