Ever since joining the Mediazone family in January 2022, I knew this would be the start of a long, memorable and progressive journey. Right from the first interview, the words “commitment” and “team” made me believe that this was a place where I could hone my knowledge, sharpen my skills and gain priceless experience in the broad field of filmmaking.
Fitting in at Mediazone proved to be an easy transition, and I am glad to have taken up this opportunity. Hence, my colleagues have turned into treasured friends, advisors and ardent supporters.
Being in this dynamic group has helped me gain constructive criticism as well as being just a phone call away for help in my day-to-day tasks and projects. A contributing factor of that rapid sense of collectivity branched from the fact that we shared the same range of conversations and interests.
This collectivity helped to form a sense of trust and collaborative responsibility; proving that we make a seamless and symbiotic team, which made us ready for all of the challenges we might face.
Taking the time to self-reflect was necessary in my process while taking on Mediazone projects. I started out with little knowledge of the equipment and editing programs, but examining my attitude towards these new tasks and focusing on my strengths and specifically my weaknesses made managing those expectations so much easier.
Those expectations didn’t only come from everyone around me, but primarily from myself, and my eagerness exploring my own interests. I consider myself to be quite the perfectionist and have to consistently allow myself to make mistakes, so that I can in parallel listen to feedback until I acquire the skills to achieve my projects so that I can eventually be proud to call them my work.
Furthermore, my inclination to “fake it till I make it” boosted my confidence in my learning curve which actually made it easier to do daunting tasks and break them down into achievable goals. Mediazone encourages this! This eventually led me to give myself a sort of freedom to try different methods of work. For example, when I had to produce a video promoting the GH5 camera, I had difficulty figuring out my shots and how each one would be lit.
After analyzing my vision and breaking it down into a shot list, the task at hand became clearer, and easier to tackle. Even though I ended up deviating a little from the shot list, it was a good guideline for my creative freedom to take place and thrive.
This work ethic was something that helped me juggle my classes with Mediazone, as at first it was tricky and stressful balancing out my duties to each while simultaneously managing my time in a way that made me feel in control and satisfied with my output for both.
The best way I was able to deal with these responsibilities was to re-evaluate my time-management abilities, take each task one at a time by writing lists and having an organized calendar with my due dates, as well as planning my time thoroughly to avoid procrastination as much as I could.
As a whole, I’ve come more to terms with the type of self-reflection that I would do after being done with a project and making those notes and changes have grown more and more gratifying.
Working in a culture that thrives through reflection and independent learning has helped me understand the impact of maintaining a healthy balance between Mediazone projects and classwork in my courses.
Being able to detect my prior faults, accept help and criticism all contribute to future improvement that assist in not only saving me time, but also contribute to my ever-evolving personal and professional progress and development.
Written by Romy Azar
Mediazone Studio Assistant
