This is my final piece for my Media Studio 3 Class “Ghosts of RMIT”.

Title: Mrs. Baines Goes to Court

Length (Including titles): 2:51

Synopsis: A stop motion mixed media film told through a poem about an extraordinary person named Jennie Baines who went to court.

Crew: Thank you to Rachel and Linh for helping out on the day

Intended purpose of the project: To explore memory in relation to building 20 using Jennie Baines’s case to highlight what history remembers and what history doesn’t remember as clearly. Using the remnants of photos and the physical site that it took place to create a piece to bring the memory and history of her back into the present day.

Technically, the stop motion varied in pacing however I quite liked the effect it had being more flickering and jolty. I think it helped with the theme of fading memory and how little history can remember sometimes with the past pace of the photos and stop motion. There were more smooth sections that was during the ‘breathing’ spaces in the film. I’m happy that I was able to try something new like stop motion. There was a lot of trial and error and test runs before the shot day. I researched online through tutorials and information about how best to shot my stop motion. Initially on the shooting day I was going to use a release cord however it didn’t end up being compatible with the camera.

In my individual project I was working by myself mostly. I did get feedback from my peers along the way and crewing help on the day. The project starting with exploring place and space through a particular building. There was lot of initial research taken to get to the final product and even a slight detour just before the mid semester crits. My idea started to come together more clearly after we visited the public records office. I realised how much evidence and documents and history they had collected and was interested in exploring the less a known ones relating to building 20.

The process was very explore and then evaluate how it fits at the start. With my research, guided along by Abigail’s suggestions it took me down a path of exploring different avenues to find out more information about Jennie Baines, I was trying to collect all the left behind pieces. A lot of the paths came to a dead end and trying to collect what was left.

One important take away was that every project will have a different way you will prepare. This one was time consuming in the sense of researching and the actual technical stop motion. Usually in other videos and projects I’ve done there isn’t that much research needed and more in the creative development of it however this needed both and in detail. I found that a lot more time was spent on research however it was needed.

If I could improve it I think I would have tried to incorporate the documents and images into the building more. Having them more connected or intertwined would have added to the overall themes of fading memories and place.

Title: Melbourne Ghosts

Length: Depends on individual use, it’s a non-linear self-guided virtual tour

Crew: Jake Baldwin, George Downing, Linh Luu, Jackie Matthews, David Spencer, Marcus Pedrigal, Cassie Chiong and Steph Wu

The Intended purpose of the project: Showcasing our individual work in our studio ‘Ghosts of RMIT’ throughout the semester. The virtual tour is split into two individual tours for each respective building (Building 20 and Building 16)

My role involved doing some initial research, shooting building 20 with the help of Linh and Cassie and stitching together panoramas for the Virtual Tour. We compiled all our research and planning in the Google doc. Cassie and I mapped out the path way for building 20. In post production I ordered all the clips and stitch together the panoramas using photoshop.

The Virtual Tour hasn’t been completed yet and we still have to import in the remaining clips and panoramas. However I think that it was a great way to showcase our work and the building while also exploring augmented reality and place.

I found that this was a completely new aspect that I didn’t have much knowledge about. Definitely opened up my eyes to the work behind technology like virtual tours and how expansive media can be. Also the importance of having skills even if on a basic level in different areas.

In the industry I think there is room for presentation media like a virtual tour. For example in a gallery, museum or even schools use virtual tours. Also, what I didn’t think that much about beforehand was presenting media/projects because usually we just show them on our laptop or something more basic.  Although I think that aspect of presentation was emphasised more in this studio and put just as much importance on how it is displayed as well. For example needing to organise the end of semester presentations and but also through the virtual tour to display our work has been a great learning experience.

A lot of production houses or even individual/freelance media makers have digital portfolios to display their work. I think it say something about their aesthetic and style and there is more freedom to how their work is viewed opposed to just a YouTube/Vimeo account for people to scroll through.

I found the idea of augmented reality to very new as well. Finding out about things like Google 360 and even using the Google Cardboard was great.

I think the Virtual Tour combined with the website will showcase our work in a way that reflects the concepts that we have been discussing in class, our teamwork and our individual pieces in a cohesive fashion.