Today’s tutorial was the last of the term. It’s quite a feat I believe, to have gone through these last 12 weeks of my first semester in University. It’s been an experience to say the least. Something that I have had to become accustomed to in a variety of ways, but have finally done nonetheless. It kind of feels like its been a life time, and in this small lifetime of 3 months, I have definitely grown in many ways. In today’s tutorial we were asked to draw a line for the 12 weeks for each in a different colour on a graph based on these points:

1. How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories?
2. What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools?
3. How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make?
4. What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog?

Sitting there thinking about how and where I would draw my lines, determined to make them as accurate as I could, it almost forced me to reflect on these past weeks. I’ve learnt a lot. Coming into the course, there was mixed feelings of knowing what you’re doing and not having a clue. After the first week it completely leaned towards having no idea what I was doing with anything, something that I accepted and strived to actually learning something. Being around such creative minds has encouraged me to think about things in a different light and to approach everything with a chilled and eager aura. I suppose your time spent anywhere is what you make of it and although there have been moments of doubt and boredom, it’s been a great first half of the year.

This weeks tutorial consisted of Dan having a look at our artefact for Project Brief 4, and getting some much needed (and wanted) feedback. After having him listen to the first draft of our podcast, he seemed happy with it. The general consensus was to have a play around with the technical aspects, work on how we record our pieces perhaps separately and then edit them together. He also suggested to increase the exaggerated aspect of our audio, something that I believe is simple and easy for our group to fix up in order for it to sound great. I’m really happy with the place we’re at. We are where we need to be, we know where we are going – fixing and tinkering with the things previously mentioned by Dan, in order to create something great.

In today’s tutorial we presented our artefact for project brief four. A work in progress, we are aiming for our creation to take on a variety of caricatures that encapsulate the epitome of different vibes around different film festivals. While in the creative process, we are being careful to ensure that our research is fully communicated throughout our end product, and not lost by the exaggerated characters. We’re working on bringing together our three scrips that we have made for the different festivals and sectioning them off, with interview questions ( that we have devised today ) focusing on the thoughts surrounding the idea of film festivals.

Todays tutorial was spent discussing our ideas and artefact for project brief 4. After finishing our annotated bibliographies, a long winded task that is now eventually finished, we shared what we had found – following on from our meeting that we had last week, realising again that we had three different areas of research integrated nicely. After much discussion and deliberation, we have seemingly come to a group decision that we would like to focus on programming of film festivals and how it is used to capture audiences. As a group, we are extremely interested in the manner programs are used to control and influence audiences, through advertising their films, usually in particular categories and genres.

With our artefact, we have decided that we are interested in creating a small news snippet type video, edgy and interesting, that links to the format of films in film festivals whilst almost reporting on the ins and outs of specific festivals. In this, we look to describe, analyse and recommend festivals, mainly based on the wants and needs of an audience. This taps into the field that I have researched greatly – the battle between the “business” model and “audience” model of film festivals.

Our other ideas consist of; a podcast, vlogs, a feature article or a program itself – this list is a work in progress, consisting of our other ideas of what we can execute. By our next meeting as a group we aim to have prototypes of scripts and ideas to get our work moving from the bland researching stage that its currently in.

In today’s tutorial we got into it and started to properly discuss our ideas for Project Brief 4. Assigned with the topic “institutions”, to begin with we were somewhat stumped. It seemed to be the hardest thing to hone in on, with too many possibilities imaginable. However, after creating a great mind map and after much discussion, we opened our ideas up vastly and had a much greater understanding on which direction we wanted to head in. After deciding to focus on film festivals and their importance and influence within cinema culture, we started researching. As a group, we found some really interesting starting point from which we can really begin our annotated bibliography due next week. I’m really happy with the progress we made today, along with the sense of comfort that comes with understanding the topic and the ideas of my other group members.

EMILY GILLESPIE
Overall, I enjoyed Emily’s portrayal of her older sister Maddison. Aesthetically, it was pleasing on the eye and easy to watch, fitting in with her general relaxed nature and the location – the Gold Coast. The found footage that Emily used of Betty Boop worked well, tying in with the narration of Maddison and not appearing out of place whatsoever. The on screen text shown twice throughout the film offered some diversity, visually contrasting with the footage, it remained relevant and related to the overall concept and aimed aesthetic. One thing I suggest to think about are the shots of the face. They were effective in showing the audience of the physical presence that is Maddison, however having shots of her talking accompanied by the still shots of her facial features may have created a bit more contrast and diversity in that small sequence.

You can see “Maddison” here:
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/emily-gillespie/2015/04/23/maddison/

CHRYSTALLA ANASTASI
Chrys also used her found footage in an extremely effective manner as it mirrored the spoken narration along with what seemed to be the desired overall aesthetic. The shots in which the film’s subject Maria is speaking to the camera is personal and intimate, the setting being in a bedroom, which reinforces the concept of intimacy and sexuality that is being explored throughout the course of the film. Although it is a slight contradiction, perhaps a range of different angles may have provided more diversity in the interviewing of Maria, this may have made it appear more posed, however small angle differences maybe slightly to each side from a higher angle would maintain the intimacy that was successfully achieved. Also, rather than only shots of Maria speaking to the camera,  pensive, calm shots accompanied only by a voice over may have given audiences a chance to reflect on the dialogue more in depth. Overall it was a great representation of Maria and her ideals.

You can see “Maria” here:
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/chrystalla-anastasi/2015/04/20/project-brief-3-media-portrait/ 

In todays tutorial we were given the opportunity to use sound recorders and went out into Bowen Street to try and find something worth recording. There are a lot of things happening out on that street. There’s a constant throng of trucks moving and bleeping, plenty of people and plenty of small talk. After attempting to get some sort of sounds together, and recording some mediocre snippets, it really became apparent that it was difficult to get a clean sound when there was so much going on. This was perfect for background noise, you could literally go out and record a hours worth of background noise for a project, but it wasn’t ideal for close conversations or anything of the sort. The sound was too loud because the device was too close and it just wasn’t really suited in such a loud environment. If you wanted to record any intimate conversations, I would recommend going to a street where there weren’t any powertools in action or vehicles reversing.

In this weeks tutorial, we each presented our project brief 2. It was extremely interesting to see what everyone else had though they wanted to show about themselves and how they wanted to convey their ideas. It was great to see the contrast in some of the projects – where you saw photos and sounds dominate the one minute, or where you saw a great deal of footage with less of the former. It gave great inspiration for the next project. To create a clean and simple product.

We also were given the opportunity to play around with the Sony MC50 video cameras, audio recorders and tripods. It was good to use some equipment other than my Canon or my iPhone, and honestly gave off a bit of the “I’m a uni student using camera equipment and feeling a bit like a uni student doing it” vibe”. Despite that, it was good to get familiar with the camera before loaning one to use for the next brief.

In this weeks tutorial, “Blood in the Gutter” by Scott McCloud was focused on, obviously for good reason. The underlying message of the comic style explanation, not only for comics, but all forms of media, skilfully dove into what the audience perceive and their own expectations when looking at something – whether it be film or not. The fact that one expects particular settings or environments to be a certain way, even though they have never experienced, it leads me to reflect on how much of the world we, as human beings, conjure up for whatever reason we deem necessary. How much do we romanticise things to make them appear how we want? Are our expectations too high because we have created them on a basis of what others tell us? Our senses can reveal a world that is fragmented and incomplete, even those parts of the world we have never even encountered. How much of the world do we have to visit in order to get a full understanding of them? Perhaps one day it will be enough to simply be informed about other countries and cultures, that we don’t have to literally experience them ourselves. But wouldn’t that be losing the personal worldliness that we all crave? After all, aren’t we consumed by this intense wanderlust?

Self Portrait:

How did you represent yourself?
I represented myself as someone family orientated, who travels a lot, spending a lot of the time on trains or modes of transportation. Then when i’m not out, i’m at home in my room. I think that kind of portrays myself to be black and white – in or out, away or at home.

How did others represent themselves?
Some were obviously things that are important to them on an everyday timeframe, their surroundings, their environment/s that they interact in. Others’ pieces were a bit more in depth, with a larger thought process of  what they actually wanted to show to others, while still showing something personal.

This is a bunch of kilobytes – how does it become you?
I don’t really think it can properly become you as such, it is a representation of me, but can never fully represent who you are. I suppose it gives a glimpse into my thoughts, what I deem important to myself and my life. It’s hard to perceive a list of files as a complex human being with a just as equal complex mind. On that level, it must reflect something psychological about what I want to share and how my mind works when I begin to associate anything with the term “self – portrait”.

Expressing yourself is difficult when it comes to showing yourself in a different light. As a media student, everything is mostly about expression and creativity, but this task was different. It was definitely a challenge for me.  I overthought it at the beginning, thinking of it as a make it or break it, unleashing every single piece of creativity within me to make me seem like a force to be reckoned with. Then I realised that I was being a bit dramatic, the product wasn’t being marked and was essentially to get us thinking and doing. It has been useful in the sense that I can now think about how I portrayed myself and how others creatively portrayed themselves, taking that into the next project. It has encouraged me to tackle the task in perhaps a different way, attacking it from a more abstract point of view.