The first piece of advice I have is, DON'T PROCRASTINATE! You'll probably hear this in everyone's blog, and it's true. Save yourself the worry and stress, and just don't do it! Yes, sometimes it may be appealing or tempting, but trust me, you will regret it! It will bite you in the butt! If you have work to do, do it! I cannot stress this enough, because I have been a victim of procrastination, and it is not fun. When you avoid doing your work, it will build up into a large pile of mess. It will lead you to be stressed, anxious, and overall worried. When you rush until the last minute, your work won't be very good. Most times, It'll be sloppy and lazy, and that is not great. So listen to me when I say, do not procrastinate!
The second piece of advice I have is, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help! We all don't know everything about media, or anything for that fact. So do not be afraid to ask! Ask questions, seek advice, ask for help! It is very important that you do so! You will not learn much if you don't. If you're confused, do not be ashamed or shy to ask for clarification! I am sure that anyone will be pleased to help you! If you're confused and you don't ask for help, then you wouldn't know how to do it. Then you wouldn't know what to teach someone else. No one got anywhere without some help. Ask questions, too! If you're curious about something, ask someone about it! Seek advice from others. Coincidently, I just asked Kelli for advice on music videos, since she is great at that. Her advice has helped me improve my knowledge on techniques while filming. But you need to remember, take, but you must give back. This means, when someone asks you for help, make sure you help them! Ask for help, seek advice, and ask questions because it will help you in this class and more broadly, in life.
The third piece of advice is, Always Check And Test Your Equipment! This is a mistake I have made too many times. I was rushing and I didn't check and test the equipment. This left me with tripods whose legs were stuck, mic's that didn't work, and batteries that were not charged. Trust me, save yourself the regret and check it before you sign it out! Speaking of the sign out sheet, make sure you confirm that everything is there because if not, you could be liable and responsible if something isn't there. Check your tripod. Make sure it has a shoe! Once as a 6th grader, I signed out a tripod, but it didn't have a shoe! This meant I could not film. Another time, I checked out a tripod but did not test it. One of the legs was stuck! Always check each leg and your tripod leg! Speaking of tripods, ALWAYS USE ONE! As Mr. M said, "Even if you say that you can 'hold it steady' you can't!" Tripods are your best friend! It keeps your shot nice and steady, and you won't have to stress about shaky shots later. Check your batteries, too. Make sure your batteries are fully charged, and that you have a spare. Also be sure that you have spares for not only your camera, but also for your mics and DXA-SLR Mini box. When you have all your batteries set, be sure to turn everything off! Don't forget an SD card! Also, make sure that you have enough memory. Test it, too. On some SD cards, it will display a message saying, "Movie Recording Has Been Stopped Automatically'. Check your SD so that you won't be wasting anyone's time while out to shoot. This means test your mics. Make sure it actually records sound. Test your DXA-SLR Mini Box. Something I learned that hard way: Just because you can hear the audio in the Mini Box, Doesn't always mean it's capturing the audio! So, take a test recording and PLAY IT BACK! Always check and test your equipment, it'll help you while shooting.
As a 2nd year student in the CKTV Media Ohana, I have learned so much. I've learned from others, from Mr. M, and from my mistakes. Here are some pieces of advice that I hope you'll follow with. If you are a new student, or a returning student, to the class, Congratulations on getting into the best class ever! Remember to work hard, but also have fun! Well, that's it for my constructive response. I may be adding more to this post as the year comes to an end. Thanks for reading! Bye!