Author: Jonathan Cousins, SEAS’14
When I was picking classes for this semester, I found that I had a few spots to take electives. I was locked into math and physics, I needed a writing seminar, I wanted to take mechanical design, and I still had space for one more class. I could have picked anything – but I chose to take Video 1.
This class, at least initially, was way out of my comfort zone. Here I was, among students majoring in anything from fine arts to business, and we were all in the same room, doing the same thing. The class topics ranged from technical camera details to discussions on visual storytelling – and it really appealed to me. I loved how this class engaged all of the different parts of my brain – the creative side while writing or brainstorming, the artistic side while shooting video, and the logical side when editing.
I was worried at first that my lack of development in art would hinder me in an art class, but what ended up happening was completely unexpected. My lack of sophistication allowed me to come up with ideas that others could not, and sometimes those ideas worked out very well. This type of class is probably something I won’t experience again during my time at Penn, especially as my focus narrows down to courses in my field. But my experience was so positive that maybe, just maybe, I’ll end up taking Video 2 sometime in the next three years.
Frankly Penn 