The plan so far…

After my interview with Felix I was inspired by a lot of what he had said, mostly about how you don’t have to follow old rules and practices like their dogmatic law just because they worked for the old masters, but rather you should take inspiration from them and find the way that works best for YOU to express your ideas.

Felix directly cited Terry Gilliam an inspiration and for his own work and went on to mention Terry’s work mantras and attitudes (most of which reflected his own). From what I was told, Terry wasn’t a huge fan of Disney amination and the work ethic their animators had. He believed that if you had a good idea, message or joke that the visuals didn’t need to be clean or well animated. He believed that if you could find an easier way to do things and it still communicated your original idea that you should utilise that method. That going against the grain always made something that would stand out more than other work that was trying to emulate the old, something that Felix himself said that strives for with his own work.

This Inspired me to try to and express my ideas through cut-out animation, but not exactly like Terry did with his animations. What I am going to try to do is to work with that mantra that both Felix and Terry talked about, to take inspiration from the old but to not constrain myself to how they worked. This way of working is mirrored in the rise of today’s ‘good enough’ movement and style of thinking, something which that I will be reading more on as the project progresses.

What I am planning to do as of now is to have a mix of images cut out of old magazines, record covers, postcards with images that I source online as the assets of my animation and utilise programs on my computer (probably Photoshop, After effects or Flash at the moment) to create the animation. This will probably change as I go on depending on how much time it takes to acquire/scan the physical assets or how challenging the animating process turns out. At this point, I’m not sure which will be the best way to digitise the physical assets so I’m also going to be looking into ways in which to do that too (either that or just try and source older images online as an alternative if). So far the only work I have been able to put into the project is drawing a storyboard and procuring some old magazines for posible assets.

The actual idea for the animation came from a conversation I had with Quinlan in class about his family and their use of social media at home and from a friend who I had lived with last year who is what I could only describe as a social media addict. The story is about a man who is so consumed by social media that he only notices the bare minim around him, which in turn almost kills another man (it’s a pretty visual idea and hard to explain via text).

I’m looking forward to how the project will change as I continue to work on it and what challenges/ lessons will come to light from trying to combine physical and digital media in the way I’m attempting to do so.

Prompt: Analogue is more authentic than digital

The first vinyl record that I ever bought was a limited edition 10 inch LP of ‘Do ya thang’ by Gorilaz featuring Andrè 3000 and James Murphy. That was when I was about 16 and it was the first time I had ever actually bought physical music rather than download it illegally online. To me, this was my first step into legitimacy when it came to music. It was the first time I had ever felt like an authentic fan of an artist since now I had this proof, this badge of honour to show people that this is what I was all about “the value, then, is its relation to a perceived sense of authentic commitment” (Ryan force, 2009).

We are always trying to find where we fit in the world, negotiating and re-negotiating the meanings and pleasures we get from media to figure out where exactly that is (Fiske,1989). I would argue that music is by far the most important piece of media in relation to forming our self-image due to the intense emotional value we place on it. When it comes to music as a physical medium, there is a hierarchy of authentic value placed on them ranging highest (vinyl) to the lowest (CD),and through the ownership of these items you gain a level of status and authenticity within the social groups surrounding that specific genre of music (Ryan Force, W 2009). I would also like to add that the monetary value of records plays a role in this idea of authenticity, that vinyl collectors “…insist that cost doesn’t matter. It may be a bit extreme, especially when you consider they could get a CD for cheaper” (Plasketes, 1992).

But the authenticity of vinyl isn’t limited to how we as people view each other from a social standpoint. The physical aspects of vinyl also play into in it being view as a more authentic medium than digital. Vinyl enthusiasts enjoy the pops and cracks their vinyl makes when played, using words like ‘warm’, ‘human’ and ‘real’ (Bartmanskilan, 2013). Enthusiasts claim that digital mediums like CD’s and MP3 lack these ‘living’ qualities that imbue vinyl with its authenticity and humanity (Yochim & Biddinger, 2008).

The last quality that I think makes vinyl a more authentic medium than digital is the engagement I have with a record. The process of taking the record out of its sleeve, putting it on the turntable, dropping the needle down onto the grooves, flipping it when it has played one side. The idea that vinyl affords “listening to music the way it was meant to be heard. One side at a time” (Bartmanskilan, 2013).The “hunger for physical experiences” (Bartmanskilan, 2013) is alive in vinyl culture and in my opinion, enhances the authentic experience that is listening to music on vinyl.

References

Ryan Force, W 2009. Consumption Styles and the Fluid Complexity of Punk Authenticity. Symbolic Interaction, 32(4), pp 289-309.

BartmanskiIan,D 2013 ,The vinyl: The analogue medium in the age of digital reproduction WoodwardJournal of Consumer Culture Vol 15, Issue 1, pp. 3 – 27

Yochim, E & Biddinger M, 2008, It kind of gives you that vintage feel’: Vinyl records and the trope of death, Media, Culture, and Society, 30(2), 183.

Plasketes, G, 1992, Romancing the Record: The Vinyl De-Evolution and Subcultural Evolution, The journal of pop culture, Volume 26, Issue 1, pp 109–122

Fiske, J 1989, Understanding popular culture, Routledge, New York

Prompt: Podcasts are just new the form of radio play

In the week leading up to this task, we were given a handful of radio plays to listen to as the set reading. My engagement with all these different radio plays inspired me to try and make my own short comedy radio play and see if I could successfully work within that space. The whole process got me thinking about the medium a bit more and its history of the radio play. as Natale, (2016) puts it “ [understanding] the history of how ‘new media’ become ‘old media’ is first and foremost a history of how individuals and groups came to consider them as such.

I didn’t have to look very far, since the next class that we had after I had made my radio play was on radio plays and the history of them. Initially, I had thought of radio and radio plays as an outdated medium and that the release of the television had enticed audiences to forget about radio in favor for the newer medium (Patterson, 2016). Patterson (2016) goes on to say that “as creative radio became associated with the past…audience response surrounding creative audio changed”. I think this is very apparent when it comes to both the U.S and Australia where radio play popularity dipped dramatically with the end of what is referred to as the ‘golden age’ of radio.

But, as I found out through the set readings, guest speaker, and my own research was that creative audio has had a very extensive history with the BBC after the ‘golden age’ and that radio plays were/ are still in production to this day (Patterson, 2016). British comedy duo The mighty Boosh (who are a big influence to me creatively) started in radio since the scripts that they were producing were framed as massive, epic adventures that television executives thought would cost too much to make (The mighty Boosh: a history 2005). I would argue the low cost of audio production has played a key role in the revival of creative audio around the world, as Cook (1999) states “radio drama production is much more cost effective than television, film, and theater and reaches a much higher audience in direct proportion to its costs”.

With that in mind, I would argue that podcasting is the modern form of the radio play. Bottomley (2015) goes even further stating that “there is very little about podcasting that is truly new when the full range of radio’s history and forms are taken into account” and that the resurgence of creative audio is just borrowing from old time radio techniques (Bottomley, 2015). The low barrier to entry and low cost of production has inspired a wave of new creative audio of all genres and as a direct result created podcasting networks like Radiotopia, Gilmlet media, Earwolf, Nerdist and Maximum fun (Bottomley, 2015), mirroring the old days of radio broadcast networks in the modern day.

In my opinion, podcasting is just the continuation of old time radio, “that creative radio never died, but rather has been continually produced and aesthetically remade and reconfigured within several cycles of new post network radio cultures (Patterson, 2016).

References

Patterson, E 2016, Radio redux: The persistence of sound work in the post-network era, Madison, Proquest dissertations publishing.

Cook, T, 1999, British radio drama: a cultural case history, viewed 25 of May 2017

<http://www.irdp.co.uk/britad.htm>

The mighty Boosh: a history, 2005, DVD, Baby cow productions, London, England, directed by David Lambit

Bottomley, A 2015, Podcasting: welcome to Nightvale and the revival of radio drama, journal of radio & audio media, 22:2 179-189

Natale, S, 2016, Unveiling the Biographies of Media: On the Role of Narratives, Anecdotes, and Storytelling in the Construction of New Media’s Histories, Wiley online Library

Prompt: Projections make connections

Over Christmas when I visited my family, I made a point of going out of my way to try and get them all to participate in a group movie viewing of The muppets Christmas carol (since that is the best adaptation of the Charles dickens classic to date). I had watched it a few weeks back over the holidays and thought it would be a nice thing to do as a family. Over the next week, I found out that my family Just wasn’t that interested in all sitting down together and watching something together and would much rather watch something in their rooms. This prompted me to think about the idea of social viewings, people gathering together for the express purpose of consuming media together and what happened to make these types of gatherings almost become nonexistent within modern households.

I began by looking at the viewing habits of my family and how they were consuming their media.Most nights the members of my family would retire to their rooms and all stream shows to their devices individually.They actively disengaged from the rest of the family in an un-intrusive and solitary way, finding themselves in a relationship where actively ignoring each other was how they operated now (Mint, 27 may 2016 ). All be it streaming services are extremely convenient they seem to have the adverse effect on how people engage with one another in their homes. Winn (2009) argues that “television consumption is becoming a more solitary experience with family members watching their favorite television shows individually, and that this situation does not promote family understanding or togetherness”

With this in mind, I decided that I wanted to make more of an effort to try different ways of screening television and films. This was what led me to try projecting films at home into my back yard and watching them with my friends. Now the whole process of interaction and negotiation between the friends that I had invited to this impromptu screening. The first part of it all was choosing what to watch and in its self, became a part of the experience (Winn, 2009). We ended up choosing the original scream film on the criteria that one of my friends hadn’t seen it and that we all agreed it would be a good film for projection. Throughout the screening we engaged in a lot of interpersonal interaction with each other, making observations and jokes about the film (Winn,2009). Afterward, we participated in a synchronized evaluation of the film and as a whole and overall gave us a more positive retrospective of the experience of both the film and the means we took to watch it (Zilch, 2014).

At the end of the day, I don’t think that streaming video is tearing families apart, I stream and watch things by myself all the time. The experience I had over Christmas made me want to take an active effort to create social viewings and try to capture those experiences that I fell we have lost with the advancement home media technologies.

References.

What happens when you turn into a Netflix addict 2016, Mint, May 2016.

<http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/docview/1791658539?accountid=13552&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo>

Winn, J, Video time: Selection and structuring  family social time with rented commercially prerecord electronic media, Journal of broadcasting & electronic media, volume 53, 2009, issue 2, p 227-24

Zilch, A, 2014, Watching television with others: the influence of interpersonal communication on entertainment, Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p169-192

Here is the animation I mentioned in Thursdays class in reference to objects being looked at/used in different than they were intended to be used.

PEZ has a lot of great stop motion animations similar to this one on his channel so if your interested in that sort of thing go check out his stuff.

In Wednesdays class we were asked what libraries were to us and to show this through three photos.

Books: Obviously the first thing most people associate with libraries are books. These knowledge palaces are crammed with a wide array of  hard covered info rectangles and is the first thing I think of when I hear the word ‘library’.

Computers: Being at RMIT now for two and a bit years, the second thing I associate with libraries is computers, using them between classes to clarify what certain things that the teachers had talked about in class or to print out the weeks readings, the computers in the library have always my first port of call when in one of RMIT’s libraries.

Quite study areas: Finally one of the things I appreciate most about the the RMIT libraries (and just libraries in general I guess) Is that they are a safe haven from noise and distractions, a place that I can go to seperate myself from everyone else and is a place that I can be that is strictly for getting work done. Not saying that it’s the only place I can get work done, but seeing as my three other house mates and ‘The legend of Zelda: breath of the wild’ aren’t there I’m less tempted to procrastinate and am more focused on what I’m doing.

The archiving of information is paramount to learning and when it comes the archiving of information there is no better place to go than the local library…well except maybe google, but even though the information found the internet is humungous in scale, it presents the problem of being hard to find specific/trustworthy sources that you need when it comes to academic material.

This brings us to the actual question we were asked in class today “what is the role of a library at RMIT and to me as a student” to which I think my answers go hand in hand. The role of the library here is to not only provide access to information via books, essays and academic journals on various subjects taught at RMIT, but to also be a space in which people can go to focus purely on study, to seperate studies from our home life’s, to be free of distractions and noise and just study, you walk in to any of the libraries at RMIT and see the hundreds of other students around you and are motivated to do the same.

Now that I’m at RMIT in a more academic sense rather then my previous two years doing more practical work with cameras, lights and sound, I need to change my approach to study since I never really had to look up/cite academic works before. I think that the approach that I am going to take with my studies is to read the assigned readings for each class, come up with questions based on those works and then try to find other works that help me answer those questions (or even raise more).