Week 7

Monday, I had a tutorial with Richard, my idea had been done before many at times and I hadn't brought any originality to it.

Tuesday, we watched a slow and pondering documentary about bible sales men trying to make a living. The documentary to start gave the view of pushy arrogant sales men but in the end showed them how they needed to be these things to survive and make money.

Thursday was practical with Ray. We looked at the tools used in the follow focus kit and the elements that are essential to know that effect focus on a shoot. I got lost in this session when Ray was talking about measurements, lenses and focal plains etc. I may need to research this area more. In general I took a lot from this class, it was incredibly informative maybe too much so. I love the hands on effect.

On Friday morning was T.V Content Origination. Adam went over our television review sheets for Life On Mars. Again we were focusing on themes, so vitally important, also something I need to get a better grasp of. The class was about telling the difference between themes and plot devices in this particular drama. I struggled to tell the difference between our listed themes. What I got from the class is that themes are what continues with and throughout the character arc and devices are basically something that drives the story on, rather than the character. I loved the interaction in this class with lecturer to students because in a sense it is pulling all the class up to the same level of understanding.

In the afternoon we watched a very documentary-like film, a true story of the Algerian revolution from both sides of the battle, 'Battle of Algiers'. The film lasted what seemed a long time, it was more like a history lesson rather than a form of entertainment. Some of the scenes were extremely realistic and were huge in terms of scale and extras.