First of all, let me just say that the person who takes media 102 is an absolute legend. Shadowing a friend who takes the class (shoutout Amalea), I walked into Film Production 1 with little to zero knowledge of what was going on. I’m a writing studies major; I work with words, not with pictures. The first thing I was greeted with was the lecturer, who had the sickest Scottish accent I’d ever heard, tattoos galore, and a rainbow lanyard. First impressions? An icon.  

Since it was a two hour class and I’m a student with ADHD who had neglected to take her meds, I will admit I was only paying attention about half of the time. But in the moments I was trying to take everything in, I discovered I’m very much not cut out for filmmaking. Most of what was said went in one ear and out the other with me, so instead of taking educated notes, I made a list of all the specific words that might as well have been in another language: pro-filmic event, assemblage, multiplicities, negative space, planimetric composition, midground, foreground, depth of field. Film student are probably cringing at me right now, and rightly so. I got the sense that these terms were basic level stuff, and while everything I heard was pretty cool and overall interesting, I can’t say I understood much at all.  

But I also can’t claim I didn’t learn anything. From the wise words of the lecturer, I deduced a few important facts of the subject. I learnt that if you’re bored, it’s fun to play a games of noughts and crosses with the rule of thirds grid, that its normal for an entire lecture theatre to sit in silence for twenty minutes to work on an activity (bizarre), that hot air balloons were the saviour of mid-air filming, and that apparently you can read a film? Honestly, it’s beyond me. 

I think it’s safe to say as a writing studies gal, not really my expertise, but to anyone with an interest, I do highly recommend.