In this blog post I will be discussing my final project at Newcastle College. How it ended up and how I addressed problems as they occurred, what I think of reflective practices and how they might help me in the future.
How my final project ended up, and how I addressed problems as the occurred.
To be honest my final project was a disaster, I had been working on the script of my short film for over a year, I had scouted locations and got actors to work on the project. But alas all my efforts were in vain due to the Covid-19 pandemic that ruined our everyday lives.
My initial plan was already plagued with obstacles, I had actors cancel all throughout the project due to personal reasons. Every time this happened I just went on a started searching for a replacement, I needed four actors but in the end I had sixteen actors tell me they would be down to do it and agree to do it but they all except two canceled. When Covid-19 hit I had to inform these last two actors that I had to cancel myself because I could not vouch for the safety of my crew and cast. I was not about to endanger people just because I wanted to film my project. In the same week Newcastle College made the decision to close their doors for the foreseeable future (College Closed, 2020).
After a few weeks we got a replacement assignment, If you were able to hand in your original project you should do so. If not you had to hand in a replacement assignment that was not yet previously handed in for academic purposes. My replacement assignment was not making it any easier on me, I started with a fresh energy because I finally had a reason to edit a video that I had on my computer for over a year. But I just could not catch a break. Once again I ran into problems this time they were of a technical nature, a few days before the deadline my footage got corrupted due to a dead harddrive, my efforts to retrieve the footage were futile. I ended up using another video that I had on my computer. This process went smooth because it was already almost finished, I just had to do some small changed.
Commercial I ended up handing in.
(Perfume commercial, 2020)
Have reflective practices helped you throughout this year?
For me I feel it is a mix of positive and negative. The reflective practices have forced me to look into some personal struggles that I have, but some of the practices felt redundant because I tend to do reflection within myself. I found it difficult to put my thought into words and the reflective practices have definitely helped with this. It forces me to think about my behavior and actions in such a way that anyone would be able to understand them, this means you have to go into some detail that could make you feel uncomfortable.
How will these reflective practices help you in the future?
My goal is to keep using reflective practices in a professional manner. They are helpful to express ones thoughts and experiences to third parties. From now on I want to use Kolb’s experiential learning cycle for every project that I do. It will help me see areas in which I will have to improve and on which I have already improved. Research has shown that sharing and voice out once reflective practices is the only way to learn from these. (Reflective Practice | SkillsYouNeed, n.d.). This is the reason I will be continuing to post my reflective practices on my blog. I want to keep improving on these aspect in my life so why not use this existing platform.
References
ncl-coll.ac.uk. 2020. College Closed. [online] Available at: <https://www.ncl-coll.ac.uk/the-college/remote-learning> [Accessed 30 May 2020].
Perfume commercial. 2020. Directed by J. Giezen. Rotterdam.
Skillsyouneed.com. n.d. Reflective Practice | Skillsyouneed. [online] Available at: <https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/reflective-practice.html> [Accessed 31 May 2020].