Personal reflection: term 1

It has been a strange term and now that it's over and I've rested (oh, how I needed a holiday) it's time to reflect:

Certainly Delhi gave the start a strange feeling. Looking back it was very disorientating to go straight from that insanity to work - it wasn't creative work or even particularly self motivated and my head was in the wrong place for a while. I would still have done it given the choice because of all the once-in-a-lifetime etc etc stuff but maybe there would have been a way to keep our dftv heads on more throughout the process.

Into the term proper I feel like I learned a lot.

Technically, we got to grips with new kit and got into some of the finer aspects of filming, talking about lens lengths, depth of field, focus pulling and framing. Altogether i see a pattern of finesse: using Avid, using heavier (ie: smoother) tripods, thinking harder about what kind of lens you want.

Backing that up I did a fair amount of filming outside of class. The project with my sister was an editing challenge, trying to tell a very unconventional narrative based on architecture rather than any kind of character - it took some creative problem solving to find a way to do that. I got to try out doing sound on Murray's film, which was a very interesting challenge and, as I said then, an area I would like to explore further. I'm going to be doing some production work shortly, script supervisor specifically. I expect this will tax my favourite aspect of production: the mental discipline needed to maintain focus and attention to detail.

I also use my accumulating skills every weekend, passing them on in some form or another to the children of dramaworks, camera and performance. I've actually found it to be very rewarding, there's nothing like having to express a concept as simply as possible for revision, except maybe the endless repetition (which also comes included). It's also practice for the power of problem solving: don't actually know how to connect the camera to a TV? You'd better figure it out.

The research project promises to be a very interesting, if demanding, area of study. I'm good at essay writing - I've managed to get 21/20 before - but this is a kind I've never written before and my essay muscles are rusty from disuse. I love my subject - Inception as a heist movie - and I very much look forward to the work that will go into it.

One of the most annoying things when I look back was the fact that my immune system decided to go kaput, and failed me no less than three times during term, and has let me down again over the holidays. I am sick of being sick, it feels awful and wastes so much time. I'm not sure what to do about this, other than give my immune system a good talking to - I'm actually pretty healthy in terms of diet, exercise, not hugging lepers etc.

All in all, actually, I'm looking forward to the next term. We have exciting projects to look forward to, lots of stuff to learn and I have a shiny new camera to get to know (a Canon 550D). I feel rested from my holiday, my first proper one since Easter, and raring to go. Bring it on term 2!