Fresh! A-ahhhh-AHHH!

I was rather enjoying what I was doing in my classes; A bit o' vision mixing in the ol' Practical Skills class and a touch of it in Interview Techniques (I got complimented on my vision mixing; it made me pretty happy), having fun with the cameras in Cameras & Lighting, receiving our new brief in Set Design, etc. Things had been going rather well. We were only about five weeks into our course when we were suddenly plucked from our classes and thrown into E3.

 When I think of E3, I imagine video games; video games everywhere, from talk of new consoles to previews of new games due later that year. I honestly cannot wait for the third installment of the Bioshock games, Bioshock: Infinite and the umpteenth reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. I bet that's what you were thinking as well, reader, wasn't it? Unless, of course, you are familiar with the brand spankin' new Belfast Metropolitan college campus.

 We were there attending an event known as 'Fresh'. The aim of the game was to get about 120 students from about four different courses (this included year 2/3 Biology, year 2 Sports, year 1/2 Tourism and, of course, our own one, HND Media Moving Image), mixing them all up and handing them a brief from official companies who didn't want to do their own work by getting students to do it for them for free by disguising it as a, so called, 'skill building' and 'team building' exercise week to encourage them (the students) to think outside the box, coming up with weird and wonderful ideas and innovations for said companies. Oh, did I mention that the lady for our brief didn't even show up to introduce herself or even, from what I learnt, when the presentations were being made?

 I, to a certain extent, felt a little bit insulted. Our course in particular, we're already supposed to be coming up with creative ideas hence 'Creative Media Production' in our course name. If not, well, most of us will pick it up along the way. We don't need to be off timetable for a week to develop this skill, I feel that we should already have it. You know? Not only that but the 'ideas' that they were getting us to come up with went way against the briefs that we were provided at the start of the week, and ended up sounding completely wacko; like something you'd see in an '80s sci-fi film set in the not-too-distant future of the 2000s-- ohhh, that's how they come up with them... I see, I see.

 Anyway, the week consisted of posting sticky notes full of our ideas all over white boards already full of sticky notes, playing with plasticine, pipe cleaners, juggling balls (I don't even know, guys), and, later on in the week, I also drew a comic related to my brief! The posting of sticky notes lasted an entire three whole days, from 10am to 3:30pm (excluding ice breaker Monday morning, of course), interrupted every now and again by team building exercises (games), such as the, and I quote, 'never before seen' Who Can Build the Tallest Tower Out of Only Paper and Cellotape? except maybe three-five times in primary school, and video presentations that were genuinely interesting to me. Also sticky notes. Lots and lots and lots of sticky notes.

 We were situated in 'zones' with 'zone leaders'. Patronising zone leaders. I don't know how many times it was emphasised to us that we were going to be treated as adults. You know, considering that the students there were between the ages of 18-36 (I am dead serious). You know how people used to baby talk to you when you were younger? How they tried to coax things out of you by, perhaps not intentionally, talking down on you, almost intimidating you? Making their voices as high as possible, breathing down your neck as much as possible to see what you're up, to make sure that you haven't accidentally swallowed or shoved your crayon so far up your nose that it's popping your eye out? Well, that's what it felt like. Trapped within these 'zones', being watched by hawks in case we try to escape to, I dunno, for like five or ten minutes to the toilet or something.

 Though I digress; it could have been much worse. It felt like it was picking up later on in the week at least but, honestly, the whole coming up with ideas definitely should not have lasted as long as it did, therefore the entire shenanigan could very well have been over and done with by Wednesday, not Friday. Mind you, I've had no benefit from it whatsoever. Well, except for maybe wasting sticky notes on boards with any writing idea that I may get instead of just scribbling up a mind map. If you could even call that a benefit, I don't know. I guess I could make a game out of it. Hopefully the six weeks up there next year will be better. I hope.