Media 1, Week 8 Tutorial Reflection

In today’s tutorial we were given a large sheet of A2 paper to brainstorm our topic, “mediums” from this we deciphered which particular medium we would like to direct our focus on, which was sound. We split sound into 3 forms and allocated each member to research that topic and fid 5 references for their annotated bibliography. This brainstorm was very helpful in that it allowed us to communicate and share ideas and find a direction in which we would like the follow. We demonstrated a lot of collaboration between the two of us, except our third member was missing and therefore, we didn’t reach the full potential of sharing ideas with her absence.

Mediums Brainstorm

Mediums Brainstorm

Media 1, Week 8 Lectorial Reflection

Today we had Dan speaking on the subject of narratives. He spoke what was considered a narrative and what might not be and how they are used in the media industry to express meanings and stories to viewers. We begun by doing a simple in-class task where we would discuss and note on the emotional highs and lows on a narrative for a particular film. Our group chose Hunger Games:

The Hunger Games

Emotional Highs Emotional Lows Characters in order of prominence
Katniss wins the Hunger Games with Peeta Prime gets choosen in the reeping 1. Katniss Everdeen
Peeta kisses her Rue dies 2. Peeta Mellark
Katniss kisses Peeta Peeta joins Katniss’ enemies 3. Rue
Peeta gives Katniss bread Katniss catches on fire 4. Haymitch
Sponsors provide Katniss medicine Katniss enters the games 5. President Snow
Katniss says goodbye to her family 6. Seneca Crane
Katniss says goodbye to Gale 7. Gale Hawthorn
Katniss is going to commit suicide with the berries 8. Effie Trincket
9. Primrose Everdeen
10. Mrs. Everdeen

We then watched these short films called “rebirth”. There were no talking, just a small amount of text and footage and sound. The main question was, is this considered a narrative? I believe yes, and this is because the small texts of word added context to the film. These short films starred individuals who were “rebirthing” themselves, for example, one male jumped through a window, another jumped above 2 cars in a head-on crash.

Finally, we concluded with another in-class activity to understand why it is considered a narrative and why it is not:

Non-narrative:
no main story line
no speaking

Narrative:
text
sound
artistic
suicide

#IStandForMercy

This week, the entire realm of media within Australia has been flooded with posts regarding the two Australian’s on death row due to the Bali 9 fiasco. 9 years ago, 9 Australian’s were convicted in bali for drug trafficking 8.3kg of herion, 7 were sentenced to life imprisonment, the ring-leaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to execution, and on the 29th of April they’re lives ended by a firing gun squad. The huge argument behind this act was whether or not these two men deserved their sentence. Nonetheless, these men deserved to be punished for their act, this drug can cause ruthless effects and multiple deaths, however, they both participated in rehabilitation and were evident of improving their behaviour.

The hashtag #IStandForMercy sparked and began trending all over the multiple social networking platforms very quickly. This was a response by those who thought these men deserved to have their own lives, which I can agree with. The way in which the Bali legislation taunted and played with boys lives is completely unfair. If they were to execute them they should’t of waited 9 years to do so. These men had worked hard to change themselves, and apply to keep their lives to have it taken away from them. It was devastating to watch the families of Chan and Sukumaran plead for mercy and it was incredibly disappointing to see them be rejected.

There is now a big diversion between Bali and Australia and although these men did break the law, I stand for mercy for them, as their lives should not of been tormented for that long to have it taken away from then.

Media 1, Week 7 Tutorial Reflection

During today’s workshop, we got to view everyone’s Project Brief 3, and it was good to see everyone else’s and how they interpreted the assignment, and who they chose to interview and why. There were a lot of very different films. After this we got selected into groups for our final Project Brief 4, one of our group member was absent and therefore Helena and I shared our videos and we provided feedback to each other.

Her feedback for me was that: she found my found footage relevant however she thought I could’ve used more. She said she enjoyed it and found it inspiring to complete yoga and overall thought it was a good film.

After this we begun working on our Project Brief 4, our group was given the topic “mediums” which we are very excited about and we have decided to display it as on a website and therefore we can demonstrate all forms of mediums on the one thing.

Here is the link to Helena’s blog, and below is her Project Brief 3 final

Project Brief 3

Project Brief 3 was based on my sister, Alanna Blundo, and her journey through depression and anxiety, as it was entitled, “Freedom”. It was challenging to find found footage that was relatable as the media portrait was so specific to her, therefore, I looked for nature, as it is calming also, flowers and the calm ocean represented a sense of tranquillity, which is what Alanna was searching for herself. The butterfly also represented development, change, as she grew into a new a better person for herself.

The most successful part of my submitted work would be the interview that occurred, the way she expressed herself on the spot was an accurate representation of herself and her journey through anxiety and finding inner peace with herself. A problematic aspect would be the weather during filming, I wanted the footage to be vibrant and calming, however it was overcast and therefore, I had to work with the filters and temperature and colour exposure through iMovie to portray this.

A key learning discovery was learning to alter the colour exposure of films to represent the mood being portrayed. When she was speaking about anxiousness I lowered the temperature to make the footage more lifeless. Then, when she was being her current self and speaking about yoga, I increased the temperature, and heightened the warm colours on the particular footage.

What I learnt during the making process is that some things may go unexpectedly in a positive way and a negative way, however you must learn to carefully plan and work with what you have. Alanna spent a long time speaking and I had to cut so much, whereas if we had worked on a script together, and she knew the questions before coming in, filming could occurred quicker. Also I need to make sure I plan what day I’m going to film, especially if my footage will be affected by the weather, and the amount of sun being produced that day.

IMG_7763

Media 1, Week 7 Lectorial Reflection

During today’s lectorial, Daniel Binns elaborated on one of the subjects for the Project Brief 4, Texts. Texts “are the material traces that are left of the practice of sense making – the only empirical evidence we have of how other people make sense of the world”. Its interesting to think that texts are a form of communication in which help share and view the production of ideas from one generation to the other. Text has been around for ages and allow for many fictional and non fictional stories to continue to live on. It’s used in almost every medium of media, magazines, books, movies, online, and more, it allows for titles or an extended elaboration to express feelings, stories, and information from one individual to another.

Media 1, Week 6 Tutorial Reflection

Today’s tutorial was beneficial because I learnt how to use a recording device as we spent an hour recording a range of different sounds and seeing how a particular microphone worked in different situations. Problems we encountered were being placed in the CBD, and therefore if we tried to arranged to record a conversation, a truck may beep in the middle, and also other conversations would get mixed in the recording. The microphone did do a great job of recording, however it was impossible to remove background noise. Our most successful recordings were of myself talking, and an interview within the classroom as many people had left so the only sound you could focus on was our voices.

What I discovered about the mic technique was if you held the microphone too close to your mouth, the sound produced was very scruffy. The microphone needed to be about 10-15cm away from the microphone to hear a clear tone, however if they were yelling or talking loud, it would need to be drawn even further away. Once recordings had been done, our group uploaded our files to our computer and created a log on excel of our findings, which is also where we reflected on what we had achieved in this recording experience.

microphone Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 11.36.14 am

Learning New Skills

Due to my absence in my last tutorial for Media, I missed out on learning how to use one of the cameras offered at RMIT for rental. One of my friends was kind enough to offer how to work the camera assigned for us to use as a potential option to use for our Project brief 3 during our lunchtime. I also used the tripod, and this small microphone that can be clipped to your shirt, it was very easy to use and I really loved the microphone as it picked up the quiet whisper and cancelled out a lot of the background noise so you could focus on the voice that was speaking, I don’t think I’ll use the camera for my Project Brief 3, however I do intend to rent a microphone.

working with camera

Media 1, Week 6 Lectorial Reflection

The beginning of the lesson was based on understanding how to use the Library Search for RMIT, yes, it is true, this is the third time I’ve had to sit through this lecture, and no, it was still all the same. Nonetheless, I understand why they do it, once I figured out how to use library search finding academic resources became a lot easier. From then we did a small in-class task and we did a pros and cons list for Google which you can see below I attained 100% #genius
Screen Shot 2015-04-14 at 2.49.46 pm

After this, Rachel spoke to us about the importance of collaboration and team work when working in group assignments. It’s important to be innovative, consistent, punctual and respectful, as team work is everything in the workforce of the media industry. Rarely anyone works alone, and so it’s important to understand and learn how to work appropriately and successfully within groups, which I completely agree with.

Pop Music Videos and their Intentions

During my Pop culture seminar today, our group was focusing on the evolution of Pop music videos during the 21st century. There is such a wide diversity in the way in which an artist aims to create and portray their music through film. However, it never seems to be your simple and basic film clips that draw attention, nowadays artist’s are aiming to spark controversy and think far outside the box by utilising special effects, costumes, and extras to make their film clip the most outstanding.

What surprised me was the major change in presentation and intentions for music videos today in comparison to the early 2000s. The famous American singer, actress Britney Spears music video, “Oops, I did it again” (2000) is a representation of what most female music videos appeared as, the main singer in revealing clothes with back-up dancers, moving and miming to the beat and lyrics of the song. Similarly, boy bands such as ‘N Sync, have group choreographed dances amongst them, and most of their film clips and songs focusing one running away or to one girl such as “Bye Bye Bye” (2000)

In today’s society, majority of musicians in pop music are aiming to stand out with their music video, with the update in technology and special effects, and access to the world’s biggest and greatest dancers and choreographers, artists have the ability to really step up their music video game. With saying that, music artists have gone above and beyond to excel in the music video industry, pushing boundaries, testing social values, and including irrelevant footage in their films that are either outrageous or stupid to get viewers attention.

The film clip “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj (2014) implies that male only wants women bigger women, women with “buns”, she acts derogatory towards “skinny bitches” and overly sexualises all bigger woman at the same time. She is incorporating the classic, female artist who mimes her lyrics with back-up dancers, but they way in which she dances and interprets herself and her words are reaching a new a level. We are stuck in an age where women are constantly fighting a battle between their sense of self confidence and society’s expectations, and Nicki is here trying to insult skinner women by having many “larger” women twerking and grinding throughout the entire music video. The song itself is not appropriate, however, many younger women listen to her music and all children at any age are exposed to her video as it is not on a parental block on YouTube.

I feel musicians (every celebrity actually) are entitled to express themselves, however, where is the simple art in music videos anymore? Don’t get me wrong, there are still many artists who provide this (Taylor Swift, Jarryd James etc.) but major artists such as Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and 5 seconds of summer, lack connection between their music and their videos, and are trying way too hard to create a movie rather than a simple video aesthetic for their song to be played over. So, sorry no Kanye, a 34 minute music video is stretching it.