Tag: media

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?

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.

Silence

March 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Week 2’s lectorial mentioned a famous piece by John Cage called 4’33”.  When it was mentioned that all media students need to hear the piece as a ‘ride of passage’ I was thinking somewhere along the lines of:
Media is so broad, what single composition could possibly be so monumental that it’s needed to be touched on in the second week of our degree? Beethoven?  Tchaikovsky?  Lady Gaga?

Nope.  It’s a 4 minute and 33 second piece of complete silence which is a totally genius concept because it forces you to become aware of every little sound in your surroundings.  We ‘listened’ to 30 seconds and to be honest I don’t think I could take the whole 4 and a half minutes due to my general animosity towards silence.  I think I would’ve been straight up uncomfortable being in the audience who first saw the performance of a man who sat down, turned to the piano and sat there in silence for the length of a song before taking a bow and leaving.  He was trying to get across the point that silence does not exist.  Sound is everywhere and media is everywhere.  Which was the gist of this weeks lectorial; Media is everywhere.