Throughout the course, I’ve learned a lot of things mostly through trial and error in my own self-study. Considering I had just come from a course that had a heavy amount of work revolving the use of blogs, I felt like this wasn’t the best use for it. I felt like the instructions were too vague and personally didn’t feel like I learned anything from this practice. The two blogs that I had kept for the course before my university experience were more academic and instructional than the ones we were given to keep. Granted I haven’t had the best motivation coming into the year, with many personal difficulties that interrupted my learning experience. I didn’t feel like I learned anything directly from the course, aside from improving my proficiency with Adobe Premiere Pro when it came to our Project Briefs, but certainly not from the blogs. Using Premiere Pro has certainly given me enough motivation to continue working away to discover its nooks and crannies. I still don’t really know what I should be doing, but I really do want to work at the skills I have in editing, as it is a very broad field and would be particularly easy to find work in a variety of industries, including game design and general film and television. Becoming capable through this program is a big step towards achieving that goal of becoming employable for that field.
I’m not entirely clear on how I learn and what’s best for me personally. I’ve realised that with immense support and constant practice, the result will speak for itself. Direct, clear instructions are also something that I feel was overlooked. This industry is still somewhat new, and people are still exploring how to proficiently use it’s mediums, but the instructions (specifically with the blog) I feel were not clear enough from what was expected of us. Or maybe it was just me. I enjoy learning when it’s more of a practical assignment, rather than trying to scavenge for information that is only vaguely related to the course for the sake of making a word count on a blog post. I perceived blog posts as more of a ranting outlet for a variety of ideas, but this felt like a forced environment that we had to work in. Blogs used in a formal format aren’t as popular unfortunately, and even in academic standards they’re not vastly that interesting in that format. Blogs are outlets for quick information or for quick distribution and as great as that is for academics, it’s not widely accessible to certain audiences. The information that academic blogs carry are only going to be viewed and taken into account by academics, as they’re written for a specific audience.
I found that following vague instructions and keeping track of posting on this blog was the most challenging task. I’ve kept a blog before for previous courses but a number of things made it hard to find motivation to persist with contributing. I feel like the assigned subjects for the blog was an unrealistic approach. Sure, we can write about lectures and readings and what we take from it, but half of the information we receive is just going to be regurgitated and not absorbed as it should be in a learning environment. Expecting people to write every single week about new information on the constant, as well as keeping track of assignments sounds not all that debilitating objectively. But even if someone is on track, every week, posting four posts a day. It takes a toll on you. Having new ideas or the very minimal to contribute almost every week is a long shot. It accumulates and feels like there wasn’t a single moment of rest. It doesn’t take into account of students that may not have that amount of time free at hand, or even less have the mental capacity to take that much constant strenuous activity.
I have discovered in my own creative practice that editing is quite an enjoyable activity for me. It’s not tedious as most people perceive it to me, and it’s more like solving a puzzle. Putting together a big picture piece by piece, and the time put into it is trying to figure out which piece fits in a certain place better. I take pride in what I’ve produced before these assignments, and even if I had learned to be more capable in Premiere Pro, the time constraints really puncture my creative process. I don’t think the restrictions that university places on creative assignments is suitable if they want genuine creative works, but I can’t change that and there probably isn’t another way to get into the industry other than this.