Hey guys! I know it’s been awhile, but it’s feels good to be back. A week of self reflection has been rejuvenating and encouraging. And I really needed it. Why? Well a lot has been going on that’s kept me on my toes and frankly it’s been exhausting. My last post reflects a bit of some of the effects of what’s been going on and I wouldn’t want to repeat the same scenario. So just to reflect on this journey, we finally got to undertake our part one of the assessment by submitting the press release and made our live presentations. I am so glad this is history now and I am just hoping I did well, or at least enough to pass the assessment. Now, on to the next chapter.

Film making class! As I made my way to class that thursday morning, I thought to myself well, am in too deep to quit now – and I promised never to give up so I needed to give myself a little pep talk to get my mind ready for class. The night before I looked at the presentation slides and the accompanying videos sent to help us prepare for the lecture on IPad filmmaking. From the lecture notes, I could tell it was going to be a workshop where we had to make a short film. Have I ever made a film before, no! I don’t believe I have a creative bone in me, and it certainly needs a lot of creativity and flexibility. So, going to class I was already biased I would not like or relate, but I made it anyway. I needed the class to prepare for the vodcast assignment.

So filmmaking basically revolves around the idea, preparation, shooting, editing and the final output. Leon gave us tips on each aspect of the process to come up with a good product. What I loved is that he took time to explain the use of the Ipads as well the softwares and did not assume we all knew how to use them – I certainly needed that. The lecture presentation showed the best use of technology and we were amazed. We also got to learn about various equipment like the tripods used in shooting other than the Ipad or Iphone camera.

And as I had predicted, we were divided in groups of three for the practical workshop. We each had to prepare, shoot, edit and output a one minute film about a randomly assigned day of the week – in less than an hour. This was the first time I was doing this and of course I felt intimidated. Working in a group was difficult, I felt like my colleagues were not bringing any ideas to the table yet we really had to get something done. It was getting frustrating but halfway through the shooting, they were more involved and took ownership of the process. It was nice to envision an idea and bring it to life, though not in a perfect way like in the movies but the experience was great. The workshop was generally interesting and I hope working in a group for the actual assignment will be smooth.