Procrastination (s)kills

It's happened to all of us.  We've had a project assigned early on the semester that's not due for several weeks.  All of a sudden, you're thinking "Eh, I don't have to worry about this.  I have ages to complete it."  The weeks pass, you party crazy , head to the beach, and essentially put your projects and work on the back burner.

After weeks of fun, you're back in class and you're teacher tells you your major project is due the following lecture.  Cue the freakout.  Where did the time go?  Anxiety begins to rise, and you literally start to lose your shit more than Jack Nicholson.  How can I get this all done so quickly? And how did it get to this point? The answer is PROCRASTINATION.

I'm sure most people reading this have been in similar situation as procrastination is considered to be very common among people.  In fact, a procrastinator's motto may be "Tomorrow's the busiest day of the week". Personally, I have a procrastination problem with school.  I usually wait until the last possible moment to start on a project, it's not healthy and it's caused undue stress on myself.  However, despite my procrastination issues, I do have a work ethic.  I do a decent enough job with grades (3.25 GPA), working at the same time (SGA), running my own website (Pulsefeedz), and helping run the family shuttle business (IMJ Shuttle LLC).  Although, I probably bite off more than I can chew, although that's a story for another day.  Anyway, back to the issue at hand: procrastination. It affected me strongly on my last project for my CMAT 466 class.

My trend story was due on Wednesday. On the Sunday preceding the due date, I still had no story approved.  As you could imagine, this was my reaction

By the grace of God, I was able to have a story approved midday Monday on the effect of Pawn store reality shows on the actual industry itself.  Seeing as it was about time for close,  I called owners of local pawn shops to schedule an interview for early Tuesday morning.  I went to the cage, checked my equipment twice over (no time for mistakes) and set an alarm early Tuesday for some B-roll shooting.

Tuesday arrived and I was ready for my interview.  Unfortunately, issues arrived early as my wireless microphone (With new batteries!) was having a weird humming that busted the audio more than Young MC.

These audio issues mean I was forced to use the awful camera mic, which definitely lessened the production value of the piece.  By 12 PM on Tuesday I had finished shooting my B-roll and my main interview.  Then I had a 3 hour Audio class that pushed me back farther.  I shot my second interview at 4:30 PM meaning I had approximately 7 hours to have an approved script and edit my final piece.
I ended getting my script approved by Dr. Burns at around 8 PM (the script was rushed so it was far from perfect) and got to my editing.  Except I couldn't find the video I logged in before.  It seemed I had lost all my footage.  Once again,  I was like...

Thankfully, I found my footage in a drive I had no clue existed after 2 HOURS OF LOOKING.  I laid down the base narration and interviews before time ran out.  I only had two and a half hours in the morning to finish my piece.

It took around 2 hours for me to make my edits.  I was relieved to have it done.  When it was time for me to show my video to the class, the video played.  The audio didn't.  I had forgotten to consolidate the narration (Basically the first thing we learn).  Yes, I felt really dumb.

I don't know what grade I received on that project yet.  But I can tell you I was capable of producing a package a lot better than that.

In conclusion, procrastination has killed me, specifically in this class.  I do not want to be looked at as lazy and had I not procrastinated I would not have audio issues, or narration issues, or some off shots.
It's something everyone seems to have a problem with and it's a big problem that I continue to work on it.

Hopefully this motivates everyone to get their work done...early!  If you have any tips or other procrastination stories I'd love to hear them in the comments!

Until next time,

Jerrad

Practice Makes Perfect

Last week, I was skyping with a friend from back home when the topic of Sims, a popular computer game, came about.  My friend casually explained how addicting the game quickly became and how she was trying to have her 'Sim' level up its strength by continuously working out.  Eventually, her character became a professional bodybuilder and at the top of their career.

This casual conversation revved up the gears in my brain and had me thinking "Is practice the key to being successful in a certain area?", or is there more of a natural element in being skilled in a certain area.  I picked up a basketball at the age of 3; since then, I've never let go.  After 13 years of organized basketball, I left high school with county and school records.  This supports my first point of thinking.  Practice=Success. Right?

Not so fast. My freshman year I took a general education marketing class which required students to compete in a DECA marketing competition.  Now I was a freshman in high school going through puberty.  I thought about sex not an S.W.O.T analysis.  Anyway, with limited experience, I qualified for the DECA State competition after placing high in the regional competition.  At the State competition, I placed even higher against hundreds of students.  So which is it? Talent or hard work? And how does it apply to media production?


After the raging internal debate seen above, I believe that a combination of talent and hard work are the basis for forming a skill.  However, with most areas I believe hardwork is 75% of the equation with talent filling out the last quarter.

"There is no substitute for hard work."- Thomas Jefferson

I would have to agree with our 3rd president.  Talent is advantageous, but you can never progress if you do not work with your given skill.  I don't think it could be any truer with media production.

I will not lie; some people have amazing talent with the camera.  They are able to take shots that I wish I could even think of.  However, this field is drilled with knowing not only the camera but also editing software.  All the natural talent in the world with a camera will not teach you what settings to best optimize a shot.  The same goes for editing.  No one is going to walk-in to a studio for the first time and know what they're doing.  The only way to become an expert in this field is by constant practice and experience.  It's not magic, it's hard work.

Until next time,
Jerrad