Transferring courses was possibly one of the most stressful experiences I have had to go through. Coming from a university that was heavily based on essay writing, zero interactivity and exams, RMIT was a culture shock. I had to relive my first year again, which was no where near as bad as last time.
Getting used to the structure of the course was very difficult for me. I was always in contact with someone from the university until I understood most of it. I walked into this course and my first day at RMIT blindly, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I noticed the first few weeks in that my fellow peers were experienced and interested in the media field. Most of them knew how to use the software and had experience filming, photographing etc and I had zero experience. I decided that I liked media and I was at university for the purpose of learning so I would have to start from the bottom and learn twice as much. My future self blog posts reflect all the things I want to achieve as a media practitioner and as a person.
There is an extensive list of things I have learned this semester. To mention a few, I have learned that media is not just journalism and news. Communications and media focuses on the broader perspective of media, how it is practiced and how it evolves. We learnt about media affordances, which gave us an idea about how to utilise the unique functions of these affordances to our benefit as media practitioners. To put it simply, we learnt the different affordances of audio versus video and how they can be used in the most effective way to communicate a message. As a media student, through the many exercises that we have completed in our project briefs and workshops, I have discovered that communication is essential for our practice. We must be decisive practitioners, who know what they want so they can communicate in the most effective way. This also applies to everyday life. My first semester taught me that in order to understand and relate to people, I must form a connection with them. I experienced the frustration of miscommunication when I was filming my project brief 3.
The project felt like a disaster for me since I had no clear vision, therefore the subject of the project brief had no idea what to do. This was my shortcoming but I quickly learnt that through briefing and explaining, you can achieve a lot of things.
My communication skills may not be outstanding but they have most definitely improved. For my project brief 4 I had to film inside of a cinema, I called my local cinema knowing that they would reject me. As I started conversing with the manager, I realised that people are generally nice and willing to help. He allowed me full access to the cinema in exchange for any photos I would take. Even though we did not end up using the footage, the experience of going to the cinema as a media practitioner with my tripod and camera was thrilling and nerve wracking.
In terms of my own learning, I realise that I learn like most people, from my mistakes. I am not the type of person who can sit for three hours, listening to content and absorbing all of the information, hence why I transferred. Although making mistakes is embarrassing and not receiving high marks is frustrating, it is all a part of my learning curve. I made so many mistakes this semester and spent a crazy amount of time on idle things that I hope will pay off. I also discovered that I learn from others. The workshop environment enables us to interact and learn from others. I learn interview angles from one person and adobe premier tips from another. A fostering environment is more beneficial than the competitive environment I was used to.
The most challenging thing about the course so far would have to be relearning creativity.
I do believe that to some extent school and university inhibits your creativity. I have had to embrace my creative side, which does not come as naturally as it used to. Filming a video is definitely not my strong point but it is a skill based operation and I intend to learn it to the best of my ability.
As for my creative practice, I have discovered that I take a long time to complete tasks. Not related to perfection, as a person I generally take a long time to do things as I contemplate and think about every choice I make. As a beginner I am unsure of whether or not this is related to me personally or if it due to lack of experience.
When I have a task to do, I get so swept up in the task and I over stress and overthink, which reflects badly on both creativity and productivity. To counter this I would have to be aware of deadlines, not afraid of them.
I am both nervous and excited for my future as a media practitioner. While I look forward to becoming a professional, I am also looking forward to all of the mistakes I will make and learn from.
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