WIni's blog Week3

28th October 2010

Toady Toula have taught us how to use the camera, I think the functions that she taught are more advanced than the previous semester. As I have an experience of using the camera before, I think this lesson helps me to increase the understanding of how to control the camera. Although I am might not be the cinematographer in our project, I think I have the responsibility to contribute more in our project. We should not limit ourselves in our titles, instead we should learn as much as we can and help our group to accomplish our final project. I believe we can do a wonderful video under the cooperations with all our group members.

Also, I have getting prepared for the first assignment, a webdoc review. We need to watch an online documentary named 'Journey to the End of Coal'. It is an inspiring and touching documentary and has reflected the reality of the mining industry in China. The producer has raised the awareness of the basic human rights of the miners in China, since they are suffering from poverty, diseases, poor working and living condition, etc. I think this documentary is really worth-watching.
Beside the theme of this online documentary, I also appreciate the design of the online documentary as it has emphasized on the interaction with the viewers. The viewers could choose the pathways to experience the lives of the coal miners in China. I think this is a very good method to increase the interests of the viewers about the issue.
This webdoc inspired me to stress on the point of interacting with the audience, I think it is important to let the audience to involve in the activity and increase their curiosity, and gain their resonance at the same time. i think stress on the point of social interaction will lead to a success of a campaign.

Yan's Week Three

Week 3 28^th October 2010

In week three, we have started working on the first assessment of Comm416 which was to write a critical review of an interactive web documentary “Journey to the End of Coal”. By developing the visual style of the documentary, the idea of this project has extremely contributed on the flawless quality of the video and photographs which clearly shows the nature of the subject matter. Without a doubt, the first assessment is a useful stage for us to create our style of video in terms of promoting our health campaign.

After deciding our target audience for our campaign, we have discussed the way of video shooting and also the genre of the video. As we go through our information research, we have looked at numerous video examples in different ways such as documentary and advertisement. We eventually decided to make our video as a television advertisement. As we all know, the effect of television commercial upon the viewing public has been so successful and so pervasive. Therefore, we are sure that it is a good choice to make our video as a television advertisement to deliver a complete message of our campaign to audience and the public.

Wini's blog Week2

21st October 2010

Today we have discussed the ideas of our video shooting project.

At first I was thinking maybe we can make a documentary, and the format will be a bit similar to the movie 'Super Size Me'. We can record down the changes of two people before and after they have done exercise regularly. However, after few discussions and we have think twice, this kind of documentary is very time-comsuming and costly, so we have concluded that it is not possible to make.

Also, we have discussed about the content of the video, and we have decided that we would make a video which is about our campaign. We decided we can make a video to promote our campaign and the format will be similar to television commercial.
We also believe that by using split scenes is a creative way to present our campaign, there are so much potential in this idea. We also need to think about the flow and content of the video and present it in our next meeting.

Yan's Week Two

Week 2 21^st October 2010

After more profound research, we finalized the topic of our campaign to be on health exercise, which is to promote daily exercises. It aims to improve public awareness about the risks associated with obesity in Australia, and at the same time highlights the benefit of regular exercise to prevent obesity. Therefore, the finalization of our topic can effectively facilitate our group to create the idea of our major project.

During our group meeting, we have discussed about the genre and content of our video and at the same time also worked on the research for getting more inspiration. By creating a video to promote our campaign, a good idea is an important step for our campaign to influence people in terms of encouraging them to increase daily physical activity for staying healthy and fit. On the hand, it is also a beneficial way for all of us to cooperate in a group with a creative idea.

Furthermore, as we practiced the video camera during the class, divided into two different groups, it was useful for us to revise what we have learned from last semester and also obtain experience and skills through the video shooting process.

Yan's Week One

Week 1-14^th October 2010

The first week of Comm416 is to organize group members and define their roles and responsibilities. It is good that most of our members were in the same group from the previous semester for a major project. Thus I personally think we will have a good teamwork and take our responsibilities as their roles to complete the major project through the whole process.

In more detail, we started to brainstorm some potential topic ideas for our campaign such as memory method and hire women etc. However, these ideas were quite complicated and it was unclear for the group to identify a specific angle for the campaign. Although they seem like a new topic, we still have to consider further conceptual development for our project.

As we discussed our subject outline in the class, the second and third assignments will be the most important parts of our assignments. The project blog is one of the approaches from the second assignment. Therefore, it is a crucial step for us to discuss the development of the concepts and visual/aural style of the project, and at the same time express our own thinking as a diary form through regular entries to the project blog.

Yan's Week Five

By presenting the idea of the major project in the class, it is a good opportunity for us to share our different opinions and receive useful feedback from classmates and teacher. As I mentioned before, the idea of our video will be a television advertisement. Our video will use four of our target audience as the main actors which include student, teacher, office worker and housewife. Moreover, the way of using split screen will be also included in the video which shows these four actors representing their different lifestyles in relation to our campaign. “In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen’s frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye.” We believed that the idea of split screen will creatively develop the style of our video and at the same time capture viewers attention.

Additionally, our campaign will promote our idea by using social networking such as Twitter and Facebook in delivering our message to the users. They can also share their experience and convey the message of doing regular exercise through these new media platform.

Yan's Week Four

In week four, we have organized the role of our group members for our major project. Once again, I think group work means unity. Every member of the group should have responsibility in participating and contributing their tasks. On the other hand, the role of each member can effectively increase the power of cooperation in terms of making a successful project.

As we have decided, the crew role of our group members will include:

Director-Yoko

Yoko will be the director in the project. Her role as a director, she is responsible for overseeing the creative aspects of the film which includes controlling the content and flow of the film’s plot and directing the performances of actors. Thus, director is a key role in making a good film.

Production Manager-Yan

I will be the production manager in the major project. “The production manager supervises the physical aspects of the production (not the creative aspects) including personnel, technology, budget, and scheduling”. I am responsible for overseeing the whole process of filmmaking and organizing all tasks that we need for the short film such as application of the permission forms and planning our shooting schedule.

Camera operator-Tee

Tee plays the role of a camera operator in our group project. He is responsible for physically operating the camera at the direction of the film director to capture the scenes on film and also maintaining composition throughout a given scene. Additionally, it is important for the camera operator to select appropriate photographic lenses to portray dramatic scenes.

Sound recorder-Angela

Angela will be the sound recorder in our group project. She is responsible for overseeing every element of the audio used in the filmmaking such as make sure the speech is clean and loud enough for the audience to hear.

Editor-Winnie

Winnie is the editor in the major project. There is no doubt that the editor is one of the most important roles in filmmaking. According to Falkenberg (1967), “film editing is the process of selecting shots, arranging and modifying them in order to clarify and refine their form and content”. Hence, she is responsible for assembling the various shots into a coherent film by working with the director.