This time next week I'll be unpacking and trying to convince myself that I'm no longer a student at NBCCD. I'll be an alumna--and a proud one.
Monday: Linda met with the class in groups and we critiqued each others' work. As I only had to be in "class" for an hour, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on homework.
The first-year Photogs' show opened at the City Hall Gallery that evening. I went, as I wanted to support the students--I remember being in their shoes last year. The show is extremely quirky and eclectic, and I can only imagine the creative mischief they'll get themselves into next year.
Tuesday: The final project for Still to Motion is to make a video portfolio of our work, and I spent most of the class working on mine.
Wednesday: That morning we had a bit of a field-trip: meet at Café: Sweet Belgian Desire. Marie Maltais met us there, and talked with us individually about our portfolios. She also went through our show and talked about that.
This week was a Presentation Week for the Research class. I talked about what I'd found out about professional and near-pro DSLRs and lenses. Although I still have four other cameras on the list, the one that's currently at the top is the Canon 7D.
Thursday: I showed the final (or close to it) versions of my videos and had them critiqued. I specifically asked about the effectiveness of the music that I'd added.
During our meeting that afternoon, Peter surprised me by asking me what I wanted to talk about. The default is he sits down and starts going over the latest developments in my project. I wanted to talk about three things: my application portfolio for the Banff workshop, my Ballet Jörgen photos and my project for his class.
Helen and I skyped that evening, and we talked about my video project. She suggested emailing the videos to my MP (she's going to email them to her MP).
Friday: The photo printer had been out of order for a few days, but on Friday it was working again. Some dirt had gotten into a hard-to-reach spot. I immediately booked time to print stuff that afternoon. I printed one of the two remaining batches for my portfolio. While I was printing, a "cleaning needed" sign came up, which meant that the printer was down again until Monday. However, it's a minor problem compared to the last one. I booked the printer again for Tuesday.
That day was the final day of Media Explorations for the FVAs, but surprisingly the studio didn't feel too out of control the way it usually does on the final day.
That evening, Karen and I went to the opening of a video studio. I was incredibly excited by everything. So much so that I'm half-tempted to go back to NBCCD and do Integrated Media--or a Film BFA at NSCAD.
Saturday: I spent much of the afternoon doing battle with my independent study videos. Because each video was several hundred megabytes and would take several hours to upload (even with high-speed internet), I had to downsize them. At the beginning of the semester Rod had us download iSquint and/or HandBreak, both of which are software that downsize your videos. I tried one--it wouldn't accept my video. I tried the other--the video ended up looking stretched vertically (they're all 16:9). After that, I threw up my hands and imported them into iMovie. Finally I was able to downsize them and then upload them to YouTube. I uploaded a couple to Vimeo, but then Vimeo's uploader decided to go on the fritz. Here's the playlist. Please feel free to share it with your friends--I want the videos to get as many hits as possible.
In the evening I went to the NBCCD fashion show, Designed to the Nines. Three members of the faculty modelled in it: Drew (who modelled last year), Adam (who was right after Drew) and WhiteFeather (she modelled in a different line). My friend and classmate Emily also modelled. One of the designers, Allison, designed costumes for Dance Fredericton's production of The Magic Flute. The models were students at the dance school, and instead of strutting down the runway they danced down it--to the overture from the opera by Mozart, no less.
Sunday: I spent the afternoon picking up trash during the Earth Day Community Clean-Up that was organized by Chafic Haddad. That meant about three hours walking around downtown with a couple of garbage bags and taking photos of coffee cups before putting them in a bag (one bag for regular trash, one bag for cups). By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was wiped. So I took my trash (regular trash bag #2, cup bag #1) back to Wilser's Room (our meeting spot) and collapsed into the pub's sofa, as I'd been on my feet all afternoon. I didn't move for several minutes. Eventually I made myself get up and go get a veggie burger (I'd messaged Chafic on Facebook and asked him if there would be vegetarian options). Picaroons sponsored the event, which meant FREE BEER! Dooryard Summer Ale (a seasonal beer), to be exact. I'm slowly discovering Picaroons' beers, and I've liked most of the ones that I've tried. However, the Dooryard was new to me--and I loved it. It's probably the lightest-tasting beer that I've ever had, but the flavour is just as complex as their other beers. I stayed for about an hour, eating my burger, drinking my beer and chatting with a fellow NBCCD student before heading over to the college to get some work done.
And I got a lot done: I put the finishing touches on my portfolio slide-show for Still to Motion, did the final round of proofreading of my final report for Portfolio Development and emailed it to Peter, filled out application forms for residence for next year and the Banff workshop, and sent my portfolio to Banff.
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