My major goals this semester were:
1. To increase my knowledge and skills in Adobe Premiere Pro.
2. To gain an understanding of the processes involved in creating a documentary film.
3. To break conventions and experiment with techniques that I haven’t explored before.
ADOBE PREMIERE PRO
Before we started the course I considered myself to have a reasonably solid base knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro. However, after seeing other students navigate the program with incredible efficiency, and apply techniques and effects that I had not yet been introduced to, I realised there was a lot I could add to my editing repetoire. A lot of the learning I have experienced this semester has been through watching, noting and copying other group members, from whom I have had a lot to learn. I feel as though most skills on this type of program are best learnt through experience. Unfortunately, I have not played a huge role in the editing process of our documentary film, mainly because one of our group members is a ‘gun’ editor. I know the semester is incredibly time-restricting, but I would have loved to have had a few more editing excersizes and workshops. In saying that, my skills certainly have improved. I can now edit at a much fater pace, and have learnt a lot about editing colours and also soundscapes through the major film project.
DOCUMENTARY PROCESS
Fantastic. This course has well and truly lived up to my expectations in providing us the knowledge, skills and processes required to produce, film and edit a documentary film from scratch. I love that we have been given full responsibility for our work from the very start. The way the process has been broken up into stages has also been great. The lectures for each section have been very engaging, relevant and informative. I have thoroughly enjoyed taking on a ‘producing’ role in our documentary film and the experience has been invaluable, learning the intricacies and behind-the-scenes work required in the documentary film process. Whilst, at times, this role has been incredibly frustrating, I have been given a ‘real-life’ experience of producing a documentary film which is the ultimate form or learning.
BREAKING CONVENTIONS
I was pleased that the course has encouraged us to challenge ourselves creatively and to experiment with form, technique and style. At the start of the semester, I was looking forward to attempting something more unconvential than my usual work. Fortunately, I was grouped up with two other students who shared this vision – perhaps beyond what I had in mind! Our final project is certainly not your everyday documentary fim – very abstract, and somewhat experimental, and playing with what can be considered ‘documentary’. I have particularly enjoyed the examples shown during the lectures to show how different documentary films can be, as well as being able to see the development of other student’s group projects throughout the semester.
