SMP

Right. So this is a draft of my proposal, and needs to cover several different things — 1. my understanding of the purpose of our PP1 tutorial group within the broader context of My Tribe and ABC Pool in its entirety. 2. an outline of my own plan to contribute to My Tribe/the My Tribe Facebook/Twitter as an individual ‘social media producer’. 3. My self-assessment criteria for this subject. 4. A timeline of events.

So let’s start at the top.

1. The essential purpose of the Facebook/Twitter tute, in relation to all other aspects of the My Tribe project, is to find and communicate with people online. Facebook and Twitter are highly populated websites — by tapping into these user bases, My Tribe will have access to a larger portion of the online community, and hence more potential for audience participation/involvement. Facebook also provides a platform through which consumers can talk back to us, give us feedback and ask questions. This is invaluable, given that the purpose of the My Tribe project is to encourage these people to create works on the Pool website. Without a dedicated Facebook page, we would have no unified method of communicating with potential contributers to the project. Additionally, we would have a lessened capacity to raise awareness of the many opportunities that other tutorials are settting up for My Tribe, such as the Fed Square Exhibition or the 360 showcase online.

2. As a social media producer, I hope to further encourage community involvement with My Tribe by tapping into online filmmaking communities in Australia such as filmnet and myproductionportal. My recruitment strategy will involve setting up an account on each of these websites and creating a post in the ‘job’ forums, which are browsed regularly by filmmakers looking for opportunities to make films and exercise their skills. This post will outline the My Tribe project to these filmmakers, with an emphasis on the fact that My Tribe on ABC Pool is a great place in which contributers may “get themselves seen” by ABC representatives and fellow filmmakers. The post will also address the fact that selected works may be showcased in a variety of other venues, such as at Federation Square, and that ABC Pool is a great platform to upload work as it won’t be lost in a sea of skating videos.
My contribution to the tutorial specific task, the facebook page, will involve a similar approach to the SMP task outlined above. In order to enhance the facebook group, I hope to connect it with Australian filmmaking facebook groups. These groups often contain hundreds of creative people with a multitude of skillsets, and the walls of these group pages list upcoming film shoots, competitions and other similar opportunities. By posting about My Tribe in these facebook groups, we may create awareness online in a targeted manner, focusing on groups of people that are openly interested in creating media works.

3.

I feel that my self-assessment in this course should be focused primarily on my reflective practice, and the way in which convergent/social media interacts with conventional film/tv/video production. This may sound like something out of Media Industries, but I honestly feel that such reflections will be most relevant to me and what I want to end up doing. Of course, this does not mean that I plan to drop everything else and write blog posts for a semester, but being a social media producer is not my end aim — the benefit I can get out of acting as an SMP, I feel, lies in reflecting on the process and tying it back to conventional production in old-world industries. I also want to focus my self-assessment on my performance in the group production, in terms of the development of my collaboration skills and my technical production skills, as these areas are (and will be) extremely important to me.
So, to put all this into a set of more objective criteria:
1.) Reflective practice. — blog posts should be regular (~3 per week, depending on size), varied (some to do with SMP role, convergence theory, collaboration, production, overall thoughts on the course, etc) and deep (involves in-depth discussion, critique, multiple viewpoints, making inferences, extrapolations, etc.)
2.) Collaborative work. — Being a reliable group member (turning up on time, working to deadline, completing all delegated tasks). Effective communication (openly bringing up problems in order to solve them, rather than avoiding conflict at all costs). Staying positive (constructive, finding new ways to approach a difficult situation, etc)
3.) Technical skills. — Actively researching (compression codecs used on pool, what equipment/software will be most appropriate for this PP1 production, etc) Operating equipment competently (a thorough understanding of equipment is required prior to operation, including all potential pitfalls associated with using said equipment)
4.) SMP role (in my mind, this is a secondary criterion) — developing a clearly defined strategy for recruiting and fostering involvement. Putting this plan into action in an appropriate manner (considering the nature of the target audience in relation how to approach them, etc.)

I guess at the end of semester, I give each of these four criteria a score out of ten, based on the subcriteria I’ve listed.

4. The Timeline

March 17 (wk3): Draft SMP project outline due

April 10 (wk5B): My tribe project launches

May 26 (wk14): Final written report task due at some point this week

Look Up

Trying to better integrate parts of my online empire. I now have a page linking to my “Online Media Portfolio” on the Raws server. If you ‘look up’, you may find said new page. Is this at all beneficial? Probably not. But I was bored.

http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~s3201079/mediaportfolio/index.html

Don’t Panic

Good God. What have you done to the Slag Heap??

*monocle drops off*

I know, I know. It’s different. There weren’t many choices. I liked my old theme, but this one puts the link/categories in a more useful position, there on the right, and it also changes the font so everything’s a bit easier to read. The header image had to go, simply because the change in dimensions was too drastic. I may get into a habit of changing the header image on a regular basis, if I can be bothered.

But yes.. today marks a new stage in the development of the Slag Heap. I don’t like change, but here it is. (Also, I’ve overhauled my links and link categories. there are some really useful resources in there. enjoy.)

Cognitive Regurgitation

Enough.

No more visual language, no more of whatever other subjects I’m currently taking. This blog’s been too silent for too long. And what’s irritating is that my tv-mind has not been silent at all. I’ve been visualising scripts, shooting lennies, editing lennies, attending lectures, reading the dossier (i’ve now read through everything), working on extra productions, going to vca crewing nights, getting connections online, collaborating on my tv1 production… all of this has been going on, yet none of it is in this slagheap.

My problem is currently: where do I start?

This is why one should not stop blogging regularly. More and more ideas pile up, and the process of writing them down becomes increasingly daunting.

I’m not going to try and write a comprehensive blog post, encompassing all of the above. Instead I’ll talk briefly about the tv1 production.

We have many actors to sort through, lots for one part and not so many for the other. It’s possible that our script will have to change considerably depending on which actors we select. I am not against this.. I like this whole idea of ‘serendipity’ or whatever.

All of our paperwork is required before we undertake our shoot, and so far I’m not sure we have any papers that exist. I have storyboards, but they are inside my exercise book. the idea of working on sheets of plain white paper disturbs me greatly. I’m not sure what I will do in this regard. In some ways, I think it’s more important to know the script intimately, and have ideas for each shot all the way through.. rather than me redrawing old sketches onto new sheets of paper. Everything depends on when we are going to be shooting. If we’re not shooting for 2 weeks, then I’ll have the time to make some fairly concrete storyboards, whether or not our group can use them. This is fine. You’ve got to storyboard whether or not you use each shot.. I think of it as an exercise in being able to recall the script visually, step by step. We also have safety reports, call sheets, floorplans, location agreement, prop lists and gun-hiring to be done. I’m becoming more comfortable than I should be.

Auditions will commence this friday and then again on sunday. This should be an interesting experience, I look forward to it.

What was the point of this post?
Mainly it has helped me get my fingers moving. And my mundane thoughts have now been htmled.. which is good because it allows for reflection later. This is a disgustingly mundane post, but perhaps it demonstrates that when working in a production, you have to deal with a lot of disgustingly mundane things. It’s all part of the process.. setting down the groundwork so that the actual production works out decently.

I used to be more fun

Where are the pictures in this blog? And what about the incredible wit, cynicism and sarcasm? (yea.. incredible..) What has tv1 done to me?

This has become a mundane introspective blog.. very much like a diary that’s only vaguely relevant or interesting to the author. You’d have to work pretty hard to glean interesting pieces of information from my recent blogs.

Ever since finding out about the formal assessment criteria, and the four categories of blog post, the whole process of blogging seems more contrived. “Dear diary… etc”

Also there’s just too much work to sit here and make leisurely, interesting, picture-ful blogs. Which is a pity.. I enjoyed such blogs. I enjoyed the way The Slag Heap was something colourful and multifarious, with grand posts and sweeping ideas.

Now it’s more like an online shopping list. ‘Uhh.. theres too much work man and i dunno what to do and oh god. But we will get through, because i believe in myself and my team and i know we will get there. We need to do this, and this, and this.. and it will be hard, but i’ll have some weetbix and listen to Midnight Oil and we will get through it, gosh it’s so amazing.”

*shudder*

What have I become,
my sweetest friend…
Everyone I know, goes away, in the end.. (Trent Reznor wrote this song. NOT Johnny Cash. Jesus christ I hate it when people think it was Johnny Cash)

See that? That paragraph above? That’s spontaneity. That’s a line from a song that suddenly sprung to mind, and I decided to write it down. The above paragraph is what my blog has been lacking, as of late. It has no character… it’s faceless introspection.

‘But Josh, this is the purpose of your tv blog, you are to write down your most honest thoughts about the production process and reflect.’
No. Be quiet. That’s too mundane. It sounds strange perhaps, but giving my blogs character, giving my blogs images and sarcasm helps me to remember all the issues and problems that I discuss within that post. The pictures are visual cues, metaphors that in some way relate to what I am talking about. And in this way, I can scroll down through my blog, and at a glance, remember all the sorts of things that I’ve been thinking about over time.

It’s a good system. I want it to continue. I will try harder maybe.

metalearning

Know what I’ve forgotten?

I’m taking a constructed course. It’s a prescribed cocktail of activities and obligations designed to further my development as a media producer.

Yet I’ve never questioned the way it works, or suggested that maybe the cocktail should be different. I’ve just ‘run with it’, taken every premise and every requirement as a given… without thinking: “In what way is this course helping me?”

At times, you get lost in your work, the vastness of the process itself. But at the end of the day, we’re making a single film in tv1. 3-5 minutes of final content. Whether it stands up on its own or fails miserably is immaterial, for all that matters is that we have learned from the experience.
Obviously, we’re striving to make something great. We have to aim high in order to learn, to push ourselves. But I’m meaning that the reaching of this goal means little, in the end. Say we make an awesome film. So what? Are you going to be able to make another, and another, and another? What about films in different genres, or for online distribution rather than broadcast?..

Too many variables, too much scope.. our tv1 works are tiny in comparison. So here I want to look at the way in which TV1 has changed me as a content producer, changed the way I think.

I’ve found this course to be destabilising, in a sense (this is a good thing). Previously, I’d felt overly comfortable in making media content. I could work the audio mixers comfortably, I could use Final Cut comfortably… I could dismiss problems with WMT and Broadcast because they were too restrictive.. it wasn’t like ‘the real thing’.
And it seemed that as long as you had the knowledge, and were comfortable with working cameras, mixers, edit programs, etc, you could tackle any problem. hah..

No. TV1 ruins all that. It’s pretty real. And the role-based dynamic is much more pronounced this time round. It’s not just “you operate the camera”, “you operate the mixer”, “you direct everything”… the roles are more ambiguous than that. At every stage of this production, there’s the question: “Am I overstepping the mark?“. Or conversely, “Am I adequately fulfilling my roles in this production?”. I don’t think there’s a clearly defined answer.. There’s no formal rule book about how it all works. Which, again, is why TV1 is destabilising. It makes you realise that absolutely every production is different, with different dynamics and requirements and daunting problems.

You may have known how to ‘be the sound guy’ in a large production where the creative-brains told you what to do. But in this situation, there are so many blanks, so many creative problems to be solved. You are forced to become a ‘creative-brain’, while also dealing with all practical/technical problems simultaneously.

This seems a valuable distinction — Creative problems, as opposed to technical problems. You may be an expert in technically operating a camera, but what will you do with this skill? There are no absolutes or certainties in relation to creative problems.. it’s not like fixing a mixer.

In TV1, so much is unknown, undefined and ambiguous. We’re making “drama”.. how do you make good drama? We’re adopting roles that are new to us. Where do the boundaries fall between one role and another..? Again, no clear rules. It’s unsettling to think that no matter how much street-cred you have in any particular role, you still cannot be wholly prepared for the particular requirements of the next project. In one your role may be wholly mechanical, in another there may be so many blank spaces, grey areas and creative risks that every decision is dangerous… it’s like you’re filling in a sudoku.

It all sounds rather obvious and cliche.. it’s like what grizzled veterans would say to annoying media-novices. But to really know this… its’ different to just acknowledging it and moving on.
So, for now, this is what tv1 has given me. Obviously there’s the more mundane technical accustomisation. But what really stands out is the disillusioning.. the fact that there is no constancy, no safety, no comfort in creativity. It keeps you on your toes.. which is unpleasant, but undeniably positive.

Spread the Virus

Tiny thing I’ve discovered as of today:

http://condron.us/

This is a strange site that randomly loads up a new blog for you to read every 6 seconds (ish). Obviously, you’re not meant to read each one in such a ridiculously short timespan, but whenever you see one load that catches your eye, you hit the ‘pause’ button and view it at your leisure.

It’s quite interesting to cycle through the heap of random blogs without ever pausing because you come to get a sense of what blogs will be about / what they are like based solely on appearance. (and considering I am such a judgmental person, this is great news.. more practice)

The other feature of this site is that you can submit the url of your own blog and suddenly you become part of this collective cycle. Your views go up rather quickly, even though I’m sure that the vast majority of “views” last for just 6 seconds. But in any case, it is interesting. And I am starting to develop an eye for film-related blogs.. there are quite a lot of them, from what I’ve seen so far.

Anyway, submit your blog into the virtual washing machine, roll the dice, judge everything, get a taste for what’s out there.. yea. It’s surprising what you find.

Shocking Development

Yes, that’s right — mildly shocking.. in a very mild sort of way. I’ve sold the soul of this blog to RMIT, and it is now my official TV1 blog. It is a scary new development, but I think that it is for the best. So now along with film analyses and musings about production, there will be some amount of reflection that directly refers to my uni course. I will be complaining about working with restraints… coming up with specific ideas and complain about how flawed they are.

In short, it will all be great.

Organism

I really need a mindmap. I’ve a makeshift one before me, and though there are many bits and pieces to cover and otherwise regurgitate online, my problem is how to organise said bits. It should be easy enough to throw them in here, but I am afraid of making sub-par entries for each one… afraid of not doing justice to each idea. Which is utterly ridiculous since everything may be edited. The human mind is rather crap. sortve.