I thought choosing to show responses to RMIT ABC Fact Check through audio-visual essay would be a conducive way to both entertain an audience and persuade their thoughts a certain way or at least make them think about the issues that are covered within it, in much the same way other audiovisual essays have for me. I chose it as the vehicle because it is an intersection of many parts of the creative process that I really enjoy, the sound, the case in point of which you are presenting to the audience in essay form, and then the freedom to use footage (at least while at university) that is not yours to help frame the ideology that you present. It is noted that as a format that it “generates new types of insight, particularly in relation to the way a film evokes feeling and emotion” (Explainer: the exciting new genre of the audio-visual film essay, 2020, pp. 13). I thought through utilizing this format and presenting the case for fact-checking and its importance around the climate crisis issue that it could maybe give viewers a new angle on the issue, make them realize the power of misinformation and disinformation when wielded on an unsuspecting public.

I thoroughly enjoyed the process and challenge of creating said artifact. As mentioned, I personally really enjoy audiovisual essays as a format to consume information and media. The process was fairly straightforward, starting with the essay and trying to fit the viewpoint in with the limited word count was a bit challenging though. It took a fair bit of trial and error of myself reading the essay and timing it to make sure it wouldn’t be too long, but still being able to get the point across. Sifting through YouTube footage was laborsome, a lot of cutting and editing… but it is rewarding once it’s all put together. I also called upon some of my own footage that I had used for the “Seeing the Unseen” studio last semester, where we had to study a specific area in nature, so that was handy, as I had the palm tree near my house in varying weather conditions which suited nicely. Alongside this, I also tried to capture nature in its varying conditions whenever I was out, it seems that nice sunsets were the most prevalent extreme I noticed.  I know I got feedback from Ruth about trying to make the voice and music may be less distorted and/or ominous, but it’s a thread that I have tried to incorporate throughout my work, a general feeling of unease, whether it’s quick cuts, super zoomed-in footage or ominous music. I think it’s to differentiate my work from others, also a tip of the hat to directors who I enjoy (the weird ones). In saying that though I did try and clean up the vocal and make the politician quotes more audible. Since the vocal had been run through a tape machine though some parts couldn’t be tamed.

I feel like I have achieved what I set out to do, to make an engaging and interesting piece in response to fact-checking and the place it has within the climate crisis debate in Australia. I would love to be able to work on a project on a larger scale in this format, it’s very engaging and really made me think about all elements involved in making a piece like this, every bit has to fit together just so in order for it to achieve the desired effect. In reflection, something I had trouble with was when using screen capture (to record YouTube footage so it’s editable) using my computer’s microphone to capture the sound was not sufficient to record it to the degree that I wanted to, this made it challenging when editing it together with the non-diegetic sound and the voice-over, the timbre being very different.

Link to group pieces:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nU_WgaxvNmJLEQNzYXoEIiUi2gs3XL-w?fbclid=IwAR1uh1AXqQs7Tzbg7XTVdgb2oT-AImCRPPL3wPCOJUU0hMU1npyJUt8D35w

Sources:

The Conversation. 2020. Explainer: The Exciting New Genre Of The Audio-Visual Film Essay. [online] Available at: <https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-exciting-new-genre-of-the-audio-visual-film-essay-55635> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

I would be lying if I said my perception of Fact-Checking has not changed this semester. I came into the course with a fairly strong feeling towards facts and the truth and their respective importance. I have emerged with a far wider stretching view that encompasses both the political spectrum and news and media as a whole and their approaches to facts and how they’re used in both spheres. I write this as I read the news of Twitter taking action on President Trump and his posting about the Californian postal vote and his reaction of signing an executive order to restrict social media’s platform’s ability to ‘restrict free speech’. Hopefully, this may herald a new age of culpability in relation to posting, parading, and signaling misinformation and disinformation and make people realize the power that it wields. The power that it can exert has become so apparent over the semester and it has made me question almost everything I read in the news and media and made me think twice before believing people’s opinions who possibly have something to gain from broadcasting their views in such a way. Then again, in a more pessimistic viewpoint, maybe people already realize the power that it wields, and it is used as a tool for leverage, with a callous disregard for people who know no better. Alongside invigorating my interest in fact-checking and reliable news, it’s stoked the fire for understanding power relations within media and how things like misinformation and disinformation inform this relationship. The usage of such tools to gain huge political advantage, or sway large portions of the population’s viewpoint is mind-bogglingly powerful and scary. These points again reinforcing to me how crucial fact-checking is to keeping the world and its leaders and powerful and influential people honest. Not saying that any of these revelations are new, but it has certainly opened my eyes in terms of what is possible with these tactics and made me realize that they’ve been being deployed for some time.

For the audio component of the audio-visual essay I wanted to utilize someone else’s voice, to give it an air of professionalism that I find hard to reach when using my own voice for recordings. Having recently been watching World War 2 in Colour I wanted it to have a quality sort of like an intercepted radio signal or a vintage wartime broadcast to pique the audience’s interest, and just because I find doing sound experiments fun. To do this I recall being able to make old imacs speak to me back when I was in primary school, so I googled whether or not this was still possible to do now… which it is… just with far more vocal options. I quickly downloaded all the available voices and got the one that sounded most like an old radio announcer and got it to read my speech. Although at some points it comes off grammatically incorrect or says a couple of words too quickly and sounds a bit unnatural, I tried to edit this out with decent results. To further the radio effect, I utilized some of my analog recording equipment that I use for music projects and ran the speech through a tape machine and a couple of effects such as delay, reverb and chorus to add some old graininess and odd and unique sounds to it. I feel that when this is combined with the footage and accompanying non-diegetic sound it will hopefully become a real assault on the senses and should hopefully captivate the audience enough to keep them interested for the roughly 8 minute run time, I at least think it will be more interesting than listening to my own voice read the essay. Below I have linked an inspiration for the sound source idea along with the exported mp3 of the recorded audio.

This week in the class presentations of their various fact-checking topics I found the Coronavirus example the most interesting. There is obviously a lot to unpack there in terms of the viral spread (pun intended) of information from all angles. There were theories that they discussed that I hadn’t previously come across such as the US military taking the virus into Wuhan on purpose at the military games. The perfect crime really, under the guise of a friendly sporting event, releasing the most dangerous virus in a century, it makes complete sense! It sheds light on the fact that when something of this scale occurs, everybody is looking for a scapegoat. What happened to being innocent until proven guilty, I feel like the world at large should remember standards like this in times of crisis to avoid embarrassment later down the line.

The other thing I really liked about the presentation was the linking to the ideas of why this misinformation is spreading – to sell or promote, confirmation bias, no faith in a corrupt system and that people are scared. All of these reasons make sense to an extent and it comes back to people just grabbing onto whatever they can to help them to feel at ease or safer or enable them to have an excuse or someone to blame. But it does also give a glimpse into wider society as a whole and the way an increasing number of people look to turn a crisis into a point for personal or political gain which makes me feel uneasy. Even more of a reason to try and quash the spread of misinformation and disinformation I say!

With a relevant topic like Coronavirus happening in real time it has done nothing but stoke my fire for truthful news sources and their survival, seeing how crucial it is for society to not only stay sane and hopeful, but not get brainwashed by some idiots who do not have people’s best interests at heart and usually have an ulterior motive at play.

Our group has started throwing around ideas as to how best present the topic of the climate crisis as media artifacts for assignment 4. We have decided upon a rough outline of the way we want to cover the topic of the climate crisis by analyzing how it is portrayed with both fact checks that have been attributed as accurate and fact checks that have been called out as false in regards to the issue. The topic of climate change is uniquely a political football in Australia, which makes for far-ranging opinions in the political sphere which are then used to gain traction with the public, depending on which side of the fence they sit on. Formats we have discussed to show these responses to fact checks are an interactive quiz, an audiovisual essay and a website to tie all the prototypes together in an easy to navigate format. I had recently re-watched Adam Curtis’ audiovisual essay masterpiece “HyperNormalisation” (2016) and was inspired to attempt something similar although obviously not as grandiose in scale. I found it to be an extremely engaging way of portraying well thought out viewpoints on important global issues. I feel like with found footage from the internet (of which there is lots of global warming related footage), well used audio samples/music, and a well written short essay it could really be an interesting way to present the climate crisis and fact-checking to an audience. Audiovisual essays also give the narrator a unique position to really drive your point home to the audience in a convincing and thought-provoking way, with the audio and visual aids backing up your stance and intent. These ideas are still in the gestation stage and no set plan has been put in place yet, but it’s a good place to start I think!