okay this is actually 4srs

#SocialSeminar

We did good.

A brief outline of the day
11:00am – I’m at uni trying to finish this stupid presentation. The live twitter feed is still not working so I’m exploring other options here. Strea.ma looked good until it told me I was using a free version every minute or so. Currently liking the look of Wall of Silver because it actually shows photos that are posted with the tweet. Can’t get it into the presentation though sooooo
1:00pm – I am hungry. I forgot to have lunch. Twitter feed is still giving me grief.
2:00pm – Meeting up with Kate and the others to get props, tech equip, cupcakes (gracias Steph), and our bums over to Building 80. This takes longer than realised and it’s quickly 2:45pm and we have no props, no twitter feed that actually updates on the fly, and no movement from anyone. Stress.
3:00pm – Okay, now we have props and are in Building 80 setting up. Less stress.
3:30pm – About to lose it with the Steering Committee. Go tweet yourself. Literally.
4:00pm – I am on the floor, pressing buttons on a wireless mouse on a cushioned stool in front of a tv screen mounted on the bottom of a desk. I will be here for the next hour and a half. Stupid RMIT cords that decide not to pick up audio from anything other than the PC in the room. At least they could’ve had a Mac with Bootcamp so everyone is happy.
5:30pm – Leg cramps have finally stopped because this seminar is over.
6:00pm – Biscuits are stashed in my pockets and the props have been returned.
6:15pm – Finally finished. I forgot to have lunch.

to do

Social media seminar is tomorrow. I am ready for this to be over.

I even shared the event on my Facebook page. Now, I’m by no means popular but it really did get a dismal amount of attention. Guess we should’ve hyped this up a little more.

The steering committee’s logo for the seminars is actually pretty quaint. I forgot to mention it before. I still hate that we’re the students in a whole building of media-makers that used the word “Epic” in our title, but that can’t be helped at this point.11873503_10153169103142648_7695031776690150643_n

Ned said he looked into setting up a live twitter feed for the seminar but it has now fallen to me to do. I’m creating a presentation with Projeqt that promises a live stream but has so far failed me. The site is one I’ve used previously but this seminar has required me to look into it further than I have before. The design is really quite nice and it’s very simple to use. I think using a presentation is important, as it’s a standard procedure with seminars (from what I’ve seen e.g. Ted talks) and it gives our audience something to look at other than the guests. The live twitter feed is something we almost can’t not do seeing as we’re focusing on social media. It encourages audience participation and will be a form of entertainment. I think we’ll have plants in the audience ready to post in case no one else does.

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We also need to get the stage set up. I was there tonight with Kate, Azim, Bryan and James, mapping out the stage. 11873462_10153500117428363_7014879387212669220_n11903955_10153500134763363_6517171603905432230_n
Draft and prototype.

Props! Must get props. Thinking about the black couches in the props room but it could be a little intimate. There were some Facebook-blue chairs in there too that might work better. I would like a fern but everyone has stomped on that idea. Ferns are cool and look tropical yet office-like. Whatever.

Can I just raise my concerns about the steering committee? What exactly is their role in this? Apart from putting up posters, I haven’t seen much work from them and I don’t really understand how that allows them to be marked at the same level. Their communication is lacking except when it comes to posting about our seminars. But that’s a job we do/can do ourselves. I just want someone to clarify their purpose for me. I also want to be notified in advance when someone sets up your refreshments for you, instead of tacking you onto the end of an email chain.

update 3.1 or something

We have –

Created promo posters
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I’m just not sure what happened to our name though. Yes, this was one of my suggested titles on our group page. No, we didn’t choose this. Yes, it has more to do with epic bloody journeys and social media than Inception does. No, we will not dismiss it entirely. Yes, we will combine this funky poster and title with what we already have.

Established ourselves online
I mean, a social media seminar without a social media presence? Who even does that. We don’t have much to post about yet. Or maybe we do and we just need someone to come and talk to us about promoting ourselves on our online networks and – oh yeah, cool, that’s the whole point of this seminar. Bit of a Catch 22 at this point, isn’t it?

Begun securing guests

Homeless of Melbourne are a yes! Thanks to Matt.
A famous Youtuber is a yes! Thanks to Tom.
Ned says Uber is a definite possibility so that’s fab.

I think these three guests would be perfect for representing types of levels within the dream social media career. You have a first level – presenting yourself online. Sarah the Youtube star can give us the rundown into creating your online image and selling it. It’s a pretty basic concept and there’s a whole lotta people whose lives are based on the videos and blogs they create.
Second level could be using this online presence/media creation and merging it with the physical world. Homeless of Melbourne have a clothing store HoMie that fuses consumerism with a do-good nature. Everyone gets a pat on the back. They have this fantastic following online and I believe it’s how they’re able to set up a clothing brand that actually sells whilst benefiting homeless people.
Third level is the seed of the idea. Uber doesn’t really even need to create an online presence. It’s created for them by people fed up with taxis and looking for the next big thing. They successfully integrate an app with features that resonate with an online culture (ratings, profile pictures, immediacy in tracking) into our everyday lives. They even provide kittens on occasion. Having a product so good that your image is created for you is all that a company could ask for. It’s a very interesting concept.

be our guest

Ideas:

Homeless of Melbourne – Sit. Chat. Listen. Share. Seems like a good group, I like the idea of them being a local organisation. The Humans of New York theme they’ve got going on is easily recognisable and works well. Interviewing a founder would be very interesting but I wonder how deep it goes. Is it a career in social media?

Pedestrian.TV – Very popular in youth culture. I’m fairly sure nearly everyone in our year level would know who these guys are. Any one of their writers would be good as a guest but I’d ultimately love to hear from the founders. Might be hard as they’re based in Sydney but maybe a Skype conference? A Melbourne rep? Still waiting on a reply from them.

Broadsheet – Local to Melbourne, kinda classy. Haven’t heard back.

Mediaverse – This one is my idea and I think it’s cool because it’s so different. These guys don’t just post on social media about various stirring topics, they analyse our reactions to the stirring topics and shoot that off to brands. Very sneaky, and definitely a pathway no one really knows about. No reply from them yet either. Am I bad at emails or

Used this template of Ned’s and tweaked to each company. You be the judge –

Hi there,
I am a graduating student from RMIT University, finishing a Bachelor of Communications (Media) at the end of this year. We are currently in the planning stages of hosting a seminar designed to showcase some potential career pathways for students once they graduate. The seminar will be an informal discussion with some directed questions to a panel of industry representatives who we are inviting to come and share their knowledge with us. We would love a representative from (insert company name) to come and share with us some insight into what working in your specific industry and comment on some social media trends and how to effective market and promote yourself within a constantly changing social media landscape.
We would love to hear back from you at the latest by Wednesday 12th of August, if you would be interested in participating in our event. This is an opportunity for you to promote and explain the inner workings of your company to like-minded students who are interested in entering the industry within the next 6 months. You will be a special guest of RMIT University and we will promote your involvement around campus and via our social media outlets as well.

thank you bec

This is a whole other level of dedication. I really like this concept – we talked privately about what the Inception idea might include in the seminar but she’s really outdone herself with this. Cool.

Heres some stuff I just wrote up for you guys to think about today, how we might structure the seminar and frame everything related to the topic. Hope it makes sense!
IN(ternet sensation)CEPTION – The Dream is Real
Like the world of Inception where dreams are ‘designed’ by ‘architects’ we now have the capability to design our career and carefully construct our ideal online persona. Social media allows us to plant ‘seeds’ in the minds of our audience and influence a broader online audience in the hyperreal world that is the online sphere.
Like the designer dreams in the movie Inception, the mobile environment is hyperreal and can be edited or manipulated and allows us to do things and reach audiences and limits which would physically be impossible in real life. Social media allows us to project an ideal image of ourselves (or a brand) and build upon this in deepening associated ‘levels’ of the dream, ultimately affecting ‘reality’ outside of the cyber sphere.
(Use this concept to frame our interview with our first guests the creators of “Homeless of Melbourne” who created a social media campaign that now has several linked accounts and has extended past the online sphere to now actually affecting the physical, tangible world with the opening of their pop up shop and the change it has been able to have on the real lives of Melbourne’s homeless. We should refer to our guests as the “architects” (like in the film) of “worlds”.
And the social media platforms they use as “tools” they have used to plant the seeds.)
For example, like different levels of ‘dreams’ in inception working on different levels so would a social media campaign:
-You start with the seed – for example a Facebook group or page. You create interest around the seed by planting an ‘idea’ – for example, that the homeless people of melbourne have stories of their own. Share these stories, create intrigue and interest. Plant the idea in the audience’s mind that these are stories worth hearing.
-You continue this by going deeper to the level of a linked Instagram account, connecting content and furthering the image you wish to project or concept you want to promote. More content creates more intrigue and allows you to cross from one form of social media to another, captivating the audience across a variety of media.
Once the ‘idea’ has been planted and now is widespread, you legitimize it by a proper website hosted outside a social media site.
You then have enough of a following to bring this into real life ‘reality’ – holding events, getting audience to actively participate by donating real money, attend events etc.
The deepest level is the real world manifestation of the online or social media project. What is the actual effect? What are the capabilities for this model to actually alter everyday reality? The ‘dream’ is now realised and the goal has been attained (the goal being homeless people supported through the proceeds of a pop up shop).
Other things we might want to address/aspects of social media that might reference the movie-
Clickbait and Advertising
In the movie the characters have ‘totems‘ which are small items to remind them they are dreaming. Like totems, the existence of Clickbait and advertisements make the user aware they are engaging in an online environment ?
How to make sure your subconscious doesn’t show up and F*&^ your dream world up, or how to create a convincing dream world- (in the movie if the persons subconscious knows the dream isn’t real it ‘attacks’ and ruins the dream) Maybe use this section as a description of what to do to avoid negative social media attention? Discuss the concept of internet sensations, memes, viral threads, and how to avoid becoming negative press online.
Or maybe even this section could be about carefully editing your personal profile or whatever so that future employers don’t find compromising photos on your Facebook – it could be about your online footprint & reputation and not having some gacked photo of you at 3am at revs coming back to bite you in the ass and stop you from getting that job you wanted (true story).

to be honest

I’d have preferred to do something with radio, but it’s not a popular choice. Everyone wants to be the next filmmaker and, maybe it’s just me, but that pathway seems oversaturated, competitive, tiresome and cliched. It’s not the “next big thing”. There are only so many stories you can create. Maybe that’s why I respect those who chose documentary as a topic – they’re not creating fiction, they’re representing truth.

Whatever. Someone’s gotta be the next Chris Marker.

I’d also have preferred the steering committee to be a little more creative. “Epic Journey”? Is this 2009? What right do you have to paste all of our media cohort with that word? I don’t think I’ve cringed more throughout my entire degree. I wanna say it’s an “epic fail” but that leads to a slippery slope. Of course, I raised this issue with my group but not the actual committee. I’m lazy.

Facebook group set up, as per usual. I’m getting really good at doing that. The Social Media team on social media, discussing how best to tell peers about social media. There’s been some actually clever ideas to fulfil the catchy-seminar-title requirement. My personal favourite was Matt’s “Dora the Internet Explorer” but the Inception idea seems to fit our (stupid) theme better.

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dead air – brief 4

Brief 4: Dead Air (previously Courtroom Colour)

Length: 3:08 minutes

This piece is a ambient sound narrative that brings to life key events from the courtroom history of Building 20 at RMIT University.

The idea behind this piece was to step away from visuals and instead allow for the imagination of the audience to come through. I believe that myths and legends are best when they’ve been spun a little via word of mouth, and the stories behind famous court cases in the Old Magistrates’ Court’s history would be perfectly represented by something like this. It’s a nod to a bygone era, where what you heard was what you believed; I shun video recordings of reality in “Dead Air” to use only what written archive I could find of the events and my own knowledge of their fame.

With this final piece, I’ve added snippets of relevant backing music to represent eras – a crackling recording of Australian 1800s ballad “The Streets of Forbes”, a Swanston Street Jag from the Roaring 20s in Melbourne, Kate Smith’s “The Woodpecker Song” which was the soundtrack to the war era, and let the ABC news theme play out from a 1980s television recording. These were all selected to evoke the sense of being a part of the time period and also to change the mood with each case. I felt it was a necessary touch to thicken the soundscape – it also gave it more of a story-like feel rather than an environmental piece.

I’m glad I got nearly all of the work out of the way for Brief 3, due to a mistake of my own. It allowed me more time to focus on the group projects and my other course work. It’s been nearly an entirely individual project, only using the suggestions from the pitch feedback and a friend whose voice tone and accent fit my ideas for the spoken sections. I regret not using the Zoom recorder more, as some of his voice sections are not at the quality that I want. However, that could definitely be due to my own skill; I know how to use it but there is fine-tuning that I need. I’d also like to graduate from my current audio editing software to something like ProTools or Ableton. Why am I able to use Photoshop and Final Cut but can’t get past GarageBand for the media I love the most? It still does the job but there is a lot of negativity towards the program and I need to be able to reach across different platforms.

I’ve gathered a lot of irrelevant information, and lost some very important links to websites with archival material – these set-backs caused me to reevaluate how I wanted the piece to turn out. As it stands, I am satisfied with the story direction it has taken, its departure from straight up reality. I believe it will be an entertaining way to experience the history of the Court and I’m hoping the feedback that backed this up still stands.

the death of a ghost – studio reflection

This is the end of a life. Dramatic, yes, but our whole theme is of ghosts so it’s just. I’ve come to the final halfway point in my university career and feel as though the closer to the edge I swim, the deeper the water gets. Can I get onto dry land before my feet stop touching the bottom? I need water wings or something.

Ghosts and Space has definitely been adding to the water. If I continue with my swimming analogies, then my work during the classes are the egg-beater kicks. I’m surviving, floating, not going very far. In my soundscapes, I’m half doggy-paddling, half breaststroke. I’ve gotten further in bits and bobs using my knowledge but it hasn’t been a smooth freestyle or backstroke.

The sound piece I’ve created was finished when upon first presentation, and only required a little cleaning and touch-up, such as the voice-acting and period relevant soundtracks. Even so, I do wish I’d spent the extra time I’d had on creating a side project that could have possibly overtaken this one. I could’ve gone in a different direction, swam a little harder. My biggest regret is not branching out into something I haven’t done before. I toyed with the idea of an interactive photo with sound hotspots, but the feedback Courtroom Colours received at the pitch let me feel safe in creating a soundscape. It is what I do best creatively, yet to let me down – my career aspirations involve sound, music, and radio. However, this studio has somewhat brutally let me know that if I don’t entirely work towards what I want, making soundscapes is something that’ll only get me through university and stay as a hobby whilst I lead teams of burger-flippers. A bright future. Smart and successful Imogen.

You can listen to my newly named piece ‘Dead Air’ here.

The piece still leads its listener through the fuzzy history of the Magistrates’ Court of Melbourne. As I said in an earlier post, the aim here is to let listeners create their conclusions of court trials whilst having relevant memories and experiences evoked by the ambient sound effects. It is pure as a sound piece, and one I believe is unique of my peers. Whether the effectiveness of sound comes across in the virtual tour, or if the listeners do not engage because the sudden lack of images is disconcerting (or boring), I am unsure. All that I can hope for this project is that my love of story within sound comes through, and that at least one person makes the complete journey through it.

At least all my peers will be forced to a short snippet of it. I’m still toying with which “highlight” of the sound narrative is best at representing both the Magistrates’ Court and my own interpretation. As it is a teaser for the real deal, my best bet would be the Ned Kelly trial but it could also be revealing the peak of the piece, leading to disappointment on listening. This idea will float for a while longer.

As for my work with the classmates, I’d say it all came together in the end. From generally sitting alone in the room on the days I did manage to show up, to finally learning everyone’s names, to the point where I have now volunteered to present next week’s exhibition with Ellen; we have cohesively moved from students to colleagues with a common goal. The website created sort of lumped itself together but actually looks less student-ish than I think we all expected. The layout was something I helped work on, choosing how our content would appear on each page. After dealing with Adrian Miles’ reluctance to give us the layout we wanted originally, I fumbled around until the current site resembled something close to the desired. My final piece in the model will be placed next week at the exhibition, where everything will finally be shown. I don’t even know what half of our work looks like. I believe it’s just something that can’t be visualised until we actually all come together and present. That’s exciting.

All in all, I think we’ve all made it to the point where our work has begun to depart from its humble student roots and instead represent our potential as media makers in a (hopefully) paid world. We have this studio to thank, I think, and the degree itself. The final semester’s studios claim that they’ll prepare us for our exit from schooling – if it’s anything along the lines of Ghosts and Space, then we are swimming with goggles, wetsuits and flippers.

ghostly whispers – brief 3 feedback

This was marked.

Don’t ask me how, but I managed to lock everyone out of this blog, therefore failing to let my tutor read my Brief 3 reflection.

I’m to go on the feedback that was provided during the pitch – I should definitely look into creating another court case representation. This could be set in the 1950s or 60s as that fills the gap between two I have already. I’ve tried looking for major cases that were set then but the building seems to have been relatively quiet during that period. The State Library could be a good resource but I’m terrible at finding relevant books.

Another idea was to add some soundtrack and lessen up the talking so that it becomes more like my original idea of an ambient narrative. Not sure on this one because I feel it might be too hard to represent each time period without them sounding quite similar. Still worth looking/listening into.

The feedback I got at the pitch and from Rachel made me feel pretty confident in my work though, and I’m glad I had thought the entire final content was due and not just a rough draft. Something about closing a door and another opening. And another closing again.