Here is our day!

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So we met up in afternoon to allocate people to grab the cameras from Tech Office and some to RMITV for the props. It is happening. We started to set up the Lecture Theatre into our Star War themed seminar room. My role that day is to act like a cinema usher, handing out and collecting our assessment sheet and a quiz sheet. The attendance turned out a little bit lower than we expected, but I felt really proud of what we have done so far. I guess we all were more focused on the performance of the seminar instead of the content during the seminar. We were worried about the flow of things. But our guests are just so fascinating. Everyone seems kind of forgot the little quiz Jackie prepared for people to get a small prize during the intermission. I quickly ran to our group and reminded everyone about it. Jim immediately asked the questions to grab attentions; I guess people were just so excited for our popcorn so not many of them have actually engaged with the quiz. We were all very happy of what we have done for the seminar and its result.

I learnt more than organising a seminar but to collaborate with each other to get something done. It is a valuable experience. Now I will need to get the highlight reel done …

Our seminar is getting there

It is getting near to the day for our seminar. It is a bit nervous for everyone since we are still waiting for our second guests to get back to us and our first guest is no longer available to our seminar. Somehow it gets me start thinking that networking and connections are really important in this industry especially when you need to ask someone for a favour. We immediately voted for other options James can contact. And we have to wait…..

Other groupmates have already started on making poster and promo videos. I have also started to source for our props. I got RMITV’s contact from Steering Committee. I have dealt with it for almost a week in order to successfully make bookings for some chairs and tables for our seminar. It was not an easy task as I thought I just had to send out emails. I have visited the studio and the office to speak to the person in charge and have a look at props that are available to borrow.

Natalie suggested us to create things like movie tickets to promote our seminar which could be ripped off from our poster . The tickets can be presented at the door of the seminar to receive snacks from the candy bar. Isn’t that an excellent idea? I just thought the Golden Ticket in the Wonka chocolate bar in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I volunteered to design the ticket because I have already got heaps of idea on it. However, our group somehow has just left the idea due to the progress of the poster design.

Part II – A NEW HOPE

We have our meetings every Friday in class time after others’ seminars. So far we have allocated people into different roles. I was hoping to work on the poster design but since this super cool role has been taken. I offered to help with the staging and decoration. We hope to decorate the room like a movie theatre and have us as ushers dressing black and holding torch. We have also thought of making popcorns and setting up a candy bar. I have looked up online for different kinds of snacks, their packaging and designs for a candy bar in Star Wars theme to prepare to see how we can set things up within our ability and the budget. Also, from what I saw in last seminar, I thought it would be better if candy bar is set up on the right of the stage, just as people notice that when walk into the lecture theatre.

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I have also come up with two different ideas for staging: one with couches and the other with panel table. I just feel like the panel table idea is kind of cool and more film like … I have not had time to pitch my ideas yet since we are all focusing on our guests’ response and ideas for promo video at the moment 🙂

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We have also set up a timeline to get things done on time. James, our group leader will start send emails to guests we have decided on. They are Adam Arkapaw and Anna McLeish. Caley has tried to contact the daughter of a mystery guest (Ge…Rushhh <3) but hasn’t got back from her.

Media VI A NEW HOPE

So I thought we still had a long time to prepare for our seminar which is on Week 9… Here we had our very first meeting yesterday and I realised it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Our seminar topic is film and we need to come up of three guests who can provide us insights into the film industry. I was blanked at the moment when all my groupmates were contributing some names for everyone to look up. I had experiences of organising in events back in Hong Kong. But here in Melbourne, I really had no connections or not even an idea where to look for people’s contacts. Honestly speaking, I haven’t heard of most of the name my group suggested so that day I spent whole night reading through all those potential guests’ biography and filmography.

It was the day I learnt so much on websites such as Screen Australia, Film Melbourne Directory and Australia Screen Editors. While I was still searching through different people online, James suggested using our title on Star War. I think the idea of Star War just perfectly worked with the Epic Journey theme. I just quickly thought of things like “The Force Awaits”, or “A New Beginning”, or “Untold Clone War Panel”. We all agreed on James’ idea and so we will stick on the Star War theme for promo video, posters, staging and catering options.

That is how we get started ——-

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Last week for RWAV studio

Here comes the final week for the RWAV studio 🙁 I get a lot more than I expected from the studio. I enjoy how we work as real radio producers and presenters instead of students throughout the semester. I enjoy how we run a radio show from the beginning of generating ideas to the end we walked into the studio with our runsheet and script. Even for the feature piece, we struggled with an idea at first. There were so many topics we want to explore. Unlike working on a university based assessment, the only thing we needed to consider is the possibility and ease to get it done. Yet for the feature piece we are aiming to get it played on air to the listeners of RWAV. The thing came to the interest and benefits for listeners.

I have been working with my groupmates throughout the semester and I really love them. Tim is like a leader in the team; keep us on the schedule and he is capable of everything from panel operating to sound editing. Nora always comes up with some unexpected ideas that make our work perfect. Bella cheers everybody up in the group and she is very encouraging. She is good at all the talking in the group no matter during discussion or at RWAV 🙂

Another memorable thing I learnt is that everyone’s role at a production is important; everyone is working in their responsibilities to get the show run smoothly. Presenters set the mood and quality of the radio show to the listeners directly; yet the producer get things organised and well prepared right before the show while the panel operator also carry a significant role during the show to ensure the presenter’s voices and every single songs go in a flow. I believe our group did a real kick-ass job throughout the semester 🙂

 

Our Second show on RWAV, Triple R

Me & Tim Bella & Nora

IT WAS MY TURN TO BE A PRESENTER!

I did once on air on SYN FM when I was at Foundation. That was pretty awful when I listened back to it. I am always nervous when talking in front of people and this time in front of a mic I got pressure to give instantaneous response and I mumble a lot whenever I am worried. I practised the script and read the runsheet over and over again before the show. Having a script made me feel secured but I began to worry that I would sound like reading from script (as Elizabeth mentioned about the last show). Me and Tim didn’t really get to run through the whole thing once before the actual show because our interviewees weren’t settled down until two days before the show. The whole thing was nerve cracking until the day I sat in the studio and put on the headphones. It was really fun and interesting to be a presenter. Thanks for Tim’s lead and Bella’s encouragement. Tim sounds very fluent and natural on air. I wasn’t doing really well to engage with the interviewee during the interviews and that was the thing I need to improve. We listened to Elizabeth’s advices on sharing questions between both presenters in the interview. When I listened back the show, I feel like the interaction is really stronger when both presenters are participating and sharing ideas rather than just one presenter was only responsible for one’s interview. Besides, it was all out first time to conduct a phone interview and luckily it didn’t go wrong. For me, I felt more comfortable doing a phone interview instead of a live one in studio.  As Josie said, I was able to gesture more expressively and I put more attention on the interviewee’s responses since there was only his voice I can focus on. I guess the show ran smooth and everything sticked to our runsheet.

 

I really enjoy working with Tim, Bella and Nora. They are all very helpful and I learnt a lot from them. Guys I am looking forward to our third show 🙂

Visiting Choir of Hope and Inspiration

Choir of Hope and Inspiration is our feature topic. Today we went visit the choir’s rehearsal at Deakin Edge. The members of the choir were amazing. Their voice sounds very warm and passionate. Seeing them sitting around in a circle and following the choir conductor, it was surprising how well they cooperate to sing a hymn. I guess the choir and singing itself really help people build up confidence and create friendship among them. The members were playing around with each other and smiling all the time during the rehearsal. I can feel the positive attitude from them.

I am very excited for our interview with them next week!

11351118_10206716883658696_1866339296601889305_n     a picture taken by Tim while me, Nora and      Bella were sitting on the bench enjoying the hymns :)

 

First time to be a producer

So everything was getting real now. Our first show at RWAV, Triple R was happening today. I wasn’t confident and experienced neither to be a presenter for the first time nor a panel operator, so I would be the producer staying behind keep an eye on all the details and running of the whole show. It was pretty fun for our first time except we ran a little bit under time so we got to repeat a song at the end of the show to fill up the gap. As a producer, I haven’t communicated well with the presenter. As a result, there was misunderstanding and that led to the poor time management throughout the show.

From the beginning we looked out ideas for interviews, then we reached out the interviewees to confirm the time for them to come in studios, we had rehearsals, we did a demo and we started working out a runsheet, today we sat in the studio and got the show running all by ourselves. That was challenging but promising, We are definitely going to get the second show better delivered.

Recording

My interviewee suggested doing the interview at the store so that she felt more comfortable and it could be easier for her to pick up different items to talk about. There were so many things I didn’t realise until I listened back my recording later. I didn’t notice the little background noise at the store, the ceiling fan and people’s footsteps. I have looked up online for some software to eliminate the background noise when editing. But this is one thing I learnt, if I have recorded it in a quieter background there would have so much more I can add on to construct different feelings and atmosphere.

I guess the most difficult part for me was keep it conversational and natural. I tried not to look at my interview questions too often but then I got lost when asking and I mumbled. I got nervous sometimes when my interviewee talked so much that I didn’t know how to give an instantaneous response and lead her back on track. I learnt a lot from this interview and I am sure I can do better next time, which is when I am going to present at RWAV 🙂

 

 

Individual Interview Challenge

I kept changing my individual interview topics until this week. I settled down on the topic on collecting things. The idea was to explore the relationship people have with things. At first, I wanted to start off with the problem of hoarding but I wasn’t able to look for any source or particular person I can focus on. Then I moved on to an easier approach – antique shops, vintage stores. I was walking down on Chapel Street the other day and I found a bazaar selling different kind of stuff, old and second-hand stuff, from toys, accessories to clothes and furniture. And I saw this cosy store at the corner, Fat Helen’s.

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The store owner of this store is very nice. I chatted with her for a while and she told me the story of her started collecting stuff and how she decided to open a store to share with other collectors. I guess it could be a nice place to develop my interview 🙂