CVN begins a new series on the different schools our Cybertown citizens and residents attend in real life. Those who are out of school are encouraged to submit a description of the last school they attended. Send all entries to: jdb_educator, editor.
Film School By DynaTec
My school is a tertiary style school. A Tertiary style school means it is like an University/undergraduate school. In Australia we have high school then university undergraduate (bachelor/Diploma/Advanced Diploma) then postgraduate (Masters/Ph.D.). This is a private film school. It's not very big, one level of an office building, if that. My school only offers the diploma course but it's not a full public or private university in "Australian terms" but still counts as tertiary study.
The school has some really cool equipment like 16 and 35mm film cameras, Sound Recording, Editing and heaps more! We have some of the best lecturers around. People who have worked on films like The Matrix, LOTR, Scooby Doo, Peter Pan, Mission Impossible 2 and more come to our school and teach us about their experiences.
I've discovered that the Happy Birthday Song is copyrighted and you have to pay quite a bit to use it in a movie and people who work in film & television can claim movie tickets on tax :D
Some other things I have learned well: I now know how film records an image by moving the film in front of a square called "the gate," then stops for a split micro second. The gate opens up then light passes through the lens and filters (if any) bouncing along exposing that part of the film for the tiniest amount of time. And then the film moves on doing the same thing. I've also learned how video records (this is a simple version the more accurate and scientific one is long lol!). Video uses a magnetic field to move little metal "filaments/parts" in the video tape in an order and when played back they pass through an electric field thingy which transfers that arrangement of those metal parts on the tape to a signal which is then sent to your TV.
When we are not in class some students work, some don't! We make short films (video/film/digital) and also there are plenty of film competitions around to enter to get yourself known. On the weekend I worked on a competition funded by Kodak to make a commercial about our school. Each film school enters two teams and they compete against each other. The prize is some movie tickets, 4000feet of film and a subscription to the Australian Cinematography Society. However our school is going to put one of the two entries on television to promote the school.
In class there are lots of assignments. I'm doing one today where we take out location sound recording equipment and interview people in 4 different scenarios, i.e.: interview while walking next to a busy road, behind a train station, Doorstop interview and inside interview.
The great thing bout my school is classes are scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, so I can sleep as late as I want hehe. I'm doing a 2-year Diploma course there, which I started in March of this year (2003) and it goes to November of next year (2004).
