Website

Presentation slides and notes can be found on google drive in the ‘Website/Presentation Group’ folder.

Ghosts of RMIT has been my most collaborative university class yet. With just 12 class members, the studio format allowed us to work together without the process feeling forced and full of friction.

I have worked with in particular with Bec, Jess, and Imogen to out together a website and presentation for the studio.

In the early stages of this work, while groups were still being finalised, Bec and I began a presentation, while Imogen, Linh and Jess worked on the website. Probably all the work done before about week 10 has since been discarded, but it gave provided a good starting point.

As part of this website and presentation, it was suggested we design a logo for this class. Somehow I became the ‘graphic designer’ for this task, which I was quite pleased about. As ideas about the logo were thrown around, I tried to make them come to life in photoshop. A good few hours were spent perfected our logo, which I am now quite proud of.

The website for Ghosts has come together really well. Imogen was able to find a great theme, and with a good colour palette, the prominence of the logo, and smart menu planning we have created a wordpress site that doesn’t look like a wordpress site.

The website has been very collaborative. My own role within the website has been small bits and pieces of editing and tweaking. During this week I have looked over the site most days, and fixed any problems I’ve encountered. I’ve added hyperlinks, fixed broken links and changed uneven font sized. I’ve fixed my own spelling and grammar mistakes. I wrote some copy for the site, such as the page for Building 20, as well as the ‘creator’s’ page and the ‘places’ page.

I’ve had a little more to do with the presentation. In class in week 11, Jess, Bec, Imogen and I began putting together slides for the presentation; I later finished these at home. After feedback from the studio, I changed the slides to be mostly photos, rather than the text we had done in the first draft. Although I worked on the slides mostly alone, this was not a very time consuming task. I will also be speaking during the presentation with Imogen.

Working on the website and presentation has been really very enjoyable; I feel like I’ve gotten off lightly compared to the virtual tour group. Working with the other girls was fun, and we worked well as a team. I found that designing the logo was my favourite aspect of this brief, as I was able to be creative and utilise my photoshop skills. I’m very happy with how every part of this brief flows. By sticking to the same colour palette and using similar fonts and images, every aspect works well as a whole.

We haven’t really had any difficulties completing this brief. Facebook and Google Drive have been vitally important for communication and sharing, and have helped solve any problems we would have had in those areas.

If I were to undertake this brief again, I wouldn’t change much. I would probably do the work a earlier and not in a rush in the final week, but I can say the same about pretty much every uni assignment I’ve done. I would ask for more feedback in the earlier stages of work, rather than completing things, asking for feedback and having to make major changes. I would have worked closer with Imogen on the website design, purely so that I could learn from her; I think she did a really great job.

This brief has helped me explore how to best represent space and place online and in a presentation. All of us in Ghosts have been focused on our two buildings all semester, so it was great trying to figure out how to make them interesting to outsiders.

I will be continuing to add things (highlight reels, time commands, etc.) to the presentation over the next week as class members send through their work. The website will also be updated as more content comes in.

On Sunday all of us working on Building 20 (and Linh) came in to shoot our projects.

I began the day by interviewing my dad. It took us a while to get started, first making sure the sound and vision were fine, and then getting comfortable enough to start talking.

I have heard all my dad’s stories before, but with a camera in front of him, his tone changed. I could see that the Russell Street Bombing was something that was still a frightening and heavy topic for him, even 30 years on. Whether it was being in the space where the bombing occurred, or because of the camera, this time when my dad talked about the bombing, it seemed like something that affected him for a long time.

I found that the most difficult part of my shoot was just trying to get my dad to stop saying umm, without upsetting the flow of his story.

After wrapping up the interview, my dad and I walked around the building. I filmed him coming in an out of doors, peering into old courtrooms, and walking around the courtyard. I’m not sure if this will be useable footage, as it did seem to be a bit forced.

Dad left to have lunch, and I continued to film around the building. This was the easiest part. I simply had set down the tripod, make sure it was level, and pan around a little bit. Hopefully I have some nice shots that do the beautiful old building justice (pun intended).

My documentary for brief 3, described in detail here, was pitched to a panel last week. The feedback I received was largely positive. However, I did receive some good advice regarding technical aspects of the actually filming I will be doing.

Paul Ritchard mentioned that I should potentially avoid a talking heads style interview with my dad, mostly because it is hard to achieve decent audio with this method. He instead suggested that I should record audio separately, with an audio recorder, and add it over the top of non-interview type footage. In order to both follow his advice and also stick to my original idea, I will probably do both; a talking heads interview and a voice-only interview.

The panel also suggested that I should add an emphasis to the moment after my dad describes the explosion. This can be done through a long, stark black shot as well a silence. The weather conditions could also be brought into the film, with my dad describing what the weather was like on the day, complimented by shots of the building in similar weather conditions.

Another suggestion was finding another interviewee. However, due to limited access, and the busyness of myself and any other interviewee, this will probably not be able to happen.

Abigail Belfrage, an historian, suggested I search trove for images from newspapers at the time. This has proved to be a great resource for me, as I have been able to see how people were reacting the event at the time.

Listening to my classmates describe their ideas for their final projects was one of the best classes this semester. Whenever people are passionate about their work, it seems to set off a chain reaction. One person’s ideas lead to a brain wave for another person, which may inspire someone else’s work.

During these presentations, I found myself both scribbling down notes about my peers’ work as well as ideas for my own work.

Cassie’s idea for a POV walk through of Building 20 gave me an idea about how I could follow my interviews subject around.

Jackie’s collage idea just seemed so cool and original that I wrote down that I would need to watch her work on the shooting day.

Bec’s idea for a photo essay was something we had discussed early, and it was great to see the idea become more formed and to see Bec talking so clearly and interestedly about it.

I think that the way we have bounced ideas off one and other, helped each other out with projects, and worked through problems together has been the best part of the studio format. Being in a small group, working on different things and being together for 5 hours a week has meant that we have been able to really work together and get to know each other, and this has inspired better ideas and better work from everyone.

Brief 3: Blog Post

Title: March 27^th, 1986

Run time: Approx. 5-6 minutes

Format: Short film/interview/doco

On March 27^th 1986, a car bomb exploded outside the justice complex on Russell Street in Melbourne. The blast killed one young police officer, Angela Taylor, and injured a handful of other law enforcement and justice workers. My dad, 23 at the time, was a court registrar and sitting in on court cases on that day. When the bomb exploded at 1pm, the windows of the courtroom he was in were blown out by the blast, and everyone in the room ducked for cover.

From my original ideas, I have decided I will produce a short film focusing on the effects of the Russell Street Bombing on both people (my father) and place (Building 20). I will interview my father, and his narrative of the events of that day will be used to tell the story. I will pair this narrative with shots of the building, as well as footage of my father exploring the building 30 years on from the bombings.

In order to best articulate that this is a story of place, my interview questions will be focused on the building and feelings that arise from the setting. I will further accentuate the setting by making sure it is never overlooked. For example, any interview footage will be shot in a courtroom within the building. The film will compile as many shots of the building as necessary.

As I discusses in this blog post, Building 20 is mostly silent. I believe this will work to my advantage, as I’d prefer that the building seems empty, almost eery, to convey the right mood in my film.

In my film I will include shots of the damage that still remains from the Russel Street Bombing. I will use these shots to show that such major events become a part of a place, even if this is unintentional. I have compiled a rough storyboard as an outline of how my film will progress.

I have chosen to focus on the Russell Street Bombing as it is a topic close to me. In a somewhat selfish way, I have chosen this topic as a way of finding out more about something that happened in my Dad’s life before I was born. I am sure that most people find their parents’ lives before children to be interesting. To be completely honest, a small part of my decision to choose this idea stems from my easy access to a great interviewee. Furthermore, I’m interested in how something that happened 30 years ago can still affect both people and place today.

In Losing Site (2011), Shelley Hornstein discusses place and remembrance (which I have discussed here), stating:

‘Our task of remembrance is a continuing project, always linked to others and to places that are never separate or distinct (p19)’ 

In my film I will try to highlight this join between remembrance and place. Can a place ever be separated from its past? Is it only through people that a place serves as one of remembrance? How important is the past to a place’s current and future use?

Through my directed interview questions, I hope to be able to bring the focus back to place as much as possible:

1. What happened that day?
   – Hopefully will get a detailed and long answer to this one. Will be used at the beginning of the film
2. This attack was particularly place orientated. In what did this place (the justice complex) mean different things to different people?
3. How did your reaction to the place change after the attacks? Both in the immediate time following the attacks, and then years later?
4. When you visit this place does it provoke specific memories?
5. Can you recognise any remnants of the attack still in the building?
6. How long/when did you work here?
7. Talk about what it was like before the bomb
8. How long did it take until the court began sitting again? Did sittings take place in unfinished/partially-destroyed courtrooms?

In the past week, I have visited Building 20 in order to collect some reference photos and videos to use for my film (note for Rachel: the videos failed to upload but they are in the powerpoint I have uploaded to google drive).

Sandstone damge

Setting shots

More sandstone damage

I have included here a timetable of work that I have already undertaken on this project (those checkpoints that have been bolded) and what I still have to do.

It is important that before I begin working on this project that I look into the following issues:

• Camera equipment: which camera should I use, how long can I hire it for, etc.
• Time-lapse video: is there a specific way of doing this other than setting up a tripod and waiting?
• Access: do we have access to building 20 after business hours?

References:

Hornstein, Shelley. (2011). Making Site: Walter Benjamin was Here. In: Losing Site: Architecture, Memory and Place. England, USA: Ashgate Publishing. p17-22.

I wasn’t able to get to Paul Gough’s presentation, but from Rachel notes I can see that remembrance and memory was a key topic, so I have written a bit about that here.

I’ve been talking to my dad about the Russell Street Bombing over the last couple of days, sort of as a pre-interview for my project. He mentioned that for him, Building 20 will always be associated with the Russell Street Bombing. For me however, it’s a quiet, sort of -out-of-bounds RMIT building. This got me thinking about places that I will always associate with something dark, where many people wouldn’t.

The first place that came to mind was Warrandyte. Warrandyte is a lovely suburb, down by the Yarra with cute little cafes and shops, it’s the perfect place to visit on a warm weekend. But the cemetery in Warrandyte is the first cemetery where someone I know was buried. I’m lucky that I have experienced much death in my life so far, so when my great-grandma died when I was 12, it was a new situation for me. While it’s not the same as a bombing, I will always associate Warrandyte with a grave, the first grave that I ever had to visit.

While I may not associate Building 20 with the terror of March 27th 1986, this may because I am too young, not even born when the bomb went off. I wonder if, a few years down the track, there will be a generation of young people who will look at a photo of the Manhattan skyline without immediately knowing whether the photo was taken pre or post 2001. In 100 years, when no living person can recall 9/11, will downtown New York still feel eerily devoid of towers?  As Shelley Hornstein writes in Losing Site, remembrance is ‘always linked to others (people)’ (2011, pg19).