I’ve always known that I wanted to do a media course like the way you know about a good melon. Before starting the course I thought that I’d be super behind and unprepared for everything that was about to come, but that was more to do with pre- uni jitters. As it turns out, I was only half right. Yay! I’ve gained a lot more insight now but in doing so I’ve realised that there is so much more to learn than I could have understood before hand.

This course has helped me immensely in finding more things that I am interested in. Blogging (somewhat) consistently has encouraged me to look out for how my studies can apply to real life when I’m taking in media around me.

In this post I closely observed people actively consuming media in front of me. I didn’t try to interact with anyone, I just quietly observed.

The machines

Then after a few weeks I become more confident in blogging and went out to seek things to write about.

Veganism Unmasked

In the past I’ve had a serious problem with getting my work out because of my fear of criticism. But with the blogging process I’ve been gradually more comfortable with sharing ideas and opinions. Getting feedback is hard sometimes but I knew I’d have to face these hurdles if I wanted to “follow my passion” and become a media practitioner.

This first ever blog where I was able to explicitly express a strong opinion of mine was  about feminism and why it has received such a bad name. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/vanessa-wong/2016/04/12/week-6-lectorial/ I felt quite snazzy after that post and it lead me on to a stream of other posts. That post got me thinking about why the internet is so effective in spreading the word about movements and exposing initially “radical” opinions.

After talking about the irrelevance of accuracy and how bias will always exist, I’ve felt like I’ve become more free in creating media stuff. This post was what a lot of my work stemmed from afterwards, as I now had the idea that all perspectives are worth expressing, even if its for the sake of diversity. Growing up I was told a lot of thing that I don’t dare to believe now; many of which are to do with sexuality and gender. I have friends and family members who strongly disagree with my rather left wing approach. That’s why I really wanted to created something that I really believe in for PB3.

PB3 Reflection

Having something I’d worked on myself shown in class was the most daunting thing to me. But everyone was very respectful and positive, especially when giving feedback. Although it may not seem like much, the feedback  process was a huge step forward for me in my professionalism and helped my improve my ability to give and receive constructive criticism. For the first time I felt like I could watch my own work and pick out parts to improve on without being touchy. The experience of making content that had an effect on an audience member has encouraged me to want to make more.

wk 7 feedback

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My weakest point by far would have to be keeping up to date with readings and understand complex concepts. At the beginning from week 1-4 I thought that I could get away with not doing the readings as no one was checking up on me. But then I realised that by missing out on readings I was missing out on understanding the so called “fun stuff” too. After receiving an inadequate grade for my reading blogs I thought it was time for a change..

wk 9 Audience and Influence

Working in a group for our last project was helped me see what I might be doing in the future. The great thing about the media industry from what I can see is that you get to work with people all the time so I’ll eventually shake off my hermit tendencies. But on the flip  side Rachel said in our lectorial that:

“You don’t have to be an extrovert”

This shattered my view of being a good communicator as the persona of a excellent team mate to me was, in my head, a confident, outspoken leader. Going over the importance of work ethic and how to be a good team member for the first time helped me realise that I have traits that I’ve probably overlooked and I also have things to improve on. Some times that stuck with me are here:

Tips from Lectorial internship

Looking through my old blog posts has bad me realise that I’ve already begun my process improving my work, but I have a lot to work on. This semester has gone by too fast and I feel like I haven’t done enough reflecting and analysis of my own work.

Working in my group of three with Isabelle and Nicole was a good taste of being in a mini film crew. Although we had no assigned jobs at the beginning, soon we fell into the roles we preferred while passing around the handy cam. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race on the hunt for good locations with only 40 minutes left. After a quick chat we all agreed that the best place to capture the “uni life” would be around RMIT connect where hoards of students huddle around powerpoints and feed off the wifi. On the way we were suprised unexpected filming opportunities such as a herd of students all heading for one building with almost identical backpacks.

The RMIT  connect team we nice enough to let us use a spare room to avoid excess white noise for the interviews. But we later discovered that a rogue lecture mic had been left on and was ringing in the background, this became a real problem since the room was very large and echoed every sound. By the time we realised this it was too late to start over. I will have to figure out how to “fix it in post.” Next time I will be sure to do a sound test in the room before we shoot.

Being interviewed was a interesting since we were all thinking of questions for ourselves and we soon found a good pattern in staging questions for the best answers.

Sharing the files among the group has been difficult as I have a mac Air that basically holds one floppy disk worth of data. For some reason we had shot in a strange format so uploading to the computer was a challenge but we eventually got it.

Things I would do differently next time:

1. Have more coverage: I’d like to get more shots of the interviewer’s reactions and some hand gestures.
2. Have a proper discussion about the the main point of the interview so that we already know what we want to say.

Using the sound equipment was fun until I realised I should have been more clear about which files are which. Also there is the matter of knowing how to match up these sound files with the video files. I think I will try to make it easier in the future by using shorter clips so I don’t have to scrub through the whole file in post. Finding the part I need might be easier if I do more separated files. As I will be using sound equipment more in the future I’m now thinking of investing in one of my own. For the interviews having clean voice clips will be crucial.

I have a new favourite Disney film. It was a an thrilling mix of adventure, mystery and comedy!

I was initially reluctant again to see another crazed disney film after all the hype about Tangled and Frozen; I barely cracked at the smile at the teaser skit with the sloths because I was so determined to not get sucked in.

But as it turns out: Disney has wooed me again with its charming animation and heartfelt story.

..and not to mention I’m so glad they finally represented a good friendship between a male and female lead rather than opting for than opting for romance. The different realms within Zootopia where breathtaking (my favourites were the city and jungle) and the animation was so vibrant.

I felt that I could really relate to the bunny as she grew up being told not to follow her dreams and take the safe option; that to me was doing media. (should have taken the financially secure option of accounting or business apparently) As she was repeatedly told she was too small, too optimistic and too emotional I sat at the edge of my seat thinking I CAN RELATE!

On a deeper note, I really enjoyed the subtext about humans and how we should all learn to live with our differences. There should be no more ‘us’ and ‘them’. Fear caused by a lack of empathy and understanding can be toxic in a society fuelled by expectation and reputation.

I had a lot of fun with our first video project! Although I could have prepared a lot earlier (editing it all on the day it was due) I feel that I did alright for a first go. The images and videos I included were mainly little things that I appreciate in day to day life. Such as sunsets, plant life, the city scene. I wanted to reveal some of my hobbies without explicitly saying them in a narration. As I recently transitions from highschool to uni the feeling of looniness and longing sort of came to mind. I wanted to capture this in a voicemail I left for an old friend. I tried to convey a sense of serene loneliness using shots such as the man on the beach fishing,

Something Id like to change is the voiceover; I felt that it didn’t contain enough information and felt rushed. Also I struggled with balancing the sound with the backing track. I would also remove the shots with me in it simply because they felt out of place. Due to my lack of technical skills the camera was quite shaky and I wasn’t sure how to fix it in post, so next time I’ll try to stabilise it.

Also I came across a store on my travels with a window full of clocks and wine; this represented to me how we are growing up now and more things are being introduced into my life such as our prevalent drinking culture.

I took a few ideas from project brief 1 such as the movement of water, showing my ukuleles, city views.

The water colour shots in the fishbowl were some of my favourites. I love to paint so I’

BUt next time

The brief made me realise that next time I want to try something a little different for our interview project.

Project Brief 2 from vanessa wong on Vimeo.

Haiku Exercise from vanessa wong on Vimeo.