Hey! You, reader! Yes, you! The one behind the window! I can see you...! Now, get out of there!
Before dwelling into endless depths of our short film production, I decided to tell you about the courses still to come. Of course, I can't really tell that much about stuff I've yet to experience. However, I do have the names of all the courses, and short descriptions. I'll let you know about them, and then we can together imagine what it will be like :).
By the way, I found the official English translations for the course names. Although in some cases my translations were more accurate, I decided to change every name to its official one. Even in the earlier posts.
Color theory
Okay... Apparently we're learning how colors have been used in art throughout history and what attributes they possess.
Drama and history of moving picture
Yes! We do have history of cinema! That's great. Of course, I've already been in 3 courses about history of cinema, but then again, now I can show off my intelligence in the subject matter ;).
Direction, set decoration and costume design
Hmmm... Seems more like a play sort of thing. Definitely useful, probably fun too.
One of my favorite directors, Sir Ridley Scott, started his career as a set designer, and it shows too, as an incredible amount of background detail in his films. That alone is a reason enough for me to be interested of this course.
Corporate and TV-production
Apparently this is more about how productions work in reality. A bit boresome, maybe, but useful.
Contract and copyrights
Yes. One of the most useful courses there is. Also known as "How not to get screwed over".
Printed advertising and photography
Graphic design and photographing, making posters and ads. Yes, I could definitely like this.
Editorial and news work
While in high school, I took some journalism courses. This is probably pretty much same, except more emphasis on video production part. Not too bad, I think.
Digital post-production
Both 2D and 3D, special effects, working with green/blue screen. I'll like this one.
3D-animation / Flash animation / 3D-modeling
The name says it. Three different courses, but in the same territory. Could be nice, depending on how hard the whole process is.
Theory of documentary
Yes, I'll like this one, as I'm quite interested about working on documentaries, and I'm considering making one as my bachelor's thesis.
Music video project
Many people start their careers from the realm of music videos, so no doubt it's useful. Just have to be ambitious and creative here.
...
Like I said in one of my earliest posts, SWAVE is huge and vast, and it truly is. We learn a little from almost anything you can do in the biz these days. So employment shouldn't be a problem.
Of course, there's a lot of other courses too, but I just stuck with the more interesting and differing ones. Many continuation courses (like "computer graphics 2" or "technique of editing 2") and so on.
Hope you have now a better idea what I do, or I'm about to do, in my school. Until next time.
J.
Sometimes cover songs just differ a lot from the original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxHIVxz1K5M
Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste Courses. Näytä kaikki tekstit
Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste Courses. Näytä kaikki tekstit
maanantai 6. helmikuuta 2012
sunnuntai 5. helmikuuta 2012
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
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
maanantai 23. tammikuuta 2012
About studying different courses in SWAVE, part 1
Heyo!
I think I should have written a post like this a long time ago. After all, studying screenwriting and visual expression (= SWAVE) is half of what this blog is all about. I did write something about it, as my second post ever, but it was more of a overview. But now I have studied here for six months, and I have enough experience to tell you what it's really like.
Instead of writing of what my average day is like, I'll tell you about all the different subjects/courses that I have studied so far. I think it gives you pretty good idea of studying SWAVE, minus, of course, all the after school stuff.
So, if you have ever wondered what's included in studying SWAVE, and what it means in practice, read on.
(By the way, I like how the word "studying" has the word "dying" in it :D)
Overall, there's 65 different mandatory courses in SWAVE, and our days here mostly consists of these. Of course there's also plenty of optional courses as well and different student projects.
Of those 65 mandatory courses, I have studied, or am currently studying 20. Not counting the orienting studies here.
I'll start with the less exciting ones, that surround the actual creative process without taking part in it. Without any strict order:
English & Swedish
First, language studies. It's mostly like what you think it's like. Except more new words and less grammar. Last week we had to discuss and analyze a short film in Swedish, which I think was rather useful, although hard. Lot of homework and doing essays independently. Speaking language in question, of course.
The necessity of English is obvious (especially in the showbiz), but if you're from abroad and wondering the Swedish: as citizens of Finland, we are obliged to somewhat study our second official language, Swedish, as well as Finnish. It's a small thorn on the side of every non-bilingual Finnish student, and waste of resources, but that's another (long) story.
Business accounting
A bit boresome, unfortunately. Basically learning how to account and where to place credits and debits. Early on a lot of emphasis of how The Law requires double entry bookkeeping system from each company and corporation. After all, school encourages us to become entrepreneurs.
Mathematics
Recap from high school. How to calculate taxes, inflation, etc. So, more practical calculations than earlier, thankfully. Not too hard by itself, but we had to learn how to calculate using only Excel, which caused some difficulties earlier. No paper, no calculator, only Excel. Because that's modern times, apparently.
I'm not arguing against that, though, because there has been some teachers who would like you to calculate everything with only your head and perhaps an abacus.
Information technique
Nice name, but it only means making word and excel files. We have made CVs, job applications, grocery lists and whatnot. Too easy. Good thing is that once you're finished, you can leave, and so every class ends at least an hour ahead of schedule.
Communication skills
How to communicate within a group. How to have a meeting. How people communicate. How to perform in front of an audience. Form of teaching is lecture, so a little of that university feel there. There were some theory about communication in a more abstract level, but cannot recall any particulars. Oh well. A bit silly subject.
A few presentations have been made and are to be made. Next one of mine will be a week from now. I'll have it about a theory of Mr. Michel Foucault. Let's see how it goes.
Information acquisition skills
This course was one big essay. First we prepared for the essay by learning how to use school's own database and how to, obviously, seek information from it. Then we wrote a ten to twelve page essay. Mine was about alternative screenwriting. And man, it was hard work. The essay itself is a sort of practice for the literary part of our thesis.
Marketing communication
How to market your product, and to whom. Public relations, and so forth.
Lecturing and theory. Not a lot of practical exercises, which was a bit surprising.
We were to upkeep a blog during the course, which, I admit, was a nice touch.
Art history
As I write this, we've had only one class of art history. So, my thoughts about the course are subject to change. But as it seems, we go through European art history, from prehistory to modern times. Probably, mostly just lectures and Powerpoints. We'll watch a few films and look at art, analyze it and try to be inspired by it. We'll do presentations of a art era and "modernize" a piece of art. Sounds interesting.
The length of this post grows and grows. So, next time I'll write about the more appealing courses, the ones that actually involve a exciting creative process. Like screenwriting ;). Stay tuned.
J.
Those songs that you already own, but are under your radar for a long time, until you discover them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6k3LKeMA0
I think I should have written a post like this a long time ago. After all, studying screenwriting and visual expression (= SWAVE) is half of what this blog is all about. I did write something about it, as my second post ever, but it was more of a overview. But now I have studied here for six months, and I have enough experience to tell you what it's really like.
Instead of writing of what my average day is like, I'll tell you about all the different subjects/courses that I have studied so far. I think it gives you pretty good idea of studying SWAVE, minus, of course, all the after school stuff.
So, if you have ever wondered what's included in studying SWAVE, and what it means in practice, read on.
(By the way, I like how the word "studying" has the word "dying" in it :D)
Overall, there's 65 different mandatory courses in SWAVE, and our days here mostly consists of these. Of course there's also plenty of optional courses as well and different student projects.
Of those 65 mandatory courses, I have studied, or am currently studying 20. Not counting the orienting studies here.
I'll start with the less exciting ones, that surround the actual creative process without taking part in it. Without any strict order:
English & Swedish
First, language studies. It's mostly like what you think it's like. Except more new words and less grammar. Last week we had to discuss and analyze a short film in Swedish, which I think was rather useful, although hard. Lot of homework and doing essays independently. Speaking language in question, of course.
The necessity of English is obvious (especially in the showbiz), but if you're from abroad and wondering the Swedish: as citizens of Finland, we are obliged to somewhat study our second official language, Swedish, as well as Finnish. It's a small thorn on the side of every non-bilingual Finnish student, and waste of resources, but that's another (long) story.
Business accounting
A bit boresome, unfortunately. Basically learning how to account and where to place credits and debits. Early on a lot of emphasis of how The Law requires double entry bookkeeping system from each company and corporation. After all, school encourages us to become entrepreneurs.
Mathematics
Recap from high school. How to calculate taxes, inflation, etc. So, more practical calculations than earlier, thankfully. Not too hard by itself, but we had to learn how to calculate using only Excel, which caused some difficulties earlier. No paper, no calculator, only Excel. Because that's modern times, apparently.
I'm not arguing against that, though, because there has been some teachers who would like you to calculate everything with only your head and perhaps an abacus.
Information technique
Nice name, but it only means making word and excel files. We have made CVs, job applications, grocery lists and whatnot. Too easy. Good thing is that once you're finished, you can leave, and so every class ends at least an hour ahead of schedule.
Communication skills
How to communicate within a group. How to have a meeting. How people communicate. How to perform in front of an audience. Form of teaching is lecture, so a little of that university feel there. There were some theory about communication in a more abstract level, but cannot recall any particulars. Oh well. A bit silly subject.
A few presentations have been made and are to be made. Next one of mine will be a week from now. I'll have it about a theory of Mr. Michel Foucault. Let's see how it goes.
Information acquisition skills
This course was one big essay. First we prepared for the essay by learning how to use school's own database and how to, obviously, seek information from it. Then we wrote a ten to twelve page essay. Mine was about alternative screenwriting. And man, it was hard work. The essay itself is a sort of practice for the literary part of our thesis.
Marketing communication
How to market your product, and to whom. Public relations, and so forth.
Lecturing and theory. Not a lot of practical exercises, which was a bit surprising.
We were to upkeep a blog during the course, which, I admit, was a nice touch.
Art history
As I write this, we've had only one class of art history. So, my thoughts about the course are subject to change. But as it seems, we go through European art history, from prehistory to modern times. Probably, mostly just lectures and Powerpoints. We'll watch a few films and look at art, analyze it and try to be inspired by it. We'll do presentations of a art era and "modernize" a piece of art. Sounds interesting.
The length of this post grows and grows. So, next time I'll write about the more appealing courses, the ones that actually involve a exciting creative process. Like screenwriting ;). Stay tuned.
J.
Those songs that you already own, but are under your radar for a long time, until you discover them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6k3LKeMA0
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