New Media..?

So I'm writing this installment of my blog a little late, almost a week late in fact. You'll have to excuse the lack of captivating content, 'cause as fellow MSFX students may agree, the last lecture wasn't the most thrilling.
No disrespect to Bill, I found him to be quite an entertaining lecturer at times, its just that I'd grown quite accustomed to the structure of our previous lectures - who says PowerPoint's are the devil's software.. well Ivan actually, but he still uses them, so it can't be that bad.
Bill has a far more spontaneous style of presentation and his evident passion for gaming noticeably went over the heads of the majority of MSFX students. The digital animation and gaming students may argue that Ivan was more swayed towards film, yet they never seemed to complain. I found Bill's first lecture a bit more difficult to engage with, but I'm optimistic for the next one nonetheless.

Some interesting points that Bill presented during the last session include:
*  The idea of 'media' as a practitioners tool
*  Youtube as an example of the way in which the public are breaking the boundaries between producers & consumers
*  'Media' as an ever evolving tool of communication. As soon as new media is released it is already out dated
*  The progression of camera techniques over time. 'Life of an American Fireman' as an example of how a single action was frequently repeated in order to show multiple perspectives - not yet established blending different shots together within one scene.

The final point of the above list triggered greatest interest for me personally. I think that the vast differences between early and contemporary cinema are most evident within the field of special effects, yet there is noticeable development within cinematography also. Nowadays cameramen possess great skills enabling them to produce extremely complex scenes. Techniques in early cinema were less ambitious and as stated previously, a lesser understanding of editing meant that there was often repetition of action sequences and static filming throughout the action.

On an entirely different note, the essay deadline is fast approaching. I'm yet to get underway with the writing, but I have been doing some further research into films which I may incorporate as case studies.
In the seminar with Ivan that followed Bill's lecture we spent the entire time discussing how to approach the essay. One of the points he made was that the best essays are often those which pick apart and challenge the question itself.
So that's my next plan of attack. I will write out the question and dissect it in a way in which I can establish an original approach to the essay. It should work... in theory,

watch this space...