What a semester it has been. I went into this year not knowing what would happen, but I’m glad the way it’s turned out. I have solidified myself a group of friends that I can see being people who I will want to keep in contact even after UNI, and that is a great thing to know. Throughout the semester I have learn’t so many new things, both within media and in my other courses such as Politics and Asian Studies. One of the interesting things that I found from studying these subjects, is that they all intertwine with each other, they all have something in common. I think this similarity comes from the nature of media and the way the key concepts and ideas are shared amongst all media fields, whether it be in politics or film. Along with the good, also comes the bad. There have been things that I have learn’t not do this semester, things that I am glad I have realised so early in UNI, so that I can continue the rest of this course, knowing what it takes to do well. Aspects such as time management are things that are crucial to undertaking any project, no matter what size it is, time management is paramount to achieve any task. There have been times during this semester where I have been kicking myself, knowing that I could have started “this and that” weeks ago, knowing that the “night before” was a time that never had to come. When moving into next semester and the years ahead, I am going to take greater care in time management, knowing the downfalls that not managing your time effectively can have.

Two of the most challenging aspects of the course was staying focused and making friends. After year 12 I thought that this year would be easy, all the motivation and drive that I had last year would surely carry over into UNI. Well… it didn’t! There have been so many new things happening this year that i’ve had to worry about. Being independent is hard work and if you don’t take account for the responsibility that your have for your self, then things will get out of hand. Fortunately things didn’t get out of hand, but there were definitely times, where binging on Youtube videos was less than productive. As a reserved guy like myself, I find it hard to instantly warm up to people, it takes time for me to get to a point where I feel comfortable with the people I am associating my self with. However, one thing I realised this year (something that I want to change) is that most people don’t have enough time, there comes a point where you either put in the effort or the friendship fizzles out. As I move forward, I am gradually gaining the confidence to put myself out there and make the connections that hopefully, will last long into the future.

The major thing that I have discovered about my creative practise, is that although group work is fun, I do prefer to work solo. Not all the time, but definitely when actually producing the product. I love working with people to formulate ideas, but when it comes to the execution of these ideas, often I need the space to do my own thing. In saying that however, if i’m interested in the group work that we are doing, I am much more eager and happy to work with a group people. The group project this semester, although interesting, did not keep me fully engaged the whole time and I think that was a key factor contributing to my enjoyment of the task.

I have chosen five posts that I think best reflect my journey throughout this semester. These posts detail times when I have been questioning my own abilities, to times where I feel focussed and on point. Likewise, the posts provide my insights to the course work I have completed throughout the semester, whilst providing my own opinions about the major topics that have been discussed both in media and outside of the media program.

1. Related
2. Adapting to Change
3. De Bono
4. Zooms and Colour
5. The Undelivered Anecdote

Learning Graph:

It’s been a while since i’ve made a post. I’ve been busy I swear.

So what has been happening in my busy media life. Not much to be honest. Last week was a very quiet week. I caught up with some friends, found myself sitting in the State Library and I continue to gorge on the cheap food served at Japanese restaurant Don Don. Everyday last week I told my self I would go for a run. I ran to the train… does that count? I also told my self I would do some blogs as well. I also told myself that I would stop being lazy, but each month that never really seems to work out. Is there a way that I can maintain the short bursts of motivation that I do have. They need to create that drug like in the film Limitless, so I am in a constant state of awareness and productivity. Ok, so I’m supposed to talk about what I learn’t last week aren’t I?

Audience! Thats right we learn’t about the audience. We discussed about who cares about the audience in the digitalised and post broadcast age. And who does care about the audience… really? Of course there are the advertisers, commercial broadcasters and government policy makers, but do they really care? Of course they don’t, they sell individuals false dreams and lifestyles that are often unrealistic in the hope that an audience will buy into these distorted depictions of reality so a company can make a monetary return. But hang on. Are all companies really like this, do all advertisements and media imagery try to sell you a product. Has our life become one big advertisement, where all we do is try and sell ourselves in the hope that people will believe we are socially acceptable or part of some distinct cultural group. Isn’t that the same thing as trying to sell someone a product in the hope of financial success? But I come back to my original question and that is whether there are companies that really care?

Does it concern whether a company really cares at all? I think it comes down to how much effort a company or advertisement makes to try and make it relatable to the audience. If an individual is compelled to recognise their self in the subject or even role of a film, a company has achieved in caring about an audience. It’s the ability of a media artefact to be interesting and relatable for an audience that makes the communication successful. It’s the films, companies and government policy ads that allow an audience to immerse themselves in the world of the ad or film for a few short seconds or hours, that prompt the audience to feel connected to the characters or experiences of the subject. The connection that is established between an audience and a film is what makes anything successful, the audience needs to be interested in what is being shown to them, whether the ad or film is comedy or a drama, the audience must be absorbed in the story that is being told to them. Again, it comes back to my previous point in other posts, story is everything.

THIS WEEK

I’m going to try and achieve some of the goals that I aimed for last week and the week before.

1. READ
2. RUN
3. RAVE

RECENT FILMS

• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
• Interstellar
• The Imitation Game
• The Departed

All very good films that are worth a watch. They all have some downsides but overall they are great films.

MUSIC

Kendrick Lamar – His new album “To Pimp a Butterfly” is so dope.

Otherwise I’ve been listening to mixes and sets on Boiler Room.

Friday night mixes on Triple J always come in handy after work.

Time to crank it up.

PART 1

There is no better feeling than knowing that you have had a productive day. That feeling seems to be lost for me, as I still find my self not being able to concentrate. Distractions… I guess there are a few, but I think it comes down to my mental state and willingness to put in the effort. You need to care about something to do well in it, the more you care about something the more you will give your time towards it. But for me it’s not even about caring anymore, I want to do all this work, but hey, I just… cant… be… BOTHERED!

There is nothing more dangerous in life then falling into a routine. Now, routine can be great, but when your life becomes one reoccurring routine, then time begins to be wasted. Time is finite and you only get a small amount of it in this crazy world, so why not make the most of it.

I want to look back on my time and realise that I had a good time and used the most of it. In 10 years i’m meant to have a good job, a relationship and even a home or a kid! WTF, no… too soon… way to soon! Lets focus on the now, pre-empting the future only leads to stress and make life seem so tiresome… does it not?

Anyway, it’s time to CRANK it up. Press play on my seemingly stagnate and paused life. What do I want to get of this course? What motivates me?

Great questions Lucas. I’m motivated to be the most talented… no that doesn’t sound right… I’m motivated to be the best… NO, way to conceited… I’m motivated to be remembered as a great story teller… Ok, getting there.

Dang it! I need to work this out!

So last week was a great week, caught up with some friends, and went down to this small indian place that does $5 all you can eat for lunch, which is awesome! Money is always an issue, so cheap meals are handy. We showed our portraits, and I… I… Now i’m just fishing for answers. See when you fall into a routine, you lose sight of whats happening and consequently memories of our week begin to fade because we aren’t surrounded by new things or experiences to create new memories, true fact.

To have motivation you need a start and a finish and at the moment I have no finish, so it’s hard to work towards something. When I am looking forward to something I want, it is a great feeling to know you are making progress, there is nothing worse then feeling like you haven’t made progress. Progress enables growth, it enables ideas to flow and allows you to be connected with the world that continues to move so fast around you. Stagnation, is the worst thing that can happen. When you stop moving, life doesn’t slow down for you, you get left behind and constantly have to play catch up!

So this has been a bit of a ramble, about… I’m not quite sure to be honest. Oh! One cool thing is that a lady that was at a function I was working at was 99 years old. 99 YEARS OLD, and she’s looking great, no slowing down! What! And the best thing is, she turned 100 on the 100th anniversary of Anzac day. It’s amazing to think what she has seen and been through. She lived through the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, (Very jealous). She has been alive during all the wars of the 20th century, she has seen the collapse of the Berlin wall and was there for the moon landing. She has seen life before the internet. Has seen the development of planes and cars. She has lived through so many key events that make the world what it is today. She must be an amazing woman, it would be fascinating to get a glimpse into what her life has been like.

PART 2

Films I have seen:

Nil (Quite disappointing)

Music I’m listening too:

I’m loving real deep house mixes. And I mean real deep house, not that commercial pop bull shit.

Here are some:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBFgjTi9ZTk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfnVnQ0iag&index=1&list=LLK383nwvXlSEopIunLejWJA

GOALS:

• Read
• Run
• Watch a film

So basically, Media Factory stuffed up and took a shit on my work and got rid of it, so this is reflections 2.0.

I had written a really long blog post, but now, I’m really no in the mood to do any of that so, i’m going to cut a lot of what I said down into small chunks.

As always, showing my work to class mates proves to be an anxious experience. I get nervous, wondering what people might think about what I just created. But it’s ok, as I gain confidence in my work, this feeling gradually goes away each week.

Receiving feedback from your work is one of the most important things. You are able to recognise what an ‘audience’ thought went well and what didn’t. After all, audience is crucial to how your media piece is responded to and consumed. One of the most important things to focus on when receiving feedback from your media work, is how the audience responded to your work and did they connect with the story. You shouldn’t think that your film could have been better by using fancy equipment. Equipment is not the be all and end all. Story is the most important thing in film making, and it is all about how the story is executed and conveyed to the audience. If you come back to a film’s most basic elements, it is to tell a story.

Creating a film is like baking a cake or anything for that matter. You have to combine all the ingredients in a way that represents a final product. You might have all the finest ingredients and the cake could taste disgusting. Like film, you could have high end equipment with 1 million dollars behind you and the film could still be bad.

This comes back to the idea of execution and how editing is the most important part of filming, here is where you tell a story. The story doesn’t have to be incredible, it could be as basic as to what annoyed you during the day, but it’s about how you convey a message so the story connects with people.

One person that is real motivation to me is youtube legend, Casey Neistat. Through his talks and channel, he illustrates the importance of execution and editing. He is a perfect example of telling stories that capture an audiences attention without amazing gear, further defining the need to let go of this idea that better equipment is necessary to make better films. A lot of what I have suggested has been derived from Casey, so I highly recommend checking out his channel to see how effectively he conveys a story. His current vlog series is a perfect example of how to convey a simple message that removes all the unnecessary fluff, he is clear and concise, keeping you entertained and interested. Casey is a great role model in terms of media as well as on a personal level. His ability to craft seemingly simple films comes back to the very essence of film making that is all about how to convey a story

The intention of my self portrait was to explore the transition I am currently experiencing from High School to University. The one minute film clip is intended to showcase my clouded mindset as I move into this new phase of my life. As I move through this process into adulthood I have often often felt overwhelmed by the many things changing in my life. However, as I reflect on my experience I realise that I need to just go along with the flow, acknowledging that it is not going to last forever, so grasp it while I can.

During the editing process I attempted to capture this by juxtaposing still shots of nature such as water, to shots of me spinning. Sounds such as the train and strong wind in the background are meant to showcase my fast paced and clouded mindset during this time. Likewise, the shots of the water and other natural elements such as flowers are meant to depict my need to slow down, relax, and acknowledge that this is a natural experience that every person goes through. Furthermore, the light present in the shots of water, correlates to my need to see the light at the end of the tunnel and enjoy this experience whilst it lasts.

In addition changing the shots from black and white to colour allowed me to figuratively portray the way I have been torn between my past dependence on others to run my life, (black and white) to this new found freedom where I am able to decide what my actions are (colour). For me I think I succeeded in depicting my flustered mindset through the use of fast spinning and layered sounds that illustrate all the thoughts running through my head. One thing I could’ve done better is having more variety in the shots I used in order to showcase more material, giving me the ability to juxtapose more shots to convey how I was thinking and experiencing. Perhaps, this would have illustrated my ideas clearer by having more visual material, however, overall I believe I was able to effectively portray these concepts in the time constraints given.

Self Portrit Brief (2) from Lucas James on Vimeo.

To tackle this task I wanted to create a self portrait that represented what state of mind I was in during this point of my life. And what was this state of mind?

During my life leading up to uni I have felt this sense of being lost. Lost, in that I have been trying to work out what I want to do with my life. Lost, in figuring out who I want to be as a person. Lost, in the way that the freedom I am experiencing is something that is new to me. The images, sounds, and videos I have created/recorded are meant to depict this mindset. Likewise I wanted to create media material that represented me in terms of the things that I enjoy doing.The series of images are intended to establish this sense of detachment from who I want to become in the future and what I’m going to do about it in the NOW.

I also wanted to establish my sense of frustration that came along with exploring what I really wanted to pursue in my life. The videos both preserved this similar idea through the clip of me spinning whilst also establishing my realisation through the clip of water.  Like water, I need to just go with the flow, be adaptable to change and not constrain me self. I need to see the light at the end of the tunnel and realise that this is a journey, like water I am only constrained by the boundaries I place on my self.

The sound recording relates to things that are personal in my life, such as my brothers school singing at assembly or beatboxing, something that I do constantly to simply entertain myself. The text is something I wrote, sentences that reflected my aspiration to gain some composure and not place such high expectations on myself.

 

 

THAT TIME OF YOUR LIFE

What am I doing with my life. Sitting here, staring lifelessly into this computer screen. Have patience dude! Don’t rush at life, know your talents and be confident! Things will just fall into place. But you have to make them happen. Don’t sit and wait around for someone to lift you up from the ground. Believe and be authentic. Act on things and voice your opinion. Your voice is the speaker and your heart, mind and soul is the music, let the music play, without interruption, without lag. Turn it up and be… be you!

Reflection from Lucas James on Vimeo.

Spinning from Lucas James on Vimeo.

So week 2 has just past in what seemed like a very speedy manner and its already the start of week 3. What a week it was. I am now 19, and too be honest, it doesn’t feel any different. Despite a nice family gathering and of course the traditional birthday presents and ritual of blowing out the candles, everything was the same.

I was walking down the street towards my class feeling lively as ever, when I was suddenly hit me with a wave of disappointment, no one else on the street new it was my birthday. I felt obliged to say something, like “Hey, it’s my birthday!”, but who was I kidding, I was never going to declare my self to the world like that. So I continued strolling past the average citizens who were oblivious that today was my birthday, up towards the RMIT buildings when a second wave of devastation hit me.

This was not high school where news of your birthday spread like wild fire through the year level. This was not back in primary school where you brought a cake to school and where you were treated like a king for the whole day. This was University, second week of university in my first year where the meaning of a birthday seemed to be diminished to just ‘another day’. Am I being harsh on my self… well yeah! It was my second week, first year of university! I had just started to make some new mates, what did I expect?

But in reality, as you grow older it seems like the precious moments that make up the day of your birthday seem to be spent with fewer people. As you grow older you begin to realise who are close friends. You begin to see who are the people you know are going to be there throughout the rest of your life. As much as my friendship with other people is not going to be based purely on the fact whether they say happy birthday to me, its more a sign of mutual respect and a relationship that goes beyond word of mouth in a school yard.

With this in mind as I looked back on the day, I realised that although I may not have a solid friendship group at UNI yet, I definitely have people I can really classify as friends, individuals that I want to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. What seemed like a pretty shocking morning of self revelations, turned into something that I really quite enjoyed.

UNI life is odd. I mustn’t be the only one who seems to have too much time on their hands to know what to do with! Or am I? The transition from high school was a pretty major one, unlike the good old days, you actually have to go out of your way to catch up with everyone. Good or bad, it certainly takes a lot more effort to maintain any kind of friendship!

I think any new car owner would know what the tiring process of choosing a car is like. I’m currently in the process of finding my key to independence, yet there are so many decisions, it is overwhelming! Black or white, which brand, leather or fabric, endless possibilities. But really, at the end of the day I just need something that is going to get me from A to B. So perhaps I need to stop being a tosser and just choose the most simple and cheapest of them all. When I think about the idea of buying the best looking, and most expensive items it seems quite absurd. In the most common of luxuries the purpose remains the same, yet it all comes down to representation and this idea of class. A mansion vs. a suburban house, a sports car vs. a family sedan, a $10 000 watch vs. a $10 dollar one. All these things have the same function, yet obviously there is this strive for one over the other!

I look forward to this new week, things are starting to fall into place!

My self portrait task is out of the way and i’m looking forward to the new challenges that await, both in terms of course work and overall life goals.

Goals this week:

• Do some more reading
• Have lunch with someone I haven’t seen in a while
• Do some more photography and filming

What i’m doing in my spare time:

• Working out things to do in my spare time.

What i’m listening to:

• Amtrac
• 1000 Cranes – Alright Peace RIP (Reminds me of NYC… I’ve never been there!)
• Ben Esser – Love You More 

Photography that i’m loving:

• Lukasz Wierzbowski

Films i’ve watched:

• Fruitvale Station (Tear Jerker)
• Bling Ring (Really not worth it… lift your game Lucas!)

 

The hardest thing about writing is knowing where to start, as with many things in life. Stephan King once stated “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” It got me thinking and made me realise that, like the beginning of a race or the start of a new year, I had to force myself to overcome my doubts and leave behind the idea that I had to craft the perfect blog piece. So here I am, attempting to write about the past week and catch up on the blog posts that I forgot/ignored. The only logical way I thought could start this post is to begin at the end. The end of the week marks the beginning of a new one. It’s a day before my 19th birthday and i’m sitting at my computer wondering how I made it this far. Birthdays are meant to be a momentous milestone yet I feel as if its just another day. The more I think about turning this age the more it scares me. It makes me feel vulnerable, It makes me nervous that I have one year left of being technically classified as a teenager before I step into the realm of being a fully fledged adult.

I remember looking up to people my age when I was younger believing that they had everything worked out. Yet here I am and I feel as lost as I ever have. I feel as if I’ve been dropped in the middle of the desert without a compass or a map and told “Make your own way back home” I guess it comes back to Kings quote addressing the fact that this is a new chapter of my life and I have to embrace it. Like the beginning of a blog post where your fingers seem stuck hovering above the key board, I just have to start, I have to get out there and make the most of this new beginning. One door may have closed yet a million other ones have opened for me to enjoy and explore. I need to trust myself and go with my gut instinct and pave my own map in this world because there are no preconfigured guidelines telling me how my life will turn out. Tomorrows my birthday and i’m going to embrace it, take advantage of this new phase of my life.

Unlike my naive speculation about my adult years I can now acknowledge that I have no expectations to live up to. There is no right or wrong way, there is no perfect life; we have the ability to shape it the way we want too and that is something that I am truly excited about.

I am reluctant to go on, yet here is a brief summary of the past week in Media.

Day 1: Pretty exciting, the stairs are faster, learning the ins and outs of the campus, finding some mates, I sat next too some pretty interesting people in class, we learnt about different learning styles, Im pretty sure I have low tolerance for boredom, Media is not boring, two hour breaks are good way to explore the city… I explored what I wanted to get out of the course:

• Write stories and explain ideas clearly
• Public speaking/presentation skills
• Edit films better
• How to advertise/appeal to an audience
• Create a network of friends
• How to direct films better
• Learn more about Asian culture
• Get better with composition and lighting
• Learn more about the history if media
• Learn more about the international market and economy

Day 2: Work shops are awesome, how the hell do I complete the self portrait task…i’m still questioning this! I’m in a pretty cool class, 3 hours seemed pretty long, but its pretty short when you actually enjoy something, I need to read more news, Learn’t how to blog, I realised that this is the course for me.

Films I recently watched:

• Boyhood
• Mud

What i’m listening to:

Hot since 82

AIPIF (An Interesting Photo I Found)