Let me begin with a simple statement about the status of my major—I am a member of the communications media department student body. Having said this, it really does not provide a great deal of information, since there are still many more branches of specializations, disciplines, or just plainly different areas of study. Within the communications department exist focuses such as radio production, television production, audio mixing, animations, cooperate training, human recourses, media psychology and theories… It would not be practical to master all of these fields simply because I am a Comm. Media student, and there is no motivation for such action either. Therefore, to further clarify just what do I plan to do, I must take a slight digression toward the paths which I have taken to arrive at my state today (yes that sounds like boredom, but please bear with me).
As a child, I was fascinated with the world of animations—American cartoons, traditional Chinese paper shadow animations, Chinese paint animations or claymations, Japanese anime, and such. I enjoyed drawing cartoon figures as I grew up. Although I never had any formal training in the arts of drawing cartoons, my style and skill evolves and matures as I do. Eventually, I arrived at a point where I was seriously considering becoming an animator. At this point, you probably think that I was one of those prodigy kids who learn on their own to arrive at great success, solely dependent on their self-training. Well, that is not exactly what turned out—it seems that as I grow up even more, I began to face the inevitable decision to distinguish interest and hobby from profession. I found out, that due to the lack of formal training, my skills are simply not up to industry standards for animators.
However, this really is not the crucial factor for my change of decision. The more important thing is, as I transform from a kid to an adult, my career goal also somewhat transformed—from animations to films (ironically, these seem to be similar media but the former seen as directed toward kids and latter toward adults). After a series of serious self-reflective sessions, I realized that my love for animations may be based on the animations’ cinematic nature in the first place! Therefore, after a few tackles at shooting short films for a video production class, I was able to confirm my goal. I wanted to go into the film industry.
…Which is why I am here, today, enrolled in a theater class and will continuously participate in a series of theater classes. Even though I am a Comm. Media major, I value the importance of being well trained in a variety of crafts—ranging from the basic studies of humanity to the visual arts, and now, to theater. Now that I have a more definite goal, I can more clearly choose the classes most useful for the path that I take. At this point, one may say, well sure, you must be in the right place for choosing theater classes! Yes, and no.
Theater and cinema share a great deal of commonalities—such as the creative process, aesthetic values, conventions, representational nature of the performance…etc., but there are also a great deal of differences. To be able to successfully utilize knowledge obtained in theater classes, I must set a goal to fully identify and understand the differences between theater and film. Right now, I am at a stage where I can identify the more basic differences. For example, the film director has at his disposal the tool of the camera lens and all the nice features and possibilities that come with the lens, such as editing and effects. The audience view film through a screen, therefore granting the film director more control over what the audience sees and how that affects the experience. On the other hand, the theater artists enjoy more thrill of the live aspect of the performance. They must sometimes even improvise at the spot, which means that they are generally under less director control or supervision—there really is no post-production in theater the actors ultimately have the final control over what the audience sees, not the editor. I could name many more aspects where the two media are different; however, I am by no means an expert in either, which is why I wish to learn, in more depth and detail, the crafts of both.
It can be said that my path ahead is a truly intriguing and exciting one!
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