MEDIA INDUSTRIES: Global media seminar critique
The Global media takeovers’ group seminar was so far my favorite event from the Wanted seminar series. Well, my favorite other than our seminar…
First of all, the staging looked great. The room lighting was set up very well and I particularly liked the color lighting scheme of the red, blue and orange hue of lights shining on the back wall well above the guest’s heads, which really complemented the ambience of the room. The mise-en-scene was appropriately designed, with the set consisting of lighting and plant decorations behinds the seats.
The sound was fantastic, with a great consistency in the level of volume emerging from the speakers. I take my hat off to whoever set up the sound, as throughout this years seminar series, it seems as though audio was a technically hard aspect to master, but this group really pulled it off. It was exactly how a seminar should look feel and sound.
The seminar was structured fantastically, featuring guests; producer Susie Jones from Matchbox Pictures, Elloise Mae Foster from Small World Social, journalist James Fettes from the ABC and producer Jane Liscombe from EXIT Films (all who have appropriately worked overseas). The content was great, as I enjoyed listening to the guests’ in-depth discussions of their experiences: their struggles and success while working abroad overseas in countries such as the UK and the US. Additionally the hosts did a great job in interacting with the guests to attain appropriate responses and to encourage/ regulate equal amount of discussion time between everyone on stage.
The only minor negative aspect of the seminar was in regards to the advertising, which could have been implemented a little more around RMIT as I didn’t see many posters, and the theme. Initially from my understanding the group went for a rather heist/ crime themed approach, similarly consistent throughout the Crime Wanted series theme. This was particularly evident from their video trailer, which I enjoyed watching earlier in the week. However on the day of the event, the group had switched to an airline/ flying abroad theme, with the group members wearing attire suitable for airline stewards and displaying imagery via the projector and having printed material related to international and airline themes (which I admit was more appropriate due to the seminars international media topic). Couldn’t they have merged the consistently ongoing theme and the airline theme to create some kind of snakes on a plane themed event? Now that would have been interesting!
Score: HD