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The blog that I admire is the official blog of the Astor Theatre.

I guess I admire the blog, perhaps, for the wrong reasons. I don’t admire it because of its design, or the fact that it does something so original and out there. I admire the blog because it is what it is. It doesn’t try and be something that it’s not. Its a blog for an incredible cinema and it gets its point across clearly and articulately.

It’s funny, because the design of the blog is one of the most popular ones that I see other people in class have. I believe a good blog isn’t about the fancy looks but the content it provides and shares. It gives the viewer upcoming events, interesting strories and various things in relation to the cinema.

This video is an example of the sort of stuff they post. Its entertaining, interesting…and HILARIOUS!!! I believe it is what people want to see, want to read and want to ingest into their systems. The blog is for people who love the Astor, but not only the astor, but cinema in general. Its a cinema lovers blog. Straight and simple.

Also, when they post an entry it isn’t half-hearted. They go all out. The post is full and i mean PACKED with information and stuff. And it isn’t too long because its unbelieveable, awesome stuf!! It’s just things i want to read.

They also use images extremely well. The photos they use from various films etc. are great. They aren’t the standard posters or typical characters, they try and put in the most interesting, unseen pictures. I think a great blogs need texture, it needs to change up what it does and by putting in these pictures and videos it keps the viewer wanting more. And thats exactly what it does. i can’t get enough….I keep going back…for more, and more and more and more and more.

Great blog.

Good fun.

I found the online lecture pretty good. He wasn’t the most interesting speaker and I personally don’t believe it is the most interesting topic but he did what he needed to do – which was get his point across in a simple, articulate manner. So yep, I learnt something!!!

Copyright is simply the right to make copies.

You get to own copy right if you are the creator or the author. Automatically you own copyright in the subject matter or of the work. As long as it is original and in material form.

If you are able to “drop it on your foot” you have copy right for it as it is in material form. So, for example, you are able to drop a dvd on your foot so it has copy right.

International reciprocal copyright: Under an international treaty called the Burn Convention (Switzerland) all the signatories(150 countries) to that convention, they all own reciprocal copyright. Any country we will be dealing with in the future is pretty much a part of this treaty. What does this mean exactly? If you see a film clip that is made in France and you think you can reproduce it in Australia because it is a French film and it wouldn’t have copyright in Australia – it still has copyright. In this way, every one is protected and every one is united in copyright.

Copyright lasts for 70 years after death of the author or creator. Once copyright expires, work goes into the public domain, and once that happens anyone can use it. So copyright lasts 70 years after a film, video clip, tv show etc was made.

With copyright, the creator is able to exploit thir work – they get to make money out of their work.

It gives people the incentive to create original work. 

It is so easy now to make copies of work and very cheaply. Its causing a concern for copyright law. Its very hard to prevent people from ripping off copyright. The rights of the copyright owner are becoming very hard to control due to the fact that everything is so easily accessible in this day in age.

The forensic wall – using post-it notes.

We need to think about the target audience and the kind of experience we want to make for them and the pragmatic situation they are in.

We also need a focus question. This will help us work out our intent. A key question that will help us figure out our intent and the design of the essay. To be honest, I’m pretty damn confused!!! Its so vague and broad. Where do we begin? Where do we start? What the hell do we do??????

Our first idea for a question is – ‘What’s the Point?’ – We also created back-up questions: ‘What do you like about movies?’ OR ‘Why won’t cinema ever die?’

The question is up on the wall!!! Who knows if its right. I reckon not…but we shall soon find out.

So Seth really likes our central question…we now have 20 different post -it notes up and things seem to be going pretty well. We have ideas and different thoughts going through our minds. Here is our wall:

There aren’t many people here today so the tute is very casual and personal. We are able to ask questions about the hypertext essay and anything else that is on our mind. At the beginning of the lab we spoke about the Annotated Bibliography and what we found difficult about it and how we went with it overall.

Various ideas for hypertext essay:

Form and content – The research is our content which is coming from our annotated bibliography.

We are producing a non-fiction work. Unless of course we decide to dramatise our research into fiction.

The idea of what is being examined in the extract can influence the design of the form.

Extract influencing form – Make sure it doesn’t get in the way of the actual work.

We have to format the whole page. Its not just about putting in text. We have to format the negative and positive space. We have to create a table.

Soooooo. Lets try and think what I found so difficult about the Annotated Bibliography…

I found linking all the posts quite challenging. Making one post connect with the other and make it seem like all the posts were part of the same story was hard. I was more or less able to link them but I found that some posts failed to continue on from the next. But now thinking about it, did I even have to make them all link to one another?? I guess I was trying to do it like an essay where each post is like a paragraph and it all has to be in a linear order. It was a new experience because I am so used to doing it in that way.

I also found the actual research quite difficult. To find relevant references, that were not only Lev’s was hard. It took me ages to search the entire web on the topic of new media and spatial montage because there is SO MUCH STUFF!!!!

It was a different experience handing in the annotated bibliography compared to handing in a hard copy essay etc. For one thing I didn’t haver to come in to uni to hand it in!!! So its very convenient. I feel that the way we handed in this task is the way of the future. It just makes so much more sense, seeing as we have the capabilities, to use the internet to hand in our work. We use the internet for absolutely everything, so why not for uni too??

All in all I felt pretty good about the whole thing. Not necessarily because I felt I did such a good job but because I learnt so much from the experience. It was the first time I have done anything like that so now I know what to do and what to expect for next time. I feel like i can do so much better the next time around. I feel like I rushed some of it and that i did some of it half heartedly… despite this, I feel I did the best I could from what I knew.

Yah.

First impressions: Something interesting is going on!!! Seth has something unusual on the board, its like a wall of videos. There are 20 videos on the wall and they are all showing differnt things.  (Inbflat.net)

Seth says its a great way to kick off spacial montage. Its called Screen Fragmentation

Lev Manovich: ‘The Language of new Media’. In this book he traces the originas of computer media and how it relates to avon garde in the 20′s. manovich.net  is his blog. He is very good at using early examples of art to contextualise or show how he wants to talk about new media – internet, computer etc. His first book really looks at cinema as an example to do that.

‘Man with a Movie Camera’: 

‘Soft Cinema’: Dissected Stream. He examines the intersection of software, database and cinema.

Macro cinema is refereed to as broadband cinema which is cinema published and screened from the internet.

Strong link of spatial montage and the fragmentation of a screen.

Spatial Montage: Flora – Can involve a number of images of different sizes appearing on a screen. Ever-changing. Images replacing each other and being viewed simultaneously side-by-side. Not necessarily a new phenomenon. Not just in paintings but in cinema as well.

Spacial Narrative – They occur simultaneously and can be witnessed in unison. Micro-narrative being represented together.

Cinema had a dramatic effect on getting away from this concept and moving to the industrial idea – make one object and the next one comes along. That a shot is constantly replaced on the screen.

“Entering several Spheres at once” – Lev Manovich

Multiple Perspectives – As soon as we start breaking up the screen face, there are multiple perspectives going on at the same time. Split-Screen – No beginning middle or end. Its how we move and operate in every day life. Hasn’t been explored to its full potential because of the single frame convention/culture, the industrial factory.
Some examples: TV series 24, Golden Eye Nintendo – a number perspectives at the same time.  TV shows like 24 have taken up this idea of split screen and re-worked into the formatting and design.

refractory.unimelb.edu.au - Handy Link for annotated bibliography 

Spatial montage is not just about moving image and time based stuff but the fragmentation of the screen and the ability to change the screen. Static or moving images. Links act like edits.

Separate Objects – All separate files.

- Just so I don’t forget – I have some ideas for the annotated bibliography!! A movie I have seen that is totally done in spatial montage. A gallery I went to that had a massive painting with 3 channels/panels. All the different formats of spatial montage.

Points towards thinking about how writing is changed by the device being used. Screen is fluid, can be constantly updated. Facilitates layering and information being presented…

LOTS TO TAKE IN…LOTS TO DO…I’M PUMPED

A point that I found interesting – I loved the idea of cinema as being an industrial factory where something is made and then replaced by something else – its the conventional, classical cinema that everyone knows and is used to. Spatial Montage throws this idea out the window!!!!

Brief discussion about the lecture – I personally thought it was the best lecture we have had yet. I like how it was personal so we could relate to it better.

Something I found interesting in the lecture – “From little things, big things grow”. I think its an intriguing idea in that everyone in the entire world has access to it. Its unlike the hard copy of the journals we did last semester where only my tutor and myself saw it. This time, its so public that if i write something that is different or new that has never been seen before, something could become of it. There is always a slight chance that I could or anyone else in the course could blog something that could become bigger than what was originally thought. Its just an example of how connected the internet is and how everything is one giant, connected network.

Annotated Bibliography – Happy we are going over it again!! I still don’t really understand the general idea of it. It would be great to understand exactly what i have to do so i can do it to the best of my ability…and get the best mark I can!!

Provides 3 things: a) evaluation b) summary c) a list of sources

We learnt how to activate plug-ins! I also learnt for the first time how to use cyber duck properly. I have to remember that once on Cyberduck i have to go through – public, blog 2, wp content and then plugins.

Cinzia and I just commented on each others blogs which was pretty exciting! For the first time our blogs are interactive and actually HAPPENING!!! Now to just get a random comment from a random dude in…ummm…Sri Lanka…

Its been a pretty good lab. For the first time he actually slowed down and went through everything about the blogs. At the beginning of the course we were just thrown into the deep end and expected to work everything out ourselves. Clearly, that didnt work out so well so we took a step back and started from scratch. I finally feel i have a basic understanding of how it all works so I can actually start using it properly. Very productive lab!

…Now its time for home…FOOD…