So far in Ways of Making, we’ve spent a lot of hands-on time with equipment, out on location filming and recording audio. This is great because I feel like the earlier you do this, the easier actual production for assessment is made. We’ve been operating the new cameras, properly learnt how to set up the tripods, using ZOOM recorders with external boom mics and pumping it all through Premiere Pro. Having used these cameras in a subject I completed during a summer semester recently, I had a decent idea of how to use them, but now having been so immediately hands on with them I feel a lot more confident and am much faster with them.

One of my favourite exercises so far was heading out with Gabe and recording some ambient audio with the ZOOM recorders. Listening to the world through a decent microphone certainly makes for a pretty interesting experience – I really enjoyed picking up on the frequencies that are usually masked by the general ambience of life or a lack of attention towards them, I was able to rejoice in the natural rhythms and textures of ordinary events around the campus, such as the chimes of the metal basketball hoop as the ball slides through it, or the vending machines and microphones in the atrium.

Another exercise that I particularly enjoyed was depicting actions in three shots, a very basic means of storytelling. This taught me the importance of location in the telling of a story, and how a location often has an inherent set of stories within it just waiting for you to extract and document them. What is generally seen as a grimy, dirty part of the campus – underneath a staircase where a group of bins are kept – inspired my group’s favourite three part story of the day: a quirky advertisement for Rice Bran Oil.