This semester, the Media course has taught me how vast and complex the industry truly is. It is obvious, to anyone, that media – filmmaking and channeling some form of creativity is not as simple as it may appear. The process is much greater than one would believe. In order to create anything, other than the mandatory pre-production work, actions regarding copyrighting are such a crucial element in creating something that I have learnt so far in the course, will never be an original idea. An artist can “borrow” from others, be influenced by things smaller or greater than them, or they can have endless resources, however it is not enough to just think about doing something with these things. Media is about doing, acting on your ideas and thoughts to create something bigger, larger than life, and something special.

Throughout this course I have found that I learn the most effectively through speaking to those around me. The richest part of my experience so far has been feeding off others’ ideas, being exposed to a plethora of different attitudes and styles that previously would have been foreign and unusual to me. In a different environment, having this range of people and collective experiences would not have affected me or influenced me in any way, however the inclusive nature of the tutorials has completely opened me up to such a broad range of culture, age, social class and taste.

The most challenging aspect within the course, although I have previously mentioned positively approaching variation of influence and ideas, has been correctly implementing it within my work and in my mentality. Is has been important to me this semester to reach out into the unknown, to explore what I had never before through listening and understanding those around me – students and lecturers. It has been challenging to not constrict yourself to what you are familiar and comfortable with. This is something that I have attempted to achieve so far in the course, but it something that needs to be carried out throughout the course and into a career in the media industry, as you can never be exposed to too many different approaches towards creative practice.

I believe that I have discovered a broader range of capabilities within myself. Through the process of creative practice throughout the semester, the manner in which deep analysis and thought has been implemented has encouraged me to understand the capabilities I have. Through the various project briefs, I have challenged myself, adhering to specific criteria whilst intending to remain true to my own creative style. I have learnt that in order to develop, it is crucial to explore different styles and concept, stepping out of your comfort zone in these regards, ensuring that I can create a diverse pool of ideas and approaches towards media practice.

Learning Graph :

Here are links to my five blog posts :

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/georgina-stewart/2015/03/08/post-3/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/georgina-stewart/2015/03/12/lectorial-week-2/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/georgina-stewart/2015/04/24/week-7-lectorial-analysis/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/georgina-stewart/2015/04/28/111/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/georgina-stewart/2015/05/07/tutorial-week-9/ 

After many weeks of working on project brief four, my group members and I have created a product that we are happy with. Working with both Chrystalla and Emily in a collaborative mind space was an extremely enjoyable one, their friendly and welcoming natures allowed us to work together as a team in a positive environment. Our creative process was constantly productive; as we moved throughout the weeks with a joint focus and understanding of the direction we wished our product to go in. It is due to this, that I believe we were able to create a podcast that fulfilled what each of us wanted out of the brief.

The most successful aspect of our submitted work, I believe, is our content. As a group we worked specifically on including the content we wanted, ensuring that it was focused on a specific area, which in our case was how programming affects audiences of film festivals. Throughout our research, we found that each member of the group focusing on a particular film festival – The German Audi Film Festival, The Human Rights Film Festival and the St Kilda Film Festival – allowed us to have a diverse range of material due to the contrast of the events. Through our podcast we have been able to communicate the aspects of each festival that have intended to spark interest in potential audience members. Using our knowledge of this information, as a group we adopted personas in order to create a suitable atmosphere that would be persuading to the public through our broadcast based platform. Researching in an area such as film festivals allowed us to immerse ourselves in information that we had never discovered. We became thoroughly informed, which caused our script writing to not be as challenging as it could have been. After revising our script numerous times, we finally arrived at a copy we were satisfied with, one that was true to the festivals we were somewhat representing.

Throughout our process, the group found the task of recording our audio to be challenging. The success of a podcast lies on the timing of lines, especially in a comedic sense, and the energy that is created by the voices bouncing off one another. We partook in various approaches of producing a solid sound – recording together, separately and using different types of microphones. I think that this is the problematic aspect of our submitted work. After recording each of our parts separately and then editing them together, it fit together well, however something was still missing. Although the lines are delivered in time, due to them being edited, the natural aspect of banter and energy has been lost. Another issue with this is the level of our voices. After testing the distance of the microphone many times, we each held it at an equal distance, however the volume of our voices differed. Through editing, this was somewhat altered in order to create a sense of each speaker being in the same room speaking in an synced conversation, however at times it drops – the voices being either too soft or too loud. Throughout the period of the brief, we have improved greatly in our quality of sound as we have become more familiar with what was suitable for what we wanted to achieve and tested the sound profusely.

I have learnt a great deal in the creative process of the project brief. Collaboration, although at times difficult, is an extremely enriching and positive experience if done right. It is key that each group member needs to be in understanding of the goals of one another. Our group tackled this with vigor, which I believe will assist in the molding of myself as a media practitioner as I continue in doing so with future projects. As I have experienced a positive and successful collaboration, I can take my experience and implement these actions and aspects that assisted in our success in other group work. A skill that I will take is that it is essential for each member of the group to utilize their strengths in order to efficiently produce something of the best quality possible with the talent and skill available. I will also take with me from this experience my need to constantly challenge my boundaries and comfort zones. By using the creativity and contrast of ideas of other group members, in the future I can channel their energy and enthusiasm and implement it myself. It is crucial that as a media practitioner you strategically dive into your work, which is what I have learnt from this collaboration and will take with me in order to work well in the future particularly in group work.     

As the last actual week of the semester came to an end I somewhat felt a weight off my shoulders, knowing that all I had left to do was finish (or in some cases start and then finish) work that is due in the coming weeks. As I sat in a pub after the MS Fun Walk I was surrounded by my parents and my Auntie and work colleagues.  My Auntie then went to tell them that I was studying at RMIT, when one of them responses, “Are you doing Science?” due to all of their work revolving somewhat around its many practices. I looked at her and laughed, stating “No, no nothing to do with science at all! I’m studying media, no… definitely not science.” She then smiled at me, and continued to speak to her two children. I felt a bit out of place with all of these adults sat at this table who all posses an interest in science in some way or another, besides my own mother which is why I suppose I can say that the apple does not fall far from the tree. I continued to sit there and think about it, how important media is, especially to me as someone who has been trained for the past few years to deeply understand all things media. I think you have to understand the world of media to fully appreciate it, which brings me to what was spoken in the lecture this past week. This quote “Media materialism is, of course, a way of thinking about media, but it can also be a way of thinking about the world, history, the economy, even sunsets” was one I grabbed from the Media One Media factory page, and is a statement that I think is extremely vital to anyone studying media. As that is what we have to do constantly; think about media and anything else in the world that links to it – which is basically everything. Understanding media is just as complex as understanding a science, it is a science, however of a different means.

On Thursday evening, I attended the Opening Night of the St Kilda Film Festival. I had never experienced this festival before and was eager to see what all the hype was about, especially since it is the focus of our latest project brief. I have to say however, I do not think I was completely satisfied. After making our way in, and the showing finally beginning, I feel as though the audience spent more time listening to speeches made than enjoying the glorious art that is short film. Understandably, as it was opening night there needed to be many individuals and bodies acknowledged and yes I was interested to hear about the funding from the government, but the only speech I was somewhat interested in was Festival Director of over 15 years Paul Harris. Perhaps this was because I just wanted to hear about film and cinema, and who better to listen to that the individual who choses what the audience sees throughout the duration of the festival.

Once the speeches were finally over, the shorts were screened. I was impressed by what was chosen, they were a great quality of film and commented on a range of things through the forms of documentary, drama, and a beautiful animation that I believe really stood out from the rest. Although it was brilliant to see this Australian talent and skill, I wasn’t completely satisfied. I don’t believe that I saw enough. I know that is an active choice that was made to entice audiences into returning to see more, but as the nights aim was to give insight into the entire festival, I feel like I wasn’t given a big enough taste. Maybe my taste has been broadened from being exposed to a larger range of cinema since starting my degree, and that’s why I wanted to see more, due to my vast interest in foreign cinema, however this festival obviously isn’t about that but the embracing of Australian talent – which it achieved successfully. Overall it was a lovely night, it just ended too quickly. It will help immensely in the formation of our project brief 4 artefact as I can now give more of an insight into how programming is used to entice audiences.