After we confirmed a couple of guests, Alicia Gleeson and Clayton Jacobson, I was able to research each of them and come up with bios for each of them in collaboration with Jim. Later, Julian Lucas was also confirmed and the bios could be completed. However, I wasn’t able to find any photos of Alicia online, so James may have to ask her for one, being the guests main point of contact.

The next point of business was to come up with specific questions for the host to ask. I had already come up with a few and put them in the google drive, but we were able to make them more relevant once the guests were confirmed as we could tailor them to their experiences, so a few more were added in and prioritised.

A feature Jim wanted to include was a quiz or some sort of interactive event. So we brainstormed ideas for that and eventually came up with a concept, ‘questions specific to the Australian film industry this year.’ I figured it was relevant to the idea of knowing the industry you wish to go into, and being up to date with it. Jim was the one who wrote the specific questions after that though.

Once all of this was completed, I was able to print the hand outs we planned to give the audience; the bio sheets and the quiz answer sheet for the participants to fill out. The quiz sheet was basic enough, just lines and numbers. I used the poster design for the bio sheets to make our aesthetic cohesive. 

Once all these ideas had been finalised, I had to figure out the specific structure of the seminar. I decided there would be prepared questions until 4:45, then a break + the quiz for 10 minutes, and then audience questions until 5:25. I wanted to allow enough time for extensive audience participation, and the crew was happy with this decision also. Breaking it up into these distinct sections. (We began the seminar a bit late though, so while time keeping I extended the prepared questions and break until 4:50 and 5:00 respectively. That was my main job during the seminar, to keep track of the time and signal the host to keep everything on schedule. This all went according to plan and the sections began and ended just as I signalled for them to. Meanwhile I was messaging the other group members on facebook chat during the seminar making sure other elements were running to schedule, such as the quiz and catering preparations. )

It was also my job to make the call sheet for the crew. I figured out the jobs that needed to be done before, during and after the seminar, and divided up the work logically. After I had delegated jobs I asked whether anybody wanted to change positions and everyone was happy with what I had assigned, so the actual day went relatively smoothly in that regard. We all knew what needed to be done. As well as time keeping, I also assigned myself to assisting with the furniture and staging. So on the day I helped choose, carry and prepare the furniture, and set up decorations. I also kept checking around at other jobs being done such as catering, tech, guests etc, to make sure everybody else was on track and on schedule. The seminar started a bit late, but I am actually still unsure of the exact reason for that, perhaps tech issues?

Since the seminar I have gathered the release forms for the guests and host, and have to submitted them to the steering committee.

Overall I attended all classes, and went to 8 out of 9 group meetings. During the meetings I was vocal and contributed to discussion in areas outside my own, such as social media, promo video, guests etc. As well as this I completed my own responsibilities on time. Through this assignment I found it rewarding working in a group to put the seminar together. The other group members were enthusiastic about the project, as was I, and I feel this resulted in us putting a lot of effort into our respective tasks. I was motivated to work harder so as not to let the team down, as well as just having the drive to help create a great seminar.

I would give myself 83% for this assignment, a HD. I did everything that I could in my chosen field of responsibilities to a good standard and didn’t have any issues with the group. I could have improved in assisting with other areas, such as helping crew on the promo video and taking others responsibilities off of their hands, etc. But in terms of my own responsibilities, I was diligent in completing them, being present and contributing in group meetings, and assisted other group members where I could.

We’re still organising which guests can come to our seminar. We have the possibility of a Skype interview but we decided that would probably be a but jarring. Anna Mcleish had confirmed but recently pulled out due to changing schedules. Before that happened I did a fair amount of research and found some resources for the group to look at, particularly a great interview where she discussed what she does and how she started, and how she got to where she is today; which is really the direction we wanted to take with our seminar. However, it’s back to the drawing board with that.

While we wait to confirm some guests that I can research, I’ve been working more on the general structure of the seminar and how it will run. Its a little difficult because if we knew the guests we could tailor the questions more to them and their experiences, as well as research them in depth now so the host can seem as though he knows their work well. But that will have to come later. For now there are just general questions related to our topic. I need to work on an opening monologue for Jim to say also, as I decided that would be a good idea to break the ice and introduce our theme. I’ve scheduled a break in-between some of the questions, as based off experiences of the other seminars, it keeps everyone comfortable and happy.

For now I’ll keep writing and planning, but when we confirm guests I’ll research them so we can get more tailored questions and get to know their experiences better, as well as for things like press releases.

I am in the film group for Media 6, so we are presenting our seminar in week 9; the 25th of September. In our first meeting, none of us voted for ‘Epic Journey’ and it was probably the last on our list, half of us voting for ‘Monopoly’ and the other half ‘Magic.’ Because of this we were a bit stumped when coming up with concepts. Which led to my first contribution. I chose the concept for the seminar: The epic journey of being in the industry, focusing on people who have changed jobs throughout their time. They may have begun as production assistants and are now cinematographers. Or perhaps they were in TV as camera ops and are now in film as directors. This also addresses the question of where to go after uni. You may want to be a feature film director or producer, but you may not be there right after uni. Or you may start there but end up somewhere completely different. The other group members really liked the idea so we are focusing on that for our ‘Epic Journey.’ Since then we have been communicating on facebook, coming up with names and themes. We settled on a Star Wars theme, with the title ‘Media VI: A New Hope,’ as our seminar should give hope to those who want to be, for example, feature film directors but don’t know where to begin etc.

In our next meeting in class, we decided on potential guests and narrowed our priorities down to our top three; the people we will be contacting first. Since then we have divided up  jobs and set a timeline for our deadlines. I volunteered to be involved in research and planning the structure of the seminar; researching guests, potential anecdotes and experiences our host could ask them about etc. As well as deciding how the event will play out. I suggested a Graham Norton Show style approach where it is a more conversational, anecdote based talk show structure, which the other members agreed was a good idea. For now I will be researching more broadly and coming up with more ideas for the event, but until our guests are booked, I can’t do any really specific research. I would also be interested in helping the other members with other jobs, such as the design and aesthetic, and promotional material.