theMediaman.com

I’m already a couple of weeks into my new Film Studies courses, and I’m reminded of how much time homework takes up! Kind of irritating to coordinate with three classmates on a mutually agreed-to time, then also coordinate with another classmate for a different class. Outside of the working world, this would be easier, but it takes a real effort to set it up while most/all students are living 9-5 Monday-to-Friday lives. On a positive note, it certainly demonstrates how much I want my career to go in this direction, if I’m so readily willing to sacrifice parts of my weekend.

The toughest challenge now is buying a digital video camera. When I initially signed up for the course, Livewire was going to buy a 3-CCD camera that I could train on, and generate yet another source of revenue for the company. Situations changed and there was no longer a “business case” to support the purchase. Now, I have to find a cheap, digital camcorder to use for my projects. The class teacher said that such a camera is fine for the purposes of this course, but it really feels like a letdown to get a $500 JVC after having my hopes built up to a Panasonic AG-DVX100A.

For the other course I’m taking, I had to meet up with three classmates from Screen Writing I. We wound up at a Second Cup on Yonge for about three hours, fleshing out a short film plot using each of the characters we had each created the week before. I was curious to see if it might become a competition where everyone wanted his or her creation to become the hero. Preparing myself, I figured that I could handle being a supporting character. However, my creation wound up starting as the protagonist and was later ‘demoted’ to a secondary character. It happened once it was evident that the plotline we were following didn’t really allow for the character development I had lined up for her. We teamed up for a really interesting story, and I think everyone has a significant part in its creation, so I don’t feel my ego has been bruised.

After a lazy day on Sunday (’lazy’ meaning that I had to clean up the apartment after the deconstruction and reconstruction of my bedroom), I have to “re-imagine” my character in order to fit into her new role. Since that class is tomorrow night… that means Stephen’s doing homework tonight!

School was a lot easier when the only time your homework is encroaching on is your drinking time.