Month: November 2022

For this week’s blog, we are asked to write about our experiences in New Media, especially as a design student learning about the world of film and photography.

For my first module, I took interaction design with Courtney, which didn’t provide me any exposure to the other side of things. We worked on building an app, and focused heavily on UX and interaction. I collaborated with one visual media student in my group who provided helpful insights along the way. 

Now, we head into module 2: Narrative Filmmaking, taught by Vanessa Williams. We have only had a single week of class since beginning this module, so I am still very new to this but I gained some important insights into film. 

We learned about the different kinds of shots that are used in filmmaking, and that opened my eyes to something that I never noticed before. I now realize how intentional every shot is in a film, tv show, or video, and how they each convey their own special meanings. I don’t think I can watch a TV show or film and not notice these things anymore! I am a person who wants to learn everything, and I think these principles and skills will be incredibly important to my career as a designer. If I want to go into motion design or animation, understanding these principles will help guide me. 

The idea of storyboarding was also introduced to us by Vanessa and while I already knew what it was, I am beginning to see how this can be helpful for design and other disciplines. Getting your basic ideas out on paper lets you see the bigger picture and notice things a bit more clearly. I think that the practice of wireframing in UX design is based on storyboarding in film. It’s so cool to see how it all intersects.

I also have an interest in 3D that I want to indulge in the future, and I know that 3D benefits heavily from lighting and camera position. It’s like having your own camera and lights in a virtual 3D space. Learning about those concepts and understanding photography and filmmaking as a whole will help better inform me when I begin to learn 3D. It makes sense why so many 3D artists I look up to online say they have a background in photography. 

As we continue through this module, I hope to continue making these connections between disciplines. When you are in a workplace, you are collaborating with coworkers who have many different skill sets and disciplines. I think being at least informed about these different disciplines can help better work be produced, and make work less tedious and more efficient for anyone. A bit of an unrelated example, but learning about coding side-by-side made me realize how important they are to each other. Developers often groan at designers, and vice versa, and I think this comes from a lack of knowledge on the other field. I don’t think it’s ever necessary to know everything, but a bit of knowledge can help make hand-offs smoother and strengthen relationships.

Besides that, we have not delved into much regarding the world of filmmaking, but I am eager to learn more as we go through this course, as well as the remaining modules. Never stop learning.

Last week, we had Margaret Darcher present to our class about her employer: Amazon. Margaret is a SCCA alum, and currently a Principal UX Designer for the company. What I appreciated about Margaret was her transparency about her employer. She kept it real and let us know the good and the bad which is helpful.

For me, “learn and be curious”, “think big”, and “dive deep” are the principles I have exhibited most in my life. Growing up on the internet definitely molded me into becoming a curious person. I spend large chunks of my time learning about new things and this also ties into diving deep. For the things I’m interested in, I want to learn as much as I can about it. Coming away from these things with only a basic understanding doesn’t please me and leaves me itching for more. This leads into the think big principle, because I love to understand the layers and multitudes of any given subject. Seeing how things connect on the large scale is exciting to me, and will definitely come in handy in the future. A time where I have exhibited all three of these has definitely been in my assignments at school. Spending the time to do research for projects has led me down rabbit holes, and even given me new pathways to follow so I can continue my learning. For example in Erik’s class, learning HTML and CSS has made me more curious. I went down a rabbit hole and learned of the many programming languages and frameworks that are out there. I plan to continue on with a Javascript course during our winter break.

The leadership principle I’d have the most difficulty adopting would be “have a backbone: disagree and commit”. In both school and my personal life, I have an issue with asserting myself and sharing what I mean. I often feel like a bit of a doormat, which I attribute to growing up in a dysfunctional home. The easiest route to solving conflict in my family was to not say anything, and don’t even dare to defend yourself. In group settings, I often feel nervous to give suggestions or share when something isn’t working. This stems from my fear of causing further conflict, and looked upon as bitchy or rude. This is something I’ll have to work on, because it is better to get your opinion out than let it be unheard and later feel unsatisfied with your outcomes.