It is with great relief that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is relaxing the laws on drones that are under 2kg from September 2016.  CASA have changed the laws in regards to using a drone for commercial purposes.  There used to be a lot of red tape to make money from this growing industry.  A pilots certificate and an operators certificate used to be required to make commercial gain from drones under 2 kg.  Sometimes people had to wait up to 6 months for their licences to be approved from CASA due to the backlog of applications.  It was also quite an expensive and confusing process to obtain these licences.  Private CASA approved instructors charge up to $4000 for the licences to legally operate a drone.  Now the new laws will skip these procedures and give drone operators exemption from having to obtain licences for commercial gain.  But only if the drone is under 2kg.  Otherwise the old procedure still applies.

The new laws still require the operator to follow the CASA rules when operating a drone.

• stay away at least 30m from people when operating a drone.
• keep your drone under 120 metres
• not night flying
• you must keep your drone in line of site.
• you must not operate your drone within 5.5km of any airport.

Approval by CASA is required if any of the above rules are going to be breached.  Overall this is a great new law that can also enhance the use of drones in films as well.

There has been a few hurdles to deal with in the learning process of making a decent k film for project 3.  I have found it very tough to work with some people and have been left feeling frustrated.  One of my participants in the making of the k film, Alan, has stuffed me around and has made it virtually impossible to get a string of decent footage together.  Every weekend Alan informs that he is going riding.  But when when I try to contact him I get no answer.  Then he will come up with a rubbish excuse everytime I inquire why he didn’t answer his calls.  I have only limited footage of him at the moment and will struggle to get the granules required to make the k film more successful.

But I have had no issues with my other participant and have captured a decent range of footage to include in the k film.  I have learnt the basics of editing in Premier Pro and have put together some decent granules to include in the korsakow program.  But I am not completely happy with the overall package and have learnt where some aspects can be improved.  I was happy with some of the footage captured on drone but I think the interview process was quite limited in preparation for my granules.  I think each granule should be a subject matter rather than just the one question.  This would create a better flow of conversation in each granule.

I also think for the following project that our group need to meet up more outside of school and work together in making the granules.  Maybe I am old school but I prefer to discuss ideas and concepts in person rather than having conversation on social media.  I feel limited in expressing myself by communicating online and find it restrictive in the creative process.  I think Steven wasn’t too fussed about meeting up in person as much compared to myself.  Maybe it’s a generational thing.  A spanner has also been thrown in the works with Aravinda arriving late into our group due to someone leaving the class.  Aravinda has had limited input because of this dilemma and due to lack of communication I don’t think he really knows what is going on.  We gave Aravinda notes and material to read.  We also assigned him some written material but I haven’t seen anything yet.

This learning curve will definitely make myself more prepared for the issues I might have to confront in the next project.  There has to be better correlation in the making of the granules which in turn will create a better consistency.  But there is still a few more days before the project 3 is due so hopefully we can polish it up to achieve a good presentation.

Above is a diagram of how myself and Ven are organising our granules for the Korsakow program.  We are going to be sticking to the thematic question “What does cycling mean to you?”  Then we are going to ask questions that relate to how they answer the main question.  We plan to have all the granules consistent with each other and have a similar timeframe.

I have been watching a few interactive documentaries but the one that I was most impressed with was ‘Journey to the centre of coal’.  This was an interactive documentary that was like a choose your own adventure that let users explore the lives of miners in China.  It was a great way to experience which direction you wanted the journey to take.  The documentary had the feel that you were playing the role as journalist and gave you the power to decide which aspects of the mining industry you wanted to investigate.  Each section gave a choice on what direction you want the story to take, what questions you ask the miners and residents, and which location you want to investigate.

After watching a few k films there seems to be a general lack of information on what is actually on each granule.  I feel there has to be at least something in order to want the viewer to choose a particular granule.  Otherwise it just seems pointless to click on images that the viewer doesn’t even know what they are related to.  It could also seem a bit boring to click on these images just for the hell of it.  So instead of random image clicking we thought it would work better to have text on each granule that includes information.  Ven and I decided we will have a small profile information on each rider in text and have the questions visible on each granule.  This will give the viewer the power of choice in which question he/she would like to click on and feel some amount of control in the interview process.  It would also be non linear as the viewer has the choice to pick questions in no particular order.

I think that the information will give a better narration to the viewer and will grab their interest more to click on what is contained in each granule.  ‘Journey to the centre of coal’ was successful in leaking out small information that made you want to pursue on where the narrative was taking you.

Here is a demo of a granule without the audio in it.  The password is bigal.

www.vimeo.com/137360104

Today I went to the botanic gardens to do some aerial shots with my drone.  I started flying it around and capturing video footage for my second project.  I was trying to find bike riders to follow so the footage somehow related to the topic.  A guy that works at the gardens as a park manager came up to me and asked if I had a business card.  I asked him politely what it was that he was interested in doing.  He introduced himself as Mike and said that he was interested in getting particular aerial shots of certain plants within the gardens.  Mike mentioned that the management wants to survey the whole park with aerial footage and show the specific locations where certain rare plants are situated.

We started talking and I discussed with him how I am currently learning Korsakow.  I briefly mentioned what the program is and how it works.  Mike was very interested in the dynamics of the program and thought this technique could be applied to the footage that he wants to capture.  So we swapped details and he asked if I could send a few demo shots to his email.  Mike said he would send information via email of what the management wanted.  Hopefully this could be a breakthrough in my aerial photography career with Mike officially being my first drone client.

During this week we were encouraged to purchase the Korsakow program to incorporate our videos and edit in this program.  Korsakow is a program designed to be interactive with the audience where they have the choice in which direction the narrative takes.  The narrative is naturally non linear.  I bought the program and had a quick look into it but haven’t had the opportunity to learn much yet due to moving houses.  I am patiently waiting for my internet to be connected so that I can watch the tutorials to learn this program.

But to be honest I am also wondering whether learning this program will be recognised as an asset from future prospective employers.  I’ve never heard of the program before this course and I can’t find any documentaries that have had great commercial success using Korsakow.  The program has been around for a while now and to my knowledge doesn’t seem to be used much in mainstream media.  It might make some interesting non linear programs but can money be made out of this?  At the end of the day to pursue making k films as a money earning career seems an unpalatable concept.

Maybe I’m looking at this from the wrong perspective but I don’t see many jobs out in the market requesting Korsakow as an essential skill to have.  Although it could be utilised as a specialist skill as there wouldn’t be too many people that knowledge of this program.  It could be a unique skill that gives you the edge over the next person in line.

For the first tutorial our class were given the assignment of taking pictures of bicycles around the city and also capturing audio for it as well.  Our class went to a cafe to get to know each other and then we were divided into groups to capture the visual and audio material.  There was no shortage of bicycles to take photos of and I tried to be diverse in capturing the images.  But I struggled to figure out what audio to capture as bicycles don’t make much of a noise compared to other distractions in the city.  So I decided to approach a few bicycles that were locked up and recorded myself ringing the bells on them.  I felt kind of awkward doing this as passerbyers  were looking at me quite strangely.  Eventually I managed to capture enough material and am now interested in how we are going to utilise this material in the future.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/niklas-greasby/2015/06/02/rmitv-genesis-workshop/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/niklas-greasby/2015/04/07/media-watch-an…-david-gyngell/ ‎

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/niklas-greasby/2015/03/29/script-feedback/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/niklas-greasby/2015/04/16/pirating-will-always-prevail/ ‎

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/niklas-greasby/2015/04/20/project-3-reflection/ ‎

I wrote a pilot television script called “Shambles” a while ago for a previous course.  It is a story about a young guy named Danny who lives in a youth residential home.  He strives to escape welfare dependency and to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer.  In the past I have worked as a youth worker at a residential home.  The young people were in the home due to being taken from their parents by the Department of Human Services.  This experience gave me plenty of interesting stories to put on paper and I thought it was a unique insight into a world that hasn’t really been explored on television before.  The format is one hour long and at the moment the season consists of ten episodes.

Recently I received an email from RMITV stating that there is a workshop happening called RMITV Genesis and that they were looking for writers with a television concept to join the workshop.  The workshop includes working with experienced producers to refine the idea and analyse the script.  There are only two places in the workshop so I thought I might as well pitch my concept and see if I get any interest.  Lucky for me I have received confirmation for a place in the workshop and am looking forward to being a part of this process.  Hopefully I can develop more professional contacts from this experience and help enhance my writing skills as well.

Before I started the course I wasn’t really sure which direction I wanted to head towards when it came to developing media content.  But now I am definitely more inclined to the idea of producing media as a visual means more than anything else.  The self portrait projects were an effective way for me to learn the process of creating a certain visual media.  It also made me realise that certain skills have to be learnt and attained outside of the course structure.  I really enjoy using modern technology to make media more effective.  I plan to learn more computer programs to give myself an edge when it comes to producing media content.

I must admit some of the academic readings were quite a struggle to get through.  I found myself googling a lot of the academic terms in reference to the media studies,  although some of the readings were quite interesting and helped broaden my knowledge of media in general terms.  The annotated bibliography exercise made me reach a better understanding of mediums and how it will take shape in the future.  I used to be quite pessimistic about journalism as a career with so many newspapers in decline.  But studying this subject has helped me open my eyes to the future opportunities that this profession has.  Another challenging aspect for me is trying to find the right balance between work and studies.  I would love to focus more time on studying but I also have to earn an income to survive.  There are just not enough hours in a day for me.  Better time management is definitely something that I will have to focus on in the future.

I am enjoying this course and finding it relevant to the sort of career I want to have in the future.  It has been a great way in making contacts and networks with like minded people, especially when I worked on a short film with a fellow student.  This was a great experience in learning about the production side of making short films.  I definitely want to learn more about producing for short films and television.  I joined RMITV to get more experience in this profession and have found there are plenty of opportunities available to learn more about this practice.   I have also appreciated receiving feedback on some of my work as well in the tutorial classes.  Overall this course has been a great experience so far and I am looking forward to the next semester.

This graph below is a reflection of my learning process throughout the 12 weeks.

1. How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories? (red)
2. What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools? (pink)
3. How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make? (purple)
4. What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog (aqua)

There was a list of prompts on the board to choose from and the class were instructed to choose one and discuss it on our blog.  I decided to choose ‘Humanity is in charge of it’s own future.’ We were encouraged just to let our ideas flow on the paper in 15 minutes.  The following is the outcome of this task.

Humanity is in charge of its own future.

Do humans have any control of the planet’s destiny? Will capitalism and the chase for profit completely destroy the environment and make earth inhabitable? Unless there is a radical change in how societies and economies function, it is obvious that the planet cannot sustain constant growth. But with growing intelligence and technological advancements, humanity in the future might not be restricted to just this planet.

But that doesn’t mean the human race can’t change the fate of this planet. As humans we have a capacity to learn from our mistakes and change the direction of our future. But change has to come from the population as a whole as it can’t be just relied upon by politics and government.  Politics are often driven by private agendas and can easily be corrupted by monetary influences. The capitalist system cannot thrive in harmony with creating a sustainable planet. It is the continual pursuit for profit and growth that will eventually destroy all the earth’s resources and make this planet inhabitable if capitalism reigns supreme.  Hopefully technology can eventually change this fate.