In the lectorial today, there were some very interesting points which were covered. One being that media is not so much a thing but is something all around us. It surrounds our everyday lives and is something that is just a part of each and everyone of us whether we like it or not. It has been believed in the past that media has such a direct effect on people that what they see, how they react to or how they connect with media can make them do these things in reality. One of the examples of this discussed was that if someone had a room full of murder films or TV shows and watched them all the time, that this would trigger them to become a serial killer. Or if a child plays violent video games that they will grow up to become a violent person. But, there is no evidence to support this theory, and really, how can you actually test this theory or prove it, because it is a topic with such broad perspectives.

We then went on to discuss other matters, but the one that interested me most was the semiotic tradition of analysis. We began discussing this topic around sign, signifier and signified. The signifier was described as being something that is not really anything; something as simple as letters put together to make a word. For example the word ‘DOG’ and only this word can be described as a signifier. Signified is all of the things you think of when you see this word; you may think of what a dog looks like, how it sounds, how it feels, etc. In other words the signifier is the bigger picture and what the word ‘DOG’ makes your brain think about. These were just some of the many things discussed in today’s lectorial, but some I found quite interesting and some that made me really think.

During today tutorial we were given a little sound recording device and we were to go and record lots of different types of sound. I found that it was quite difficult to record specific sounds because of the location we are in – the CBD. There is so much going on all around us; construction, traffic, people talking, etc. This makes it difficult to record something quiet or precise. I find that when it comes to recording something for a future project you would have to make some effort and travel out to where it is a bit quieter to get those specific sounds that you need.

For days, weeks or even months I have been anxiously waiting for this day. This morning at 8am, the breakfast presenters for Triple J, Matt and Alex, revealed the big announcement of the 2015 Splendour in the Grass line up. My first attendance to the huge 3 day festival was last year and I fell in love. I absolutely adored the whole fun of packing up the car for the weekend with some of your closest friends and heading to see some of the greatest acts. You can get your boogie on, live it rough while camping for a few days and generally just be carefree. I love the feeling you get when you and all of your friends come together and create something special, a great vibe and feeling while amazing acts from all over the world come together into one place and perform to you. It is seriously unlike any other festival and I love that it is spread over the three days. Of course this year I have uni which could be a problem financially as well as when the festival lays in terms of being able to attend. But I am determined that I will find a way to join all of my buddies at this years Splendour in the Grass to have a mighty splendid time.

Collaboration is a huge huge HUGE part of the Media industry as virtually everything is done in collaboration with another person or a group of people. It has been found that rather than having extended technical skills, employers are mostly looking for people with good collaboration, i.e. initiative, communication but especially teamwork skills. Of course most people would prefer to work on their own because they can do things how they want them to be done, but in reality teamwork is a part of most aspects of life, especially in Media and Communications. So whether you like it or not, you really have to suck it up and get on with it if you are going into Media. Besides the bad things about teamwork (doing all the work and getting no credit for it, people letting you down, not feeling comfortable about expressing your opinion, not being able to compromise, etc.) there are actually some very beneficial things about collaborating. For one you can easily brainstorm ideas and bounce them off one another, it is easy to keep motivation and focus, you can get things done a lot faster and you can also accomplish much bigger projects because you are sharing the workload with other team members. However, teamwork doesn’t always work due to the fact that some people just can’t work together; it is not that they don’t get along, some individuals just have very different ways of working. But there are actually some great ways to help solve obstacles that may pop up on the way if you are stuck with someone:

1. You need to form a connection where you trust one another; trust is built from honesty, openness, consistency and respect
2. Identify and develop a sense of unity within your group
3. Generate a set of team rules that your group must abide by during the project
4. Arrange a list of resolution procedures
5. Conduct good meetings and record what is discussed in these meetings on paper

During today’s tutorial, each member of the class was to present their self portrait v2 to the rest of the class. Going into the class I felt quite nervous, similar to the first self portrait, to present myself to everyone else, especially because I don’t know these people very well. In terms of revealing myself and putting myself totally out there, I am quite a self conscious person. I wish I didn’t care or worry about what people thought of me, but I do so this was quite a nerve-wracking experience. However, once you get over that stage and just do it, I find that people don’t actually really care and don’t judge you, it is all actually overthinking.

During the Easter break I was fortunate enough to be able to travel back home to spend it with family and friends. I knew how different life was in both my homes, Noosa and Melbourne, but it wasn’t until I actually went back to Noosa after moving to down here that I realised actually how different the lifestyles of the places really are. They both portray such different things and feelings and can shape you to be such different people. When living in Noosa I was very body conscious and cared very much so how I looked, just because that is how EVERYONE (well a majority) is there. I know that body image, especially in women, is a huge topic always in the media, but I just find it so sad that people in that lifestyle care so much about how you look, and you have to have the ‘perfect’ body or have to be skinny to be a good person. At first glance they literally do not care what you are like as a person they just care about what you look like. Now I must be honest, I was once trapped into this mindset too, but it wasn’t until moving away from that that I realised there is so much more to people and to life. I mean I always knew this, but you do get sucked in to this way of thinking when it is ALL around you. Once I moved away I was able to let loose a little and not care so much about how I looked and not be sucked in to that silly, judgemental and self-damaging mindset that people get into, which I very much think is a huge part of the ‘beach culture’.

In today’s lectorial we discussed our new project – self portrait on somebody else. I find that this project will be quite interesting and very different from the first two projects. The first projects were self portrait’s on ourselves including things and places that conveyed who we are or something we liked. This project has a lot more freedom as it is on someone else, so we are able to include a lot more about them and be a little more experimental as we have to include found footage as well as our own.

I have been thinking about who I will do my project on, and I think I will go with my Mum. I know it is quite cliche or whatever or an obvious pick, but because I live quite far away from her now it has made me appreciate her even more than I ever did and I miss her. She has achieved so much and is so talented so I think it would be very interesting to do something on her. Although she lives in Noosa and I live in Melbourne this has actually come at perfect timing as I am going home for the easter break. Stay tuned….

So I know a lot of people think it’s lame but I am unashamed to say that I am obsessed with the TV show ‘Revenge’. When the show was first released in 2011 I wasn’t even aware of it and it wasn’t until later on when season 2 was already out, that I learnt of the show and watched from the beginning. But that’s the best way to do it right? Smash out two seasons of something in one weekend. The show is now in it’s fourth season and ever since I first began watching I haven’t stopped, waiting anxiously every week for a new episode (that I stream online, because who wants to watch it on TV when the episodes are aired like 10 episodes behind air time in the US) and then again at the end of the season. The wait is especially anxious with Revenge because of the huge cliff hangers it leaves at the end of each episode and even season… I mean come on you’d think that they could do you a favour and at least not leave you in such anticipation at the end of a season. But that’s how it is with TV shows isn’t it. They reel you in with the drama and then leave things very suspenseful to keep you coming back for more. It is all in the way they script and especially edit the TV shows. The way they cut from scene to scene, the huge role the music and sound effects play, the gaps they leave and then when the bombshell hits. I live for that, and I must say that Revenge does a mighty fine job of all of this. Anyhow, I better leave you to it so I can go watch my next episode of Revenge….

This week’s focus has been on editing which is quite practical as project brief 2’s theme is predominantly based around editing. In today’s tutorial we looked at basic cuts and ways you can go from one shot to the next. As well as this we looked at different ways you can edit audio to make it look less ‘jumpy’ from one shot to the next. I feel as though this will help me for project brief 2 as well as other projects in the future. Although I gained basic editing skills during my final years of high school in Film and TV from various films we made, including music videos and short films, I hope to further my editing as well as filming skills during this second self portrait task and during the rest of the course.