Media 5

Interviewing Isabella over Zoom presented some interesting challenges and opportunities. This saw the audio and visual quality traded in for the ease and accessibility of video calling. Though the production quality was significantly lower, it did make for an easy file to edit. I tried using title and end cards as well as having the question displayed on screen prior to the answer. This was helpful for providing context to the answers and providing a structure to the piece. However, the title card is not particularly engaging or attractive and could potentially have viewers scroll past the video or lose them early in its run time.

Out of the 3 sketches created for this assignment, I found this interview to be the most engaging, despite it being lower in production value. The use of a lo-fi backing track helped keep the energy up across the interview, which helped compensate for the lack of b-roll or cuts to other visuals besides the subject and the questions. To improve this video, I would bring the volume of the backing track down slightly and I would have perhaps looked further into the possibilities of other visuals to cut between. Sharing a landscape video as opposed to portrait video on IGTV was a choice I was initially unsure about, as a portrait video tends to be more immersive, especially on a mobile. However, this is more suggestive that rather than cropping this into a portrait size to make it more suitable to IGTV, this type of video would perform better on a platform more supportive of landscape video content such as Facebook or YouTube.

As a note for all 3 of the video interviews, particularly those which went through a post-production process, putting subtitles on my videos would have enhanced their accessibility and had them appear up to a higher professional standard. This is something to keep in mind for future video content creation to ensure the content is not only appropriate for a wider range of audiences, but can grasp a viewer’s attention more effectively from first glance.

My interview with Patrick was filmed vertically on my iPhone and later edited in Premier Pro. In the editing process I removed some of the larger pauses and made the responses shorter and more concise. Though I did edit the video, I wanted to keep the video close to its original form to preserve its organic approach. For this reason I didn’t use any end cards and kept things fairly true to its authentic presentation. I edited out my questions to keep the focus more on the responses, however, it may have made for this video to be quite monotone.

The use of b-roll of Patrick while his responses continued was an effective way to add some visual variation to the video. More footage like this would have been useful, as it was a little jarring given there was so few moments of this. Showing the video he spoke of having an impact on him may have also helped convey the message even further. The handheld approach to filming was a choice I felt made for more personable interview, however the jump cuts between answers meant that these edits were a bit disorienting. This could have been improved by using a tripod and having a more sophisticated audio recording process, such as using a lapel mic and changing some of the filming locations. Some soft backing music may have been the variation required to make this more engaging and keep viewers interested.

My interview with Mark was done using the Instagram Live feature. Though this gave me less control over the content itself as no editing was able to take place, the format of the live video allows for real-time user engagement, an invaluable connection opportunity especially during the pandemic. Mark was seated across from me while I held my phone and went live on the Instagram account. I then asked him my list of questions and had it structured as a back-and-forth Q&A. The ease of this style meant we were able to have a succinct and clear video come out of it.

However, it was very one-note. The inability to cut between shots or edit out some of the pauses and less engaging moments meant that the lack of variation may have led to a less captivating piece overall. In addition, the POV shot from the position of the interviewer potentially worked as a detriment to the piece. It led to a shaky camera which could have been mitigated by using a tripod or positioning the phone elsewhere. If this was done, I could have positioned myself in the frame as well, which may have made for a more visually appealing piece of video content. That way, my facial expressions could have served as reaction to Mark’s responses in place of the live audience which the format serves to support.

In promoting Alfredo Jaar’s ‘The Divine Comedy’ exhibition, Mona Museum’s IGTV shared a promotional video of the same title capturing the spirit of the piece. Mona’s in-house media team are clearly professionals. Their work across the museum’s social media platforms showcase the talent at their disposal. The investment into high-quality social media content creation aligns itself with the reputation of the gallery itself – forward-thinking, contemporary and innovative.

Eerie slow-motion clips of patrons interacting with the red and black exhibition coupled with Jaar’s narration evokes a sense of discomfort for the viewer. The heavy ambience, distant claps and synth disturbing the sound sets up the viewer for the tension experienced within the piece itself. As the visuals shift to a cooler, brighter tone, the backing music fades into silence. The relief of his movement away from the darkness both audibly and visually allows for Jaar’s narration of his intent to resonate in the viewer’s ears. His message that the piece promotes a return to the “essence of life” is given a space to be heard clearly without interruption from the external noise. Being an immersive exhibition, the efforts to give audiences a sense of the discomfort the work seeks to address is an effective means of using experimental sound and visuals as a piece of marketing.

While the sound and visual design solidifies this as an experimental piece of content, the use of Jaar’s narration and the visuals following a patron’s experience from start to finish keeps a linearity to the video, making it accessible to wider audiences. The technical experimental risks this video takes while maintaining a linear narrative allows audiences to treat this as an entry point to the exhibition and its abstract methodology. This is a different form of video that most would usually see on their new feeds, lending users to ease themselves into the world of this piece and the themes it explores.

London’s Hayward Gallery’s mini doc with Emma Talbot, titled ‘Winter Light – Emma Talbot ✨’ explores Talbot’s installation ‘Birds, Freedom, a feature of the gallery’s upcoming exhibition, ‘Winter Light’. The gallery’s in-house media team appears to have been behind the production of this series of promotional videos for the exhibition. The quality of the editing speaks to that, further indicated by the shots of the artist being interviewed via Zoom suggests that the video’s creator had firm filming guidelines to work within due to the pandemic. The content is about Talbot’s intent behind the piece being displayed in Winter Light. She describes passionately the characterisation of the woman depicted in her piece, a “product of lockdown” in which the woman seeks to a world outside, to “capture that sense of wonder”.

Talbot explains her philosophical messaging the piece aims to communicate, meanwhile the shots of Emma are brief. This keeps the audiences’ eyes on the installation itself, watching with Emma’s descriptions of its narrative played on top of the visual. The shots of Talbot’s work are a mix of the file which is projected onto the walls of the gallery and a camera on a tripod panning from left to right showing it on display. Part of why I gravitated towards this video was because of Talbot’s voice. She speaks softly and clearly; her passion about the work and its messaging rings true above the soft backing music. This brings the audiences into the inner world of the artist and the piece itself. Keeping the focus mostly on the artistic work in question made for a captivating promotional video, facilitating the audience’s investment into the work and the artist behind it.

VICE Asia’s mini doc video ‘Are Indonesian Universities Failing to Protect the Victims of Sexual Assault?’ (published on YouTube 7 May 2019) explores within 15 minutes a complex human-interest area, remaining true to the company’s stylistic brand. VICE is a well-established professional digital media organisation and has offices across the world. As shared on the VICE Media Group homepage, the company has an ethos of global storytelling: “the world is ever evolving and full of raw, untapped potential. We exist to help people navigate it all”. This is evident within the mini doc as the production value is high; the visual and audio equipment is noticeably expensive, and the amount of b-roll and quality of editing is testament to them being a well-resourced company.

As the title describes, the video is about the experiences of university students in Indonesia. Universitas Gadjah Mada, one of Indonesia’s most prestigious universities, had been recently exposed for the sexual assault of a student on a school-sponsored trip and the school’s attempts to cover it up. The video sees victim, Agni, share her story and the ripple effects it caused within the student activism community. The video cuts between scenes of protests on the campus, the interviews with Agni, and b-roll of Agni applying makeup and getting into cosplay. The final shot showed Agni dressed in full anime cosplay, shoulders exposed and standing on the beach, embracing the wind. This image, while hopeful and evocative for a western audience, was an interesting choice given Indonesia’s increasingly conservative values. This is suggestive that the western media group to whom VICE Asia is a part of has influenced the way they go about their storytelling. Rather than sharing a ‘safe’ story for an Indonesian audience, they chose to take a more critical and heavily western approach to uncover the systemic sexism present within Indonesia’s academia.

• Presentation Reflection
• Australian News Satire
• Honest(?) Government Ads & Satire
• Media Biases & Satirical Value
• ‘The Right News’: Reflection

Creating ‘The Right News’ was an overall very positive experience. As the team member who wrote the initial pitch for the ‘Dictator Dan’ exposé, I was really looking forward to getting the group together and seeing where we wanted to take things. Since the first meeting we had a great team chemistry, all ideas welcome and a generally similar sense of humour. We did run into a slight issue in which only three of our five group members were in regular attendance, though despite this set back we managed to pull together a fairly cohesive piece which met all of our desired outcomes.

The script came together relatively quickly and by the third week of this project, we were already ahead of schedule. Within our second meeting we came to an agreement to structure the segment into the 3-Act format, reminiscent of the late-night comedy show structure in which the show begins with a monologue, followed by a sketch, then a more direct conclusion ending with a call to action (Baym 2005). This choice was made for two purposes: to help divide the workload, and to accurately align the piece within the satirical news genre. Upon reflection, this decision was a great move to have made so early on as it provided the foundations of the piece and gave each group member a sense of the tone and pacing of the segment. Using a Google Doc, we each designated the three present group members an Act to write. I found this to be a really useful technique for us as it allowed absent group members to view the work in progress and add to it as we went. However, it came at a price. With two group members regularly absent, there would often be comments being added to the document suggesting changes which opposed the decisions made by the majority of the group. This showed to me the importance of having all team members informed on decisions being made, even if they are absent, to ensure that the piece comes together in a way which the whole group can agree on. One of the key learnings from the script writing process was the need for constant adaptive processes for creating news satire. Every day news is breaking. In terms of the ‘Dictator Dan’ discourse, there was almost too much for us to keep up with as we continually updated and pulled things from the script to fit the developments as they came.

The filming process was relatively simple once the casting was decided. Casting my partner, Spencer, granted us access to use his in-home presentation set up he has for work, alleviating a lot of stress around the technical aspects of pulling this segment together. The setup of the white male in front of a screen assisted in the piece’s genre alignment and made for a relatively easy editing process.

The use of OTS graphics throughout the piece was a clear establishment from the beginning of the segment that this was designed to fit within the news satire genre, not to mention our charmingly rough photoshops. It was in post-production though that we began to see that we should not have had the graphics being displayed behind our actor in real time on a screen, but instead should have been overlaid in the edit. This would have made it far easier for us to cut jokes from the edit without having to worry about the placement of the graphic disrupting the flow of the cut. In hindsight, this does appear to be the industry-standard approach

At the end of the day, I doubt I’d be the only member of my group to say that this was a process which helped refine our research, writing and editing skills immensely. It taught me a lot about the amount of work that goes on in the world of comedy news and the need to be ready and responsive to the every-flowing news cycle. In my future practice, I will utilise the experience gained from this process to ensure my writing is both well-researched and punches up, and that my production skills are adaptive to the genre the piece is designed to contribute to.

Watch the segment here.

References:

Baym, G 2005, ‘The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism’, Political Communication, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 259-276.

Across academic discussions of the role of satire in political media, a common question continues to crop up: what is the value of this style of political engagement? While some academics such as Fine (1998) say that ‘humour is linked to the way that society is structured on each level’ (p.383), others such as Burton (2010) say that ‘humour finds sociological structures and rips them down’ (p.19). Beginning this course I was quite set on its value being in delivering political news and content through a palatable format to engage younger and wider audiences in politics. Yet the inherent biases present within satire as researched within this course have led me to stray away from crowning satirical news as a finite substitute for traditional news publications. This brings me back to the arguments made early on in the course that truth is ultimately subjective (Berkowitz & Shwartz 2016).

It is through these discussions that led to my group’s comedy news segment begun taking shape. The in-class analysis around the idea of laughter as a form of ‘cultural capital’ particularly resonated with me in this respect. Having people laugh through the news can form a relationship between viewers and the story at hand. This can allow for viewers to engage in a light-hearted critical reflection of the story, or a blind acceptance of it based on positive associations through the act of laughing. In further exploration of this idea I’ve found myself most aligning with Basu’s (2018) explanation that comedic news gives the information a ‘memory’ for audiences; it provides backstory to the news as opposed to solely focussing on the present in order to help viewers approach the topic in question with a complete understanding of the story’s context. When drawing this together for the creation of ‘The Right News’, looking to famous news satirists such as (the character of) Stephen Colbert would become the basis of the piece to form a critique of right-wing media outlets.

Every piece of satire must take a side in order to be effective. These broader academic discussions around the role of satire and biases within the media served as inspiration for my group project. Being able to laugh at power structures is one of the few things we can do in a capitalist society to consider the information being communicated to us in an active way rather than passively absorbing it. In writing the conclusion of our news segment, it was key for there to be a degradation in the news host’s presentation. This would serve as a representation of the unsustainability of overtly biased news publications and beckon the audience to question the biases present in their media consumption through the use of parody and caricature. These discussions of media bias and the value of satirical news helped us pinpoint the stance our satire would take. Serving not as a critical reflection on Daniel Andrews’ policies, but as an evaluation of the way the reporting of their choices has been conducted. The goal was decided then to treat the audiences as citizens, not as consumers (Baym 2005).

References:

Basu, L 2018, ‘News Satire: Giving the News a Memory’, TripleC, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 241-255.

Baym, G 2005, ‘The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism’, Political Communication, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 259-276.

Berkowitz, D & Schwartz, D 2016, ‘Miley, CNN & The Onion’, Journalism Practice, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1-17.

Burton, S 2010, ‘“More than entertainment”: The role of satirical news in dissent, deliberation & democracy’, PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania.

Fine, G 1998, Review: [Untitled], Contemporary Sociology, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 383-385.

In 2017 I was lucky enough to visit Timor-Leste, one of Australia’s closest neighbours and who until 2002 was being torn apart by invaders. On this trip I learned the horrible truth of Australia’s treatment of the people and land in this island nation. I became outraged by it all. In particular, I became furious at the fact that it took going to Timor-Leste to learn anything about the way the Australian government have actively betrayed the nation and continue to do so.

In 2018 The Juice Media released another instalment to their ‘Honest Government Ads’ series focussing on Timor-Leste. I was over the moon to see that there was someone out there also enraged by our relationship with Timor and that they were using their platform to speak out. What stood out to me the most though was their use of satire to convey this message.

Framed as a tourism advertisement through dubbed audio, a clean-cut female host, bright imagery, graphics, and a soft acoustic guitar backing track, this short deep-dive juxtaposes the positive style with confronting dialogue to educate its viewers. These shorts are a parodical twist designed to educate through its manipulation of the tourism advertisement style. In this sense, there is an extra umph that comes with the message. The presenter embraces their responsibility to share information to the Australian public that the government tend to control the message of (McClennen 2012). Through parody, this message can be shared in a coarse yet digestible way to explore the government’s errors, encourage critical thinking and allowing their viewers to see the side which is often shielded from view to inform their own conclusions.

As Giordano Nanni, creator and founder of The Juice Media explained, “I was just so tired of the constant stream of [bull pies] coming out of our Government. I was really yearning for some truth and honesty” (Board Panda 2019, para. 5). This expression of intent led me to wonder: does satire represent truth? Do satirical media companies like The Juice Media, standing as a member of the 5^th Estate unburdened by political ties, make it more truthful and honest than those with more overt biases? Even through the academic exploration of this topic throughout this course, I still struggle to come to a finite answer to this because it really is so nuanced. While online content such as The Juice Media’s ‘Honest Government Ads’ series does not have to meet the restrictions and targets that may be in place for network television programs, there is always another side to the story. What I can conclude is that satirical programs will rarely be able to capture all sides of any story, but in left wing media spaces, it can at least “punch up” and give a voice to and tell the history of groups who have been previously left without any kind of platform.

In the instance of the Timorese people, perhaps satire such as this ‘Honest Government Ad’ is the best way to raise their platform in a post-broadcast world so that members of the Australian public can learn the truth of Timor’s history, feel that rage, and lead them to learn more. It’s this kind of motivation to learn more deeply and thoroughly about a topic rather than accept things at face-value that would later influence the creative direction of ‘The Right News’.

References:

McClennen, 2 2012, America According to Colbert, 1^st edn, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA.

Lisickis, R & Li 2019, The Juice Media Came Out With The “Quiet Australia Policy” Honest Government Ad & It’s Surprisingly Honest & Informative, blog, viewed 10 October 2020, <https://www.boredpanda.com/honest-government-ad-quiet-australians/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic>.