Total Hours: 9
Perpich, Rebecca Bullen, 5 Hours
In my second week at Perpich, we started off the morning darkroom class with a critique on their current photogram project. I was surprised to learn that none of the students in the class are in the visual art department, meaning that they have little to no formal art training. It was surprising because I thought the work from these students was incredibly strong—I was very impressed with how experimental and successful their photograms were.
After critique in the morning class, Rebecca and I moved into the longer Narrative class. We went over the roles of a traditional filmmaking crew. Everything from writer, director, producer, assistant director, cinematographer, propmaster, make-up, and so on.
She went on to show three films to the students illustrating different important points in filmmaking. I particularly enjoyed the two films, Peel and Passionless Moments by a New Zealand filmmaker, Jane Campion, who I had not yet heard of. I knew I could draw on concepts from Passionless Moments when I talk about my lesson and assignment for the class in the near future.
After some discussion about the films, students were assigned into groups to work on their own. Starting in the ideating and storyboarding stage, most students left the classroom to work in their groups. From here, I walked around to talk to each group individually over the course of the next couple hours. The groups ranged from being very on-board with each other, to still shooting around to a single idea.
I was very impressed with how well they all work with each other. From only being here for two weeks, it seems like an amazingly inclusive group—much more inclusive than I remember my own high school. I really enjoyed talking to the students about their ideas and seeing how each time I circled around and came back to a group, how much their idea had changed or grown.
I’m looking forward to next week and seeing where their projects are at!
MCTC, Paul Sinkler, 4 hours
Today I shadowed Paul in his Photography 2 class at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He started off by introducing me to his students, and going over their last week’s assignment.
The assignment was a technical exercise about back-button focusing on DSLR cameras, and tracking a moving subject. I myself hadn’t learned the advantages of using back-button focusing until now! One of the students came in with some very exciting photos from a rodeo where he used back button focusing to capture neat photos. I thought this was a very good use of this exercise.
After going over each student’s photos individually and troubleshooting the problems they faced, he introduced the next assignment. This week’s lesson was in macro photography. Paul went over the definition of macro, and the confusion around the term macro and how it’s misused.
In photography, a true macro image is 1:1, meaning the size of the subject is rendered at its same size on the film or sensor. There are many ways to get a macro image, the first being a macro lens. Another way is to flip a camera lens backwards, reversing the optics. The third way, is to use an extension tube. This is because the farther away the lens is from the film or sensor, the closer it can focus on a subject. By distancing the lens with a simple tube, one can make any lens a macro lens.
After the lesson, students were given a few macro lenses and extension tubes, and were instructed to take shots of things around the classroom using these tools. Paul and I assisted students one on one if they were having difficulty with the concepts or the equipment. I think I was able to troubleshoot a few things quite well, and Paul did a great job explaining the science behind the ideas.
It was wonderful meeting the students and to work with Paul.