on Week 9 show:
https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/roar/media/group-4-live-air-02-05-16
http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/grid/201605021200
Feature- “Who Cares?”: Sexual Assault at Music Festivals:
https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/roar/media/who-cares
Week 13 show:
http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/grid/201605301200
on I have really enjoyed being part of Room With a View this semester. I think that the practical side of this course is incredibly useful, and I feel that I have learnt so much throughout the studio. I have gained confidence in contacting organisations for potential interviews, as well as arranging solutions as quickly as possible when these interviews have fallen through. One example is when the Lupus Foundation had contacted me a day before our first show went to air, offering a contact who lives in Sydney. This happened to us later on in the semester when arranging an interview with the Listen Collective for the feature. On both occasions, I gained the opportunity to learn new skills and to work under pressure in an un-ideal situation. In terms of new skills, I learnt how to properly conduct a phone interview live on air only two hours before going live to air; which was something that I had to conduct again for our feature in interviewing the Listen Collective.
I think that our feature and our second show was a success. I very much enjoyed presenting, and although I was nervous in the beginning of the show- I got very comfortable in the role as the show progressed. I feel that I should work on my interview skills whilst going live to air, but I feel that myself and my co-presenter Laura worked really well together in the two interview we conducted with Free to Feed and the Melbourne Period Project.
I am very proud of myself for learning how to panel operate in our first show in week 9. I remember when I first went into the studio, and thinking to myself how there was no way I could ever learn so many details involved in panel operating. I quickly learned the skills involved, and feel very confident now in panelling. Although I was not overly happy with my panel operating in week 9, I remember being happy with the work that I did in the demo in week 4/5. I hope with further practice, I can perfect my skills in panel operating, but I am proud of myself for learning to basics that are required in the responsibility for panel operating a show.
The work that myself and my group did in our feature resulted in a piece on a very important, yet little discussed issue. We are all happy to work on a piece to raise awareness on sexual assault at music festivals, as all five of us worked on an issue that we were passionate about. I was in charge of scheduling and performing the interview with the Listen Collective, and managed to gain insightful parts for our feature in this interview. I also took part in the scripting of the narration, as well as assisted in anyway that I could throughout the feature.
I am grateful to be given the opportunity to volunteer at Triple R, as myself and my group have shared stories and important issues to listeners, as well as learnt a great number of skills throughout our time in this studio.
on Today, myself and my group worked together as a group for the last time.
We have been working on this show for about three weeks. We had some troubles in formulating new ideas for this show, as it felt that we only just completed our first show. We sent our ideas to Elizabeth sometime in Week 11, which was about two weeks before our final show. I was responsible for contacting Free to Feed, and had received an confirmation from Loretta Bolotin by Monday on Week 12- one week before our final show. As I was also contacting Rachel Cox from the Listen Collective for our feature around the same time, I asked another team member to contact our other approved interviewee option-who was Professor Arul Arulrajah of Swinburne University, head of a project to reuse coffee grounds in to pavements. Unfortunately, Arulrajah had rejected our request for an interview, as he was heading overseas around the same time. This left us in limbo, as we scrambled to find another appropriate potential interview to send to Elizabeth. We then had an approved interviewee, Dr. Patrick Stokes of Deakin University to discuss the ethics involved in social media. Stokes had also rejected the interview. We then found the idea of the Melbourne Period Project, based on contacts of a fellow group member. Donna Stolzenberg had initially rejected our request for an interview, as she was interstate during our show. But on the Sunday before the show, we had confirmation that she was available for a phone interview for 12:30 onwards.
Co-presenter Laura and myself had met on the Sunday before the show to finalise our script. This meant that we were much more comfortable this morning, making any last minute corrections. I had received an email that Loretta from Free to Feed was unavailable to be interview last minute a few hours before the show. We interviewed her partner Daniel instead, who gave us a great and insightful interview of the Free 2 Feed initiative. I was also very happy with the interview with Donna from the Melbourne period project. I thought that there were very important issue to be discussed with both topics, with my personal highlights being the discussion of food and the culture shock that is involved in moving to a new country. I also loved discussing transgender men being able to received sanitary donations. These were my particular highlights of the interview, as they involved questions about issues that I (and I am sure others) have not considered as a potential problem before.
I think that for next time, I need to work on running off the script. I was grateful for the fact that I had a detailed script throughout the show, but I think I relied on it too much and was not comfortable to not rely on it. I think that there were several points throughout the show where it did sound like I was reading off the script. I think that I also need to work on the phrasing of my questions, as I think that although I was happy with the content of the question, I was not happy with the wording of it itself. I think that one of my strengths was stepping in when Laura got a little confused about the previous tracks towards the end of the show. I don’t regret not stepping in earlier, because she was reading the correct information at the time, and I was under the impression that she was going to try to read out the information again, but I thought the best thing to do was to step in to close the show as planned.
We stuck extremely well to our time sheet this time, and had a strong script. I felt that the show was well timed and very well operated technically. I don’t think I sounded confident in several parts, and I remember getting a little confused about the correct pronunciation of an artist (despite the fact that I did say his name correctly before presenting on the show). I think that Laura was a strong host today, and I think that we all worked well together today, and produced a much better show than we did in Week 9. It was far more organised, concise, and everyone learnt from our mistakes from last time.
on I am proud of the work we all accomplished for our feature: “Who Cares?” We decided to change the name of the feature, as we feel that “who cares?” is a better representation about the lack of awareness and action of sexual assault in music festivals.
Although Pat did offer to cover the interviews for the Ballarat Police and Centre Against Sexual Abuse (C.A.S.A) I wanted to make sure that I was involved in at least one interview, so I was responsible for contacting the Listen Collective once we were able to source a direct contact. I arranged the interview via email. We had some troubles with contacting with the Listen Collective, as they did not respond back for some time. We also debated whether to cancel the interview or not once we found out that they sourced an interviewee who lives in Sydney. However, I am happy with our decision to keep the interview. The content was important and very necessary for our piece; I also feel that the phone interview provides an interesting texture audio wise for the piece.
We decided to conduct the interview in the Triple R studios on Thursday the 26th of May. I wrote the questions and was responsible for the interview itself with Pat observing to make sure that we had got the information that we needed. The original interview lasted around 12 minutes, but was extremely helpful for our piece.
I also contributed to the scripting for the narration and had originally intended to be responsible for the narration itself. Unfortunately, after listening back to the work I had done, I suggested that Laura should do a recording of the script. I am still happy with this decision, as I feel that Laura’s lower toned voice was much more appropriate for the narration of the piece.
From the beginning of our discussion into a feature about sexual assault in music festivals, we wanted to make sure that we created an unbiased and factual piece. I believe that we have done just that. The ambience and background noise of the piece are emotive and create further detail into the story-telling.
The interviews are central to the piece, and I think it was necessary to make sure that we did not include ourselves asking the questions, as it takes away the message and the attempted unbiased nature of the piece. However, I do think that the narration is also important to the piece, as it informs the audience of the range of different interviews, as well as providing context for the subject matter.
I am happy that our group was able to perform this live on air, as I believe that it is an important subject that needs to be addressed. I hope that audiences were able to have a better understanding of the issue or even start to become aware of a little spoken about problem.
Although I am happy overall, I think that some of our weaknesses as a team to keep in mind for next time is the equal distribution of jobs; but that being said, we did offer to come to interviews and all did contribute in some way to the final edit. The majority of team members were able to meet at numerous occasions at Week 12 to ensure that the final piece was coming together, as well as working on our final show in Week 13. All in all, I am proud of the work that myself and my team accomplished for the final piece.
on Yesterday, Pat and I conducted the interview with Rachel, a volunteer from the Listen Collective at 12pm over the phone. I was quite pleased with the content that we gained from this 12 minute interview. Rachel inadvertently offered statement and opinions which suit our other interviews in the feature incredibly well. We only need talking for a max two or so minutes within the piece, and gained everything necessary for this interview.
From this, we then began to finalise our script for the narration. I did to the narration at the first time, but upon listening back to it, I questioned whether my voice would be appropriate for the piece. I am concerned that my voice is too high and soft. When we found out that we had more time in the studio to another cancellation, I suggested that Laura narrate the piece. I think that her recording was far better for this type of piece, and am really happy with my suggestion.
We started to edit the piece, and came up with an idea of how we want the feature to play out. I think that we are in a brilliant place for our feature.
Although we have one interview for our show on Monday and intending to play our feature, we have had a second cancellation for a potential interview on Wednesday night. We are currently trying to contact the Melbourne Period Project (another issue I would love to discuss on air) to confirm an interview live on air on Monday. If they turn us down, it means that we will have three cancellations. I am a little bit concerned about it right now, but hopefully they respond to us quickly. I am really looking forward to the interview on Free to Feed. I have some initial questions set up, but am aiming for a conversational style with Laura live on air. I think Laura and I need another practice interview before going to air, so we have booked a studio for 10am before the show this coming Monday. I am trying not to be too nervous at this stage, as I want to perform my best on Monday and be as relaxed as possible for it. I expect that I will be incredibly nervous in the introduction (and my performance may suffer because of it) but I am hoping that I will ease into the flow of it quite quickly.
on Today, myself and my group had arranged to be in the studios by 1pm for a practice. Unfortunately, the 96 tram line to Triple R studios was affected by the farmers protest, which meant that there was confusion and therefore difficultly to reach the studios in time. I appeared on time at 1pm, but unfortunately, I was by myself in studios until around 2pm. As I thought it was pointless to do it by myself, I worked on the scripts for the feature narration and for the show itself next week. I also responded to questions from Rachel from the Listen Collective and Loretta from Free to Feed.
Amalina was given an opportunity to practice whilst Laura and I began to practice the scripts I had written and make sure our positions to facing the microphones and correctly speaking into the microphones to make sure that the levels were fine. Due to a cancelation in a booking, we were able to extend our practice until about 3:30.
Laura has had a great deal of experience on radio, whilst I have had a little experience. I help out with a friend’s uni show every few weeks and have done work experience at 3MDR radio station in Emerald. I am hoping that this little bit of experience of being live to air will help me next week, and will mean that I bring forth a better show than I did when panelling live on air for the first time.
on on We are having trouble contacting Listen Collective for our feature, which is now due in two weeks. Pat has sent a request through a form on their official website, but we have yet to find a direct contact. Sam has offered one, so I have now contacted the organisation directly, and am currently waiting for their response.
We have decided that narration will play an important part in the final piece. We have decided to play our feature on our show on Monday the 30th of May (the final due date for everything). As I am presenting on that day, I have offered to narrate the piece, as we all feel that it would be odd for different voice (that is not a presenter) to suddenly appear on the show. I am currently doing a rough draft of the narration for it, and we are planning to record sometime next week.
We sent our ideas to Elizabeth on Monday night. We are starting to get nervous about our ideas and arranging these interviews, as we want to send our running sheet to Elizabeth by Monday next week (which will be exactly one week before our final show as a group in Week 13). We will wait until Elizabeth gets back to us, and decide where to go from there.
In class this week, we have arrange our future shows at Triple R after classes finish. I am going to take part in a show on June the 13th. I think it might be a challenge to schedule a show so soon after our one in Week 13, but I am looking forward to challenging myself. I love my experience at Triple R so far, and would love to take part in anything I can.
on on My group participated in the Room With a View show on Monday the 2nd of May. My role in this particular program was Panel Operator and also arranging the interview for the Lupus foundation. Unfortunately, the interview I had organised with Lupus Foundation a fortnight before the show had encountered a few troubles; our intended interviewee had cancelled on midday of the Sunday before the show. The interviewee gave us a contact of Keren Dando, who volunteers for the foundation and lives in Sydney. This means that we have to schedule an unplanned phone interview live on air. We immediately received approval from Sam and Elizabeth, and continued with the phone call interview. Despite the fact that I have had several sessions of practice outside of class, I do not feel that I performed my best in the live segment. There was a technical issue in the beginning during the sound introduction that was my fault due to human error, as I accidentally stopped the recording during the introduction. I feel that I was successful, however, in performing a phone interview despite the fact that I have had no practice in conducting one before. However, I feel responsible for many mistakes throughout the show, such as 10 seconds of silence between discussion and the “Me and You” song; which I had not realised at the time. This is because there was a few troubles in paneling the songs- some of them were more difficult to manage the levels of, as at some points that they were too quiet or too loud very suddenly. At the time, I was greatly embarrassed by my paneling, and was not at all confident with my performance. However- upon listening to it again, I can recognize parts that did not go well, but I can also acknowledge sections that did go better than I initially recalled. My transitions between song and presenters went well, and I also think that my paneling of the phone call was strong. Although I do think I can improve on timing skills and leveling at some points, I am proud of what I have accomplished.
I think that there were a few errors in the presenting of the show as well. I think that there should have been more discussion throughout Bek and Pat, as they worked as single hosts rather than co-hosting a show. I also think that the run-sheet went shorter than we needed, and this meant that we were a little bit lost on what to do when we realised that we were running under time. This meant that we had to add songs that we did not initially plan, but I think that we all worked quickly under pressure. Next time, I feel that we should make sure that every part of our run sheet allocates every second possible, and that our presenters go by it more strictly on our next show in Week 13.