Jillian Sands

I was excited to get involved in making TVC’s this semester.  I thought it would be interesting and challenging in a different way than our previous assignments have been.  Working on a 30 second piece rather than a 10 minute film requires a different skill set and I was interested to see what we would all come up with.  I think the hardest bit was developing the initial concept, I didn’t feel that strongly about my idea and I thought working on another persons script would allow me to focus on the things that I enjoy rather than struggling to write my own script.  Astyn and Eric both had strong ideas that they wanted to produce and I was happy to assist them with that.  They also knew how they wanted the pieces to look visually and had really specific ideas that would be challenging but if we could pull them off I think they would work really well.

Working to the Brief

I think that the biggest thing that students in our seminar struggled with was developing a concept that fitted the brief we received at the start of the semester.  With all our previous classes we have been given a lot of flexibility when it comes to writing scripts and developing our concepts around broad subjects, I think with the seminar it should have been pushed that we needed to stick to the brief more because I think a lot of people struggled.  A big part of TVC’s are working with a client and sticking to a brief, your job is to get the message across and what the message is has already been decided.  I think the lack of clarity around how much we needed to stick to the brief worked well for some people but for others it was a struggle.  Eric spent a lot of time working on various ideas and reworking things so that his pieces would fit into what GetUp was trying to say.  A great example of this is the bogan rap video he originally thought of, it was an interesting idea and could have worked really well but it wasn’t getting the message across about the pokies reform.  Getup aren’t trying to raise awareness of problem gambling or stop people from betting, the pokies reform is about putting voluntary limits on poker machines preventing people from losing track of how much they are spending.  So he came up with a new concept about limiting the power machines have which was much more on brief, but wasn’t successful for some other reasons.  I think Sad Kids concept was always close to the brief and that really streamlined the production process, its a simple concept but with TVC’s simple is normally always the best.  You have a limited time to get your story across and if its to complicated you risk losing the audience.

Pre-Production

Personally I lost a lot of motivation at the beginning of the semester, I think it was final semester blues or something and I really dropped the ball on a number of projects.  This class in particular was one that I just didn’t feel like putting in any extra effort and it could have really turned into a disaster.  Luckily we regrouped and after a pep talk from Paul we got back on track and even with the late start we didn’t fall that behind our classmates.  I think our delay helped us become super organised, we managed to get casting, location scouting, props and all our pre-production done really quickly and ended up shooting at a similar time to many of our classmates.  We knew our location would be our biggest struggle, we had a really specific look at we wanted and to achieve it we needed to find the perfect location.  On top of this we needed somewhere that would work well logistically, we needed a place with access to bathrooms and electricity and that our actors could find easily.  After a couple of road trips we settling on Toolangi state forest, we found a recently logged area that was pretty close to bathroom facilities and not to far away from Melbourne and then our idea really started to take shape.

Production

We had an incredibly ambitious shooting schedule, we wanted to shoot 5 commercials in 1 day because the location was so far away.  We had it a little easier because we didn’t need to worry about setting up lighting but we also didn’t get time to block the location and set up properly before the actors arrived because we needed to meet them part of the way to the location so they could find it.  We also didn’t take photos of the location when we scouted it which was a stupid oversight and would have made things much easier.  To combat this we storyboarded and wrote really detailed shoot lists to ensure we stuck to the schedule and got everything done in time.  We also brought movies for the kids to watch and Sarah Lynch a photographer came with us to take photos of the kids and their families during the downtime so they would be entertained.  All in all the day went amazingly smoothly.  We didn’t have any major disasters and we got everything shot and wrapped on time!  It was our first time working with child actors and I was really worried it would be difficult to get the shots but they were all amazing.  We didn’t have dialogue and that helped at lot, we didn’t need them to remember lines and we could talk to them throughout the takes and tell them what we wanted with worrying that it would stuff but the takes.  All in all they were amazing.  The one thing I would change in the order than we shot in, Vinnie the youngest child got tired towards the end of his shoot and that made it difficult to get some of the takes we wanted.  What we should have done is film his individual piece first, then the group and then do the older children’s individual pieces.  When we first set up the schedule we wanted to minimize the wait time for all the kids so they didn’t have to hang around when they weren’t being used, but we know for next time now!

Post Production

Post production had a few little hiccups along the way.  Astyn did the rough cuts before we linked the sound up to the clips so I had to do that afterwards which wasted a bit of time, we also had some confusion about filing system so I came in one day and spent the entire day working on a old project file and had to redo everything which was frustrating.  While these were pretty minor fuckups, especially considering some of the disasters some other groups had to contend with but I think it was made worse by the fact that I really dislike working on sound and sound design.  I find it really frustrating and I hate the whole process.  I’ve also ended up doing it on pretty much every project I’ve worked on at RMIT which makes it even worse, I just find the whole sound experience really unenjoyable.

The rest of post went nice a smoothly, getting it finished was a challenge as I started working full time pretty much as soon as classes ended and fitting it in with the tail end of assignments is a struggle.  I’m working 9-6 so its 7.00 by the time I get home or back to the edit suites and I’m pretty wrecked after working a full day.

We made a few changes at the last minute.  We decided to use a voice over to say the tagline instead of text which worked much better, Astyn was struggling to find a font that looked good with our footage and the voice over is really effective.  We also spent a lot of time trying to decide if we should cut our group tvc down from 90seconds to 60seconds so we spent a fair bit of time experimenting with that.

We also had some trouble with composers, our original composer turned out to be really unreliable and was difficult to communicate with so we had to find a fill in at the last minute.  I had a feeling that this would happen at the start and I wish I had of trusted my instincts and spent more time exploring my options and finding someone I felt comfortable with.  It’s turned out ok because I’ve managed to find someone else who can do it for us at the last minute which is amazing and a big relief.

Conclusion

This seminar has been a great learning experience, I feel I learnt more about writing, developing concepts and tag lines rather than production which is an area that I’m weak in so that was helpful.  Working with Trevor and on a number of different TVCs really helped me understand more about writing and what makes a final piece successful.

I ended up being on the Steering Committee for MI2 this semester.  It wasn’t my first choice of how to spend the semester but I found it really enjoyable and I think I’ve learn’t a lot and contributed to the group.

Contribution and collaboration

Right from the very beginning I tried to be an active group member.  I am not shy so I’ve never had problem voicing my opinions and during group discussions I have constantly being putting ideas forward (some have been used, others might be called a little questionable haha).  I also tried to help the group delegate tasks and be really organised seeing as we had such large numbers.  I talk about that in more detail here and show how we used facebook in this post.

I tried to help other people with their tasks as well as getting my own done and I was always available for feedback and help with various things.  I ended up contributing on a lot of different projects and areas including the website, posters (casting and design) and group organisation and communication (setting up a box.net account, scheduling meetings, keeping Rachel up to date with printing etc)

Proactive Learning

I think this course has been one of the most important for proactive learning.  It was easy to do as little or as much work as you liked and I think I worked hard to make sure I was getting the most out of the course.  From taking extra effort with my PNR (going to networking events as well as contacting individuals) to attending the seminars and introducing myself to the guests afterwards I tried to use every opportunity that was available to me.

Participation

I tried to attend every meeting that we had as the steering committee, I think I missed 1 due to a work commitment and I went to 5 of the 6 seminars.  I was also really active on the Facebook group and kept in contact with my classmates at all times.  I think I was a valuable group member who offered ideas and feedback at all times.

Connections & intersections

I think the seminars were really valuable.  It was great to hear from industry professionals and I think we all learn’t a lot about different areas.  Even things that I wasn’t that interested in career wise still offered advice that is applicable to other areas of my life.  I think the main thing this course offers you is confidence.  I feel much more comfortable talking to professionals, asking advice and giving my opinion about various things.  Don’t get wrong, i’ve never been shy but I’ve always found it really intimidating to speak to people that have jobs or experiences that I want and I’ve been worried about sounding immature and foolish.  This course has taught me that people are interesting in talking to students and helping them out because we are a valuable asset and do have something to offer.

High Distinction

The thing that stood out for me with the TV seminar was the host. Julian did a fantastic job and really tied the seminar together.  He kept the conversation relevant and flowing nicely using humor and jokes and it really made for an enjoyable morning.  He kept the guests from rambling to much off topic and really promoted conversation and discussion.

They had also put a lot of effort into researching the questions and as a result they got some really great answers from the guests.

I think Patricia was really interesting, I actually really want to buy her book now so that’s a good sign!  I thought her insights into children’s television were really on the money.  It made me a little sad actually, but she really is an amazing person and I think childrens Tv in Australia would be really different if she hadn’t been involved.

I also found Andrew interesting with his experience in comedy, I read Tina Fey’s book a while ago and it sounds lik sketch comedy shaped them as writers and performers.  While comedy is not an area I’m interested in pursuing I still really enjoyed the insights.

I was also interested in Andrew going into corporates and how he pays the bills between tv gigs.  I find the whole concept of freelancing really terrifying, being able to pick and choose jobs sounds fantastic but the uncertainty of it all would drive me a little crazy.  We’ll see how I do after a few months of full time though!

While this seminar wasn’t that relevant to where I want to go career-wise it was the most enjoyable.  I think they really got the schedule right and I wasn’t bored or disinterested at any point.  The structure was perfect for discussion and questions without lagging and being to boring.

High Distinction

This was one of the most anticipated seminars for my fellow classmates and the turn out was really good. I don’t have any intention of working in the film industry but I still thought it would be interesting to go, the seminar has some of the hardest working people in the course so I knew it would be really well researched and put together.

The caliber of the guest was quite good, I feel it was pretty focused on directing but I think that what the audience was interesting in anyway. The introduction videos were really good and gave us great insight into the guests.

The opening was a little awkward, I don’t think the quotes where that relevant or really added anything interesting to the discussion.  They would have been better off jumping right into it and introducing the guests.

The guests rambled a lot and went off track so I lost interest a few times.  I this could have been prevented by the hosts but I understand its pretty intimidating to interrupt professionals when they are in the middle of speaking.  Directing questions to a specific guest gave the seminar a good pace and flow and avoided some of the awkward silences and moments that the other seminars had.

I found the information about directing actors really interesting, especially the bit about telling them what to feel rather rather than how to look.  While directing isn’t something I intend to pursue I know a lot of the information will be relevant in the future in various ways.

Catering and facilities were really good, you could tell they had put a bit of thought into it.  I liked that the catering was movie themed with popcorn and ice-cream.  Also the whole building smelt like popcorn when I got the building 9 early which I’m sure lured a few extra kids in.

HD

So things are working really well in the steering committee.  Kim has taken the lead with the posters and overall design and posting things to the group for feedback so we have something we are really happy with.  The photo-shoot went really well and the posters are shapping up fanstastically.

Ezras has made a really great website for the outlines Astyn and I mocked up and the marketing and press release guys are right on top of things as well.  We use the fb group a lot to make sure everyone knows what happening and what their jobs are, makes it so much easier with such a large group.

I started a box.net account for us so we can keep commonly used files online and available for people to use when they need them.  Images uploaded to fb are pretty compressed so this is a great way to make sure we have hi-res copies for whoever needs them and we dont have to send emails back and forth delaying jobs.

We are fine tuning the amount of posters to be put up around uni, they are pretty eye catching so I don’t think we need as many as we have been getting printed but we’ll touch base with Rachel and sort that all out in time.

So this week we settled on our concept for marketing.  We wanted something catchy and funny that would reflect the fun and laid back nature of the seminars.  We wanted people to immediately be able to tell that the seminars are run by students and will be focused on what we want to know.  The first thing was to come up with a catch concept for the posters and we thought that something a little risque and eye catching would be the way to go.

I forget who it was that came up with the idea ( I think Lou maybe) but we all loved the idea and thought it could be really playful and fun.  We presented it to the class and they all seemed to react positively!

The next step was delegating roles and figuring out who was going to do what.  We are lucky to have a large team so we all got to work in areas that interest us.  I am working on the website with Ezra and Astyn and also helping get the photoshoot organised by writing the casting call.

Our first seminar for MI2 was the Documentary Seminar and the one I was most interested in.  They had a really short amount of time to get it organised so I was really surprised with the quality of the guests they had.

I also thought they did a great job of setting up the room, putting lollies on the chairs and having the posters set up around the room.  It felt really well organised and for being the first one I thought there would be a few glitches to sort out throughout the event but everything ran perfectly.

They introduced each guest with a bio video and trailers that showed their work.  I think these helped us establish who was who really quickly and they also gave us an idea of the work they had produced, I was familiar with the majority of the work so I was pretty excited to hear what they had to say.  The only criticism I would have is that there was a lot of clicking between videos and it was a little distracting,  I think they could have edited them together to create a better flow, but then again this is a minor criticism I dont think it affected the overall feel significantly.

The discussion between the guests was really interesting and I found their advice about choosing subjects particularly interesting.  That is the thing I’ve always wondered about documentary making, how do you know when somethings going to happen?  Or is your story already over? I also found the whole discussion based around ethics really interesting.  I think I would struggle with the relationship between the subjects and the crew, especially if you are working on something for a long time.  It’s natural to form a bond with someone when you are around them a lot and if they end up being unhappy with the final piece it could be difficult to decide when to draw the line.

They cover some of this in the fantastic video highlight reel from the seminar that is really worth watching.

All in all a very promising start to the seminar series!

HD

So the seminars are well under way and the facebook group is taking a beating. I’ve never felt so popular with notifications popping through at all hours.

So for MI this semester I have ending up being on the steering committee.  I wanted to be in a group that organised a seminar on independent productions and how to get your own content made.  I thought this would be a really interesting session that would address questions that heaps of other students would have as it covers radio, tv and film.  Unfortunately the rest of the class didn’t share my enthusiasm for the idea and we only had a few people who wanted to be in that group.  So our teeny tiny group disbanded and Rachel encouraged us to join some of the other seminars, I wasn’t that keen on any of them as they were either to large already or the subject matter didn’t really interest me.

So I decided to join the steering committee.  Rachel said that because we have a big group she would expand the responsibilities so everyone works as hard as the people in the seminars  and so far that has certainly been the case!

We are responsible for the branding and promotion of the seminars and the showcase at the end of the year.  Our first job was to come up with the branding and theme for all our advertising material.

We formed our group and talked about some of the past campaigns that other years had done. I really like the group that had tapped into everyones concerns about the waking up with a degree and not knowing where to go next.  I thought it was entertaining, made the seminars sound informative and interesting and would encouraged people to attend them.

We briefly chatted about some potential ideas then decided to come back next week after having some time to think about.  We also decided to set up a facebook group so we could all keep in touch between clases.

Role – as it evolved/changed throughout the project, your position and function within the group structure, the issues you faced and your part in formulating solutions.

Normally in this section I would talk about who lead the group and how I fitted into the group dynamic. I think this group was a different working experience as Maya, Astyn and Myself are all very confident expressing our ideas and taking a leadership role, as a result I am unable to pick out a leader from our group. I think this worked in some ways and was less successful in others. We had a group of hard working people who wanted the project to be a success but because we all had our own strong ideas it did take us a while to develop our ideas and come up with solutions that everyone was happy with. Once we had developed our idea we each broke up the assignment according to our interest areas and worked on these sections. We all agreed on deadlines and everyone worked as much as possible to meet these, luckily we didn’t have any major disputes and frustrations and concerns were promptly discusses and resolved. I think this project is one of the most collaborative I have worked on, rather than select an idea from within the group we worked each others interests into our ideas and developed a topic that we all had interest in.
I think my main efforts to solve any problems the group was having was to make sure we meet regularly and kept each other up to date with the progress we made. It is difficult to pick individual roles as I feel we all lead the project at different stages and in different ways. I made myself available to group members having difficulties and tried to be flexible and collaborative. I think a true sign of a collaborative group is that no one is taking credit for individual parts, everyone feels equally responsible for the success or failure of the project.

HD

Progress – in your research capability, in observing your learning behaviours, in identifying your strengths and weaknesses.

I think this project clearly shows how stubborn I am. I had a lot of trouble at the beginning trying to come up with a concept I cared about. I was really excited about our initial idea – http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~s3133961/blog2/?p=596 but then when it was shot down I struggled to understand why. After presenting our research report to the class the feedback we received was really negative, I think this shocked me into thinking about why I was fighting the subject so much which I talk about here – http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~s3133961/blog2/?p=642. After that session I had time to reflect and I realised that just because I was interesting in exploring an idea didn’t mean it was the right choice for the subject. After we decided to change topics I found the whole assignment much easier http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~s3133961/blog2/?p=645.
Research wise I struggled at the beginning as I am used to been given really specific briefs (eg- Find best practice examples of NFP using social media) or really broad, like with previous uni assignments. Even when your given an essay topic if you work alone you can let the research guide you an head off in a direction that interests you, this does not work with group assignments! Once we have developed a strong concept I think our group really shone. We easily researched our topics and found ways to tie them together and make the report cohesive. Once I had an idea I find researching quite easy and I have a lot of tools that help me do it in the best way for me. I keep an online database of articles and websites using my Scrible account and mark-up and comment on pdfs and upload them to my evernote account so I can access them from anywhere. This also helps make referencing easier and I have all my records available to check things on.

HD

Strategies – research strategies, collaborative strategies and personal learning strategies, which ones did you try, how appropriate do you think your choices were, what worked/what didn’t work?
One of the major challenges I faced with this assignment was finding relevant academic sources to back up claims from interviews, blogs and websites. I attempted to solve this problem a few different ways, first I tried straight up searches using a variety of terms. This wasn’t that helpful as most of my terms are either very specific or quite broad so I got nothing or I was overwhelmed with irrelevant informations. Another strategy I then tried was working on my keys terms and trying to access the information in different ways. For example in PP1 we have talked a lot about convergence theory and Henry Jenkins, he talks a lot about the Television Industry and the need to user participation and involvement which has been reflected in many of the non-academic articles I have been reading. I used this information to alter my searches and found some great articles that I have used to construct my final piece. Once I had a spring board I was good to go, I followed the web of sources from each article to the next and managed to find some great articles. Another strategy I needed to utilise was to apply findings from articles about different technologies to my more modern technologies. For example an article I found talked about VCR’s and how they changed viewer habits, a lot of the theory about the history of viewer behaviours was relatable to my research.

HD

Problems – nominate a few key problems or difficulties that you faced and discuss how you resolved these.

I think our biggest problem was our trouble finalising our topic. I started to panic towards the end as I felt we were behind a lot of the other groups. Later on in the assignment I found many of the other groups shared the same issues and this made me feel better but at the time it was quite scary.
I think that the challenge with this topic is that we got put in a group because we shared a similar area of interest and this presented challenges and positive outcomes. I think a negative is that our ideas are all so similar rather that pick someones idea and have them lead the project we spent many weeks trying to work the idea into something we all liked. This turned out to be a positive because we all got to explore areas we were interested in but I think it could have been done a lot more efficiently if we had all compromised and selected someones idea.

Another problem area was people repeating research, we combatted this by having regular meetings and even at the very beginning of the research period we outlined our topic so if anyone thought they were moving in that direction they could approach the other person and see what they both had and if it was to similar. This happened a few times and it was quickly resolved saving the need to repeat research. I think have these outlines helped a lot with finding sources as well. A number of times I stumbled across things that I thought belonged to Astyn or Maya and because I knew their areas really well I knew if something would be of value to them and to pass it on.

HD

Connections & intersections – what do you see as the value of this course, what have you learnt overall about your problem solving skills, your learning, your group interactions and your networking abilities? How do you see what you have learnt about yourself via the process the content of your research fitting into your future career development and future work?

I think this course is a great prep course for honors, it helped develop research skills which will be helpful for anyone planning to continue down an academic path. As I am already quite experienced at research I found more value in developing our idea at the start and coming up with a research strategy. I am normally the person who receives the strategy so this was quite a learning curve for me!
I also think the networking side of things was valuable as well, especially with a media degree it is really important to be confident enough to approach people and talk to them about work experience and their advice for graduates.
Problem solving skills wise I think I need to work at being more open to things. I think I started this course from a negative position and this impacted my initial success at developing my research strategy.
Group wise I think we worked really well. I think having strong personalities on a team can either be really successful or totally tank and I think we all worked well together. I think we are all happy with the final product and no friendships have been destroyed, which is always a positive!
I think our research area was really interesting and valuable to look at as it is changing so rapidly and it is such a competitive job market. I also found many of the other presentations really interesting and look forward to reading their reports.

HD