Hanging around & making of: The 10 minute films

by Alexandra (Sasha) Jonášová

As an exchange student from Slovakia, I had the opportunity to get involved in both productions of the 10 minute films by third year students. On first, I was just observing and hanging around the set, but on the second, I participated on the creating of the technical script and later on the “Making of…”.

If I compare these productions with ones I know from my university, the teams are bigger and they make less projects. It is because of the different school systems.

We have 10 departements, each very specified, with about 7 students, so while TUAS has 20 students in one year, VŠMU has about 70. We usually make about 7 teams, and each team makes more than one film per semester. But the scale of our productions is much smaller. 

During the productions I was able to be at, I could see, that even here, students get deeply into the craft of the field they enjoy the most and are good at it, although they don´t necesarily have to end up doing it after graduation, which is a nice way to let all the doors open for them.

The level of technical support they can get here from school is slightly more favorable than the situation at my home university. And at the same time, I witnessed a little bit more enthusiastic approach and much more energy comming from students. They were often very dedicated, responsible and did their best. And they believe in what they are doing and want the film to be seen and succesfull.

For me, as a non-finnish speaker, it was sometimes hard to know exactly what is happening, but I am very grateful for all the people, who were helping me and it was a great experience.