In this weeks lectorial, Ramon Lobato spoke to us about the idea of Television, and how we as a society are consuming television or movies an shows. What Ramon Lobato said was extremely interesting as it made me think just in the last 5 years, how technology and television has immensely changed. Lobato mentioned that it is now mostly older audiences that watch 2.7 hours of Broadcasting television a day or night, and the amount of time that shows or movies consumed on devices other than a television is 6.4 hours, mostly consumed by younger audiences. Lobato’s main topic of discussion was based around Netflix and how popular this phenomenon has become. I found this statistic about Netflix that Lobato shared with us, that 25% of Households in Australia have a subscription to Netflix actually very surprising. As all of my friends have a Netflix account, or their family does, and when I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed the majority of posts are about popular Netflix shows such as ’13 Reasons Why’ or ‘Riverdale’. Therefore it makes me think that thousands of young people are watching Netflix, yet it is very possible that a lot of people are only using one users Netflix account. It is also interesting to note that Broadcasting television has come a long way since 1977, as there was only 4 free to air channels, in 1997 there were 5, and now in 2017, there are 30 free to air channels, yet the majority of us are consuming these shows on anything but the Broadcasting channels on a television.

In this weeks lecture, Kyla Brettle was the guest speaker that spoke to us about audio, and how to piece together audio, to get us ready for Project Brief 4. I really enjoyed Kyla’s speech as she really gave us all an incite into how recording audio works, along with giving us helpful tips when recording sound. The few tips I really took on board was making sure that I have two sound textures to work with, find the two best sounds or most powerful sounds to work with and then eventually find the path that connects those two powerful sounds, always save drafts of the audio as I work on it, and leave time at the end to ‘clean up’ the sound by softening or mixing the sound making sure the levels are relatively the same. These are the main tips that Kyla Brettle suggested that I think are the most valuable pointers in attempting to create successful audio for Project Brief 4.

In this weeks lectorial, Dr Rachael Wilson came to talk to us about ‘collaboration’. I found her notes very insightful, about the collaboration process when it comes to working in a group and doing group assignments. What Dr Wilson was saying was it is now becoming vital to be able to work in a group environment as it is one of the main things employers look at. As we begin getting into our groups for Project Brief 4, it is important to think about could go right and what could go wrong within group assignments. I reflect now on what Dr Wilson mentioned in the lecture such as; one person does all of the work and everyone gets credit for it, or a person feels uncomfortable expressing their opinion in the group, or what could go right is the workload is equally shared amongst the group and the assignment can overall be finished faster. Another helpful hint was that good communication is key to success in group tasks, as well as group discussion and feedback such as using De Bono’s ‘six thinking hats’. After Dr Wilson spoke, it was also interesting hearing what Brian had to say in terms of research for the project. This lecture indeed gave me something to think about  in relation to collaboration and the what the best ways are to go about group assignments.

In relation to this weeks lecture and workshop discussion about hyper and deep attention in terms of the Harry Potter Fandom, it has become clear to me that fans in general devote their life and the majority of their time to who or whatever they are a fan of. I notice on social media all the time different types of fandoms whether they are fans of artists such as like One Direction, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars etc.. or current popular TV shows like Riverdale or 13 reasons why, devoting their time to who or what they are a fan of. Especially on Twitter, I notice what the worlds top trends are, and the majority of the time, it is fandoms taking over Twitter, as a mass community, posting about every little thing such as the shorts Justin Bieber got ‘papped’ wearing or the new tattoo Harry Styles just got, and what each tiny detail of the tattoo symbolizes. Therefore, just by scrolling through social media it has become clear to me that fans, when they are thinking or ‘worshipping’ who or what they are a fan of, only use deep attention, as they place the fandom as the main priority in their life, like nothing else matters or is worth paying any attention to.

Underneath, I have added a screenshot of what is trending on Twitter worldwide today, you will notice #PositivityForNormani is trending, relating to Normani from the girl band Fifth Harmony, who’s fans are tweeting together as a community to ensure Normani is always happy, as they noticed she was feeling sad recently.

In relation to this weeks reading about the connection between animal and man, I have since purposely noticed just how much I rely on my dog. There is an undeniable connection between my dog and I, as I do understand when the reading mentions a human needs a pet or animal of some sort in their life. If ever I am having a bad day, I just need to look at my constantly smiling dog and I feel instant joy again. If ever I am in a sad mood and feeling down, my dog can sense exactly how I am feeling and knows how to life up my spirits. A human and animal/pet’s connection is real, it is a comforting relationship physically and mentally. Having a pet is like knowing a living being is always going to have your back, because we all know that sometimes not even all human beings can be there for us all of the time. Overall, a human and animal connection is a special connection as us humans rely on our pets as our pets rely on us to take care of them and look out for one another.

PB3 from Maddie Hewson on Vimeo.

In relation to this weeks reading about why youths share so publicly online, I thought I would refer to the fact that some people I know share two accounts online, whether it be Twitter or Instagram. People perhaps create a separate private account in order to share more publicly about their lives. People do tend to post more intimate or personal parts of their lives on their private account, perhaps because they follow people they personally know in their lives. Yet people on their public accounts, will more likely post photos of themselves that are not as personal or not real. Therefore I sometimes find that people use a public account to be more private and people use a private account to post in a more public way. Perhaps this is because people want to create a facade of themselves online, to pretend as if their life is perfect and social, yet their reality and intimate life is only shared to people who know them in real life.

This weeks reading by John Berger, is interesting as he gives insight into the connection between animal and man. What I found intriguing was the strong link between a mans and animals wisdom. I can see that it is obvious that Berger makes clear analogies between man and animal, for example he relates animals being in a zoo to humans in a ghetto, as they perhaps live in similar ways and think similar thoughts. Berger writes that humans also like to have pets, as those animals in a way complete humans, as the animals characteristics match the humans, yet in a way that humans may not perhaps say or do daily. Although I do understand what John Berger is saying, that there is a connection between man and animal, I suppose I found it hard reading as I could not see the relevance to the course, and although I did find this reading interesting, I guess I did not see the purpose of the reading in terms of this course.

In this weeks activity, we focused on the idea of filming or taking footage using one long shot. After given the theme, misunderstanding, this video is what my group and I came up with, we are not sure if the theme ‘misunderstanding’ was very evident, yet we achieved the idea of using the long shot, without editing (apart from taking out the sound).

bonnie from Maddie Hewson on Vimeo.