In this week’s workshop I was not present at the time. Despite this, I still read up on the workshop and asked my friends what happened. They had to conduct and record an interview with a fellow student. Reading up on the task requirements, I felt like my version of the interview would look like this:

link: www.everydayinterviewtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/59762760-WaveBreakMediaMicro-job-interview-male.jpg

This image composes of a mid shot with the interviewer in focus and both people in the frame. The establishing shot would of had the entire table, both people and most of the room in the shot. After the interviewer has asked the question, the next shot would be the interviewee in focus on the right side of the frame and the interviewer blurred into the back ground on the left side of the frame.

This task would have been a great hands on experience in preparation for my PB3 assignment. The class was also having a discussion on potential ideas for their interview. I instead watched interviews on You Tube to get inspiration for my own interview.

I have finally recorded the interview with Tristan and now it is time to put in the finishing touches. As I watched the multiple takes, I have noticed that my questions constantly change and that I am reframing every take. Observing this trend as I edit the video, I realise how far I have come since day one of creating content. I ask different questions because I wanted the conversation to be more open and less closed. I reframed because I felt like the lighting was better in a certain area than the last. All of these creative decision that I have made illustrate the adaptive process from learning to applying.

As I watched the final take over and over again, I asked Tristan in person about some of his experiences to get further clarity.  I learnt a lot about his personality in this process and I was better at empathising with him because of this. Now that I have made things more personal in this interview, it was really easy to record some B-Roll shots of Tristan. My main objective for the rest of the week was to complete the backing shots of Tristan and incorporate them into my PB3 Assignment.

My friend Kim Long Nem, at Flying Art Films, had previously edited and shot a video on a musician named Gabe. I took a lot of inspiration on this style and felt like this style would work well with my interview with Tristan and adapt it to my own style.

Kim’s interview with Gabe:

link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=86puVuE27l4

In this week’s workshop we recapped on the week’s lecture and split into groups to talk about broadcasting. In my group we had to talk about the audience in relation to broadcast. The topic was very broad but we had to funnel down to what was most important in this task. Further elaborating on my post about the week’s lecture, we mentioned the transition of audience engagement from passive to active and how social media has had a greater influence on broad cast today.

As we were discussing ideas on the topics within the group, Jeremy questioned some of ideas and asked us how this change is happening in the real world. This made me realise that as student we tend to theorise and make a lot of assumptions without and real evidence. I quickly used Channel Nine as example and how they have integrated Face Book onto their webpage. Despite this quick example, I was not really sure what else to say, in terms of presenting more evidence to support my argument. This is also a reflection on how passive we have become. There is so much media out there that we forget to notice the amount of change and accessibility that we have around us. What has become really active has become somewhat passive again.

link: http://www.nine.com.au/

If we look at this image of Channel 9’s webpage, we can see so much integration of social media. Only by paying better attention, I only just realised it is everywhere such as the FaceBook button in the top right hand corner of the webpage. This is example of the unity between broadcast and post-broadcast media working together.

All of the efforts we put into creating new content through raising awareness to challenging ideas ultimately ends in the hands of the audience. In today’s society, the audience’s influence media has had a greater impact on the content than ever before. During the early days of broadcast, there was clear line that divided audience and media makers. In contrast, this line is quickly diminishing.

Today everyone has access to media. If you have a smart phone, you have the potential to create content and put yourself on the map. Suddenly the tables have turned and now everyone can be a content creator. This was heavily emphasised in the reading “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” written by Jay Rosen. My observation in the consumer, or in today’s society should I say prosumer, behaviour there has been a great rise in talent. Social Media such as Youtube or Vimeo has allowed the people to step up and showcase their talents to the public.

As a kid, or even as a student in my early days of high school, would never have imagined of being in the film industry and get to work with many talented people. However this idea mainly stemmed from my lack of faith in my own abilities. As the years go by, and the advancements in technology, fast computers and high quality cameras became easily accessible to the public. I decided to try out photography and post photos on the social media sites like Instagram and Flickr. There was a good response from the audience and even professional photographers. I have learnt that with the tools we have available today, the opportunities are endless and there is so much potential in all of us to show. What I thought was only a dream quickly became a reality. I was no longer just the audience, but someone who made their own.

Examples of my work:

Light . Thanks to my boys @davidflyingart and @kev_truong . These guys are a bunch of fun blokes that went against the grain – the Asian stereotypes that our parents instilled us. Proud to be at @flyingartfilms 🦅🦅🦅 #cigar #whiskey #fire #smoke

A post shared by Jeremy PH Nguyen (@new.yens) on Apr 27, 2017 at 7:23pm PDT

Cat . Was an unexpected turn of events when the I shot these photos. Decided to skip out on a lecture, ended up eating burgers and taking photos. Thanks @mattueee @justine_fajardo and @traavloo for letting me take pics ☺️

A post shared by Jeremy PH Nguyen (@new.yens) on Apr 26, 2017 at 3:41pm PDT

Being the typical student I am, the weeks of procrastination has finally caught up to me. It is time to start planning out my interview and put all of my new found knowledge to good use from previous classes. I chose from fellow class mate Tristan Winter because I felt like he had plenty to say, he was easily accessible and we get along very well (call it fate if you will). The problem was what would I like him to say in such a short amount of time.

Since semester one I have gotten to know a fair bit about Tristan. Some of the most interesting aspects in his life is his experience in the film industry. He was an actor that went into story writing and found himself stumbling into media studies. In this transition he would have faced many challenges. I felt that this eventful experience in his life would be an interesting story to tell in the interview.

After brainstorming a little bit, I came up with a few basic questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• How was acting?
• What did you like about story writing?
• etc.

At first I thought these questions were pretty basic and were pretty much a template of the Five W’s. However I was confident enough that Tristan was able to tell a story without much effort since he was such an expressive individual. So I planned to approach the interview very casually and ask questions on the top of my head and let the flow of the conversation guide me in the right direction. When I am happy with the final uncut version of the interview shot, I will edit and shoot B-Roll based on what I observe in the interview shot.

Last week we made a Long shot, now we had the challenge of making a short video. There were a big number of limitations in this task, which required us to think outside of the box and plan our shots carefully. Likewise in Week 6’s workshop, we faced similar challenges due to conflicting ideas within the group. However I came into the lecture late and quickly took the lead as I questioned how their original plan was relevant to the ideas and constraints of the task.

Once we got going into the shooting, the creative side of me really wanted to shoot at different angles. However I failed to understand that the shots could not be edited, and one had to lead to another. My group members also told me this, but at the start I failed to understand why I could not do it. The poor communication was my fault on the most part, but we quickly recovered from it and did most of the shooting on time. If it were not for my persistence in taking multiple shots at different angles on the same scene, and simply just read the task properly, we would have managed to complete the task with the ending credits.

We did end up shooting the whole story on time, but we forgot to do the ending credits. The video is meant to viewed in silence, and so we made sure there was an emphasis on exaggerating facial expressions and body language.

link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Hk4O15HfQ

Overall we had a fun time shooting this video, and we have a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses. I have plenty of things to work on, such as reading the task, but I am slowly getting better at it.

Outside of RMIT, I am an intern at Flying Art Films. FAF is a start up company that produces content for other creative who are also at the start of their career, such as musicians and dancers. During the week I was given the task of compiling drone footage and making a sizzle reel to show our audience that we were capable of achieving drone shots for potential clients. During the whole editing process I ended up with my own first draft of the reel. I presented this reel to my boss and, I had to admit, it was hard taking in some of the criticism. He did not appreciate how the shots were sequenced.

Honestly, the criticisms made were quite harsh but very true in the end. At the same time this content was made for the company and not for myself. Hearing the feedback was a true testament to my maturity and professionalism, and I had to understand that I cannot have everything my way. Taking in the feedback I re-edited my first draft and had my boss re-evaluate it. He was quite impressed and I could see how much better it was compared to the first. It always pays off to have a multiple eyes to look at your work and present feed back.

link: www.facebook.com/flyingartfilms/videos/1247480972017255/

Furthermore, I decided to up my editing game and incorporate Adobe After Effects. I felt like if I wanted to present to people as a content creator, my skills had to be up there as well. If you observe in the video, I used After effects to track the FAF title with the first shot. My friend taught me how to track titles to give off a 3-D effect and I will definitely incorporate this knowledge in future videos.

During the week’s workshop, making a long shot proved to be a great challenge in terms of framing and timing. Good communication was also important, which was also emphasised in the week’s lecture. I strongly believe that, after this weeks worth of class sitting, the ability to empathise and talk to people is most important aspect of media. At the end of the day we create media to communicate to our ideas and thoughts to the audience. All of this would not be possible if we could not bring our message across to the people making it happen either. The clarity and planning through the exchange of words from person to person will influence the end result and the production of new media content.

An interesting quote that touches on the power in communication:

“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success” (Paul J. Meyer”

Although this is not video related, I am conducting a photo shoot on the weekend. Absorbing the information that I have learnt during the week, I main focus will be talking to my client. The time and location that I have chosen has a good balance of light and shadows. To achieve the desired effect that I am going for, it is important that I have proper communication in my direction with the model. Short and concise instructions is what I aim for in my directing. Although I am trying to improve my communication in still imaging work, it also translates to video as well.

I have found that no one can read my mind, and I have to ensure that my message gets across. This is an important skill to have for future projects. Furthermore, as I start to form my own directing style, I will try to also incorporate some kind of feed back system. Constructive criticism will inform me on what not to say for next time, as I have learn throughout the years that I can say some insensitive things.

During the start of the semester, there was a lack of practical work with cameras. Today, in this workshop, that has all changed. We split into our groups, rented some Sony MC50’s and started on our project for the day – A Misunderstanding. The task required us to present a case of misunderstanding and had to be done in one long shot. Our group, funnily enough, had plenty of misunderstandings as we were all trying to pitch in our ideas and make sense of the topic.

Prior to the groupings, Jeremy, our tutor, had told us to just stick to one idea. When we were discussing our ideas in the group, I fully understood why Jeremy would tell us that. Everyone is going to have their own unique ideas, this would ultimately result in conflict where everyone would be focused on their own versions of a misunderstanding and no works gets done. Since the time was ticking, we decided to go with my idea as I Had already planned out in my head how the story would pan out. This was not to say that the others had terrible ideas, it was just that we were limited for time and we had to start recording as soon as possible. I had my idea already planned out, so it made sense to go with it. Since it was my idea I had direct everyone and record at the same time.

Directing and recording was a difficult task, but fun at the same time. As I was explaining the narrative, everyone started adapting to the story to make more sense of it. I was welcoming to changes to the story as this was a group project at the end of the say. One of the girls, Joanna, helped out a lot in adjusting the dialogue in the scene to give the story more clarity.

Making a collaborative video with a group of people, really opened up to the challenges people would usually face in this field of media. From this learning experience, I found that patience and leadership are important in putting group in the right direction so that the objective would be completed.

This was our work by the end of the day:

link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY0KDWXvf8s

I had to be honest here, when I heard what the lecture was going to be – ethics, it did not spark much interest. When I think of pre-production work, I think of the non-fun parts of making media. This is would include lots of boring paper work and a good understanding of moral and ethics. Personally I felt it was common sense, prior to coming into the lecture. However sitting down and listening to Paul Ritchard’s presentation, there were quite a few interesting points made and his comedic approach to the presentation made it bearable to watch.

By the end of Mr Ritchard’s talk, I had a greater appreciation for the amount of planning involved in the pre-production. Without the necessary  and thorough planning, there would not be a shoot in the first place. I learnt how to prepare myself in terms of communication and how to present my self on set. Good communication will minimise losses and makes sure that everyone is on the same page to avoid any misunderstandings and drama. Making good use of release forms will also provide the same benefits, despite how bland they can be in the film making process – better to be safe than sorry.

later down the track, we looked at previous PB3 work made by Media 1 students for inspiration. Out of the three videos that we watched, Jen Farrow’s attempt was the most interesting and informative. The way she edited the video to show the interviewee’s perspective through his limited eye sight gave more depth to the interview. It was a powerful way of empathising with the interviewee and develop a more personal feel to the interview. I have been so used to the standard format of interview where you just see the interviewer and the interviewee exchanging conversation in a frame with B-Roll laid over it. Jen’s video really opened my eyes and inspired me to try and create something more original and outside of the standard conventions of the interviewing process in media.

link: www.vimeo.com/125383358