Well, it is finally time to do my last blog post, it has been a long semester and now I get to look back and reflect on my experience with this course and talk about what I’ve learned. Spoiler Warning! for anyone who is reading this but hasn’t taken this class yet.
Listen to the children from Stranger Things (2016-)
Before taking this class I expected to learn a variety of skills. According to past Nick’s first blog post, I was most excited to learn more about audio, photography, and video. In terms of audio, I was happy to learn more about the editing process and the audio assignment really challenged me to further discipline my editing skills. The audio assignment was my fourth blog post. This assignment was fun because I got to record my grandfather telling me a story from his youth about pulling a prank on his sister. Although the recording was not crystal clear, and I did not get exactly what I needed, the editing process was still a lot of fun for me and it was a plus to be able to get a recording of my Grandfather telling me a story.
Photography was probably the one area I did the worst in. I learned a lot about photography through class, the different styles, types of portraits, elements, etc. However, I was not confident enough to go out and take photos of other people. I don’t know what it was holding me back, I was completely comfortable videotaping others, but taking photos of other people just felt weird. Also, I honestly did not know what to take pictures of. What I gained from this experience was a greater knowledge of photography but also I kind of learned how difficult it can be. I do want to get better though after we had a guest speaker come into class who showed us photos she had taken of sex workers I realized how powerful a great photo can be. My third blog post was my photography assignment.
The video assignment was my favorite assignment that I did for any of my classes overall this whole semester. I often create videos as a hobby and hope to one day do it professionally. What this assignment taught me specifically that I did not realize before was how important it is to film plenty of B-roll, and how beneficial it can be to have a lot of it. Also, I really got a burst of passion while performing this assignment, I was running around and if I saw something I wanted to film I just did it, ignoring anything else around me. I got this really nice shot of this gun that was on display that just looked beautiful, sadly it did not really fit anywhere within the final product. I am honestly super proud of the work I did on this assignment. My seventh blog post was my video assignment.
I have learned and/or I have practiced numerous types of “soft skills” while completing the assignments in this class. Through many of my assignments, I have been able to hone my interpersonal communication skills by talking to and interviewing others about topics they’re passionate about. I also have become a better critical thinker, as I often would think about every aspect of what a person said and/or every aspect of the content I created and how I could use it to its full advantage. For example, while doing interviews for my second blog post I would be able to plan the layout of the post within my head and I was always thinking about the similarities and unique differences between all the interviewees. I just feel that after taking this class I have become more “aware” and that I have become a better “planner” when it comes to assignments in general, which I hope to use that to my advantage when I go into my career.
Like I said, the video assignment was my absolute favorite. I felt the footage my partner and I got had a lot of variety but that we both took advantage of almost every opportunity. I also really enjoyed it because the topic we did our video on was quite heartwarming. The video was on Laramie’s 150th birthday celebration. At the celebration, my partner and I got the opportunity to learn a lot about Laramie, and we also got to meet tons of great interesting people. The photography assignment was my least favorite, in my opinion, it was just kind of a mess. I had a difficult time thinking of what to photograph, and when I turned out was not the best. I feel like I was making it harder than it had to be, a common Nick problem. However, I am glad that I tried and realized that my photography skills currently are not that strong, so now I can practice those skills more and try to get better.
G.O.B expressing how I felt reviewing any of the photos I took during the photography assignment.
If I could go back in time and give myself any advice before taking this class, I think for one I’d tell myself not to overthink anything. A common issue throughout any of my courses is that I usually end up overthinking assignments and/or I try to do too much with the content. I feel if I kept more assignments more simple and did not overthink as much that I would have been able to be more successful in this course. I would also just tell myself to just be more confident right off the back. Eventually, my confidence grew with each assignment, but it really did not need to be stunted at the beginning, just another product of overthinking.
Me going back in time to knock some more sense into my younger self
Overall I am going to miss this course. I had a lot of fun learning about the different areas of media production, and although some areas were challenging for me I still enjoyed learning about them in class and seeing how others in class interpreted them. Although at this current moment I do not know how well I did on the video assignment, I am also just extremely proud of the product I turned out. I impressed myself on how well things came together on that assignment and that does not happen too often so it was worth the struggle. Anyways this is the end, and I can’t wait to use what I have learned to create better media content in the future. I’d like to thank you, Dr. Landreville, for doing such a great job teaching this course. Finally, I’m not sure if I have a fanbase (I don’t think my mom even reads my posts) but if anyone out there actually goes to my page to read what I have written, I’d like to thank you for taking an interest in my work and seeing me as someone who creates content worth looking at.
Elf (2003)
Nicholas Luke's Multimedia Blog 