Week 10

Okay I suppose I had better do a reflective blog. I've still not done one and I know a big part of the whole blogging assessment thingy is reflection on what has been learned. So tonight after Kelsey put the fear in me by reminding me we have a blog tutorial with Andy coming up, I have decided to do a reflective blog on this week.

Monday morning started off with Richard's screenwriting class. We had all been anxiously/eagerly/nervously/excitedly waiting for this class since last week Richard announced that the homework was that we had to come up with 2 of our deepest secrets and write them on postcards to be read out anonymously in class. We also had to come up with three beliefs we hold about the world. So, at 9:30 we all arrived good and sharp to get this scary process underway. I found it a very strange process listening to everyone's different secrets. It was quite strange and even nerve racking at points when the post-secrets were being read.

Once it was over, it was quite a relief. It felt really strange and open - it was a really enlightening experience but not a comfortable one at all. After this, we went round the room to allow everyone a chance to express one of their beliefs one at a time and if anyone disagreed with a point they were to say so right away. This obviously led to a lot of strong and interesting debate from a lot of the diverse beliefs in the group. I found this to be really interesting a quite an engaging and worthwhile experience. It allowed everyone to kind of lay some of their strong beliefs down on the table for all to see and the debates that followed some of the more controversial ones were also very interesting.

Tuesday morning started bright and early for me - but nobody else, sadly. When I got Gav's e mail about the formative assessment that was taking place it said the assessment would be from 9:30 till 16:30 however me being an eejit I didn't realise we could basically pick and choose when we wanted to come in because it was an open assessment. So at half nine I walked in to an empty, pitch black DTU and it was then that I realised...

Undeterred by this I thought I may as well start the assessment and try to get it done as quickly as I could. Michael Maxwell then came in for ages trying to edit some short film but his computer kept crashing. After ages of trying to complete the assessment, I eventually got it done and Sam, Murray and I went to see Nativity the new Christmas film.

On Wednesday we had no classes so I took the chance to have a nice long lie. It was a good day though, as I went ice skating with the girlfriend at George Square then a few of us had a DFTV cajun chicken dinner at the halls. After that, we all went back up to George Square to watch the Christmas movie Elf on the big screen outside in the freezing cold.

On Thursday we had two classes with Andy: the history of cinema class in the morning and TV in the afternoon. The cinema one turned out to be more of a history lesson than anything else which I quite enjoyed for some reason, hearing about old Glasgow and the like. The TV class was also pretty cool as we learned about gameshows and then had the opportunity to come up with our own ideas, our one being Jeremy Kyle meets Get Your Own Back.

We only had one screening this Friday: a Buster Keaton movie called Sherlock, Jr. This turned out to be quite entertaining and funny I found, even though it was only 45 minutes long. It was also interesting to compare this with the films of Charlie Chaplin from the previous two weeks' screenings. Technically speaking, I think Keaton's films were definitely more skilled and a lot of the effects in this movie I genuinely found myself asking how he managed to do it, especially as Keaton performed the majorirty of his own stunts. I still really like the Chaplin films as well, though, and feel that he is probably a more engaging actor who seems to have a better grip of the emotions of the audience. But I'm not going to decide who I like better between the two, I think it's perfectly acceptable to like them both and appreciate each in their own way.