Today is the final day of my media use blog series. Today I had a job interview so I missed my film screening for Media 1. This affected how I interacted with online media on this particular day.
My media use this morning was very minimal, besides waking up, scrolling through instagram, and liking a few pictures I saw as I sped through my timeline. This afternoon however, when I got home, I had to make it my mission to find an online version of the film I was meant to view today, which was North by Northwest, by Alfred Hitchcock. I found the film and made my way through it. I noticed that whilst I was watching the film, I found myself gravitating towards my phone, replying to text messages whenever I got a notification. Me, not realising really that I was doing this, sort of shows how big a part online media plays in my everyday life.
To find the film I watched today, I first checked Youtube, because so often older films are uploaded in their entirety to Youtube, somehow getting past copyright issues? Unfortunately it wasn’t on there, so I had to search further. **I do not endorse illegally watching or downloading films!** I ended up going to a site called Putlocker, where I managed to find the entire film, in time to watch it before my tutorial class tomorrow.
The reason for todays, main online media use is quite straightforward, in that I was using it for educational reasons. On the other hand though, I essentially didn’t have a reason for my mindless social media browsing whilst I was watching the film. It may have been due to my natural desire to remain stimulated and socially connected. I also noticed how my online media use, whilst watching the film actually affected my viewing, which is something I should aim to stay more aware of next time.
Today my media use was an interesting one, as I was using my online platforms and social media sites for different reasons that I usually would be. I spent the day today at the Australian Grand Prix, so however I was using online media quite a lot, it was different to how I would use it on an ordinary day.
To give some context, I’ve been following the Grand Prix for about two years now, but usually I am doing so from home, by either watching highlight reels, or watching the race live on whatever sporting channel. Throughout the race, because it was so crowded, and obviously the race is so fast paced, I was keeping updated via twitter of the standings of the drivers. I went to the official F1 (Formuala 1) twitter page which was giving, annoyingly quite irregular updates on the race. I ended up going to the Formula 1 hashtag and browsing live tweets regarding the race. Through my personal twitter, I also go involved with sharing comments about the race and also sharing photos from live at the race on the hashtag.
I would send out and look at tweets whenever the majority of the racers were on the other side of the track, obviously because from where I was sitting in the general admission, the cars aren’t always in view. I took the photos that I shared just from my iPhone, as it made it super quick and easy to share the images.
The reason for my online media use today I think was the sense of community that is created. The fact that I could share comments and images to people everywhere in the world within seconds was fun and exciting. As well as being able to share, I can look back at what I shared, and almost relive the event in the future.
Today’s media use was very uneventful, which is going to make for quite an uneventful blog post, unfortunately. I was out with friends all day/night, so the entirety of todays media use was posting some snapchat stories, as well as the occasional notification check, on Facebook, and Instagram. As well as the use of these social media app, on a more or less exciting level, travelling too and from seeing friends, I was listening to music on Spotify. I have Spotify premium, so lucky for me, I don’t have to listen to back-to-back ads, which definitely makes for a better listening experience.
I wasn’t posting anything on websites such as, Facebook, and Instagram today, however I posted occasional pictures and videos to my Snapchat story throughout the day and night. I also used iMessage to contact my parents throughout the night. I watched other peoples snapchat stories during the day/night, as well as posting on my own.
Why was I using Snapchat? I think the reason I use Snapchat, especially on days/nights when I’m out and about is because nothing on it is “permanent”. Of course I use the term loosely, because essentially everything is permanent online, to an extent. The 24 hour lasting period on Snapchat stories is great because it takes away from the desire to making an image or video perfect. It is a super quick and easy way to share short little captures of my day, and being able to share them easily with friends, and a few family members. This is unlike the process of having to post photos for example onto Facebook, where you would have to manually remove the photo or video when you no longer wish for it to be online.
My media use today has been absolutely pitiful. I’ve spent most of the day finishing an assignment for my media 1 class, which hasn’t given me a lot of free time to just browse the internet. It’s not just a dead end from here though.
I was on youtube for a bit this morning as I was watching some different Adobe Premiere tutorials. I wanted to learn how to do some basic colour grading for the self portrait video I was creating, so I searched on youtube, “Adobe Premiere Colour Grading Tutorial”. So many different videos popped up to aid me, but because I just wanted to get it done, I went to the video with the most views, as well has having a high rating. I did NOT have time to mess around this morning. I searched a number of other tutorials, ranging from, “The best way to export a video from adobe premiere”, and, “Typography on Adobe Premiere”. Overall it helped a lot in finishing my project before it was due at 5pm.
Essentially I was a consumer of media in this particular instance. A creator on youtube created an informational video, and I used it to my advantage. I took the steps to watch these tutorials, because of the fact that I know I am much more a visual learner, rather than following a written step-by-step guide. I find also that youtube is the most accessible streaming site for me. Later I realised I could have used Lynda.rmit to help me out, so maybe that’s something I could do next time to assist in my work.
Just to put it straight out there, my process for making this video was pretty messy from start to finish. When assigned this task I had so many ideas coming at me left, right, and centre. Ever since I can remember, i’ve always been someone who hates planning, whatever the event/task is, and I prefer to just get going as soon as I can. As you can guess, this is exactly what I did when I began this project. My process was pretty much me taking creative ideas from media producers that I admire, and trying to put them into my work, whilst obviously making the video personal to me. This proved a bad idea as all of my plans and ideas were getting muddled about, until it got to the point that I had footage, photos, and audio that could create at least 4 different videos. Definitely if I was to do this project again, my time management and more strategic planning would be a lot better. Lucky enough, I pulled myself together and managed to produce a video I was quite happy with.
The concept of the video was to outline the things that make me the happiest on a daily basis. I wanted to keep a soft and calm mood going with the aesthetic of the video, as that alone I think broadcasts the sort of person I am. None of my shots were very fancy, but they captured exactly what I wanted, and I think that’s the main thing. The audio aspect of the project was where I struggled to get ideas. I love having music and non-diegetic soundtracks in the media that I produce, so having to record my own audio was quite daunting. I managed to keep my sounds very subtle and mesh well with the completed video.
Finally, it came to the point of editing the film together. I’m not familiar at all with Premiere Pro, I’m much more confident using final cut pro. I was up for the challenge though. I can confidently say that I have a very solid foundation understanding of using Adobe now, especially since, maybe just over a week ago, I was struggling to just cut a few clips together. I would have loved to experiment more with animated text especially, but I thought it was important to get a strong understanding for the general controls first, which I can say I think I have achieved.
This project has improved my skills with Adobe, as well as helping me get back into a creative mindset for the year ahead! Oh and it also tested my patience greatly, with the amount of times my clips just would. Not. Go . Where. I. Wanted.
Today I didn’t start class until 2:30 so I had a bit of time to kill this morning. I was catching up on some blog posts that I need to write for my media 1 class so I spent my morning researching and re-reading some texts from this week. I’ve talked about all of these a lot in other blog posts so i’ll stray away from that and talk about other stuff I did today. Other than that I spent time online shopping, looking at things I can’t afford…
I started off looking online at a site called Princess Polly. I scrolled through the site for maybe about 5 minutes before I found a dress that I liked. Since I can’t actually buy, so I added it to my wish-list so that when I finally, maybe, one day have some money I can buy it. When I clicked on this particular dress there was tabs on the page that linked to other items that the brand suggested to “pair” with the dress I had selected. This I found instantly was a clever marketing technique, because I definitely found myself looking at items I that I wouldn’t have usually looked at, due to the fact they were shown to me, rather than me going out and actively searching for them.
I think the reason I spent so long browsing the website was due the fact that things were being, essentially, “thrown” in my face. Overall, I didn’t have a reason for being on the site. I wasn’t buying, I wasn’t leaving a review, but I guess I was however saving different items for possible, later purchase. This action in itself makes me a consumer of what this brand was putting out to me.
This weeks reading/lectorial was based around a writer/presenter named Cal Newport. I won’t go into the details of what the speech and reading was about, as I’ve gone into more detail in my other blog posts from this week, I will link the speech below for anyone who missed it.
The speech, or the concept of Cal’s speech seemed almost familiar to me, and at first I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. I came to the idea that it is very similar to the concept that having high expectations, is the reason we struggle to find true happiness. Pretty much what this idea is that when we create expectations for ourselves, for example, in light of Cal Newport’s concept, an expectation of what our future careers are going to be like, we are more than likely to end up being disappointed with the outcome, when our expectations aren’t met.
This to me was a lot like what Cal was saying, for example about following your passion. Someone for instance with a passion for baking may open a bakery and become overworked and eventually depressed, whereas another person, such as Steve Jobs, who fell into his role as an entrepreneur, and grew passionate about his job and life.
It was interesting to draw links to these two ideas/concepts that essentially are not interlinked at all, but are so similar in the outlooks and ideas that they present.
This weeks tutorial we started off with a discussion about this weeks reading/lecture which I found really interesting. What I really enjoyed was finding out what everyone took away from it and how everyone’s view points were very similar, but also quite varied at the same time. One person was explaining how she began a graphic design course here at rmit. She mentioned that since the age of 15 she had her heart set on studying graphic design and becoming a graphic designer when she graduated. Essentially, it was her passion and she wanted to pursue it. Shortly after starting the course, it wasn’t what she had expected or wanted it to be, so she un-enrolled, and now here she is in Media 1! She told us that she’s sort of just taking the course as it comes and seeing what naturally comes her way.
I found this really interesting, one, because I haven’t gone through something like this, and two, it put the reading and speech into a real life perspective for me, which made it really easy to understand and relate to day-to-day life.
Now we’re just working on our Self Portraits that are due tomorrow (!!!), but me being super dumb left my memory card with most of my footage on it at home. Lucky, i’ve taken this time to catch up on some blog posts and get some last minute inspiration from my classmates.
Today, or more so tonight I found myself falling down a never ending hole of youtube videos, as I do way more than I would like to admit to. I usually spend a couple minutes looking through suggested videos, seeing if there’s anything that catches my attention. My suggested videos is usually filled with film trailers, lifestyle vloggers, and the odd random Dr. Phil segment.
When I went to my youtube homepage at around 6pm this evening, there was a video in my suggestions there was a video titled “Neuroscientist Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty”, from a channel called WIRED. The video is basically what it says in the title, it is a neuroscientist explaining one concept to five different people who have different levels of knowledge on, well, neuroscience. I have no interest in science whatsoever, hence why I’m here in a media course… not science… However despite this I found myself super engaged with the video and the concept of it. Watching this one video encouraged me to go to the WIRED youtube channel and see what sorts of other videos they had to offer. The second video I clicked on was titled “Movie Accent Expert Breaks Down 32 Actors’ Accents“, probably a little more down my ally in terms of what I’m interested in. Again, the title pretty much says it all, a movie expert broke down the accents of 32 actors in movies such as, Brokeback Mountain, Jobs, and Inglorious Bastards. I could go further into detail with every other video I watched on this channel but that would take a very long time, so instead i’ll link to some of my favourites at the bottom of this post.
I’m not sure why I fell so deep into this channels videos, or I sort of do, it’s the fact that every video is different to the last which really kept me engaged for a long time. Sometimes I feel quite unproductive when I’m on youtube, or just online for a long period of time, but I found that despite the videos being entertaining, they were super informational as well. Essentially I don’t have a real reason to be watching any of these videos except for just pure curiosity. And with saying that, I think i’m off to go watch some more… Day two, done!
