too true
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” – Gandalf, The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Archives: July 2014
Dream That Ended Too Soon (Yes That Is A Toy Story Quote) – E.C.I
Trailer for our Gap Year Movie 2013/14. Check it out, share on social medias, woop!
Flash
Shout out to ma main bloggers Kenton and Giorgia. Yes I have to link other blogs to get marks, and yes Kenton’s obviously looks better than mine (might have to make some inspirational changes) but they have both actually done a very good job in setting up and establishing their blogs so give them a like, share their blog and have a read of their posts. Woop!
Flash
The Creative Mind – E.C.I
creativity is a calling
I LOVE being creative, or at least I consider myself to be somewhat creative. Something I also love almost as much as being creative is discussions about creativity, about life and about what it means to find your place and ascend to what makes you feel fulfilled. Getting a intense in here am I right? Didn’t think Flash could be serious, well he can be when he wants to be. BY THE WAY (btw’s for you hip and cool people) I promise to reveal the origins of the the nickname Flash in the not so distant future. Trust me, its nothing cool or exciting but the name seems to have stuck to the point that if I put an order of food under Luke and they call it out I don’t respond. Anyway, I am rambling on, back to the point at hand.
Creativity, for me anyway, is a gift and a curse. My main medium is film, and I like my creativity to spill in other areas of my life. However in my field, and I know others will agree, that it is a every elusive journey for perfection. I will put 14 hours into a short film and then start again because I decide it is not up to my standards. But that is how we evolve and expand our creative minds. BACK to my original point about discussions about creativity, there is this great channel on Youtube called Shots Of Awe which I have linked below and I highly recommend you check out. The link is to one of my favourites, but its Creator Jason Silva does videos on extremely interesting topics like ‘are we already cyborgs?’, ‘conquering our fear of death’ and ‘mirroring gods’.
The creative mind that we all posses allows us to see the world in a different light, even at its darkest moments. Some people find it easier to tap into this creative field than others, while some express they simply are not creative, but we all have this creative flow state within us, it is just about finding the trigger, or our calling as some might say. One of the most annoying parts of this creative mind is that we want to follow our passions, to not conform, to not be one with the crowd but it takes so courage to do so. We want to take that plunge, to answer the call but some many people do not due to fear, fear of judgement and that it is not considered the norm.
I love the talk by Alan Watts ‘What if money were no object?’ which I have also linked in below, which talks about what job or career or dreams would you follow if money meant nothing, if it was no importance or did not exist. He goes on to say how most people want to be painters and writers, dancers, more to the country, to travel and meet people from different backgrounds but they do not because there is nothing in that, or so they think. I won’t spoil the whole talk but he essentially concludes that you will not live a satisfying life doing a job you hate everyday, and that you should follow your heart, otherwise you will forever be unhappy.
That is all a lot to take in right there but they are awesome things to think about as a results of the ever curious creative brain.
Flash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA_tjY8osGE – Shots Of Awe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7Y1-0bNeQ – Alan Watts
CC – Crappy Content, Wk 2 Reading
it was never all going to be fun
All I can say is that at least Elliot gave us fair warning that this weeks content would be dry. Not so much that the content itself is extremely boring, more that a lot of it is quite self explanatory and well…obvious. That being said I did still come away with a few things.
The first video was a general overview of creative commons and what it is. CC Kiwi, what a character. The video was helpful in explaining the different types of licenses and why we have them.
The second link was basically just Australia copyright laws and FAQ, pretty obvious things like you would not be able to link pirate bay on a blog for example because they are breaking the law against copyright.
The third link was the incredibly engaging Professor Lawrence Lessig who essentially reiterated the first two links but took it a bit further describing CC as a visual tool in respect to the licenses making it easier for all internet users. Side note, was it really necessary for the camera man to go from this 
to this 
??? He really needs to take a Nick Moore crash course in framing. ONWARD!
The fourth and fifth video both used animated cartoons to talk about creative commons, what they mean and why we have them. I love the fact that these cheap cartoons are used for the simple fact that the content is so dull that on ever so slightly increases the chance of them being watch. To be fair, it made them watchable and the content remained in my brain long enough for me to get this onto the internet so that is something they can pat themselves on the back about. The final link was just boring legal stuff once again.
What I did find interesting about all these links, especially the Jack White example was the idea that music specially needs to have permission to be remixed, used in a video or to have album artworks, and music video content used. Would it be ok if someone for example used a song in a silly video they made at home. The video then becomes a big success on the internet. Is it ok to then later pay tribute to the original owners? The harlem shake is an excellent example of this. 
I don’t know all the specifics but I do know that the original video was a college video that just randomly decided the song should be what it has become. The publicity for the song itself, be it as horrible as it is would have been incredibly. What happens to the original rights of the song?
For me personally this has always been a pressing problem with my films. On Youtube you need to acknowledge songs that do not belong to you as youtube detects them and will sometimes remove them from your videos. This is not an issue if the owner allows or gives permission but quite often they do not. EMI is a classic example, a music label so big I’m sure they don’t have time or really care about little home videos and approving songs. Making the transition to Vimeo, this is not a problem. You do however click ‘i agree’ when you upload a video that all the content is owned by you but the point is that unless your video becomes a hit no one is going to come looking for you to slap you on the wrist. Vimeo is way better anyways 🙂
Flash
Well I’ll Be Damned…I Get It! – E.C.I (Explore/Create/Inspire)
Flying Monkeys
I wanted to talk about the notion of understanding. WOW! I know, chill. I don’t want to get too philosophical on you, but hey, its my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want! Well that isn’t exactly true according to the post I will make shortly after this one but I digress.
What does it mean to understand something? A lot the time we think we understand something but we actually have no idea. For example I have a friend who for years has been using the word ‘ambiguous’ in the wrong context, like COMPLETELY wrong. How wrong I hear you ask? Well he would say things like ‘man this coffee is so ambiguous’ and on this occasion I pulled him up on it and he said ‘well it kinda makes sense because of you know, like multiple flavours’ to which I just responded ‘well that is very pretentious or just plain wrong’ and that was that. Silly example I know, and yes I need to get some better company.
Eistein said that ‘Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding’. Michael J Fox (Marty McFly from Back To The Future Trilogy) said that ‘Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it’. Understanding can be a frustrating thing for many. Whether its a concept in Maths class you simply cannot comprehend, or your telling of a funny story or joke that no one seems to get. Or perhaps even trying to convey what it is like to not be like everyone else or how it feels to lose a loved one.
The ability to understand and to listen is not something you inherit or you are born with, it is a gift, something you earn. Unfortunately not all of us have it, but some of us do. We all have someone in our lives that we know is what the doctors deem or classify as ‘sick’ which is something I don’t agree with. You desire for your health to be at another point and while one might argue that is is the very definition of sick, consider that no one is sick but that there is merely room for improvement if one wishes it.
I only feel the need to blog about this because I read a story which I have linked below that was saddening but at the same time eye opening and inspiring. I won’t dive into the specifics of it now, and I realise that maybe only 1 in 10 if that may read it but its important that we have an understanding of our society and those around us. A sense of perspective is key successful living.
Flash
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/navigation/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf
You Are Heroes Everyday – Reading 01
you are heroes everyday
Dare I say that I loved a University weekly reading? No, of course not. I think it will be a while before dc and marvel comics are our prescribed texts however I did enjoy the concepts in this weeks reading. The reading was about what I am doing write now, penning or typing my thoughts for a public audience…blogging. Moreover, the reading explained how blogging in education can be used especially for media students to gain an understanding in media literacy and to create an online identity.
The whole time while going through this reading I couldn’t help but think of Freedom Writers. If you haven’t seen Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank I demand that at the end of this sentence you go watch it and then come back to continue reading this post and to comment below what you thought of the movie. A very sad and moving film, there is a segment where Hilary, or Erin the character she plays asks her students to keep a journal. They can write whatever they wish and they will only be read with the students permission. Subsequently, we see there students write about their most inner and hidden ideas, secrets and memories, most of which are very confronting.
I am not suggesting that we as media students should do this but I was merely drawing the parallels between aspects of the movie and this assignment. I think there is much to be gained from this blog assessment but only as much as a student is willing to put in. The ability to see the work of others as the article conveys will allows student to see what is deemed ‘excellent’ work and what is considered ‘poor’. In this regard I think there is extra encouragement to want to do well in this assessment because for those who choose this blog can continue outside of tertiary education.
Flash
Semester 2, Network Media…So It Beings :/
so it begins...
Friday the 25th of July marked the beginning of Network media, for myself and about a dozen others in my class with our deadly but fearless leader Elliot. Armed with an arsenal of linking words such as ‘however’ ‘consequently’ and ‘therefore’ our learning knew no bounds. Unfortunately for all of us no real learning was to take place today as it was merely a crash course in blogging, the hows and whys, and an overview of the work for the semester.
We briefly looked at some of the concepts, ideas and suggestions for the upcoming projects and what they were to entail. Broken into groups we discussed the content of these. I was happy to find out that our documenting process was now online, a step up from Writing Media Texts, making this blogging assignment much easier and more fun I think. The ability to have full access to links, pages and other areas of the interest is quite advantageous, not to mention not having to print out pages upon pages of images and quotes then harnessing our year 5 skills of physical cutting and pasting…no thanks, this is much better.
It also allows us as students to tag our friends in our posts and to view their pages and blogs, something that was not as easy when it came to physical journals. I think the outlook of the assignment as a whole has room for a lot more creative angles and presentation due to its digital sense. Plus, less writing, so excellent for all of us 🙂
Flash