Evaluation

This is my final blog entry for this semester.
We have been asked to evaluate and analyze our own work and the course in general so far.

The feedback I have had from Kim and Gill so far has been good I think, the marks they have given me have certainly been high, which is encouraging. I have tried to spend as much time in the classroom as possible, but with two kids in school and in need of picking up everyday, I haven't always been able to. Also, being responsible for several other human beings can be difficult, especially when they are ill and need me. But both Gill and Kim have been extremely understanding when I have been unavailable and hopefully next semester will be easier as I have help at home now.

The other students in my class are all so bright and very capable and I have learned so much from them as well. I love the fact that we have only 7 people in the group, its a very intimate way of learning and it works very well with the technical side, and we all get along well. I look forward to working on more practical projects with them all next semester.

I think my experience in the music BTEC helped enormously. Both with mac's and protools and computer skills I picked up on the course. I realized that I am actually quite good at sound editing, which is great. I have also worked on my scriptwriting and having good feedback from my class mates and the lecturers has been very encouraging.

The experience of pitching and producing the radio show was invaluable, as was the feedback.
Producing something like that was a real validation of our skills. While I can see exactly where we could have improved both organisationally and with the idea itself. I feel we accomplished a great deal and have all learned from it. The next group project will be so much the better for it.

I think the biggest thing I have learned form these last few months has to be organisation!!
I have never been very good at it to be honest, but I know know how much smoother things would have ran if I had been more organized.
Both with my time and resources (I will get protools this month!!) and with the work itself.
I have my own problems and family and home that eat away at my time, but each of my class mates have theirs too. Whether its work or traveling from Bristol or Exeter or even London, as Aleicia did today. Its all the same in the end. I have to be more on top of my work and put in the time. The more I put in the more I will get out and the better the results in the end.
I m really looking forward to the next few weeks and catching up on all the reading I need to do. Then its back in February to start the Film semester, yeah!!!
I have so many ideas, I hope I can get some of them started!

We were also asked to write about anything negative we have encountered.

Okay, well, I have to say that I am more than a bit dissapointed about not getting a hard drive.
I know that the group last year did, and how helpful they found them. I was also told that we would. When we start film editing we will need all the space we can get. We all have laptops and they will fill up very very quickly. Our classroom is wonderful, but only available to us when we are in class. We cannot access it at any other time and the hours at Weston are very short. There is only one evening we can stay late, and then its only until 8pm and with permission from our tutour and her signature, which seems ridiculous.
So without help, I just cant see how its going to work, l though I am not sure how much work we will have to edit. But I would like to be able to spend as much time as I can working with Final Cut. I am also dissapointed with the sound recording equipment. I know that Gill put in for a lot of digital recorders and a couple of good mics for radio etc, but she ended up getting nothing at all. How can we make films or programmes without the necessary sound equipment? It also seems a bit hard on Kim that she is now our only lecturer, I am hoping that we will have some visiting lecturers or something, we have a lot of work to do and only two days a week, so some more help would be nice.

Other than that I am thoroughly enjoying the course and Weston campus is great. Its lovely having a new building to learn in and the lecturers and great and Gill has been wonderful stepping in before Kim arrived. So I am really glad I took the course and cant wait to see what happens next!