Assignment 4 has been a hoot and a half to say the least. Initially I was really excited to focus on one space in particular that stood out to us to be sacred, and dive into the concept in our own unique way, expressing our thoughts through the video format.

‘Online Escape’ originated from Nici, Indri and I brainstorming a particular place we all felt at ease or the most comfortable. Unsurprisingly, our bedrooms came up as the most prominent yet obvious answer. Almost too obvious. We thought we could do better than that. When exploring the online world as a sacred space came up as a possible option, we were all really fascinated. Writing down words helped us determine where to start, as the online space is such an incredible broad and vast subject – it’s hard to tackle just one aspect.

Our most challenging aspect throughout our project was deciding we were actually going to convey our ideas through video footage. The obvious shots of laptops and smartphones being used were thrown around as ideas, however again we thought we could do better than that. Having a narrative could be really interesting and better yet, allow the audience to connect with the ideas as they could positon themselves within the story. Our story ended up being a bit more abstract, but it was still easy to follow. After presenting our final to the class, one of our classmates said how much she was following the narrative and how much she was able connect both physically and emotionally. She said she could feel the emotions of isolation, loneliness and the longing of becoming someone online – portraying a better version of ourselves.

This was interesting because we originally thought to explore the feelings and emotions that come with being online as the main point of focus. Mainly because it would be relatable to viewers, and also an easy concept to depict through video. So, for example, we would have footage of our main subject ‘liking’ a photo on Instagram, and because ‘likes’ are considered to be such a positive action and make people feel good, we would have footage of a laughing baby, the sun, chocolate, people smiling; basically any action that alludes to the feeling of happiness. For this to occur, we would have had to think of all sorts of external things that allude to different feelings. Another example – showing how a negative comment or a ‘thumbs down’ on a YouTube video would make people unhappy or even angry, our footage possibly the stabbing of an apple or throwing paint against a wall suggesting frustrating. This idea was awesome because it would show feelings that every single online user experience in their everyday lives. But in the end we decided against the whole idea, deciding to stick to the actual online world and focus on that one particular aspect.

So essentially we agreed upon branching away from the emotional aspect of the online world and more the reality, how people portray themselves and how they connect and interact. The most interesting and exciting thing about this was that the feedback we got from the class after our presentation was that despite us saying prior to showing the video that we moved away from emotions, the content remained emotional – with feelings of anxiety, stess and sadness from seeing this young girl isolated in her outside world, trying to find herself a better outcome through her laptop. So I guess we managed to stay true to our original thought without trying; go us!!

My personal favourite section of our video has to be the section where our main character is shown to be communicating with others online through the use of split screen. I loved creating this part, bringing our idea to life, and it turned out really well. The idea of being connected yet being along at the same time was really conveyed, as well as the idea of that everyone is basically in the same boat while online, despite how connected to the outside world they may be.

It was such a huge task taking on the online world as our sacred space of exploration, however we managed to tackle certain points with confidence, and the class and Robbie seemed to react quite well to our idea, saying it was clever, real and relatable. I do believe we captured it well, and am very happy and proud of Nici, Indri and I’s final work in ‘Online Escape’ J