1. In what ways do you hope your screenings/exhibited/screened work (whether individual or group produced) engaged its audience and communicated a key concern of the studio?

The screening of the Where are all the Queers? (2024) teaser, herein referred to as WAATQ?, at the And Scene Festival engaged its audience and communicated the importance of a social cause into a documentary and impact campaign via various means. This social cause was the importance of Queer nightlife venues as spaces for communities of LGBTIQ+ young adults in Melbourne. As my group wishes to continue working on WAATQ? beyond the scope of this course, we wanted viewers of the teaser to follow along with our project. We did this in two ways on the opening night of the And Scene Festival. We introduced the documentary teaser and provided a brief description of what the project is about. We also told viewers to follow along with our project @whereareallthequeers on Instagram. Throughout opening night, we handed out zines with further information about the documentary to audience members. Our documentary teaser was also exhibited on the second night of the festival, but my group was unable to attend.

From the opening night of the festival, we received positive feedback from a few people. A few people commented that they liked various shots and enjoyed the teaser. One viewer said that WAATQ? has inspired them to visit Flippy’s bar on Sydney Road. The latter feedback was exactly the impact my group intended to have on viewers. We hoped that documenting Melbourne’s Queer nightlife venues and the communities within would inspire LGBTIQ+ young adults to visit Queer nightlife venues in Melbourne.

Critics of the And Scene Festival also responded positively to WAATQ? and awarded us a Narrative Award which reflects highly on our storytelling and ability to engage with viewers at the And Scene Festival.

2. Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece (e.g. to screen it somewhere else like a festival, or develop it into a different kind of work, and so on) – what would be the core things you would want to improve and extend and why? 

My group intends to continue working on WAATQ?. As we only exhibited a teaser there are many core things we want to improve and extend. Primarily, we need more footage. We will arrange shoots at other Queer nightlife venues such as Sircut Bar in Fitzroy and Miscellania in Melbourne. Along with filming the venues, we will find an LGBTIQ+ community leader from each venue whom we can have an extended interview with. We will also conduct vox pops with patrons of each venue. We will also cast a main participant to take us from venue to venue. The narrative of the documentary will follow the main participant on a night out at Melbourne’s Queer nightlife venues.

3. From your studio, reflect on an aspect of two other students/group’s media work on the website in terms of specific insights they produced about a key idea addressed by the studio?

Rewilding (2024) and Leftovers to Landfill(2024) from the Art and Impact studio used interviews with experts and editing to communicate actions that viewers can take in the social issues they addressed.

Rewilding is a documentary about ocean conservation in response to plastic pollution. The social impact of this film is communicated through the actions that participant Narayana Quatermain suggests to viewers and an intertitle. Quatermain is a freediver who has been involved in various landcare and beach cleanup organisations. He suggests that viewers get involved in beach cleanups and minimise their plastic waste. Footage of ocean clean-ups further encourages viewers to get involved in community actions to clean up the ocean. The intertitle at the end of the film with a link to the Sea Shepherd website serves as a call to action for viewers to get involved with the organisation. In the editing of the interview with Quatermain and the intertitle, the filmmakers communicate to viewers the actions they can take to reduce plastic in the ocean.

Leftovers to Landfill is a documentary about strategies for minimising food waste. The filmmakers communicate their social impact through interviews with Mia, a student climate activist, Muz, a food vendor at the Queen Victoria Market, and Chris from Moving Feast. They suggest strategies for individuals, households, and businesses to reduce food waste. Mia suggests actions aimed at university students which caters to the primary audience at the And Scene Festival where the documentary was exhibited.

The filmmakers of Rewilding and Leftovers to Landfill communicated their intended social impact to minimise plastic in the oceans and minimise food waste, respectively, through the editing of interviews and social actions suggested by participants.

4. For the other studio website you engaged with, describe a key idea that you think the finished media/studio work communicated with reference to a specific example (i.e. a particular individual/group work)

Decadence (2024) from the Visual Blueprint studio is a short film that uses metaphor and intertextuality to imply the twisted relationship between an artist and her muse. In the opening shot Decadence recreates Narcissus (1599) by Caravaggio. The artist stares at her own reflection in a mirror which is both a tool in portraiture and foreshadowing the artist’s self-obsession in her work. A cutaway at 00:05:50 shows a pomegranate and a half-eaten cake with the text ‘Till Death’ on it. The pomegranate could be a metaphor for the myth of Persephone and Hades, the eaten pomegranate representing the ties between artist and muse. The cake is a metaphor for marriage vows. The destruction of the cake is symbolic of the destruction of their relationship. Ultimately, the artist’s narcissism leads to the demise of the muse in Decadence as communicated by the embedded metaphors and intertextuality.

Reference List:

Geiss A (director) (2024) Where are all the Queers? [motion picture], RMIT University, Melbourne, accessed 10 June 2024. https://vimeo.com/952193375

Ho S (director) (2024) Leftovers to Landfill [motion picture], RMIT University, Melbourne, accessed 10 June 2024. https://vimeo.com/952313409

Jess (director) (2024) Rewilding [motion picture], RMIT University, Melbourne, accessed 10 June 2024. https://vimeo.com/951849475/da039f9499?share=copy

Li S (director) (2024) Decadence [motion picture], RMIT University, Melbourne, accessed 10 June 2024. https://vimeo.com/951880319