News

Media Student Festival Success

Paul Ritchard News, student news

from Sarah Menegon

My short documentary film RUBY has been selected for entry to the 4th Annual MULTICULTURAL FILM FESTIVAL which will take place online this year. I’m thrilled with the response to it so far.  My film was created as a part of the fantastic studio REAL TO REEL about my friend Ruby. Ruby moved to Melbourne to start a new adventure, but her family back home had other plans. Marriage in her culture is a family affair where everyone is involved. Ruby’s family have been on the hunt for someone to “take care of her” for years now but Ruby was in no rush to settle. 

Additionally, RUBY will be a part of Swinburne research project ‘Zooming In’ which is an online portal used to explore contemporary multicultural life through the lens and will join their travelling roadshow ‘Zooming Out’ which tours multicultural films to regional Victorian towns’ screening to diverse audiences. 

NEWS JUST IN: 16 September 2021

RUBY has just been accepted to screen on Femflix the first BcommMedia work to be part of a paid streaming service!

NEWS JUST IN: 16 September 2021

The multicultural film festival Ruby will be on SBS on demand and shown on the big screen at Fed Square.

Jodie Le to screen work at MAKESHIFT Exhibition

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Bachelor of Communication (Media) student Jodie Le has been selected to screen her work at the MAKESHIFT Exhibition at RMIT in May. MAKESHIFT is an ecologically-themed event that explores improvisation and thinking-through-making as a way to re-engage with a more-than-human world.

Jodie’s video piece e-waste was created as part of her studies in Documenting the Environment, a studio run by Dr Kim Munro in Semester 1, 2020, during the first lockdown.

MAKESHIFT opens in Megaflex, Building 8, RMIT City Campus, on 29 April, and will run through Thursday 6 May.

Congratulations Jodie!

MAKESHIFT links: Facebook event // Exhibition tickets

Studios 2020 :: Semester Two COVID Online semester

Paul Ritchard media studios, News

2020 :: Semester Two Online COVID semester

 

 

Students and studio leaders alike rose to the occasion and in many ways surpassed this year’s difficult situation. Multiple times a week we heard about new ways of making films, recording podcasts, developing social media and building careers out of adversity. Ingenious methods of teaching, research and collaboration were developed by staff and students that will stay with us well beyond the pandemic.

Please enjoy engaging with the studio’s exhibition sites from semester 2 and below that from semester 1 

BC(M) Industry Talks: Sue Maslin AO

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B.Comm(Media) Industry Talks is a webinar series for students in RMIT’s Bachelor of Communication (Media) program. This talk was recorded live on Tuesday 15 September 2020.

SUE MASLIN AO

For this BC(M) Industry Talk we’re joined by Sue Maslin, one of Australia’s most successful film, television and digital content producers. Her feature film The Dressmaker is one of Australia’s all-time highest grossing films.

In 2012 she received the inaugural Jill Robb Award for Outstanding Leadership, Achievement and Service to the Victorian Screen Industry. Sue was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2018 as well as appointed as an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia in 2019 for distinguished service to the Australian film industry as a producer, and through roles with professional bodies.

Sue is also an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, and we’re thrilled to talk to her about the future of the film industry in Australia.

Media partners with Atlasshorts

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A number of Bachelor of Communication (Media) student works are now streaming on Atlasshorts (formerly Exile Shorts). This is the result of 18 months of collaboration between Media and the Atlasshorts team. Six student works have been licensed, and many more recent Media studio productions and archival works are being considered for publication.

RMIT now shares the platform with esteemed Australian and international institutions including AFTRS, Ringling College of Art + Design, the British Film Institute, USC Cinematic Arts, and the National Film Board of Canada. The Media and Cinema teams are also making use of the platform in the classroom, as it streams quality short works from recent and historic filmmakers.

Log in to watch some amazing films now!

Three more exciting tidbits:

1) From April to June 2020, Atlasshorts and the B.Comm(Media) program will be offering remote internship opportunities to assist students affected by work attachment cancellations due to COVID-19.

2) Later in Semester 1, guests from Atlasshorts will join us for a live webinar on streaming media, film distribution, and the Australian media landscape.

3) Atlasshorts wants your work! Check the announcement on Canvas for more info.

B.Comm(Media): COVID-19 and Online Learning

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See below a quick announcement/update from program manager Dan Binns:

The gist of the above is that we are currently working to shift the remainder of Semester 1 to online delivery. Thank you so much for your patience with all of us, and we really can’t wait to see you all back on campus as soon as possible! Meanwhile, check Canvas and your emails regularly, attend scheduled online sessions, and keep up with your assessments as best you’re able — and reach out to us if you need any help.

Semester 1 Course Coordinators:

Details on Program Canvas Shell — click here.

Academic Advice:

  1. Log in to the RMIT Connect Student Portal
  2. Select “Course and Program Advice” in the left-hand column.
  3. Fill in and submit your ticket. Please allow 24 hours for a response (we’re getting a lot at the moment!)

RMIT Resources:

Non-RMIT Resources:

Where to get help:

Media team success: Wild Honey

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Media program lecturers Seth Keen and Paul Ritchard, with Research Assistant Cormac Mills Ritchard, have had great recent success with the collaborative ethnographic documentary work Wild Honey.

The documentary Wild Honey: Caring for bees in a divided land was picked up in 2019 by Ronin Films for worldwide cinema and DVD release. Recent 2020 screening successes include Timor Television GMNTV, the Film Expo at the 2020 North American Asian Studies Conference, Boston, and Royal Geographical Society, London conference film screening.

Credits include (University of Melbourne) Anthropologist – Geographer, Lisa Palmer Camera, Audio and Director, (RMIT staff) Seth Keen Creative Producer, Cormac Mills Ritchard Editor, and Paul Ritchard Consultant Editor.

Still from documentary Wild Honey.

This project has led to another ARC Discovery documentary, Customary Approaches to Healing in Timor-Leste, which has started 2020 post-production.

See the trailer for Wild Honey on Vimeo. Well done team!

Welcome 2020 Media crew!

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New Bachelor of Communication (Media) students were welcomed at the program Orientation event on Monday 24 February 2020. The students were welcomed (appropriately) in the Media Portal: the event had a quick run-through of the program, intros to the Media team and each other, a zippy tour of the campus, and then back to the Portal for lunch.

All the best for your studies!

 

Student Success: The Gnomologists in Byron Bay!

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Congrats to second-year Media student Tristan Winter, whose film The Gnomologists has been selected for screening at the Byron Bay International Film Festival!

Tristan sent through this synopsis:

The locals of Gnomesville, Western Australia share the history and the conflicts they’ve faced with the ever-growing population of Gnomes.

Shot over 2 days, and edited over 7 months, I really wanted to create awareness of Gnomesville because there was a giant flood that went through there this year and washed away a lot of the Gnomes in the main section. So hopefully this film will inspire people to go to Gnomesville with a Gnome in hand and help the Gnomes rebuild what they’ve lost. #prayforgnomesville

The Gnomologists was produced as part of the Documentary as Action studio in 2017.

Screen Australia Funding Success

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This has been a huge week for RMIT graduates, adjuncts, and Program Advisory Committee (PAC) members, with a bunch taking a cut in some $17 million of Screen Oz funding across online, feature film, and documentary.

The Unlisted

Writer Mithila Gupta and director Corrie Chen — both Media grads — will be working on the greenlit teen series The Unlisted; adjunct professor Robert Connolly will adapt The Dry for the big screen; PAC member Lucy Maclaren and her team will follow up the huge success of Inside the Firestorm with Aftermath: Beyond the Firestorm; and current PhD student and frequent studio guest Helen Gaynor has executive produced the short animation Bright Lights: The Perils of the Pokies.

Inside the Firestorm (you can watch this on Kanopy via the library website)

Congratulations to all!