It was interesting to realise that the piint of doing the activity was to establish the overall aim for the course. Treating each line as distinct and individual is an important rule to follow as it teaches us not to generalise. It’s important to describe and discuss specifics rather than to generalise, and through this activity we were able to find the specific relations between things.
Today made me think a lot about habits and the habits we as humans have in every day life.
Why do we have habits?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of habits? Well there are good and bad habits. Having good habits gives us positive structure. It gives us a way of life…
How can we stop bad habits? You can stop a bad habit such as biting your nails by using specific toxic polish that burns your mouth every time you go to take a nibble… But what about the bigger habits such as behavioural habits? The ones that can affect social and mental development.
Anyway.
Then I thought about noticing habits and more specifically, my own habits. I don’t really have any habits I can think of. Does this mean my habits aren’t bad and don’t need attention or change? Or is it because I just haven’t noticed any?
Well now I’m going to start noticing them. And I’m excited to see what I find.
This week so far I have kept my word in making sure I come to class, so have definitely done this well!
I’m already listening well in class.
Already, the main thing I need to do differently is to keep up to date with the requirements for the following class. I didn’t note down that we were suppose to complete the readings therefore didn’t do any (guilty). In order to make sure this doesn’t happen again so I can ensure I’m keeping up to date, I will write it down.
Another thing I will do differently is plan my train timing better so I can be on time! Both Tuesday and Thursday classes I have been 10 minutes late due to underestimating the time is takes for me to get into RMIT. To ensure this for next time I will leave my house 10 minutes earlier than I normally would – an easy thing to fix.
I am going to keep checking the ‘to dos’ section in the blog, because that essentially tells me everything I need to know to ensure I’m completely ready for the following class.
Today was not only the first class ever of Media 3, but my first class back for the whole of 2017. It was an interesting lesson with lots of discussion surrounding the ideas of documenting and awareness.
At the beginning of the lesson as an induction and ‘getting to know you’ activity, we lined up in alphabetical order of names and confessed a weird thing about us that we wouldn’t normally tell someone when first meeting them. This followed by lining up in alphabetical order of the suburb we live in.
On a blank piece of paper, we had to draw a graph that indicates where we are now in relation to knowledge about the subject, and where we hope to be by the end. The line on my graph began way below the half way mark, meaning I currently don’t know anything at all, however inclined up to way above the mark with a consistent plateau in between, meaning I am hoping to excel throughout the semester.
Next we were to write down things we can do ourselves this semester in order to achieve this climactic goal. The points I wrote down were:
We also put together a food roster for each of our Thursday classes over the semester. Can’t wait for that.
This semester I have learnt so many new things. Last year at school, when editing my final year 12 media studies film I used final cut pro on mac, which is similar to premiere but not the same. This is why it took me a while to navigate around the program and use all the tools as affective as possible. When I look back on my PB2 video, I think it’s boring and and plain with no excitement and it doesn’t define me whatsoever. The main reason for this is because I read the criteria and followed the exact amounts of video clips, still images and sounds that were required. It wasn’t until I watched other people in my class’s videos that I realized that was just the basis of things I had to include. If I had known this I would have made it so much more exciting, used heaps more videos, images and edited it as creative as possible; which I know I can now do. I didn’t know that ‘archive.org’ existing which I know is so sad and pathetic to admit but it’s true. My pb2 was essentially just a pathetic little slide show that looked like it was just thrown together at the last minute. It makes me so annoyed because I could have made it so much more ‘me’ which is what the criteria required. It makes me happy though because comparing my pb2 to my pb3 shows how much I developed in my skills and approaches to tasks. It makes me excited because it will only get better from here.
I am very much a visual and kinesthetic learner. With regard to projects or assignments, I find it’s a lot easier when I see previous examples. I can then see what the expectations are and what I can actually do, and provides me with some sort of guidance when completing mine. I’m really good at (in the most modest way possible) thinking of ideas when it comes to assignments (depending what they are but PB’s for example) so when I’m given an example one, I am good at using it as a tool rather than something to copy. For PB3’s documentary for example we watched three examples from last year’s media 1 class in lectorial. I loved this because it allowed me to visual see rather than just read from the criteria sheet what the task consisted of and what I was allowed to achieve. I then went home that night and planned out my video based on the layout of the three videos we watched and their structure. This is evident when comparing my PB3 to the ones from last year we watched in class, because they are entirely different with different camera shots, angles, cut away shots, topics and settings, even though I used theirs as a basis for mine.
The most challenging aspect in the course this semester would have to be the first two weeks in general. It was such an incredibly huge step from school in terms of the layout, structure, work load, programs and expectations. I didn’t properly settle in and get my bearings until about week 6.
After completing this semester and the activities within it I have realized my creativity lies in quite a few places.
I have discovered that now that I know how to use premiere and navigate my way around it that part lies within editing. I felt especially with my PB3 it was evident that the use of cut away shots were so necessarily placed in where they were, and the way I was able to show some of her talking and cut away to a shot relating to what she was saying with her dialogue playing over the top was engaging to audiences. I found this when we showed our PB3’s in tutorial, a mini screening, and everyone (or those who spoke to me) thought it was engaging due to the fast paced edits and use of cut away shots.
After completing PB3, my creativity also lies in camera work, and choosing specific shots that intertwine or reflect with the context of what I am creating. For example, there was one shot in particular in my PB3 documentary, a slow paced, downwards pan shot of music sheets hanging from the wall and markings on the wall of the kid’s height over the years. Although this looked like just a random cut away shot to fill up time, but it worked so beautiful with what my subject was discussing. My subject spoke about loving her family and her family values etc. and as she was doing so, this shot was included as it reflected her family and the chaotic yet beautiful family values within her house.
In PB3 my cut away shots were engaging because they weren’t all found footage; majority were from footage I took myself of aspects that really related well with what my subject was saying.
I have always had a passion for making short films and video clips, but after PB2 I really wasn’t sure if this was still the case after not putting my own creative interpretation on the instructions and completing the bare minimum required. However, after PB3 I was so incredibly happy with it and I enjoyed it so much I immediately wanted to do it again, reassuring myself that I still do in fact have that passion.
Our audio essay is completed! I’m so proud of our group getting it done so efficiently.
We had arranged our final group PB4 meeting to be scheduled on Monday at 1pm in one of the editing suits in building 9. Here we would do the final editing together, listen to the audio essay and watch the video essay and see if there are any final suggestions. I had previously arranged a meeting with my cinema studies group at 11am on that day to practice for our 40-minute presentation at 2.30pm. The assignment went well, however by the time questions were asked and the de-brief from our assessor was complete after our presentation, we didn’t finish until 3.30pm.
As soon as we were dismissed I went down into the editing suits to find my PB4 group. After looking in every room, I couldn’t find them, and it wasn’t until I Facebook messaged them I found out the meeting was over. I felt bad missing the meeting as I had also missed the one prior due to other commitments, however that’s when our group Facebook page comes in handy. Ryan was able to let me know what I had to do in order to finish our assignment.
These are the three introductions I wrote on the train on the way home from uni to send to Lydia as soon as I got home:
There was an article on the news last about a 4 year old boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure in America. The gorilla took the boy into it’s care, holding him under his tummy as if he was protecting him. Witnesses cried from the view areas, including the boy’s mother, repeatedly shouting ‘i love you’ to him as the 4 year old tried to remain calm and strong. I’m not sure how long the boy was in the enclosure for, but the keepers thought it was the best decision to shoot Harambe in order to safe the boys life, even though the gorilla wasn’t necessarily doing anything to harm the child.
So awful. What an awful situation.
So silly though I don’t think they should have shot Harambe. I definitely understand why they had to somehow get him away from the child in a way that wouldn’t hurt the child. and I understand how even though Harambe wasn’t evidently hurting the child, you never know because he is an animal – and the zoo’s priority is too keep their customers and the public safe. But I don’t understand why they didn’t shoot him with a dart to knock him out instead of shooting him with a bullet? They said that shooting him was the safest way because there was a huge risk of the 200 kg animal falling onto the boy and killing him, but what difference would it make shooting him with a dart and a gun? So silly.
It also shows how the media manipulates certain material. In this case the footage from a witness recorded on their phone was edited so specific sections weren’t shown. This material apparently included the gorilla dragging the boy through the water, which could have definitely affected and concerned various audience’s.
That was in America. For our PB4 audio essay, our group focussed on the concept of trigger warnings in the United States, and this is definitely an excellent example. The first news footage of this incident was from America, and they cancelled out the footage of dragging the boy through the water. However, on the project tonight they spoke about the incident and they actually showed this footage not only the full version including dragging through the water, but in higher definition quality so it was much more clearer.
It’s just so interesting to see how the exact same story with the same footage used is shown in different countries. Americans tend to be more conservative when it comes to the footage they see especially on social media but also definitely the news.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3614480/Small-child-falls-gorilla-enclosure-zoo.html
I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and came across a post from a girl I went to school with last year. She is a hard core vegan for all the reasons including animal cruelty and ethical living.
Below are screenshots of the situation, which I found utterly entertaining but at the same time extremely frustrating.
Sure, this girl is entitled to her own opinion and it’s her choice what to believe, but I don’t think it’s necessary for her to post all over social media. These believes don’t need to be publically shared, she should keep it to herself in my opinion.
This girl who commented’s family run a working farm near the Snowy River (to provide some context)
The girl who’s post it was then replied with this:
I’d just like to ask her where does this occur in Australia? This rarely happens in Australia the footage in the video she shared is most likely to come from overseas, and if you buy meat locally, it shouldn’t be a problem
Last week, we all sent our footage of interviews and recordings to Lydia because she had a specific vision on how it would be put together. Over the weekend she was going to do her final ‘rough cut’ of editing and then bring what she had done to class on Wednesday for us all to watch and edit finally as a group. Unfortunately, Lydia was sick today so couldn’t come to class. This meant we couldn’t do anymore editing as a group to the video, as it was on Lydia’s computer.
She uploaded the video onto our google drive for us to have a look at and it was fantastic! It was edited really well especially for a rough cut, and the footage she used was so incredibly relevant to the narration/ dialogue presented in the interviews etc. We are now planning a day next week (at the moment it is Monday) for us to get together and edit the final piece as a group. Go team!!!!!