Continuing the film school post...

Tuesday
We were split into our course groups and got our hands on some cameras. About twelve students in each class.
Sucked the video we captured with the cameras up into our laptops, and did a bit of editing in Final Cut.
Our theme was mood and it was raining all day. Almost all the works were somber, bar one by an Italian girl who managed to find colour and movement in the Fox studios precinct despite the rain.
 
 
Wednesday
Three hours of occupational health and safety lecturing by two guys who worked in the entertainment industry.
Almost enough to put me off making films.
By the time they had finished, the main point I got from it isn’t that it’s too hard to make films these days, but that film makers are supposed to demonstrate that they made a proper effort to protect ‘life and property’ during the production.

In the afternoon we had a stunt workshop where we were introduced to famous Ozzie stuntman Grant Page. After a short talk we got to flip off a tower into an air bag, wave our hands through fire, and simulate hitting each other.
My theory is that the school is cramming as much action as they can into the first week to inspire people for the rest of the year.
 
Thursday
We were shown some examples of physical humor (slapstick) and then where split into groups of four, we checked cameras out of the Store, and were set a task to produce a short piece on the subject of OH&S
 
The results have been posted here…
 http://www.youtube.com/user/AFTRSFoundation

Friday
Went through some interpersonal communication exercises, had a chat about professional practice (work place ethics,) and then got to present our short films for each other to critique.
 
We got Friday afternoon off (two of the other groups didn’t)
I think it was cause we and another group were crammed into a single room together

We finished off the week with an online multiple choice test that we all had to complete by Sunday night.
The whole week was designed to soak every student in OH&S good practice.
 

Orientation day.

Hiya folks.
Going to try and keep up this blogging thing this year.
Have to, the school requires us all to keep diaries.
Currently it’s not terribly cohesive.

So 'hi' to everyone and happy New Year.

This posting is a couple of week old.
Honestly, the fortnight has been a bit of a blur.
Fifty new names to remember, plus staff.
We learnt how to ‘check out’ equipment, where does the coffee lives, tracking down assigned lockers, etc.

Woke up to lots o cloud being shoved across the sky by a brisk wind.
Email sent out by the school informs me that the air con in the building is down.
Then there were the Victorian fires.
Do you believe in omens?
 
We were warmly welcomed and introduced to the years teaching staff, who each gave us a quick spiel on what they and their course work were about. One lecturer had taken the lectern and was just about to address us when she got a strange look on her face. She left the podium and scurried from the auditorium.
All a bit weird but being a polite bunch, we all smoothly continued on with the introduction to the school.

Then all the students drew pegs out of a hat.
Thus we were split into groups that were tasked with exploring the school building to search out stories.
The school building is filled with lecture rooms, audio studios, sound stages, pipe lined halls, props dept, carpentry workshops. Every thing you could want if you wanted to make a piece of modern media.
I spent the day with my little group of six, finding clues to the mystery, and forming theories. Some of the clues where stuck to walls, some were on specially constructed web pages, some were hidden in folders left lying on tables, and some clues were held in the staffs heads.
It was like a great big murder mystery dinner that ‘took over’ most of the building, and most the staff were in on the gag.
Hoards of students could be seen roaming the halls and studios.

It became apparent at the ‘welcome to AFTRS bbq lunch’ that the scene made by the teacher that morning was part of the game.
I think everyone was a bit ‘off balance’ and unsure of what was real and what was part of the game.
The day concluded with a faux exorcising of bad spirits. The teacher that had been the focus of our investigations wsa released from her demons and from her responsibilities to maintain her game persona.
 
The theme of the game was occupational health and safety with an occult bent to make things a bit more interesting.
We were all investigating a series of accidents that had occurred on a number of fictional student films that had been shot a few years earlier.
 
Found out in the welcome that we get two weeks on, one week off. The weeks off are supposed to be spent on our own projects.
Expecting us to be a bit proactive I guess.