One Year of Explore Film
It’s the season of reflection. I had my English portfolio presentation today, and most of my classes are done with assessments, the only ones left being reflection. Thus, I think it’s appropriate that I reflect on my second and unfortunately last year of studying film.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first semester. It mostly comprised of what I feel are my strengths. We didn’t make any films, but watched, studied and discussed them in class. This was accompanied by really informative powerpoints prepared by Mr Oomens. Everything led up to film “commentary” we wrote about the South African movie, “Injia”. It was a really structured semester, but I had lots of fun doing what I enjoy the most: talking and writing about films.
The second semester was about making films. This was a bigger challenge for me because it was less about writing and talking and about actually getting up to do things. This also involved more collaborative work than I had ever had in my entire time in school, so the newness of it made it a challenge. Organizing ourselves when, unlike the first semester, we were given so much freedom with what to do with our time was also a challenge.
Even after all that could go wrong went wrong (including the loss of our first film to a broken USB port and the loss of the tape holding the footage of our second), we finally got our second film together. On the way, we learned how to work together, problem solve and manage our time without anyone breathing down our neck. Film cannot possibly be a frivolous arts course. Without a doubt, it is the most realistic course at ISM.
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