72 Hour Film Challenge Status

Looking back on your 72-Hour Filmmaking Challenge, what did you learn about yourself as a filmmaker and collaborator? What challenges did you face?  How did you respond to the challenges you faced, and what insights will you carry forward into your next project?

    I learned that, as a filmmaker, I am capable of taking on both crew and talent roles, mainly preferring to act. As a collaborator, I try my best to do my fair share of work and offer up what I can, i.e., transportation, acting, BTS footage, food, water, etc. I was sure to be willing to do whatever was asked of me as I knew that my role was considerably more minor compared to the others. During the challenge, we faced a few issues, namely regarding audio and the lav mics. In response to the difficulties, we troubleshooted then came up with different workarounds, such as using Lukas' personal lavs and booming scenes instead of using the lavs. Some insights that I will carry forward into my next project is to always check and test the equipment prior to checking them out and to always have a backup incase something doesn't work out.

Future Jobs

What will the work world of the near future look like?  What are the societal challenges that will come up in the coming machine age?  How will this change how we look for employment?  Take time to craft a 3 paragraph response to what you've learned about the future of work in this video.

    In the near future, the work world will be more and more supplemented with technology until, inevitably, many jobs will be replaced with automation. This change is practically guaranteed, as if you were to compare the way that labor looked like throughout the past century, you'd see drastic changes. Take a grocery store, with the addition technology such as computer, there are considerably less workers needed in store at all times as a lot of work have been massively supplemented with computers, scanners, near automatic cash registers, self-checkouts, cleaning robots, cameras, etc. This has happened to a lot of different industries and workplaces, meaning that there are much less jobs available to a huge population of people.

    The challenges which society is going to face in the coming machine age are a steadily shrinking middle class and larger wealth gap. With the issue of less work available, especially for uneducated people who relied on lower-leveled white-collared work and blue collared-work, the people who are in worse financial situations are losing out on jobs. This makes their standards of living much worse and aggravates other issues in their lives. However, this supplementation has largely left the upper middle class unaffected because their jobs often are more thinking-based and required human thought and education. Thus, they maintain their livelihoods and don't face more challenges in life because of their stable financial situations.

    As for employment, this change will lead to the loss of many jobs which will no longer need humans to do and thus make every opportunity more impacted and sought after. However, it may also lead to a boost for creative and thinking jobs as people will no longer have to do labor work. Unfortunately, with the current values and conflicts politically, most people will still suffer from a lack of work as they won't have any income to ensure that they will be able to live. The solution proposed in the video was to give everyone a set stable income that they could live off of; however, it opposes many values that a lot of Americans hold, which means that the solution would never get enough traction because of the massive opposition to it.

Professionalism

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/10-characteristics-professionalism-708.html 

Overall, how do each of these characteristics of professionalism apply to filmmaking?  How do they apply to your daily work in this class? Please select three characteristics to give real-life examples of how you can work toward improving them in this class.

Please write a complete paragraph on each of the three characteristics, along with an introduction paragraph.

    There are many important aspects for being a professional. Although having technical skills can be sought after and/or needed, soft skills are just as, if not more, important than technical knowledge. Overall, all of these characteristics of professionalism apply directly to the filmmaking process as they contribute to creating good connections with other professionals and making productions run smoothly with less issues.

    One of the characteristics that the article highlights is "Confident, not Cocky." What the article means is that having a confident demeanor improves your communication and how receptive the people you speak with will be to your intended message. Especially in leadership positions, having confidence helps people feel more comfortable following your lead. However, it is important to not be cocky as it can have the opposite effect; making people less likely to want to listen to you or work under you. Additionally, overconfidence can be the cause of a variety of issues so it is important to still be humble and cautious to some degree. In order to work towards improving this skill, I could be more intentional with my speech, using stronger word choices and presenting as having more self-assuredness. I can practice this simply by talking more and putting myself out there.

    Another characteristic is doing what you say you will. By demonstrating this in professional work places, it helps others see you as reliable. It is incredibly important to be perceived that way as reliable people are trusted to do more important work and people are going to want to work with you more. To help improve this skill, it is vital to be more aware and focused on elements that make up reliability, i.e., punctuality and responsibility. You can do this by getting all your work done, being sure to show up early, and taking on more work and completing it all.

    A third characteristic which is important to being professional is owning up to your mistakes. By accepting when you make a mistake, it shows people that you can be accountable for your actions and it increases their trust in you. When you own up to a mistake, that reveals more humility and people will often like you better and would want to work with you more. In order to improve in this skill, simply being open to the idea that you can and most likely will make a mistake is a great mindset to notice when you do make one and help you admit to it. If you need a place to start, apologizing and admitting to wrong-doing in small stakes such as accidentally bumping into or interrupting someone.

Tips for Student Leadership

http://blog.cengage.com/top_blog/tips-for-students-leadership-qualities-staying-on-target/

Considering how you behaved last year, select 3 of these leadership qualities that you are weak in.  How can you positively develop these leadership qualities going forward this year?  How could improving these aspects of your leadership make you a better class leader and filmmaker?

   Reflecting on my behavior of last year, the three leadership qualities which I am weakest in are courage, assertiveness, and self-confidence. I notice that I am capable of being outgoing and extroverted in positions of leadership; however, I tend to not act confident in my ideas or suggestions especially. In order to positively develop these leadership qualities going forwards, I am going to focus on my outward presentation and the confidence of my wording. It is important to demonstrate these qualities of self-assuredness as the people I am leading will be looking to me for guidance. If I don't appear to be sure in myself, they will have reasons to doubt my leadership and feel less sure of themselves. That is why it is important for me and the other advanced students to be stronger leaders as the beginners will be looking to us.

Production Assistant's Handbook

What are the key responsibilities of a production assistant on a film set, and how do these tasks contribute to the overall success of a production? Reflect on how you would approach the role of a production assistant, including any challenges you might anticipate and how you would overcome them.

   The key responsibilities of a production assistant on a film set is to do many tasks and errands to help keep the set running smoothly. They work under the assistant director and are primarily tasked with jobs such as locking up the set, moving stuff, going on runs, setting things up, cleaning, wrapping the set, and so on and so forth. These tasks contribute to the overall success of a production as they are important enough to be needed to be done, but no so important that it would necessitate someone at a higher level or skill to do. All of the tasks given to a PA are important to make the set run smoother, increasing the efficiency which saves time and thus money. I would approach the role of a production assistant with an open mind and prepared to work. As PAs are meant to do the dirty work, I expect to have to do a lot of the menial labor, tasks, and errands around set. I'll use the experience to learn more about professional sets and network with other people on set (when appropriate).

Movie Set Safety

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/06/1052357541/movie-sets-safety-hollywood-iatse-rust

After reading the article on film set safety, what do you think are the biggest reasons accidents still happen on movie sets today? Choose one example from the article (like long work hours, lack of safety rules, or low budgets) and explain how you think the film industry could fix this problem.  How can you relate this problem to all of your experiences in the beginning class last year?

   I think that the biggest reasons that accidents still happen on movie sets today are that people cut corners, disregard important health and safety concerns, and exhaustion. For instance, the death of Sarah Jones could have easily been prevented had the people responsible for securing the location gone through the necessary steps to have the railroad be closed for the shoot instead of shooting there without permission and while the track was still active. Unfortunately, they had not taken these measures and thus caused her death. A possible way for the film industry to fix this issue would be more advocate that are pushing for change. With increased awareness and agitation, it could encourage potential laws, rules, and/or resources to be instated to aid with the issue of set safety and accidents. Additionally, better education and training practices such as certification could help ensure that individual crew members are aware of how to run a set safely. I could relate this issue to my experiences from last year and I knew many people who had suffered from exhaustion due to overworking themselves for projects such as SkillsUSA.

Adv Goal Setting

What are your 3 filmmaking goals for the 2025-2026 school year?  Look back at your goals that you set in last years class.  Did you achieve them?  Why or why not?  How can you make steps to achieve these goals?  Where will you need to look to gather help or resources? Please write a complete paragraph on each of three goals, along with an introduction paragraph.

    It's time for a new school year, and with a new year comes a whole set of new experiences. Going in, I have a much clearer idea than I did last year, thus my current goals and ideas have been shaped by my past experience. For the 2025-2026 school year, my three filmmaking goals are to act in more films, create more personal projects, and further my knowledge and learn new skills.

    Acting is a key aspect of what I enjoy, in both film and theater; however, I felt that last year, I hadn't had the opportunity to act as much as I would've liked to. That is why, this year, I can try and take more steps towards furthering my acting experience by volunteering to act in more of my peers' projects and films. Ideally, I would like to have a much more substantial acting real and resume that I could use in the future and can show off much easier compared to my stage acting.

    Another area that I felt I had lacked in was the creation of projects that held more importance to me personally. Going into the year, I had many different ideas and concepts that I was excited to potentially create. Unfortunately, a lot of those never saw the light of day and I hadn't pursued any of them. This year, with my existing skills and the news ones that I will gain, I hope to be able to create more personal films, i.e., films that are based around my personal experiences, ones that I simple just want to make, and other fun ideas that I have. 

    My third goal is to further my knowledge and skills for filmmaking. Although I always include a goal such as this, it is applicable every time. I can always learn more and so I want to go into this year with that in mind. I expect to learn the advanced curriculum, which includes storytelling, cinematography, etc. Additionally, I will be open to learning more about things that I've learned from last year as well as I've not mastered anything yet and don't expect to.