media

The Five why’s; Who, What, When, Where, Why?

Who.. Someone of interest, someone who has a story to tell, someone who you can look at and that in itself is enough to draw you in.

What.. Perhaps they are working towards something to no avail. Their story is of despair or overcoming weakness. The most important of all the questions; what makes them worth listening to.

When.. Their story has been taking place since they were young, working tirelessly towards a resolve. Tirelessly they persevere..

Where.. Melbourne? Internationally? Are they local and where have they gone? What environs have informed their life and work? Where are we?.. Where are they going?

Why.. Is it important? Why do I care? Why are they worth talking to? Can I bring worth to the character, or am I merely a surrogate..

I’ve had to interview a lot of people and I will not say that I have by any means done it well.
Most of that is largely due to the direction that I was given and my uncertainty in my own abilities at that particular moment in time.

Last year, we were working on a project for the Alessi Mutants exhibition at RMIT.
I was new to my role in media and marketing, having worked as an exhibition designer, fresh from architecture, I was in new territory and under new command.
My advisor was a media and marketing coordinator, an RMIT alumni who took on my suggestion of interviewing and photographing students who had designed products for the exhibition – personalising the products.

She insisted that we film the interviews on iPhones and minimise the amount of post-production.
We sent out emails to students with questions, prepping them for what was going to be asked of them upon arrival at the studio.
Each showed up unprepared and unaware of the email – it was a mess.

The students transformed into completely new people as soon as the camera was pointed at them.
They couldn’t describe their work, they became tongue-tied and the process dragged on and on.

We were making a short 30-50 second video for social media, back when Instagram only allowed shorter clips to be posted and before Instagram stories hit the scene. We worked with what we had and on our 3^rd hour at the studio, we had to pack up shop and make times to interview the remaining students at a later date.

I had prepared release forms, a photographer, the interview questions and some food and drinks while they waited for their turn.
I do wonder how I could have improved the session. Perhaps I could have been more cut-throat and given each student limited time to speak, then move on to the next one if we didn’t see any results.
Or, I could have requested that those who wanted to participate would be required to send in written answers to my interview questions, along with a printed copy, showing they have read the Q’s and had something to refer to.

Although, I do just think it comes down to what Louise said about talent.
It’s not just a term they use to describe the subject they’ll be interviewing in industry but also a means of discerning whether or not this person is someone interesting enough to draw in viewers.
Does the talent have anything worth saying? Can the talent deliver their information with enough interest to hold attention or create it?
– I believe that’s where we went wrong. We wanted to be inclusive and make sure everyone had a say but should have focused on those who had strength in tone and let their accompanying designs speak alongside them.

#lessonlearnt

Today’s workshop was centred around getting us to network within our class and become more comfortable with sharing personal work.
Brian mentioned in the lectorial on Wednesday that he doesn’t expect that people will ever really become comfortable with sharing work but that it’s good practice and I agree.

I still remember the first few times I presented in interior design to my classes.
It was frightening and I remember getting choked up, my face flushed red, I was in shambles and I forgot my name and what year it was.
More than once.
<— me

We sat in groups, playing the game of hats again, offering garlands of compliments to our classmates who had taken to blog writing like fish to water.
I felt the blog I shared was too formal but I persevered and went head first into the pit of compliments and helpful criticism.
We took a quick full format picture to mark the occasion of the second coming of the hats, pictured below.

My writing style is much more relaxed and playful and this feels a lot more natural to me but I’m so accustomed to writing formally (plus I’m getting older..) that I struggle with the transitions.

I thought the blogs were really informative and the general consensus was that we were all enjoying the content and the course as a whole.
We were waiting with bated breath to see one of the group members’ videos but it wasn’t exporting properly, so we decided we’d just have to wait until the film festival next week.

This week’s lectorial had us look at the fundamentals of becoming professionals in the Media Industry.
Brian referenced various articles and quotes from those who had turned their passions into careers, like an ex-media communications student who had turned their blogging rituals from this course into a profession; reviewing movies they had seen.

The importance of blogging was reiterated and it’s importance defined; blogging helps form a routine of reflection and helps us to learn how to explain our ideas.
As someone who writes on occasion, I’ve always found it difficult to do something creative when I’m being told to.

We were shown a video by Cal Newport, focusing on deep work, success, productivity and work-life balance.
Cal spoke intently of passion and how one comes upon it, stating that there is very little evidence stating that we begin with a passion in life and then follow suit.
He stated that evidence we do have actually supports the opposite.
An example was given, akin to my experiences of undertaking piano lessons – someone takes piano lessons and their teacher happens to be a pleasant person who makes learning enjoyable, even though it may be somewhat difficult.
The apprentice comes back for another lesson and continues to play and then slowly realises that they are a little bit better than someone else.
This increases their drive and pushes them to continue to practice.
More time passes and they continue to grow stronger at the art and the gap widens.
Their motivation and passion increases with the positive affirmation and soon they reach world class status.

The pupil did not begin with this level of motivation but instead acquired it as they steadily progressed.
For me, the opposite occurred; my teachers were unenthusiastic and bland.
I had talent but I wasn’t in an inspiring environment. I am therefore, not a concert pianist.

The talk perfectly articulated how I felt about passion and have discussed at length with many friends over the course of the years.
So many people I know struggle with the ideas of following their passions and dreams, wondering what they should be doing with their time and how do they know if they’re on the right track.

It seems fairly simple when it’s laid out in a video for us – find something you’re good at and work hard at honing those skills and opportunities may very well arise.

I’m backtracking here but the day after our workshop where we discussed the purpose of media, I went to work.
Not going to be the most riveting of posts in that it’s reflective of the constraints and issues that arise in the professional realm of media.

For the most part, I enjoy my job; creating content, photography and coordinating of this and secondary media for the university’s design faculty.
I am slowly getting students more involved in creative processes, working with them to create more content that gives them a voice within the university and always learning of new ways to effectively use social media to increase their engagement.

I am currently working with international clients for one of the professors at RMIT, which means that communicating is a little difficult.
You can have as many skype conversations, write all the emails you like but sometimes you’re just not going to see eye to eye.
Our aim as a university is to show the work of the students, lecturers and those involved – nourishing their minds with as many relevant articles associated with their projects but the client is much more interested in the monetary aspect of the eventual exhibition.

I suppose I should premise this by stating what the project involves – (I’m just running with the thoughts as they appear in my mind, instead of backtracking right now).
The project is for a Malaysian company wanting to develop a smart city in Johor, Malaysia.
They have teamed up with RMIT to create various studios based around the development, each to choose particular issues such as mobility, technology, knowledge or commerce, and work on those ideas and come up with solutions.
I take the photos, find articles, post them online, likes likes likes, share share share – you get the gist.

Our ideology is one that supports students. We want to publish works that are engaging and educational, as well as photos of students working, their work and their lecturers in the act of lecturing – that is to say, this is what we communicate with our media.
The clients, on the other hand, do not share our ideology.
Currently in the process of navigating these waters but there’s one thing that we both agree upon – media is a powerful tool.

‘With great power comes great responsibility’ – Uncle Ben.