Exhibition Reflection

The day had finally come, it was time to see everyone else’s work in the various studios and I was impressed! So many cool things to watch and listen to!

Our studio went second in the presentations so it was hard at first to see how we stacked up against the other studios. After seeing all of them I do feel that our studio had a lot of content, perhaps thats only because I’ve seen all of the behind the scenes things going on and have seen all that content before in the week 12 presentation but even still I feel like we had a lot to show for this subject. In terms of reception from the presentation it was really hard to read because each of our clips only got a minute to screen before the next group had theirs screened which created quite a jarring effect on the audience. There were a lot of videos trying to do a lot of different things such as creating different specified moods and playing with a lot of different concepts, things which I don’t think were fully grasped in the 1 minute they had.

In terms of reception to my video specifically I thought it was received well! once again, hard to tell what an audience is thinking in such a short time frame. I was going for informative and epic: the surround sound definitely helped pull off the epic part of that equation and I think the clips that I chose along with the words inserted told enough of a story for people to get the gist. Ours was definitely not the funniest, but it wasn’t trying to be, there were slight chuckles here and there at the appropriate times but other than that it was silent, which I like to think means that everyone was on the edge of their seat in anticipation to see more. At least people weren’t talking to each other in boredom so all in all it was a success.

The rest of the day went really well. The exhibitions all looked really exciting and it was great to have a look at some of the other studios I was interested in and talk to their students one on one. I spent a bit of time hanging around in our exhibition space, talking to other students about our studio and project and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think they especially liked the fact that we were working with the creative writing students. It was good to see our longer clips getting watched by people who walked in, at least that tells us we’re doing something right to captivate the audience.

I think this exhibition day is a real reflection of the effort that we all went to throughout the semester. We all put in the hard yards to create something that we can all be proud of, and when you see the end result and people enjoying it, theres nothing better. I’m looking forward to putting my new found skills from this studio into practice in my further studies and my other project. I think this was a great learning experience for me and I definitely feel much more confident when writing for film.

Television Reflection

During final stages of logging the time use diary I moved from my family home to an apartment in the city, I thought this was a great opportunity to see how my viewing habits might change, so in this reflection I plan on looking at various differences I found during my change of scenery.

as we learnt in the second lecture of the semester scheduling is one way audiences behaviour is regularised. ‘The means by which a days broadcasting is arranged so that particular programs coincide with particular supposed events in the life of the family’ – (Ellis 1982). In my early weeks of the Time-Use diary it is easy to see that there is a correlation between watching TV and eating dinner. On a regular basis, if I was home for dinner I was in front of the television with my Mum and Dad. When I moved however, as I was responsible for cooking my own food I began eating dinner a lot later, where once it was around 6:30 – 7:00 it was now 8:00. Another variable I’d like to throw into the mix is the fact that I’m currently watching all of my TV on Netflix, the program that allows you to watch programs whenever you want. So where the Broadcst networks were once able to choose when programs where on, thus in my case choosing when dinner was, I now have the power to choose when I watch.

Another interesting aspect about my habits when I moved were the types of shows that I watched before and after my move. When I was at home I noted that whenever we’d refer to a TV show it was classified as someone’s TV show; for example, whenever we mentioned Doctor Who it was said to be “Mum’s Show”, Later when we were watching Jag it was noted as “Dad’s Show” in regular conversation. When I moved I no longer had to watch anyone else show but “my show”. As it turns out I love a good comedy, however I’m now not reaching the range of different shows that I was once watching, I seem to be more honed in on a single series as well, not watching anything else until I finished the series that I was watching. Jason Mitten (2001) explains in his article that “Genre should be situated within larger systems, cultural hierarchies and power relations”, which is an interesting concept when I have changed the cultural hierarchy from my parents house to mine. Perhaps this also has something to do with the Flow that Netflix creates (as mentioned in the third lecture), one episodes starts playing right after the other and when you open Netflix it always asks you if you’d like to pick up where you left off.

I think it worth expanding on my choice of Netflix over other web services. As Mentioned in Lecture 9 on HBO certain brands are connected to “quality TV”. As Deborah L. Jaramillo (2013) explores AMC and “calls into question the power of the brand and its connection to quality TV” the power of “Netflix” as a brand is a lot stronger than Presto or Stan (I’ve never heard of “Presto and Chill” or “Stan and Chill”). Ultimately it was this Brand Power and promise of Netflix Exclusive shows such as Daredevil that brought me to Netflix.

As Ben Goldsmith states, Netflix could (and has) changed where and when and how viewers look for and watch content. I’m a perfect example of this, during my change over from watching Free-to-air with my parents to watching Netflix, it has changed my common viewing place, from the lounge room to my bedroom, it has changed when I watch things and how much I watch things (I tend to binge watch a lot now).

Ultimately the Time Use Diary has helped me explore the change in my viewing habits not only from changing location and cultures (from parents household to living alone), but the difference in changing the form platform I watch things on, which is not necessarily a good thing but interesting none-the-less.

References:

Ellis, J 1982, ‘Cinema, Television, video’, Visible fiction, London, RKP (1982).

Mitten, J 2001, ‘A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory’, Cinema Journal, vol. 40, pp. 3-24

Jaramillo, D.L. 2013, ‘AMC: Stumbling towards a New Television Canon’, Television and New Media, vol. 14, pp. 167-183

Goldsmith, B 2015, ‘What do Netflix, Stan and Presto mean for Australian TV?’, The conversation, viewed 28th October 2015, <https://theconversation.com/what-do-netflix-stan-and-presto-mean-for-australian-tv-39244>

Is Gogglebox real?

In this post I will be looking at the screening of Goggle Box during week 12 and discuss its construction and its attempt to set itself apart from other reality TV shows.

Gogglebox is a Television show about people watching television, a real gripping concept, so its easy to believe that many critiques were negative towards the notion. However once it aired it seemed to receive much praise. Obviously it has to be constructed in some kind of a way otherwise it wouldn’t be able to captivate its audience. Arguably the show captivates their audience by making something “real”. But hang on a second, isn’t that what reality TV did in the 90’s! Basically Goggle box has re-used the same premise that started the reality TV craze, which, ironically, is that “its doing something different”.

Gogglebox was originally a British television show, it first aired in 2013 and is up to its 6th season! More recently Gogglebox has come to Australia, airing its first season at the beginning of this year (2015) it is now on its second season, obviously the show is doing something right. Obviously the transnational format works, but thats nothing to stick it apart from other reality tv genres such as the Bachelor and Bachelorette, big brother, britain/australia’s got talent, all of which (in fact the genre of reality TV in general) seem have a good transnational format.

In the advertisement for the Australian Gogglebox there are words that flash up on the screen that try to distinguish the show from anything else. Unlikey, funny, compelling, heart warming and original are all words flashing up on the screen, “the TV show about people watching TV”. The advertisement also shows the people watching a few shows, interestingly enough all these shows are based in reality. Family feud is first to be watched by its audience who laugh and crack jokes about it. The news is the second thing to be shown which talks about negative effects of alcohol, where a few of Gogglebox members, the members with drinks in their hand, ridicule and make fun of the accusation. The last show is on Village Vets, this show takes a turn in the mood, picturing an animal in need, various female members tearing up watching the screen. By choosing these types of shows the advertisement is trying to prove the realness of its own show, trying to put it as a step more real than the other shows.

The first episode of season 2 displays some common reality TV tropes, a narrator recalls what the Gogglebox families have been doing since the last season ended. A couples dog died, an elderly couple got a grandchild, some got engaged, someone went to Sweden and back and daughter had a debutant ball. This has nothing to do about TV but is constructed to create a connection between the families and the potential audience. It’s peculiar to note the different shows that they watch in this episode: The Bachelorette, Worlds biggest Pets, Celebrity apprentice, The Australian Story – Malcolm Turnbull, X-Factor, Road Breath Test and Nigella Lawson. It’s is interesting to note that the only scripted, planned show they watched was Nigella’s cooking show, all the other shows are based in reality in one form or another. This might be in order to keep relevant with the reality TV craze or it might be to do with the fact that there is a lot more reality TV shows in TV. Another explanation is Gogglebox might be undermining the integrity of the “reality” in these shows in order to create its own realism.

So is the show constructed? We may never know for certain but I, for one, don’t tend to talk that much in front of a TV! In the end Gogglebox uses its common looking various families commenting on other reality TV shows in order to distance itself from the negative connotations of that genre even though, when you analyse it closely, it is still doing the same thing, looking at drama in the everyday lives of “ordinary” people.

References:

IMDb, Gogglebox (TV series 2013-), viewed 27 October 2015, <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2762330/?ref_=nv_sr_1>

youtube, Gogglebox Australia: First look, viewed 27 October 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZt1NT14tk>

GoggleBox 2015, Television Series, 2, Ten Network, 1 October.

Transnational Format – Da Kath & Kim Code

During week 12’s lecture the concept of the Transnational format was explored through The Office and its move from Britain to America. I’d like to explore how the transnational format works and doesn’t by comparing the success of The Office to the failure of Kath & Kim in the US.

The difference between American and British Humour is an article in which Ricky Gervais, the creator of the original series The office, talks about the changes that had to be made in the American version of The office. It was understood that American and British humour were different and what would seem funny to the British seemed offensive to America. One of the main changes that Gervais mentions is the change in Michael Scott, the main character, who used to be teasing and ironic sarcasm his main weapon, had to turn into a nice guy, with a “rosier outlook to life”. So even though it is the same show with the same title and the same characters, changes had to be made to reach the national culture of its viewers. It is fair to say that The Office US was a huge success, starting in 2005 the show ran for 9 seasons, potentially proving that changing a show to suit a different national audience is possible (Time 2011).

There is however, plenty of examples where the format failed. Kath & Kim was written, produced and cast in Australia. The show was extremely successful in Australia running for 4 seasons including two movies. The television show is set in a fictional town in the Melbourne outer-suburbs and draws humour from the “bogan” caricature of a mother and daughter relationship. “The humour is derived from local references, garish costuming and cringe-worthy mispronunciations to create a light-hearted parody in representation of the Australian lower middle-class” (Webb 2013). Ultimately this show is a success because it draws on the ability of its Australian audience to laugh at themselves.

In 2008 Kath and Kim was sent overseas into America, there was big hype about it in Australia, a sense of national pride that we were now influencing America. Unfortunately the hype didn’t last long and the show was cancelled after only 2 episodes aired, due to low ratings. Why did this happen? The shows format was translated into an American equivalent, instead of the Australian “Bogan”, they were America “White Trash”, the story followed the day to day lives of a mother and daughter relationship and the actors had an American accent! There is no denying that it was American. So, without including outlying factors, the only thing to blame is the American audience didn’t like the format, which was originally Australian. Where the Australian culture was happy to laugh at themselves and understood the joke, American culture is not as prone to self humiliation as a form of humour (Webb 2013).

It is interesting to note, however, that Australians have been watching American comedies for years, Friends, Seinfeld, How I Met your Mother and the Big bang theory have all stayed on our screens for multiple seasons, which raises the question if you truely have a transnational format, do you need to change anything, or can you send it over pre-packaged? There is definitely other factors that should be considered like locations within the story, money, star power and international acclaim, however if we’re just taking the show for face value, sometimes the format of a show just doesn’t fit with the culture of a certain audience.

Ultimately Kath & Kim failed in America because it didn’t reach its local audience like it had in Australia. This is due to the fact that the two different cultures possessed different attributes in humour, the irony and sarcasm lost in the US audience which is the entire format of the show.

References

Webb, M 2013, Television, ‘Humour and Transnational Audiences’, weblog post, 2 December, The Artifice, viewed 26 October 2015, <http://the-artifice.com/television-humour-and-transnational-audiences/>

Time 2011, ‘The difference between British and American Humour’, Time inc., viewed 26 October 2015, <http://time.com/3720218/difference-between-american-british-humour/>

 

Exhibition Artefact

As was mentioned in my previous post, it was my responsibility to cut together a 1 minute screener to be shown during the studio presentations. It took my a few hours in the editing suites but I got there.

My main problem was editing out 40 seconds of footage, which is a lot considering the footage that I was using was already cut down into trailers. Have the two trailers as a starting point was really helpful because I already had the footage the idea and the mood of how the video would go. After talking to Paul I decided to cut the two trailers evenly into two 30 second pieces. The first piece (which I titled the explanation) is a more informative piece which describes the back story to the plot and introduces the character and location a bit. The second trailer (titled the trailer) was more of a teaser trailer, it introduced the idea of genre being a common them but a part from the that it was merely exciting and suspenseful. I really wanted the second trailer to look epic and I think I’ve done it well enough to seem it. All shall be revealed come exhibition day.

Here is the edited trailer I created as a screener for the studio presentation and exhibition day:

Collaboration

There isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said in my previous post about collaboration but in a nutshell here it is. As a group we made sure that everything was decided evenly. We tended to work in stages and everyone had a job for that stage, even if they weren’t the same job, classic example: everyone else was writing scripts, whilst I was editing scripts; everyone was buys sourcing talent, whilst I was organising and writing up a call sheet. There were definitely times where people strengths and weaknesses showed, like in any other situation. The creative writers were in their element when writing the scripts and the media students generally took the back seat to learn. Then when it came to the production side of things the media students were in their element and the creative writers took the back seat to learn.

If you’ve ever heard of the phrase too many cooks you understand thins paragraph. There were sometimes I felt there was too much input from people; for instance, it took us a long time to decide on our initial idea because everyone was so keen to throw in their ideas that it was hard to move on from. Other clashes we had were just small things, people preferring to do it a certain way, whether it was the movement of the camera or the way that the scripts were written up. But if the only problems that we had was that everyone wanted to contribute too much then I think we did pretty well as a team.

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, one of the valuable lessons I’m learning is that, in order to make things run smoother and more efficiently, sometimes you have to learn to bite your tongue and get on with the task at hand, otherwise you’ll be going around in circles all day discussing what slogan a character should have on their T-shirt.

I have to say, the same thing goes for participation, we all understood that we had separate lives to live, work was a major thing we had to work around but we all did extremely well to make it to meetings and the shoots when we could. After our consult on Monday we had our own separate meeting, which everyone attended as much as they could. We had full days of shooting and editing that people gave up their weekends for. There is no stand out from this group, because we were all on the same page as to what we needed to get done. I’d like to commend my teammates: Niamh, Trent, Darcy, Nat and Jen for an excellent effort and a great result.

Statement of Intention

For the final studio exhibition we were asked to set up a few things, this would count to our final mark. When the brief came out there were 3 major things that we needed to do: a 1 minute screener for the presentation reel, a compilation of our finished work and a blog to scroll through our various work. As there were 3 tasks and 3 media students in our group we figured it was fair for everyone to take on one of these tasks. Because I had created the trailers for the presentation in week 12 we agreed that I should create the 1 minute screener. So its now my job to recut my two trailers together to create one screener: the trailers run for 50 seconds each so I have to shave off 40 seconds in order to reach the allotted time.

We did talk about perhaps cutting a completely new video and to make it more of an explanation however in talking with Paul we agreed that we should keep the idea of using the trailers, we were told that we should try and make it as exciting as we can because we have to captivate an audience that may not be the most captivated. Basically as long as people could see that we were looking at Genre our footage looked great it would be fine.

Heres hoping.

Second Presentation

So once again we split things up evenly, we decided that we were going to let our videos talk for most of it. We scripted the video to run for 9 minutes which left 6 minutes of talking. Luckily we had 6 group members so it was easy to do the math. we talked for one minute each on different topics and stages through our project. It was my job to introduce the subject and recall for everyone what we were doing and where we left off. Although a not very informative speech we all agreed it was necessary to have that introductory speech.

The rest of the speech went really well! people seemed to enjoy the footage and we got a few giggle during the appropriate places. All in all it was a job well done.

One thing that I was really excited for was to see everyone else presentation, to see where everyone else got to, its the competitive spirit inside of me. I wasn’t disappointed, there was plenty of talent there! It seemed that the rockumentary was a common genre that people were playing around with and to some really different effects! I only wish that I could’ve been a part of all of the projects just to see how everyone else was working, compare to our group to see who had the better way of doing things, not because I want to be better but because I’m always looking for ways to better myself.

Trailer 2

With the second Trailer I tried to make it more informative without having the rely on my narrating the whole thing. I used the footage and audio that was taken on the second day of shooting from Jack, who was the lead on the mockumentary genre. Cutting together her dialogue with titles helped explain the story a bit more. The main problem I have with this is it makes Jack seem like the main character of the series when in reality each character is the main character in their respective episodes. However I don’t know how I could’ve used dialogue from other character without making it sound too incoherent and messy.

One problem I had with the editing was trying to make the two different cameras that we used look similar enough. We decided to change camera for a number of stylistic reasons which made sense at the time however without the context it looks sloppy. Because the cuts are fairly quick I’m hoping that it mostly goes unnoticed.

explanation Trailer:

Trailer 1

Judging by the trailer you might’ve guessed, I opted to create 2 trailers. Why? because there was so much footage that I wanted to show off and it would’ve just dragged on if it was in the one. So I created a teaser trailer, one which doesn’t really tell you a whole lot about the plot and the other one is a more in depth trailer with the audio of Jack explaining the plot line to camera.

I know throughout this project I hadn’t really had a big chance to show off my creativeness so I decided that this was my chance to play the genre game. With the teaser trailer I decided not to go for a genre that we already had within the show so I went for a drama/action genre. This was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed trying to make everything as tense and exciting as I could in the editing. the music definitely helped with this; using a rhythmic fast paced percussion track, I was able to edit the footage in time giving it quite a professional feel. I drew from a lot of inspiration; trailers such as Batman the Dark night and Inception were some of my main influences when constructing this trailer.

Teaser Trailer: