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After going through BlogHer the site mentioned in notasweknowit blog entry, i would agree that it sure is a big networked community.I just went through it but one can get really lost in hopping from one to other which i actually did! Its interesting to know that the blogging has become so common that i obeserved while researching for my projects or assignments that if i had to get some information regarding a particular topic it would find me links which were blogs. This shows that how the idea of blogging which was very undefinite to me a little time ago, how has it become a new and exciting way of communication. There are so many other types of Blogging; for example MOBLOGGING and PHOTOBLOGS as mentioned in Seans site. And perhaps it is also further advancing and one thing im generally very interested in is VLOGGING, which is generated from BLOGGING itself!

what is vlogging?  Vlogging is short for video blogging, also known as vodcasting. Talking about videos online, the other day my MSN window popped up and i noticed there was screen which was displaying videos and there was choice you could make from a list of items. I found MSNNBC very interesting.Moving along, this particular type of blogging atttracts me more and can see myself actually exploring it particularly because im also interested in making films.

Also while reading the entry of Arrested for Blogging by notasweknowit, i also feel that all this logging is complicating things and creating unnecessary chaos, but having said that it all has its advantages too. This rapid advancing nature of the internet or should i say logging is quite scary because it does make me think and wonder that WHAT NEXT?????

This is regarding to Natasha’s and Simon’s comments; Natasha yes with time things are changing people in our society do fall in love and get married according to their own choice, even then you have to go through an arranged marraige procedure. It is embeded in our culture whether its arranged or love or its the new generation living abroad. You end up going through a journey of arrange marraiges in which both girl and the boys families have to meet and measure the terms and conditions. Its a very cultural thing! And even worse when you get divorced it becomes a stigma specially for a girl. So a girl just adapts the ways of her life so she can survive in this world. But not all arrange marraiges land up in a bad scenario. It used to happen more often in the lower class society, but it is very recent that good educated people are marrying girls and destroying their lives and this makes it more visible in the upper class society. It is becoming a norm and nothing is being really done about it. Nobody picks up this topic to explore it further through media, therefore since i experienced it and i manage to escape from it i feel i need to really highlight it. Because going through that procedure is not exactly easy, it is a long voyage of pain and sufferings.

Simon what i  really want to capture through a lens is to take the viewers slowly through a journey in a subtle non linear structured narrative film. Why i say subtle is to actually let viewers understand the concept but more important is to make them feel the pain and the agony of the protagonist. Well yes i have learnt alot from the course uptill now, in terms of flimatography, screenwriting and concept development. In my reflective practice im actually doing my paper on Non linear ways of storytelling so while researching for it i learnt alot and has actually helped me clear and polish my ideas. And my film will be filmed in English Language because the target audience i want to capture around the world and back home can understand and speak English. I really appreciate the feed back guys.

For my online doco i am supposed to interview few people, but first i used my mobile phone to record it but i found out that it is not exactly a good idea. So after reading Ryans entry about DISTILLERY, i came across that i can also do it with a camcorder. So probably i will copy this idea but it will be great if you let us know the procedure to upload it on the computer and then on the dreamweaver! Just like Ryan im extremely looking forward to your Documentary it sounds very exciting and cute!

I thought i will just take a break from just blogging about online docos and mobile media and shift to the other media Film-making. Especially since we are working on our online docos these days I thought a change was much needed. I was going through Sean’s Blog and found this to be in my interest. I think it’s a good idea to actually post our ideas about the Film most of us in the class would be making soooooon! And actually get a feedback and ideas which sometimes don’t occur to us ourselves. So I thought ill take this constructive opportunity and talk about my final project, so I gain any sort of information or ideas I am missing.My final project is a real life short ART House drama film, “I accept… I accept… I accept!!”�
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PREMISE:�
A journey of a 23 year old girl who escapes the dreadful realities of her abusive arranged marriage.
 

The film revolves around the idea of the title “I accept I accept I accept” that a bride and groom vows to complete the Islamic marriage procedure. This is a strong word which represents in this film that a girl accepts her husband and accepts everything that comes with him in marriage. The situation, the circumstances, the social pressure, the mistreatment, the violence, the abuse, her living death and unhappiness.�
 

The concept of the film is to highlight the idea of arranged marriages being practiced in middle-upper class of Pakistani society. This often leads to unhappiness and miseries of life and ultimately a divorce which is catered as a stigma in our society. The idea of arranged marriages comes from our very olden tradition which with time has been manipulated to the core by our society according to their own interests and likings. In this sort of social driven cultural arranged marriages the groom side always has the upper hand over the bride and her family. This leads to severe complications of the husband and his family controlling the girl’s life from the core. A very male chauvinist marriage in which the only thing a female can do is just ACCEPT!
 

The purpose of my Short film here is to draw attention of the viewers and to the world to this particular issue of females being victims of bad arranged marriages in Pakistani culture by means of a narrative of my own true experiences of a bad marriage. This sort of practice of dreadful arranged marriages is being led by many girls in my society. But all these girls do not usually end up in a divorce, some do, but most of them are still stuck in the dungeon of a miserable life.�
 

The action of the film is to take the viewers through a voyage of a colorful and a lively scenario of typical traditional Pakistani wedding preparations & a marriage ceremony of a 23 year old Muslim girl.  This further sails the viewers slowly and smoothly into the other Act which highlights the heartbreaking scenario of a bad abusive marriage for the girl leading her to an escape and eventually a divorce.
 

My case study was DEEPA MEHTA’s film Water. Its an excellent film. If you get an opportunity do watch it.

This film will be dedicated to all those girls who are stuck with living a hopeless married life and to girls who have managed to escape it!

Well for the past few weeks the online docoumentary and communities have been the talk of most of us in class which has actually made us form our own small offline community. I believe ‘Transient Spaces’ has played a great role in bringing us altogether as a class and one of the reasons is Track backing…

When i came up with the idea of my community of international students in melbourne, all the ideas were in my head but now that im structuring and mapping out my online doco project i came across lots of different ideas and querries relating to my community which i didnt think of before. The idea of this community is to attract the international students and share their experiences and provide the upcoming students with important information relating to their stay in Melbourne.

The structure of the doco would be something like, a title page which will then further branch out in categories and lead you further in the doco. The idea is to show a map on the title page which will be inspired by the tram route map of melbourne.The main stops will have the sub-divisions which will take the international students through a journey of the contents of the doco.

The doco contents includes

• Introduction
• Interviews of International Students; Local students;
• Articles shared by different International students
• Pictures
• Entertainment; Food & Fun
• Accomodation
• What is happening?
• Why Melbourne?

 The photos and pictures will be treated as black and white polaroids and will be used as roll overs, when you roll over the curser they will become colored. Just an element of fun and interaction. What i really wanted to do in this doco; was to include a chat room or maybe a section where people could leave messages or scraps. But this is taking it another step further and is not the requirement of the project.

The interviews will incorporate formal and informal talks with international students as well with local group of students to know how they feel about International students. The articles shared by the international students will be about their good bad experiences of Melbourne and much more.The contents are not in order and work on it is still in progress. The concept of sharing my thought process with all of you is to get a feed back, advices and maybe some ideas of how i can make it better.

Ryan has made me think about the title as he has already thought of his. So actually im also thinking about the title which will intrigue the viewers and make it exciting. Well to also answer Sean’s question, yes this community plans to stay forever as long as there are international students in Melbourne and it is helpful and entertaining for its members.

Shona mentioned “Mobile phones are a great way in which to keep a tight knit network in a global community. It is amazing on so many levels, but can be expensive also, which i f ound out the hard way!” I have been in Melbourne for 3 months and one thing that has irritated me the most in my expenditure is paying for my mobile pre paid connection. The calls and even the smsing is expensive here. Back home in Pakistan i used my phone all the time even at times being lazy to call within my house. And therefore it was easy for all sorts of people to use this mobile fascility. Here the funny thing is that im so worried about the credit in my phone that i end up making quick phone calls and at times telling the other person ‘hey im running out of credit’. But for me the reason of it being expensive is that i change my currency to dollars so it becomes even more expensive. Shona do you think that using mobile phones are expensive for you all as locals as well?

Mobile phones or Cellular phones or Hand phones (as you may want to name it) in today’s world have become such an essential element or device in our lives of advancing technology. It has become impossible to actually even imagine our lives without it but yet there was a time when mobile phone didn’t exist. After the discussion in class about mobile phones it really encouraged me to actually find out when this device was actually invented? It was April 3, 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper.

As much as mobile phones have become a necessity, it is also being flaunted off as a very fashionable accessory. They are actually being designed in every size, shape, color, ideas, etc to cater all sorts of categories present in our society. The most popular companies such as NOKIA, SONY ERRICSON, and SAMSUNG are coming up with new ideas and concept to enhance the technology of each new model they launch. Due to the advance changing nature of technology in mobile phones, it has become a norm to change mobile phones every now n then. The higher the price, more prestigious it would look. The market is full of different variety of mobile phones with diversity in prices so any individual is able to afford a mobile phone.

Being a frequent mobile phone user, I admitted in class that I never shut my mobile phone when I go off to sleep which astonished quite a few people. The fact is that since this mobile technology has come into my life I have not felt the need of shutting it at all unless it is really necessary when I am in a meeting or in a plane or in a place its absolutely important to shut it. The reason being it makes me feel connected to the world; it brings down some means of security. Since I have gotten my mobile phone I don’t feel the need of a phone book anymore neither do I need an alarm clock. It acts as my organizer, my calendar, basically gives me a space where I secure my data.

I feel mobile phones have brought the world of communication so much closer. Smsing is another great way of communicating but has its own pros and cons. Sms has also made us create another lingo which actually is meant for us to fit in our whole text in one sms characters limit. The mode of communication has definitely changed from what it was like in past. After reading Rahimas blog entry about Mobile Discussions i would say that definitely after the last weeks lecture it has made me super aware of my mobile and its characteristics. I have come to the conclusion that there is so much to this small device and so much for me to discover. Uptill now i used to use my mobile phone as a fashionable expensive device but now im actually getting to know the functions and features of my mobile better. Mobiles i believe are devices which are evolving with time, technology and according to the changing behaviour of the human brain.

After reading Ryans informative blog entry about Flickr and Sharp Reader, it sure does want me to explore these tools too. I am also very inspired to put up my work on Flickr but irony of the whole situation is my work is back home in my country. So i even realise the importance of using Flickr more because only if i wouldve have made my account earlier i wouldve made use of my work anywhere in the world. And Ryan yes i agree it sure looks like Flickr is a good organiser of photos.

Language is obviously is a vital tool which not only communicates thoughts and ideas but it also creates friendships, cultural ties and economic relations.

After reading Andrews post about LANGUAGE i came to know that Hindi is the 2nd largest spoken language in the world. Hindi (India) is very much like my language URDU (Pakistan). Another factor which is very important is that how in our country English Language plays a big role, English being the Universal Language of the world after all.

An interesting phenomena which is happening with languages is that we are mixing languages with English and creating another language altogether. But it is not only a mix of Urdu-English but other languages are also getting a different blend for example Spanish-English called Spanglish, Singapore-English called Singlish, Malaysian-English called Manglish. The idea is that we are forgetting the beauty of each language.

Andrew you are right the language for reading or writing these blogs is English…i thought ill just type something in my language, lets see if you can figure it out.

‘yeh sub zabaane duniya ki, khoobsurat hain’

Since our last night of accomplisment of finding out how TRACK BACK works i will take an official opportunity to track back. It is was so fascinating for me to know that we are blogging and one of the criteria is to track back but it wouldnt work. It took us almost two weeks to get to know track back. Thanks to Ryan & Kim in our tutorial who helped us get to know the process.

This is a very interesting process of keeping track of everyones blog entries and actually keeping us on track. I believe this sure will bring us all to start our little discussions and be all intellectual. Lets TRACKBACK.