Over the past twelve weeks I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve enhanced my Adobe Premier Pro knowledge immensely, created many projects which I am quite proud of, engaged in different media ideas and topics, and most importantly; met some of my closest friends. Media 1 has been quite a long, hardworking journey, though I am so glad I got the opportunity to part take in it.

The course has helped me improve the way I organise my ideas, as well as how I construct my projects. Last year, in yr12 I found my media work ethic when creating film (or basically anything) was very jumbled, and confusing. I found that planning my work carefully, booking the right equipment in advance, and making multiple drafts was quite helpful. As well as this, because of the course I am also more comfortable with sharing my project drafts and getting critique from them. Before I part took in Media 1, I was extremly uncomfortable with sharing my projects whilst they were only partly done, however, doing so has helped me gain wide range of ideas which I could add to my pieces, and therefore get a more diverse set of minds help me with making my assignments the best they could be, rather than just my own.

The coursework and readings have provided me with knowledge that aided in giving me a full understanding of the assignments, and media ideas we would be tackling in the following weeks. I found ‘The People Formerly Known as the Audience’ Jay Rosen (2006), to be particularly interesting, as it gave me an insight into the topic of audience (which I was already quite familiar with thanks to yr12 media). It’s discussion on how new technologies have affected mass media, and media consumption in the past few decades was interesting. It also helped me to critically think about how the development of technology is increasing, and how that will be affecting audiences for years to come.

Project Brief 3 allowed me to finally get a grip on Premier Pro which I had been struggling with for years, spending hours re-learning how to edit film, and sound, was tedious, and honestly I wish I had left more time to do so, thought the epicene I gained from it was quite important, and thought he final product wasn’t as great as I would’ve hoped for it to be, I was still proud that I was able to produce something out of nothing. PB3 also allowed to be realise just how many things can go wrong when attempting to make a “creative self portrait” out of someone; People cancel, it rains sometimes, you don’t know how to work equipment because you were sick during the workshop when everyone else learnt how to, you’re sick during the shoot as well, your tripod falls apart, your audio doesn’t sync right, your film won’t load your computer crashes before you saved, half of your footage is out of focus. But things happen, in the end, I learnt it’s possible to make something good out of everything that was bad.

I really enjoyed working with the technologies here during my Media 1 course time, I recall the workshop which we were given the opportunity to use the Zoom device in order to create an interview about our time at RMIT city campus. The experience was really fun as I was paired with one of my new best friends Lucy, and the sound recordings are still saved on my computer as we had lots of laughs.

Time management and organisation has been my biggest hurdle to overcome. I believe Project Brief 4 really helped me with that. Being in a group of three meant we each had to pull our own weight within the assignment, and work towards a single goal. This meant I was not able to leave everything to the last minute, and had to push to keep in contact with my group members in order to create the two essays we inevitable did. Working alongside Georgia was great, as I learnt a lot of editing tips and tricks I had not yet previously known, and most of our video editing sessions consisted of her doing something on Premier Pro and me asking how she did that. Because of this I’m actually looking forward to using Premier Pro more, as I am a lot more confident in my skill set.

Thorough my time in the lectorials and workshops I have come into contact with many ideas and topics which have interested me, and broadened my understanding of the media realm we are surrounded by in this decade. Some of my favourite pectorals covered: sound, copyright, what an essay was, and narrative.

When I first started my Media 1 journey I had no idea what was going on, and came to university everyday feeling bewildered and overwhelmed at how fast everything was moving in the city, and how many things I had to do. Though now I feel so much more comfortable, with not only the course work, but the space and people around me, that I consider RMIT to be one of the more welcoming environments I’ve been thrust into. I am so glad to have met all of the people which I have in this course, and look forward to meeting to many more, so I am able to collaborate more frequently and gain technical/ creative knowledge.

Media One has taught me plenty of new skills and encourage me to embrace new ideas and possibilities, it was a great starting point which gave me the base knowledge needed for the upcoming semesters. I am looking forward to the studios next semester and am hoping to put my skills learned in Media 1 to good use.

Amber Ryder.