December 31, 2015

The Music Of My 2015

As a uni student with an hour long commute to and from RMIT, I had a lot of time to listen to music. And although I have since graduated, it has become something of a tradition to blog about the music that defined my year. I’ve reflected on it for my other years at uni so why not the last one?

I knew 2015 would be a great year. Call it intuition, superstition, or a self fulfilling prophecy, but long before the year began, when we were still in early 2014, i knew 2015 would be great. And It didn’t dissapoint. This year i finished uni on a high, aced my classes, made tons of new and wonderful friendships, took huge strides personally and professionally, and am just in a really happy place. I turned 21 and had a fabulous party, with a fabulous playlist, and just as the year has been good to me, so has the music in my rotation. Without further ado, my top 10 experience defining songs of 2015 (in order of when I listened to them in the year.)

1. ‘Way Down feat. RZA, Barbie, John Frusciante’- N.A.S.A

2. ‘Rainbow’- F(x)

These two songs remind me of the beeginning of the year. In december 2014 i fell in love with the Red Light album, and its continued all this year as well. Going back to uni, doing a painting class as an elective, making films about old buildings, uni excursions; it all comes back to be when i listen to these two songs. I was determined to be on top of things at this time, I went to the recomended galleries and exhibitions from my tutors, I did the extra work, I was on top of it, and listening to these two songs the entire time.

3. ‘We Are Bulletproof pt. 2’- BTS

4. ‘Let Me Know’- BTS

Both of these songs not only signify the BTS concert around this time, but I had just recieved their discography off a friend and was listening to their songs constantly. These two stand out to me as defining this time. I remember this was the beginnning of semester 2, I had started Spanish as an elective and would listen to these songs in the morning before class. I would also listen to them as i walked around melbourne and the city during my breaks. It reminds me of mornings, cold, and light rain, but I also fondly remember listening to Bulletproof just before all of my Spanish tests to pump up my confidence. I guess it payed off?

5. ‘Strange Enough feat. Karen O’, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Fat Lip’- N.A.S.A

6. ‘Flashing Lights feat Dwele’- Kanye West

These remind me of a similar time to the last two entries, I have similar memories associated with them. Trying to fill up my annoyingly long, 3.5 hour breaks between classes at uni, and specifically, Strange Enough reminds me of walking in really heavy gross rain. As well as crappy group projects… Together these songs remind me of long solitary walks with my ipod and a warm coat on in the evenings. Dull weather, but great music. It was also around this time I celebrated my 21st. I also give an honorable mention to ‘Make it Real’- BABE. Only just missed the cut but was pretty iconic of this year and this time of my life.

7. ‘Airplane’- F(x)

8. ‘Perfect’- The Smashing Pumpkins

Post birthday, My playlist was a bit more chill, to match the weather easing up, and just the general feeling of the time of semester. These songs were iconic of my spring. Getting to the end of the semester, only going in for assignments and presentations. I went back to a couple of old albums around this time and just chilled out. I was a bit over uni work, I had kept on top of it all year, I had put in the hard work and just needed to finish it off.

9. ‘Surrender’- Gavin Turek

10. ‘Automatic’- Red Velvet

These two songs not only wrapped up my year, being on holidays, graduating, selling our house, all the purchases I made; they also give a good indication of where my music taste is at the moment. For the majority of the year I’ve been gravitating to a sort of mature sound, and then indulging in my other bangers and pop occasionally for fun. I feel like this has really reflected in my attitude as well, and it brings me to where I am now. I still enjoy all the bands I did before, but I never indulged in this sound before past Late Night Alumni, who are still one of my favourite bands and could honestly be on every years list if it wasn’t redundant.

Who knows what 2016 will bring. I dont have a good feeling about it like I did this year, but ill put on my brave face anyway and give it my best shot. I look forward to hearing the music it brings.

September 30, 2015

Seminar completion

After we confirmed a couple of guests, Alicia Gleeson and Clayton Jacobson, I was able to research each of them and come up with bios for each of them in collaboration with Jim. Later, Julian Lucas was also confirmed and the bios could be completed. However, I wasn’t able to find any photos of Alicia online, so James may have to ask her for one, being the guests main point of contact.

The next point of business was to come up with specific questions for the host to ask. I had already come up with a few and put them in the google drive, but we were able to make them more relevant once the guests were confirmed as we could tailor them to their experiences, so a few more were added in and prioritised.

A feature Jim wanted to include was a quiz or some sort of interactive event. So we brainstormed ideas for that and eventually came up with a concept, ‘questions specific to the Australian film industry this year.’ I figured it was relevant to the idea of knowing the industry you wish to go into, and being up to date with it. Jim was the one who wrote the specific questions after that though.

Once all of this was completed, I was able to print the hand outs we planned to give the audience; the bio sheets and the quiz answer sheet for the participants to fill out. The quiz sheet was basic enough, just lines and numbers. I used the poster design for the bio sheets to make our aesthetic cohesive. biosheet

Once all these ideas had been finalised, I had to figure out the specific structure of the seminar. I decided there would be prepared questions until 4:45, then a break + the quiz for 10 minutes, and then audience questions until 5:25. I wanted to allow enough time for extensive audience participation, and the crew was happy with this decision also. Breaking it up into these distinct sections. (We began the seminar a bit late though, so while time keeping I extended the prepared questions and break until 4:50 and 5:00 respectively. That was my main job during the seminar, to keep track of the time and signal the host to keep everything on schedule. This all went according to plan and the sections began and ended just as I signalled for them to. Meanwhile I was messaging the other group members on facebook chat during the seminar making sure other elements were running to schedule, such as the quiz and catering preparations. )

It was also my job to make the call sheet for the crew. I figured out the jobs that needed to be done before, during and after the seminar, and divided up the work logically. After I had delegated jobs I asked whether anybody wanted to change positions and everyone was happy with what I had assigned, so the actual day went relatively smoothly in that regard. We all knew what needed to be done. As well as time keeping, I also assigned myself to assisting with the furniture and staging. So on the day I helped choose, carry and prepare the furniture, and set up decorations. I also kept checking around at other jobs being done such as catering, tech, guests etc, to make sure everybody else was on track and on schedule. The seminar started a bit late, but I am actually still unsure of the exact reason for that, perhaps tech issues?callsheet

Since the seminar I have gathered the release forms for the guests and host, and have to submitted them to the steering committee.

Overall I attended all classes, and went to 8 out of 9 group meetings. During the meetings I was vocal and contributed to discussion in areas outside my own, such as social media, promo video, guests etc. As well as this I completed my own responsibilities on time. Through this assignment I found it rewarding working in a group to put the seminar together. The other group members were enthusiastic about the project, as was I, and I feel this resulted in us putting a lot of effort into our respective tasks. I was motivated to work harder so as not to let the team down, as well as just having the drive to help create a great seminar.

I would give myself 83% for this assignment, a HD. I did everything that I could in my chosen field of responsibilities to a good standard and didn’t have any issues with the group. I could have improved in assisting with other areas, such as helping crew on the promo video and taking others responsibilities off of their hands, etc. But in terms of my own responsibilities, I was diligent in completing them, being present and contributing in group meetings, and assisted other group members where I could.

September 13, 2015

Making progress

We’re still organising which guests can come to our seminar. We have the possibility of a Skype interview but we decided that would probably be a but jarring. Anna Mcleish had confirmed but recently pulled out due to changing schedules. Before that happened I did a fair amount of research and found some resources for the group to look at, particularly a great interview where she discussed what she does and how she started, and how she got to where she is today; which is really the direction we wanted to take with our seminar. However, it’s back to the drawing board with that.

While we wait to confirm some guests that I can research, I’ve been working more on the general structure of the seminar and how it will run. Its a little difficult because if we knew the guests we could tailor the questions more to them and their experiences, as well as research them in depth now so the host can seem as though he knows their work well. But that will have to come later. For now there are just general questions related to our topic. I need to work on an opening monologue for Jim to say also, as I decided that would be a good idea to break the ice and introduce our theme. I’ve scheduled a break in-between some of the questions, as based off experiences of the other seminars, it keeps everyone comfortable and happy.

For now I’ll keep writing and planning, but when we confirm guests I’ll research them so we can get more tailored questions and get to know their experiences better, as well as for things like press releases.

August 16, 2015

Initial Decisions

I am in the film group for Media 6, so we are presenting our seminar in week 9; the 25th of September. In our first meeting, none of us voted for ‘Epic Journey’ and it was probably the last on our list, half of us voting for ‘Monopoly’ and the other half ‘Magic.’ Because of this we were a bit stumped when coming up with concepts. Which led to my first contribution. I chose the concept for the seminar: The epic journey of being in the industry, focusing on people who have changed jobs throughout their time. They may have begun as production assistants and are now cinematographers. Or perhaps they were in TV as camera ops and are now in film as directors. This also addresses the question of where to go after uni. You may want to be a feature film director or producer, but you may not be there right after uni. Or you may start there but end up somewhere completely different. The other group members really liked the idea so we are focusing on that for our ‘Epic Journey.’ Since then we have been communicating on facebook, coming up with names and themes. We settled on a Star Wars theme, with the title ‘Media VI: A New Hope,’ as our seminar should give hope to those who want to be, for example, feature film directors but don’t know where to begin etc.

In our next meeting in class, we decided on potential guests and narrowed our priorities down to our top three; the people we will be contacting first. Since then we have divided up  jobs and set a timeline for our deadlines. I volunteered to be involved in research and planning the structure of the seminar; researching guests, potential anecdotes and experiences our host could ask them about etc. As well as deciding how the event will play out. I suggested a Graham Norton Show style approach where it is a more conversational, anecdote based talk show structure, which the other members agreed was a good idea. For now I will be researching more broadly and coming up with more ideas for the event, but until our guests are booked, I can’t do any really specific research. I would also be interested in helping the other members with other jobs, such as the design and aesthetic, and promotional material.

June 8, 2015

Final Reflection- Tim Cresswell & Ghosts and Space

 

URL
Readings –
  • Cresswell (introduction)
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  • Hornstein
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  • J.E. Malpas
Link
  • Mason
Link
Site Visits –
  • State Library
Link
  • Public Records Office
Link
  • Melbourne Museum
Link
Guests –
  • Professor Martyn Hook (& the reading associated with his visit)
Link
  • Professor Paul Gough
Link
  • Abigail Belfrage
Link
  • Jeremy Bowtell
Link
Briefs –
  • Brief 1
Link
  • Brief 2
Link
  • Brief 3 (with presentation slides)
Link
  • Brief 4
Link1

Link2

Work in progress posts
  • Individual project
Link

Link

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  • Group project
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Link

Tim Cresswell’s ‘Place an Introduction’- Chapter 5

‘An important part of the creation of a sense of place is a focus on particular and selective aspects of history.’ I found this part about ‘Place and Memory’ to be largely reflective of our individual projects this semester. Initially I thought since we were sharing buildings that our media pieces would be similar or have the same feel and tone to them. But through hearing other people’s ideas and areas of focus, I found that they all reflect something quite different, and that the way we represented space was more reflective of our areas of focus, rather than the place as a whole. We each remembered the spaces a different way and took something different from them, and that is reflected in how we constructed our representations of the place.

Cresswell goes on to discuss what it means to represent place in a way where it can ‘contribute to the production and reproduction of memory,’ by bringing the past to the present. Again, I thought about how we used our research to inform our pieces, and how we reflected on a certain memory of history and tried to represent that. This was challenging as it required careful planning so I could capture the tone I wanted, and to make sure it was accurate to the space. Interestingly, our representations of the same place may be vastly different, as we researched different things and have different memories of the space which we represented. Cresswell states that ‘places have many memories and the question of which memories are promoted and which cease to be memories at all is a political question.’ It depends on our own experiences and memories formed though what we find important. As our own memories of the place make up our representations, our memories are what gets passed on to the viewers. Those who experience the space second-hand through media have the memory we present them with. This can also be connected to the idea of research, where our understanding of the space was largely based off of what resources were available to us and on record. I now understand how difficult it is to accurately represent a space without giving it an automatic bias toward a certain aspect or memory. In order to do this as accurately as possible, you need to spend a lot of time in the space across different days and times, and continually revisit it as you research the space. I found going to the building was even more engaging once I had an understanding of what it is I was experiencing.

Cresswell then talks about the role architecture has in creating place, noting that an architect has to be able to read an ‘accumulation of things to produce a good architecture that fits into the genus loci of a particular place.’ In this way, so much of the sense of place is informed by the architecture. As my piece was about the accumulation of architecture, I find this very relevant. The sense of space and history that I found in the building was largely due to the architecture, as that was what remained of the place’s memory. The term ‘romantic nostalgia’ is an interesting one, as it is idea of creating something nostalgic just because it is romanticised. Similar to the recent production of remastered vinyl, some architects attempt to create new buildings using traditional architecture. This is nostalgic and pretty, but the architecture doesn’t inform the place, and it loses its sense of place as the context is not accurately reflected in the architecture. It is disjointed. This is also a struggle when creating media about the subject, as it is easy to capture a space on film, but to capture the accurate feel of such historical places is more challenging. To transport audiences to a certain historical memory or place through a contemporary medium requires planning. Throughout my own process, I spent a long time considering what the most effective way to illustrate my view of the space was, and organised elements such as sound, colour, imagery etc. to do this effectively. This was difficult to do, even for an abstract 3 minute film; for a more comprehensive representation of a space, it would be much more consuming and detailed.

This contrast between the spaces we were working with and the medium used is also discussed in the Cresswell reading. The ‘boundary that separates online and offline worlds.’ Though both spaces are very defined and online space has its own sense of place, it is difficult to represent the architectural space through the online medium accurately. They are immersive in different ways, physically or mentally, and it is not always easy to communicate the place well through crossovers. The virtual tour of the building would feel distant if it was just a series of photos (our individual works should remedy this.) Something I have found through the semester, however, is that online space is just as real as offline space, and it is completely unique and different. The crossover between these worlds is challenging, and requires a lot of careful planning in order to create an effective piece utilising them both (a website and online video illustrating a historical space). But my understanding of space changed as I no longer view online space as a subspecies of offline space; where we can imitate things from ‘the real world.’ It is instead very defined and unique and needs to be catered to in a specific way. The ability to represent a space accurately needs to be approached very differently depending on the space the representation will occupy. Despite this, I found it highly engaging working through these issues for our own pieces, and have found there are so many vastly different ways to represent the same place through media. Online media allows us to explore new possibilities for representation and creativity.

June 5, 2015

Individual Project- Vestiges

70%

1.  Vestiges, 2:47

Follows the history of the architecture and the space building 20 occupies, as guided by the narration of Peter Elliott; the building’s architect. This is visualised through the construction of a large photo-collage within the Third Court.  Normal paced footage with the narration is broken up by time-lapsed, somewhat chaotic footage and sounds of the construction and destruction of elements in the collage. I chose to do this without musical accompaniment, so as to focus on the physical noises, as well as to reflect the silence and stillness of the space..

The purpose of this piece is to tell the story of the space in an original and experimental way. I attempted to capture the action of constructing, destroying, and covering up/ re-purposing through the collage, in order to reflect the way I saw the building’s development.

2. I worked on this project alone, thus I undertook each task myself with guidance from my tutor and guests. This project involved collecting images through photography and the State Library, editing them and creating a Photoshop composition, printing these layers accurately, and the physical construction itself. It also required me to locate an interviewee, and do a sound interview with them (Peter Elliott). This interview informed the collage construction, which I recorded by moving the camera around to many different angles throughout the construction, as well as recording clear sounds of construction to layer over this. Then, of course my most recent role was editing the piece.

3. I think I approached this project carefully and enthusiastically which allowed it to come together without any major problems. Technically, the recording of footage and sound went well, as I was familiar with the equipment, and I was able to source everything I wanted for the project early, including the physical resources and an interview with Peter Elliott, who was my first choice for a subject.

4. Some aspects were challenging, however. It took a while to get in contact with Peter Elliott, and I had to go through a 3rd party to get a contact for him. Printing the images was also difficult, as the files were enormous and wouldn’t send efficiently to the wireless printer I was using. This meant I had to save each tile of picture as a separate file so they were small enough to send. These issues were easily resolved, however. The only other thing I would do differently next time is to be more careful with my framing, as there were occasionally chairs or other items seen in my shots that I wasn’t able to crop out in editing. The process of filming would also go more efficiently if I had multiple cameras, instead of having to move the one camera around almost every shot.

5. The main issue I had was access to building 20, as I had specific shots in mind to work with my composition, but I was not always able to get them when I wanted as the spaces were being used. I figured out that the courtrooms were all generally available in the late morning and early afternoon, and the meetings usually happened later in the day. So I was able to schedule my shoots around this. I also found it difficult to contact Peter Elliott at first, as the contact email I had for him didn’t reply. I resolved this by continuing to look for other possible interviewees while I waited for responses, which organically led me to another contact email for Elliott. When I contacted the Architecture faculty at RMIT asking if they would be interested, I got a response with a more direct email address for Peter Elliott, to which he replied.

6. Reflecting on the semester, I have found I was able to get a better understanding of how space and place can be represented through media. The ability to explore a space and represent it in a totally immersive way is more challenging than I initially thought. But I think by combining multiple media elements and creating something more experimental, I was able to capture what I intended.

June 4, 2015

Virtual Tour

30%

Building 20: https://www.youvisit.com/tour/melbourneghosts/89521

Building 16: https://www.youvisit.com/tour/melbourneghosts/89473

1. Virtual Tour

A virtual walk-through of the buildings using photos and panoramas, with each students work embedded in an appropriate space. The idea explored is about enhanced space, and how the space is able to be experienced remotely, as well as our individual works being available in this virtual reality space.

2. My role was mostly in the pre-production stage. During brainstorming, I tested out various tour sites such as youvisit and pinterest using the photos I had already collected from my individual project, then reported back as to what worked and what didn’t. I also did initial gathering of information, such as gathering floor-plans and researching possible methods of production, to deduce whether they would be possible.

3. Once the method was decided on, it was easier to plan what needed to be done. The most difficult part of production was deciding on the best hosting method for the tour, and how it would be structured. Many websites had shortcomings, and/ or cost a lot of money. But once we found a good option, we were more productive. in the future, it would be beneficial to be more decisive, rather than hoping you will stumble across a better option. Being willing to adapt your initial idea is important in media making, and we were eventually able to settle on an idea that we were happy with, and that was completely do-able.

 

May 31, 2015

Editing and Finishing Touches

I managed to get a good fine cut done on Friday, which means I am ahead of schedule. I expected to only have a rough cut by then. It has really come together in the process. It was always the case that the editing is what makes this piece interesting. It is more abstract, and the way i ended up putting it together is having bursts of time-lapse, and breaking it up with pieces of the interview. So now, the most important part is the get the colour grading looking really nice, as I think getting attractive looking film is what is going to make all the actions stand out. Plus I think I have more leeway to do something more creative with this one, so if I go overboard with the filters it doesn’t matter too much. If all goes well, I should have ‘remnants’ finished by tomorrow, which reminded me; I was never fully content with the name remnants. It was good as a working title, but I am looking for something better to name the piece by tomorrow. I just think the word is too general, or maybe its too common and I want it to be more hipster sounding. Either way, I have consulted the thesaurus for a few ideas.

Vestige: I like this one, as it suggests the architecture is left over but the people that used it are gone and the building is more of an empty shell these days. It also suggests impermanence, right now the building is being used for something, but in the future the space will not be used in this way.

Motley: I was considering this as it communicates the idea of collage and layers, but I thought it was kind of insulting to the architects as it suggests the building is incongruous, which it isn’t.

Mélange: This word sounds and looks nice, and gets across the collage idea, but not so much the history idea.

At this point ‘Vestige’ or ‘Vestiges’ seems the best option. It communicates the idea of trace elements and remnants, but also the idea of history and loss of functionality and use.

 

May 25, 2015

Virtual Tour work

I have been diligently documenting all aspects of the individual project, ‘remnants,’ that i forgot to write and reflect on the virtual tour that I have been working on. Admittedly, I recognise the bias I have toward the individual project, and have been spending much more time and effort thinking about that.

So far, I have mostly been involved in the pre-production of the virtual tour. Researching different avenues, gathering sources and testing potential hosting websites, creating prototypes on pinterest’s map feature and youvisit to get an idea of how each work and the possibilities of each.

I took a back seat during the production stage, but hopefully in Friday’s class I can assist more with the assembly and polishing of the product. I will also be organising the google cardboard for the presentation. I will probably have to do more research for this and will probably talk to Jake about it as he seems to have a better idea of how it works, what kind of phones would be required etc.

May 25, 2015

Initial Editing- Jeremy Bowtell

On Friday we had a guest freelance editor, Jeremy Bowtell, giving us a crash course of how to edit in adobe premiere. At the beginning of the session I didn’t think I was confident with premiere and editing because it had been a while since I had used it. But I realised all the things covered were things I already knew, and gave me more confidence in my ability to edit this piece. It was useful to get a refresher on the functions of premiere and how to set yourself up for an effective and efficient process. Organisation and making sure everything is in the right place before  you begin is vital, and i found it made the process go a lot quicker for me as well.

My piece relies on editing to a large extent, as the effective imagery and sounds will come from quick flashes of action and time lapse. I found the sounds were quite interesting as they were, sped up without the pitch affected, and I managed to get a really rough version of the bulk of the piece done. However I decided to supplement this with more consistent and repetitive sounds of cutting, ripping, gluing, crumpling etc to make it more cohesive and rhythmic. Almost like a musical piece. I will record these myself, though they are not difficult to source online if I require further sounds. Since I have a rough version of he imagery together, today I will begin editing the interview to see if it will work with the piece. Then I can alter them both together. The focus will be on the imagery and sounds of the construction, so the interview will be used minimally, if at all. Once this is together, I will have a rough cut. Then I can add in my recorded sounds and tighten up the edit. I hope to have an almost finished, relatively together piece by Friday the 29th.