Summary of Practicals (Working with Cameras, Video cameras and Photoshop)

Our year of practicals started off with a practical on simulating an interview for E4. Various people were chosen for parts backstage such as lighting technition, camara man and sound manager. Also an interviewer was chosen. The rest of the class were interviewees (me) and we went up one after another to be interviewed. They asked us questions such as what type of music we listened to and why we chose media studies. They also asked us to tell a joke, and I decided to tell a slightly crude and inapropriate joke which will not be repeated during this essay. The next practical we did was working on Photoshop. This was good fun, although I didn't have my account information sorted out so I worked with someone else on their computer. We did another session on photoshop which was even more fun as I had my account information sorted out by then so I could actually use photoshop myself. The class went out and we took pictures of each other before coming back and uploading them onto the computer. The next lesson we edited them with photoshop, with a helpful Matt giving us guidence throughout the lesson. The next lesson was Matt showing us how to use the video camaras. He told us how to unpack it and set it up right before giving us some instructions on what to do when filming and how to edit the brightness and various other different settings on the display of the camara. The next practical was extremely fun, as it was the first time where we have actually used a camara. We were given instructions to build a short shot of someone doing something simple, such as picking up a pen, or eating an apple. We were supposed to practice using different shots and experiment around. However, my group failed to stick to the instructions and instead we made a 20 second action sequence of me running down a hill, bursting through a door and writing something down, dying, before the camera tracks towards the piece of paper revealing the word 'VIRUS'. Simon and Matt were not amused and strongly criticised what we did, using it as an example of bad work. Despite having a morales seriously dampened, our group stayed strong and looked optimistically on the experience, hoping to know better next time. The practicals so far this year have been enjoyable, and I look forward to learning more about Media throughout our practical experiences.