This is my reflection on Experimental Filmmaking which comes to an end this week. Over the course of this class we were introduced to short format techniques which reinforced our storytelling fundamentals. We were also charged with completing a short film project to submit as an end of the month project to showcase the skills we learned. By the end of the month we were expected to have a handle on our thesis projects despite the changing situation right now.
I want to start by stating that I believe this course could have been a lot more. I did not attend the on campus optional labs, but from what I heard they were a refresh in things we were already familiarized with. Especially for me since I have already had an in-depth education on gear from doing the bachelors program. On top of that, no gear was handed out to us for our required projects. This really stifled my creativity, as well as just made this class almost kind of pointless which was really disheartening. Overall, the lackluster use of this month’s course was truly hard to grapple with and it just killed my creativity.
That being said, I was given the opportunity to use my expertise with our short film assignments. They gave me the opportunity to get creative in the short time span available. I was also excited about the prospect of doing a final film project, however because of the lack of gear and constant changing situation outside of class, I was unable to really do what I wanted to do. Regardless, I was able to compromise and do a good job on revitalizing and updating a previous documentary project.
In the end I truly believe this month could have been a lot more than it was, for both us and our instructor. The current pandemic has thrown an absolute wrench into the way Full Sail does things and I understand that. Unfortunately, I just feel like this was a wasted month for me, but I look forward to moving on and doing more.
Zach Rudden Filmmaker 