final – Plain and White

PB4 Reflection

Our group’s Audio and Video essay is finally coming to an end, and I’m so relieved that all of our hard work paid off. My group members were Ryan Rosenberg, Lydia Watt and Isobel Smart. They are all a great teammate, discipline, smart and consistent at doing their job.

I think the most successful part of the essay would be the topic itself. I think the topic that we have chosen is informative and part of an ongoing debate. The topic for our Video essay is how can be misinterpreted by different cultures, for example the movie The Interview. Our audio essay talks about trigger warnings, the ongoing motion created as a means of self-prevention from traumatic memories, and how it has spiraled from books into classrooms. I liked my group’s topic, and they did a good job structuring the arguments. Given the fact that the topics are quite new, we could not find a person that considers themselves as an ‘expert’ or an ‘academic’ of that topic, so finding different opinion was a very interesting and anticipated work. Our video essay has done a good job at giving different opinions, both from a Korean student, to the creator’s words itself. We also showed news coverage about the video release. Overall I think our essays have given a strong argument.

The first most problematic aspect of the work would be our time management. We all had a drastically different schedule, and we can mostly meet up twice in one week, including the tutorials, so we mostly rely on individual contributions to the work, then after we met we would assemble all the materials together. Fortunately we had a good communication, we primarily used facebook, because we could share links, videos, pictures more easily and it’s easier to connect with a platform that everybody was using. The second most problematic aspect of the work would be time itself. Honestly, I think my group had a late start. On the first week we hadn’t figured out yet how we were going to pursue with both essays. We wasted a lot of time figuring when we could meet and what our topic (Text & Narratives) was actually about. Then we were left with 4 weeks of cramped up work, and trying to get interviews. I learned that you had to email your interviewee as early as you can. It’s always better. Because there was no guarantee my interviewee would even read the email, let alone replied to it.

My role for both of the essays were to gather interview materials. For the video esaay, I had to find a korean student to aksk about their opinion regarding to the movie. It was a challenge, albeit there were so many korean students here in Melbourne. It’s hard to find any student who wasn’t shy to have their face on camera. But I managed to interview one of my friend’s friends, who gave an interesting viewpoint on the topic. For the audio essay, I gave out articles that might relate to the topic in facebook, and primarily I had to find an academic who would willingly give their opinion on trigger warnings. I tried emailing teachers who were experts on information technology or law, but the first one was on a another country working, and the latter does not seem to be interested on the topic. So I asked Brian for his advice, and he recommended me Rachel, also our lecturer. And I have to say she had a strong opinion on the topic. She gave an rational and logical reason, and her opinions had helped our essay so much. Finally I also made the formal documents for the group, that including the Audio script, the minutes, and the bibliography. Annoying jobs, but important anyways. Overally I think I contributed quite well into the group with gathering materials and interview, and making the compulsory documents.

Before doing the PB4 assignment I hadn’t interacted with audio-based media very much. I didn’t find it appealing whatsoever, mainly because it couldn’t give me the stimulation that i can get from videos. But after doing the project brief, I could see the appeal in it. Creating an audio media is challenging and fun, it forces you to be creative, you only have one senses to appeal to, so you have to somehow channel that one sense to trigger the others. I also learned that from Louise’s tutorial lesson, where she played us a podcast about dreams. Using sound effects to create a sense of space, time, atmosphere is a pain in the stub, but rewarding regardless.

I think the most lesson I learned about collaboration is teamwork. Brian, Rachel, Louise, Paul all told us how imporant it is to have teamwork skills in the media industry. Everyone will be working seamlessly together, so you need to keep a good attitude to build your career in the industry. I’ve learned that with this project brief. Communicatin is the keys, behaviour is the door. withouth the two object you can’t really do any useful action. I’ve learned to always be positive, to always encourage my teammates to do the best, even though we were really struggling with our projects. And lastly, do your job! Do not ever think that anyone will help you even if there were anyone. Try to do the best yourself first, then if you couldn’t, then you ask for your teammates

Reflecting back on the first semester.

Having done 12 weeks in my first Media and Communication degree, I have learnt many important lessons around the world of media. The reason I first wanted to take this degree was because I am always surrounded by media,so why not take media studies for a degree? How stupid that thinking was, but still taking this degree has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. But it also one of the most important one, as this major will carve the path for my future career, and I need to show my parents that this is the right choice for me. I loved that my parents supported my decision, but understand they still have their traditional value, with their first son taking the creative industry, it is an uncomfortable support. Even though it has only been 1 semester, I have learned plenty, I am closer to the media then ever before. I am going to tell you what I learned the most from the last 12 weeks.

Semester one focuses on the basics of what a media is, and how ubiquitous media is in our lives. I remembered at our second lecture, Brian told us to create a group to go out of the class and go to a location and scour the media that exist in the upper ground, lower ground, middle ground, foreground, and background. Some of the medias that I found I posted in around my first few blog post. There I was intrigued by so many different media items, from on-screen advertising to poster, billboards and radio stations and how apparent they are. I shared an article in the blog, about an inmate using Instagram to sell “hoodies and caps” and posting images of drugs, cash weapons, because that’s what their followers want. Then Brian gave us an article by John Mason about noticing (really good article) that tells noticing is a beautiful and rewarding action, but it requires effort, and you shouldn’t notice everything, just the things you want to notice. I learned from this article why noticing is important for a media practitioner. Sometimes the best scene and media material comes from the simplest situation. Time-lapse videos are an example of this. Time-lapse shows us changes that happened over a long period of time, but static in its location. If you stayed at the same place where the camera was standing, you wouldn’t notice the same way the camera will.

I’ve learned to be a media practitioner, professionalism must be at its best at all times, even if you are making a media material of you family/friends. I learn about what do yo have to do during pre-production, production and post-production. Forms, form and forms. Personal release forms, location release forms, insurance forms. It is important to inform the subjects of your video that you will be modifying them when you edit it, and they have given you their consent to release their identity to the public commercially/non-commercially. You also have to use location forms, because privacy. You can’t take a video in public space without interrupting the public, and you also can’t take a video in a private place, because privacy and ownership. That’s why you need forms. It’s annoying, but it gets things going. It’s a rule that you can bend around because the process is rudimental, they have been accepted by every media practitioner. Responsibility is also a key learning here. The responsibility to follow agreements, the responsibility to protect your subject’s contract terms, The responsibility to handle borrowed equipment with care, and most of all, the responsibility to finish you project in time. My first experience with the forms was when I did my project brief 3.

I’ve also learned to be critical, to my own and to others. Everyone here in Media one are in the same boat, even though some of us already have skills in creating media. As fellow classmates we are obligated to give opinions to our peers about their mistakes and how they can improve them and vice versa. Being a sassy sensitive prick is not going to get you anywhere in this industry. Take the critics as a sign that they care about you. Louise once showed us a technique for criticizing in a fair wa, “The Six Thinking Hats” by Edward De Bono. I tried using the yellow and black hat while giving my opinion on my classmate’s assignment, and it helped me a lot. I usually can’t find any mistake in my classmate’s videos, because I always think they did a great job in their videos.

Lastly, I’ve learned how important group work is in this industry, and our lecturers haven’t stressed enough how crucial it is for your career. We all have had our own anecdotes for bad teamwork, but let’s try to keep it an anecdote, not an ongoing story. I learned about collaborative contract, a written agreement by group members about their effort to pursue their group’s goals. Throughout my project brief 4, I learned how important communication between team members, is because we all have our own schedule, so making time for meetings is an effort. We also need trust, trust that each members will do their best, but we also need to do our own job, for others to do theirs. Rachel gave us a Ted talk link which I found to be very useful.

While I was writing this reflection, even though it was quite late, I realized that this semester we have been taught mostly soft skills, skills involving our manners, etiquette, and professionalism. While I’ve also learned media theories, practical skills stuck in my head the most. I understand why we are taught about this in our first semester, to prepare us into the real-work environment, which is the next semester. Definitely I’ve learned a lot this semester, can’t wait for the next, right after I’ve enjoyed my holiday first.

and this is my learning graph.

P.S thanks for my team members: Lydia, Ryan, and Isobel for making those awesome PB4 assignment.