Film and TV Goals Reflection

I was absent from the first 2 weeks of class this semester so did not complete a formal goals/desires blog post. However, I did come into Film and TV 2 with a strong desire to familiarise myself with the camera. I had as yet, had nothing much to do with operating the camera through Film and TV 1 and Broadcast media and I wanted to finish up my degree with as much knowledge as I could in setting up and operating the camera.
I am really happy with the progress I have made. I now have an understanding of all the steps I must go through before pressing record (White Balance, Exposure, Gain, Focus etc) – which makes me feel a lot more competant! That being said, a lot of the routine of setting up got thrown out the window when shooting on the fly with our documentary subject. I took out the X3 and the Z7 early on in semester to play with the camera at home then I managed most of the filming on location for the documentary – something that would have been hugely daunting for me last semester. I can go forward knowing I have the basic skills required to further experiment and play with filming and hopefully be of use in a professional setting in the future!

I had also wanted to take advantage of the resources available to us at RMIT like access to the Lynda tutorials and ensuring I was involved in the editing process- gaining skills in Premiere Pro. I have found the Lydna tutorials really useful and wish I had time to watch more of them. As it was the “Documentary Editing with Premier Pro” was hugely helpful in making cutting a rough cut together an efficient process, particularly learning that I could scrub through footage in the thumbnails and being more relaxed about just grabbing the basic idea of something. It was also prompted me to focus on cutting together a visual story first and then worrying about the narrative. This goes against every instinct I have but i think sped progress along and gave me a framework to bare in mind when it came to editing the narrative (how much footage vs narrative we have to work with etc.)

My goals for this semester were quite simple: I wanted to work on someone else’s idea to enable me to consentrate on enhancing my technical and practical skills. After writing the script in Film and TV1 I wasn’t ever able to step away from worrying about the story and focus on other things so it was nice to have the opportunity to acquire new skills. I also wanted to make sure I was involved in the editing process because I hadn’t had the opportunity time wise to contribute anything of any use last semester to the process. I am happy with the progress I have made through the semester and am looking forward to developing my skills further in future projects!

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