lane. or avenue.

for starters, i freely admit: i have not been blogging throughout the semeter. quite simply, it barely crossed my mind, despite reminders after the media industries day. therefore, the only content i have to refer back to during this assessment is my first self assessment entry. i will take this into account when assigning myself a mark.

but, the categories:

contribution & collaboration:

my contribution to each event was of a different nature to what i expected. in terms of the media industries day, my workload was at its busiest in the earliest & latest stages of planning. as mentioned in my first self-assessment entry, i worked very closely with dylan smith in establishing the general structure of the day. we came up with the name (the next step), the early drafts of panel themes & a rough timeframe. however, after we were split into our formal groups (ours being scheduling) my role became less involved & i assumed a more advisory position, discussing the benefits & drawbacks of certian ideas/guests/proposals. originally i was going to lead the search for radio guests, however it turned out that several people within our group already had radio contacts & so it was not necessary for me to seek out more. my other active time was in the two days before the event, writing & finalising questions for the guests, writing new ones for our two last-minute guests & making sure there was enough content to cover as many areas of interest as possible & give each of the guests time to discuss their own work & experiences. on the day itself, i helped with logistic arrangements & to make sure lewis, caffa & lehia had all the info they needed.

for the showcase, my role has perhaps been smaller than i expected. i reported back to the radio crew about curatorial issues & guidelines & discussed with them the best way of presenting our projects. however, it seemed as though there was other communication happening between david & kyla & for this reason i probably allowed my responsibilities to lapse a little. as a result, there was no small amount of panic on all fronts when i had to tell the radio kids that they needed to submit their 90 second promos that following day.

this was the major issue i faced across both events & there wasn’t really a simple way to solve it as it still is not quite clear to me what took place. it seems that there was a general lack of communication between curatorial members &, being such a busy time of year, i wasn’t in the position to chase up the details of an unmarked task when there were so many deadlines in front of me. however, at crisis point, i did everything i could to assist – i went to see paul, negotioted some more time for us & made sure everybody was in the know. nevertheless, my invovlement in this event has not been as large as i expected.

proactive learning:

i’m not sure if i can say that my learning was particularly proactive through the process of planning for these events. i did not take any significant steps outside my comfort zone or beyond what i was expected to do. what i did do, however, was make myself available. therefore, when it became clear during the final stages of planning for the media industries day that certain tasks had not been completed, i was quick to step in & help. but realistically, i should have made a greater effort to make the most of the experience & take on more of a public role, whether to contact potential guests directly (an acknowledged fear of mine) or greet those who arrive on the day. it would have been beneficial for me to face those challenges.

participation:

in terms of the media industries day, i believe i exceeded my projected aims where participation was concerned. after all, it was originally intended to be my secondary event however i ended up contributing more to it than i did to the showcase. i attended the vast majority of tutes & was an active participant in all discussions. as mentioned in my earlier post, this is often unusual for me as i tend to remain quiet during group discussions. i feel that i offered valid ideas & critiques & was a worthwhile member of the scheduling team. i had originally acepted that my role would be very background, however i was vocal during meetings & can see how my input shaped events. therefore, i believe i exceeded my own expectations.

where the showcase is concerned, this isn’t so easy to say. we held two curatorial meetings in total, one of which david was not at. very little was achieved other than specifying roles, & after this there was no further communication, either via email or in person. this made simple logistical issues, such as when things needed to be done by, very difficult as nothing was ever established. therefore, very little participation was formally required, & i struggle to determine whether i performed adequately or not. as i metioned earlier, i’m happy to admit that the showcase did not feature in my priorities during the assessment period. perhaps it was naive of me in this instance, however i believed that if something needed urgently to be done, i would hear from a tutor. this is not the most professional approach, however i was not in a postion to go chasing things up during that time. as with the media industries day, i fulfilled most of the criteria i set myself, aside from being involved in the actual computer presentation of our projects. i had hoped to explore the best way to present these, particularly ones like my own which are not linear & self-contained. disappointingly, i never got to do this. however, i believe i’m one of few (possibly the only radio person) who is likely to suffer for this.

connections & intersections:

it is strange to look back on these events, especially as neither turned out the way i expected. i think they certainly have merits though, particularly the media industries day. this gave me the opportunity to speak to somebody who works in my field of interest. i have made a contact; someone who i may be able to work with next year. this is invaluable. the event also taught that – despite my fears – nobody is unapproachable. sitting in the phone room while harriet rang bud tingwell was a great indicator of this. bud was happy to hear from us & would have been involved in the event if his health had permitted. when his name first came up, it was with an air of, ‘as if bud would come to our event‘. & yet he very nearly did.

the value of the actual showcase is yet to be seen. i am not sure how it will go, though i do not believe i got a great out of the planning process. i guess it was a great example of how, when too many people are ‘in control’ of an event, everybody thinks everybody else has got things under control.

the events reinforced my frowing understnading that i really love working with ideas. my favourite stage of each event was the very early stage – proposing structures, critiquing themes. i really love being part of a multidisciplinary creative team, working on a creative problem. this was something i have further realised during my work placement. hence, the pull i now have towards the more general arts sector. i love literature, music & radio, however my ideal job would be working between disciplines, creating intersections & communication between fields. now that i think about it, this has been a recurring feature of many of my projects. sound/music, literature/philosophy. i love creating pathways & communication. i may not have been able to do this to a great degree during the planning of these events, however being involved in them has lead me to this realisation.

in terms of grades, i find it hard to mark myself. i did almost everything i said i would & when i didn’t, it was because my role changed & not because i just didn’t do it. i regret not chasing up details of the showcase sooner & have taken marks away for this, despite other people later accepting the blame. i didn’t take many risks or propel myself to leave my comfort, however i made myself available to do extra work on the media industries day & always made sure that nobody was struggling with their role & needed help. plus, i did not blog regularly throughout the semester. more marks lost.

overall, i would give myself a distinction, 76%.

primary project

this post is supposed to be an exploration of our journey in this subject. when i try to create a visual representation of this journey i see few dead end alleys & a fairly long deviation in the planned journey that took me around & to the left of what i expected. ultimately though, i ended up somewhere in the territory i had proposed earlier in the year.

in my first snapshot i spoke about my goals for the project. this one one of my primary ones:

“i want my project to develop a life of its own, to move beyond being merely a representation of its potential & actually become a functioning community. “

it is clear to see that this has not happened. i believe this is the case for several reasons. firstly, i quite simply underestimated the amount of time i would have to spend in production. in my mind, i had weighted the project in such a way that most of my effort would be taken up by promotion & marketing. it took me a long time to realise that, if something is going to be worth marketing, it has to be good. i’m not sure how i managed to miss this logical step, but in any case i ended up spending a great deal of time trying to make my production work something that other people would be interested in hearing outside of the project’s intentions. particularly as i have made it a creative commons work, bits & pieces of it could materialise in any context. therefore, i wanted the individuals productions to have some story & merit of their own.

sadly, i believe i only recognised my greatest mistakes whilst speaking to john jacobs the other week. he helped me to recognise that, although i knew my project was of a different nature & therefore had to follow different guidelines, i have still been trapped in this notion of having to ‘complete’ it. & despite the fact that my project, by its very nature, cannot be complete i think i spent far too much time revisiting my productions because i was afraid they sounded unfinished. & whilst i’m happy that they were constructed around individuals themes/narratives/ideas, i probably subconsciously put these restrictions of myself because i felt the tracks needed to have some kind of deeper significance than simply being experiments. i’ve still been holding myself to conventional standards throughout this process; or, at least, i have continued to fall back on them. this tendency really stalled my progress on several occasions.

john also gave me a brilliant piece of advice that i had somehow failed to grasp previously:

“take your stuff to the market & set up a stall. don’t try to build the entire shopping centre yourself.”

i had somehow envisaged that i would developed a community of participants entirely off my own back. in hindsight, this was rather foolish. i was too busy trying to concentrate on my project’s ‘difference’ to other works with common ground that it did not properly occur to me that these projects could be useful in establishing my own. i had intended to target their participants, but through some other means than the programs themselves. this baffles & frustrates me in reflection.

am i happy with my project? i’m not certain. i still struggle to break away from the ambitions i had for it & the way it’s diverged from these. i think i’ve established how it could work in theory & have constructed (independently) a really interesting art piece. however, i really wanted to develop a collaborative project & this just hasn’t happened.

however, one of my major goals has been to learn more about collaborative music in an online environment. i have learned a great deal about this area. i have played with several of the existing programs & examined the ways in which links are made & communities are formed through such projects.

importantly, foundtracks has led to some interesting thoughts for future art projects. i have plans for an album constructed from found tapes (from opshops, etc) & music from handmade instruments. i am also still interested in pursuing the project beyond uni if any of the actions i am taking generate a response.

ultimately, i’m a little disappointed in the project but i know how much work (particularly conceptual) has gone into it. i know that i could have done myself many favours by blogging more regularly about my thought processes. but the difficulty was that i got so used to a constant dialogue in my head about the project that i never thought to document it because it became so natural. however, i believe it is an interesting piece of work with a context that spreads beyond the nature of the project.

tna

i have a great deal of trouble discussing my experiences with tna because my feelings/inspiration/workload for it were so inconsistent.

i was really excited about tna at the beginning of the semester because i thought it would be an opportunity for me to explore the experimental side of radio, which i love. i loved the brainstorming sessions & our first session with john & brent because it sounded as though there was so much freedom attached to it. i still have a bit of trouble figuring out where all that enthusiasm went.

i’ve discussed much of this before. in my last blog snapshot, i described the way in which i did not take on as much responsibility as i should have because i was so afraid of letting people down if my general workload increased. but also, i was so genuinely excited about the opportunity that i really didn’t mind in what capacity i was involved. this is actually a character trait which often gets me into trouble. i often have no preference in a situation & am happy to go along with what suits the majority. i guess it’s rather a strange way to demonstrate enthusiasm; perhaps this is why my behaviour has at times been mistaken for laziness. this also had a lot to do with why i never chased it up when i knew that other groups weren’t incorporating my brent narratives into their work. my thinking was, ‘well, if nobody’s using them, that’s fine by me’, when realistically i should have confirmed what was actually happening.

i think the only roles i actively pursued were what i perceived to be the most musical & experimental tasks (making music links & such). & in this case also, nothing of mine got used. it doesn’t really bother me that so little of the physical material is mine. i guess it’s a little sad &, in that respect, i should probably have spoken up more. however, i know that i had a significant role in the fine editing of indi/dewani/my collaborative piece; with the exception of the week i was sick. i was heavily involved in deciding where the intersections would occur between indi & dewani’s pieces & – with indi – generally cleaning his up, losing some repetition & trying to find logical breaks & points of connection.

did i put as much work into tna as i could have? i don’t think so. the truth is, i grew to resent tna because of the amount of time it was taking up & the difficulty of trying to negotiate times to meet up & discuss what we were going to do. i also think i was torn between viewing the night air as a professional assignment & it being just another uni task. i stressed about it constantly because it was for the abc, but then it also had to take its place among my other uni subjects as the repercussions for failing or falling behind were still identical.

i think the fact the tna does not get much of a mention in previous snapshots is worth a mention. i had to be reminded by kyla that the snapshots include tna as well. the project occupied such murky territory that i was never quite sure how to view it. i certainly would not want it to be a document of my professional work ethic, as i don’t think it is at all indicative of the quality of work i can produce & my professional attitudes. however, it did confirm one character trait of mine which was first brought to my attention in broadcast media: i can be difficult to work with where radio is concerned.

i have control freak tendencies; largely because i’m so sensitive to sound, i get very clear ideas about how things should function. but, conversely, i’m so afraid to ruin somebody else’s work that i had a great deal of trouble editing our collaborative piece on my own without somebody to check my decisions with. it’s complicated. i prefer to work on my own in radio. but then, i don’t think i want to work in radio anymore. i don’t enjoy post production & unless i’m personally interested in the content, i struggle to engage with the program-making process.

for my tna reel, i have only included the three short narratives i made in regards to brett. though i maintain that i had a significant role in out collaborative piece, there is no one part i can point to & say that it was exclusively my work. & , with the exception of adding the entire piece, i couldn’t think of any better way to justify my work. again, i don’t feel that these pieces are indicative of the kind of work i’m capable of producing, though i think they are cute like sections with clearly constructed narratives. i do not feel i contributed as actively or as consistently to tna as many others, however i believe this is offset by the level of work that went into my primary project.

conclusion

i am still at a loss to decide how much i enjoyed this year. i appreciated the opportunity to work on a professional assignment, & particularly the work that went into arranging this. i acknowledge that i should have used the opportunity to my advantage more, though i am happy to have had the chance to talk to john jacobs & look forward to seeing how the abc pool project evolves. truthfully, this kind of project is of much greater interest to me than project making, so i am happy that i have been able to forge new & different ties to the abc.

like everybody else, i have tried very hard to produce good work this semester. sure, this has at times been flouted by forces outside my control, however i have tried &, for the most parts, i am happy with my efforts.

i would just like to take a leaf out of indi’s book & say thanks to kyla, the tekkety-tex & all of you radio kids for making it fun.

it’s strange how when you get to a certain part of the semester, you resent having to write blog entires not because they’re an intrusion of your time (of which you have precious little anyway), but because they force you to look at things overall when you’re trying to just take one thing at a time to save falling in an exhausted heap…

i just realised that i’m speaking about myself in the second person. i’ve never done that before.

anyhow, this post is late, etcetera, because production project is the bane of my existence right now. when i met with john on tuesday, i began to explain its nature to him & immediately felt exhausted & had to actually try very hard not to burst into tears. thankfully, that passed, & i had a good chat with john about the best plan of action.

he raised some really great points that i’ve been having trouble putting my finger on. firstly, i’m still trapped in the framework of feeling i have to quantify my project. i look at what i’ve ‘produced’ & look at what other people have produced & i am genuinely concerned that the work that has gone into it is not evident. so much has gone into developing the idea – moulding, changing, exploring, rethinking, tweaking, researching – that the actual production seems a little thin. & worse, because i haven’t been using my blog as often as i should, i really have no evidence of this. for the better part of the semester, i’ve been trying to communicate that the project isn’t going to be like the other radio projects. i know that’s understood. but i’m still stuck in the constant frame of comparison. does my project reflect a year’s work? i don’t think so. is it the product of a year’s solid work? most definitely.

my field of interest is john’s field of interest too, so i know he gets it. but because the initial plan for the project has changed so much – the balance between research, production & promotion has shifted dramatically from what i anticipated – i feel certain areas are lacking. instead of spending the most energy on promotion, i’ve spent the least. & while the whole concept, in essence, revolves around the idea of incompletion & flux, the fact that my project isn’t finished really bugs me.

but when would i consider it finished? what result would i be happy with? a paintbox of fifty awesome sounds? twenty mixes? ten active users? when would i call the project a success? it’s intended to continue, beyond the boundaries of assessment. &, in a broad sense – as john was kind enough to remind me – i have gotten a lot out of the process of completing it. i now have, through him, an opportunity to play in the abc pool & witness its development as a vehicle for similar ideas to that which i’m working with. i have joined a plethora of online sound communities, sought involvement with creative commons australia, discovered plenty of arts & media organizations that i may not otherwise have learned about, & developed a keener understanding of the ways i like to work with sound. i also think i can blame this project for my blossoming love for pan american, whom i previously thought to be a little dull. the intricacies of mark nelson’s sound & the detail involved in its construction have become so much more clear to me & i’ve developed a great love & respect for what he does.

in terms of practical advice, john helped me isolate some ways to generate interest in the project. these methods are unlikely to demonstrate enormous progress by the due date, however they will be crucial for the project’s long term survival. currently, i am seeking out sound sites that i have not already joined & will offer up some of my sounds to these communicates, linking back to the central blog so that those interested can find more material. i will also explicity ask to be contacted if the sounds are used, & hopefully a promise of being profiled on the blog will encourage some takers.

——

i am unsure of whether i should discuss my self-assessment. i feel as though i put my thoughts across in the notes i handed to kyla & i stand by what i wrote. marking my tna efforts was exceptionally difficult. again, i found myself trying to quantify what i had done. the actual pieces i contributed were tiny. however, i don’t consider them my ‘work’. the bulk of my work was fine editing & deciding on placement & where to intersect indi’s piece with dewani’s. like everybody else, i had productive weeks & not-so-productive weeks. maybe i should have stepped up more. but i genuinely didn’t mind what aspect of the project i was involved with, therefore i made it my mission to ‘fill the gaps’. in hindsight, that wasn’t the best way of demonstrating committment to the project. but i still believe i did fairly well in that somewhat hidden role. it’s hard to say. again, it’s all a matter of perspective. i didn’t want to over-commit & maybe, out of fear of that, i under-committed. at the moment i don’t know. it’s all forest-from-the-trees, right now. perhaps my final post will have more to say.

———–

what i need to do between now & friday:
- hopefully, create a couple more mixes
- name individual tracks in paintbox & re-upload
- upload choice sounds to ccmixter, sound snap, etc
- written component?
- document of test mix themes?

post-friday:
- make promo
- re-mix earlier mixes
- finish-every-other-stupid-work-requirement
- BREATHE

considering the amount of time i have been interning at shiny now, i should probably have documented more of my experiences there. but i think because i went out & organized the placement myself, with no mention of rmit – even though i knew it would fulfill the requirements of the tasks – i’ve probably isolated it from uni stuff. plus, because the nature of the organization depends upon keeping certain information within the office (i make it sound like MI5…) i’ve felt that blogging about it would somehow be a betrayal of trust. which is quite a silly thing to think, really.

but nonetheless, here we are.

i began working for shiny (a record label and third party publicity & promotions company) in october last year. the opportunity came about as i was interviewing one of the bands for whom shiny was handling publicity. therefore, i had been in touch with one of the publicists & when the interview was over & the feature written, i decided to seize the chance & ask about the possibility of gaining some experience with them. i went in for a meeting with steven stavrakis (shiny’s manager) & began working tuesdays at the office.

it was a good time to jump on board. shiny was in the midst of trying to set up its new website – several years in the making – and a great deal of my early days were spent discussing design aspects with stav & the webmaster. this was a new experience for me & i was quite amused how useful integrated/networked media proved to be here. even simple web principals, like trying to keep things within screen size so no scrolling is necessary less text, principals of easy navigation, etc, i remember & presented these as matters for consideration for the shiny website. another significant issue for us was trying to decide the best way to distinguish between shiny records artists & shiny promotions artists. stav wanted the distinctions to be clear, but to still be able to tie them all together under the shiny banner. much time was put into deciding on terminology, design plans & ways to establish just what it is that shiny does in the simplest terms possible. i really enjoyed this process; being able to discuss things from a techno-social perspective, put forth ideas whilst being able to communicate with somebody capable of translating them into code. i love this kind of collaborative work. i also took on responsibility for shiny’s myspace page, as well as those of some of the artists we looked after publicity for.

pretty much my most consistent role at shiny has been producing content for the website. i write the majority of the news articles, upload photos and information on news artists, edit images in photoshop, upload release and tour information. i also recently learned how to change the music files using an ftp client; something i’ve never played with before.

my tasks are quite broad & change, obviously, depending on what kind of artists/project we’re working on at the time. they range from logging (which is basically combing through street press, dailys, magazines & other media for articles on our bands & inputting the details into an excel sheet), fielding web/myspace enquiries, completing mailouts, sitting in on meetings, researching & compiling artist bios for press, burning copious amounts of cds, testing each one individually when it becomes clear that the burner is not doing its job properly, editing bios, liaising with the webmaster where necessary, extolling the virtues of new media promotion methods, occasionally writing media releases, updating gig information for the evelyn hotel, gophering tasks (collecting mail, papers) and generally helping out wherever & however possible.

some thing i’ve enjoyed most about my time at shiny:

- the people are excellent. stav is incredibly down to earth, open minded & has a really excellent work ethic. & my time there has allowed me to see how useful that is when you’re a small company relying on word of mouth & good reputation to gain work.
- the work has been varied. shiny has a very democratic policy where the boring tasks are concerned – everybody takes their turn. having said that, i usually found even the boring tasks enjoyable. i still don’t think they’ve got their heads around the fact that i like doing mailouts..
- from day one, my opinion was valued like that of any other staff member. i was asked for input on things &, i admit, i did not expect that to happen so soon.
- since day one, my work has been appreciated. they have never once forgotten that i have been giving up my time for twelve months to come in, despite the fact that i forget this at times – i still get the guilts when i cannot make it in for one reason or another. while they cannot afford to pay me, i have always been reimbursed with cds which certainly sounds like a fair deal to me.

things i have learned from shiny:

- primarily, the awful reality about owning a record label. this was always an idea i’d played with for the future & my experience has confirmed what i had long suspected – it’s a hard slog. shiny gains most of its income through its third party publicity and promotions arm. the record label side of things is not all that active, though i’ve been fortunate enough to see a few albums released during my time there. what i have learned is that releasing records is often a lot of trouble for very little return, especially in the world of indie rock. as i say, i always suspected this, however it did crush my hopes & dreams just a little to learn it is the truth. it seems that almost every independent record label in australia – unless they’re super lucky &/or super successful (ie. spunk, who seem to get almost every good album that’s released in this country) – has to operate some kind of secondary imprint, whether it’s in touring, publicity, a venue, a retail store – something that can supplement their income. this is crucial to survival.
- the importance of being nice to everybody. it’s a small industry & a fairly closed one – it relies a great deal on reputation. people talk. therefore, if you offend one person, there’s liable to be twenty people who won’t want to work with you. being professional is really, really important. this seems kind of obvious but there were definitely occasions at shiny where i was able to witness how word travels. everybody in the office was always courteous, even when it was clear that the person on the receiving end of the communication was being anything but.

some negatives:

- there weren’t many, however it was unfortunate that, due to the structure of the office, i generally had to work on a computer around the corner from the rest of the staff. obviously, it wasn’t as conducive to communication & a sense of involvement as i would have liked. however, i know that it wasn’t ideal for stav either & he made a concerted effort to fix the situation. a new desk was set up in the main office & i worked there for a couple of months, however shiny then needed to hire another full time staff member & so i had to return to working around the corner. as i was always consulted & asked questions, i never really felt isolated or left out, however i much preferred being in the main office.
- the nature of my involvement with shiny (ie. being there only one day a week) meat that i could not at any point get deeply involved with a campaign. because i originally approached then out of my own willingness to gain experience, i did not at first consider the outcomes for the media industries work placement. if i had considered it early enough, i would have spoken to stav about working a two or three week full time placement, in order to become actively involved in a project. however, by the time i had considered this option, it was too late to factor it into my work requirements. while i feel that i have developed a reasonable sense of how a project comes together, i do wish i had been able to develope my understnading more deeply through a more active involvement.

professional outcomes:

i think being at shiny allowed me to make a distinction between a> wanting to work in the music industry; & b> wanting to be able to listen to music & get paid for it. which may sound kind of silly at first, but i think it makes sense. while i’ve really enjoyed my time at shiny, i’m not sure if i would want to work there full time. they work with some great bands, however it’s generally not the kind of music that i get excited about. however, i believe that if an opportunity came up at another, more like-minded label, i would leap at it. there were certain points at shiny where i found writing about artists complicated because i could not connect with their music. i believe that if i were working with artists i loved, i would find the process a lot easier & more rewarding. but in any case, i feel i have a much more realistic expectation of the industry & while i was never completely idealistic about it – unlike the work experience kid i met at shock one day who thought he’d be meeting bands & sitting in on important meetings – i think my understanding now is a lot more practical & detailed.

i certainly have a much clearer picture of the australian music landscape; who owns who, where individuals & labels fit in the scheme of things. i’ve built on my retail knowledge of which labels are distributed by which company, which has been useful for my job at the record store.

i think i have made a really excellent contact in stav. i’m certain that if i had questions or was seeking out somebody in the industry with particular qualifications, he would be more than happy to help me out. he’s been a really brilliant person to work for & has made my time at shiny varied, interesting & very entertaining.

primary project

the kind of progress i am making on my primary project is slow, but measured. i’m no longer concerned about having zillions of things done on time & in a specific order, but rather about taking the process as it comes & exploring options that i find.

physically, where i am currently at is that i have compiled a bunch of sounds (probably not as many as i’d like), i have also created three test mixes using those sounds that i will post at the same time as the initial toolbox. i am thinking at the moment that i will probably post the sounds on monday morning, even if there are not as many as i had hoped for. i’m at the stage where i really believe i need to have something more tangible up on the blog.

i’ve been snooping around the creative commons website fairly regularly in an effort to keep up to date with anything that may assist me where this project is concerned. &, lo & behold, the other day they send me a gem in the form of 60sox, an australian/new zealand operation aimed at profiling creative practitioners and gaining them exposure & feedback from industry professionals. awesome-o!

i’ve dragged myself over there & signed up. once the early model’s ready, i’ll post it up & see what comes of it. it’s a very new venture but it could well be a useful one. it works on systems of ratings & my thoughts are that if i can be among the first to sign up, my chances of attracting the attention of the industry professionals (who have already been selected &, it seems, are effectively waiting for work to roll in…). simple logic, but it may just work.

i am still planning to approach other media school, even though i recognise that i am running out of time. i have also decided that it would be worth approaching overseas universities so that the issue of impending deadlines is not so pronounced.

another development has been the decision to include a small number of melodic sounds for those who may not play an instrument but would still like to pepper their piece with a few bits of melody. the other day i added some cello swoops to the sound box.

i haven’t really encountered any major problems in the past few weeks, other than the ever-present demon of time; & lack thereof. i’m fairly content with the shift in my thinking that privileges having a functional, interesting demo which shows potential to become what i had originally planned. i think that i most likely underestimated the time these kind of projects take to grow. therefore, my current plan is to lock off all of the sounds by next week & ensure that by the end of the week, there is audio content on the site for download. then i can begin the task of signing up to every relevant arts site i can find that may generate interest. in my searches, i learnt that the wonderful noise site has a section for blogs, as well as music. i’m already signed up to that, therefore i can add the project there also. this is an area i hadn’t previously considered & now recognise the merit of presenting the project as an ‘art’ project, not merely as music or intereactive media. i’m still broadening my ideas about it.

tna

tna has been a strange beast of late. in a sense, i feel as though i haven’t really had an impact over the shape of the show. i seem to have invested my energy into working on small, almost incidental pieces. in a way, that makes me happy because i like being a bit more conceptual rather than being limited to any one theme. but i feel as though i haven’t produced anything that really adds to the narrative of the program. maybe this is my fault – i haven’t really been very outspoken about what i want to do. i’ve pretty much floated along, happy to help out wherever the gaps are, mindful of committing too much because it’s such a crazy time… there’s definitely been logic in it, but i’m feeling as though i’m not really involved in shaping the whole & that’s upsetting me a bit. especially when i listen to what people like karan and dewani have created, which sound to me like proper stories with proper narrative shape. i know that every-little-bit-counts & etcetera, but still.

having said that, i’m really looking forward to hearing how the program will take shape. i really think it’s going to be impressive. judging by past episodes of the night air, i think ours may be a little more ‘full’ – we can’t seem to resist density! – & i just hope that won’t get a little drowning for the listener. but i’m sure we’ll pull it together (or apart, if need be). i tend personally to favour the minimal, so it’s an interesting experience for me, seeing what other people do & what i find myself doing in light of that. i love headphone listening & the stuff on labels like type, kranky & leaf, where the intricacies are what make the music. the plinky stuff in the background. i go crazy for it. i don’t feel that i’d really figured out my own, personal ‘night air tactics’ yet. i’m sure that will come at the next stage. i’m a little daunted about the prospect of working in teams though, largely because i have to fight the control-freak tendency. radio is the only medium where i have that tendency. i’m super protective of sound & how i think things should ‘feel’ aurally. sound is very kinaesthetic for me. but i’m sure i’ll get through it without too much trauma!

overall, production project isn’t my pressing concern at the moment. which sounds rather non-committal, but every time i write one of these there’s one subject that’s absorbing all of my energy (& angst). this week, pp’s not it. which is a good thing. means i can go along, calmly, plugging away at both projects & hopefully achieve better work as a result.

(…though it feels weird to be submitting a self-assessment for something i haven’t done yet but oh well)

so, for the purpose of ease, let’s divide this up:

media industries day:

i opted to join the scheduling group, largely because i wasn’t particularly interested in any of the other groups. i wanted to avoid production outside of pp2, i didn’t much fancy publicity & i don’t have a graphic design bone in my body, so it seemed the obvious choice. in a sense, it was maybe the easy option, though on the other hand i do have a great deal of trouble a> approaching people i’ve never met; & b> asking for favours of those i do know, so it could actually work out to be the most challenging of the options. nonetheless, i can forsee that i will have less of a role in this event than i will for the showcase. one major reason for this is simply timing. i feel that i’ll be in a much better position to assist with the showcase because, by that stage, the bulk of the work for my production project will be complete. also, i am not as well-connected as most people within the scheduling team & can see myself taking a more back-seat role in that event, maybe drafting materials to the other teams. though i am happy that i’ve had a say in the planning of the day, helped determine the structure & etcetera. i’m usually very quiet in group discussions, however i’ve been fairly vocal in our meetings so far.

as for what i intend to do, this is difficult to say. largely because i’m not sure which people in the group intend to make this their main event & which are saving themselves for the showcase, so to speak. this is something we perhaps should have discussed on friday. however, i can see myself taking on a more background role, perhaps liasing with other groups & helping draft any written materials. however, i’ll also be working closely with harriet to ensure that we find the relevant people for the audio category. i’ve suggested two contacts i have, though at this stage i’m not quite sure if they will suit the format of the day so i have not put through the request to them just yet.

i know that i have to make some solid committments to the m.i. crew. because it’s tough to be specific at this stage, i’ll make my promises more general:

one: i pledge that, woking with harriet, i will pull out all the stops to find three radio/music related individuals who will rock the collective socks of everybody at the media industries day. they will be the best candidates we can possibly locate.
two: i pledge that i will complete the tasks that i agree to complete, to a high standard & in a timely manner.
three: i pledge that, if it is necessary & at all possible, i will assist other members of the team with their tasks if they are struggling.
four: i pledge that i will maintain a positive attitude to this task & bring that positivity into our team (though they’re a pretty positive crew already. bless).

although i consider the media industries day my secondary event, i don’t want to stinge on my contribution. having said that, i feel as though i’ve stinged on my promises just now. it’s true that, in certain situations, i struggle to assert myself & my opinions & i can see that this will be one of those situations. because i may have my own ideas about how i’d like things to run but i recognise that these won’t necessarily benefit the majority. & i’m a shocker for always wanting to avoid conflict/keep people happy, therefore i’m anticipating that i will more or less run with majority decisions unless i can see a critical problem lurking. therefore, i’m happier to take on the tasks ‘leftover’ rather than put up my hand & say, i want to do this. because i genuinely don’t mind.

perhaps the best way i can back this up is by discussing the role i intend to take for the…

media showcase:

to put it simply, i’m much more interested in this event in terms of the roles available. i leapt at the chance to be part of the curatorial group, largely because i could see the relevance & necessity of the role to my own project. as my project fits in the radio/online category, it requires some careful decisions about how it will best be presented on the night, so i guess i could instantly understand the importance of the curatorial process. sure, it was partially selfishness – i want my project to be presented in the best possible light. &, of course, i want a say in what that might be.

but i think my role in that group is important for more general reasons also. for example, judging by who was present at the last meeting, i am currently the only radio student within the curatorial group. therefore, i’d like to think i’ll be able to represent the rest of the radio kids, for whom the visual component of their projects is not so straightforward, & liase with them in order to establish what they want for their individual projects.

much like the media industries day, very little has been established for this group so far. we have not really had a proper meeting as david wasn’t there on friday. therefore, i can only really make the same general promises as above (numbers two, three & four specifically). i can, however, highlight the areas i’m particularly interested in working in:

- primarily, liasing with the radio kids to discuss how their work can be best presented, keeping them up to date with curatorial decisions & being responsible for ensuring that they submit the appropriate visual components in good time. being a radio student myself, i feel i’d probably be the obvious person to do this as i can endlessly harass them in tutes. simple.
- working with the web designer (whoever that may be – nobody raised their hand to volunteer) to establish how best to present radio/online works, with respects to navigation, sound quality, visuals.
- also, again with the selfishness, i’ve got a few ideas about how i’d like to present my own project that differ slightly from what’s been done previous years. & being part of this crew will give me a better (& more timely) idea of whether or not these are possible.

because i’m more excited about the available roles for this event, i’m much more likely to enjoy the work, therefore i’m much more likely to make a bigger contribution &, ultimately, a better one. while i’m quite clearly about how i’d like to contribute to each event, i don’t feel that either group (particularly in the case of the showcase) have agreed on specific enough roles to really make precise promises. therefore, i have made mine more general & distinguished them from my aims in order to save any confusion later (don’t make promises you can’t keep, & etcetera).

well, i think the fact that i have not utilized my blog since my first snapshot, nor submitted this snapshot on the correct day, kind of suggest where i’m at with this project. which is not so good. i’m not really running to schedule at this point; production project has, for one reason or another, slipped a little in my priorities. other assessments have required my attention & i’m still trying to find the best way of managing the balancing act. therefore, this snapshot is going to be my opportunity to discuss what i need to do in order to complete my project in time, given the disadvantage i’m now at.

my major aims for the project have not change, nor has my intended approach. however, some interesting points came out of the presentation & pitch session of last week. it was made really clear to me that i have to start thinking of this project not as something that i’m doing to complete a task/express an interest/follow a line of thought. i have to start thinking of my work as work, as career-oriented and as being commercially relevant or viable. as something that somebody else may look upon as being valid or interesting. i have to be aware that work = commerce &, even though my concept is not one i could sell, it still has commercial implications & i should be exploring these. i was so convinced whilst trying to plan a pitch that mine was not a traditionally commercial prospect that i found it incredibly difficult to know how to approach people with it. the feedback i received & the general process of presenting the pitch made it clear to me that there are more ways than just the obvious of taking a project to an organisation. that money is not the only purpose for which you might approach somebody with work. & importantly: i have to stop playing my work down. the project might be grounded in a less conrete, more conceptual frame, but it is still just as much of a project as a film, radio doco, etc. i must remember this.

i think the major change in my thinking has been an increase in my stress levels about the actual nature of my project. because i cannot know or predict the outcome of it, i’m beginning to worry about what the final result may be. i worry that nobody will want to become involved. that my media volunteers will become too bogged down in their own work to test mine out, that i’ll be unable to attract an audience. suddenly the open, unpredictable nature of the project has become something more terrifying than exciting. it’s probably just the time of year that has corrupted my optimism, but i’m worried. & yet, instead of using that stress as a catalyst for working harder & harder to make the thing work, i’m falling back into the old trap of avoidance. which is dangerous!

i’ve started recording. but i was supposed to have finished by now. i let some simple technical difficulties in the multitrack distract me. my problem with this subject is one i’m having across all of my subjects. i’m not putting in enough time & i’m giving up too easily. why? maybe it’s a fear of failure. maybe because i feel in some way that my overall success at uni is dependant upon the outcome of this project. i have to find the line between acknowledging its importance & making it the be-all & end-all of what i do at rmit. so that is my new mission.

i will put in more time & not be so willing to surrender when things don’t work instantly.
i hwill reassess my priorities; make sure i plan out my work load so that everything is allotted the time it needs to be successful.
i will stop worrying about the outcome & start creating the outcome.
i will acknowledge the nature of what i’m doing & accept that i won’t be able to predict how it will turn out, while at the same time trying to make it as strong as i possibly can.
i will not avoid things out of fear of failure.

so, in productive terms:
i will have finished recording my sounds (taking into account the possible need for last minute gap-filling, etc) by the time the next tna task is due. so, not this tuesday, but the next.

&, importantly:
from now on, i will submit my blog snaphots on time.

&, perhaps even most importantly:
I WILL MAINTAIN A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS THIS PROJECT & UNI IN GENERAL.

& this is why blog posts are so cathartic.

to be honest, i’m not sure if i’m quite settled enough to be figuring out what my goals for this semester are. my goal at this point in time is to actually figure out what the hell i’m supposed to be doing this semester. & with my enrolment in a mess & having missed the first week, i’m in more than a little bit of a quandary. i did not, for instance, know anything about blog snapshots until checking my email just now. clearly, i have a long way to go.

but, to the assessment task:

goals:
well, my principal goal is to pass. well. keep up my average, give myself the option to get into honours in case i should choose to. in terms of learning, i’d really like to become more technically proficient in the sound field. i missed all of the modules last year for a multitude of reasons & so i’m feeling at a disadvantage where technical skills are concerned. i would also like to learn more about employment opportunities that would enable me to go beyond traditional radio work & utilize sound in more abstract, artistic ways. & get paid for it. if such opportunities exist.

i want my project to develop a life of its own, to move beyond being merely a representation of its potential & actually become a functioning community. i’d really like to see it grow legs. & in the process, i’d like to gauge a deeper understanding of how ‘community’ operates in an online forum; an understanding relevant not only to a single project but which will also inform my other areas of interest (music industry, arts management). i would like to come out of this subject (indeed, this course) with a broad understanding of audiences, communities & how to present a good idea to the people who are most likely to appreciate it.

risks:
this project is, in many ways, a risk. it relies as much on others to guarantee its success as it relies on my ability to create, present & promote it. i’ve always tried to think outside the box & take risks where my radio work’s been concerned &, in the past, it’s always paid off. i’m hoping the same will be true this time around, though this particular project is slightly different. i have high hopes & expectations for it & even if the physical work i produce as part of it is of a high standard, i will personally feel that the project has failed if it does not at least begin to generate some kind of energy of its own.

through the project, i also aim to network with the australian branch of creative commons & hopefully establish some communications there. i am interested in their organisation & feel that my project – as it is operating under one of their licenses – may be of interest to them also. whether or not they are prepared to openly support the project, i will at least be aiming to ensure that they are aware of what i am undertaking.

in many ways, this project will be a step up for me. while it is a continuation of a previously-explored theme (experimental sound), it goes beyond technical production & scripting into the fields of online communication & collaboration. basically, it is my opportunity to examine more closely an area which i’ve long been interested in, but haven’t yet studied. it is more conceptual than practical, yet relies on the success of both overall. i hope that it will heighten my awareness of sound & sharpen my sensitivity to its properties. this is something that i feel is very important to me personally; both in terms of the career a see myself pursuing & my own artistic ventures which may or may not end up intertwining.

question:
perhaps my principal question at this stage is: will it work? in some ways, luck will play a part. i’m stretching different muscles here & i’m not entirely sure if they’ll grow strong or tear. another is, will i be able to find the right people?. i think so but, again, it’s tough to say. another, perhaps premature, question: how will i best demonstrate it at the showcase? can it be easily shown? will it confuse an audience not familiar with blog technology? should i even be worrying about this yet? i will have to figure this one out later. yes, it’s a relevant concern, but at this stage i’m much more preoccupied with bringing the thing to life.

at this stage, i’m looking forward to trying. but the perfectionist in me knows i’m grappling with potentially dangerous material. i like to take risks, as long as they work out for the best. ha. for now i’m happy to try & i’ll worry about ‘if at first you don’t succeed…’ later.

ROLE:

My role within the group did not undergo too dramatic a shift once we established the direction we were heading in. In terms of content, my responsibility was to explore previous technologies that have had an impact on the form, distribution, genre, economy and evolution of cinema since its inception. From the outset we were able to define our content responsibilities quite clearly and so there was never any need to revise or re-address these. This was particularly handy, as we were already at a disadvantage due to the extra time it took us to define our key research area.

I do believe that my role changed slightly, in terms of wider group issues. For example, I did attempt to establish meeting opportunities and make sure that group members were covering their topics in such a way that, once we put our individual contributions together, we would have a cohesive report. Also, because I always knew I would not be there for the final presentation, I tried to make sure that, as a group, we were prepared in advance to cover for any last minute emergency contact between myself and the rest of the group.

Also, in the early stages of the project, I believe I had a significant role in shaping the direction we would take with our assignment. Because I enjoy the process of following an idea, discussing its pros and cons and assessing its suitability, I did tend to be quite vocal in the discussions about the early framework. Overall, however, I think one of the strengths of our group was that we managed to establish quite clear roles that did not at any stage need to be dramatically reassessed.

MARK: D

PROGRESS:

This course was always going to be a challenge to me in terms of progress. While I’ve always enjoyed the research progress and learning about a particular subject area, I did find ‘getting into’ the project difficult as I’ve never had any particular interest in cinema. And unfortunately, I once again fell into a characteristic trap of mine. I promised myself that I would push myself out of my comfort zone where my research skills we concerned and, while I accomplished this to a small degree (utilizing the library databases instead of sticking with simplistic web searches), I never did achieve my goal of visiting the AFI library. My researching remained very much an online-based process. I was disappointed that I did not meet the goals I had established for myself, however I found that I was not lacking material and I do not believe that the resulting project suffered as a result.

One area in which I made considerable progress was in time management. Knowing that I would miss the final presentation and a fair amount of time leading up to it, I was forced to fast-track my individual progress. Therefore, I was continually keeping in touch with other group members to ensure that the continuity of our project was maintained and that everybody was on the same wavelength. I completed my part of the project well ahead of schedule and, since I’ve been away, I have still been keeping in touch with the group in order to make sure that everything is prepared for the presentation.

Time management is usually something I struggle with. Therefore, I feel as though I made a great deal of progress in this area through ensuring not only that my own work was done, but through attempting to unsure that everybody else was making ground in their individual areas and that, as a team, we were working towards a cohesive result.

MARK: D

STRATEGIES:

As mentioned above, my attempts at broadening my research strategies had mixed success. I certainly did utilize some of the tips from the lecture on navigating the library and search engines. I utilized many of the databases and, when I used Google, I often limited my searches to pdf files from .edu domains in order to single out more academic sources. This was certainly a successful way of saving time and to avoid having to sift through resources for viable articles.

As a group, our strategies were not necessarily clearly defined. We got into patterns of meeting immediately before presentations to ensure that our material was at the front of our minds and to confirm that everybody understood the method of the presentation. We always organized meetings with Geoff even before we were reminded to schedule them. Though our weekly meetings did not always eventuate, we always made an effort to keep in regular touch. And, though there were occasional lapses, there were never any miscommunications and the five of us have remained on the same wavelength for the duration of the project.

One strategy I adopted gradually as the semester progressed was – as mentioned earlier – to track more closely how the rest of the group was going. This actually functioned as more of a personal strategy than a collaborative one. It was an attempt to ensure that I was working in a similar style and toward a similar conclusion to the rest of the group, seeing as I would have to complete my section at an earlier stage than the rest of the group. However, it turned out to be useful for the entire group, as it allowed us to ensure that we were actually working collaboratively, rather than in isolation and merely putting the pieces together at the end. We passed on references to one another that we found during our individual research, and have attempted at all stages to identify and acknowledge cross-over between our respective sections. This was perhaps our greatest strength as a group, as well as our strongest strategy.

MARK: D

PROBLEMS:

Definitely the biggest problem I faced was the limited time to work with. As a group, we spent the first three weeks trying to establish the direction in which we would head. Once we finally worked out a viable topic, we were already behind. And because I had to go interstate during the second last week, I found myself under even more pressure to work quickly. I’m very happy with how both I and my group recovered from our time disadvantages. We bounced back from the disappointment of having had our early ideas rejected and it being forced up to come up with a topic that had both room to move but was not too vast in scope. Our new topic was very clearly defined, which made it easy for us to get straight into the research. By the time the semester was two thirds over, we were satisfied that we had more than caught up to the rest of the project groups. I still feel that, here at the end of the semester, our work is of a high standard.

Another issue for me personally related to the industry in which our project is centered. I’ve mentioned before that cinema is a field in which I have very little interest. Therefore, I was concerned at the outset that this would prove more of problem than simply a challenge. Thankfully, I was able to view it as a challenge and, for the most part, enjoyed the novelty of studying a new area.

There were occasional problems with getting touch with individual members – due to health and work attachment issues – however, we were always able to resolve these quickly and they never had detrimental affects on the group or our work.

MARK: HD

CONNECTIONS & INTERSECTIONS:

Possibly the biggest significance of this project for me was its role in providing another dimension to my uni studies by allowing me to delve into an area that I haven’t before explored. Though I have no passion for cinema I hoped to cover the topic in at least a historical sense as it obviously has a huge relevance to much of the content we cover. I do not believe that my research will have much of an impact over my future career – it has not awoken any urge to move into the field of motion pictures – however, it has increased my understanding of the digital and new media areas through the comparisons we were able to draw between cinema technologies, genre and audiences.

I believe this subject has had a positive impact on my group work capabilities and my leadership skills. Often in group situations – particularly when studying new or unfamiliar areas – I tend to take a back seat, preferring to let others who have more knowledge in the area take charge of the project. I’m not sure exactly why it was (comfort with group members, the spur of being in final year) but this time I was able to take on a more active role in planning and conceptualizing our project.

My problem-solving skills have also developed throughout the course. Though it was frustrating to have our initial ideas knocked back I certainly learned a lot from the process. I learned that I can bounce back fairly quickly from setbacks and that, when forced to re-address problems, I can come up with ideas that are stronger and more likely to succeed. This is true of myself individually as well as the group as a whole. I also feel that it was valuable for me personally to have to reconsider our plan of action. Over the years, I’ve become used to being able to pull projects off quite easily and produce work of a good standard within a very short timeframe. One thing this experience has taught me is that I produce better work when I’m pushed to work harder and not left to be complacent. Because I’ve always managed to get good results quite easily, I’ve never really gone to enough trouble to go beyond the effort I know will earn me a good grade. Being forced to come up with a ‘better’ idea, then a better one again really compelled me to think in a more thorough and careful manner about what we were trying to achieve. I think that as a group – once the disappointment wore off – we were able to appreciate the benefits of re-addressing our ideas, interests, priorities and strategies.

Overall, I was happy with what I got out of this course. Truthfully, I didn’t realize how much value it had until I began to address it using this criteria. At the time, it was mostly a stress trigger as it has been the most problematic subject where my interstate plans were concerned. I’m looking forward to covering an area of more interest to me personally next semester, however I was happy to be placed in a position where I had the opportunity to research a new area. I honestly feel that I worked hard and learned a lot from the experience, both personally and professionally.

MARK: HD

OVERALL MARK: D+

my group’s media industries project has taken so many twists & turns that half of this report could reasonably be dedicated to explaining the process by which we finally arrived at a viable topic. i believe this part of the process has been every bit as crucial to our projected outcome as the progress we have made since. therefore, i feel the need to discuss it even though the other four members of the group will probably go into equal if not more detail on the same topic.

i feel that my engagement with this topic is significantly different to that of most members of my group. while we’re certainly an academically diverse group, i’m probably the member least connected to the world of cinema and, truthfully, the member with the least interest in establishing a career in cinema. i chose to join this group for several reasons, some deeper than others. a> because i was invited into it & i appreciated the gesture. b> because i had not worked on an assignment of any kind with any of these girls in the past & i made it a mission of mine, in my third year, to work with new people in order to gain new perspectives. c> because i was on friendly terms with all the members & believed them to be the kind of people who could follow a project through, & who wanted to produce good work. there’s nothing more frustrating than working with people who do not want to work. &: d>for the very reason that i have not completed any projects related to cinema and, though it’s hardly an area i want to pursue, i feel that get the most out of this course i’d be wise to explore it, at least from a cultural & theoretical point of view.

all of the potential topics we explored had topics attached to them in which i was interested. though i’ve never been heavily into film, i’m a fan of experimental work of any kind, & so arthouse cinema was of great interest to me. looking at the film festivals would also have given me insight into the film industry from the nuts-&-bolts end, ie. how these things come together. but our current topic is certainly of the most interest to me. being a philosophy major, i was certainly interested in how certain theories (ie. spectatorship) could be applied to film. i also wanted to explore technology as i’m generally uncomfortable speaking in terms of it, & jumped at the chance to explore the impact that past developments have had on culture. which, essentially, is my role within the group at this stage.

i’m examining technological advancements that have taken place since the arrival of cinema, & the impact these have had upon the traditional experience of film. cinema is a medium that has had its ‘death’ proclaimed at every evolutionary twist & turn, so examining how it has adapted & endured throughout all these changes is a very interesting study. as a radio kid, i’ve missed out on exploring this in depth & now that i’m in the final year of this course, i feel the need to fill some gaps in order to increase my job opportunities next year.

my research is still at its early stages. this is largely due to the fact that it took so long for us to confirm the specifics of our topic. however, to begin with, i wanted to get an academic view of how cinema commentators assessed the influence of technological improvements on the medium. in doing so, i discovered just how many times cinema was supposedly ‘at risk’ of dying out. it really brought to my attention just how long the form had been flying in the face of its critics, many of whom predicted as early as 1910 that the medium would fail. further to this, the arrival of sound, colour, television, vcr, home recorders, dvd, mobile technology… all of these developments have prompted critics to sound the death knell for cinema. the form in its earliest stages was shocking. the very idea of a ‘motion picture’ petrified the masses &, indeed, many predicted its failure before it even had legs.

i’m still trying to get more sources on this, as well as sources that discuss the issue with a sense of the broader social consequences of each stage of technological development. while cinema is obviously the central focus, you can’t really make a prediction about consumer behaviour (which, essentially, would be what would cause the ‘death’ of cinema) without taking this into account. & so far, my sources have not gone into much detail on this. plus, studying the social angle gives a far stronger link to the philosophy of spectatorship. while i want to include some technological discussion, i don’t want to overload the report with jargon. but we do need to include some direct physicality to the report by discussing the implications of recent technologies in basic physical terms.

in most of my subjects so far – this one included – i seem to conduct most of my research online. i find that there’s very little information that cannot be found using good searching techniques. however, i think my research for this project could be broadened by approaching the afi. not being a cinema student, i’ve never had any reason to visit afi in the past. i’m sure they would be very helpful in locating the very specific kind of sources i need. while i’m sure i could eventually find the encessary info online, i’m sure i could streamline my research much more effectively by going to specialist sources. plus, it will help me hone different kinds of research skills.

those are the basics of my strategy: get a technological as well as social angle, mediate the two. hopefully organise experts from each side for interviews. but, it’s still early stages. obviously everything is subject to change.

i’ve already touched on the main ‘problems’ that i’ve experienced so far. time is obviously a big one. our setbacks have left us a few weeks behind, so we’re at a distinct disadvantage. for me, this is bad. being a natural stress-head, i always want things to be as well-prepared as possible, as soon as possible. so my problem will be keeping focused & keeping in mind the amount of time we have to organise this project. also, finding relevant resources. i think i’m going to have to look outside the box (so to speak) on this one. it will test my research skills, as i’m forcing myself to follow two trains of thought on the one topic. not everything i need can be lumped under the grand heading of ‘film theory’ or something similar. in fact, i may be able to glean some useful things from the tv group. even a connection as seemingly vague as the impact television has had on society may provide some insight into the culture of assimilating content in a home environment – something that would provide points of opposition for the traditional cinematic experience. in this regard, i can see that my part of the project would have some interesting connections to theirs.

the main thing that i will have to be aware of is the amount of time we have to complete this project related to the amount of content i’m hoping to put into it. while any one topic area of our project could practically be a project on its own, we really want to give a diverse spread of information. there’s also the balance between individual & group work – ultimately, our report has to function as a collaborative whole. therefore, i have to be aware at all times of how the content i am providing fits in with that of the rest of the group. while our regular meetings will keep this, for the most part, in check, it’s certainly something i have to keep in mind whilst undertaking my individual research.

overall, i’m not concerned. i’m in a very functional group &, now that we have a clear direction in mind, i don’t foresee any major hurdles: either for myself individually, or the group as a whole.