Narrative- the persuasiveness of story!

Today’s lecture was run by Dan who took us through different elements of story telling. We watched a few short clips, one in particular towards the end which was really interesting. It raised the question of narrative or non-narrative. Shannon, Cheyanne and I discussed both aspects, and decided it was a narrative because it had continuous music throughout as well as different stages which were titled e.g. ‘birth’, ‘in between’. On the other hand, the film had no expectations or script, so it was hard to consider as a narrative piece. Dan’s argument was that “story is everything, everything is story”, which after the lecture I’d have to agree with. Story is literally everywhere, words or voices aren’t always necessary.

Today was a very useful class, we were able to split off into our groups for project brief 4 and begin working together. Alaine, Jess and I plan to create a multimedia platform on institutions. In class we used a mind map to brainstorm ideas for our project, with our main focus being on the contrast between traditional media e.g. newspapers, and modern day media outlets e.g. social media such as twitter. There’s an interesting differentiation between bias vs freedom with media texts, and we want to explore that further in our project. We created our collaborative contract and organised our availabilities so we can work together outside of class as well. So far I’d say we are on track for project brief 4, and as long as we continue to communicate and contribute we should complete the task no problems.

The feedback from my group regarding my media portrait was mostly positive, and included some constructive criticism. Oliver admitted he would have liked more information on how Tom lost all these aspects of his life. However, he realised it would have been difficult given the time span of only 2 minutes. On the other hand, Samantha thought it was just enough to allow the audience to create their own assumptions and think about it themselves. Georgia said the visuals were timed well with the text, and liked the deeper side to the video. Everyone agreed the subtitles were effective and helped engaged the audience. The feedback given to me was helpful, and I will take it on board next time I create a video for Media Comm. 

Media Portrait from Alana Cooper on Vimeo.

For this media portrait project I chose to film my older brother Tom. Not out of convenience, in fact, he is extremely difficult to get a hold of. I chose him because to me he reflects a typical young adult male. Not only does he hold very ‘masculine’ considered characteristics, but the past few months have been very hard on him. Tom is not one to share his feelings, or express when he is sad, which is why portraying this side of him in my video was challenging. Tom actually didn’t like the final video, apparently it made him seem “like a loser”. I told him I thought it made him look human. Everyone struggles in their life, whether they show it or not, this media portrait gave me an opportunity to see things from my brother perspective. His life isn’t exactly easy right now, I know he’ll bounce back, but I think it was important to shine the light on his recent difficulties and hardships.

When producing the movie I had so much fun using the video camera I hired from RMIT. The quality was better than I have ever experienced, and made me feel like a real professional. The editing phase did take some time, but I think the final outcome is better than what I originally thought it would be. I created a story-like portrait of Tom, which I believe keeps the audience engaged. I used i-Movie to edit the video, and again feel far more confident and experienced with the program, and I am now excited to create my next film. 

Todays lecture involved librarian Amy Saunders who gave us very useful tips on how to effectively use Library Search when resourcing. I had already listened to Amy’s lecture in another subject, so I used the time to edit and update my blog. Rachel then took us through the importance of teamwork or “collaboration” in the workplace. We wrote down our good and bad experiences we’ve had when working in teams. I for one know how frustrating it is when other team members fail to contribute their share of the work load. However, most of my team work experiences have been positive. It’s a great way to establish heaps of ideas, and helps  solve problems more efficiently. When working in teams, you always have support and there is generally less stress on each individual. We discussed what collaboration is good for, which I agreed it helps to develop leadership, practise professional communication and establish peer relationships.