theOven

Part of our assessment of my Media Project 3 subject is that I have to hand in 8 blogs, 2 on my individual project, 2 on my collaborative project 2 on my modules and 2 on topics related to media production. And as always I struggle to get inspiration for the last blog. I know that I would find a perfect topic to write about tomorrow, when I’m riding my bike to footy and my real worry should be kicking a couple of goals against Canterbury so we can get the first win of the season. But it will be too late then.

I have all my blogs except the last one, that is suppose to be on one of my modules this semester. Now I have to admit that this semester has been all about producing work, and I haven’t attended as many lectures, seminars, modules etc as I should. And at the moment I can’t even remember all of the modules that we had. I remember our last module that was on publicity, but I have already done an entry on that, so that’s no good. I do however recall a module on some DVD authoring software, Pro-tools…I don’t think I attended, but I wish I had now.

I just don’t like attending classes where we have to sit and learn software. Watching someone else use a program, will never be as good as trying it for your self. I actually like to go on the Internet and find tutorials (there are so many) and learn it by using it. I always do it with when I want to learn new things on some of my favourite software (that doesn’t sound like a nerd at all…). Especially Photoshop and Flash has a lot out there available on the Internet. Sitting in a classroom and watching was how I started to learn, but isn’t for me anymore. I like to run my own modules, learn from trying, and that’s maybe one of the most valuable things that University has taught me.

Hmmm, I wonder if this will count as a log on modules…?!

I starting to understand more and more how important networking is. My latest example was a research paper that one of our lecturers made us do. The research was to be done by interviewing and talking to industry people in the area that suited the selected topic. For the record I hate calling people I don’t know and asking for favours. I know that I would be annoyed if anyone did that to me, therefore I’m not comfortable doing to others.

Despite that I didn’t want to do it. I gave it a go. The first contact I got was through my lecturer, so you can say that was through networking. He was a TV producer and a friend of my lecturer, so that was my interview number one. Then I made some phone calls to newspapers to get a hold of a sports reporter, I called The Age, The Herald Sun and The Australian. It was easy getting pass the reception, but then it got harder. The reporters were not there, and did not reply to messages or emails. No I do understand why they didn’t and if it was me, I would have done the same, this might make me a less likable person, but if I’m busy, I’m busy.

Then I run in to a friend that I knew had worked for Soccer Australia and Soccer Victoria, so I asked if she could help me out, and direct me to someone that I could talk to. She gave me the number to her friend that is a news reporter in WA, and suddenly I had my interview number two. Again it was through a network of friends. To my disappointment I discovered that this wasn’t enough to support my theories. I needed another subject.

So the hunt continued… I called the same newspapers, no reply. Then I called Netball Australia, which was annoyed just because I called (now I don’t think that was an ok behaviour, because even if I’m busy I will be polite to people I speak to, as long as they’re not trying to sell me something). It looked like my research paper was a disaster, so I had to use my last option. I contacted a client that I had done some work for before, and that I have established a really good relationship with, and asked if they could help me. They were more than happy to, and it saved my paper, and I have to say I’m pretty pleased with it.

So my little adventure just shows that networking is important, and that people that you know or have help previously are more willing to help you than strangers. I have to say that I don’t feel comfortable with asking friends or clients for favours, because I always feel that favours has to be repaid. It’s like a mortgage; it has to be paid back over time. And I do not like owing anything to someone, not money, not time and not favours. But I guess that the reason that you do a little extra for your friends is because that are always repaying you in some way.

I have finished putting together the Master of Media Production showcase for 2006, and I have to say that it is a diverse group that is showing their projects on Monday June 19. It isn’t any secret that the master’s of media this year is a mixed group with different cultural backgrounds, which is reflected in the wide range of topics, format and visuals desicions in this years projects. As we are expecting a full house and 170 people in the cinema, so it should be a good night full of intersting and engaging media productions. Hopefully everyone that will attend are able to join us at Transport bar after, to have a chat and to celebrate with the graduates.

Venue: ACMI (Federation square), Cinema 1
Date: Monday June 19
Time: 7.00 pm

For a production to be a commercial success, a strong marketing campaign paramount. Huge amount of money and time is put into making a film or television production a success. Just have a look at the new Tom hanks film, The DaVinci Code, which it is impossible to ignore, even if you haven’t read the book, or want to see it at the cinemas. It is everywhere, on billboards, on television and in the newspapers.

This kind of attention, doesn’t just come by itself. It is a prosses, including a whole crew of people working to draw attention to the movie. The same goes for television shows. Normally all television networks will have people working only on getting their program space in the newspaper, radio and other media. I recently had a couple of lectures with one of these persons, one from the ABC.

What supprised me was how little this person knew about design. It is clear that she knew what should be in a Press kit, which is what they call the dokument that they send out to media outlets to promote a production. It should include profile shots of actors, action shots, graphics etc. The marketing department at the ABC gets all this and have to put it together into a press kit. This is where the supprise comes in;

With all these professional material these people get, the sit down and write a press kit in microsoft WORD. And then they copy and past pictures… Now for a profeesional company like the ABC they should have a marketing department that know something about graphic design and software like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign or Quark Xpress. It nice to have a good catch frase and a good synopsis, but if it is in word I would think that it would loose some of its appeal as it looks very unprofessional. When you put so much money into a production and marketing, putting a nice design would make a difference and it wouldn’t cost much.

I know that the aim is to get information out there, but word is not a software that should be used on professional printed work. I just wonder if they all do the same or if 7, 9 and 10 does it differently, anyone know?

This semester I have done two projects where I had to receive footage from others, and I found this to be a pain. I have received everything from VHS to BETA Digital, and that is very time consuming to deal with many different formats. The thumb rule when passing on footage to someone to edit, is to keep it digital.

VHS is a format of the past, because when you transfer from analogue to digital and visa versa, you loose quality. When transferring from digital to digital, you can still lose quality, but much less.

Since footage has to go through a few processes before it has been finalised, it is important that the loss in quality is kept to a minimum in every transactions.

It is possible to do mistakes when dealing with digital formats as well. Remember that if people ask for a DVD, don’t burn one with menus, buttons and extra features. Burn a DVD with a data file that has non-or minimal compression. DVDs with menus and all that has to be ripped, or dubbed, and those processes include loss in quality. Regarding the file format on the data file, it all depends on which editing software the editor is using. QuickTime’s .mov files and Microsoft’s .avi files will work on most systems. However they do have different codex, so as a rule use .mov if the editor is using a Mac or Final Cut and .avi if the editor is on a PC and using Avid.

However the safest option is to give a digital tape, like miniDV, DVCAM, DVCPRO or BETA. It is smart to ask before you deliver you footage to prevent problems later. Which digital tape is best depends on how advanced the person’s system is. When I received my BETA digital, it was too advanced for all the systems that RMIT could provide, and I had to send it back, and got a DVD with a data file back. However BETA Digital is the best quality you can get in digital tape.

Have a look at this link for explainations to what each format stands for.

Australia’s television market is at the moment dominated by 3 free to air, commercial channels; 7 Network, Channel 9 and 10 network. There are five free to air stations in Australia in addion to the 3 commercial networks, there are ABC and SBS which are goverment founded. 7, 9 and 10 are big on sports and biggest on American productions. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) broadcast mostly Australian produced programming, but also have some American shows like the West Wing. SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) is for the huge population of immigrats. SBS sends programming from all over the world and some self produced Australian programming.

Almost all television networks in australia are connected by ownership to other media like newspapers, magazines and radio stations. Broadcasting Services Act 1992, administered by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, was constructed to control the media ownership in Australia, but it hasn’t been able to stop the high concentartion of ownership that excist in Australian media.

I’ll try explain; Most of the media in Australia is own by two comapnies, News Corporation and John Fairfax Holdings. Together with West Australian Newspapers and the Harris Group, News Corp and Fairfax has created Australian Associated Press (AAP). AAP is the biggest distributer of news in Australia and sells news to outlets such as the ABC, which is some of the few media outlets that isn’t a part of this ownership. Additional to this, Fairfax ownsRural Press Limited which dominates the rural and reginoal areas in Australia.

Such a high concentration of ownership has it’s consequenses. Reporters Without Borders is members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a worldwide network of non-governmental organisations that monitors free expression violations and figths to defend journalists, writers and others who are persecuted for using their right to freedom of expression. In 2004 they ranked Australia number 41 in the world in a survey that ranked countries by their free press. Reporters Without Borders ranked Australia low because the situation of the media ownership. New Zealand, which it is natural to compare with Australia, was ranked number 9. Would Australia really need a show like Media Watch if this wasn’t an issue?

I love sport and think it’s one of the most enjoyable, social and health benefitial things that you can do with your spare time. I love playing and watching sport both live and on television. I hope in the future be able to work within the media industry and hopefully get into sport television. Australians are very similar to Norwegian in regards to their sports, it is a big part of the culture and we take enourmous pride in the fact that we are doing very well in our sports internationally. We also have very good sports coverage on television, even more so than Australia. Australia on the other hand has much more sport related show, e.g panel shows like the Footy Show, Before the Game and so on.

I just recently been researching the connections between media and sport in Australia. What I have discovered is that Australian sports media is pretty conservative, as they are in my home country of Norway. Sport in both countries is tradition and tradition is a conservative state. I think it’s interesting that Australian television Guru, Kerry Packer, was one of the main persons behind changing the game of cricket and in the 70’s, with introducion One Day International games for television. It just shows that media can make a big impact if they decide that they want to. However today it’s not uncommon to see sports changing to attract television, and not television changing sport. Television changed cricket in the 70’s, but now cricket is changing again to suit television. The introduction of 20/20 games a clearly a attempt to attract more media, and therefore get more sponsors and more money.

If there is anything sport need more than ever, it’s money. Media attention creates money more than anything else, it attracts audience and it attracts sponsors. But what what and who decides who gets the media’s attention? That’s there where Australia and Norway is different. In Australia it’s all about traditions, because that’s what people wants and follows. In Norway it’s soccer, as in the rest of europe, and other than that it’s which ever sport that is hipppest, newest and happening. And if the national teams does it well internationally, it doesn’t hurt either. Therefore clubs in Norway has clear guidelines from there federations to put on a show to attract audience, and media. It doesn’t matter if it is soccer, handball, cross country skiing, volleyball, basketball, curling or ice hockey, there are rules for venue, music and halftime entertainment.

In Australia, it feels more like it is the media that puts on the show, and they are good at it. This makes it easier for the sport and harder for the television networks to broadcast a new sport. When it comes to international succes, there are also some difference in with some of the popular sports. Two of the sports that gets most attention in Australia, Rugby League and Australian Football are both small on the international arena and therefore international success is not relevant, and the domestic league is the only thing that matters. There are no sports in Norway that has that luxury, everyone is always compared the rest of Europe and the world on both club level and national level.

I also feel that women’s sport is getting much more attention in Norwegian media than it does in Australian media. Netball is about the only female sport that get much of attention beside swimming. However I think there’s very few males in this country that know the name of the best netball team in Australia or knows all the players on the national team. In Norway the rules for female sport is the same as male sport, if you do well internationally and can provide entertainment in you domestic league you get the attention. Several female sports gets lot of attention on the biggest National networks, and some even get more than their male collegues.

I think that we are heading towards an era where the connection and relationship that media and sport has to eachother will change, not only in Australia and Norway, but all over the world. More television channels with didgital tv and cable, and better streaming possibilities online, will give much more space for content in media and that includes more sport. Sport will therefore be more accessable and the popularity of sport will be less predictable. Maybe we will see a new sport emerge?

I have found myself in numerous debates about story telling lately. However the debate keep going round and round and never ends, the fact is that good story telling is a subject of objectivity. Not everyone can like and feel the same for the same story, and not everyone favourite color is blue. One of the topic frequently driving the debates that I have had, has been the Australian Film industry, and what is wrong with it.

I say that they have to stop looking towards Hollywood and stop comparing themselves to the biggest and most profitable film industry in the world. Australia is a relative small country, however it’s more than big enough to be a profitalbe market for domestic films. Other claims that it’s about storytelling, or the lack of good storytelling in Australia. I think that films like Crackerjack and The Castle shows that there’s a huge market for films made specific for the Australian market. These film will never make it big internationally, because nobody will understand the humor if they haven’t lived in Australia, which is the genious of them. If you look at the lack of good story telling, Australia has probably more than any other small industry scale countries, made films that have had a good story and which has made it onto the international film market; Wolf Creek, Muriel’s wedding, Pricilla Queen of the desert, Mad Max and Strictly Ballroom. However if you keep compering yourself to the American industry you will never be good enough. In my optinion there is not much wrong with Australian film industry, the fact that Australia is an english speaking doesn’t mean that all the Australian films have to be made for the international market or be successful. My biggest question is that if everyone know what’s wrong with the AFI why aren’t anyone fixing it?

If you look at Hollywood and Bollywood I can’t say I’m specially impressed by their storytelling. There are only a handful films out of America every year that tells a good story. One of the next film coming out of Hollywood is Snakes on a Plane, which supprise, supprise is about snakes on a plane!! When did that become good story telling, it’s that a story that has to be told? Some might say yes and go and watch it at the cinemas, i will not. The point is that the US can get away with thin stories because of the high production values, and the fact that drives both Hollywood and Bollywood is that people don’t always want to be told a story, they want entertainment and an escape from reality for a couple of hours.

I keep hearing that if I want to be successful in the media industry, I have to have a story that I want to tell, and that I have to be pastionate about my storytelling. I can without shame say that I don’t have a story to tell, and don’t feel that I need one either. The fact that I’m pasionate about what I can achieve in the industry and help others to tell their story or to entertain people is what going to make be bloody good at what I want to do. I don’t think that everybody can or should tell a story. I think there’s more to the industry than the producers and directors, and people in other roles can also be successful.

I just went to Digital Pictures with a group of other media students to see what a post production company has of equipment and work enviroment. Even if the equipment and facilities were awesome, I was most impressed by the passion the employers had for their work. How I see it, it doesn’t matter if they “only” did a toothpast commercials or a feature film, they have found satisfaction in their skills, the people they worked with and for. I still believe and will hopefully always believe, that you have to enjoy what you do to be good at it.