MMS 172 Assignment 3: Closing Blog

“Part of the journey is the end. What am I even tripping for? Everything's gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to.”

— Tony Stark, Avengers: Endgame (2019)

I think this quote resonates how I feel now that MMS 172 is coming to an end. At the beginning of the course, as I have also mentioned in my self-introduction, I was excited to learn about audio because I have always been someone who listens to music almost every day. The curiosity that I have felt is mostly on how sounds are created, the recording, mixing, and editing aspects of it. My point of view of audio was always from the perspective of a listener and not someone who creates it. This is why at the start of the course, I absolutely had no idea what I was doing because I dived into this without any background or knowledge at all.

As the course went on, I realized that there was actually a lot more to audio than I originally thought. There were some topics that I had to go through more than once before I fully understood them and it eased some of my nerves. There were also moments when I would read something from the module and think, “Oh, so that's how that works.” I liked having these moments because I could actually see myself learning something instead of just going through the lessons because I needed to finish them. It also made me more aware of the sounds around me and how they can be used to communicate something.

When it came to my performance in the course, I think I did what I had to do to meet the requirements. I know that I could have done some things better and there were definitely moments when I could have been more prepared, such as participating more on the discussion forums, all bonus activities, and even attending the Face-to-Face sessions, which I am not going to lie, gave me FOMO. But I also know that I really tried to apply what I learned instead of just finishing the requirements and moving on to the next one. I think my final project was one of the biggest things that showed me this because it was challenging and pushed me out of my comfort zone to share something personal.

I was also really glad that we were able to see the works of our coursemates and the students who took the course before us. I enjoyed seeing and hearing how unique everyone is and the thoughts they poured onto their outputs. I especially loved the works that are horror themed. It had me in awe with the the sound effects, the emotions of their voices and dialogues, and the overall work. There were also outputs that made me think about what I could improve in my own work. I think this was helpful because sometimes it is hard to know what you can improve when you are only looking at your own output.

As for where I think I stand compared to my classmates, I honestly have no idea. I was able to hear and read a lot of great works and their processes behind it, and I think each individual has their own strengths of brainstorming ideas and making them come to life. For me, I know that I am absolutely still a work in progress. I’m just happy that I made progress and that I have done something and still have so much room to grow. 

When I was in first year and up until recently, whenever I hear the term BAMS, what immediately comes to mind are anything that have to do with visuals such as photos, videos, and films. But this course made me realize that audio is just as important as visual, that it can also affect how a person perceives and feels about a multimedia output. We do not realize how vital background sounds and effects are until sounds are the only thing we can focus on, and it makes a whole lot of difference to everything and everyone. And these are why I think MMS 172 integrates well in the bigger picture of BAMS as well as being able to bring these learnings beyond the course and into our creative outputs. 

I was a blank canvas back in my first year and now that I am an incoming fourth year, I now have some rough sketches and color on me. I am still figuring out what I want to do, and so as of the moment, I cannot say yet if audio production is something I want to pursue seriously in the future. I am still trying out things and discovering what multimedia makes me the most excited. But as what I’ve mentioned in my project output, MMS 172 made me leave the door open to this medium and to try to do more audio work because I am still growing and trying to see where I fit best. 

Looking back at my expectations from the beginning of the course, I think MMS 172 gave me what I was hoping to get from it. I wanted to learn more about audio and actually understand what happens behind the sounds that we hear. I definitely still have a lot to learn, and I still feel very much intimidated by it but I don't feel as unfamiliar with audio as I did before now I know the foundation or basics.

I am glad that I got to take MMS 172 because it was another obstacle that I had to surpass. It was not always easy and I know there are still a lot of things that I can improve on. But I think the course gave me a new perspective of multimedia and made me appreciate something that I used to mostly experience as a listener. I started this course knowing very little about actually creating audio, and now I can say that I at least know where to begin. And I guess that's what I am taking away from MMS 172. I know more now than I did when I started. And for me that's already something.