Actuality Media Documentary Outreaches are one-month study abroad experiences where students travel internationally and learn to produce a short documentary film that features a local changemaker. In 2018 we have outreaches taking place in Cambodia, Guatemala, India and Zambia.
Staff and students in the BComm Media program have been making use of some of the exciting new spaces in the Swanston Street Media Precinct that is a feature of RMIT’New Academic Street Project. New event spaces, classrooms and studios have been coming online since mid-2017 and are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Media portal space – end of semester studio celebration
Staff meet in a new classroomOne of the new television studios
James Thompson, a former graduate of the program, filmmaker and a current sessional teacher in our media production and cinema studies was recently in the U.S at the Palm Springs ShortsFest (June 2016), one of the largest showcases of short films in North America which screens over 325 short films that are selected from 3,000 submissions from 50 countries.
A short film, ‘The Audition‘, which James wrote and directed, opened a special ‘G-Day USA‘ mini-festival of Australian films.
As part of the studio-based teaching model in the BComm Media program, some of the studios available to students involve interdisciplinary collaborations as well as working with an external industry partner. One exciting studio that does both this year is ‘Lentara: nonfiction design’. This studio sees Media students teaming up with students from the Bachelor of Communication Design to work with Lentara UnitingCare to help solve some of the communication challenges faced by the not-for-profit.
[The remainder of this story featured on RMIT News]
Lentara Women’s Asylum Seeker Project group completing an ideation workshop (left to right) Harriet Girle (Media), Morgan Meier (Media), and Joni Strudwick (Communication Design).
Lentara is part of the large network of community care services run by the United Church supporting some of the most vulnerable members of the community.
Corporate Partnership and Communications Manager Jeff Jones said Lentara Uniting Care is excited to be in partnership with the School of Media and Communication as part of an undergraduate teaching and learning studio project.
“The studio will explore ways to communicate to our supporters, volunteers, the community and general public, the social service work that Lentara carries out across our communities.”
‘’The design and production work that is being developed by RMIT may potentially be used in our future marketing and communications strategies after its completion, with full credit and attribution to students,” Jones said.
RMIT lecturer Seth Keen said the studio was a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Communication Design and Media programs.
“The people involved are RMIT undergraduate students who are under the guidance of Lentara’s Jeff Jones, with the assistance of the co-teachers Peter West and myself,” Keen said.
“The aim is for students to engage with the real-world problems that a not-for-profit organisation faces.
“It’s one of the ways RMIT offers life-changing experiences to our students, through practical and industry-engaged learning that helps them to prepare for life and work.”
The following Lentara initiatives will be focused on in the studio: Asylum Seekers Community Housing, Men’s Shed, Shower Bus, Mobile Clothing Bins and Lentara identity branding.
Students will mix together graphic design, advertising, branding, film, television, radio and new media practices to produce a variety of communication outcomes.
The studio will run for the duration of the first semester, which ends in June.
This year has been an exciting one for the program – we’ve made a major shift to a fully studio-based curriculum. Students and staff are proud to show you some of the results of that change at their public end-of-semester exhibition on Thursday 29th October, 5.45-8pm, Building 9 (City Campus).
Graham Donald – Seven Network’s Creative Director of On-Air Promotions & Advertising, will conduct a seminar about the On-Air Promotions career pathway with you. He will talk about On-Air Promotions career pathways and provide insight into the career of an On Air Promotions Producer.
Last year a graduating BComm Media student was successful in gaining one of only a few paid full time traineeships in the country.
So come along and find about how to gain a traineeship, or if not in your final year, learn what could be in stock for you.
Its also a very interesting lecture on how promos are made.
It’s almost that time of year when Australia celebrates (and some protest) the officially designated national Australia Day holiday. One of the BComm Media program’s former students, Terry Mann, who graduated in 2008, has produced this contemporary alternative to the national anthem. He is getting lots of views of video on various social media as well as a bit of attention in conventional national and international media. Read this local ABC coverage here. Onya Terry!
Terry is currently a freelance digital producer after having worked at Clemenger BBDO as a Digital Producer. He also makes and plays music as Coach Bombay.
Always a pleasure to be part of our annual graduation ceremony in mid-December. For staff, it’s a really satisfying ritual to close out the year and RMIT definitely does it differently with its massive event at the Etihad Stadium in the Docklands (6,600 graduates and 27,000 family and friends attending). For graduates its a great moment to take stock and celebrate the hard work and achievements. All the best to the BComm Media graduates of 2014, some of whom are pictured below.
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