Celine C.

I edited Spring on my own and it proves to be a very good exercise as it forced me to recall features that I’ve forgotten, which lead me to google “how to add text in final cut pro”. However, Alene and Ruth also have their own edited version of the footage Coffee For One. Watching both of this finished product proves just how different an impression it can give an audience simply by rearranging and picking bits of footage from that one same pool of footage. Also, music does make an impact in guiding how the audience should feel, or rather how the editor wants the audience to feel. It also shows how subjective editing can be, basically, a different editor would give a different outcome.

I was going after a slow-paced film that will nudge audience to just sit back, relax and be in awe of the littlest things we see in uni which we might find meaningless. But with the compilation of these varied footages i.e. the water fountain, people drinking coffee, crowds chatting, etc. and with the addition of music and simple video transitions, the finish product was just not something I had in mind. To be honest, I didn’t even know what to expect. All we that we were on the lookout when filming in the vicinity of uni was to spot things that would be relatable to spring, i.e. people relaxing and then it all comes down to the post-production process to make the footage tell a story. But with a little passion and some time, you’d be surprise what your outcome will be!

The image above was taken during the lecture. We were having a live Skype conversation with Jonathan who’s working with ABC Pool in Sydney, telling us about the things he does there, which have plenty to do with interacting with media content and their authors as well as his colleagues at ABC Pool. What fascinates me the most about this lecture is that it is the first time having to listen to a lecturer over a live virtual conversation, which in my opinion totally lives up to the course name – integrated media.
a few good pointers that Jonathan raised:
- don’t overtag or be seen as commercial
- update twice a day, once in the day, one more at night (think of posting something fun for the evening for those who are waiting for the bus home)
- don’t over promote, instead talk about what’s going on

In groups at the workshop, we were to talk in details of our respective online magazine in terms of the theme, functions, progress, method of interaction and so on. I reckon that my group members and I did a good job in terms of what has been said above. Our theme in respect to the other groups, is considered as the light-hearted as we are going for a fun activity that people would interact with when they have nothing better to do, say on a lazy Saturday afternoon while waiting for the train. The other groups were mainly dealing with current issues or matters that are rather academic.

This makes me think of how versatile the Internet and the social networking sites can be to accommodate for subject matters of all sorts. However, I do think that light-hearted matters such as ours, would interact more optimum with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as I would say the majority of its users are after less serious subject matters as I would relate the word ‘social’ in ‘social networking sites’ to being more light-hearted than serious. This is so because I know the reason most people join Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the lives of their loved ones, friends or even people they idolize and communicate with them. But then again, we have professional who participate in social networking sites to sell themselves in prospects of either gain more audience, raise awareness of what they do and their beliefs, or even to be headhunted for a better work prospect. In reference to professionals who participate in social networking sites, we’ve had (other groups too) an interaction with Julia Gillard, having her as one of our followers on our Being Indecisive Twitter account. It is comforting to find that the Prime Minister is supporting our little uni project and also reveals that this might not be such a little uni project after all. This could actually turn into something BIG! If this little uni project sparks the possibility of actually making it big, I can’t imagine if I for example, were to pour out my heart and soul in developing another online magazine with a theme of my personal interest. This is no wonder people have been using social networking sites for business purposes.

From the interview/editing exercise that we had from the previous week (which I became the subject), my group members and I learnt that with editing, you can cut up an interview, arrange it and totally change the way audience perceive it as it should be. A fine example would be well.. my interview.

In the interview, I talked about what’s it like being twenty-one but not having the freedom to go out late and party like the other twenty-ones as my aunty and I once had a dispute over my ever-increasing late outings and I have since feel a tension about going out late and have make it a point to be home before midnight on every outing. However, I look at it from a positive point of view, saying that I should be feeling fortunate that I have people caring for my safety and wellbeing and that it is important for me to retain a healthy relationship with my relatives.

During editing, Alene and the rest managed to rearrange the footages and have me come across as being upset with my aunty and the placement of portion of me talking about my aunty’s contrasting lifestyle when she was my age, just further emphasises my ‘anger’. However, this is entirely not my initial intention, I meant to exude my open personality about this matter and that I have no means to go against my aunty. I really hope she doesn’t come across the video without having a read at this post (or I’ll die!)

Also, looking at another group’s work of their interview with their group member, Alex, I’ve been reminded that the angle of the camera and the appropriate placement of b-roll is very important in order to produce an aesthetically pleasing documentary. Alex seem very horrified to have the class watch the interview with him in class (thank god we ran out of time in the tute and my interview was not played in class!), if my face was on the screen, I would too! Of course, this is so because each of us interviewee talked about a dramatic moment in our lives, or judging from Alex’s and my interview, it is more precisely dramatically sad moments in our lives.

From this exercise also, it lead me to think about all the interviews that are commercially produced and aired on TV, are we audience perceiving it as how the interviewee want us to perceive it? or is it heavily edited and have ‘corrupted’ the original content of the interview. This is the essence or rather, the art, of documentary. An art in telling the truth. We can have a never-ending discussion on issue of truth in documentary but I shall stop here.

My group members and I are gathered to get ready for the final bits to launching our ‘Being Indecisive’ online magazine.

In the nick of time, we have managed to publish some blog posts, upload videos and images and did a little brainstorm.

In reference to the image above that was screenshot in Facebook, I have to say, we’ve made some progress!

What we’ve learnt:
1. be specific on the demographic that we are interviewing, and show/tell that in our doco (so we don’t offend anyone!)
2. brainstorm further as to what topic we will be focusing on (although most of the time, we change our mind after filming cause the story can be manipulated in post-production)
3. get opinions/feedback before we proceed with filming/interviewing to have a better feel of where we are heading.

I had a hard time figuring out what I actually have to write in the producer’s statement. I had a flip through last semester’s TV1 production portfolio to refresh my mind on what’s to be included but it struck me that the documentation is drastically different for a drama versus a documentary. For a documentary, we don’t have to yet be certain on the shooting location as where we will shoot will have to be closely related to where our interviewees work, live, etc. or be even just be a room anywhere for interviewing purpose. We’ve also no longer need to do a casting for actors (unless we later decided to get some for reenactments) as what we will be focusing in our film now is real people with real life experience to show and tell. I will just have to wait for feedback from my tutor in regards to the draft treatment.
Draft – Producer’s Statement

I’m actually pretty relieved that we won’t be working on building a narrative out of a RPG like Second Life in this semester’s IM2. Instead, we will collaborating the usage of various social networking sites and producing an online magazine, which I think is far more useful for future works.

Through this course, I’ve been forced to sign up for Tumblr, a social networking site which I’m very unfamiliar with. Despite that, I must say that nothing is too complicated for us tech-savvy generation. Still, I’ve not come to a point that I want to use Tumblr for my personal publication.

We also need to incorporate the usage of Twitter in this online magazine. I do have a personal Twitter account but have ceased interaction with it for at least half a year. The only networking site that I’m, like most of us, extremely involved with is Facebook. To add to that, my group members and I preferred mode of interaction is actually Facebook. We’ve set up our very own Facebook group to allow us to communicate.

I’m actually still very unclear as to how our online magazine will turn out. We have yet to go into a further brainstorming mode to determine how we will actually be promoting our Facebook page and to actually get people to be willingly involved.

Speaking of which, we’ve actually had an actual interaction with an individual whom asked “Should I [attend] radio2 today?” which we helped him determined that he should “Ask [his] mum” with our very own chatterbox. See here

Don’t get confused with the ‘Being Indecisive’ website and ‘Being Indecisive’ person that we’ve created on Facebook. It is on the ‘Being Indecisive’ person’s page where most of the events take place. In order to boost this ‘person’s’ presence, we started adding our own friends which didn’t end to well as someone made a report to Facebook and ‘Being Indecisive’ has been banned from adding people for two days with suspicion of spamming. We could only make progress by getting people to add ‘Being Indecisive’ as friend instead.

In Week 3 tute, we got into our respective groups to draft out a contract. My fellow group mates are so enthusiastic about our upcoming group project and I’m proud to be part of this all-girls team! I think we’ll work very well together.

Cassie made a very good suggestion for the contract, which is to either ‘like’ or make a comment on the posts published in our Documentary group on Facebook to give an indication that we’ve read or taken a look at it.

We’ve also agreed to meet on Tuesdays morning for our weekly meetings.

Besides that, we shall not refrain from addressing an issue when it arises to encourage a productive work flow.

We have not exactly determine the roles each of us will be taking on in the upcoming project but regardless of that, we are all going to be helping each other up as each role hasn’t got an equal share of workload.