Author: matthewmontalvo (page 1 of 2)

Men’s Shed #5

Except from the speech I wrote for myself for the next presentation infront of the studio and Lentara CEOs detailing our plan :

Our plan for Brimbank’s Men’s shed is to help the organisation to gain community awareness and hopefully aid the group in being able to present a proposal to potential corporate partners to attain funding.

To capture community and corporate attention, our group has designed several concepts across various platforms, such as a online documentary, and revamping the existing website. By modifying the Men’s Shed online presence, we hope to appeal to it’s consumers. The main target for this is to hopefully encourage consumers to donate to the struggling cause….

….our aim for awareness is that it is a link to get community support and funding…

besides a revamped website and an online documentary, we planned to create two more short videos. The key here is that we don’t have to film tons and tons of footage, it comes down to how we edit the said footage that aids which model it is placed in…”

The models I was speaking about, was to make our client happy, our concept was to edit the footage that one final product is the online documentary, the other would be used as an almost Kickstarter type fundraiser video, and finally the last edit would be one that could be shown to corporate partners, to get their involvement.

Men’s Shed #4

After presenting our initial ideas to the studio, and Jeff Jones, he cautioned our team that are concept was  focusing too much on aiming for corporate support.

The idea of holding a community event was feasible at first, especially for me, as back in primary school, myself and another 10/11 year old girl, held a Breast Cancer awareness/fundraiser day at the school, packed with activities and supported by local companies, such as Coles supermarket.

Through more brainstorming and meetings our team finally decided to play with our strengths and produce a video production. Out of the five of us, none of us had no business past, but at least three of us had an extensive film practice. For the benefit of the shed and Lentara, it was better for our team to play with our strengths rather than take a blind gamble.

Men’s Shed # 3

After the meeting with Casey O’Brien, our team began to brainstorm on what we could do to accomplish the company’s needs. It was obvious that the Sunshine Mission was desperate and was starting to run out of ideas as the funding began to decline at a high velocity, accompanied by the decline of patrons attending the Shed.

In our team of five, three of us had a previous filmography past, and the other two were graphic designers. The film/media students of the collective were, myself included, against the idea of producing a short film production to aid the company. I am to believe that this reason of not producing a short film was the concept that it was just another exhausted niche in our repertoire. We initially wanted to challenge ourselves.

The plan of action was to try an meet all the needs that Lentara required. Under some zany circumstances, our breakthrough idea from our brainstorming was to hold a community event that would also co-exist as a means to gain donations and funding. The community event was a la of that featured in Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Act 2, where this event was used to tie the community together to help fund the struggling local high school.

 

Now was the plan of how to we actually make this event happen.

Men’s Shed #2

Now that we had a cause and an obvious our first initial response was to head over to the Sunshine shed and speak to the patrons and the coordinators in charge of this mission.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the excursion, and these are the notes I was given by my team members on the meeting with Casey O’Brien, the manger of the Lentara at the Sunshine Mission.

  • The Sunshine mission is home to Brimbank’s Men’s Shed and workshop. The location also includes a church, a communal garden, a meeting room (available for hire), work offices and a food storage room with food provided by Foodbank, Aus Harvest and occasionally Woolworths.
  • The Sunshine Mission is host to several people from Work For The Dole, including the waiter from the cafe.
  • Funding of the Men’s Shed comes mainly from the Uniting Church congregation attached to the Sunshine Mission.
  • The Sunshine Mission run 3 different activities: Tool Program (about 30 regulars involved), Socialisation (30 people) and Asylum Seeker program (10 people), which provides acclimation assistance to Asylum Seekers.
  • People who go to the Men’s Shed are aged from 50 to 70
  • The 3 main ways people find out about the Men’s Shed and the other programs are through referrals, word of mouth and website.
  • Casey suggested that a three year investment with a corporate partner will sustain the mission’s programs for the next three years
  • Casey also suggested that profile building would be beneficial in securing corporate partners and financial support.
  • Casey describes the Sunshine Mission as “A goldmine”, believing it can eventually be self sufficient and it’s success can be a “Gateway to different things”
  • Funding of the Shed goes towards publicity (i.e. brochures and organised events), employment of Co-ordinator, Anthony Lai and materials
  • Casey emphasises Anthony’s importance to the shed, due to his experience, understanding and expertise
  • Casey and Anthony previously visited a Men’s Shed in Glen Waverley and points that being an example of a successful Men’s Shed
  • Heather, an employee we met indicated the communal justice program could also use a bit of attention.

 

Men’s Shed #1

Lentara as a studio subject was attractive to me on the basis that finally in this degree, I can experience working for an actual operating company, and aid them with whatever needs they require.

Entering this course late, I was nervous but was ready to accept any challenge presented to me. I was placed in to the Men’s Shed team. At first, as the late student, I believed that the team members did not trust me or my work ethic, but having a previous TAFE history with John Micheal helped to soothe the others’ concerns.

The aim for this team was to collaborate creatively to rebrand the Brimbank’s Men’s Shed, located in Sunshine, and promote the organization to gather a community  following and hopefully gain funding as the current funding was about to come to an end, resulting in a potential closure of the Shed.

Women in Media: The Seminar

The seminar day:

Mollie’s  idea of having the different set-up/pack down teams worked really well and we all met in the seminar room as soon as we could get there around 3.20pm. As organized and punctual as we were, things were going to go wrong.

Such as going to get the chairs and props from the television hire to find no one there and no way to get the props. After a few phone calls we finally got in. From there, it was a struggle carrying chairs, landscapes, and plants across campus and the city street with wind and all. With the props being at the lecture hall, and time running out. We all ran around taking care of everything we needed to do. I, helped by Mardy, and Mollie, was in charge of covering the blue chairs with black fabric and pinning said fabric on to the chairs. Plus, I was helping set up the lighting, gaffering, and clearing our stuff from the audience that is about to get in.

To be perfectly honest, it did rub me the wrong way that two students from another seminar, actually the seminar that was going to be held the following week from ours was in the room, just watching us set-up, especially when we did not want any outsiders until 4. Also,  Mia and I specifically asked Kevin not to take any behind the scenes type photographs and place them on the RMIT adventure instagram, but he did anyway.

It was 4, everything was set, but it seemed like one of our guests weren’t there yet, and it was time to bring in the audience, once we found our hiding guest. At 4:05 doors opened with Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’, my recommendation, blaring over the speakers and the seminar was ready to go.

Overall, I believe the seminar went great and have heard only good feedback.

Women in Media promo

The idea behind the promo (Sarah’s great idea) was to have our host, Prani, battling her way up the RMIT building, showing her epic journey to the Women In Media seminar. I am stoked with my group’s effort. We managed to film and cut together pretty much the entire promo in a couple of hours (minus one shot we had to film later that night). I am lucky to have such a strong team of creative individuals as when it came to the filming of the promo, everyone was switched and full of great ideas. Sarah and I earlier in the week did a quick location scout to organise where to film and the night before Sarah devised a shot list, so we were more than prepared when it came to the shoot. Mardy shot the footage and it looks stunning for something that we didn’t even light or really put that much effort into cinematography-wise, she’s a natural talent! We had other helping hands there as well on the shoot, Mia helped with sound, Maree was there for creative input and also stood in as an extra and of course Prani did a fantastic job as the star of the promo.

I edited the piece with the help of the girls and it was a fun experience. Mia helped create the shot instagram snippets that was handed off to the social media group people to promote our seminar. I believe the overall end product of the promo video is extremely nice and shows all our hard efforts. It was decided that we would not show the promo at the seminar before the guests would speak, like other groups have decided to do, as we believed it would cheapen our seminar.

Women in Media Poster

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We finally got our seminar poster finally made, printed and placed around building 9. It took quite awhile to get to this point with the poster, one being an original idea that I particularly was against, depicting a sculpture Joan with half a face of each group member, including males, which i believe went against the original conception of this seminar.

We had a spelling mistake on the original poster and after a few back and forths with the Steering Committee we almost got our poster completed. After we finally got our third guest onboard, we were able to finally complete our seminar poster!  Maddie was in charge of this one and she did a fantastic effort. I, Mia, and Mollie printed off this posters and placed them around building 9, including the bathrooms. There was two things of this promotion that I wasn’t too happy with, one being one of our posters was removed in the study area, and two the film group started promoting their seminar exactly the same time as ours.

Women in Media

This week team leader Mollie crafted up several team lists that each person could sign up for.

The teams consist of:
– Guest Team: Will reach out to our guests and keep in contact with them/make them feel welcome on the day of seminar
– Social Media Team: Will take care of all social media aspects of seminar including facebook, instagram and twitter.
– Design Team: Will design poster to advertise seminar as well as brochure for the actual day as a handout. Also will be responsible for printing posters and advertisements.
– Video Promo Team: will be in charge of planning, shooting and editing together.
– Stage Production Team: Will be in charge of stage setup, lighting, audio and filming the seminar.
– Catering: In charge of snacks and refreshments.

I decide to help in the Video promo team and Stage Production team

Pitch

The pitch went quite well for out story ‘Instafame’. Mardy was discussing the theory and the transmedia reasoning behind all of our choices for this narrative, while Sarah was talking about each platform our story will be presented in and why each platform was specifically chosen. Mollie was introducing the basic outline of our story and the research and inspiration behind it, while I was informing the audience and panel on the themes that our narrative will convey.

 

The three social media platforms that our story will be present in is: Tumblr, Instagram, and Qoohme. These three have been chosen for all different reasons. I honestly had not had heard of Qoohme before beginning this project, but the idea of people being able to anonymously ask questions to someone, is an interesting way to see how someone in perceived within society, and also shows how they interact with others. Tumblr was specifically chosen because you can express and tell a story using different mediums, like text, image, video, and sound. With tumblr you can create an interesting collage into someone’s world and mind, without specifically laying everything down for the audience. Because we are specially monitoring every little detail that is going to be posted on the tumblr, we are going to get the message that we are trying to get across, but it will also allow the audience to fill in the gaps and use their brain to gain the message as well, which hopefully will allow the story to be interactive and engaging.

 

A bible has been created for our story and character Emily, detailing her likes dislikes, a weekly plan for each of the three weeks that the narrative takes place, and what needs to be posted, reblogged, what images need to be seen, and what important story points need to be covered in each week.

 

Mollie and designed the Tumblr page, which was actually harder than we expected, as we had a very clear and specific look at our character’s aesthetic and personality, and knew what we need to do to get that across, but it was hard finding the exact right options to achieve that look.

 

Each member has been equally involved and has equally participated in the creation and execution of this narrative since day one. Between each member and between the three weeks there will be a rotating roster for each member to take control of each of the different social media accounts and because there is a bible of Emily, that has the timeline and what needs to be posted what and when, and the revenant content for each media account, each member should find it quite easy to be able to take control of each social media account.

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