110 Reflection Essay

When I began this class, I had not much of an idea what to expect. I chose it because it sounded interesting and wanted to find out, so when I first arrived to class, I was excited to learn about films and videos in more depth. During the beginning of the year, I had only a basic understanding of the concept of films and media, being that they were for entertainment or information. However, I quickly learned there was much more than that. We began with representation.

My original understanding of representation was anything that showed inclusivity in films or media. I personally never watched films and really thought in depth how careful each character is crafted, to make it seem as real as possible. I learned that it is paramount to how a film or video comes along, and that with these cleverly created characters they give not only life to the film but show the audience a character they can personally relate to. It draws them in and makes it a much better experience. Whether it be representing a way of thinking, or an ethnic group, each form of representation helps move the characters, and make them feel real in this world. Especially if they are part of an underrepresented group. Other ways you can draw an audience in is with language.

At the beginning of the year, when I heard language, I genuinely thought grammar and how someone speaks, along with what language they speak. However, I found out that it is much more interesting than that. Language is anything in a film that helps it convey its meaning. This could be the things mentioned previously, how someone talks, but it also includes set design, sound design, editing, among others. It is used specifically to get an idea across, a meaning to the film. If something is extremely important to a character, they can emphasize it and show how it bring the story along. This was my favourite idea to learn about in film, and has changed how I look at it.

Now the film industry is interesting as well. Being only a consumer at the beginning of the year, and slowly shifting into a creator not only helped myself and fellow classmates learn, it showed us just what went on behind the scenes. This was the most helpful experience because it taught us the basics for when we began to actually film our opening. We learned things like how to write a script and shot list, every kind of angle and lighting to help portray a “language” that the audience understood. I can guarantee without these skills we would have been lost as to how to properly film. Furthermore, this entire section made us understand why the industry films and releases productions regularly. Not only to entertain, but also to show new ideas and representations so we can learn.

Lastly, this class also helped me understand as an audience member how to approach the ideas a film or video gives, as well as how to properly consider the audience when creating a film. This is because every single production is made for someone. We learned how audiences are targeted and what methods are used to make sure that people will enjoy the productions. Along with that we learned how many people actually consume the message, and that they all may have different ideas or interpretations. Every single person interprets something their own way, however, we can always nudge it toward a certain idea. This doesn’t mean however, that leaving the audience to interpret it themselves is a bad thing either.

This class has changed how I view media for the rest of my life. While before I would only view it as it being entertaining, and not bothering to think of the ideas or representation in these films, it has opened my eyes for what media really is. I will be searching for meanings and representation, I will be seeing what the directors did and why they did it. This will help me not only learn even more, but understand the thinking of not only other people, but also how ideas can be represented throughout media. I believe creating meaning through the use of imagery and sound is extremely important, and that without it, media would make no sense, and would have no meaning to watch. Media is created to help people learn about the world and themselves, to entertain themselves, and connect with other people on another level. If we cant accomplish this through the use of not only imagery and sound, but the four ideas we learned this year, media would be useless.