At present there is plenty of debate in the national arena on how to fund our university education.  An investigation by Four Corners has unearthed evidence of a decline in academic standards at our universities.  There is a pressure on lecturers and tutors to pass students who are failing to meet minimal requirements.  The reason for this decline in standards is due to lack of government funding and the corruption in enrolment with overseas students.  Four Corners reported that 50% of RMIT University students are full fee-paying overseas students.

Many of the overseas students don’t have the level of English needed to successfully study a degree.  I’ve seen evidence of this in one of my classes when an overseas student made simple grammatical errors in their project for everyone to see.  The corruption also thrives in the overseas agents who recruit the students on the universities behalf.  There has been reports of fake qualifications used to make applications.  There has also been accusations of overseas students using these agencies to undertake visa fraud.  But with universities now dependent on incomes recieved from foreign students, it looks like the problem isn’t going away anytime soon.

bibliography – Linton Besser, 2015, Degrees of Deception,

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/04/20/4217741.htm

During this weeks tutorial we were required to submit our third projects.  The students were divided into groups and were shown all the projects during the class.  The standard of the projects were good and most were entertaining or informative to watch.  There were various techniques used in telling the person’s story.  One that stood out for me was Bliss David’s project.  She definitely has great talent as a media practitioner.  She managed to make a boring subject entertaining with her project.  It made me realise that even a bland story can be made interesting and humorous with the right visual aid.

Within our groups we were required to give feedback to each other using the hat system.  I received positive feedback regarding my project but there was some concerns about the cat’s safety.  I ensured them that no animals were harmed in the making of my project.  I also gave some feedback in regards to what I felt worked and what didn’t work in each project.  It’s always so much easier for me to give positive feedback rather than negative feedback.  But it is the negative feedback that you can learn a lot more from if there is a decent explanation with it.

I decided for this media project that I would do a portrait on my friend Kyle and focus on his vaping habit.   I was more confident this time that I could come up with a better production compared to my last project.   I’ve become a lot better at using imovie to edit the media and now feel more confident in using the program.   Last project I really struggled with the audio and the voice over was inadequate as a result. But I feel that I nailed it this time and feel more pleased with the end product.

I borrowed the Sony MC50E camera with the tripod and found it was quite an easy camera to operate. There were no problems capturing the footage and the device also recorded quality audio.   I was trying to play around with different angle shots and sometimes struggled getting the tripod setup right. But I was glad that I used this equipment instead of using a mobile phone like I did with my previous project.

When it came to using the found footage on the project I sometimes struggled to find what I really wanted. I spent a lot of time searching through the archives sifting out a lot of rubbish. It was quite hard to find the quality footage that I was looking for. A lot of the material on the subject was out of date and there wasn’t much media for vapour smokes.   Maybe his was due to the fact that they haven’t been around for that long. Kyle was a pleasure to work with and it was quite easy to get decent footage of him. We have been good friends for a while now but I could see it being somewhat awkward if I was to do the same process with a stranger.

Overall I was happy with how the project turned out and Kyle was happy with it too. But he admitted he gets quite embarrassed looking at himself on camera. I enjoyed every facet when going through the process of making this project.   I would definitely be willing to learn more in general on the making of documentaries in the future.

Recently the Federal Court ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to supply the names of the people who illegally downloaded the movie “Dallas Buyers Club”.  The film’s owners have warned thousands of Australians can expect settlement letters following the landmark court ruling.  The decision might scare a few but most people will continue to illegally download.  Besides the law in Australia will only allow the companies to receive damages of up to $20 per movie.

The problem we have in Australia is that the consumers are blatantly ripped off when it comes to purchasing online media content.  We pay higher prices for items purchased from iTunes than American consumers, which seems blatantly unfair.  The government are also looking at implementing GST on online purchases which will drive the prices even higher.  Any threatening legal action from production companies will only force illegal downloaders to take more precautionary measures.  There are a variety of ways for people to illegally download and avoid detection from authorities.  Anyone that is half technology savvy has the ability to avoid being detected.

It is an issue that the companies are finding hard to resolve and the government continues to struggle in keeping up with legislation.  When pirates can easily change their IP address or just watch a movie from an illegal streaming service, it will always prove difficult to enforce the law.  There is also the difficulty of proving that a person has illegally downloaded content.  Is a business liable for damages if a customer has downloaded illegal content on their free wifi?  Is watching an illegal streaming service considered downloading?  Maybe if Australian consumers had cheaper and easier access to media content it would make pirating less appealing.

During class today we learned the basics of how to use a video camera and a audio recorder.  We were allocated into groups of three and given certain tasks to perform with each equipment.  I’ve never really used a proper video camera on a tripod before and was happy to gain some experience using one.  The video camera was fairly easy to use but I was having some trouble getting the tripod balanced to get an even picture.  I decided to borrow the camera for my media project to get more comfortable using it.  Hopefully I get a better outcome rather than just using my mobile phone.

The audio recording device was slightly more complicated to use as I have no experience whatsoever using such a gadget.  When I used the device I was amazed at all the audio that it picks up within the environment.  We were given the task of recording certain sounds within the university.  It might become a handy device to use in the future.  But I decided not to use the device for my project as I was advised that the camera was adequate enough to get decent audio.

DAVID GYNGELL: I’d love 1993 again. I’d love to be back before Foxtel was here. I’d love to be back with three networks. I’d love to be sitting here, and who cares if the audience complains and who cares if we put a bad show on, they have to watch it anyway. That, that was the world, but the fact is that, that’s not the world. That’s not the world in any industry.

David Gyngell, CEO, Network Nine, 25th March, 2015

On the ABC show media watch this week Paul Barry interviewed David Gyngell and discussed the future of free to air television.  David Gyngell was quite optimistic about the future for free to air but admitted there is more heavier competition to deal with now.  He mentioned that it is the consumers now that have the power of choice when it comes to media content.  Free to air television networks can’t simply feed rubbish on the screens anymore.  There are too many alternatives now for people to choose including services like Netflix, Quickflix, Apple Tv, Foxtel and so on.  The three major networks ten, seven and nine have to produce quality content to attain their viewers.  Otherwise viewer numbers will go down which in turn causes revenue loss from advertisers.

David also made the point that there is still a big demand for local news content that can’t be obtained in foreign online streaming content.  He mentioned that channel nine have invested heavily in news content to try and keep their audiences.  He also said that producers and journalists will always be in demand to film and cover local news content.  Blogging can’t purely exist if the story hasn’t been produced in the first place.  David’s opinion was you can’t have an industry full of bloggers giving opinion based on who’s gathered the information to give them an opinion.  People can’t watch breaking content with moving picture on Facebook or Twitter.

Sport and reality shows unfortunately manage to get the highest ratings in free to air television.  But I think there is definitely an audience for Australian made content telling Australian stories.  If there is quality Australian drama, people will watch it.  For example the tv series ‘The Slap’ had solid tv ratings and was then produced in America for their audiences.  The networks should invest more money in quality Australian drama or comedy made by local talent.  I don’t think free to air television can last if they continue to go down the model of producing cheap reality shows and paying mega dollars for sports content.  Otherwise the Netflix boss’s prediction of free to air television going extinct by 2030 just might become a reality.

Most of the discussion in this lectorial was in regards to the next portrait project. When I heard the word “portrait” mentioned for the next project I thought “oh no, not again.”  But as soon as it was revealed that this project is to be done on someone else that you know, I was so relieved.  I will find it so much easier doing a media portrait on someone that I know rather than doing it on myself again.  Another bonus is that we aren’t so restricted to what resources we can use on this project.

What is interesting about this project is that we have to incorporate “found footage” in our media portrait.  We were told to ignore the wikipedia definition of found footage.  Instead found footage is  ‘pre-existing film footage appropriated by a filmmaker and used in a way that was not originally intended.’  I’m really looking forward to using archive footage and to see how I can incorporate it to a different meaning in my project.  We were shown other portraits in class to give us some inspiration.  They were very good and helped generate ideas that I can use in my piece of media.

In this tutorial all the students had to have their self portrait video ready to be shown in front of the class.  I was quite nervous about having my project shown on the big screen for everyone to see.  Everyone also had to comment on what they thought did or didn’t work in regards to their project.  The quality of the projects were very good and quite entertaining.  There were various ways that people portrayed themselves which were equally effective.  Some were abstract, others were straight forward,  some were comical while others were informative.  There is no exact way a video portrait should be presented, different forms can all have positive effects.

When my video came up on the screen it felt like my insides were turning.  For some stupid reason I was just so worried what everyone would think.  I thought visually the project went well but the audio wasn’t great.  It really highlighted the sound deficiencies when played on surround sound.  The voice over could barely be heard on some segments which was a pity.  This was due to my lack of editing skills but I plan to address this skill in my next project.  I felt like a deer in headlights when it came to explaining what I felt worked and didn’t work in the project.  I’m a horrible public speaker and sound like a mumbling retard when it comes to addressing a crowd.  This is also a skill that I will have to address in the future.