“Media Media on the wall,

Way up high or on the floor.

Brings you news or down to fall.

Media Media on the wall”

This week’s lectorial was pretty interesting as it was split into 2 segments. First half gave us a brief introduction to editing in post production by a guest lecturer. I personally have not been given any formal tutoring with regards to editing, so I would say that was my first time someone’s introduced to me the art of editing, more so that person was from the industry and he’s doing it for a living. Some key things that he mentioned were do we decide on when to make a cut or whether to make a long or a short cut, which boggles me. While watching a movie or a TV show, it does not really occur to the viewer when a scene changes or when it cuts to a different camera or transitions from one set to another. As a viewer, you just watch the entire show as one whole show. Having said that, being an editor, it comes down to really selecting which shots to use and/or whether to take cut it short or long. Coming from a music and audio background, I took a module called, “Music for Moving Images” and one thing I learned from that was, you want to get your music to sound like it isn’t there. If the audience or viewer finds something weird with the music, or sound effect, you probably have failed as a film scorer or a foley artist. Which in many cases apply to other areas of film and TV show. You want your viewer to have a whole experience, instead of watching out for blips or errors. It should flow and flow with certain rhythm. I’m still get my head around the idea that for every cut, every take, every camera angle, every direction, it came from somebody and there is definitely a certain meaning and explanation behind it, however, as technical as it may sound, while watching a film or TV show, it almost seems natural.

Moving on to the second bit of the lectorial. We were tasked to look out for any forms of media at a certain location that we were given, and note it down. My group was assigned to Emporium, basically an upped market shopping centre with high end branded goods from electronics to fashion, which translates to an opportunity full of media. Media everywhere from advertisement posters, billboards, dummies, mascots, food samples, to say the least. And those were in your face in the foreground, more subtle media would be ambient music playing in the mall, statues or mannequins hung from the ceiling or displayed at the front of shops. Not forgetting interactive information directories that engages shoppers to participate in little games and challenges to win lucky draws. Last but not least, people and myself, using our smartphones to take pictures, surf the web, listen to music, and more.

What I noticed throughout this exercise is that we are so reliant on media that it drives us in our daily lives. On the other hand, media thrives on consumer behaviour and how the masses uses it. In other words, both side, consumer and media requires each other in order for the other to exist. Like Brian mentioned in the lectorial, media is almost like an ecology where everyone is in and how we live in it, but media still requires the end user to participate or engage in whatever form of media it represents. We live in a day and age where we can’t possibly go through a day without noticing media, unless we live in a jungle or somewhere rural where technology may be somewhat scarce.

To sum it all up, it’s a simple case of, it takes 2 hands to clap. And I wouldn’t want to be around to hear the sound of one hand clapping.