For our project I was in the writing group for the sketch comedy show ‘Sketchy Students’. I was teamed up with fellow classmates Jordan, Liam, Michael and Angus. The concept itself was pitched to be a mockumentary show like ‘The Office’ and ‘Summer Heights High’. But somehow it morphed into just being more like a sketch comedy show with hardly any similarities to a mockumentary style at all. Then there was some debate on what the genre of this show was actually going to be. I preferred the mockumentary style but other people thought it was better to have a cross between sketch and mockumentary. I preferred to go with one or the other; both genres mixed together seemed a bit odd to me. This format has never been done successfully before but this is what certain people wanted.

I’m not really a fan of sketch shows and I thought that some of our ideas were quite restricted when it came to writing comedy. The jokes had to be politically correct, non-discriminate, non-offensive, non-stereotypical, no swearing clean humour. So many restrictions bored the crap out of me. Too much political correctness is bad for comedy and just makes for bland humour. It just seemed like we were trying to play it too safe and the comedy was affected as a result. We were targeting an audience between the ages of 15 to 24. But I think this type of sketch comedy is better suited to a younger audience between the ages of 8 to 15.

I was also disenchanted with some of the decisions made in the editing process. One of my drafts was basically put aside with no feedback at all. Then a new draft appeared that wasn’t even remotely like the one I wrote. This left me feeling quite agitated and I lost interest in the project. It felt like there were too many opinions on what should actually be included in the script. Coming to a general consensus with five writers and three people from the management group was never going to work well.  My opinion is that the writers should have been given more power to decide how the final draft should play out.

The feedback from people who weren’t in the writing group was also incorporated into the scripts all too often. It should have been the writers’ decision on what feedback to take in. It would have been more ideal to have more face-to-face time with everyone to discuss management and script decisions. I think some other members of our group were also disenchanted with some of the decisions being made as well. When the writers finally had more influence on the final draft in the last episode, it turned out to be the best one.   But overall it was a good learning experience and I think the production team did a great job with the material provided.

The last episode of ‘Sketchy Students’ aired on the net last night and I have to say it was easily the best one out of the four episodes.  But for the writers it was quite a battle to have some of these scenes in the final draft.  There was also a scene I noticed that was left out and wasn’t informed on this.  Maybe the production team were having some trouble filming this particular scene but I’m only guessing.  Im glad that we stuck to our guns to have certain scenes remain in the final episode and I think it has paid off.  There was debate whether Mark was being too nasty to throw Dorians work out.  Also some people thought Morty’s scene was stereotypical of a goth.  But I’m glad political correctness was put aside for once as these scenes worked well in the episode.

I also think the mockumentary element in this episode was utilised a lot better than previous episodes.  Maybe we were finally starting to find the right tone of the show by the last episode and had a better sense of how the characters were developing.  There were a few gags in this episode that were edited or left out that I thought could have remained.  Apparently it was too offensive to have Imma Nohere paying someone to do his assignment.  Don’t ask me why.  I didn’t think the Spotify gag was funny but it was insisted to be included.  But overall I thought the last episode was definitely heading in the right direction.  I was also impressed with the production quality.  They did a great job.  Hopefully it will now go viral.  Share, share, share!

1.1k views and climbing

The 4th project ‘Sketchy Students’ has been quite a challenging process for our class to produce.  I’m under the impression that the episodes are improving.  Each group continues to learn from the process and is gradually creating a better outcome as a whole.  I must admit I wasn’t too impressed with the pilot episode but the second episode is definitely an improvement with better quality in production and storyline.  There has been plenty of debate behind the scenes on what direction this show is going.  It appears that the mockumentary element has all but disappeared which I find a bit disappointing.  But the production team are doing a great job with the limited time and resources.  Some of the acting has been quite entertaining as well.

The third episode was also an improvement but I think the Imma Nowhere joke didn’t really hit the mark.  This character was meant to be someone that never turns up to class then suddenly appears out of the blue.  I think we could have written this segment better.  But Jordan made the scene quite amusing with his acting skills.  I was also surprised to find out that the behind-the-scene footage was getting more views on social media than the show itself.  Whether this is a real concern is up for debate.  I think it is a worry if people are enjoying the behind-the-scene footage more than the actual show.  But if this aspect attracts more of an audience then who am I to complain?  In any case it is interesting to know all the broadcasting figures that are now so easily attainable on social media.

This video has had the most views so far in the series.

I was flying my drone and taking some nice pictures of Hanging Rock for my photo assignment.  The battery was getting quite low and I lost vision of where my drone actually was.  But I thought no need to panic, all I have to do is hit the home button on my control and it will fly right back to me.  If only it was that easy.  I hit the home button and I could see on my screen that the drone was slowly making its way back.  But suddenly I noticed that the drone was starting to land on top of a tree.  OH NOOOO!!!  I went into panic mode and tried to press the cancel button.  But CRASH, it was too late and the screen went black.

I heard the noise of the drone hitting the tree and my gut churned.  These drones aren’t cheap to fix.  I went over to find the drone in the group of trees to evaluate what damage had been done.  All the propellers had snapped, the camera had fallen off, the shell was slightly damaged and luckily there was no one around.  But at least I managed to take some decent pictures.  Next time I never lose the line of sight again and make sure I have adequate power for my drone to come back.  It is a costly mistake but all part of the learning process.

A few of the photos captured before the dreaded crash.