Boasting a day with great content, theme, catering and a line up of guests, the ‘On the line’ group presented us with the final seminar from the 2014 Wanted seminar series.

The most district aspect of the seminar was the appropriate theme and staging of the event. I really liked the digital/ matrix visual style of the event, which I anticipated to be present after watching the group’s video trailer for the seminar, earlier in the week, which really introduced their theme. Upon walking through the seminar room doors, I was pleasantly surprised to see the whole visual environment of the room. I really liked the use of the multicolored green and white lighting to accompany the overall low-key lighting, their choice of ambient music, visual graphics projected onto the screen as well as all the room decorations, particularly the binary coded banners at the front of the stage, to support the atmosphere of the room. However I wouldn’t mind seeing more physical props positioned on stage to fill some space and enhance the mise en scene.

It was evident that the group was well prepared (as they were the last presentation group) and technically competent. In addition to the intimate lighting arrangements, the sound quality of the audio set-up was consistently loud and clear.  I additionally enjoyed seeing the detailed graphic and text screen visual animated slides that were shown via the projector, to support each time a guest introduced themselves.

I consider the group promoted their event rather effectively. In addition to the group’s decently produced video posted on the Wanted series’ Facebook page, I saw many posters not only in building 9 but around several populated areas and notice boards around RMIT’s city campus

Although there was an individual missing, the remainder of the guest line up featuring Beatrix Coles (Screenherd), Anna Horan (The Vine) and Steinar Ellingsen (Melbourne Webfest), were appropriately chosen by the group to talk to us students. I believe the two hosts were great with interacting and constantly ‘interrogating’ the guest online content producers to get all the required responses to their questions.  Because of this, the content and discussions throughout the seminar, greatly covered the broad subject of transmedia and the effectiveness of the current online landscape of media rather well.  However I especially liked the discussion of internships, and the advice the guests were able to share, based on their experiences while working as interns. “As soon as you feel like you’re being exploited, get the hell out“ exclaimed Beatrix, which was one of her many words of advice.

Therefore the final seminar series wrapped up in spectacular fashion as the event was well executed and rather enjoyable.

Score:HD

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

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

A rather good way to start off the 2014 RMIT ‘wanted’ seminar series. I think the Non-fiction group did a descent job organising the whole event, which was quite entertaining and well prepared for the short amount of time they had.

I really liked the simplistic design of the promotional poster as It was original and appropriate with the whole Wanted/ crime theme of the seminar series. The event itself was also promoted well, as I was able to see the poster around various buildings at RMIT, such as building 9, 8 and 5.

Initially I thought to myself that since the seminars theme was based on documentary filmmaking, that I would zone out after the first 10 minutes and remain unengaged until the end of the event (unless if I decided to leave early). But I was able to maintain my focus on the action at the front of the stage due to the stimulating discussions given by guests; Terry Cantwell, Maya Gnyp, Genevieve Bailey and John Hughes (No relation to classic 80’s/ 90’s Hollywood director or the same name). What I particularly found interesting regarding what the guests talked about was the processes they underwent during the production of their films, particularly Genevieve Bailey’s experiences to how she was able to approach and interview eleven year old boys and girls around the world for her feature documentary, I am Eleven. There was a strong structure to majority of the seminar, however their Q&A via twitter was rather pointless, as there were already many people present in the audience (#pointlesstousethe#). I also enjoyed watching the short video intro montage the group played before each guest initially spoke to the audience, which showcased some of their work to introduce each speaker.

However the event lacked proper staging and visual flair, as the stage was rather bare, with no props to enhance the general ambience of the room. Also the sound could have been a little louder in order to clearly hear the guests at all times.

I didn’t like the way the seminar was hosted. I believe the presenter/ host could have been more interactive with the guests, by asking more questions to encourage more accurate and concise answers, as there were many occasions I felt as though the guests needed to be properly prompted, when put under the “spotlight” to talk.

Overall I think the non-fiction group did a good job to kick-start the seminar series, with a descent structure to ensure a great pace for the event from the beginning to the end.

Score: CR