Week 1 - Reflective Journal
Tuesday
Media Production:
In our media production lesson, we were first shown a video by RSA Animate. The video was about 1. Divergent Thinking and 2. The Education System. I found it particularly interesting as those are two things I've researched before on a basic level.
The videos talked about creativity within children and how it's lost as people get older, ADHD (which I myself have correctly been diagnosed with) and how it's become almost an epidemic in schools in America due to misdiagnosis, as well as a full review of the public education system and its historical origin, and how and why it should be/needs to be reformed.
The videos were all animated in the way that what was being talked about was also being visualised on the screen, which definitely helped me to focus on what was being said in the video. There were definitely some good points made and I also did learn a few things about how the mind works in terms of creativity and divergent thinking, and the psychological/sociological background to the education system. Really cool stuff.
We then had a class discussion about our ideas for the 30 second narrative. One thing the video mentioned was collaboration, and 'bouncing' ideas off each other. We all talked about our ideas for the narrative so far and then delved into what we were all thinking in terms of camera techniques and sound and editing and the like.
Doing so really helped me to develop my idea further and throughout the lesson I was scribbling notes into my sketchbook, which will definitely help me in future.
Media Research: In Media Research we spent the majority of the lesson having an introduction to basic media studies, which admittedly reminded me of a lot of media studies lessons I've had in the past at different schools.
We were talked to about genres and films and various film-making techniques, we also talked about narratives too.
We watched the introduction to a Clint Eastwood film and discussed how we all made assumptions in films, and how the introduction was structured, as well as touching on various genre codes and conventions used that represent genres.
Finally, we researched and analysed Todorov's narrative theory, which describes how almost every narrative film (at the very least) loosely follows the same pattern, based around an equilibrium.
We then all had to write our own basic/generic narrative story based on Todorov's theory. I chose sci-fi as the genre for mine because it was the first that came into my head and it made sense to me immediately.
In the lesson, I learned about Todorov's narrative theory, which I had not properly researched beforehand.
Thursday
Audio:
On Thursday, we only had the audio class with Nick.
The lesson was basically an introduction to what we will be doing in terms of audio on the course.
We were shown various microphones with insight on each, and then an introduction to foley.
Foley is the art of making artificial sounds out of different objects, to sound like what you're seeing on screen in TV/Film. We were shown various different techniques of foley such as bone breaking with celery and cannelloni pasta, car tyre screeches with an inflated hot water balloon, horses hooves on the ground with a real weight to them and various other sound effect techniques.
In that lesson, I learned a few things about foley and how such random items can be used to make very specific sounds.
Friday
On Friday our first lesson was with John, where we were introduced to the online website element of the course. We were taught how our reflective journals need to be set out, and also started on our online portfolio.
This involved creating the Wix Website, a Google account from which I created the YouTube channel with as well, and we were told that we'd need to create a logo, animated logo, and a business card; which will contain our details, our website and youtube links, and also a QR Code that can be scanned to go to the website. Personally I think that QR Codes are out of date and unnecessary, although I understand why we'll be using them.
I created the Wix website in the lesson and started to set it up with a basic design, with what I'd need it for kept in mind when designing and structuring the pages.
After that lesson, we had 3 hours with Sonia, where we discussed and developed our 30 second narrative ideas even more. I decided that I wanted to use the highly clichéd drug/stoner den theme, for added comedic effect, and to give the short film an extra dimension. By giving the characters a slight detachment from reality, it will give the punchline more of a comedic edge.
We also watched a short film narrative called Attack by Timothy Smith, which was non-linear and essentially cut up and put in backwards order, leading the audience to make all sorts of assumptions based on stereotypes which are systematically reversed and broken down throughout the film.
We also looked at the Who, What, When, Where and Why of our short films, which helped a few people to give their narratives a new dimension and meaning.
We also looked at Art of the Title which is a website that shows the title sequences of lots of films, and also gives a behind-the-scenes insight into how they were produced. The title sequence of every film is what captures the audience's attention and keeps them interested enough to continue watching the film.
In that lesson, I learned about how we shouldn't make assumptions when watching films, and how important title sequences are.
