Week 12- Tutorial

The Last Tutorial!

On our final tutorial on this Monday morning we regrouped for one last time before our submission of our group project next week. Each group presented to the class where they were up to, what they had come up with and an outline as to what they were moving on towards. The class has used a variety of mediums to create this project. Most have chosen a website or blog format in order to, like us, effectively combine multiple media artefacts to describe their chosen topic. It’s exciting to see all the different ideas and it definitely highlights the array of talent we have amongst us. Our group set some more goals coming into this 12th week. We hope to completely finish our project by the end of this week so we can submit it well and truly before the date and rid ourselves from the horrible last-minute panic. I’m already starting to reflect and ponder on this semester… but I will save that chinwag for my final post! Hoorah!

Week 11 -Lectorial & Readings

Is it a Remix?

This lectorial focused on the rise of the remix and the mash up. It even contended that everything is a remix. 

Eduardo Navas in ‘Regressive and reflexive mashups in sampling culture’ explored the mash up as combining two alerting existing music to create new content. Naval also defined remixes “as a global activity consisting of the creative and efficient exchange of information made possible by digital technologies.”

However the remix does not contain itself to only the music industry. Movies are continually adapting, transforming and appropriating existing films, books, tv shows, actual events and games. Most box office hits rely heavily on existing material. Of the highest grossing films from the last ten years, 74/100 were sequels or remixes of earlier films or adaptations of comic books, video games, books and so on. As Kirby Ferguson notes in his video Everything is a Remix Part 2, “transforming the old into the new is hollywood’s greatest talent.”

I’ll finish up with two of my favourite remix’s:

Is it a Banger“-Remixed into a song from a Tv Show Parks and Recreation and used a few lines one of the characters said.

Seinfeld by Kinky Karma” -My friend is a DJ and he remixed the theme song of Seinfeld into a pumping tune.

 

Week 11 -Tutorial

In today’s tutorial, we didn’t have the guidance of Robbie as he was absent however our group still met on the Monday morning to come together and see where we all were. Russell had on the weekend scoped out a Dr Who convention in which he interviewed and filmed individuals in Cosplay. We looked over some of his footage which was brilliant and perfect for our overall exploration of Audience. Georgia too had created a montage of wed clippings demonstrating the consumer based world that is cyberspace and the presence of so many platforms that allow the audience to become actively involved. We have decided to delve deeper into Cosplay in terms of Dr Who as it has a massive fan base and heaps of material that we will be able to tap into and access better than our original idea of exploring Animae/ Manga. This progression of ideas and where we are going with your project has gone really well and is evolving into something that in the beginning we didn’t picture.

Week 10 -Lectorial & Readings

Institutions: a term from sociology, concern with organising structures of society, social cultural political and economic relations, principles and values and rules that underly these.

Brian used Marriage as an example of a social institution.

But why is marriage an institution?

-expectations

-values

-monogamy

-rituals

-legal framework

-widely accepted

all of these aspects come together and class marriage as an institution.

In order to fully understand, and clarify it in my own head. Brain suggested ‘The Wire”: in which demonstrates individuals struggling against the institutions they find themselves in. Each season of The Wire introduces a different institution in the city of Baltimore and its relationship to law enforcement. In chronological order they are: the illegal drug trade, the seaport system, the city government and bureaucracy, the school system, and the print news media. Here is an interview with Barack Obama and the creator of ‘The Wire’, David Simon.

Week 10- Tutorial

Another brainstorming session in todays tutorial. It really propelled our group forward in our plans for Project 4. We set up a tumblr page that we can all access and made sure everyone in our group was on track and on track. We hope to succinctly put together all we have found in relation to audience and fan fiction together on this blog making use of videos we have found, text we thought was interesting and clips we have created ourselves. Overtime we get together and show each other what we have done/ created/ found: it inspires us to keep going.

So far this has been a really great group project and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my group. I feel like we work well.

Week 9- Lectorial

Audience

This lectorial fitted perfectly into my Media studies schedule. Not only is my Project Brief 4 topic Audience, but our focus is on Fandom which was conveniently discussed. I particularly liked the way Fandom lovers were described as

“…Obsessive, freakish, hysterical, infantile and regressive social subjects; is playing such attention to detail on text that are seen as not worthy…”

It is this notion that texts that are studied so intensely and obsessively and are loved by so many should be of a ‘high culture,’ but because they are seen as trivial, irrational and of a ‘low culture’, this fandom is deemed odd.

However, the scrutiny and examination of a text by, say, Virginia Woolf, is deemed acceptable because it is associated as being a part of a ‘high culture’ but the obsession caused by the latest T.V series Game of Thrones is seen as ‘ridiculous’ and almost childish and deemed a part of ‘low culture.’

Another thing that grabbed my attention in this lectorial was the way today’s technological audience is referred to as:

‘People formerly known as the audience’ – the public made realer, less fictional, an active audience, user involvement

And another thing…

taste: taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Everyone can’t help but tell about their own personal taste, its human nature. It is this taste that gives people an identity; it builds and contributes to a high and low culture.

Week 9- Tutorial

Project Brief 4 Discussion

In this tutorial we all got into our groups and discussed where we were all at in terms of our annotated bibliography and research. Russell and I came together and made sure we were both on track in our research into Audience.

Russell’s research was focused on Cosplay, anime and manga which are all unique aspects of audience that I never considered. His research linked into my own consideration of Fandom. Georgia looked into a term called ‘fan-pandering’ which refers to fans generating enough discussion about a particular text that they influence the writers of the specific text, thus contributing to how the text plays out. Although we all took different approaches in terms of Audience, it all links together within the idea of fandom.

Initially we thought of creating a sort documentary on Cosplay and the avenue that Russell researched, however through our brainstorming of roles and ideas we realised it will be really hard to divide it equally and bring a documentary together. We then decided that a blog style informative page would be a better option for us in order to collaborate effectively. It will be a multimedia combination that will allow us all to expand on our areas whilst also linking together to produce a linear piece of work.

Week 8- Readings

https://equella.rmit.edu.au/rmit/file/64fd6efa-6d72-470c-8124-3192a919de0d/1/140313_5_001.pdf

In this weeks readings, we focused on the intricacies of story. The article “The Substance of Story,” details the many aspects that make up and contribute to a story. Crucial parts are outlined such as, the existence of the protagonist, the emotional involvement of the audience (the bond), the building of characters and interestingly the inclusion of ‘the gap.’ The gap is described as being “born in that place where the subjective and the objective realms touch (p.146).” That is it is the moment of anticipation between the protagonists first action and their object of desire. It’s the flicker of risk and therefore ‘the gap’ that keeps the story alive. Within this reading, everything was understandable, it made simple logical sense.However this is not always the case when it comes to story as we found out in our lectorial in which we were shown a film that pushed the boundaries of the logically, orderly way of creating story. Story can also be vague and odd and abstract and I believe that it’s up to the eye of the beholder to decide whether or not narrative is at play.

Week 8 -Lectorial

WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO DIE

But have they decided to create no narrative?

Week 8’s lecture was brought to an end with a perplexing short film that challenged the very idea of a narrative. As our guest speaker informed us, a basic narrative can be broken down into three parts:

-character development

-plot

-resolution

If these three things come into play, then we have a story.

However what happens when it isn’t obvious? Do we need to learn the characters name/background/motivations/aspirations? Do we need to have a solid and clear set-up, conflict and resolution? Does a story need to make sense? ‘We have decided not to die’ is a story, simply because it evokes individuals to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks. It caused me to wonder if all three characters were connected or if it was symbolising something or was deliberately intense for some reason. Even if its not logical or easily understandable, we are forced to make up our own mind. All I had to do is go to the youtube comments to find comment after comment of everyone’s opinion on what is the meaning behind the piece. I believe that it is this willingness to contemplate the film that makes it a narrative.

Week 8 -Tutorial

On this Monday morning, the class came together and got into our groups to start discussing our final assignment. Georgia and I started to brainstorm ‘Audience‘ and the possible directions we could take. Project Brief 4 is now starting to become clearer to me. We brainstormed today how there is an overlap between audience and producers with the wide range of forums we have access to such as Youtube, Soundcloud and blogs. We also thought about reception context which refers to how an audience will perceive the text depending on their background and prior experience which would be interesting to talk about. The next step for the group is to begin our annotated bibliography which is 1200 words including five references each. This next step makes sense as we will research and start to nut out the direction we want to take.