End of Year Reflection

For the independent film research, I felt very strong when connecting the research with my film knowledge. I could analyze the shots and angles in cinematography, pacing and effects in editing, and relate it back to an underlying message, given the research had been conducted well. However, that's where I had some struggles. I couldn't develop the large thematic connections well enough, and it was difficult to research blindly with no focus or goal. When I do end up understanding these thematic connections, I have trouble really analyzing heavy text. Especially the long articles with convoluted vocabulary and messages.

I thought I did well on the Oral Presentation. My strengths were being able to create a fluid outline that I could follow easily, so I could flow through the oral. I guess why I was able to do well on this assignment rather than the independent research script was the comparison aspect of the script. With the oral presentation, I just had to delve into analysis written on Psycho. There was more difficulty in analyzing two lesser known films, and trying to be able to connect them. Knowing that next year it will be performed one-on-one with Mr. Bigue, I guess I'll need to practice more to get it down in the first try.

Production. The most tedious, yet most entertaining. There's a sense of pride that I achieve with each new segment, film, or documentary being completed. I was really able to explore into directing and editing this year. Next year I plan to get into more creative cinematography in my projects. What I would really love is to get to work with a DSLR. There are so many trade-offs with switching to any DSLR. There comes up audio syncing issues, and many manual settings that have to be dealt with. However these trade-offs are so worth the filmic quality that comes out of using these. Being a novice with a DSLR, if I do get use one of these next year, I think a good crash course on DSLR do's and don'ts would be great enough to get me started on using them. I'm really looking to invest in one within the next few years anyway.