Week 2

We began the week with Mark Dixon on Monday. After this we began to cover the pillars of good journalism and learnt that in some way everyone is bias so we must follow the pillars in order to not be objective. After this we began to learn how to conduct an effective interview for our first assignment, and started to going through the tasks on our assignment lists including finding inspirational interviewees and assessing 3 different professional interviews.

On Wednesday we began with an industry skills session with Mark Dixon. We ran through the 12 news values and their meaning according to the creators.This gave me an idea of what was actually meant by the values and how they can be interpreted. In the second session with Mark Epton we began to cover the basis of our assignment and began to cover the different shots used on a camera and practiced these out and about. In our final session of the day with Rob we thought about what the internet was and watched a really long boring video that almost sent me to sleep and then watched another video about the history of the internet and filled out a worksheet that was pretty pointless and then we went home. Even though the end of the day bored me to death I did come out with some pretty good looking photos from the photography session.

On Thursday with Sarah we learnt how to set up a video camera and then hit the streets to film our own version of a news story. This was very fun and helped me to feel creative and helped me to get familiar with the equipment. Sarah was very helpful and showed us all the things not to do and how to frame a shot so that it was appealing. I found I got the hang of filming very easily. Although I did feel a little lost because Kelly was ill and I had to make new friends which I'm not the best at sometimes.

On Friday we first started off with a tutorial with Mark Dixon where we thought about our aspirations. This helped me to really think about what I wanted to do in the future and be ambitious. In the last two lessons with Phil we looked at different types of research that journalists can use and looked at examples of this. After that we began to look at charts of information that interested us and began to think about creating an article based on that information.

Overall the second week has been tiring because of having to get up so early to catch the bus rather than the train that I used the week before but enjoyable as I have been learning even more new wonderful things and finding out I'm good at things I never knew I was.

Aspirations

What do you want to study on the course?
I want to learn every single thing possible so that I have a wide skill-set. I want to learn both how to operate behind the scenes and on the scenes. Whilst learning the key values of journalism.

What sort of journalism interests you?
I am very interested in film and performing arts journalism as I have grown up around those sort of things. However I would also like to do journalism based on social issues such as racism, sexism and homelessness to name a few. Fashion is also a subject that interests me and I would like to cover this. I would either like to be a written journalist or a photo journalist.

What do you want to do after the course?
After the course I would like to go into an apprenticeship or internship. I'd like to do this as I don't believe university is my thing as I like to be hands on in the environment and learn as I go. I also hate exams.

Where would you consider continuing studies?
The BBC or for a magazine that has a key interest in fashion or film.

What is your dream job?
My dream job is to be an entertainment journalist who interviews actors and film creators.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself as being an up and coming film critic or entertainment journalist. interviewing stars and watching films for a living.

Week 1

My first ever week at NCN has been something I have had to adjust to. It's so strange to come from such a formal style of education and enter a relaxed and more friendly environment. At college, I feel like I am treated as an adult as opposed to a child, it's nice, just strange.

Throughout the week I have learned many different things from skills of the workplace to how film production works. Everything has been so interesting and I don't believe there has been a second yet where I have been bored.

My first class of the week began on Monday morning with Mark Dixon, he is friendly and easy to listen to and really helped to ease me into the college lessons as he did not go straight into the deep end.

After Mark had spoken to us about the things that we would be doing once more Phil took over and began to explain to us what we would be doing with him, writing an article on two artists that are showcasing their pieces in a local gallery. He was very descriptive and easy to understand. I was excited to start researching and writing my first article, even if art isn't my thing. I also liked the way Phil broke down how we could cover every basis in an article by following the simple steps of "Who,What,Where,When,Why,How" this made it very clear what I could research along with the back stories of the artists.

On Wednesday morning, we were again being taught by Mark, this time, we're learning about the skills of the journalism industry. In this lesson, we mainly focused on selecting and constructing news. This concept was quite complicated to me however I definitely got the main idea that the news can be very biased and only selects the stories they want to tell and will ignore many if they believe them to be "too complexed" for laymen like you and me. I also understood you have to be very flexible with where you find your information, as it can vary from coffee shop gossip to it being supplied by big world agencies. In addition, I found out about the news values that were created in 1965 by Johan Galtang and Marie Holmbe Ruge which helped me to understand how times have changed since the 60's. Overall this lesson was very informative and I liked it a lot.

After Mark Dixon taught us we went on to learn about photojournalism with Mark Epton. I loved this lesson and photography is one of my favourite things to do. Mark was also very kind and friendly and made me, and I'm sure the rest of the class, feel very welcome. We began to learn the basics of DSLR cameras and take some practice shots. It was all very informative and interesting.

When it came to the next lesson with Rob he was teaching us how to create a website on a website creator called Wix, it seemed simple enough but I did struggle in places. I found Rob lacked knowledge of some of the things he was teaching which frustrated me slightly as I didn't know what I was doing and couldn't get any help either as when I did ask he was unsure and I had to try and figure it out which I couldn't do. I understand though that the software had changed overnight and he was unable to know everything and after a lot of guessing and googling and clicking help buttons I was able to figure out what I needed to do to create my website.


On Thursday we had a lesson with Sarah. She began to explain to us the process of film production and how there are 5 key stages (development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution.) Sarah also explained to us what we would be doing for our first project, a short documentary on a human interest subject that could link to the future of Nottingham. She also began easing us into creatively and descriptively writing for the purpose of development for when we begin to write our scripts a little later down the line. Sarah was also a very clear and easy to understand teacher, she also made things light hearted and fun.

I began Friday with a set of tests called Gears, there were simple enough and gave me an idea of how much information of English and maths I have retained since leaving year 11. After this, we went on a visit to the Nottingham Contemporary with Phil for our first article on the artists that had exhibitions there. He gave us ideas on things to think about and ask in order to create a good article. The trip was very good and I got all the information I needed to create the article I wanted to write. In the next lesson with Phil we began to write up these articles and shared our ideas as a class, this helped me to think of the art in ways I hadn't before and re-assess what I was going to write.

Overall the first week of study was very informative and welcoming. I am excited to continue studying this course and cannot wait to find where it could take me in the future.