Current Status - Febuary 2015

We are now well into the second term of the course. I was extremely happy with the grade that I received for my camera test. I was extremely nervous going in but ended up getting 15 marks out of a possible 20. I think that buying a camera and practicing in my own time really helped me and I am so proud that I took the initiative to do this in my own time. The only things that brought me down in the camera test were the tascam which I haven't used as much, and the fact I didn't ask for a white sheet of paper so that I could set the custom white balance. As a result my white balance was a little bit off, and I failed to record any audio. However, I am still extremely happy with the results of this test.

Now that the camera tests are out of the way Practice Enrichment is finished and we are well into Work Based Learning. However, this entails also entails learning about a lot of new equipment and practices. The first thing was to learn a new camera. The Panasonic 801E is an entirely different beast to the Cannon 600D, but at the same time it is not as indimating using for the first time as compared to using the Cannons for the first time. Now that I know what all the common functions of a camera are, such as white balance, shutter speed and ISO (called Gain on the Panasonic), whenever I use a new camera now it is simply a matter of finding out where all these functions are and how they work. The most immediately obvious difference between the Panasonic and the 600Ds is that the Panasonic is much more heavy duty, and can be held either over the shoulder or in your hand by the handle. A big advantage of it as opposed to the 600D is that it is not constrained to recording for a mere 10 minutes or so at a time, and therefore it is perfect for covering gigs, events etc. For our first work based learning gig we had the task of filming a Musical Theater event within the college. We had a set up which involved two of the Panasonics at the back for safe coverage, and two 600Ds at the bottom for closeups. I was entrusted with the task of looking after the Panasonic on the right side, and it was a great experience for me. The most challenging part of this was getting the sound levels right, as I had to adjust both the left and right channels individually by hand, and while a very loud Musical Theatre show is going on right in front of you this is a very fiddling thing to do, but eventually I got them to a place where I was happy with them. There is a TV show being broadcast from the college's SPACE Bar on 27th of February and we are going to cover it as part of Work Based Learning. I think it could be a great opportunity to further develop my skills.

In Intro To Factual I have been placed in my group and set away working on our documentary. The piece is called 'Life By The Landfill' and involves a landfill in Ryton which is disruptive to the life's of the people living there. Even thought I am a bit disappointed that my idea didn't get picked I think that this has the potential to a fantastic factual piece and I glad to be working in this group. I am still planning to work on my idea for Factual. My piece is called 'In Search of Buzzcocks' and in it I want to track down the star of the Buzzcocks YouTube videos, from Cramlington my home town, and find out why exactly he disappeared off the scene. I have had an appeal going around Facebook asking for any information about Buzzcocks, and I am hopeful this will led to something really good for me to add to my show reel.