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Collaborative Brainstorming

April 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Today we began the process of research and brainstorming an idea for our media artefact on Industries of Media and we have LIFT OFF.  I’m very happy with how effectively Chrys, Georgina and myself have come up with a specific topic and focus questions to begin our research around.  We have come up with the subject matter of Film Festivals and their surrounding social, cultural, political and economic features and factors.  Here’s a little low quality snap of our butchers paper and such to prove it.

photo

Coming in to this assignment I was afraid it was going to be the most boring thing on the planet (particularly since I generally detest any kind of research task), however I honestly think we have found a topic that I’d be happy to look into. I mean who doesn’t love a good film festival?

ZoomH2s Are Pretty Great

April 28, 2015 / / 0 Comments

This is a throwback post from week 6 that I just never got around to posting.
…But better late than never eh?

In week 6 we had a little play around with the ZoomH2 sound recorders as it was a requirement to use them in project brief 3.  Here’s an insight into the stuff we got up to recording.

Props to Jamie for putting together the video 🙂
Overall, most of them were relatively useful with just a couple here and there that were too loud, too soft, too much background noise, etc, etc, etc.  We got the hang of it as we practiced.

So I Guess This Is Feedback

April 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

After screening all of our projects one after the other as you would in a film festival, we were put into groups to give each other feedback.  I was put with the wonderful Georgina and Chrys, so here’s their feedback from me.

Georgina: (click here to view it yo)

This is a straight up beautiful piece.  It’s clear, to the point and obviously well planned out.  I loved the archive footage of brain scans teamed up with the news report voice over to initially introduce the subject of MS.  I think this clinical view of it was well contrasted with the family-effected side with the footage of the house and home and the candid shot of her catching you filming her.  The only criticism I have is purely technical and it’s that some parts of the audio were a tad louder than the others and didn’t properly fade in/out.  But I know I have the same problem in mine and we all know audio is a heinous bitch.  Overall, I thought it was a lovely piece!

Chrys: (clicky click to viewy view)

I am in awe at how well put together this piece is.  I love how the interview is in close quarters and being filmed with a hand held camera, it gives the piece a more comfortable and intimate feeling.  What I loved even more though, was the archive footage of raunchy, sexualised women juxtaposing the actual subject of the film being about asexuality – awesome.  The only criticism I have is perhaps having some kind of music or sound play during the ending credits just to finalise the film (I’m clearly reaching here).
Basically, I think it’s a fantastic piece of work!

 

Clearly, giving feedback is just another thing I need to work on.

The Making of MADDISON

April 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Project Brief 3: MADDISON

I decided to do Project Brief 3 on my older sister, Maddison Gillespie.  I chose my sister because she has such strong views and so much passion for so many things in her life, including herself.  With the audio, I focused explicitly on her mental health (depression), her incredibly impulsive nature and her views on herself, her freedom and how she is as an individual.  These spoken explanations were teamed up with passing images of her other personal loves and interests such as her party life and care-free attitude; represented through the three photos of her mooning the camera on different occasions, as well as three of her own pieces of art. Intermixed with all of this were samples of text posts from her own blog on which she writes her every thought and opinion; the title screen of this film is the title of her blog.  Footage of the beach around where she lives (another passionate love of hers) is used as a linking element between each feature.   The found footage is symbolic of Maddison’s firm stances on feminism through the use of the iconic women cartoon characters, Betty Boop, Olive Oil and Wonder Woman. 
A feature that I think worked well was the natural, unscripted sounding voice over.  We recorded this by simply having a half hour long conversation like we would any other day, only this time I was questioning her on how she considered herself.  I believe that by doing this instead of having a formal interview, the nature of her recordings come across much more raw.

What I struggled most with in this assignment was choosing a feature about Maddison to focus on as I find her so interesting in so many ways.  It is for this reason (my indecisiveness on what to focus wholeheartedly on) I feel my planning was not adequate, making the whole project difficult to string together coherently.  Maybe I tried to include too many features of her in too short a time, not going into enough detail about any? 
Also, choosing someone who lives too far away to simply go to proved to be a bit of an issue.  The audio was a pain to record as, at the time, I was not tech-savvy with the ZoomH2 and had the voice gain up too high and our connection kept on cutting out, causing the audio to cut out. 
Having said that, I feel I compromised adequately and efficiently with these problems in order to make an overall some-what effective piece.

MADDISON

April 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I focused the Project Brief 3 assessment on my older sister, Maddison.  A person who I have looked up to all my life and who never ceases to interest me.
Two minutes is not nearly long enough to do her beautiful mind justice, but I have done my best so enjoy.  🙂

Week 6 Lectorial

April 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

In week 6 we focused on collaboration- a topic I dare say the majority of students of all ages from primary school to university generally loathe the idea of.
We’ve all had those group work experiences when the workload is one sided or someone hasn’t come through on their side of the work and we can all agree it’s the WORST.
Since a lot of our work from here on out will be collaborative, this week’s focus was on what makes a good team and how to avoid those collaboration mishaps.
The key to a successful team comes down to this:

  • Clear Objectives
  • Good Communication
  • Consistency
  • Respect
  • Support
  • Responsibility
  • Equitability

Pretty simple right?

First Camera Practice

April 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

After presenting our self portraits to the class (daunting), week 5’s media practorial had us having a go at filming with the Sony MC50 video camera.  We were sent out onto the campus to create one 3 shot sequence and one single shot sequence with the stimulus; meeting someone/handshake.
We decided to take a bit of a shifty approach to the whole ‘handshake’ idea.
So here it is

Week 5 Readings

March 31, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Week 5’s media lectorial covered our new project brief which is a similar idea to the last, but this time portraying someone we know rather than ourselves.  I’m pretty keen to get started.
This week’s readings had us looking at collaborative work and what makes an effective team.  The most interesting thing I recall reading came from Jean Tabaka, 2006, ‘What are collaborative teams?’ Collaboration explained: Facilitation skills for software project leaders, Upper Saddle River, NJ : Addison-Wesley, pp.23-43.
It describes, in depth, what personalities are needed to be assigned together in order to make a ‘high-performance’ team using William Moulton Marston’s D.I.S.C.

D= the dominant one/the leader

I= Focuses on all the possibilities (the what-ifs) and new visions and alternatives

S= Builds the relationship amongst the team, stable team member

C= Checks all facts and figures on ideas and analyses with attention to detail

It goes on to talk about how any team with an uneven balance of these four roles can throw off the balance in one way or another and therefore make a less effective collaborative team.
I found it an interesting read; probably the most interesting reading so far.

Week 3 & 4 Lectorial Recap

March 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Weeks 3 and 4 had us listening to some speakers on various media related subjects.
In week 3, the speaker that interested me the most was Kyla Brettle’s talk on taking media to all places and going out into the real world for it.  Her message that, if you want to get anything out of this industry, you need to step outside your comfort zone and DO it in person, really hit home for me because I can see that, in future there are going to be times (probably many times) where I’m going to need to stop being that shy, awkward turtle, shed the shell and be proactive.  It’s just another learning curve and I’m keen for the future.

Week 4’s Liam Ward spoke about editing and the importance of it, which paralleled this week’s reading ‘Blood in the Gutter’ from Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.  They explained how an audience, regardless of whether it’s a conscious or unconscious effort, makes the meaning and connections from not only every shot, but every cut between the shots.  Which I find pretty cool.