What a journey it has been since I first enrolled at SAE Creative Media Institute in Byron Bay 18 months ago. When I first toured the campus I was caught in a dilemma, torn between two worlds. Before I heard of SAE I had been making my away along the self taught road of YouTube tutorials and books, turning out relatively decent corporate and personal videos. I had a love of film making but also liked to dabble in the world of 3D animation. I was looking at two options - Diploma of Film or Diploma of Animation. One would help to reinforce the skills I was building and take me to a new level, the other would only help build something I had a secret passion for. I needed direction and that's what I received from the school and I took the former option and never looked back.
Before arriving at SAE I was totally self taught but knew there was something missing. For the previous few years I had total creative control over my work and always worked solo. I shot, directed and edited everything, I didn't know anyone else in the industry and therefore had never worked in a crew. This is where SAE came to the rescue, my knight in shining armour. Over the past 18 months I have learnt to let go and work as a team, to take in corrective criticism, to realise that I don't know everything and have a long way to go. But was only part of the journey, the rest required determination and perseverance. The one hour trip to school and the long days spent filming and editing only helped to build character and not break it down. I always went out of my way to help my fellow students who were brand new to the industry and was always there for my crew, even turning up to our TVC shoot in a wheelchair after I blew my knee out in a training mishap the night before.
After cruising through my first trimester I asked my film production teacher to be extremely critical of my work. Pick out any little thing that was wrong, I wanted to be the best that I could and this was the only way how. It's what I wanted, time to turn off the sugar coating and give it to me straight.
I learnt from my mistakes and went from someone who still didn't truly believe they had talent to someone ready to take on the world.
Comments