I’m finally done with my self-portrait 2.0!!!!!! Let me just start off by saying that this did not feel like an assessment task at all as I was completely stress-free in the making of this video. Generating content and media helped me discover more about myself in terms of work ethics, how I carry myself out and most importantly, gaining more confidence in my own creation.

Let’s start off with the explanation of why I have chosen these certain moments of my life translated through the following media; audio, video and photographs. My self-portrait starts off with a series of the following nicknames I’ve been called:

lyrics 

lycresha

lik 

lyreca 

I structured it in a way that was almost chronological – from my least called nick names to my real name. Just adding in a bit of ~fun fact~ but my most preferred name in that list is ‘Lik’, mainly due to the fact that that was my childhood nickname since birth. However, I ended with my name, emphasising its uniqueness making it largely part of my identity.

Onto the videos! The piece of media that dominated this self-portrait was obviously, videos. The reason being is well, it feels more natural and easier to watch as opposed to photographs (which I found more challenging to place) – perhaps that has something to do with deep and hyper attention? Anyway, you may have noticed that these videos look foreign – and that’s because they weren’t taken in Australia! They were actually taken from a trip I took to the motherland (the Philippines) 4 months ago. The me from four months ago would have never known that I would be using these footage for an assignment. I would definitely call it an extremely early preparation. These footages surely envisioned the sight I had for this self-portrait.

Now an assignment wouldn’t be complete without having a mini mental breakdown. Even though I did say I was stress-free in the making, I did struggle quite a bit when it came to the audio aspect. Finding an audio to match the chosen footage was a real challenge, oh boy. I took at least 23 audio recordings before I could find the perfect 3 to match the footage and images. How did I solve this, you ask? With the help of my lovely family, we decided to cover a song that would match the theme, which was “calmness”. The name of the song covered was specifically a Filipino song because I wanted to include my roots (which was translated too) – Ambon (which means ‘Rain’ or ‘Light Drizzle’) by Migz & Maya. How perfectly fitting does the title sound? More importantly, I’m hoping the mood of the music matches the footage (and imo, it does).

Ending my reflection, I’d like to update my progress with Premiere Pro. I finally got the hang with using this headache of a software and in actuality, it isn’t really a headache at all. I think I was just really being a whiny baby and refused to manually learn its technicalities. I’m not saying I’m a total expert yet, but I’m getting there, slow and steady.

Thanks for the read as always,

Lyreca 🦑

I WAS FINALLY EARLY FOR TODAY’S CLASS! Earlier, I was lying down in bed, wondering if it was worth it to get up, get ready and actually head to uni. Patting myself in the back for doing doing that. It’s the little things that count in the life of an introvert! 😂

Liam mentioned that Brian kept reiterating on the second reading (hint hint), which was in fact, the comic strip reading, Blood in the Gutter. We re-discussed the meaning and what it does for the audience in what the author was try to convey. Liam asked us, “What does the title actually mean?” Without realising, I actually never have pondered on the meaning. Some say that it means life (or how I understood it to be). Let me break it down:

‘gutter’ – in the world of comics/manga, the gutter was the spaces in between pictures, which can be referred to as the ‘veins’ of the story/comic as mentioned by Liam

(Source)

and of course ‘blood’ was the very source that was keeping this gutter/comic/story alive

It’s all very subjective and can be left for different interpretation. This meaning, however, makes absolute sense to me.

We shifted to week 4’s reading and there was a lot of mixed opinions about it. I was surprised to hear that some people actually disliked Newport’s teachings – yes they do agree to his statement to a certain degree, but they might’ve been put off by perhaps his egotistical method of delivering this approach. Nonetheless, I learnt a new piece of learning strategy from him (despite the pompous aura he gives off), but I want to keep following my passion. I’ll take his advice with a grain of salt but also put it into practice and see where it takes me.

That’s week 4 for me! I’m waiting for PB #2 to export as we speak so that should be up here!

Lyreca ☘️