Maddie's Blog

Filmenstein was the first seminar to take place in Media Industries 2 and, I believe that they set a very high benchmark for the rest of the groups to come. The caliber of guests was great, as they included, Glendyn Ivin, Don Linke, and Sue Edwards. Although all the guests were great to listen to and had much invaluable information to share, I particularly enjoyed listening to Glendyn Ivin. He has directed some very well known works, including channel 10’s new television series, Puberty Blues, and Offspring. It was incredibly interesting to hear from all of the guest, but because I have a particular interest in film and television directing, Glendyn had a lot to say that really caught my attention. All of the guests also had great personalities and seemed to really be enjoying themselves, which, is a great sign that the Filmenstein group had achieved well. One highlight of the seminar was when Glendyn Ivin mentioned how impressed and astounded he was to see that we were capable of setting up a live twitter feed to respond to questions coming from the audience. That’s certainly a win for media students everywhere!

Filmenstein was very creative in their approach to the seminar. The group created and played a hypothetical film pitch to the guests. They then used the pitch as a basis to ask each guest about how they would approach the making of the film, according to their particular job. This was very clever and also informative as it gave the audience a first hand account of what goes into making an entire film. It became clear just how much effort is required to make a film…and then comes the releasing of the film, which, Glendyn Ivin said was way more stressful than the actual making of the film!

Overall, the seminar was informative, entertaining and very well executed. I thoroughly enjoyed the guests and the content that was shared.

Digging up the Truth was the second seminar for Media Industries 2 and focused on documentary making. I found this seminar to be incredibly entertaining and informative. The seminar also had a fantastic turn out, with people trying to squash themselves through the door just to get a seat. Once all the seats had been filled, people were sitting on the floor and standing against the walls. This is certainly a good sign that, either, people really want to know about documentary making, or your guests are really awesome! I think, although documentary making is very cool, it may have been the latter.

The main guest that everyone seemed to be there to see was John Safron, who certainly delivered as a very entertaining, very funny and intellectual person. The other guests included, Helen Gaynor, Nicholas Hansen, and Dennis K Smith. I found all of the guests to be very relevant to the topic of focus and very interesting to listen to. Each guest explained how they found themselves getting into documentary and, for most of them, they merely, ‘fell into it’. None of the guest had ever actually wanted to be a documentary maker from a young age. They either began in art school, television or film, etc. I found this very interesting and it made me think, maybe I will just ‘fall’ into documentary making one day.

The guests spoke about how you would go about financing a documentary, producing it, working with ‘real’ people and being careful not to ‘cross any lines’, and the consequent ethical issues that arise with documentary making. All of these things are quite obvious when it comes to documentary making, but it was so great to hear it from people who have actually experienced it and could share the intricacies of the profession.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable seminar and probably my favourite to date. I loved listening to all the guests who had much relevant information and knowledge to share.

28 Minutes Later was the third seminar of the semester for Media Industries 2. This seminar focused on Television and was set up in lieu of a television studio audience, with Kieran McGrath as the host. Kieran did a great job in controlling the event and even included a bit of role-play as at the beginning of the seminar, he pretended to be a cheesy television host. I found this seminar to be very entertaining and informative. This seminar also had a rather full audience. Again, I think the guests may have had something to do with that, which was a great sign. The guests included Matthew Saville, who has directed such television shows as ‘The Slap’, ‘We Can Be Heroes’, and ‘Cloud Street’; Lawrence Leung, comedian and television writer; and Chris Gist, TV producer.

I really enjoyed the ‘set up’ of the seminar, as it was quite different to the previous seminars. Instead of having all of the guests sitting next to each other and asking questions at random for anyone to answer, each guest would come up one by one and have a 10-15 minute chat with Kieran. I felt that this was a very good approach to interviewing the guests because it allowed for the audience to find out much more about that particular individual. The guest felt comfortable to talk for an extended period of time about themselves and their past work, without being worried about being too talkative and not letting anyone else talk. I feel as though that this did happen in the other seminars at times.

Once Kieran had separately interviewed all of the guests, they came back up onto the stage together for question time. This was also a very good approach to question time because instead of simply trying to squeeze questions into the last 5 minutes of the seminar, there had actually been an allocated amount of time for people to ask the guests questions. I was very glad that the group placed emphasis on allowing time for questions because some of the other seminars have either forgotten about question time, or simply ran out of time.

Overall, it was a great seminar that was entertaining, informative and different to the previous seminars, which is always refreshing.

I am currently in my final year of completing a Media and Communications degree at RMIT University. Before I complete this degree, however, it is compulsory for every student to undertake 80 hours of work experience. My first thought upon hearing this was, “80 hours! How am I ever going to complete 80 hours!?” Ignorant as I was, those 80 hours flew by in an instant. I think I even ended up completing about 120 hours of work experience.

For my particular work attachment, I was fortunate enough to attain a two week long, full time internship with Tennis Australia, contracted by Channel 7 for the Australian Open Tennis Tournament in February 2012. This was certainly a valued experience for me. Even before beginning the internship, I thought it would be great to get out into the industry and see what ‘Media’ as a career was all about. I knew it was going to be somewhat different to what we had previously learnt at University, but how different, I was unsure.

Upon arriving at the Tennis grounds, I was shown by my supervisor what kind of work I would be undertaking throughout my work attachment. A lot of the programs and equipment were new to me. It was equipment that I had never really seen or worked with before. The funny thing was, however, the equipment seemed rather out-dated compared to the equipment I was used to working with at RMIT. Having said that, seeing older equipment and programs here made me realise that a lot of work places in the Media industry may still favour the older equipment, as their older employees would be much more familiar and comfortable, or have studied this equipment at university. Therefore, depending on the organisation, I have to be prepared to use equipment that, is not necessarily always ‘out of date’, but also, just generally different to what I have previously studied. This can also be seen as an advantage to me as, at times, certain employees had to ask us students questions about how to work certain programs. Of course, I am aware that this will not be the case with every company that I work for in the future, but it was exciting to feel like I was able to give back and teach about certain things and particular programs that I knew well, as well as also being taught much valuable information. At times, it was almost a give and take situation.

I undertook this internship with four other RMIT students. This was nice as we had support from our peers and we could also take this opportunity to assist each other when needed. There were moments when I would need help from a fellow student. For example, our supervisor may have shown one student how to work a certain program, and we would then rely on that person to teach one, or sometimes, all of us. There were also moments when I would be the one that would need to teach other students about certain tasks or programs. Again, it was a give and take system. It was also helpful to have other students there because we were all more than happy to support one another when a lot of work was due, and we could also take shifts.

Although the internship was incredibly insightful and invaluable, for the two weeks of the internship, I felt as though it became slightly repetitive. For example, when we arrived at the ground each day, we knew exactly what to do. We would go to our compound and sit at our computer. We would log and capture footage and then allocate that footage to its correct bin. There were, of course, moments here and there where we would be allocated other tasks, but for the majority of the time, this was our only task. I would have loved the opportunity to experience different departments of the company. For example, there was a department where short trailer-like advertisements were made for each tennis player, including interviews with the player, footage of their games, entertaining extras, etc. All of this footage was compiled and made into a short piece for the purpose of entertaining the audience in between matches. I would have loved to have merely watched the process of creating these pieces and the editing that was involved. Experiencing the different departments, such as this one, would have provided us with a little more knowledge of what the company does as a whole, rather than just one segment.

On my last day of the internship, however, I was lucky enough to attend a private interview with the female champion of 2012, Victoria Azarenka. This was definitely the highlight of the internship. I was able to witness the interviewer with Azarenka and see just how the interview process was carried out.

One of the most interesting aspects of the experience was witnessing how the entire operation worked. It was great to see how the whole event was organised and how each media company worked to churn our as much footage as possible. In order to do this, of course, the employees would work until very late at night, and return to work early in the morning. Everything had to be done, and it had to be done then! Not later! It was all very fast-paced and, at times, high stress. The company was relied upon to provide vast amounts of footage for each day of the tournament. If they missed an important moment, it was not good. This kept everyone on edge, which was very exciting. At times, I felt as though we had a lot of pressure on us students, as we were the ones who were given the raw footage from the cameramen. We would then log it, and keep track of all of the footage, which was strategically arranged. As soon as we were asked for a certain shot, we had to locate it immediately and provide it for that particular person. Although this created pressure for us, it was great to feel important and as though the professional staff was actually relying on us, as though we were also professional employees. It was great, in a number of ways, to be ‘thrown into the deep end’ and be forced to learn our tasks quickly. I feel as though this will be good training for when we start working properly in the industry.

In terms of my own strengths and weaknesses associated with this internship, I feel as though my strengths out-weighed my weaknesses. I believe I, as did one other student, take on a leadership role. Our supervisor began rostering us so that either myself, or the other leading student was always working at different times so that we could support the other students. Not to say that the other students could not manage the allocated tasks, I just think that the other leading student and myself understood the programs and tasks slightly better as we were the first to be taught how to use/do them. I believe I worked well over the two weeks and I became someone that other employees could rely upon to provide particular footage at certain times. One of the employees there even spoke to me about the possibility of going over to England at some stage (maybe next year), to do some more work with the company – a very exciting opportunity indeed! At least a great network/contact to have!

In terms of my weaknesses, I feel as though, at times, I would become overwhelmed with the amount of work that was allocated, compared to the amount of time that we had to complete it in. This was especially hard when there was a time limit and I struggled to understand how to use a certain program that was essential to the completion of the project. I think that this was a time when I needed to voice my concern and ask for help. I think that, at the time, I was a little too shy or embarrassed to ask for help, when really, that was what I should have done from the start. This was one of those moments when having my peers there for support was greatly appreciated. The students who had been taught about the equipment were able to step in and assist me until I understood the task.

Overall, my time at this internship was invaluable. I enjoyed the experience tremendously and I really feel as though what I learnt in this internship will greatly assist me when I undertake either another internship, or my first ‘real’ job. It was so fantastic to be able to see how the industry operated and, if I had the opportunity to work for them again, I would most certainly grab it with both hands!

I am very excited, as I am also about to undertake another internship with The Victorian Police Force Media Unit, in Flinders St. I went into the headquarters last week to have my finger prints taken and, I am currently waiting for the results to come back. Once this has been completed, I am able to begin my internship. I was also taken on a tour of the media department and shown all of the different areas that I would be working in. Already, I am very excited about the diversity in the program. Hopefully the internship goes well and then I get a job offer and make lots of money and live happily ever after!

Role: Producer/Production Designer

When classes began for PP2 this semester, my original expectations of The Shortest Form somewhat differed to what I understood of Paul’s original pitch. Once in the class, Paul explained to us that we would be doing, what I believe, is something much more worthwhile. The Burnet Institute for Medical Research had expressed interest in having RMIT students create short TV commercials, or informative advertisements for the company. So, after discovering that the intention of the class was to create, produce and submit TV commercials to the Burnet Institute, I was incredibly excited.

As I mentioned in my original PP2 report (at the beginning of the semester), I am very drawn to projects that allow complete freedom and creativity. This subject has proven to be exactly that. It is interesting to read back on my original production goals and ideas for The Shortest Form to firstly, see what I have achieved, and secondly, see what I have completely changed or developed.

My original notes on ‘Production Ideas’ spoke of the Institute’s need for funding and gaining more public awareness. I believe that the commercials we have created, thus far, certainly stress that point. However, in my original notes, I wanted to experiment with achieving that public awareness through social media by perhaps, intertwining short clips or TVC’s with social media platforms. Social media, today, is such a large part of society and, I feel that it is such an accessible avenue for achieving substantial awareness from the general public. Even though we have not planned to use the TVC’s for this purpose, there is no reason why we cannot still workshop these ideas and potentially include social media within the project.

In my original report, I spoke about how I really wanted to try and incorporate comedy into my piece for the Burnet Institute. My aim was to take a Mockumentary style approach to my TV piece, as I believe that comedy is a great way to confront an audience and expose ignorance in the public perception. When I first presented this idea to the class, there seemed to be a lot of interest in taking on a comedy piece. However, as our ideas progressed and developed, the comedy approach seemed to die out. I think that this is a little disappointing because, if comedy is executed well, it can be such a great way to attract and entice an audience.

Having said that, perhaps if I had taken on the role of ‘script writer’, maybe we would still have a comedy piece in the mix. At the beginning of the semester, I never thought that I would end up in the role of ‘producer’. I usually take on roles that allow a little more creativity. However, since I had never taken on the role of ‘producer’ before, I thought that it might be a good experience. I am the Producer for Tom’s script (Through Our Eyes). I have also taken on the role of ‘Production Designer’ for Michael’s script (Under The Microscope). This is another role that I have never experienced. This role was appointed to me, rather than actually choosing the role myself, but I like the idea of attempting this role because I feel that it allows more creativity and lets me re-create a certain vision.

It is hard, however, to have a fully detailed vision for Michael’s particular script, as it is constantly moving in and out of different locations, with different people. I imagine the TVC will cover a vast amount of either the Burnet Institute, or at least another lab that we can gain access to. Therefore, the way I envision the production to look is to have lots of scientists carrying out their day-to-day roles within the institute. It will be cluttered – people moving everywhere, all the time, without stopping. The labs are filled with scientific instruments, i.e. microscopes, petri dishes, large machines, test tubes, etc. There is a lot of white – white walls, white lab coats, and white floors. The style is modern, almost futuristic. All of the people are well groomed, wearing neat clothing with lab coats (some also with goggles and gloves). They have their hair neatly off their face. The woman have little, natural looking make-up. They look professional. Here is a picture of how the scientists should look.

As part of pre-production, each member of the class was required to take a script that they were working on and create a ‘marked-up script’ for their particular role. As I am ‘production designer’ for Michael’s project, I took his script and thoroughly examined the details. As I read through the script, I marked all of the props, sets (or locations), costumes, and make-up that would be required for that particular scene of the commercial. I then made a list at the end of the script that included every item that I needed to collect or provide for the shoot, and that the actors would need to provide themselves.

Most of the equipment needing to be provided for the shoot, i.e. microscope, goggles, gloves, lab coats, test tubes, etc. are most likely going to be at the actual locations that we shoot in (Burnet Labs/RMIT Labs), however, we must make sure that we have full access to this equipment before the shoot takes place. I will need to check in with either the producer of this project, or a correspondent at the Burnet Institute to investigate as to whether we will have access to this type of equipment.

As for Tom’s script, Through Our Eyes, in which I am the producer, he is hoping to shoot his script at the Burnet Institute as it allows for a more realistic setting and feels more authentic. However, Mel has been in constant contact with Tracy, a Burnet employee, and it seems harder to attain permission that we originally anticipated. As a result of this, I emailed a woman named Helen Williams, who is in charge of the Building 8, Level 10 Labs at RMIT University, to see if we could gain permission to shoot our commercials in this location. Unfortunately, I am yet to hear back from Helen, and may need to actually speak to her face-to-face to request permission once again.

Mel and Paul have also recently discovered that the Building 12, Level 13 labs may be of use as they would be perfect for the shoot. The worse case scenario is that we are denied any access to the labs at RMIT or Burnet, which would substantially change the scripts. There is still hope yet!

At this stage, Mel has taken on the role of ‘ Head Producer’ and is the main correspondent for the Burnet Institute. She has been emailing Burnet employees, organising actors to be used in all TVC’s, sourcing locations, etc. I feel as though I haven’t done very much in my role of producer as of yet, and that I would like to do more. Up until now, Tom and I (the other producers), have been more of a support team for Mel. Whenever Mel attains new information, she allocates roles to us. I feel as though I might need to lead a bit more where I can. However, as we are still in the process of trying to secure Burnet as a film location, I think that it is better to have one correspondent with Tracy so as to avoid any confusion with communication.

Mel and I have been in contact regarding the Burnet Institute and as discussed, once all the TVC’s begin the shooting phase, the three producers (Mel, Tom and myself) will break into their smaller groups and take on their individual producing roles from there, i.e. all the relevant information and contacts will be passed on from Mel to the appropriate producer and we’ll go from there. The dates for the Test Shoots and Real Shoots can be found here.

For Tom’s script, it would be ideal to film at Burnet, but if this is not a possibility, (awaiting approval) hopefully we can film in the RMIT labs (also waiting approval). The actors for Tom’s script have been cast, (the same actors will be used for all scripts) and we just need to decide which actor is playing which role. Tom and I work shopped his script last week and I feel as though the script is now much tighter, clearer and entertaining.

I am looking forward to shooting the scripts and I hope that the Burnet Institute enjoy what we come up with!