Here it goes the very last project for the semester, yeah! Finally finished! To think back, my first thought that came to my mind when I got this project brief was that “it’s so happy to know that we, as media students, finally get to work in groups, collaboratively”; and that “will I work well in a group, since it’s the first time for me to work in a group, with students from a very different cultural background.” It turned out, then, it is happy to work in groups and there had not been any troubles. Our group really had worked collaboratively, each with their own roles, communicated coherently in general and crushed the “obstacle” so beautifully.
To look at our finished work, that is, our finished audio and video essay, there are two most successful parts that both of them shared. The first is a use of good sources. In the audio essay, we used live news report for the Paris attack, actual, on-the-spot, recordings of the attack, the statements of the survivors afterwards and the recordings of Murdoch’s speech on media technologies. Those audios are edited in the essays to add a bit of variety which also function as examples and supporting information for the argument taken up in the essay. In the video essay, the use of old black-and-white video clips in 4:3 ratio has really helped to display a historical sense of media technologies and how it was developed through time. And, clips of scrambled screens has connected the history and contemporary part really well. The second successful aspect is the choice of background music. Three different soundtracks chosen for the audio and video essay have fitted well to the intended feelings. For the audio one, the music is only a little bit intense with a constant beat that grabs the listeners to treat the essay seriously. It also sounds like something which can be used during a news report which makes it relates to our topic. As for the video, the music used in the history part really create a sense of retrospect; and the ones used for the modern part builds the characteristics of a fast-paced society.
Other positive parts of the audio essay includes the blending of sourced voices and the smooth opening which first grabs the listeners with recordings of Paris attack and introduces the theme. The content is also great in connecting the example of Paris attack to our discussed question: How have changing technologies effected the distribution and reception of news broadcasting? Meanwhile, another good aspect of the video essay is the connection between the first and second part. With scrambles screens and sound effects, people are aware of the shift of tone.
I think our work is overall really great. The downfalls of our audio essay are the jumps and quality of the sound recording. A sudden jump can sometimes be noticed at the start of the first word in the sentence. I, as the editor, tried to make it sound better, but the best result I got is what you have heard. It is simply not good enough. As for the quality, I think it is due to the equipment that we used to record, the sound doesn’t sounds concrete enough. But the result here is already much better than our original recording. Some problematic things about our video essay are the content and the pace. Overall, the content, I think is still not solid enough. If only we had more time, we could have put more recorded speeches of us. We also should have relate during the ending bit or at least talked about the example of Paris attack in the video, but we didn’t. The pace of the history part is a bit slow; or it may look a bit much when you watched to 3 mins when you find yourself still watching the introduction of media history.
During the working of project four, I have related some concepts encountered in class and readings. One of the readings, “Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture‘”, reminded me of how have changing media technologies affected us as a individual. Then when I related to the changing nature of audiences discussed during the lecture, I thought of how technology has changed the way we distribute and receive information; how technology has changed our culture. This is something I thought of during the early stages of our project when we were trying to decide on a question topic. Another concept that I related to is the one on collaboration. It is told that we need to be organised, to have different roles, to have good communication and mostly importantly, be nice! So when I was amending the collaborative contract, I put different roles of us three and added in schedules so that we can follow them.
After the project, I learnt more about audios and videos. For audios, there is only one quality: sound. This attribute makes us able to focus on the content and listen carefully to it, not distracted by any visuals. Audios can also have many different layers at the same time or they can be blended in with each other. This adds variety to audios and functions perfectly when we want soundscapes and more dynamics to them. Videos, when it is produced not with long scripts, does not possess the beauty of literature. However, the presentation of moving pictures is a big deal. It can create contrasts to different shots, just as what we did with our video essay; it can indicate a time period through the manipulation of frame ratio; it can also show many perspectives of shots. Accompanied by soundtracks, videos can give audiences an amazing, thorough experience on almost anything.
Since it is a group assignment, I also learnt skills that can contribute to my future development as a media practitioner. The first one is communication. Effective communication can save you from lots of troubles. At the early stages, I edited the collaborative contract and assumed that my group members would know, but actually, they did not. Especially since we couldn’t meet each other so frequently, our communication depended a lot on facebook. Because of this, my group members didn’t know exactly what I changed in the contract. Although they actually did assume that I changed it, they didn’t know I added A LOT in. Then, later in our collaboration, I constantly reminded them what I had done and it really worked well. They gave me instant reflections on my rough cut of the audio essay so that I could quickly take a look. The second thing that I learnt is that we should reflect. For example, when I was editing the audio essay(since we cannot all edit at the same time!), I finished one draft and was pleased with it. However, when I got other member to listen, they could grasp problems about it. This is the power of reflection. During collaboration, we should constantly get opinions from other members who can provide critical suggestions to the work. This is a great way to improve our finished production.
This collaborative project has been a great and happy learning experience. And so, great thanks to my fantastic group members: Anna and Emma. ❤︎ Now towards the end of this reflection, I am going to share the song by The Cardigans: Communication. This is the song I listened to in middle school and the title is what I want to emphasize: COMMUNICATION! Haha.
