Discover Your Strengths

Like most jobs, filmmaking requires a lot of collaboration with others. Obviously, everyone has different talents and personalities, which is something you need to understand about a person when working with them. In order to better understand the personalities of ourselves and our peers, my e-Communications class took personality tests.

The first one we took was the Meyers-Briggs test, where personalities are composed by a four-letter code. My test results were ISTJ, meaning that I am introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging.

The second test, which we focused on the most, was the Gallup Strengths Test. This test gives you your five most dominant strengths in your personality. My five strengths were:

Adaptability: People with this trait prefer to go with the flow, and live in the moment. They discover the future one day at a time, and feel that their future is created from their present choices.

Connectedness: Those with the connectedness trait believe in the links among all things, and that everything has a meaning. They believe that everyone is part of something larger than themselves.

Consistency: People with the consistency trait believe in treating everyone equally.

Developer: Those with the developer trait see potential in others, and believe in praising them for their successes and progress.

Intellection: Those in this category are characterized by their intellectual activity, and enjoy having smart, intellectual discussions.

Each of these traits also belong to one of four domains. Mine included:

Relationship Building: Adaptability, Connectedness, Developer.
Executing: Consistency.
Strategic Thinking: Intellection.

After taking these tests, we had a speaker come in to talk about our results. One thing I liked about her presentation was her explanation of how opposite traits work well together. She explained that when you work with someone with different traits than you have, you can help balance each other out by bringing different strengths to the group.

One thing I also found interesting is that everyone in my department for the short film is dominant in the same domain, which is Relationship Building. Although the opposite traits do attract, my department has got all great so far. One thing we might need to work on though, is incorporating
 traits from other domains to balance out our team.

Documentarians

In the upcoming short film for my e-Communications class, I have the role of documentarian. My job is to document events in the form of pictures, videos, and writing, and to make sure all of this media is stored and organized properly. To learn more about my job, I read and article on No Film School, called "A Comprehensive List of the Top Tools in Documentary Filmmaking."  The article describes the type of equipment that is best for documentary film making. The article talks about how difficult it can be to decide on which type of equipment to buy, especially when you are on a low budget. When you don't have much money, you can't exactly try out a lot of different types of cameras. The article explains that there was a survey performed on many documentarians, asking them what kind of equipment the preferred. Many said that they liked DSLRs and Canon C300s because of their size and portability, as well as the quality of the footage they shoot. They also liked MKH 416 microphones.

I thought that the article was very helpful and informative. While providing the written information, the article also included an info graphic about equipment, including information on lenses, audio tools, tripods, and editing equipment.