MEDIA INDUSTRIES: Film seminar Critique

Immediately with the briefest of introductions, the Reel crimes group initiated their seminar. I must commend the group on their selection of Guests consisting of film director/ producer Nadia Tass, producer Trevor Blainey (who reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock) and Veronica Gleeson from Screen Australia.

I must say, the group lacked technical excellence, specifically in regards to the sound and lighting setup. The audio quality was rather poor due to the fact that during the first half of the seminar there was a constant static tone that could be heard in the background from the speakers. Additionally the mics were not working properly for the guests, as they had to constantly switch handheld microphones between each other, yet still occasionally I could not hear what they were saying from the sound levels dropping off. (Oh and how can I forget the loud near deafening tone that blasted through the speakers during the break

The staging was rather bare as it lacked a proper set design. I would have liked to see more on stage than simply three chairs and a table, as the staging resembled somewhat of an intimate press conference instead of a interview seminar. However that being said, its still looked decently professional.

With the lighting, to say the least, it was a rather awkward set up. Why was there a dedo light positioned inches behind the guests facing the audience? Every time I would look to the far left of the stage towards Nadia’s direction, I had to shield my eyes from the unpleasant beam of light from the dedo.

The group also lacked effective advertising, due to the fact that I hadn’t seen many posted around he RMIT campus, and their video trailer lacked originality as it simply consisted of a video montage featuring footage from various blockbuster films.

Despite all this, the content was great as the guests covered the topic/theme of film production funding extremely well. I particularly enjoyed Nadia’s inspirational words encouraging us students to go out and create content and be productive, as we shouldn’t have the mentality that professionals in the industry owe us anything simply because we’ve graduated from RMIT. I really appreciated these words from a realist. However I believe the host of the seminar could have interacted with the guests more during discussions to direct them a little more to assist the progressiveness of the discussions to be a little more diverse, covering more components of the film industry.

Overall, a descent effort from the film group.

Score: CR