It's been a strange week, dominated in my personal experience by the common cold, leading a multiplicity of individuals to suggest inebriation on my part, such a theory being backed up by my almost falling asleep at least twice during lectures. I am hopeful that the full effects of such a malady are on their way out, and I can return to full productivity for next week.
Monday started with Richards class, where we wee instructed to bear our souls by talking about three things we would wish to change about ourselves. For myself I found this quite uncomfortable, as I am not used to making myself so publicly vulnerable. I can't say I experienced any great inspiration or catharsis from the experience, and instead became rather depressed for a couple of days.
Monday afternoon was watching short films for Content Origination. See my other blog for reviews of these.
Tuesday was a study of the Game Show format. Interesting, and I can see that a good Game Show with full financing can drive a station. However, I can't help but think that it would be a rather depressing thing to work on for more than a year.
Wednesday was a screening of Gold Rush. See my other blog for the review.
Thursday was a case of watching some Mitchell and Kenyon (no idea about the spelling!) footage. It was hardly shocking or even surprising in terms of content, but certainly seeing Jamaica St in 1901 was very interesting. It would have been especially interesting if we had similar footage taken every decade so we could see how things changed into what we have now. Without that the jump seems so alien that it might as well be another planet.
Friday was the second of our Sound classes for this term. Simon has a very odd teaching style, but I suppose I learn just as well from it as from the other tutors. Basically its a case of "Play around with the equipment. Any questions, ask." So there can be long periods of bafflement, followed by twenty rapid fire questions as Simon walks past, followed by dawning comprehension. I have decided I quite like sound, though given that the vast majority of sound for cinema is re-recorded, especially on studio films, there is a definate sense of fruitlessness about the job.
Maybe it is just seeing the world through a cold, but it seems that a sense of listlessness is creeping into our course. When we started there was a lot of talk as to what we would be doing, our timetable was fairly heavy and we were learning quite quickly. But now, we are in for half days most days, we are having classes cancelled at short notice here and there, we are told that we are way ahead of where it was anticipated we should be, and our overall learning-speed seems to be taking a nosedive. We still have learned nothing on editing except how to do an off-line log, and our homework projects are very much in the writing and pitching line as opposed to in the actual production line. We are told this will change for next term, and I very much hope so. I can't help but think that the progress we are making is a little on the slow side.
On another note, I got word that our film won "Best Story" and "Most Comical" globally and we are listed second under the overall winner. So that is gratifying, despite there being no prizes (beyond recognition of our obvious talent!) in the global round.
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