Category Archives: Making Sense of Social Media
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 4, Blog Post 2
This is my final piece of social media content for this studio, and semester, that tries to answer the question I posed at the start of assignment 2:
Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?
This video ended up being the most different from the ones before it and what I initially envisioned. From the last post to this one there were two main things I wanted to change, the staging and the delivery of information.
Firstly the staging. All the other videos were me either sitting at a desk or standing in front of my wardrobe. I knew I definitely wanted to evolve from sitting behind a desk, standing in front of my wardrobe was an evolution of that, but not a very big one. A benefit of the standing was that it felt more natural than sitting behind a desk. The staging for this video was a mixture of the two, I was standing in some sections, sitting in others and even walking and crouching. Although the physical position I was in whilst addressing the camera may seem trivial, it added to the energy and made a positive contribution overall, making the video feel a lot shorter than what it is. Couple this with the different exterior locations used throughout the shoot which kept viewers engaged and entertained. This made the video feel less typical ‘satirical news show’ like and more of a satirical informational field video, those similar to Jonathan Pie’s videos that were recommended in the class presentation. I definitely think it was my most fun to make and best video of this series. Audience feedback definitely seems to support this with 1000 views on Facebook in only three hours! (my best performaning video to date). Although YouTube was my main social media network to focus on for this assignment, I also uploaded a photo to Instagram with a link to the full YouTube video, and uploaded the full video to Facebook and to multiple Facebook groups which all helped with distribution.
The second thing I wanted to change was the delivery of information. My previous videos were a lot of short headline one-liners with short sketches to break them up and add more context or in some cases even be a punchline. I wanted to experiment with delving deeper into a single topic rather than focusing on a lot of topics for a short amount of time. I decided for this video to focus on the topic of dogs and create a satirical guide into choosing, buying and raising a dog. I loosely mocked a Better Homes and Gardens segment even getting more in character (and had an excuse to showcase my dog Rocco). This video was also the quickest to write as most of it was reworked jokes I performed for stand up comedy. This reworking of stand up material felt quite natural and allowed for it to be less topical and of the time, meaning people viewing it in weeks, months or years from now will still enjoy it without needing to mentally time travel back to when it was filmed. Also this helps scratch my stand up comedy itch thats been getting worse since quarantine.
I feel as if this format of field pieces with reworked stand up material and focusing on a single topic could work as the next evolution of this satirical news show project with this video being it’s first example. This video definitely felt like something different to the last ones, not even featuring the very basic intro used for them (and slightly revamped intro for the previous video).
To answer the question posed way back at the beginning of assignment 2:
Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?
I believe I can. Having proved it with the previous videos. They were funny, satirical takes on news and current events. However, I think moving forward the question needs to be updated to:
Can I make an informational show that sheds light on a topic in a funny and entertaining way?
And I think I can also do that having proved it with this one…
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrPQqOEiLqM&t=4s
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 4, Blog Post 1
For Assignment 3, I decided to continue with my initial idea of creating a satirical news show that answers the question I posed at the beginning of Assignment 2;
Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?
For this assignment, there were two main things I wanted to improve upon/change for assignment 3, staging and the delivery of information. Firstly, I wanted to change the staging. For both of the videos from assignment 2, I was sitting in front of my desk, which was something I didn’t want to do as an initial goal was to try and stand out from preexisting satirical news shows and create a unique style and energy. My feelings were echoed during the class presentation by the guest lecturers, with one suggesting I look at Jonathan Pie for inspiration, who is known for his satirical news videos shot out in public. I changed the staging for this video by standing in front of my wardrobe. Although not as visually stimulating as sitting in front of my desk, by standing up it allowed me to ‘perform’ more freely and be more expressive with my movements, which, according to audience feedback, made me more entertaining. This also felt more natural for me than sitting down as it was more akin to stand up comedy. Although I preferred the staging of this video more than the previous ones, I am also thinking of taking the staging in a completely different direction. During my initial ideation of this project at the start of assignment 2, I questioned the disparity between how the news is delivered to us considered to how we consume them, which briefly comes up in my main prompt. I was considering trying to stage a video where I am completely inline with how we receive the news. Most news shows are delivered by someone wearing formal clothing, speaking in a very formal manner and sitting behind a desk. Consider this when comparing to how we receive the news. Lying on the couch after a long day, reading it on Facebook whilst on the toilet or just being told the news by some guy down at the pub. My other idea for staging is to go ultra relaxed, ultra casual, ultra informal. Whether this means I’m on a bean bag, in my bed or on the toilet (well, maybe not the last one) I’m not sure yet, however I am going to explore this in my next video.
The second main change I wanted to make was the delivery of information. This video, likes the ones previous to it, consists of jokes about various topics with some small sketches to break up the jokes. I made a small adjustment in this video by including less one liners about headlines and trying to focus on a single topic for longer. Although less topics to make jokes about, I feel as if this format works a bit better as it allows the video to flow more freely and doesn’t feel as repetitive and stop-start, although the laughs-per-minute may be compromised. I also thought that this format would create a more efficient shorter video, however this video ended up being my longest so far, but I feel as if the time was utilised better. With that being said, for my next video I am going to try and deep dive into a single topic and try to focus on that singular topic for the entire video. I suspect it may not be as long but I am hoping it flows better and is more cohesive whilst also being just as funny.
LINK: https://youtu.be/OtcClLvgFvs
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 2
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 2, Blog Post 4
Initially when I started this assignment I tried to answer the question “Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?” I think overall the answer is yes, I can. I really did enjoy this assignment as it was very enjoyable but also beneficial as it gives me something to do in quarantine, makes me read the news and scratches my performance itch that I would usually get from open mic comedy. Overall the response has been very positive which is a motivating factor to continue this for my own personal satisfaction. However, in future videos I would like to explore the relationship between how we are delivered news vs how it is received by experimenting with set and action. For example doing it whilst on a bean bag and being very informal, or maybe standing up and moving around almost like a performance. The current set up of sitting in front of a desk is a good start but I feel it can be improved upon and will lift the rest of the show like performance.
Additionally, A quicker production turn around would greatly benefit the show. In terms of editing I would like to scale it back a bit as majority of the images used don’t rally add anything, they just kind of mirror what I say and are almost redundant. Also it can take quite a while to make a single video (from start to finish about three days) which goes against the nature of both comedy and news, they have a shelf life. A musician can sing the one song their entire career and audiences will still pay money to see them. Where as if a comedian says the one joke their entire career they won’t sell shows or get any work. In terms of this, a joke about a current event won’t be funny if the event isn’t topical, and an event isn’t news worthy if it isn’t recent. Also the intro and outro are things I would like to improve and maybe experiment with other filmmaking techniques for these.
In conclusion I believe I answered the question ‘can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?’ successfully. I think I can make a funny satirical news show whilst also being entertaining and somewhat informative, which is something I plan to keep on doing, well at least until quarantine is over.
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 2, Blog Post 3
This week’s video seemed to be plagued with obstacles across production and post production. Firstly before recording I forgot to check audio levels on my microphone which meant that my audio I recorded was extremely quiet and unusable. Luckily though it was an external microphone, meaning I was still able to record audio with my camera’s onboard microphone, however the quality wasn’t as good but still usable.
Secondly I had a lot of issues trying to upload the video to YouTube. This was especially irritating as it was completely out of my control. At least with the audio issues it was my own fault and I learnt my lesson to always check my audio before recording. My troubles uploading was completely out of my control. The upload never seemed to be able to get past 40% uploaded, then once it did it would automatically start again. Meaning that an upload for a 6 minute video that should’ve taken about 30 minutes took an entire day to do. I thought that it may have been an issue with the file as it wasn’t uploading to Google Photos or Google Drive either. I tried exporting the video in different formats at different qualities but eventually the original just somehow worked. I wanted to upload at 8:30am but wasn’t able to get it to work on YouTube until about midnight later that day. One silver lining I did find though was being able to schedule uploads on YouTube using their schedule feature, and on Facebook and Instagram using Facebook Creator Studio. This meant I was able to get the clip I used from the main video for social media promotion out across Facebook and Instagram with a link to the full YouTube video all posted at the same time. This was scheduled to happen at 8:30am the next day as Sensis data indicates that this is the peak time for social media usage between my target demographic of 18 – 29 year olds. Although this might be the case, I did notice that likes, comments and engagement across the social media posts weren’t as high as when I uploaded the previous clip at 10:30pm. I don’t know why this is the case but it makes posting at night/evening more appealing as it seems to get more engagement. Overall though response on the video was very positive however in terms of views and likes not as successful as the last one.
VIDEO:
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 2, Blog Post 2
Last blog post I came up with the question that I’m going to try and answer in this assignment. “Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining?” The answer after one video is, kind of. Well I guess technically yes but let me explain.
Truthfully speaking, I didn’t like how the video turned out. During filming I thought it would turn out quite well as I liked the jokes I wrote. However, the sitting down and not having an audience felt very unnatural coming from a stand up comedy background. I felt that without an audience to feed off I was very awkward with my delivery as I had awkward long pauses filled with silence after every punchline. Additionally, without an audience I don’t really know whether a joke is funny or not until after I publish it. However due to the current situation this is something I am going to have to get used to. Although I wasn’t too pleased with how it turned out the feedback I got was surprisingly positive however some did agree it did feel a bit unnatural and a forced performance which could be something I play with in future videos. Initially I was going to release this on my personal social media pages, but after watching the finished product I decided against that. Then I got some feedback and was told that I should in fact upload it to my personal social media pages as they thoroughly enjoyed and found it entertaining. On my social media pages it has been very well received with more likes and views than I was anticipating.
A social media strategy that I used to engage my audience is to post across all social media sites to alert them of the video on YouTube. For instance, posting a small clip from the video on Facebook and Instagram with a link to the full video on YouTube to intrigue viewers whilst also entertaining them. Additionally I will post in the morning as Sensis data suggests that is the most active time for social media by users in my target demographic of 18-29 year olds, however this video was posted at 10:30pm as initially I wasn’t planning no posting it publicly.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/ey4acrOKs4Q
Making Sense of Social Media Assignment 2, Blog Post 1
Knowing this assignment was coming up, I thought about things I wanted to do for it. I knew that whatever I ended up doing was going to end up on YouTube, as it is the social media network I like and use the most, and probably (well, hopefully) is going to be funny. As an open mic comedian I have always been a fan of satirical comedy especially on shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Jim Jefferies Show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell and many others I could name (especially considering nearly all late night shows are now becoming more satirical in these interesting political and cultural times). Many late night comedy shows like the ones aforementioned are starting to become very similar. A man in a suit behind a desk makes jokes about current events and politicians to a live studio audience. I know that I want to do something a little different by including more little sketches and less politically focused as I my interest in politics is like the Olympics, I really only care about it once every four years. Also coupled with the fact that due to the Coronavirus I can’t go out and perform comedy to a live audience, so this should scratch that itch. This also got me thinking about the news and news shows in general particularly the disparity between how the news is delivered compared to how we receive it. The news is delivered by a man in a suit behind a desk telling us about the current events in the world in a very formal manner. Meanwhile we’re at home watching it on the couch in our tracksuit, or reading it on Facebook whilst on the toilet or just having some guy tell us about it at the pub. So this lead me to think why is this the case? Why is there such a difference between how news is delivered and received? Can I make a ‘news’ show that is more inline with how we receive it whilst also being funny and entertaining? I guess I’m about to find out.
Media 3: Making Sense of Social Media – Assignment 1, Post 3
My own work in this studio will be informed by my understanding of social media as I now have a better grasp of what it is. You can’t learn about cake decorating if you don’t know what a cake is. Alternatively, I believe you can’t really learn about social media if you don’t understand what it is. Through my research in post 1, my already existing knowledge of social media, the data from the Sensis surveys and my inspiring examples of social media comedians, I can now move forward in this subject having a good foundation of knowledge to build upon. The Sensis data will help support any hypotheses I make in the future as it provides raw data and information. Additionally, my inspirational social media comedian examples can also provide cases of those who are excelling through the use of this media. I am now ready to learn more detailed, abstract and fringe areas of social media later this semester as I have a varied grasp of the different areas of social media.