Tag Archives: reflection

the final initiative for media 1

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(Source)

It’s always so bittersweet to end a subject each semester; you’ve bonded with the people around you, gotten to know the tutor a bit but at the same time, you get a sweet six-week break so woooohoooo! I can’t say I won’t be missing much because that would be a lie – over these past 12 weeks, Media 1 has been jam-packed with so many activities and lessons to learn from. You’re probably wondering why I’ve put Homer looking at the stars in the desert right? Well in relation to the conclusion of this subject, Homer in this scene depicts just that.

(Image Sources)

This is during the episode Mother Simpson – after his farewell with Mona Simpson, he reflects on the stars. We don’t exclusively know what he reflects about but he stares at the sky all morning. I think there’s just something profound about it, with the way the creators have executed this scene. Through a cartoon that is usually comedic and doesn’t take itself too seriously, The Simpsons present to us this scene that captures something I can’t quite describe but maybe it’s about life? Who knows though, this is up for an open interpretation with anybody. With that last sentence, that is something that I have come to learn studying Media 1 – your work can be praised or judged by anyone, a reality that comes to working in an industry that thrives on feedback. I really like how I chose this as my final initiative for Media 1. This scene from The Simpsons is a nice close up to my first learning steps as a media practitioner.

Lyreca 🌌

lectorial 11

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Week 11 – one more week til freedom! Jokes. Who am I kidding? I’ve got at least 3 weeks until my freedom. A guest lecturer came in today, with the title and name of Dr Ramon Lobato and we both had something in common – we’ve step foot in Swinburne University, hah! Asides from jokes, he had a really interesting lecture about the form of entertainment Australians used, and that ranged from traditional TV to our computers (Netflix and Youtube for example). Here is a picture of the notes I took:

(Courtesy of Lyreca Corloncito aka ME)

What I got from the lecture and lecturer was facts and information about how fast society has changed to adapt to the advancement of technology. From the early cable TV to Netflix where you can pretty much watch anywhere around the world, we have come so far as media community to truly cater and even become more advance in the upciming future. Who knows what we’ll have in the next 10 years, heck, even in the next 5 years!

A very short post but there’s nothing more for me to say – I think the photo says it all with what went down with the Wednesday lecture.

lyreca

 

two readings in week 11 with an initiative

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Introduction 

The reading begins with how this particular school is struggling financially, hence it reaches out for advertisement as a resort to save the school. Now for my initiative within the reading, it reminded to me of companies using people online, particularly “influencers” to advertise their products through them.

              

(Kylie Jenner Source and Bretman Rock Source)

The reading was more on the negative side of this method, maybe because of this saturated industry of shallow advertisements and commercials? Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

From the perspective of a media practitioner, we can all agree with this statement to a certain extent but in order for marketing and commerce to be effective, advertising like the above must be necessary for businesses to profit and continue in their line of work.

Epilogue 

As for this part of the reading, it continued to discuss the marketing and advertisements within all forms of media that we consume. The reading points out a question of how business should intermingle with the media also with the question of when and where. I love that in this dense piece of reading, there was immediately a word that caught my attention and it was ‘clickbait’. I think the moment I had perfectly encapsulates what the reading was trying to demonstrate – how advertisers manipulate us with attention, with even as simple as the word clickbait. Well that’s my interpretation anyway.

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Youtube is a prime example of how our attention is being grabbed by exciting titles and engaging cover photos on the videos. The over-saturation of clickbait and essentially advertisements are facilitated by the advertisers that look for ways to profit off of creators. The concept of “killing two birds with one stone” may have been a good idea at the start, but it has slowly hindered the way people create quality content. That’s just my take on the reading.

lyreca

initiative and reading combined #weekten

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Can you believe it’s already Week 10? It feels as if I have just entered the Media lectorial for the first time, keen on taking on new knowledge and experiences. Yet here I am, writing about Week Ten’s initiative and reading, all in one post! Let’s get started.

In terms of the reading, it dived into the different types of perspectives that we may or may not be aware of. For example, it talked about the MEDIUM, LONG, CLOSE shots that have been previously discussed before (well in my Cinema class). These different types of shot produce a different type of reaction towards the audience – a close shot means intimacy and closeness whilst a long a shot portrays people as if they fall outside the viewer’s social orbit. Not only did the reading provide perspective in images but also sound. I think that is probably the most relevant in terms of project #4 mainly because we will be dealing with sound.

This reading was a perfect for my week ten initiative because! I want to discuss the movie ‘Do the Right Thing’ as my initiative for this week. I’m pretty sure I will stray away from sound perspectives but I’ll try my best to link the two completely different subject together. Whilst I was on the hunt for the analysis of this film, I came upon one where it discussed the different viewpoints of black and white people who viewed the film. Let’s use the character ‘Sal’ as an example –

(Source)

An Italian-American who owns a pizzeria in a black neighbourhood, there are arguments whether Sal was a racist or not – and relating to the perspective, it was between the perspective of the black and white people in America. To put it in a historical context, America was built on the foundations of African slavery, and some of the values continue to live in society overall.

Black people see Sal as someone who is ambiguous in terms of being racial sensitive, essentially seeing him as a racist.

To the eyes of the white people, Sal provided for this neighbourhood and offered his generosity and services to them.

These perspectives differ because of the different upbringing and childhood the viewers’ have experienced. If I were to relate it to the perspective of African Americans, they would usually see Sal from a public perspective, where his character falls outside from their social orbit, maybe because of their higher/lower social status. And as for the white audience, they would have a different perspective otherwise.

lyreca

the workshop for this week #9

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Everyone entered the room with a somewhat anxious gut feeling, mainly because it was time to pick out the groups. I’ll be honest but I zoned out during the discussion so I don’t even remember what Liam and the class was talking about in detail. However, I’d still like to list down my vague recollections of week nine’s workshop:

  • the collaborative contract template
  • the project brief for assignment #4
  • what an annotated bibliography is
  • what is a SWOT analysis? personal experience: i did business in like year 10 and psychology in VCE lmao so I do have a fair knowledge of how to use a swot analysis
  • and how to use a zoom hand recorder H2N

What I actually want to focus on this blog post is the group aspect of the workshop: meeting our group members. We decided with the old-fashioned “picking out from the hat” method. I low-key preferred this method rather than choosing our own group members because it enables us to expand our horizons and let’s us get to know new people! And it actually worked quite well in my case because I got paired up with the people all the way on the other side of the room – people I’ve never had a social interaction with.

Now, the beginning of our collaboration was getting to know the H2N recorder. It’s so complicated for a mic recorder and I’m actually not sure why it has to be? In comparison to the Sony MC50, this microphone was hard to get around I was fortunate enough to be paired with someone who has had experience with it (shoutout to Izzy!). We went out to the hustle and bustle of Swanston St and recorded all sorts of things for the activity – from trams to interviews, we wanted to encapsulate our experience at RMIT! I’d say overall that it was a good teamwork as a starter despite the absence of our other group mate.

lyreca 🐹

the lectorial for this week #9

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I was actually planning to merge the reading and lectorial post together but i realised that the topics discussed were so vastly different. Let’s talk collaboration. We had a guest speaker this week and I’d like to deeply apologising for forgetting her name but she is definitely a familiar face. Here are some notes I wrote down and took to very serious consideration:

  • Employers are looking for people who “like working collaboratively and enjoy working as part of a team” This is very true for ALL industries. You’re bound to work with other people no matter what job you undertake – two heads are better than one after all and one person can’t single-handedly operate a whole organisation.
  • Careers in media mainly consist of collaborative jobs – it is a BASELINE skill set. This should already be a preconceived notion if you are in any way interested in entering the field of Media. Massive productions require people of different abilities and talents in order to produce whatever is needed to be produced. This does not only apply to movie productions but also as radio stations, publications, etc.

(Source)

Here is a lame stock image of what “TEAMWORK” looks like!.In a perfect world, all teamwork would look like this – smiles and mutual agreement with one another. But in a REAL world, everything has its pros and cons:

PROS

Having a good leader, feedback – making ideas better, spreading the workload, teaching each other things

CONS

Having a ‘dictator’ in the group, creative differences, lazy team members, conflict, project lacks unity or eventually dies because of no ownership

No matter what group you may be placed in, whether it’s with your friends or not, everyone is going to encounter situations mentioned above. As a part-time perfectionist, I try my best to stick with the pros of teamwork but alas, not everyone is a perfectionist. What you can only do to manage and cope with collaboration is having experience. I guess that’s why universities are big on teamwork, huh? That’s really all I can say and reflect about teamwork. Inside and outside of education, we are constantly interacting with different people of different walks of life and to me, that is what collaboration is about.

lyreca, 2017

👩‍👦‍👦  <– a team!

the reading for this week #9

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For those who were too lazy to read the reading (TL;DR lmao) it was basically about the failure of MEDIA LITERACY doing its job. And what is its job, you ask?

It’s

  • critically asking who is publishing the content
  • whether the venue is respectable
  • and biases the author may have

One example I’d like to talk about is one of the most recent event – the United Airlines “incident” involving a POC (Person of Colour) and the police. For those who have been keeping up with the recent news over the past five years, racial issues have rose significantly in several media outlets with headlines of police brutality and their abuse of power. The combination of a POC getting harmed by the police was enough to spark several news outlets reporting about it. Some sympathise for the victim whilst others decided to demonise the victim (maybe because he was Asian? there could be many reasons for that but I believe it was because he was a POC).

VS

Now you see where I’m heading with this, right? News outlets have the power to expose the stakeholders but it is out job as an audience to detect the favouritism of media, I suppose. Otherwise, I can’t say too much about news agencies because I don’t know what goes beyond their mindset and motives.

lyreca

week nine initiative

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For this week’s initiative, I’d like to discuss Facebook’s way of delivering news to its users. Depending on what type of person you are, you probably like to keep informed with the world’s current affairs or you probably don’t want to get involved at all. However, if you fall under the category of a “Facebook user”, you can’t avoid the stream of news when it’s right in front of your face. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about – your eyes just can’t seem to help itself and immediately looks on the right-hand corner – the trending news!

Now relating to week nine’s reading, it discusses the legitimacy of news sources and from my own assumptions and experiences, people (including myself) are now becoming more and more reliant on the delivery of news via Facebook. The downside of this dependency is that the news isn’t current/live. This may not matter for those who couldn’t care less though. I decided to do more research and how the ~algorithms~ of the Facebook’s news work:

And voíla! According to the explanation, it is not an actual news headliner but more so shows the “trending” topics that is highly popular. So what I’m really trying to say is: Facebook does provide somewhat accurate news but it’s more selective on the news it provides, which obviously caters the public’s popular topic/news/headlines/etc.

hmmm, that’s all?

lyreca

A 500+ word reflection of Project Brief #3

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Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Project brief number three! After a week or two of working on this task, it’s safe to say that I’m finally happy with my rough cut. Just kidding HAHA. I’m well and truly done with my final cut and is ready to export and become available on Youtube!

Now before I jump right in to answering the questions about my the video and whatnot, I’d just like to clarify my thoughts and feelings about the process that came along with it. First of all, this is 1000x better than my initial experience with project brief number one. As I am getting more used to the software, the process was a less painful one to go through in comparison to my previous assignments that involved the use of Premiere Pro. Yes, there are a few bumps and grinds that came along with my use but it was easily resolved with the help of me being tech-savvy 😎  (or mainly with the help of Google, really). By the way, I interviewed and filmed my father so credits to him! Now, without further ado, let’s jump right into the questions:

i) What I considered to be the most successful and problematic aspects of my submitted work:

Hm. I actually want to talk about the problematic aspects of the video first rather than quickly unveiling the good stuff. In terms of problems, one of the biggest headache was the AUDIO, which is quite funny actually considering it was one of the most emphasised quality by my tutor, Liam. And it obviously should be seeming as this is an interview task. The audio isn’t entirely bad but you’ll be able to notice it in some bits of the video, especially around the middle time-frame. Ultimately, it was the fault of the camera operator (which was myself) and the only way to fix it was an extensive amount of time, dedicated to preparation. If I have been more better prepared, the following is something I would’ve done for an optimal-quality audio:

  • Use the RODE microphone that came with the Sony MC50 whilst I was renting it – it’s that mini microphone that attaches to your shirt! That way, I would’ve definitely avoided the static background noises and the bumps against the camera that ruin the audio.
  • Touch the camera less – I felt like I was too involved in terms of controlling the camera, resulting in the “bumpy noises” that you may hear during the video. I was also moving around the camera and may have hit it and the tripod a couple of times. 😣

As for the successful part of the project, I believe it was the variety of media I provided and how I structured the story. In terms of variety, I obviously filmed the interview segment with the Sony MC50 but due to the 1-day rent limit, I was working around the limitation of my time with the camera. I managed to shoot a few cutaway scenes with the Sony MC50, but other than that, I officially shot the cutaways with my DSLR – Nikon D3200. There may have been old footage in the video (for example, my mother and father dancing) but let’s just say that was a super early preparation for this project. 😂  Seriously speaking now though, I was at an extra advantage once I decided I would be interviewing my father, mainly because I have all these resources of him I have in front of me, making it easier to collect which memory/media was appropriate to represent the message/story. I hope you agree with these aspects that I consider “successful” but otherwise, we all have a different idea of how a video can be successful or problematic.

ii) Any key learning discovery I made in terms of the creative possibilities of producing portraits: 

I may have learned a thing or two about not only structuring videos but editing them in a certain way. Reading the feedback from Liam about the structure of my self-portrait video has made me realise that looking over and over your videos is very important instead of overlooking the small details:

“Overall though, the video suffers from a lack of structure and some cuts that definitely need tightening up” – Liam, 2017 

With the task of completing an interview, it was way easier to find the structure, especially with the questions that must be prepared in advanced to obviously prompt the interviewee on whatever topic I was after. Essentially, a key learning discovery I have made (and as you may have noticed I’ve already mentioned a few times) was EXTRA AND EARLY PREPARATION. Yes, I may have procrastinated here and there but never underestimate the power of being organised and prepared. This has extensively helped me in my ability to make creative decisions about when and where I should place certain shots of the film. Of course, starting early is always a good idea. I learned this the hard way with the first project but around this time, I did manage to complete it before the deadline thanks to the extension, but I still have a lot to learn in terms of time management.

iii) What I learnt in the making process that might be relevant to your broader development as a media practitioner: 

During the making process, the only thing that really stuck to me was how clear the story was going to be for the audience. This is probably going to be a very similar answer to question two but the most important thing to me was the message or simply the story my father had to tell. In comparison to the self-portrait this assignment is more straightforward rather than abstract so it was really hard to miss the structure of the video and message. Of course, this further deepens my experience as a media practitioner with this knowledge that I am now able to apply for future assignments and essentially, the skills that I will apply once I enter into the field of media. As of right now, I am still quite unsure about the type of field I may be entering but essentially, this broader development of my techniques and skills will ready me into the crazy world that is MEDIA!

lyreca

workshop 4+4

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Like every other workshop, I was expecting another activity that involved the obvious – camerawork and software editing. But alas, there was no activity to partake in. Honestly, I kind of regretted going because I already had doubts about attending due to the amount of debt I owed to my SLEEP. It’s only appropriate to do this in dot points of course!

  • It certainly was a chance to fix my sleeping pattern… or in this case, my non-existent one, haha.
  • FEEDBACK: This is probably the only factor/reason that was most important to my attendance of Thursday’s session. As usual, we were required to present our work around the table, which I still find semi-comfortable in doing so. I definitely had to document the results of what my peers around me said (note – it’s not explicitly what they said but I’m going to format it in italics anyway):
    – Introduction: It was a great start ✅  A great sense of who he (my father) is…it’s a great establishment of him as a person. 
    – Cutaways/Transition: Engaging and interesting, again, we’re getting a sense of who he is. In terms of the pictures (aka the wedding photos in SA), try and change the transition or the way I bring in the photos so it follows the format of continuity editing.
    – Blackouts: It’s good because it gives the eyes a BREAK!
    – This is my own critique of my work but I should fix the audio and how abrupt the visual and audio transition can be. 
  • The feedback definitely helped me improve refine my video a bit more. It’s really great to get insight from your fellow peers who study the same course/content as you!

Otherwise, that’s pretty much the gist of Week Eight’s workshop! In saying so before, I did regret going to an early class (I consider 11 AM early) but after this mini-reflection, I’d say this workshop was helpful in bettering not only the final video itself but the process of making one. I’m very thankful and appreciative for the feedback! 💖

lyreca