This semester wasn’t how I imagined it to be. Last year I was working in my hometown deciding what I wanted to do after that year. At that point, I definitely wanted to go to uni, I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to study, or where. After some researching and talking to likeminded people, I decided I wanted to live here, in Melbourne. Study wise, I still wasn’t too sure. After some further research I decided RMIT is where I wanted to go. So I write my applications and hoped for the best. Long story short, I got in. I moved to Melbourne, and begun uni. The first few weeks were amazing, meeting people, exploring my new environment and gaining an understanding of how uni operates. However, as the weeks went on, I wasn’t too sure about it. It wasn’t an issue with how the uni runs, or any of my lectures, it was more about me. I feel like I’ve got a pretty clear idea of what I want to do with my life, and for me I guess it just felt a bit like the semester was beating and the bush. Not really doing anything great for me. I always remember whenever one of my mates would say “fuck uni” or “uni assignments are not fun” and I’d respond with “why are you there?” and I think that is where I am at now. I know for a fact, that I just want to have fun, that’s all I want to do. And when I find myself sitting at my desk editing shitty little videos, or having to write blog posts, I’m not enjoying it. So it makes me think “why am I here?”.
This semester, I feel like I haven’t really “learnt” anything. I mean, a few little points in each reading maybe, but to me I don’t find that to be useful. The technical side of things was a bit dry, only because I already knew how to operate the software, cameras etc. and I did feel a bit creatively constrained. I remember when Rachel told us not to zoom because it looks ammeterish, or that fact that we could only use adobe products, I just found that restrictive. Another thing I will stand by is how to focus a shot using an optical zoom. As for the conceptual aspect of the semester, nothing fully stood out for me except for the week two reading by Scott McCloud, ‘Blood in the gutter’. Other than that, everything was pretty standard. Again, in terms of professionalism, I can’t really think of anything that stands out as being valued for me. Finally, as for the sense of my media practice part, I think going into this course I already had a solid idea of what my media practice was. For me, I don’t think uni is where I am going to learn and develop my skills to where I want them to be.
However, studios are next semester. From what I know they are more practical than what we did this semester, so thats exciting. I guess my opinion on the whole thing could change when we start doing studios, I’ve heard the first semester isn’t the best, but I’ve heard a lot of things.
All in all, I think that this semester has helped guide me in the direction I think is fit for me. I may have been extremely exited for uni before it started, however, actually being a part of it has made me think maybe it’s not what I want right now, and I can always do uni later in life.