1: Camera
2: Laptop/ iPad
3: Hard Drive
4: Studio Space
5: Connections
6: Story Telling understanding
7: Body composition/ modeling understanding
8: Lighting
9: Editing Software
10: Drive
Luckily I’m in a fairly privileged position where my program offers me an abundance of resources I can utilize basically whenever I want. Things like a computer and editing software, are things I walk into the classroom with almost daily. Within our studio space, I’m granted access to multiple lighting, backdrop, and set design options. So in short, all the fundamental technical elements of what I need are here. Not to mention the connections I’m making with my fellow classmates and peers who are learning and practicing the same things I am.
But I am in this program for a reason, because although I have all this equipment, I am still being taught how to use it in accordance with the things I want to pursue. How to pose models for certain shoot (Both people and objects) isn’t a straightforward task, especially when you add in extra elements like the set, the lighting, the camera: along with the camera settings. Story telling in relation to both video and photography; Within video, knowing how to drive a plot with camera angles, lighting, sets, props, etc, all while trying to keep the viewer engaged and sympathetic is a big thing that still intimidates me. As far as storytelling with photos, being able to utilize a single image and have it speak to the viewer, or make them forget its a singular captured moment in time and not apart of it’s own universe that takes years to learn how to do.
When it comes to tools I don’t have and need to learn, a lot of it boils down to personal hiccups. Being more social and extraverted when it comes to marketing myself and reaching out. Not procrastinating or prioritizing the things I need to prioritize. Balancing multiple projects at once and being able to not have to sacrifice the quality of one or the other. “Learn,” isn’t the word I would use to describe my short comings in these because after all, these are traits we all know how to do to some degree. It’s just not letting them come and go and being consistent with these characteristics that I need to learn, because without them, regardless of what I have around me, it will go to waste.