What I love most about lighting is how it can make you feel. I look at a bright sunny day as a happy day, it might not be happy sometimes but someone out there in the world is doing something they love in the sunshine and overall it makes their day. When I think of rain and clouds I think of darkness, sadness, shadow and hidden. It’s not a particularly good feeling when you wake up cause all you want to do is sit inside and cuddle up in bed.

If we were to see a man walking down an alley by himself in broad daylight to the audience watching the film this is just normal day to day activities. But then again if you place this man in a dark alley in the middle of the night the audience would automatically feel as though something scary were to happen. It’s a common emotional response.

Week 3 and 4! It’s getting really really hard to keep up with the work load as well as other outside activities such as soccer and work. But somehow I manage to pull through!

This week we watched some of our classes edits from week 3 as week as film on friday to present in week 4. All I can stay for fridays filming, was that it was very very short and I felt as though everyone in my group rushed their entire shot. For example I felt my efforts weren’t as good as I could and it was defiantly shown on screen when Paul presented them quickly in class. It was almost embarrassing to look at and I know with more time and pre production I would be able to present a better example of my film capabilities.

Moments of realisation:

I actually had the biggest realisation that I was actually graduating and completing my schooling at Rmit, I never actually thought about it and I’m starting to get very nervous and work as hard as I can to keep up the work load to a great standard.

I do have some questions!

As I am doing the essay instead of a film for my final assignment where can I find information on this as I would like to plan what I would like to write about.

Week 2 of University! This semester although it’s my final one i feel as if it will go extremely fast. How i felt about this week? Well to be honest I found myself to be observing a lot of people walking through the city. You notice lots of people in different clothing, colours, speaking different languages and overall you see how people interact with others. Its really interesting to watch, if anything i feel like they should have a camera in main city areas around the world like NYC, London, Tokyo and Melbourne and Sydney and just play it for 24 hours straight as it can be quite soothing and relaxing. Imagine listening to the sounds of people talking and cars passing by, i feel like there is a lot more to that then we seem.

This week I was a little disappointed to find that in class we will be going out filming every week as well as editing. I thought it would be very much hands on work in the class room learning and writing. Don’t get me wrong I love going out filming with a student crew but I really wanted to get some analytical thinking and observation skills under my belt before I graduate. It seems as though this class also has this aspect to it but it is only the second week back so hopefully this class will teach me a whole new side to film production.

To be honest this week was very full on and overwhelming. Trying to organise part time work and university studies as well as sporting activities and social events is unbelievably hard.

I went into this class with the full intention to work alone and improve my thinking and writing. I am very happy there is no group assignment as I find there are too many across all the other subjects. I’ve always liked writing how I felt and show my own interpretations of a scene of film and listen to what others have to say about it. I feel like this course will enhance my learning and thinking knowledge.

This wednesday in our first class we were told to have an epiphany and it took me a while to grasp the concept of what that actually meant and what I actually had to do, so I looked it up.

When classes ended that day I had soccer which I drove to via the eastern freeway. I thought to myself driving what the world would look like in 50 years time. Yet for some reason I seemed to view it as if I was the same age, 22. Everything around me was vastly different yet it was very much the same. The film Bladerunner entered my mind. Even though the film is not intended to be funny, I found it to be quite hilarious how they pictured the world in the 00s with flying cars and large buildings and how much of a joke it really was. Considering the fact that yes flying cars would be amazing, how on earth would that work? Like seriously?

As I was driving I thought will there ever be a solution to peak hour traffic? I sat there waiting for the light to flick to green and wondered will Melbourne be different in 50 years? Obviously the last 50 years have changed significantly but we have improved so much in technology can we honestly get any better? I know this isn’t really an epiphany but it is something i found to be suck in my mind for the rest of the week.

I think this class will overall be great as it is something I enjoy and shows a lot of interest to me on a high level.

My groups seminar “Breaking In”.

I joined the group a few weeks later as I was actually part of the Film group so communication with me about the project was very minimal as no one really knew who I actually was to be honest. The group had already formed into mini groups each being in charge of certain sections such as food, cameras, tech, game creators, set design and people to contact in the industry.

Contribution and collaboration: I kind of floated across two working on the questions for the seminar and on the day set up the design for the seminar such as lighting, props etc.

Proactive Learning: My learning very much stayed the same as I felt I didn’t actively seek to improve my skills. Throughout each of the seminars I have viewed,  I felt I engaged with the interviewees and what they had to say as well as taken on the information given but I did not try and improve my skills after each class. Some of the information I had already known through the work I did on a a couple films.

Participation: I have attended all but 2 seminar this year. I have left a class early due to work commitments. I could have attended a lot more but priorities of other school work got in the way, and found myself paying more attention to them.

Connections & intersections: I feel the value of these seminars is to help us, as students, get an inside understanding of what the industry is like from actually professionals working in them. Its a great way to ask them your own questions to see what they would do/respond to. Overall I have found that my learning as a group has stayed the same. You can’t really win in group university assignments as there is always one person who seems to lead. As I joined the group late my opinions were very much invalid at that point so my learning defiantly stayed the same. I feel as though these seminars have helped me understand the importance of persistence and hard work. Not just in this industry but in all. Speaking to a couple of the interviewees really helped me understand where I stand, and what I should do to move forward.

If I were to give myself a mark as part of the group I would only give myself a C (60%) as I felt majority of the main work was done prior to me arriving, so I felt I didn’t contribute as much ideas as I could have. The group did very very well and on the day I worked as much as I could to gain some sort of recognition. In terms of an overall mark for the entire semester, I felt I could have done a lot better and my mark has defiantly remained to a C.

I did not attend this seminar as it was my birthday the night before haha and I came home fairly late!

This week was the Wanted Seminar “Global Media Takeover”

This was another seminar I was really looking forward to as International work is something I’m wanting to pursue. I tried to join this group at the start of the semester but unfortunately it was already to full!

This group in particular were unbelievably organised and well structured. They were very engaging and from an audiences point of view very researched on each of the people they were interviewing. I loved how each person they brought on the show was of a different area or had a different take on international work. Food was great and the set up and theme was SPOT ON!

Content: The content was fantastic, as I have said above they were very organised and the questions they asked were relevant and quick to the point. Comparing them to other groups their questions were very much different and didn’t at all go over the same stuff.

Approach: This group also did the traditional question answer type seminar. Lacked excitement at point but the people they were interviewing were defiantly making it more engaging which overall helped.

Theme and Staging: Very, Very NEAT! this group had a theme and kept it from start to finish. Through costumes to props they were very very good. I loved how they did the whole airport look, paper aeroplanes everywhere, flight attendant clothing, and used terms such as “in flight entertainment” was Great!

Promotion: To be honest I didn’t see any promotion at all around building 9 where I spent all week. I still see posters up from previous seminars but this one in particular I had to actually go on the Facebook page to find out what was next. I think that they were great on the day but leading up to it I didn’t see much around the school.

I also gave this group a HD! Well organised and the theme was great!

This week was the film groups Wanted Seminar “Reel Crimes”

This was actually one I was looking forward to as it was the group I was previously in. I was involved in the early process so it was good to finally see the end result.

I was unbelievably happy with the people they had come along to interview. Nadia Tass is actually a lady I have admired due to her work at Disney and work overseas. I want to work in america so being able to see that an Australian was able to work made me believe that it is possible for someone like me to do the same.

The food was great! the starting snacks were great! and they were very welcoming when we all started to arrive.

Content: The content was well thought out in the questions that they asked. I loved how they asked the really honest questions in how do we get our film ideas and work to screen Australia. Funding was a great topic and everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy it to as it was vital information.

Approach: They did the traditional question and answer type seminar which was great but I felt it needed some excitement.

Theme and Staging: I loved how they presented it as if it was a professional script reading or live meeting. It was although very hot as the red head lights in the dark room made it hard for the audience to sit so as soon as the break occurred it was great to get some fresh air!

Promotion: They promoted their work very well. As they got to see how the other groups did it they defiantly worked hard to produce some great work. Through posters, mini movie and ads on Facebook.

I gave this group a HD

I had work this week so I didn’t attend the “Wanted Seminar”.