About studying different courses in SWAVE, part 2

Heypodeydey!

Last time I wrote to you about all the different courses I study here. Well, not all of them, just half. This time I shall tell you about the latter half, involving all the courses with creative output.

Dramaturgy and scriptwriting
You can probably guess what we do here. In this course, we wrote our first scripts and received feedback on them. And based on the feedback, wrote the sript again. And again. But I enjoyed it. We also dwelled on the basics of writing a good sript, form of the script, and watched lot o' movies paying attention to the scriptwriting, what works and what doesn't.

Dramaturgy of space, form and environment
In this course we focused of visual storytelling, and how space, form and colours affect our perception of the movie. We viewed how diffent movies have used these tools to create certain emotions and what environments evoke which emotions (for example, ocean has been traditionally seen as a metaphor for freedom or longing of freedom). We also had to make a presentation about visuals of a certain movie with a distinct visual style. The test was similar.

Basics of sound
I'm not sure whether the name translates into "basics of audio" or "basics of sound". But you get the point, I presume. We studied how audio is created in a video production, and briefly learned about different kinds of microphones to record sound. We also had to create an audio to a commercial from scratch.

Computer graphics
Though the name is fancy, it's just fundamentals: what's the difference between vector and bitmap graphics, what image altering software there is, how they differ, and how each one works. Rudimentary ("what is resolution?"), but necessary I suppose, for us to be on the same level. Later we jumped into possibilities of Photoshop and worked with it. Interesting course nevertheless.

Camera and lighting technique
If there's a course that's the backbone of everything else, it's this one. One of the most useful courses too. We learned about different video cameras and how they work, lighting, focal length, formats, visual composition and so on. Much to learn.
All in all, 101 of visual storytelling. How to film and how not to. Plenty of Powerpoints, but still very practical course, and very important one. In this course we also made the silent films I have talked about.

Technique of editing
A continuation from the last one, this time emphasis being on editing. Of all the editing software out there, we mainly learned how to use Final Cut. I enjoy editing very much, it kind of combines scientific accuracy with artistic freedom. Like the previous course: mostly just lectures, but still very practical and important course. We also re-cut a few movie scenes.

Webmedia
We are currently attending to this course, so my knowledge is still lacking. So far, we've learned about basics of code and how to create web pages and all the stuff with it, like links. Seems interesting.

Basics of audiovisual production
This course is very closely linked to the production of our short film. So far as to not having classes to give us more time to do it. When they are held, they're mostly about counseling us and keeping track of our progress. Early on, we did have some lectures on how these things are made in the big world.

Shooting
Read above :P.

Post-production
So far we barely scratched the surface in this course. But it's supposedly about all the post-processing stuff that happens with or after editing. Like color correction.
A kind of editing course 2.0, I presume. Except we have a true "editing technique 2" coming up...

Visual narration and visual expression
Like with internet media and post-production, it's hard to grasp the big picture at this stage. So far we have watched earlier student projects and films and discussed about their visual solutions, what worked and what did not. All meant to help us with our short films.

...
Phew.

I think that's that as for now.
Our camera teacher and our dramaturgy teacher, who both teach several courses, have a habit of mixing up courses. Thus afterwards it's hard to remember what they did where and when.
My list also doesn't tell how much they are educating us:
we had "computer generated graphics" or "basics of audio" once a week, but at the same time, we could have "camera and lighting technique" as much as four times a week = every schoolday.

Next time I'll either write about the courses still to come, or about our short film which has advanced considerably lately. Til then.

J.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOPRfq-q6U&ob=av3n