At the beginning of our workshop Brian gave us an example of a audio essay and what it included. I thought this was helpful because at first I thought that this audio essay would just be us talking from a script straight and not really include other sounds. When doing this in our group we want to move away from just reading out a essay and include different voices/opinions about it to make it more conversational like the example he showed us.

What I noticed in this audio essay example about sleep:

• different voices, conversational type
• sound effects in the background 
• examples of different sounds what he is talking about
• making audiences image of what he is talking about (talking to give them a visual example)
• Rhetorical questions to help audiences visualise 
• Humour to create a tone

I am sitting at the airport on my way back to Melbourne after a lovely weekend up in the Gold Coast where I decided to pick up my head from my computer and look around at the interactions between people… To my amazement (not really) there were barely any interactions between people, but more the engagement with their phones. It is so funny to see that today instead of going out for lunch or dining with someone you barely talk, but more so stare at what is on your phone. I don’t think people realise how consumed they are by technology- to the point if you walk around without your phone you feel a sense that your ‘naked’ and something is missing. I can’t criticize to much about this because I am just as bad but it really makes me question if this is just going to get worse…

The area of media that my group is looking at is texts and narratives. For me particularly the idea of narrative structure really interests me so I decided to do some research about that. In class last week we came across common ground about genres we all liked and would be able to focus on together for narratives. When doing research about this I came across lots of information about the narrative structure of murder films/t.v programmes. I have always been a mass consumer of murder mystery and crime T.V shows where I used to spend my whole weekend in bed watching Criminal Minds, NCIS or The Mentalist…

I thought that this genre would be interesting to look into to dive away from the typical narrative structure of films because in a reading earlier this semester we looked at what films (specifically documentary) drew to in order of structure. There is always the establishment of the protagonist and the relationship with its antagonists, an issue/climax and usually at the end a resolution. They have found through research that this particular narrative structure is one that will be a base for films for a very long time because it engages the audience to stay interested in the film, but also can have many twists and turns along the way of the film.

What I found interesting in this reading is that it talked about the structure of murder narratives to “start in the middle of the action, and then later explain who the characters are and what their space entails”. I really enjoy this narrative structure personally because from the moment that you watch the film or T.V show you are engaged by something that you didn’t necessarily expect and then want to continue watching to find out why it happened and who was involved. This is an interesting narrative structure to look at  because it turns away from what is normally expected in media and engages audiences in a different way.

This week in the workshop I hope that we can decide on a specific genre to engage with so I can do closer reading into that and see in which way that genre diverts off the typical narrative structure of media.

Reading: ‘Classical Narrative Structure: Exposition, Climax, Resolution’ by J.Butler

I have always had a huge interest in missing children cases/abductions where recently I have been reading the book called ‘captive’ about Ariel Castro and the 3 girls that had held in captivity for over 15 years. I started to think about it and did some internet research where I came across the idea that every single missing persons report I found that was highly published in the international media happened to be a caucasian child. It actually took me specific wording in order to find a case that was even slightly recognised about a black missing child. This really bothers me because I don’t understand why the colour of your skin should have an influence in the media regarding helping the child in need. People consuming this media feel so sorry for the family of the missing white person but there is barely any recognition for black people mostly children. I can understand racial issues, but when it comes to the idea of someones life in danger especially a child it is beyond me to understand why the media wouldn’t give them just as much attention as a white child.

I can’t even begin to think of a time I saw in the paper, on Facebook or on the T.V when a black child is drawing media attention for being missing. People are still on the hunt for Madeline Mccann who was kidnapped over 5 years ago and I am certain there has been hundreds of missing black children from then but once do we ever hear about it? Never.

This racial divide in the media is one that really breaks my heart, I don’t understand it or even understand how media supports this because it is someones life on the line and for that it really bothers me.

Today we always got into our groups for our next project brief which will include a visual/video essay and a audio essay. Our group go the topic of Texts and Narratives. I was quite happy with this because the range of Texts and Narratives in the media is huge, meaning that we can do something that my group all is interested in and hopefully produce 2 pieces that are factual and describe Texts and Narratives in the Media to a high standard.

We talked today about what we might do for our visual/video essay, we talked about the classic narrative in films specifically Superhero films and how they all have such a dramatic turning point, a resolution (majority of the time) and a side romance. We thought this would be a good visual thing to show our audience about what we are saying specifically about narratives in film genres as Superhero films are dramatic and easy to understand. We are still developing what the main focus will be for our audio essay but for the next week or so we are going to do research about the theories of Texts and Narratives in the media so we each get a clear understanding of what we are looking at and will be able to portray that in a essay way in this project.

For the first part of the workshop we watched all the individual documentary films made by everyone else. It always fascinates me about the ideas people come up with, and the connections that they have to interview different interesting people. I think that the standard was really high with these films and if I was to go back on my film there would be a few things I would change after watching others…

I really love the documentary genre because it allows you to learn about such a vast range of things, people really interest me and the backgrounds of their lives/ what they have gone through or the position they are in. I was really happy to do a task like this because when I feel passionate about something I feel my results are always better and watching my own film in class today I was proud about the final outcome.

I was really impressed with all the films in the class and the different ways that people interpreted the brief.

Grace’s Film:

Elements that worked well:

• Transitions between scenes

• Animations showing images of what the protagonist is talking about

• The Different shot types of the protagonist when she was being interviewed

Suggestions:

• Some of the transitions were a bit much such as the squares sliding across the screen, instead I would of just down simple transitions to keep the focus on the protagonist.

• Some of the cartoon/animations are a little irrelevant to what she is talking about and draws away the serious attention of what the protagonist is saying. Alternatively she could

Andrew’s Film:

Elements that worked well:

• The transitions from the stock footage to his own filmed footage worked really well and transitioned so you couldn’t tell the dramatic difference of what was already found footage

• The dramatic turning point about how his mother was a nurse and had an incident with her own father- a good dramatic turning point that links her job to her family which really showed the passion she had for it

Suggestions:

• Nothing that I noticed

Fiona’s Film:

Elements that worked well:

• I really liked the background music because it contrasted well to the subject of the film as he was a graphic designer and the music was quite computer generated/techno

• The font that she chose for the opening and closing sequence was very clear and also related to the graphic design idea

Suggestions:

• I would personally have more of a dramatic turning point for the film instead of instead purely talking about his job (one main point of the film)

Hattie:

Elements that worked well:

• The opening sequence where the voice over is heard over the title which was very clear and helped the audience understand straight away what the documentary was about

• The found footage contrasted very clearly to the film as she was talking about her past job as being a nurse and the old footage made it more realistic.

In this weeks lectorial we focussed on the idea of collaboration- I have never thought about ‘group work’ and or ‘team work’ in the media industry but when putting thought into it- Media revolves a lot around collaboration. In regards to working in a successful business specifically in the media- you need to be able to work with other people, and not always think that your ideas are the best ones. Sometimes this happens to me when working in a group environment because I want to get it done effectively and fast- but for PB #4 I really want to do my best to be inclusive of everyones ideas in order to get the best possible result.

I think that the most important part in having a successful group activity is having a clear objective so everyone has the same focus/intention for the final result. I feel like it is really important to be in the same level as everyone else and no one is doing more work then the other. At the end of the day group work/collaboration may not seem as easy as it sounds as everyone has different ideas and approaches about something. In order to overcome possible obstacles that might arise you need to have a solution from the beginning about how you will overcome two things that might not work together and or clashing of ideas.

I am looking forward to completing PB #4 because I feel like it is important to share ideas and develop on them in order to advance yourself in the specific area. In this case- I am looking forward to learning different opinions and sides about Media that I may not of personally looked at before which I think will also be beneficial to my blogging.

Synposis for Doco Film

I wrote this for possible audiences to see what my film was about.

This was probably one of the more harder tasks I have had to complete… Audition is a KILLER! I will defiantly need help with this in the future because this recording has a lot more potential.