Media Industries 2 – Seminar Self-Assessment

This post is my attempt to summarise my detailed weekly seminar participation and contribution blog posts whilst specifically addressing each of the criteria.

Contribution & Collaboration

I was involved in every aspect of delivering this seminar including managing the group, brainstorming the title and concept, researching guests, organising staging, creating the promotional images and videos, distributing the posters, arranging group meetings, taking meeting minutes, updating absent group members, delegating tasks, running the social media campaign through various platforms, liaising with the steering committee, taking seminar photographs and editing the seminar videos. Some of the group members were fantastic to work with as they kept me up to date with their progress, informing me when they needed extra help or if they could take on more responsibility.

Our group meetings were structured with a list of agenda items that I would run through. Most of the group contributed to these meetings, particularly when we broke our group down into smaller teams that were dedicated to organising different elements of the seminar. I worked closely with the promotion and event management team. Melissa and I were able to develop a concept for the promotional videos and images and most of the team were able to help with creating the content. To help foster open communication and collaboration with the group, I typed up notes from every meeting that I shared on the Facebook group where I asked everyone to read over them and let me know if they had any questions. I also ensured I kept every absent group member up-to-date with their responsibilities.

As group manager, I liaised with each group member, asking for certain people’s thoughts and contributions when I didn’t feel as though they had provided many ideas. I enjoy working in teams when everyone focuses on doing the best job they possibly can. Most of the team I worked with lived up to this. On the occasions when we had issues such as changing the name of the seminar, I took a diplomatic approach and put it to a vote. If there were team members who weren’t pulling their weight, I stepped in and took over or asked another trustworthy group member to help pick up the slack.

Proactive Learning

This seminar series allowed me to develop my managerial skills that I wasn’t necessarily expected to utilise for this assessment. I felt that I stepped up to the challenge and learnt a huge amount about dealing with a variety of opinions, personalities and motivation toward work. I attempted to improve my delegation skills which I have previously struggled with and I feel that this was a success for the most part. I also improved my event management skills through being involved in every aspect of organising the seminar. As this seminar seemed like a daunting workload at the beginning of the semester, I surprised myself by accomplishing the amount of work that I did whilst managing the group. I was able to use my communication skills with some contacts within the University to organise some of the staging equipment that we were struggling to source. Although it took some convincing, I was pleased with my ability to utilise these networks to benefit the seminar. Like all media productions, I was able to employ and strengthen my problem solving skills to benefit the outcome.

Participation

I attended all classes (although I did miss part of one due to another meeting), all group meetings, the event and all post-production sessions. I engaged and participated in all discussion surrounding my team’s work, helped others with their individual tasks when required as well as completed my own individual tasks. I became involved as possible with this group assessment to feel as though I participated to the best of my ability.

Connections & Intersections

The seminar series has helped establish an understanding of the current media landscape, particularly the challenges, along with a lot of networking techniques and professional advice on the specific seminar topics from the experts themselves. It’s been an invaluable experience listening to an array of charismatic and successful media professionals each week. Entering the media industry doesn’t seem as impossible as I originally thought, now that I’ve heard the guest’s first hand experiences. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to approach the seminar guests and have a chat after the seminar. It’s also given me some inspiration regarding who to get in touch with when I’m looking for employment opportunities.

I’ve discovered that my ability to learn, work under pressure and to a high standard has improved throughout this semester. The blogging has forced me to reflect on what I have taken from each seminar and from my own group work. I’ve become inspired, more driven and focused on my career. My collaboration skills have improved, although I still feel as though I take on too many responsibilities. I still need to learn to step back, but I feel I have issues trusting others to fulfill tasks if they’ve shown their unreliable. I find that if I establish myself as the hardworking individual within the group, others can come to rely on that and then it becomes difficult to remove myself from that label because others expect you to pick up the slack. I still need to find the balance between collaborating and overworking. My networking abilities have improved with my confidence. I have become less apprehensive when approaching media professionals because I am more comfortable with my own skills and my ability to interact with the people I admire. In terms of fitting these newly developed skills into my future career, I think it’s safe to say that they will benefit me in whatever work I undertake in the media industry. From managerial roles, collaboration, networking and taking responsibility for my personal development, I can use the experiences from this seminar series to enhance my ability to work to a high standard.

Critique – International Seminar

International – World’s Most Wanted

The fifth of the Wanted Seminar Series, held on Friday the 26th of September.

Content

I found the guests and discussion extremely inspirational, it has really boosted my interest in making the move and doing it while I’m still young. The discussion about the challenges was also useful because there will always be hurdles involved in uprooting your life to pursue your career on the other side of the world. A lot of the ground had already been covered in previous seminars, but I guess it was still worth reiterating the importance of work experience and starting out as a runner. The benefits seem to outweigh the challenges and the idea that simply being from another country can be a selling point to some employers is intriguing. I liked all of the guests, particularly Jane Liscombe. She had some great anecdotes about starting from the bottom, knowing nothing and making mistakes. It’s always comforting hearing that successful people weren’t always successful. I think this seminar inspired a lot of other students as well, so top marks for relevancy!

Approach

They didn’t necessarily need two hosts, but it didn’t detract from the content. Their segments worked well and steered the conversations in a positive direction.

Theme 

I loved their airport transit lounge theme and I thought it was executed extremely well. The ‘world’s most wanted’ tagline was clever, they really thought it all through. Everything from the flight attendant uniforms, the staging and the food. I also loved the flight attended announcement at the beginning of the seminar along with the guy playing the keyboard sound effects.

Staging

The transit lounge stage and seminar room was very well constructed. I thought the paper planes and the seminar postcards were nice touches. There was a great atmosphere with the lounge music and lighting. The flight poster schedule on the wall didn’t go unnoticed, they paid great attention to detail.

Promotion

The promotional video was well shot and the poster was professional looking. They may have posted a little bit too much content on the Facebook event over the few days before the seminar rather than slowly releasing it in the week leading up to it. I have to admit I lost interest and stopped reading the constant updates about guests, but at least we were well informed!

Grade: 90

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Critique – Film Seminar

Reel Crimes

The fourth of the Wanted Seminar Series, held on Friday the 19th of September.

Content

The guests would have benefited from a casual warm up conversation led by the host to give them a more through introduction rather than immediately start with the serious questions about funding. There was incorrect information included in the introducing for Veronica Gleeson, which was unprofessional and should have been picked up earlier.

The dynamic between the guests was great; I really enjoyed the banter between the different perspectives of the filmmaking industry from the funding body, the manager and the director. There was tension between Gleeson and Tass in regards to funding, which seemed to be an accurate representation of what might go on behind closed doors between passionate directors and funding bodies such as Screen Australia.

Nadia Tass was a down to earth, passionate and inspirational guest, she emphasised the importance of having something to say, being disciplined and making the film for the amount that can raised. I adored Tass’ story about finding funding for Malcolm, she knew she was working in comedy and so she had to find a stock broker with a sense of humour. She approached him with a remote control car and a fake gun threatening to shoot his balls off if he refused to give her the money. This radical method proved the extent to which she has gone to get projects up and running. It’s made me think that doing something radical may be what’s needed to break it in the film making industry, although I don’t think I would have the guts to pull that off. All of Tass’ anecdotes about breaking the rules to make her films happen were delightful.

Trevor Blainey commented on the necessity for a filmmaker to have an enormous passion for their vision and then the ability to be able to execute that vision, which is where a lot of people make a mistake. He also discussed the importance of knowing the film’s demographic.

Veronica Gleeson warned us not to hate the funding facilities, not to whine or moan when we don’t get what we want. She simply stated that we couldn’t be paid for something we’re not very good at yet and that we’re not owed a chance that we have to prove that we can tell a story through experience. Gleeson finished by saying that it is hard, but it’s so much sweeter at the other end. I enjoyed her honest opinion and I agree, we can’t expect to be handed money easily.

I loved the discussion about cutting corners as I hope to get into film production myself and I find problem solving really interesting and rewarding when it works out. Tass discussed the importance of discovering the essence of what the scene is and then finding a clever and cheap way to pull it off. She advised that these constraints can make you better, which I believe.

I left the seminar with a better understanding of the purpose of Screen Australia and how to approach funding my projects, so the content was extremely relevant and informative.

Approach

The panel idea was nice, it reminded me of a Q&A at a film festival, although the questions didn’t seem very well throughout. I sensed they were under prepared in formulating a structure. The entertaining guests made up for this element of the seminar.

Theme

I enjoyed the pun in the title, but the filmmaking theme wasn’t present throughout the seminar itself, besides the red carpet. They could have emphasised the theme through the use of props and incorporated it into the choice of food.

Staging

The hissing audio issue was distracting and detrimental to the content for the first half of the seminar because I was only able to hear parts of the conversation. The red carpet, raised platform and panel looked effective. There were far too many unnecessary lights at the back of the room and too many cameras. More thought could have gone into this aspect of the seminar.

Promotion

It did not appear as though much effort went into the promotion of this seminar. The video consisted of found footage (from other films) and was unprofessionally edited together with poor titles and tag lines, where as all other groups had shot and photographed their own content. The poster was plain and there were very minimal updates on the Facebook page, so overall it wasn’t very effective.

Grade: 60

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Critique – TV Seminar

Breaking In- TV Knowledge At a Steal

The second of the Wanted Seminar Series, held on Friday the 29th of August.

Content

The guests were really charismatic and their enjoyment was infectious so there was a great atmosphere in the room. Ron Frim emphasis on utilising RMITV and other work experience opportunities made it clear that having practiced skills before you start applying for jobs is of utmost importance. Frim also commented on the necessity of networking and explained how getting on someone’s ‘radar’ is a powerful aspect of finding employment within the industry.

Lucy Maclaren provided some practical techniques for approaching employers which although seemed a little obvious, have already me reconsider my CV and the style of language I use in introductory emails.

I was surprised by their strong encouragement of TV professionals moving to other states and outside Australia for work. These comments also represented Sydney as a much better place to be working in TV, which caused me to think about considering this move for my own career.

There was a discussion about the changes in the industry in regards to internships and budgets. It clarified the huge difference between entering the industry nowadays and when most of the guests were breaking in.

Anna Gregory advised that we need to be prepared to do any type of work because no experience is wasted. She also advised that we are personable, reliable, hard workers and work to a high standard. Gregory commented that we will be able to move across to an area that interests us eventually. This last piece of advice surprised me as I’ve previously been told that you often get stuck in your first role and that it’s difficult to shift.

I enjoyed the light-hardheartedness of the conversations about ‘semi-illegally harassing producers to get roles’ and the anecdotes about disastrous shoots, although they were brutally honest when it came to the harsh reality of being given a chance to ‘break in’ and developing a ‘thick skin’. The high pressure and conflict involved in working in TV did not sound appealing.

On a more positive note, there was a discussion about the need for young people and women in the industry.

Approach

I loved the game show concept and the general chitchat at the beginning to allow the guests to warm up and feel comfortable. I originally thought there was a little too much game show silliness and I wasn’t sure when they’re were going to get down to business, but it happened and it was very worthwhile. Connor was a professional and engaging host.

Theme

The Breaking Bad theme was well executed through the promotional video, the host’s character, the slides and the blue meth lollie snacks. It was individual and tied into the wanted theme extremely well.

Staging

The game show setting wasn’t completely professional, it was a little too cluttered and I was initially unclear what they were trying to achieve. The positioning of the lights weren’t well thought out, they blocked the audience from seeing the guests and vice versa. A raised platform would have helped the audience sitting further back see the guests.

Promotion

The promotional ad was a clever concept, but ran for a little too long. It might have been better if they kept it short and sweet. The promotional poster was once again a clever concept in tying it to the wanted theme, but not professionally executed. There wasn’t a huge amount of promotion. There could have been more content posted to the Facebook event in the lead up to the seminar.

Grade: 80

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Critique – Non-Fiction Seminar

Non-Fiction- Wanted For Disturbing The Peace

The very first of the Wanted Seminar Series, held on Friday the 22nd of  August.

Content

The discussions were relevant and informative, particularly Genevieve Bailey’s contributions when she addressed the audience as ‘multi-hatted’ media practitioners. Bailey kindly explained the reason why young people struggle to get funding for projects is because we’re ‘at risk’. She claims that this treatment of young filmmakers is a huge mistake because there will never be new talent if no one’s willing to ‘risk’ giving us a chance. I also really enjoyed Bailey’s explanation of her approach to researching audiences and her love of social impact, which I found extremely relevant to young media makers who can lose sight of the purpose of who will actually sit down and watch their content.

Bailey’s description of her approach to finding, treating and interviewing subjects within her documentary was particularly insightful and something I will keep in mind for any future documentary making I pursue. John Hughes importantly advised that we stay positive in the industry and be nice to others, simple, but essential.

Approach

The opening introductory videos were a nice idea, but the clips were too brief and were not provided with any context. The guests were given too much time to speak about their projects and this caused them to get off topic.

The conversations and interview approach seemed a little disjointed when certain guests spoke for lengthy periods of time in response to a single question. It would have been more enjoyable if the guests and host were more conversational with one another, it would have felt less like a lecture. I found it difficult to engage with what was being said when the conversations dragged out.

The pitch concept was a unique idea to show the audience how the professionals approach a challenging concept from different aspects of filmmaking, although they never completely answered the question because the concept fizzled toward the end, they did still provide some insightful comments.

The Q&A through Twitter did not seem very successful, it seemed to just complicate something that should have been straight forward. The seminar was hastily concluded, which suggests it wasn’t well timed. The seminar also lacked atmosphere, they would have benefited from music in the intermission.

Theme

I enjoyed the stylish Pulp Fiction references within the seminar’s promotional material, food and the criminal references throughout the seminar segments, although I felt the theme was not present through the staging and could have been further enhanced throughout the approach to the presentation.

Staging

There did not appear to be a large amount of decoration or thought put into the staging of the seminar. I found it difficult to see the guests, they would have benefited from a stage. The sound was a little too soft at times, which made it difficult to follow the conversation. They also may have benefited from an usher guarding the door to ensure late comers did not disrupt the guests and distract the audience.

Promotion

The promotional video was very simple as was the promotional poster, but they were both executed well. Considering they had very minimal time to organise this and promote their event, I think they pulled it together well.

Grade: 65

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Media Industries 2 – Seminar Involvement Week 8

Contribution & Collaboration

The seminar was a success! The set up was all smooth sailing, although there was a lot of heavy lifting and shifting. Our early arrival and access to the lecture room meant that we didn’t have to madly rush until the very last minute. The event organisational running sheet and delegated tasks that I arranged gave everyone a responsibility and an awareness of what needed to be done. I spent my time sticking up posters, collecting trolleys and shifting stages and furniture. I was also able to run through the checklist with every group member to ensure we didn’t miss a thing.

We had half an hour to relax, get a coffee and take a breath before crowds starting arriving, which was ideal. I was able to take the requested shots of the programs, name tags, catering and gifts for the steering committee as well as upload a final promotional image onto the Instagram and Facebook event. I was also able to help Sarah make a phone call and deal with one of our guests that was running late.

During the seminar I took photographs and then uploaded them onto the drive for the steering committee that afternoon. I also helped pack up, return equipment and stages.

After the event I wrote the credits list, shared it with the group via the Facebook page to obtain their approval and then submitted it to Ronja from the steering committee. I also asked the group for some people to edit the seminar footage although no one showed interest. I then approached people from the steering committee and offered assistance, Georgi and Christine agreed to help. Georgi, Christine and Steph helped convert the footage. I spent an afternoon and night in the editing suites putting together the 5 minute highlight video and the full seminar video. I was under pressure to get the edit to Steve from the steering committee so did not do this job to the best of my ability and struggle cutting together some of the shots with the audio issues we had. Fortunately I was able to get this done in time, even if I didn’t intend for this to my responsibility.

Media Industries 2 – Seminar Involvement Week 7

The countdown begins… it’s SEMINAR WEEK!

Contribution & Collaboration

This week has been busy, busy! Returning from the break meant that is was time for me to organise our last group meeting to finalise the last minute details, keep in touch with the steering committee, promote like crazy on social media & re-stick our torn down posters!

With 13 in our group, it took a bit of organising to find a suitable meeting time. We ran through the running sheet, the slides, the AV equipment hire list, the last minute promotion to encourage men to attend and whether or not to mention limited seating. I suggested some changes to the content to ensure we were making it worthwhile for men to attend by emphasising the importance and benefits of equality for all within a workplace. I also suggested that we utilise the promo clips that we made within the presentation to introduce the guests. I questioned Shelley about how she would approach limiting the Q&A questions so they’re more general.

I wrote meeting minutes that I shared with the groups. From these minutes I formulated roles for all 13 group members for pre-seminar, seminar & post-seminar.

PRE-SEMINAR ROLES
*Stage transportation: Imogen, Jono, Georgi, Melissa, Tam, Christine, Ai Vee, Steph & Line.
*Furniture & prop transportation: Zoe, Michael & Sarah.
*Guard (Mind equipment, catering, bags & everything we will dump outside the seminar room door): Bella
*Catering table set up & decoration: Zoe & Sarah
*Lighting (apparently difficult): Imogen, Ai Vee, Steph, Melissa & Christine
*Camera setup: Ai Vee & Steph
*Staging & decorations: Michael, Tam, Zoe, Sarah & Jono.
*Arrows/direction signs from the entrance leading to the seminar room for Non-RMIT audience, stick up posters & attach card to gift: Georgi
*Sound Set up: Line
*Coffees for guest: Sarah/Zoe
*Release forms: Bella

SEMINAR ROLES
*Host: Michael
*Slide Switcher: Jono
*Sound: Line
*Filming: Ai Vee & Steph
*Stills: Imogen
*Guest supervisors: Zoe & Sarah
*Ushers: Melissa, Christine, Georgi & Tam
*Timekeeper & Stage Manager: Bella

POST-SEMINAR ROLES
*Clean up: Everyone
*Transport furniture & Stage: Everyone
*Dump footage & audio for editing: Steph
*Edit & upload photos: Imogen
*Release forms submitted: Bella
*Credits list: Imogen

I also developed a running sheet for the morning of the seminar to ensure we manage to get everything done and on time. I shared this with the group and also individually messaged group members their roles and items they are expected to bring on the day. This helped minimise the confusion that can sometimes occur on Facebook group posts.

I sent the steering committee last minute information such as stage set up and photography details.

Throughout the week I posted images of the poster and related promotional visuals. I planned to post a description of each guest whilst incorporating the seminar theme and relating it to an image on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the event. Jono and myself posted images to Instagram. I also promoted the event on my personal social media profiles. The scheduled and ‘slow burn’ of information on social media helped raise our numbers. I shared the page on the RMIT media page which also boosted our attendees. The steering committee notified me on the Tuesday prior to our seminar our “…. group is amazing! The other groups only had a couple hundred clicks but yeah you guys have just over 1000!! Great work!!”.

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Week 7 Flip lecture response- Alex Lambert

How can social media be used to produce an interactive documentary?

Dr Alex Lambert, ‘Facebook and its discontents (or ‘how I learnt to stop worryin)’

Alex Lambert’s lecture discussed social networking sites and how they impact real life interactions, with particular reference to Facebook. These ideas can be used to assist my understanding of the prompt for IM2.

The internet is thought to empower the user as it allows us to acquire and produce knowledge, produce and publish online content, get involved in activism and expand social networks. Lambert advises that we should always be critical of power.

All of the various social networking sites have their differences, but are interrelated in their ability to connect people, such as the way that Instagram connects with Facebook and Facebook connects with Twitter. This cross over can be used to reach wider audiences and keep certain ideas/products on the audience’s mind by approaching them from a variety of platforms. With the introduction of mobile applications such as Four Square that map locations, this can also assist the gathering of participants in one place. It helps to understand where these individuals are located.

The concept of distant intimacy allows for more immediate and regular contact and connections. The instantaneous sharing of information and organisation of data allows these groups  to share ideas and events with unintentional networks that then form part of the group. The concept of information being publicly displayed on news feeds allows for quick and targeted spreading of events. The information ‘Imogen Tyers is going to Symphony Cacophonia’ will appear on my friends news feeds. They might be intrigued and click on the link which will lead them to the event page. If the event interests them, they might click attending and this information will appear on their friend’s news feeds and so on. Encouraging these connections will help reach a wider audience.

This sharing of this information within people’s own networks helps people reach audiences who have common interests. It would be wise to share our event ‘Symphony Cacophonia’ with our musical friends and drum circle Facebook pages. If I had the interest and money to make our event huge, we could pay Facebook to target an audience through their data mining capabilities. The concept of convergence is discussed in relation to producers & consumers, private & public and contexts such as work, family & university, when they used to be separate. Private information can be used publicly to enhance our public event.

Media Industries 2 – Seminar Involvement Week 6

Proactive Learning

Before the week 6 seminar, my Women in Media group had a meeting where I delegated roles for people during the mid-semester break such as research into the three guests, who was editing videos, posting images to instagram and creating slides for the seminar. I organised the stage with technicians from building 94 and arranged transportation to building 5 on the morning of the event.

I discussed that we needed a deadline for the RSVP from Virginia Trioli because if she wasn’t available, we wouldn’t have much time to organise a back up guest. We decided that Tuesday night (2/09) would be the deadline and Melissa suggested Elizabeth McCarthy from RRR as a back up guest. I spoke with Bella about sending Virginia another invitation email on the Monday and Line about getting in touch with Elizabeth on the Wednesday morning.

Prior to the meeting on Friday, I reminded the group of the $20 contribution we agreed to make to the budget for Zoe to cover food costs. I followed this up with a Facebook page post about transferring the money to Zoe if people forgot to bring cash.

Contribution & Collaboration

I shared the images and footage with Ai Vee, Melissa, Jono & Christine as we will all be creating promotional material including posters, instagram posts and event promo videos in the lead up to the event. I assisted Christine by giving her feedback about the poster and offering solutions to fitting all of the information onto the A3 page.

I liaised with Tiff from the steering committee whilst creating the event. I added in the event description, images and made other group members hosts of the event. I discussed what information and images needed to be uploaded and how often including the first teaser promo video one day after the event is created, followed by images, small guest bios, the second promo video and then information about catering (free cupcakes) and event set up. This is all intended to help with the hype and ensure that everyone that clicked ‘attending’ on Facebook is reminded and does indeed attend.

I edited the teaser trailer and uploaded it to Vimeo with all of the event details. I shared the video on Facebook with a link to the event and invited around 100 of my own Facebook friends to the event. I posted the poster and other promotional images on my own social media profiles and promoted our hashtag #femmefataleRMIT through Instagram.

During the mid-semester break I went to Uni armed with blue tac and printed the promotional posters. Steph and I flooded building 9 with the posters and even building 5 (where the seminar will be held) to help the non-RMIT seminar audience find the venue.

After the promotion started, I contacted Bella and Line about the radio guest as we were yet to hear from Virginia Trioli. Line agreed to speak to Elizabeth in person and so I asked Sarah to pass on the guest invitation details to Line.

I shared an email listing all of the tasks required and requests from the steering committee and contacted appropriate group members to help with these requests. I also sent individual messages to group members who did not get back to me. I wrote equipment lists to ensure their jobs were being fulfilled.

As a way to lessen my duties of managing every member of the group, I asked Zoe to start organising the research and question group members and Michael to organise the slide and running sheet group members whilst I continued to speak with the technical and promotion group members.

After the email from the steering committee, I also started planning post-event responsibilities such as who will edit footage. I have agreed to edit and post the event photos as well as provide the committee with a list of credits one week after the event.

Media Industries 2 – Seminar Involvement Week 5

Contribution & Collaboration

After attending the Non-Fiction seminar it clarified what I want to present our audience with; an engaging, informative and fun event. I was able to share my thoughts with our group after the seminar.

As an audience member I was also able to pick up on a few aspects of the event that I will do differently. These include a maximum of three guests, visually appealing staging with lots of decorations to transform the room to suit our film noir concept, no lighting over the audience so the guests are the focus (like a cinema), personal engagement with the audience during the Q & A rather than using twitter, provide substantial food and drink during the break, dedicating one group member to usher late comers in between questions (so there are no distractions), play music before and after the seminar, show stock footage of film noir images on screen, better positioning of cameras to avoid obstructing the audience’s view, a stage for the guests so the audience can see them better from the seating, better seating for the guests so they are comfortable, more conversational questions with the guests, less time dedicated to introductions and provide water the audience.

Some ideas I would like to borrow from this seminar include introductory slides for the guests, having a sound mixer, an audio-visual controller and personalised food (similar to the tags used on the trail mix packets).

Participation

During the group meeting we started brainstorming some potential questions. We want to ensure every question relates back to media and doesn’t end up solely being about feminism. Some ideas that I came up with include:

  • What are the female dominated roles within your field and what roles significantly lack females? Why do you think this is? What needs to happen for this to change?
  • Why are there a lack of female characters being represented in film?

Proactive Learning

After some group members had a disagreement over the title ‘Femme Fatale’ due to it’s seductive nature, ‘Wonder Women’ was suggested as a positive alternative. I got in touch with the steering committee who informed me we could in fact change the name because the poster needed to be reprinted. I told the group about the two names and I organised a  vote. ‘Femme Fatale’ won because most agreed that we had already started planning a lot of the promotional material.

Now that the title had been locked in, Jono and I brainstormed new taglines and a blurb to ensure we were accurately advertising the seminar about women destroying the stereotypes of women as Femme Fatales. What we came up with: Femme Fatale: women killing it in the media industry. A chat with media’s leading ladies in film, radio and online. We’ll talk reality, challenges and opportunities providing key insights into the futures we’re creating.


We also realised we are faced with the challenge of not having many males attend this seminar and we discussed ways of preventing this. I suggested that we draw attention to the fact that it’s a seminar for women and that we really want males to come too. Jono then suggested mentioning on the poster that Men get in for free and in fine print: *Women get in for free also. We still need to develop some further strategies to have an equal gender balance in the audience.

With only a few weeks until the seminar, we all agreed we needed to make progress with the guest invitations and get at least one locked in. We also agreed that we wanted to cover all areas of media by inviting a guest from film or TV, radio and online media. Jenni Tosi has shown interest, but is yet to confirm. Myf Warhust is unavailable as is Jane Turner. I suggested we contact Brodie Lancaster (not aware she was in the seminar only last year). Sarah and I discussed what it is that we want Brodie to discuss and I provided Sarah with her details. She responded quickly and we were able to lock her in as guest number one. I had a discussion with Sarah about sending a friendly reminder email to Jenni and provided her with an idea about what to say. Jenni confirmed a day later. Virginia Trioli is yet to confirm. If we did get Virginia, we will achieve our mix of media professionals. I don’t think that Brodie being in a previous seminar will effect our marks because it will mostly be a different audience and we will focus on different issues.

I took responsibility for organising the film and photo shoot. I cleared out a room in my house and filled it with vintage props and furniture. I source costumes and old cameras as well. I set up my camera and some lights to get the classic venetian blind lighting effect from Film Noir movies.  Melissa and I developed the idea of the women being filmed seductively whilst getting ready, all in extreme close ups. Zoe, Line & I acted. Melissa shot the film, Ai Vee photographed and Jono assisted Melissa with direction. I sourced a royalty free film noir sounding track of which we will use the first 30 seconds for the promo video. After packing up the shoot and equipment, I viewed the rushes and will aim to get started on either the poster or editing the video after my career portfolio is submitted.

I suggested female themed cupcakes (female logo or pink bow topper), that the event team group members bring a plate of savory food and a budget of $20.