What I know

So as I went back and did the reading, (and took 7 pages typed notes...yup i'm a nerd, and i love it) I basically learned that I have a lot to learn. I can do terms and such, thats not the hard part for me. I know framing, composition, and crew members. I am learning about lighting setup, editing, and preproduction, the practical hands-on stuff. I can read the textbook all I want, but until I become totally comfortable with what I am reading about, I won't consider myself done learning. In fact, I don't think we are ever done learning. Something that I think is the hardest part about being a videographer. More than just knowing the fundamentals, you have to know what you like, what you don't like, what you want, how you see the world, and who you are as a person. You have to find your personal style, which involves a lot of trial and error. You will fail and you have to be strong enough to deal with it. You also have to know what has been done, what's being done, and be able to see what can be done. However, you also have to always be aware of these, you have to recognize that this may not be the same from one day to the next. We are so dynamic and the everything around us is always changing. Especially in today's world where everything is always moving, shifting, twisting, turning, and running so fast it's hard enough just to keep up. Every time we create something, we have to put our whole selves into it, or else it just will not be as good as it could be. But then once we are finally done and our whole heart, soul, and social life has been poured into it, we have to stick our necks out into the world and hope they love it as much too.
All of the above rant is in preproduction, its just not the step by step process we learn in school. I guess you could call it pre-preproduction to everything you will ever create. While I am working on the pre-pre, I also need to work on my single pre-production. I learn by doing, and sometimes that works to my disadvantage. I don't want to write everything I am about to do out before I do it, I just want to pick the camera up and see what happens. Not usually a good plan, but sometimes you capture stuff you never expected to, which is awesome. But sometimes you also end up sitting in the TCF lab late at night saying "crap i need this shot, this shot, and this one, and i didn't even think about it while i was there". However, if someone else creates the plan, then I am good to go! If I have a plan, I can go and get things done quickly. I am a do-er, not a sit around and watch-er. I want to be involved and I want to be a part of creating things, I just need a little (okay, a lot) more practice at forcing myself to plan.
However, something that I have figured out I am good at is seeing continuity or breaks from it. This probably a result of my lack of planning, where I end up with lots of stuff that just doesn't flow together with things jumping all over the place. But I am always that person who notices if her purse is on the wrong hand, if a prop disappears, or if a person has jumped in the slightest. I'm not sure if i could make a career out of this (yes, i know there is a continuity director, thats not what i mean) but hey, it could be a place to start.
Overall, I have learned that I don't ever plan on stopping. Never stop learning, creating, chasing rainbows, or evolving. Like Paul Arden's book (that one day I am going to read) says, or rather is titled "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be"