We have had quite a few bumps in the road recently with interviewees cancelling. But we are chugging through! This week on Thursday we were meant to do an interview with the manager of the Heavenly Queen Temple.  But he was a bit too busy to film that day. So we went and took some b-roll footage of the temple and surrounds. I have linked the footage at the bottom of the page.

Saturday we were also meant to film the interview with the volunteers at HMAS Castlemaine. But they emailed us after confirming, that they would be too busy to be interviewed on that day. So we are currently deciding on what to do that day instead.

On Friday we discussed how we would approach presenting our project at the exhibition. We had the idea of presenting it on the touch screen that is supplied at the museum. But it may be a bit difficult as we would have to create it in a specific program. We may try and connect up on of our laptops into the USB port, but I have a feeling that this may not work!

Our other option of presentation was to set up the different suburbs in different sections of the museum. For example around the presentation of Williamstown we will place books or photos et cetera that we find around the museum that relates to each suburb. I think that this will be the easiest way for us to present.

In the next week or so we are planning on doing most of our interview filming. So this weeks reading was helpful in the sense that it described how to correctly approach creating a relationship with the interviewee and how to conduct the interview.

Proposal

Working title: The Peoples Map

Form and medium: This project will take the form of an interactive website. Our project will be presented both online, and to our peers at the Living Museum of the West. As it is an interactive piece, the expected time for the experience is dependent on the audience’s choice and can be taken at their own pace.

Short synopsis: An interactive website that showcases the character of each of the suburbs that make up the West, and the people and their contributions that define the Western suburbs. We want to give people interested in volunteer work the opportunity to join an organisation that contributes to the identity of the West, both its past, present and future self.

Longer synopsis: In this piece, the viewer will be immersed in the history and presence of West Melbourne. The viewer will experience different mediums of media to learn about our four chosen suburbs of The West; Newport, Footscray and Williamstown.

This will be a non-linear piece which explores different beliefs and ideas surrounding the suburbs to showcase the quirks of each of these communities. We hope to discover the history, multiculturalism, arts, businesses, culture and people that make up these places and what these suburbs are “known” for.

Our website will be an interactive map of The West where the viewer can click on a pinpoint of a location, and then shown one of our pieces. We want to show a variation of different pieces including, but not limited to, documentary, interviews, photo journals and soundscapes.

Our main focus is on organisations in the West that represents the hearts of each suburb, and how their work contributes to making the suburb what it is. We want to offer these opportunities for people wanting to seek work in the West and contribute to continuing to make the west the multicultural, creative and historic place it is. We think that by highlighting the people that do this work in these areas, we can allow viewers to have a better understanding of the West.

What is your individual role or component of this project?

Georgia: liaison with HMAS Castlemaine and Train Museum, videographer, editor

Brooke: editor and written elements in pre-production (safety report, proposal, etc)

Zoe: liaison with Temple, videographer, editor

Saskia: videographer, editor

Darcie: videographer, editor

Visualisation: For the HMAS Castlemaine short documentary we would like to set it up like a ‘virtual tour’ of the boat. We’d like to follow through a tour guide on the boat and interview while walking through.

We’d like to create a traditional sit down documentary for the steam train volunteers in Newport. And cut this with shots of the trains, volunteers, archival footage and music.

For the Heavenly Queen temple in Footscray we would like to use archival footage and new shots that we take cut with background audio where we will ask a volunteer to describe the temple and the legend of the Heavenly Queen – the goddess of the sea.

Rationale: We want to encourage and highlight the importance of volunteer work to communities and the people involved, and make these experiences accessible to all.

Archival Material:

We will use some archival footage where appropriate to demonstrate the history of the suburb/location of documentation, but we hope that our piece can offer a current view on the Western suburbs and what the community contributes to its history and character. The places we visit will also have archival footage we can use.

Main participants:

 We would like to interview a volunteer from each location that best encapsulates the notions of community and life of the West.

Setting:

Footscray: We will film at the Heavenly Queen Temple, which is a relatively new Chinese Temple that has beautiful architecture and friendly volunteers

Newport:  Australian Railway Historical Society Museum works in restoring historic locomotives that used to run around Victoria and displaying them to the public.

Williamstown: HMAS Castlemaine is a historic navy ship which was launched in 1941

Research video/photos/audio: provide embedded links with a short description of what they refer to. For example: test footage with one of your interviewees, location

 

Here is a link to some our footage from the temple and a test interview. Zoe went out a filmed the interview with the manager of the temple but didn’t have the right sounds equipment or microphone so we will go out there again in the next week or so to re film. Although we do have a bulk of the cutaway footage we need. I would like to go back and film when the sun is actually shining onto the building.

 

Inspiration:

http://rio2016interactivemap.com/#

This is a map describing central parts of the city Rio in time before the Rio Olympics. As you hover over each main attraction of Rio, a piece of audio will play and a box with information and links about the attraction will pop up. I think this is a perfect example of what we would like to achieve. Although because we do not have a design team, we won’t be able to exactly achieve this type of website as we are not this experienced! But I am trying to find a website that has a similar template.

http://eastvillagepoetrywalk.org/#

Another piece of inspiration we have was this audio tour. Which we were inspired for the Footscray Market.

http://maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au/

Something like this City of Melbourne map could also be very effective. It’s very simple and not extremely technical, so it could be a possibility that we could explore.

 

WEEK	TASK(S)
5 (13-17 Aug)	-brainstorm what we would like to do -find website to make interactive map on
6 (20-24 Aug)	-research other interactive documentaries -visit museum to find archival footage -do exploration of west
7 (3-7 Sep)	-present pitch -contact our respective interviewees
8 (10-14 Sep)	-plan questions for interviews and find people to interview -organise when we wish to film -visit sites -test filming -storyboards and shot lists
9 (17-21 Sep)	-film and edit
10 (24-28 Sep)	-film and edit
11 (1-5 Oct)	-begin on map design -finish edits
12 (8-12 Oct)	-finalise production -write reflection pieces