/ The Logies and Raising Awareness /

So as many Australian’s know, the inaugural ‘Logies’ of 2015 were held on Sunday evening with some fabulous guest stars including the likes of Ricky Martin and Meghan Trainor who performed their hit songs for the wonderful all celebrity audience.

Some of my favourite actors/singers were absolute stars on the red carpet including Nicole Da Silva (Figure 1), Asher Keddie (Figure 2), the Wonderland cast (Figure 3) and Delta Goodrem (Figure 4).

Screen Shot 2015-05-05 at 11.42.43 am

 

(Figure 1)

220990-c52c7f2a-f173-11e4-8640-5412dd2d4115

(Figure 2)

final-looks-red-carpet-gorgeous-Wonderland-cast-has

(Figure 3)

r0_0_2566_3849_w1200_h678_fmax

(Figure 4)

There was your best dressed, worst dressed and the in betweeners. But the reason for this post is to congratulate the wonderful Carrie Bickmore on her first ever Gold Logie after about 4 previous nominations. Not only has she just had a baby (and she looks smashing (see images below)) but her speech was on a whole other level. Bickmore stated in an interview the morning after on Nova 100 that she was going to do the usual “thank-you” but had already done it before. She tossed up whether to end the night on a sad note with a sad story but decided that this was the best thing to do – and so she did rightly so!

220023-9b2c5eee-f172-11e4-8640-5412dd2d4115 219971-9bf74df2-f172-11e4-8640-5412dd2d4115

Bickmore looks stunning after just having a baby.. not even sure how she does it!

The contents of her speech included a blue beanie and a thank-you to her late Husband who died of Brain Cancer. The blue beanie was worn for the campaign ‘#BeaniesforBrainCancer’. Her emotional speech raised awareness for the deadly disease, something that has had many talking since because of how beautiful it truly was.

On The Project the next day, the whole crew wore beanies to raise awareness for Brain Cancer.

175778-40a6277c-f256-11e4-9134-cf9443e7fd03

Personally I believe that this was an amazing thing to do. It is so important that we are all aware of how bad these illnesses are, and raising awareness is exactly what we need to do. Bickmore having had personal experience with the illness of course is more inclined to want to raise awareness, however we must respect those celebrities who use their power and fame to go out of their way to raise awareness for any type of illness/charity/cause. It is so important that celebs are doing this as they are often the most reached people in society and therefore their messages are more likely to get across to more people. It could be said that it in fact is easier for them to raise awareness as they are more popular than you and I so I believe that all celebrities should be doing their bit within society.

I hope that in the future I can follow in the footsteps of Bickmore and be as inspiring as her.

Congratulations Carrie. That Logie was so well deserved 🙂

/ Random Post about Project Brief 4 – Sound /

Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 10.59.11 am

 

So last night I was watching the news with my family and I saw that the Kew Tram Depot was celebrating a centenary. They showed images of children using tram simulators so that they could see what it is like to drive a Tram. This shocked my brothers and I as we thought it was the coolest idea EVER.

My brothers and I are all really obsessed with any type of game simulator whether it be flight simulator, train simulator or truck simulator. So us being us, we googled ‘tram simulator’ and I found this little website: http://tramsimulator.com.au/. I clicked in and found a big red button. I clicked the button and there was just a tram ding. Not the best outcome BUT it has come in handy as for our Group 4 Project, we are creating a soundscape of the media bombardment in which we all experience every day.

We will now record this ding being played in order to add the sound of trams as a media text.

Sometimes my random thoughts can be helpful!

/ Week 8 – Lectorial Reflection /

wk8    Narrative//Non-Narrative

In this lecture we discussed Narrative and Non-Narrative. I have never heard of non-narrative before so it was incredibly insightful.

Narrative is any kind of retelling of events and is ‘everything’.

When considering narrative, we must consider:

Causality – cause and effect – Perth to Broome, you must be in Perth to get to Broome. A logical progression from one event to the next.

Character Development: Any kind of story we know of, character development takes time – its rare for us to know exactly who a character is and what their motivations are straight away. They must be presented with a number of situations in which the character must deal with. Allows a character to form from a blank canvas with events.

Plot: Chronological sequence of events in narrative. A person carrying out the action, the action itself and the person it is being carried out with/for.

Resolution:

An end.

“The stuff of story is alive and intangible”

Joseph Campbell; ‘modern myth’ or the ‘heroes journey’ – a pattern of narrative identified in many stories throughout the world.

We were then required to complete an in Class activity where we discussed the Hunger Games and the emotional highs (i.e. Katniss and Peeta winning the games)/lows (Rue dying) and the characters mapped according to prominence (Katniss then Peeta).

Repeated representations set up a pattern of expectations – if we the audience see something enough, we recognise the signs and assume what will happen next.

 

Non-narrative: no main story-line (that is typical or is something that we can assume), no speaking, the characters are just objects.

 

We watched a non-narrative film that had no main-storyline but also had elements of narrative (i.e. headings).

 

This lecture was interesting as often I overlook the importance of narrative as often it comes naturally as we experience it in our every day lives.

/ Week 7 – Lectorial Reflection /

part two
lights out for the territory – a disciplinary road map

wk7    Texts

In the first half of the lecture we discussed ‘texts’.

Where does the ‘textual analyis’ tradition come from?

‘effects’ tradition in communication studies: post WW2/mid 20th century turn against a particular idea of culture

Texts are:

  • vehicles for the production of cultural meaning (sign systems)
  • ‘texts’ in media, communications and cultural studies include cultural products, images, policy documents, social practices, institutions….
  • ‘sites were we can see the social production of ideas and values happening before our eyes’

I learnt that there is not one true accurate meaning of ‘texts’. We must also consider semiotics: A ‘sign’ can be a visual, linguistic, aural, combination etc.

Signs have two parts:

: The signifier and the signifies

– Signifier/signified – dog/(picture of dog)

– Red = signifier

(colour of red) = signified/mental concept

We then had a look at an image:

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/documents/s4B-sem-gloss.html#P

and discussed…

Denotation = literal of first order meaning and Connotation = cultural or 2nd order meaning

Denotated – man is throwing child into swimming pool

Connotated – a father throwing his child into the swimming pool

The second half of the lecture was dedicated to sound (one of my favourite elements).

Sound is defined as noise or music and is multi-directional: 360 degree angle. It is pervasive: can’t turn it off, it is everywhere and complexly layered: hear lots of sounds at any given time/can be experienced all at once.

Sounds can be prioritized by the ear: we can do this.

  • We are continually absorbing and therefore we must constantly filter out sounds.
  • Sound is intimate (e.g. radio dj talking to listeners)
  • It is also subjective – methods of representations/aural semiotics (semiotic codes of sound place the listener in a mediated/imagined relationship with the subject of representation + two crucial codes – perspective and social distance)

Theo Van Leeuwen, ‘Perspective’ – “hierarchizes elements of what is represented”.

Sound Perspective (simultaneous sounds)

  • figure: the focus of interest
  • ground: the setting or context
  • field: the background/ambient space

Social distance: consider the kinds of speech in terms of volume, pitch, relaxed, softness hardness (single sounds)

  • intimate
  • personal
  • informal
  • formal
  • public

Technology of amplification and recording has uncoupled the two and allowed them to become independent semiotic vehicles – a whisper can be projected with the use of a microphone.

Soundscape: it is a representation of a place or an environment that can be heard rather than what can be seen.

Technical elements – pitch/volume

Temporal aspects – attack/sustain/delay

Interaction of sounds

Emotional/associative aspects of sound

Where the sounds originate from

How might we be able to create/obtain/treat them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc – what could be the figure, ground & field sounds?

Figure – children’s voices/screams

Ground – feet touching the floor as they run

Field – wind

Above are a whole bunch of notes taken in this lecture. This has been my favourite lecture so far as I was able to look deeper into ‘sound’. I hope to someday be able to explore even further into this area as I believe it is incredibly underrated and very often overlooked (especially in cinema).

/ Media 1 rant and ALSO an Orphan Black chat /

So pretty much today was eventful. I was unable to make the tutorial due to personal reasons and my Project 3 was due this morning. The audio quality when crazy on me which I’m very sad about. I’ve had to keep uploading it and trying to get it working but it ain’t working in my favour #sad.

So in Media news today I have just finished watching the first episode of season 3 Orphan Black (one of the greatest shows of all time). For those of you who have no clue what OB is all about, basically this actor named Tatiana Maslany plays about 7 different characters who are all clones (Urban Dictionary defines it as “a BBC America TV show about clones finding their origin and learning about their past and how their loved ones react and which loved ones are a “spy” or “monitor” to watch these clones”). Dad gave me an article the other morning about the show, which discusses the great acting by Ms. Maslany herself who is able to portray these 7 characters with the inclusion of different mannerisms (even though she looks the same).  As this article states: “the show broods on the nature-nuture debate in human biology and cleverly extends the same question to matters of genre – what does a woman look like when you grow her in a petri dish of Desperate Housewives vs. a horror film set?” It is the same woman, yet with many different stock character traits. AMAZING ACTING I SAY and I believe it is definitely the way forward for unique television programming.

Below is the trailer for Season 1.

Check it out!

 

 

/ Reflection – Project Brief 3 – Media Portrait /

https://vimeo.com/125456039

For this assessment we were required to use the Sony Camcorder, hired from RMIT’s Media AV Services Department. I found this camera relatively easy to use as I have had some experience with other cameras in both my own time and in school in previous years. For this production I used a tripod as well as handheld for the majority of my shots. I wanted to practice with a steady hand however at times it is obvious within the film that there is high wind causing the video to look shaky.

I decided to do this project on my brother Alexander as he is a buzzing entrepreneur about to complete his Year 12 studies. He has already made a name for himself around town and I thought he could also use this short film to advertise himself.

When packing away the camera to complete the filming stage, I noticed that there was a lapel microphone which would have worked fantastically during the beach interview scenes as during the editing phase, I had to attempt to edit out the sound of the wind which proved incredibly difficult. However I was able to double up the recordings within iMovie and use particular treble boosting features in the audio setting to reduce the sound from the wind.

It was incredibly difficult to edit the film as I had recorded many decent pieces of information however the project was only asking for a 2 minute snapshot of another individual. Whilst I think I have chosen the best shots, I still think I should have thought more thoroughly about what information I really wanted to get from Alexander.

The production is set at the beach as this is one of my brother’s favourite places to visit.

In the making process I have gained more experience in the use of microphones as well as video recording. I have continued to use iMovie and I believe that it works well for small projects like this, however I would like to gain more experience in other better quality editing software. I have also learnt to consider my location setting choices as the wind has made a huge impact on my audio quality and this has definitely let the production down. However, film is not my favourite element within media and I think I can be proud of what I have achieved/I have definitely improved from the last project.

I would definitely love to have more experience in the audio area as this area is my passion.

11180065_1058517200842485_883660885_n

Found Footage:

Music used:

Loveshadow / CC BY-NC 3.0 – I used this song as the words ‘Change’ are repeated throughout. I believe Alexander is all about making change within his own but others lives. It is also a dance song, one of my brothers favourite music genres.
Film used:
 
Release Forms:

/ Week 6 – Lectorial Reflection /

wk6  Media  is a form of research

This week we discussed collaboration.

Collaboration-SLIDES-1z0gh6m (here are the notes that were shown on the board in the lecture).

For our next Media 1 project, we are doing a lot of collaboration and therefore it was important to discuss as we head into Project 4. It made me think about the fact that there is a whole lot of collaboration in the media world, especially in the area of field that I want to pursue.

/ Filming – Media 1 Portrait on Alexander /

FullSizeRender IMG_1328 IMG_1329

so last Sunday my brother and I began the filming for my Media 1 portrait on ‘someone else’.

I have chosen to complete my assessment with Alexander as the main focus of my film, as he is the most important person in my life. He is my brother but to me he is also my best friend. We talk about everything with each other and I am so very proud to call him my brother because he is so talented and already a success at 17 (his success started at 14/15). One day he will be a buzzing entrepreneur (he already is) and will have the world falling at his feet. He is amazing!

I cannot wait to see the outcome of the shots. I know that sound may be an issue but I can always record over the top or edit out any background noise that interferes.

Above are a few photos/selfies from the shoot at St. Kilda Beach, one of my brothers favourite places to be.

 

/ Media 1 – Seminar 5 – Practice with Video Cameras /

Above is an unedited video of the video camera practice we had before using them for our next assessment (Self Portrait on another person).

Here we experimented with using the tripod (both stable and moving) and handheld (including zoom).

It was a great way for me to learn how to use the camera as I have not used many in my lifetime and this one seems extra extravagant.

 

/ Week 5 – Lectorial Reflection /

wk5  Media collaborates [Easter Break – split week, no classes  Thur 2 April- Wed 8 April

There was not enough time in this lecture to discuss media collaborates, however we did discuss Project Brief 3:

  • – combining two ‘traditions’: Portrait + Found Footage
  • What is found footage?
  • – ‘pre-existing film footage appropriated by a filmmaker and used in a way that was not originally intended.’
  • – Earliest examples are avant-garde experiemental (1920s); revival in 1950s New American cinema
  • – Affecting by technological developments – e.g. video then digitalisation… means that ‘found footage’ has an evolving meaning.

We then learnt about reading Academic Writing

Practical steps:

– Download and print the article

– Write notes and highlight as you go

– Don’t just start reading from the beginning… to ‘read’ academic writing requires a different strategy i.e. reading key sections (abstract, intro, conclusion); looking at structure… before plunging in to a beginning to end read.

– Skimming is a legitimate part of doing it ‘properly’.

 

Goals in terms of ‘successful’ reading:

– a brief summary of the main ideas of the text

– an evaluation of the text (strengths and limitations)

– commentary on its relevance for your purpose (e.g. background research on an essay topic OR creative inspiration for a creative/technical skill you are developing).

This lecture was incredibly helpful as it enabled me to learn more about how to do well in University rather than teaching us about the media itself. It was not a normal lecture but it was a good one.