Post By: Sarah Barclay & Emily McTyre

As the school year comes to a close and finals week approaches, we’ve decided to take a look back at our first year in college, more specifically our first year as film students. Here are just a few things we’ve learned this year:

Time Management

This may seem like an obvious one, and most people learn time management at some point during school, but we felt it necessary to include. Most students find they have time management issues when writing papers, but here, we’re going to focus on editing.

If you’ve spent any amount of time editing, you’ve most likely realized how long it can take, especially when you’re trying to make your video look and sound good. It’s usually really easy to tell how long someone took to edit something when it comes to the types of mistakes that are made. With that being said, a lot of editing is stylistic which is sometimes hard to judge. Another part of editing time management is understanding how long it takes to render and export your final video. Generally as a rule of thumb, expect your export time to be 2-3 times the length of your video. The takeaway here: don’t wait until the last minute to edit your video. If you do, you won’t like how it turned out.

Group Work

In the film industry, you’re constantly working with other people with different ideas and opinions. While at times they can be frustrating, they’re there to help you be better and make your project the best that it can be. While no one’s saying you have to listen to what they suggest, we highly encourage you take into consideration what they say.

Adding to this would be to be accommodating for other people. Just as you ask others to help you out, return the same courtesy. Put it this way: they’re probably asking you because they either like working with you, appreciate your criticism, trust your judgement, or a combination. While it doesn’t hurt to be nice, don’t feel obligated to say yes every time. Do understand your limits and time restraint

Getting Involved

It’s something you hear all over campus from the moment you show up, but seriously, get involved. There are so many opportunities and experiences you will miss if you only stick to learning in the classroom.

Find clubs and organizations, or make your own, that concentrate on what you love. In our case, we had a number of clubs available to us (Film Guild, Media Arts Productions, Women in Film, Cinema Club, etc.), and without them, we never would have met! You’ll be a part of a network of like-minded individuals who are all moving toward a career in the industry. Build rapport, make friends, help them (they’ll help you), and showcase your talent; these are the people you will be working with in the future, so start working together today!

Be Forward

Get. Your. Foot. In. The. Door. If you want something to happen, you have to make it happen yourself. Voice your ideas. Don’t be afraid to be straight forward. Be confident in your choices. Don’t hesitate to take action on your work, just do it!

Taking Opportunities

This kind of goes hand in hand with getting involved, but it is more expansive. Whether it be joining a club or organization, applying for an internship or scholarship, showing your work to others, or simply working on someone else’s film, taking opportunities will broaden your

knowledge of, experience in, and appreciation for film. If we didn’t both take the opportunity to work on the same short film at the beginning of the fall semester, we wouldn’t be as close as we are now! Put yourself out there because what you have to offer is most likely more than you

think. People want talent, and you’ve got it!

Learn To Appreciate Criticism

The film industry is an outlet for being creative, giving you the freedom to make your ideas come into fruition. While you may be excited to see your ideas come to life, it’s also a terrifying experience showing your projects to other people. We’ve both experienced this enough within this first year and even before starting college. The most nerve wracking part of this is being put in a room with other film majors who are ready to pick apart your piece and tell you what they think.

It doesn’t matter how many times you sit through critiques, it will always be terrifying. You’re being judged by people who do the same thing. They’re seeing your project with fresh eyes and will catch the little things you didn’t notice as you were editing and watching your video

for the thousandth time. It’s a little disheartening to hear there’s something wrong with your project, especially after the amount of time and effort that went into it, but it helps you in the long run. Once you become aware of it, you’ll double check future projects to make sure you didn’t make the same mistake.

These critiques help you get better, and keep in mind not all critiques are negative. Sometimes a critique will be a compliment about how you used this effect or that transition and that it helped enhance your video. These help build up your confidence as well when you hear them, and a confidence boost is always nice.

Dealing With Your Own Work

Working off of criticism, you deal with your work a lot. Most of the time, creators hate their own work, whether they wrote it, edited it, or starred in it. Once you spend a large amount of time with one thing, when you finish it, you never want to see it again. Even when mentioning something they’re working on, people tend to dismiss it as they think it isn’t that good. That’s why a lot of projects get abandoned, but have you ever noticed how some people get excited because of something new being produced? Chances are your idea is better than you think it is when presented to other people. No one can tell the same story the same way.

If you ever see something and think to yourself “I could’ve done that,” remember: you didn’t. A large part of this is having confidence in yourself, and while it doesn’t grow overnight, it does grow over time. So, if you’re working on something and in the middle decide to stop because you don’t think you’re good enough, remember the only person in your way is you.

Organization is Key

Organization is not only helpful and efficient to you, but it is the same for your coworkers and peers. In a crunch, knowing exactly where a file is or when an appointment is scheduled

shows that you are on top of your game and can run a production. It’s a good thing to know not only where everything is, but also what everything is called. Keep your backup storage, planner, and email organized. Everything will move smoother and faster; you’ll thank yourself later.

Understand There’s Always Room For Improvement

We’re gonna start this by saying nothing is perfect. As film students, we tend to notice a lot when we movies and television shows. For assignments, we analyze the editing, the storyline, every possible aspect. We notice the good things and the bad, what we liked, and what could be improved. We see everything. What does this mean? Even in the professional world, they make mistakes. It happens. What can you do? You can work harder and make your videos better. Use your resources, don’t be afraid to ask for help, and listen to criticism; only then will your video to be the best it can be.