Media 1 Final reflection
Media 1 has been a really great base builder for me as I have unearthed many abilities I never thought I had. The constant blogging at first seemed like a demanding and daunting task; originally I was angry by one of the tutorās adviceĀ to produce more than the minimum of 4 blog posts a week, but ultimately what it has done is it has encouraged me to write more, explore deeper, climb higher and create like never before, this comment therefore I am truly thankful for.
What has impressed me the most has been my ability to write lengthy, strong, insightful and entertaining posts throughout the semester. Although at times I would struggle to submit all the posts by the completion of the week, I was determined to make up for it. A funny but equally stressful moment came during week 10 when my tutor made a comment in my result column, stressing that the minimum requirement of blogs per week had changed to 12! This came as a big shock, with suddenly the minimum rising by an extra 8 blogs overnight, despite this I was determined and I posted 12 for the week! To my relief the comment was a typo and I got some much needed sleep that night. However the effect this typo had on me allowed me to create more segments and ideas in my writing so thank you to the person who cannot be namedā¦
The Snake Pit
It all started in 2015 when I was assigned to write a comedicĀ segment for my high schoolās newspaper āThe Buzzā, unfortunately due to time restraints, the student run magazine only published two issues. The magazine folded but āThe Snake Pitā didnāt and instead established a new chapter at RMIT. A fan favourite, The Snake Pit has consistently been published every Friday with each week a different issue explored and through that many funny and wild ideas have emerged. The āYou Decideā voting scheme at the end of the articles allow the audience to have their own say on the story and itās also to parody actual democratic voting. Perhaps the most complete Snake Pit edition’s were from the third edition (Week 8) to the fifth edition (Week 10), the reason is because the topics are simple but the exploration in my opinion was pure, hilarious, controversial, and relentless.
A world without photographs would be an incredibly bleak one: Looking at photographs Victor Burgin (Readings WK5)
After commenting on a required reading by Victor Burgin during Week 5, I without consciously knowing starting to open a larger concept behind the true impact images have on the way we consume information. Often when we interpret a reading, we establish our own ideas and express our own opinions but in this case, I really thought what I wrote reflected the power of the image and after studying the importance and significance of the image in photojournalism this post was right down my alley. What I showcased was the true impact an image can have on our human values and levels of empathy we possess. I used the strong and emotive image of dead Syrian boy Aylan who washed up on the shores of Europe to get my contention across of how influential an image can be in creating shock and prompting change. I received many comments from my classmates about it, many of whom donated and researched the subject further simply from seeing the photograph I posted. Therefore not only was my blog effective in creating awareness for the refugee crisis in Europe but it highlighted my contention about the power of the image.
āA Day in the Lifeā Media Self Portrait 2 by Michael Serpell
‘A Day in the Life’ Media Self Portrait 2 by Michael Serpell
This blog was significant for me as it was the start of my comedy themed flare in many of my blog posts and within my creation of video and audio portraits. I saw many recurring themes in many of the other students self-portraits, they were extremely artistic and experimental but some were quite bleak and grim. Donāt get me wrong, they weāre beautifully articulated and expressed the identities of many. But instead of taking a similar approach I decided to target a different side of me. I am an easy going person who likes to have a laugh, therefore my idea was centred around an alternative morning routine which was a portrait of the comedic side of my identity. The resultā¦ a memorable, quite funny and popular piece that many didnāt forget in a hurry; that was the intended purpose and pulling that off was significant as it has inspired me to do similar comedy pieces in future.
Grizzly Documentaries: Grizzly Man (2005)(WK10 Cinema Studies)
Grizzly Documentaries: Grizzly Man (2005)(WK10 Cinema Studies)
A highlight of the first semester has been my chosen contextual study being Introduction to Cinema Studies. Every week as a requirement for the subject we had to submit a cinema blog based on the readings in the Introduction to Cinema Study text book. Every film we watched related to a chapter in the text book and itās been a pleasure to be able to not only review and analyse the films but also to see how theyāre significant to the themes of the chapters. This blog post headlined was probably the most enjoyable to write. As an avid documentary maker myself and a keen observer of insightful documentaries, āThe Grizzly Manā was a brilliantly filmed documentary that presents the extraordinary life of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. This post allowed me to explore the elements which made the documentary successful and explored the wayās in which to tell a true story in an engaging way.
The Passion Trap: How the Search for Your Lifeās Work is Making Your Working Life Miserable
The Passion Trap: How the Search for Your Lifeās Work is Making Your Working Life Miserable
During one of our workshops for Media 1 we researched an article by Cal Newport titled āThe Passion Trap: How the search for your lifeās work is making your working life miserableā. I enjoyed this article and I enjoyed blogging about it because itās rare that you hear the opposite argument about how dreams can be deceiving. The article was relevant because it relates to university students like me who have dreams and ambitions and whether this article discourages those dreams is what I explore. I found it a very open ended discussion to have and itās one blog which explored thoroughly beyond the ideas established by Cal Newport.
Look at thisā¦PB4 Graph (Media 1) (WK12)
The learning graph as Nickleback philosophically described through song āevery time I do it makes me laughā, because does a graph really do my progress in my first semester justice? Probably not but itās still a great way to show my artistic flare. But in all seriousness my revised graph did take some close consideration as I had to track back to some of my earlier blogs to see what my progress was and how it increased or decreased. The progress of my blogs and the level of detail has allowed me to reflect on my thoughts, project briefs, reviews and everything weāve covered in a semester of University. The graph obviously could be more accurate but I think in general Iāve gradually gotten stronger although in the middle parts, there was a slight decline due to an overload of work, Iāve gradually improved overall.
Michael Serpell