Week 1 gone, Week 2 Sem 2 on the way

A week before uni started, Daniel "announced" that he'd be back on the 28th; on the 25th he tell me he'll be back on the night of the 27th around 9-11pm; last night (the night of the 27th), i see him on msn around 10pm and ask him where he is, he tells me MAS overbooked his flight by 50 people (how the hell does that happen?) and that all MAS flights to Brisbane are fully booked til the 23rd of August. All i have to say is OMG-Oh My God. He is currently trying to find flights to Brissie with another airline. If you're asking, "was he on standby?" then my answer is NO, he actually had a ticket and everything confirmed. Gosh, what is MAS up to?


Anyway, first week of uni was... hmm... how should i put it? Intense. My current timetable is this (i copied and pasted):

The following is a visual display of your (my) class allocations for the period 23-Jul-2007 to 29-Oct-2007...

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8am			KPB103 LEC 1 KG-L101
9am		KPB104 LEC 1 KG-H101
10am
11am			KMB107 LEC 1 KG-E214
12pm		KPB104 TUT 3 KG-Z2-310
1pm			KPB103 TUT 3 KG-Z2-304
2pm
3pm			KMB107 TUT 3 KG-N407
4pm		KPB105 LEC 1 KG-Z2-315
5pm
6pm

So basically two full days at uni, and the rest is left for self-study, self-revision, work and recreational activities (if there is time for any). This schedule is extremely different from my first sem schedule... that was spread out, this is concentrated. I'll take this as an experiment of sorts and a test---an experiment for which by the end of the year i will reach a conclusion on the type of schedule i prefer (spaced or saturated); and test of self-discipline, time management and concentration (for the amount of classes in a day---hopefully at the end of the year, my brain will have the absorbability of a sponge regardless of the time span).

FYI (for your info):
KMB107 - Sound, Text, Image
KPB103 - Film Genres
KPB104 - Film and Television Resource Management
KPB105 - Narrative Production

For KPB105, we were asked to form 8 production groups (out of 60 students in the unit) in total. We will be stuck with this group for the whole semester, working on film projects together (one practice and another MAJOR project on which we will be assessed). We were told to pick our roles--Director, First Assistant Director, Production Manager, Lighting, Camera Operator, Editor, Sound Designer/Mixer/Sound Recordist/Boom Operator. That's a total of 8 roles (or 7 if you push all the sound jobs to one person), which is what our group did, haha... we only have 6 ppl so far, and Truls (one of the Norwegian guys in the group last semester) is the Sound person I did sound last semester for the group project, so i decided to do Lighting this time. Truls who isn't back yet (still on holiday in France the last time he messaged me), didn't know that he got "dragged" into a group of 5 girls until i told him via email two nights after group assembly. Haha... We might just be a six-person group, or if another is going to join us, then we'll be a seven ppl group. But anyhow, this'll be fun. Anyway, if i babble on about uni stuff, this post'll be too long & i'll bore you & you'll get confused & you'll think it's unnecessary AND i still have loads of stuff to read for Film Genres and Sound, Text, Image, so it's not a good idea.

Here's ONE SENTENCE from my Film Genres textbook, just to give you a taste of the heavy reading it is:

This account of realism was linked to a larger theoretical project--influenced by psychoanalysis and by Althusserian Marxism--for explaining the conventions of the continuity system and the ways in which the spectator was discouraged from attending to the mechanisms of representation--formal (i.e. textual) or institutional (the studio system)--in favour of a wholesale illusionistic and identificatory immersion in the unfolding narrative and in turn, by somewhat debatable extension, collusion in the social and ideological norms sedimented in those narratives.

There are more complicated ones, but i'm just too lazy to look for them cos they're in the previous pages that i've already read... but there was this one sentence that had all these words i'd never come across ever!!! Like "acquiescent", "excoriate", "diachronical", or "proponents". And i was just like... O0000 Myyyyy GOD!! DICTIONARY!!! haha... bloody theory units. There'll be one each semester. Last sem's Film History textbook was way thicker than the Film Genres one, but it was soooo much easier to read! Gosh.

Anyway, that's enough whining from me. All i have to say is, it looks like i'll be so much more busier than last semester because firstly, the assignments are worth so much more, i have 2 units that only have 2 assignments each and each assignment is worth 50%. Talk about `PRESSURE`... And this sem, we have been allocated shooting days and editing days for Narrative Production (KPB105) which look something like this:
-->August 31st-Sept 2nd (shoot practice project)--pick up equipment at 9am on the 31st and return equip. at 9am on the 3rd of Sept.
-->3rd Sept (edit practice project)--9am to 9pm.
-->8th Sept (edit practice project)--9am to 9pm.
-->9th Sept (edit practice project)--9am to 9pm.

-->3rd-7th Oct (shoot MAJOR project)--pick up equip. at 3pm on the 3rd, return equip. on 8th morning at 9am.
-->11th-14th Oct (edit MAJOR project)--9am-9pm everyday.
-->23rd Oct (rough cut of MAJOR project due)
-->25th Oct (FINALISE/EDIT MAJOR PROJECT)--9am-9pm.

All the "9am-9pm"s are the allocated timeslots for my group (group four), and of course we won't be shooting and editing from 9am-9pm or overnight every single day we're allocated the time... but we have to make use of the equipment we have for shooting in the few days that we actually get the camera, lights, and all that jazz; and fully utilise our editing time in the editing suites, or else we'll end up with a shitty film. But anyway, it'll be great to work with a semi-new group (i say semi because Truls and Reina from last sem's group is in this group as well, and we've joined forces with 3 new ppl), and it's always good to work with new groups, film being a collaborative effort and all. But i just hope this group will work together as well as our group of last semester (Freddie, Truls, Reina, Lea and I) did. It's all about group dynamics and willing to give and take, and making choices not for personal reasons but for the best of the whole group. So i hope this experience will be as rewarding as the last one!! If you can tell, i'm really really REALLY excited!!!! :)

Haha... but this semester will definitely be a challenge by the looks of it. And a challenge is always good, regardless of the pressure. Pressure helps too.


Thanks for reading and thanks for caring!