Yesterday was the last chance we had to show the rest of our class our assessment drafts before the final product is due in next week. It was a bit nerve-wracking, knowing we only had one week left and everyone else’s looked so good!

We seemed to get mostly positive feedback. The class seemed to understand the idea of using a vlog-style opening video to emulate the interactive nature of the media we are studying. They liked the three different avenues that Dusty, Jac and I have explored, and Rachel’s previous concern that the three different elements didn’t gel well together seemed to be assuaged by our suggestion that we would create a collaborative conclusive video to summarise all that we have done.

I personally still have a few concerns for my own section; I’d like to expand my article to be able to look with more depth into social media and TV, and I’d like to incorporate some more sources. I’d also like to enhance the interactivity of our site by trying to incorporate a twitter feed, blog roll and other types of social media into the site itself. I also have yet to create my video introduction, but I’m confident that I can do that quite quickly. I also have confidence in the rest of my group to excel in their areas to create a polished and unique finished product.

It was also really interesting in the tute yesterday to have a look at some of the other directions that the students in our class are taking with this assignment. Kristian, Ali and Sandy were exploring the topic of texts, and chose to focus on video games by creating a Good Game-style video game review show. This is a copy of their rough cut, which aside from a few sound issues I think looks pretty slick:

https://youtu.be/R7-2SDgaidg

Bianca, Gloria and Patrick had the topic of institutions, so looked at the history of recorded sound. They’ve created a really neat audio documentary, with a mix of found audio and interviews they’ve conducted. It’s quite long at this stage, but obviously it’s not finished and I think the opening is really great.

Lucas, Emma and Rob also had texts, so they looked at the idea of adaptations and texts changing form. They’ve done a similar thing to our group in that they’ve used a website so that they can explore a range of ideas in different formats. They haven’t uploaded everything yet but I can see from what they do have that it will be good when they’re finished.

Elise and Jack (Connor) also had institutions, so decided to look at the classification board of Australia. They’ve produced a short video educational doco-style, in which Jack pretends to be a snubbed film-maker and Elise, the presenter, explains to him the process of film classification. This is only a short snapshot of what they’ve got, but it shows how professional their video looks.

https://vimeo.com/128329150

Ariff and Daniel used a webpage as well, looking at institutions through the lens of comparing Western media to media in Malaysia, Ariff’s home country. I can’t find a link to it as yet but will post it here as soon as they’re finished.

Haylee and Elle looked at piracy through a short video that was a mixture of found footage explaining piracy laws and vox pop interviews they had conducted themselves. Theirs is still unfinished, and a little on the short side, but they’ve got some good content so far so I look forward to seeing the final product.

Sandy, Tim and Zoe’s footage is still very raw, but I think it’s a really interesting concept; they’re doing a filmed debate on whether social media is making is more or less social. Sandy is presenting and Tim and Zoe will each present a side. Should prove an interesting watch.

Now, I just know I will have forgotten someone but I’ve already filled six hundred word up with other people’s work so I think I’d better get back to my assignment!

PS I’m too lazy to link in everyone’s blogs here, but if you want to read any of my classmate’s work check out the Media Factory site and click on the links down the side.