Thursday, May 20, 2010

Professional Practise - Secondary Goal - Post 7

Using effective problem-solving techniques.
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Well my theory in adopting this as a goal was that I had a problem, and therefore I needed to use effective problem-solving techniques. I didn't really think about this very clearly though before I lay it down. What are problem-solving techniques when editing and the problem is a creative one? I can only think of one technique - trial and error. I suppose consultation with people you trust could be considered another one. Any others? Umm... Well in some instances it would be a case of re-shooting material. This technique is not available to me this time though. I can't think of any more.
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Well, I definitely used plenty of trial and error; that's for sure. Toetu and I spent a great deal of time on our edit, considering the piece is only thirty seconds long, trying out different options to try to get more out of the TVC. There were plenty of errors in our trials, but we have steadily made small improvements, and the TVC appears much better now than in earlier edits.
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I probably could have used consultation with trusted advisors a lot more to be honest, when I think back on it. I showed my TVC to some other students quite recently, and they were very helpful. I had been concerned about my graphic; it was not sitting right with me but I just wasn't sure how I wanted to change it. I had put off making a decision about it by telling myself it would probably look less bright and gaudy once everything had been colour corrected (which it does look much better, I have to say). Honestly though, I shouldn't have put off responding to that niggling feeling, as it is now too late. Two students whose opinions I trust watched my TVC and immediately said to me, "you need to change your graphic." It was as simple as having people confirm my fears, and then straight away I was all-systems-go designing a new graphic. Unfortunately, it came too late; when I went to school to meet Toetu yesterday we discovered that Glenn had already outputted the TVCs for the grade, and it was too late to make any changes. If I had swallowed my pride more quickly (it's hard to show people a piece you're not happy with!) and asked more people's opinions sooner then I would have been able to solve the problem.
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Today I made a to-do list for the next month, until I depart for China. It is long. Very long. So long it makes me feel ill to look at, and ashamed and angry with myself that I have let things get to out of control. With that in mind, my goal for the whole of next month is to maintain my motivation and commitment to the tasks at hand and manage my time accordingly so that I can knock every single item off that list on time.

1 comment:

  1. support comment. Um. How are you out of control? You're always at least seem really on to it. Maybe thats a talent of yours. but you also have a tendency to seem stressed and frazzled. My advice is, yes, grab that to do list and tick things off. but don't burn yourself out doing it. Take time to breathe before whizzing off at rosedamon kilometres per hour. Its too easy to get wound up in what you're not doing and lose focus on what you are doing.

    i know this comment will probably just confuse you. Its confusing me. Sorry that its not helpful. but its here supporting you all the same. I'm just typing as I think so as usual its probably very contradictory.

    we need to watch some horror films. yay us - we both got the films we wanted.

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