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Bee(a) buzzing through film school

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beatroot:
February 25, 2018

I think it’s safe to say, after listening to all the lovely advice written above, I have made friends- or at least have made some acquaintances. We had our last day of O-Week on February 23 (Friday) and we had a lecture first thing in the morning. We learnt about the structure of our workshops and the main objectives of this degree. Afterwards, we watched the film ‘Ten Canoes’. Does this film sound a bit familiar to you? You might have studied this film in Advanced English for Module C. The film was created by an AFTRS alumni and is an interesting portrayal of the Indigenous culture in Australia. During the break inbetween the lecture and the film, I started talking to the girl who was sitting next to me. I decided to swallow all my pride and invite her to have lunch with me later on. That’s when I made my first official friend.

After lunch, we went back into our orientation groups and learnt about different learning environments- one that can stimulate creativity and productivity. We also had an activity where we had to read an excerpt and reflect on it. Afterwards, we watched each others films and I found it really interesting that we all had different editing styles. Everyone laughed at my film- but that’s because my character got bullied in the film and people found it funny (follow @editedbybea on instagram to watch a preview of it).

This film is called ‘VARK’ and I will forever treasure it in my heart. Even though the angles were a bit meh and lighting was horrible- it will be the first ever film I have edited as a BA student at AFTRS. I’m going to look back on this film in 2020 and will reflect on how much I’ve grown since then. *The film will be posted on Tuesday on my other thread “Bea’s Films”.

Our orientation teacher made us write a letter to our future self. We can’t open it until end of semester one (June).

This is where the fun bit begins- we had our O-Week Party down at the foyer and the disco was set up at one of the studios. These were the highlights:
- Talking to more people and stepping out of my comfort zone
- Listening to the 3rd years’ advice to us. Every third year I talked to said that my interest in editing is good because usually people HATE editing plus there’s a huge demand for it right now in the Australian entertainment industry (particularly reality tv- would love to edit for ‘Married at First Sight’). It gives me reassurance that I could find a job in the future with my film degree
- I learnt how to do the ‘nut bush’ dance
- Taking pictures in the photobooth (+got featured on AFTRS’ instagram story)
- I talked to the guy who I was in a holiday course with in the past (October 2016) and is now studying the same degree as me. We watched the film that we made together and laughed at how bad it was. Time flies so quick.
- Got into a debate with two guys about Steven Moffat and Doctor Who

At the start of O-Week, I regretted my decision of going to film school instead of a normal university because I felt that I didn’t fit in. I felt that I only got accepted because I was Asian and they needed to make the school more culturally diverse. I haven’t watched all the classic films and don’t know that many directors off by heart. But fast forward to now, I’m really proud of myself for getting into AFTRS. I realised that you don’t have to be a total film geek to go to film school. Half the people I spoke to haven’t made a film yet. Others haven’t written a script. Some don’t even know how to edit. I’ve learnt that, we’re all different and that’s extraordinary and so beautiful. We all have different backgrounds, different interests in the film industry and different experiences. The only similar thing we’ve got amongst the 95 of us, is that we’re all just individuals interested in the art of filmmaking and studying this degree to reach our goals and dreams.

Here’s to the next three years ;D

beatroot:
March 4, 2018

*Today marks the one year anniversary for when I signed up for AN :)

Subject of the week: Screen Business 1
February 28, 2018 to March 2, 2018

It felt good going back to uni on the 27th knowing that I knew a lot more people in my degree. The degree I'm doing is the ONLY bachelor degree at my film school, so there's a good chance of bumping into someone I know in my workshops.

[Tuesday]
Our Screen Business lecturer made us do an activity where we had to write our dream film/TV idea on a sheet paper. She collected our papers back and placed them in a plastic bag that was placed on a chair. I thought she was going to pick random ones and read them out loud. She grabbed the plastic bag from the chair and all the slips of papers just fell out! At first I was just like wtf. Turns out it was a metaphor that having a great idea will not get you into the industry. Without having screen business knowledge, your ideas will 'fall out'. I thought that was clever. At the end of the lecture, she gave us a dollar each. It's her way of investing in us and our idea. Whatever idea we wrote on the slip of paper, she wants us to use the dollar when we get it pitched in the future. I thought that was really nice of her.

Afterwards I had workshop and my tutor is a producer from an independent film company which is really cool! We immediately got our first uni assignment of the year and it's a group task. We have to pitch a short film concept in two minutes and also submit a 1000 word group portfolio. The concept is based on one of the stimuli given to us. My chosen stimuli was Logan Paul's apology video... Hope things go well with this group task.

I'm not too keen on Screen Business as a subject so far just because it has a lot of emphasis on pre-production stuff and it's definitely a subject that appeals to those who wants to become a producer or a director in the future. As someone who desperately wants to become a TV editor, I don't learn editing (Rhythm and Juxtaposition) until semester two. Though I need to get over my dislike for Screen Business because in order to enter the industry, you need to learn it. It's probably the most important subject in my degree.

[Wednesday]
Pretty much for the rest of the week, we had the same old Screen Business lecture for 1.5 hours followed by a workshop that went on for WAY TOO LONG (4 hours). I learnt each parts of pre-production and the significance of the producer. Fun fact: soap operas are called soap operas because tv shows back in the past were sponsored by soap companies.

[Thursday]
Every Thursdays, we have a thing called SDL Day (Student Directed Learning Day) where you have to study independently and attendance on campus isn't compulsory. However, I still did end up going because my group members were really keen to get the task started. (Spoiler alert: we only got the short film idea done ahaha. Budgeting, casting and all the other components are yet to be done.)

[Friday]
We had our 'Visual Storytelling' check in where the course leader gave us our end of semester project. He said that we can pick whatever role we wanted and we'll get assessed on it. I was determined to get assessed on editing because I felt that was my strongest area within film. However, this was the brief given to us:

- 90 to 120 seconds film (including 5 second end credits)
- Only pan and tilt, fixed tripod position, camera can't be hand held
- Film has to be recorded all in one shot,
- No editing allowed, no dialogue, no music
(*Since editing is banned from this production, I'll try to get assessed on being production designer)

The whole point of the Visual Storytelling project is to create a film that focuses on the visuals to present a story. For my film (so far), I'm thinking of having death trying to seduce life into his world by giving her gifts. I will take most of my inspiration from 'Memento Mori'/'Vanitas Still Life' paintings for my props. I would love to have a dance scene in the film BUT we're not allowed to hire actors outside the school. So it's either I find two people in my degree who can dance or drop the dance scene altogether.

I've got a lookbook/moodboard on what I want the film look like in the attachment below:

At the end of Friday's workshop, some of us headed to a local bar to celebrate surviving the first week of AFTRS.

Upcoming subject for this week: Story 1

beatroot:
March 11, 2018

Subject of the week: Story 1

I really liked this week than last just because the in-class activities for Story 1 were definitely a lot more engaging and creative compared to the ones from Screen Business the week before. Story is just basically script writing and coming up with story ideas.

- Watched A LOT of short films this week (watched around 15 of them during a 3 hour lecture)
- Practically analysed the structure for each short film
- Learnt that directorial auteurship was a thing within the industry, which was actually interesting
- Found out that my Story 1 tutor wrote episodes for half of my favourite childhood shows. I have yet to figure out a way to thank her without making her think I looked up her IMDB page ;)
- For our end of week seminars, we reunite with our Screen Business class (which actually makes sense because if you're going to debate about issues prominent in the industry, you might as well debate with people that you are familiar with)
- Got a new assessment task this week and we have to submit a 4-5 page script. I'm so excited to get this script started because we get to use the industry standard scriptwriting programme (Final Draft). I've written out a scene by scene draft of my script already :)

I decided to join the AFTRS Debating club and had our first meeting on Tuesday. I decided to volunteer to debate in the first round because I wanted to impress the debating club tutor (who was also my Story 1 tutor). We had no clue what the topic was going to be on and we didn't get any preparation time. My nerves got to me and lost the debate :-[. I also joined the running club as well to motivate myself to get fit (I have not exercised since my HSC trial exams).

Hope everyone is going well with university!
(I also can't believe that UTS hasn't started uni yet and here I am already drowning in three HUGE assessments)

beatroot:
March 18, 2018

Subject of the week: Image 1

If I were to summarise what happened this week, it'll just be 'HSC Visual Arts: the extended version'. Essentially, Image is just cinematography and we did a lot of activities this week to help our creative juices flowing.
Think I'll copy potatohater's use of the spoilers because it does seem a bit neater ;)

Tuesday
rotation and activitiesWe rotated in five different classrooms today to do different activities:
#1: VR Reality- this was my first time using a VR machine so it really did feel like I was actually in a different world. I remember standing up whilst watching the 'White House' tour one and I couldn't sit back down on my seat so my classmate had to drag me to my seat. There's a Stranger Things VR and holy shit it was so terrifying. The demogorgon came up behind me and that's was the moment I started swearing and crying during my workshop and my tutor wouldn't stop laughing at me. That's how he learnt my name.
#2: Circle drawing thingo- I don't know how to describe this activity but you can check out what we did in my instagram account @editedbybea
#3: We had to draw the person next to us and do blind drawing. By looking at my drawing, my tutor told me that I was the type of student who was very harsh to themselves during the creative process and I've never heard anything more accurate in my life.
#4: Taking photo in low light
#5: Pinhole photography- honestly the most confusing type of photography ever! I personally don't like the style. Wednesday
lights and stuffIn our lecture, we learnt about the elements and principles of photography and composition which was interesting. Then for our workshop, our tutor gave us an induction on lights. We then had to do two lighting exercises; a) do three point lighting and b) create a photo with mood lighting. After uni, we had running club again.

Thursday
sdl dayToday was a SDL day (student directed learning day) where we basically have to do the task that our subject leader ask us to do and present during reflection the following day. The task was to research a work at any art gallery in Sydney and use it as inspiration for our upcoming short film for Image 1. I decided to choose Richard Long's 'Southern Gravity' work at the AGNSW just because I have a lot of memories of learning it during art class so I felt that I had this emotional connection with this work. I headed back to AFTRS just for a few hours to work on my group task for Screen Business.
Friday
silent films and reflectionWe had a three hour screening analysis where we learnt about German Expressionism movement (does the film Metropolis (1927) sound familiar to you ;)) and watched a German silent horror film called 'Des Cabinet du Dr. Caligari'. I've never watched a silent film in my life so this was a completely new experience. Then we had an Image seminar where the question was 'Do you need to know film history in order to make a film?'. I was a bit 50/50 on this question. Then we had our reflection where our tutor checked up on where we got up to during SDL day. Not 100% sure if my tutor was happy with my analysis for Long's installation work (that was the moment I realised that Image was a much more intense version of HSC Visual Arts and that I need to step up my game a bit more)I Have Friends?
pls click on the hyperlink aboveYAY! I'm so glad I finally found a proper group of friends that I can sit with during breaks and hang out after uni hours. Around twenty four people from my degree went laser tagging after uni on Friday and it was fun just being in a completely different environment and just shooting people with lasers. Though in one round, there were a bunch of eight year old boys and it's actually shocking how the eight of them beat the fourteen of us? After laser tagging, I just chilled with my group and they wouldn't let me leave ahahah. It really feels great being settled in at uni. I wish the same for everyone else. I really do believe it takes time.

Just need to catch up on my assignments now after a very busy week and weekend :)

Potatohater:
Haha I'm very flattered you've adopted my style, especially since I was a bit unsure of it. I also love that inclusion of the friends video haha.
Yay for friends! I certainly hope what you say about it taking time is true cause idk if I made it obvious or not in my journal but I'm kinda struggling to hang out with people I didn't already know pre uni/ are actually in my course, but it makes me super happy you seem to have worked that out  :)

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