Self Assessment Task

Actions & Reflections

What I lacked to do for the Media Showcase, I did for TNS.

I did not expect to be inviting guests, but I did, and that was a good thing. It was something that came rather unexpectedly, from a conversation I was having with Simon Morris, one of my interviewees for my networking report.

Surprises do come when you least expect them!

I did what I could for TNS, things like writing the press release, trying to talk to people to see where we could put posters, getting contacts in Melb Uni, helping (or at least trying to) help divide the team to cover various buildings to distribute it, going around distributing it, getting Simon Morris, crashing lectures, and so on.

In all honesty I actually wanted to ask Liz Coonan of Haystac to be a guest speaker but when I tried to talk to the Scheduling team, they weren’t very helpful but it was a good thing because she responded nearly two to three weeks late… ack. Oh well!

I haven’t done much for the Media Showcase, realistically, except to invite guests and to throw up ideas for publicity. Nothing much was done, really, save for that one day where Rachel rallied for the publicity team to get together to send out invites and so on so forth. I wasn’t able to make it that day though because I had a Fashion submission.

What I’ve Learnt…

I have learnt that it takes really strong teamwork and motivated people to organise an event. Perhaps having a smaller but stronger team would have been useful, because the publicity group was really too huge such that discussion wasn’t really that great. For example, I was out of the loop of the emails that Gen, Lehia, Phoebe etc sent out to the rest… That really ticked me off, because it happened more than once (although I didn’t record it down) but -shrugs- its inevitable.

The importance of networking could not be emphasised more… it really is about who you know. And who you know may just know someone who knows someone… its amazing what just knowing one person can do. I’ve heard of stories among the cohort of someone who knows someone who… haha, it goes on.

I think the emphasis on networking and on teamwork all point to one thing – how we relate to people, our relationships with people. Managing these relationships and working well with people is extremely important.

I’ve learnt heaps from TNS, but one thing I am most grateful for is how everything has opened my eyes to a new world… especially, I believe, the showcase. Seeing everyone’s projects and just seeing how different people work has been really cool.

Have learnt a lot from observation, but also by doing… it requires courage to step up to invite someone to an event that you aren’t sure of is quite scary, but I’m glad I did it..

Relationships are vital, I’ve discovered, as an Accounts Executive, irregardless of what kinda company I will be an AE in. I guess this is why I’ve focused so much on relationships and people, because it is through the people and the relationships that you have with them that you really get the work and job done.

For example, my production project… that was founded on a relationship. So yes, I do suppose, this whole year has served to reiterate my belief that relationships are the foundation for good work.

Result

In light of all this, I would give myself a Credit (65%), because I pulled my weight for TNS, but not for the showcase.

Last Day

Today’s the last day of uni. THE last day.

I can’t believe how quick it is that everything has happened.. amazing.

Am a tad worried, though, because I still have to do my career portfolio, and then there’s the showcase. Not much is being said about the publicity though… frown.

Wonder what’s going on?

I need to work on my fashion first, before anything else… that 100% thing is due in a few days, and I am in serious trouble.

Garhhhhhhh!

After class a few of us went out for lunch… that was quite nice (: heh. good way to end what was a fruitful year!

Ideas

We’ve started to talk about what we could do regarding publicity for the showcase… I think it would be great if we could put up posters at stores, or like, in the unis or something. It is rather typical, I know, but it would be nice.

There’s always snail mail and email… I think snail mail-ing the posters would be great. I tried to throw up a few ideas previously when discussing what we could do, but nobody seemed keen on it, so maybe I should just let it slide?

-wrinkles nose-

Did a bit for the previous event – went to lectures to tell people about the event, put up posters, blah blah whatever have you… probably won’t be doing as much for this event. Would still like to help though… publicity’s fun. (:

PP Snapshot 4

So we’ve come to the end of the semester, and nope, we’re not completed.

I feel like I haven’t done as well as I should have had as producer because we’re off schedule, but then again, that’s why I set such tight deadlines previously, to make leeway for lapses and for us falling behind schedule. Wrong thinking, perhaps? I don’t know, but well, its a lesson in itself I suppose.

In doing the writing for the website, I have come to realise how much I know about George and Lola, but yet do not know enough about them. It is such an irony! I could tell people that oh, Lola is a beautiful soul who has accomplished much, and still bothers to take care of herself by doing her hair and blah blah blah, and that George is such a generous person who extends such warmth and love to people all around and could tell stories of that but when it comes to the stories of their lives and what they have done the past few decades or so… that… well…

I discovered that George went to Cambridge the same time as Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.. and that, to people in my nation, would be a big thing. I mean, who goes to Cambridge at the same time as the senior minister of my country?

The wealth of knowledge that George and Lola possess, the life lessons that they teach me… that’s something just so beautiful that I want to be able to share it with viewers of the website.

We get a lot of George and Lola in the documentary, how do I do something that’s extra?

After the “evaluation” on Tuesday, Dani actually suggested that we do vignettes.

I started to ponder it and then I realised that yes, she was right. We ought to do vignettes, to tell little stories that would give insights into the wonderful people that George and Lola are, instead of just writing paragraphs after paragraphs of what they have done and trying to show who they are.

Sometimes its not in what, but how… like the way they have extended such graciousness to me… that just speaks volumes.

I struggled to encapsulate that in words, but I realise now that in speaking of what they have done, people would see it. So yeah.

I fell sick once last month and that made going down difficult, because I didn’t want to pass anything to them, and now I’m sick and.. its made things difficult, but its made me appreciate going down even more.

The website template is more or less done up, its now to do the content. I’ve been working on it but I keep feeling like its not exactly what I want so I re-write… time to really get down to it and decide how I really want it to flow… the girls are leaving the text up to me because this is my section and this is where I’m supposedly best at… Oh Lord help me.

Perhaps I should be a bit of a perfectionist, but not too much.

One thing I took away from my secondary role as 2AD in Ryan’s shoot is that although you plan things, you really have to be flexible, and that as you see things, you be creative and do things along the way.

I think now, that’s what I need to do with my writing as well. I thought I had it all worked out, but now its not working out… Perhaps there is another way to make my text work in the new style that I envision… its a matter of seeing how I can do so.

The doco is doing well, on Lyd and Jenny’s end. Jenny did a smashing job editing! We struggled with the flow, but managed to get it worked out. Lyd and Jenny really are brilliant.

We screened it infront of our friends and people mainly had positive thing to say, which was really encouraging. George and Lola themselves were pretty chuffed with it, if I may say so, so I think we did pretty good.

Props to Lyd for her direction, Jenny for edit and Lynn for envisioning the beautiful shots that we now see on screen.

And I guess, props to me for having discovered this beautiful place with two of the world’s best people in it.

Now its to do justice to them with my text… grrr. Sometimes it really feels like words are insufficient, but oh well…. we’ll see.

Time to re-evaluate my text for the webbie…

TNS

Today was the big day; Media Industries day. I was feeling sick, so I got up a bit late… groan. Not a very good way to kickstart the day, but I decided to go all out anyway.

Before going by to Trades Hall I stopped by Mrs Field’s to buy a huge box of cookies as a thank you gift to Simon Morris. Was a bit nervous because I am hoping to build a professional relationship with him, hopefully to get an internship in his company over summer.

I wasn’t too pleased when it started to drizzle… was quite afraid of a torrential downpour. Thankfully Simon managed to reach Trades Hall before it got too out of hand…

Introduced him to the lecturers, and spoke to him for quite a bit before he went up on stage. The session was shorter than the rest, think it was prob because it was the end of the day, and then later when I thanked him, he said it was a great opportunity and thanked me instead.

It really caught me off guard because I never saw it that way, but he’s cool. (:

Managed to get friends to come down, and had a friend who threw at Simon a few questions after the session officially ended, and so that was good too.

Am just glad it all worked out.

Made Fit thanks to TNS

So today was the day where we’re putting up posters all around.

I emailed the Melbourne Uni contacts that we managed to get, and they’ve helped to email student lists already. Yay.

Today Ash, Jenny and I walked to Melb Uni. Its round 2 for Ash and I because we did that the previous week… deja vu, hey.

But this time we walked because we wanted to see where along the way we could put posters. Managed to put one at Dinkums.. wanted to do Arrow on Swanston and College House but the people weren’t around to give us permission to do so. Dang.

Anyway we ended up trawling around the Melbourne Uni grounds for a good two and a half hours putting up posters EVERYWHERE.

God help us, it was INSANE. We literally plastered things all over the place, it was mad. And it didn’t help that the campus was so huge…

-shakes head- walked up, walked around, walked out. I think I’ve become fitter all thanks to putting up posters.

And haha, if we’re going along those lines, then I’m made fit too because I needed to stretch to put up some of the posters too. Hahaha.

Crashing lectures on Monday with Ash and Jenny. Ashley is cool (: glad I’m doing it with her.

I didn’t get Gen’s email, and was rather ticked off to know that I missed it… feels like I’m not in the loop! I honestly have no clue what’s going on sometimes even though I wanna pitch in.

Anyhoo, it was good that I spoke to Gen so I got a heads-up on what’s going on, and so I managed to tell her which days I would rather do lectures.

So everything’s worked out all fine, and the thing is next Friday.

Whoa, time passes fast. I hope we get a good turnout this Friday.

Kinda nervous about it because if the turnout is bad, it is going to reflect extremely terribly on me when it comes to talking to Simon. I am supremely nervous.

Better pray hard that the turnout will be good…

PP Snapshot 3

Well well… snapshot 3.

We’ve really focused on building relations with George and Lola… and I think its paying off. We’ve grown to a new level of relationship, one in which they trust us. At least I think so.

I think they were worried that we came in only because we wanted to film them, but our consistency in going down to look for them is paying off. We haven’t gone down literally every week, sometimes its just Lyd or whoever else, but we’ve been trying.

George’s birthday was a monumental occasion, and I think that really got us onto another level. We also did something for Lola, although belated because we knew not when her birthday was. Think they were touched by it, because its not just flattery, but we sincerly wanted to do something to appreciate them. (:

In terms of the production… OMG I am a bit scared, because we have NOT BEGUN EDITING. We are still in the midst of transcribing all the tapes… God be with us. I am panicking, but Jenny is confident of being able to do a rough cut by end next week or early into the hols. The transcribing will make it so much easier for her, so I think it should be okay.

And in terms of the website… Deti’s gonna help us do a logo as well, and she’s begun work on the design. We’ve given her links of websites that we like, and specifically told her which aspects and such so that she has a better idea of what we want.

I need to mail her all the text that I want the website to have, and gotta have a look at the tapes with Lynn to see what we want to put on the website.

Its gonna be interesting.

So far, its all been good… we’ve gone behind schedule and its worried me, but I have faith that we can make up for lost time.

In terms of the website, its all good, so its cool. Deti’s pretty good, so I’m sure we’ll be okay.

Now its just to make sure that we are going on the right track and keep on going….

… and in doing all that we do, to never lose sight of what we envisioned for the project….

… and in all our busy-ness and haste, to not forget to go down to Russells for a chat and pie. It can be hard, because George and Lola love to talk and spend time with us, but sometimes its just not easy especially when we are tight for time.

Yet I know that the essence of everything boils down to them and the relationship that we have with them, so that’s something I’ll have to deal with, I suppose.

I was seated there in the cafe earlier on talking to Lola, when she suddenly said something that really grabbed my attention.

“Its September already, do you realise? The year is about to come to an end!”

I looked at her in shock, realising that she was right. Time really has passed so fast, and the year is about to come to an end.

I started to reflect on my whole journey into Russells – how I stumbled upon it with Adrick last year, how I wandered into Russells for pie after Abbas told me about it in tute one day, how I started to go down to talk to them, to really build a relationship with them instead of just wanting to film them…

… from being a shophouse on the street, Russells has, really, got a piece of my heart and has changed my Melbourne experience.

I don’t know what else to say for snapshot 3 except that in all that we’ve done, I’m just really glad to have met George and Lola, and to be able to make a difference in their lives. Or at least I think so.

Y’know, I know that they have made a difference in mine, and its for the better. This project is something that I will always be grateful for.

Learn to appreciate people and things, take time to invest in them and build relationships and it’ll be beautiful. Go slowly and smell the roses, set aside time just to sit down, pause and reflect. Speak to older people, for the wisdom they give will aid you. And never judge, but always love.

(: I’m glad this project has taken two semesters to develop. its beautiful (or at least it better be). George wants to view the rough cuts, and I am nervous.

But yet, let me keep the faith. 3 months on and we’re doing pretty well.. we’ll keep on trucking on and believing for the best.

We’re piecing the documentary creatively… we shot without a flow in mind, and now we’re putting the pieces together. We came up with this during the dinner meeting, and it was good.

-smiles- we all worked together, and George keeps telling us that we must continue to stay together as a group. I couldn’t agree more. (:

I am looking forward to working on the website with Deti, and putting together videos with Lynn, and pictures with Lyd.

Can’t wait for George and Lola to see the webbie, I think they’ll love it. Or at least I hope they will.

Working on the website is definitely going to force me to put into practice creative writing.. my writing better be of standard esp because George and Lola are thespians who are particular about writing!

Excited.

But more than that, contented.

Its been good so far. Could be better, but I’m glad that things are the way they are.

Speaker for TNS!

Simon Morris, one of my interviewees for my Personal Networking Report, has agreed to be the guest for our third panel for The Next Step. Yay! (:

I’m really glad I could contribute in this way. Simon’s a really nice guy, and he’s got a lot of experience when it comes to branding. I don’t know if that’s really going to help in our talk because its all media, but well, branding also encompasses media too, so yeah.

-smiles- its all good! Yayyy.

Must buy him a personal thankyou gift, and do a nice card for him as well.

I can’t believe even as client director of Oxygene he actually has time to come down to speak at such last minute notice.

Way cool man!

George’s Birthday

So George’s birthday was yesterday.

Lyd and I ran around the city like mad trying to find a fountain pen once she hit on the brainwave of getting him a pen. I specifically wanted us to get a fountain, though, because I use it, I love it, its gorgeous, its a timeless classic and he’s a playwright so he ought to appreciate it.

We had to run to get the cakes too (I’d already decided where to go to buy ‘em so we could zoom there quick)… it was mad. My legs were aching… think it was because I wasn’t on my most comfy heels. Hahah.

So anyway, the day before I’d come up with the design for George’s birthday card, something with a quote infront, and then like a menu on the inside with pages that were stuck to the card and like, a gold ribbon to hold it together.

The quote on the front was about greatness… and I think that encompasses who George is as a person. He’s really awesome, and I love him to bits. He was thrilled to see the card, cake and present… heh.

I love the girls, and I love George, and Lola too. It was a completely new experience for us all, I think, to be there with them, specifically to spend time with them on George’s birthday.

Did a lot of cleaning up there because I felt that it was his birthday so he ought not to have to do it, and I think Lola really appreciated my efforts. Am just happy that I could make a difference, even if it be in a small way.

The girls and I laughed over the fact that we were spending more money on George and Lola’s birthday rather than on the project itself, but its all for good.

We’ve decided to bring them out one day for a meal after everything’s all done.

(:

I can’t wait for the end of the year. I want my parents to be able to meet them. (:

And Finally…

Things with the Publicity team for Media Industries has been, well… tough, to say the least, because my team, the fund-raising team… we aren’t doing any fund-raising, so what is there for us to do?

I’ve decided to join Gen and Lehia in crashing lectures… then again, I think after today, everyone’ll be doing so.. we’ll split up the workload because there’s so many lectures to go to, and obviously we’ll have classes and some’ll clash… so yeah.

Anyway today’s meeting in lecture was pretty productive… we made a list of things to do, and to really do ‘em.

So we moved to building 24, where I quickly drafted up a press release on the comp. It was good considering that I’ve not touched PR in a bit, and I’m glad it was received well by people.

Ash helped to type it out for Facebook while Gen did MySpace.. think Phoebe’s been handling the whole Facebook thing and spamming different groups and all.

Ash and I are in charge of contacting people in Melbourne Uni, so after we finished up at Bldg 24 we walked (yes, walked) over to Melbourne Uni, and started going around the uni with the aim of

a) finding contact people to help us email to student lists etc
b) finding places to put up posters
c) getting approval for the posters

We spent more than an hour walking around the campus locating the various faculties’ key admin personnel, and finding out where we can put the posters.

Managed to get two key contacts – one for the cultural and communication faculty (oversees almost everything related to comms and arts), and the others is the creative media faculty. A third that we got was for the cinema studies department, I think it is.

We pinpointed locations in which we could pin up the posters, and managed to get approval from them. Yay! (:

OMG!

We still haven’t started editing, which is a concern… we’re kinda behind schedule.

David spoke to Jenny and Lyd, and told them to transcribe EVERY SINGLE TAPE. OMG.

Do you know how many hours that is?! TEN HOURS MINIMUM!

We have to log down what they say, what they do, blah blah blah… Oh my word, I am freaking out. This is insanity.

Yes, I know, it will help us in terms of editing, it’ll make things quicker.

But like… TEN HOURS WORTH?! And that’s a nice general estimate, because it could probably be more.

Oh my word, I am freaking out.

And George’s birthday is coming. We STILL haven’t decided what to buy for him!

And I have absolutely no inspiration whatsoever for his birthday card design.

Drats.

Not looking good, not at all… Groan.

The Dinner Meeting

So I called the girls and asked if we could have a dinner meeting to sit down and discuss how we want the project to flow and so on…

Watched the footage earlier in the day with Jenny, and it seems pretty good. Love the lighting in some of the shots, it really adds to the vintage feel of the whole place.

I think it was good that we had a dinner meeting because not only does it help to build up our relationship with one another, but it makes it more casual. Plus, good food definitely helps to get our brains thinking!

It was a great idea because once we got down to it, the ideas really started to flow and it was so cool to see how we were putting it together. It was brilliant, and I really enjoyed my time with the girls.

The food could have been better, but that’s not the point. It was all good.

Time to really buckle down and get on schedule… must also go to Russells!

George’s birthday coming up this Sunday. Mmmm… not sure what to get.

We bought Lola flowers for her birthday, I bought cupcakes and a muffin and did a card.

She loved it all, which was great… now to do something for George.

Meet Deti

Lyd and I met with Deti, a designer, to discuss how we want the website to be, what kinda content, what kinda look and feel, etc.

It was a relatively short meeting, about an hour or so, but it was pretty good because we managed to tie down quite a few details.

Deti seems like a pretty cool designer who knows roughly what kinda look and feel we want. Looked at her portfolio, and yeah, I think she’ll do a good job.

Will be working closely with her because as usual, I’m the one handling text and paperwork. Haha.

First things first though, gotta help fill out her client brief, to help her get a better understanding of what we want and need in this website.

(: All’s good!

Closure: Crew!

For my secondary role in PP2, I was 2nd A.D in Closure, which is Ryan, Delisa and Sisi’s project about an assasin.

I was quite interested in the project when Ryan first brought it up in my tute with Polly, and when the chance came up to crew for them, I readily agreed.

The cast and crew of Closure were great fun to work with. I absolutely enjoyed the experience of working with them all, and got to know people a whole lot better (: They were really professional, and I learnt so much on set, like shot composition, learning to REALLY look at detail, lighting…

… but the whole experience, to me, really highlighted the importance of relationships.

I’m a very relational person, but the experience on Closure, where they really went all out to take care of our welfare (we were seriously stuffed with food and I wouldn’t be surprised if I put on 3KG already) and to work professionally but yet be relational and have fun… that was just awesome.

My role in Closure also involved the AFTER-party, where I made chocolate fondue. Haha, this is what happens when you love chocolate too much – you get asked to do things like this.

We ended up having 2 rounds of fondue because people finished stuff really quickly, haha. It was incredible! I had heaps of fun though.

I’m glad we were asked to take up a secondary role. (:

Closure: Crew!

For my secondary role in PP2, I was 2nd A.D in Closure, which is Ryan, Delisa and Sisi’s project about an assasin.

I was quite interested in the project when Ryan first brought it up in my tute with Polly, and when the chance came up to crew for them, I readily agreed.

The cast and crew of Closure were great fun to work with. I absolutely enjoyed the experience of working with them all, and got to know people a whole lot better (: They were really professional, and I learnt so much on set, like shot composition, learning to REALLY look at detail, lighting…

… but the whole experience, to me, really highlighted the importance of relationships.

I’m a very relational person, but the experience on Closure, where they really went all out to take care of our welfare (we were seriously stuffed with food and I wouldn’t be surprised if I put on 3KG already) and to work professionally but yet be relational and have fun… that was just awesome.

My role in Closure also involved the AFTER-party, where I made chocolate fondue. Haha, this is what happens when you love chocolate too much – you get asked to do things like this.

We ended up having 2 rounds of fondue because people finished stuff really quickly, haha. It was incredible! I had heaps of fun though.

I’m glad we were asked to take up a secondary role. (:

MI2 Self Assessment Task

The major part of Media Industries requires us, as students, to be actively involved in doing things rather than just typing out reports and churning out essays.

 

“Things”, I should specify, is the organisation of both Media Industries Day (I think its called ‘The Next Step’) and the Production Project screening.

The Next Step (TNS), the cohort has decided, will be focused very much on helping students take their next step into the media industry. Personally, I am glad that we have decided on this because it is much more relevant to people, and will benefit them greatly. Yes, it is good to discuss issues within the media and so forth, but I believe that TNS would be far much more applicable, relevant and practical for students…

… and also, hopefully, result in a larger turnout precisely because it is far much more appropriate and relevant.

Out of the four teams that the cohort has been divided into for TNS – Production, Publicity, Design and Scheduling, I have decided to join the Publicity team.

I was previously involved in publicity and promotions for my school back in Singapore, and greatly loved it (although I was driven up the wall by the insane amount of work that we had to do), and decided that I’d like to do it once again.

The job scope of the publicity team involve generating publicity for the events, getting invites and posters done, the organization of an after party, and so on. Tentatively, it also includes the raising of funds for the after party and any miscellaneous costs.It is quite a lot of things to do, and so far, the team has been sub-divided into three groups: the printing group, the fundraiser group and the group that will contact people and generate publicity for the event.

I’ve joined the fundraiser group that includes Ashley, Zoe, Adella and Jenny. Although I only know Ash and Jenny, I’m hoping to get to know the other girls better so as to really be able to work with them well to pull this off.We are supposed to raise funds for both printing materials as well as for the after-party. Initially, our plan was to raise funds by having a sausage sizzle at first, but I think we’re going to scrap that after Geoff mentioned that we may run into problems with health authorities. That being said, I’m not sure what’s up next.

Our scope also includes the organisation of the after-party, and tentatively this looks to be at One Lygon, although yet to be confirmed. So I see my role in the Publicity team as one that involves working together with others to organise the after-party, and to think of creative ways to raise funds (preferably without incurring any costs).

As for the Production Project showcase, I have also joined the Publicity team. As the team has just been formed, I do not know the exact scope of my work. However, I am interested in generating publicity for the event by negotiating with sponsors, or by talking to different courses and universities, or trying to get posters and flyers placed in different places, for example, a retail store, and so on.

Snapshot 2

I read my snapshot 1, and sigh, my goals of learning how to compose shots etc have gone down the drain, seeing as I haven’t been there while the girls filmed.

Lyd said that space contraints were a problem as well, so -shrugs- I guess if I had gone down, it would’ve been rough anyway trying to squeeze three of us plus a camera when filming George, Lola or the other patrons.

However, watching the raw footage, I can see what’s been taken, and I’ve learnt quite a bit just by seeing what Lynn did. Its gotta be tough, running around with that camera all over, but somehow she’s done it, kudos to her.

I’m going to be quite involved in the website thingy, and we are planning to include videos on the website, so I guess that will sorta make up for it because we’ll definitely have to edit the footage to put on the website and so on? Hah.

One thing that I am pleased about, though, is how George and Lola come across on camera. They’re absolutely brilliant people, and for my girlfriend Serene to have seen the raw footage and already feel an affinity towards them, that’s awesome. That’s always been one of my goals, to have people develop an affinity towards them, and so… this is just beautiful.

My priority and goal has always been to make sure George and Lola can be “felt” both on-screen and on the website, and I think with regards to onscreen, it should be fine. As for the website, though, that’s less of a worry seeing how the raw footage went down, but I think it has become more of a priority than ever before.

It really matters to me because this isn’t just a production, but its about a friendship/relationship that we have with them.

I think the girls have grown to love them, and we’d definitely want for people to come to love them and the li’l shophouse as we have.

I’ve come to love popping down to Russells to have a pie. Haven’t gone in a while, and its made me realise how I need to make going down to talk to them and fostering the relationship with them a priority.

I mean, I always knew and believed that, but now, more than ever before, I have come to realise the beauty of this friendship/relationship that we have with them… and its something that I want to sustain throughout this whole process, and beyond.

Another goal I had/have is to have everything run along on schedule. So far so good, everything is going well, and I am pleased! (: Its been good, so I hope it continues this way.

All that’s happened thus far has served to reinforce my belief that beautiful things come out of relationships. In relation to UV, I think it will be a beautiful production and website which has its roots in a friendship that began over hot chocolate and a pie.

Everyone talks about being professional, maintaining “professional” relationships and contacts… yeah, true, professionalism is needed… but the whole process of this production has served to show that sometimes, building relationships and getting to know people will serve better.

If we had treated George and Lola merely like subjects, I honestly doubt that they would have co-operated with us and allowed us to film them and so on. Or maybe they would have, but they wouldn’t have been as open or comfortable with us.

-shrugs-

Whatever it is, I’m not going to dwell on it.

I’m happy that things are the way they are now, and I’m more than glad to be able to have pie and a hot chocolate there.

(:

Right on course

The girls have been going down to Russells to film… I wanted to go both yesterday and today, but on both occasions I’ve class.

I feel really awful because I’ve not gone down in yonks… Lyd told me that they’ve been asking about me, and this makes me feel even worse. Groan. I must go down soon… am thinking of going with a gift, but I don’t want to make it seem like I’m trying to placate them with gifts.

Its just about love language, I suppose. Mine’s words and gifts, so I’m quite lavish in terms of words and gifts. I think theirs is time… must learn to give them more of my time instead. Its gonna be hard, though. Groan. This week is so tight, so much on hand!

The footage that they’ve got so far is brilliant… I just love the colours on screen. And Serene, my girlfriend who “gatecrashed” the consultation with Daniel, she says that she felt an affinity with them.

I was pleased as punch, because really, this is what I want out of the doco. And Rene was watching the raw footage, watching them just being themselves… so for her to say that, I’m really glad!

I guess editing will not be so much of a “make.them.look.nice” thing, but more of like, putting all the pieces together to produce this one documentary.

Yay, we’re doing well!

Pre-production

This week in the workshop we presented our ideas… or should I say, the girls did, seeing as I wasn’t there for most of it.

I think talking about it is a good thing, because then we get to air our thoughts, and get feedback as well.

Lyd is going down tomorrow (that’s Thursday) to shoot Chris, this regular who comes in only every second Thursday, or something like that, I have no clue. And then the rest of it will be done next week.

Looks like we’re trucking along right on schedule!

I don’t know what else I can do as producer, because really, we’re working on such a small scale that I don’t know how else I can help the girls prep for the shoot… Hmmmm.

Production Schedule up!

I’ve come up with a rough production schedule… its just something really brief and tentative as a guide for all of us to follow, with basic dates for the shoot, and other things pencilled in.

Its good, I suppose, because this will help to keep us on track.

I want to include the shot list and questions for each day and so on so that when we film, it’ll be much easier for us to know what’s going on… gotta wait for Lyd and Lynn to get back to me on that one.

That’s for the production…

As for the website, I think once filming is over, I’ll have to sit down with Lyd to discuss which parts we wanna include in the website, and then start planning the website. Lyd’s got a basic website structrue drawn up in her notebook, but I think beyond that, we need to start “manufacturing” the content that we want to put inside, and to organise all the info so that it becomes comprehensive for the reader/viewer.

The only question is, how do we make the website such that the viewers will be able to feel a connection between them and George & Lola, how will they be able to develop an affinity for the place?

It all boils down to how we do it, I suppose…

Need to Startttttt

We need to get started on filming the documentary!!

In the PP Funding Application, I tentatively scheduled it for August… Well, August is about to come. Groan. How fast time flies.

Lyd is thinking of filming the week of National Day. SO that would be… in two weeks? That’s pretty soon. I think if that’s the case, we’ll have to swing by to arrange something with George and Lola.

Have got to pencil in sessions to just drop by and see how they are too; I don’t just want to be going there for the sake of my project.

-nod-

Its all about a relationship!

Snapshot 1

I love the whole project, everything that Urban Vignettes stands for.

Maybe I’m biased because well, it was my idea to begin with, but its evolved to become the project of four girls.

It was originally supposed to be a documentary, but we’ve decided to extend the experience beyond the telly to the web, so that it becomes more interactive, more engaging.

While both are able to subsist on its own, it is the existence of the other that enriches the experience.

I guess it’ll be a challenge to create two completely independent products (read: doco and webbie) while yet making them sync together, if that makes sense, while also having some parts containing the same info without it seeming boring and repetitive.

That balancing act is just one of a few that we have lined up infront of us; we’ve also got to balance having the history of Melbourne, the shophouse, George & Lola, with the present and the future, we need to balance all three aspects (Melbourne, the shophouse and George & Lola), we need to balance between being voyueristic and interviewing them…

I guess this is where it’ll be a stretch of our creativity to be able to do all that.

Creativity was one of the themes that I’ve been dwelling on heavily since I first came to Melbourne last July, and I think with this production, I’ll probably not be doing that as much personally.

This will probably be more of a stretch for me in terms of paperwork and organisational skills – getting everyone and everything together, making sure things are on schedule, and so on. For someone so sanguine, this is a real challenge, but I think it’ll be great, and I’m looking forward to it.

And I guess in terms of the production and website… I’d want to stretch myself, to learn from Lynn about shot composition and all that jazz, and to learn about webbie and design things from Lyd.

Being a very text-based person (I love writing and can yatter on for yonks, as you probably already can tell), I think this project will offer me a chance to stretch myself visually, to learn how to do and be more creative in terms of visuals – the filming, the website, designing, shots (and shot composition), etc.

So. The key thing for me this semester is to extend myself in terms of thinking with regards to visuals, and for me to be organised. I think the latter is going to be the tougher of the two though, haha.

And as for the key thing with regards to the project… its all about trying to balance the different aspects nicely, and in a creative, beautiful manner.

Final Blog Assessment Post

I don’t know how to go about assessing myself because all my posts seem rather whimsical, nothing really delving into the crux of the whole research project.

So let’s begin, working through the categories that have been listed down in the assessment task sheet.

1. Role
There’s supposed to be 250 words minimum per section, but I really don’t know what to say regarding the roles that I have played. I guess doing design is one of them. Surprisingly, in the last part of this project I’ve been so design-oriented that it caught me off-guard, but it was good because Gen’s not too into design. I discussed this in one of my previous posts (this one here) and what I concluded was that I love design and writing, both not too strong but combined, they’re just nice, I suppose.

Because its just Gen and I, there aren’t really any roles that we have taken. We divided things, like say, her compiling the report, and me compiling the powerpoint, her focusing on the surveys, and me doing the interviews, but that was about it, really. I don’t know how she saw things but to me, it was just the two of us ploughing through everything together head-to-head.

I guess in saying as much, my role has been to do research, conduct interviews and analyse the results, and to do my part of the report, do the presentation and design the website.

It was an issue, it being just the two of us, because it meant that there was so much ground that we had to cover in so little time, and that we had to do everything ourselves… have been having many late nights the past week trying to get this done, been sleeping at 6am each day, but it has been all worthwhile. There wasn’t any other solution but to keep truckin’ on, to just bite the bullet and do the necessary work. Its all over, and its all good. (: We pulled our weight, we did our parts, and now we reap the joy of having a brilliant project to show off. Haha.

Role Grade Evaluation: HD

2. Progress & Strategies
This is supposed to be an evaluation of the progress of my research capability. After writing my self-assessment, I realised I combined the Progress and Strategies part, so this is why they are combined. Below is my self assessment:

I think my online researching capability has increased tons – I now know Factiva, ProQuest, SearchIt, Cross Search, eJournals… Haha. I’m proud of myself for using more than just Factiva!

I also developed a research method which I didn’t document here – I would search online through Google, my favourite though not necessarily the best… Google and Google Scholar were my choice picks. And then I’d look at articles and the like, and if I couldn’t read it just like that, I’d go and trawl through the databases that RMIT had to dig it up. And 90% of the time I’d be able to find it there, so it was really awesome.

I thought that OUR (Gen and I) research capability would increase with the use of delicious, a software application that allows you to share links, but that didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. Disappointed me, but it doesn’t really matter because we managed to get our work done. One of the things that it showed me, I suppose, is that sometimes the old method is probably the method that will stick - to meet and discuss!

I discovered as I was reflecting in one of my previous posts (have a look here) that I actually love doing first-hand research, talking to people and so on. It is a strength, wanting to talk to people, because you get to hear different opinions, you get to know what’s going on in the “real” world outside of school, you listen to what people really think and feel… its absolutely cool.

Getting to talk to people is good because it gets me off the computer and into the real world… it provides a nice balance, I think. Insufficient, but its a good start.

And as for my learning behaviours? When I was 14, I did a test which labelled me as a Kinesthetic, which is the type of people who learn best through erm, I think it was body language, or something literal.

In doing this project I realise that that’s how I really do learn best. From talking to people, from noticing things, from everday things like reading the newspapers and so on. It can be both a strength and a weakness, I suppose. Its good because I notice the li’l things, but not too good because I’ll veer off the academic research, like trawling through journals and so on.

And I realise that I love being able to connect with people. This project saw only Gen and I working on it, and it being us, it forced us to really work together. It was a blast getting to know her, and I think the whole process has shown me that I would probably work best in a small group, like a pair, or a group of 3. It allows me to communicate better, get to know people, and so it becomes less formal and more personal.

My progress in terms of researching ability… I think I’ve grown, and this whole project, researching something that I’m actually interested in, its been great, but I think more than anything else, its given me a greater awareness of how I research.

So therefore…

Progress Grade Evaluation: D

And as for strategies… I’ve employed quite a few, and I’m proud of what I’ve tried, and realising what didn’t work (like delicious) and sticking to that which did (meeting up), and for having learnt new things… its been good.

So therefore…

Strategies Grade Evaluation: HD

3. Problems
One of the greatest problems that I faced when coming into this project was the trepidation of the workload that Gen and I would have to bear.

It was a huge workload for sure, and there was a ton of things to do. Many late nights, and oh, how my dark circles have grown. There was no way, really, to resolve the whole issue of workload…

We knew what we were getting into when we first paired up. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to pull off the proj (my doubts aired in the post here), but Gen had confidence, so I agreed to do it.

It has been a problem at times, especially considering the nature of our topic – so broad, so much information, and only us two to trawl through it!

Yet in having said as much… it has been a good experience to work as a pair on such a massive project, and to have come out of it the way we did. I am pleased, and proud of us both.

We overcame the difficulty of resolving a topic… that was probably THE biggest problem that we had. It really bugged us, and it was something that we struggled with for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. Once we finally resolved it (see here for details), though, things started to become clearer, and we were able to start getting to work. It took time for us to find our momentum in doing work, and for us to be able to really work together in sync, but once we found our rythm, things went swell.

Working as a pair means that it becomes more personal. It can be a problem when two of us have different ways of doing things… like for example, the way we write, and even, the way we present. It was a problem, I supposed, but we somehow managed to meld together to accommodate each other’s style.

In terms of writing, Gen edited the work so that it wouldn’t sound too disjointed, and would sound like one voice. In my opinion, it turned out pretty good because the final report has kept both our individual styles of writing, while yet sounding comprehensive, and maintaining one tone. Perhaps I am biased, but that’s my opinion!

And in terms of presenting… we have different styles, but on the day itself, somehow thigns worked out for us. I’m more of a talker, just letting everything flow spontaneously (with a bit of structure, though, because we used powerpoint to present!) but Gen, she talks but she has a bit more structure to hers.

Gen’s style and mine would seemingly clash because she’s more literal, while I’m just the happy-go-lucky girl who speaks ad-libb, but it worked out somehow. I think rehearsing the presentation on Tuesday and Wednesday itself did us a whole lot of good.

Honestly I think this is the first presentation that I’ve rehearsed so much for, but it really paid off. It really touched me to have so many people, Geoff included, to compliment our presentation. Makes me feel like all the problem, stress and late nights (and now, dark circles too) was all worth the trouble.

Problem Grade Evaluation: D

4. Connections & Intersections
The topic for our research came about because it was something personal that mattered to me. I love writing (although I’m not that good at it) and the online media, and I wanted to do something like that.

Although I would probably not be a researcher in the future, it has been a blast working on this project.

The realisation that we came to at the end of this project – that it is not technology that defines privacy, but it is people themselves who do – that caught me by surprise because I really was of the belief that technology had changed the way people viewed privacy.

It was a surprise, but it was a pleasant one, because it served to teach me that you don’t really know something until you delve into it. Although this can mean endless delving into topics, and one can research for ages.. I remember Rebecca Hill telling me last year that she was working on her PhD thingy for a few years now, was it 7 or so? Somewhere around there. I guess we can never be certain, and we can get truly lost in a topic, but the research outcome has served to show me that I need to keep an open mind when going into a research project, to go in it unbiased.

The project has given me a greater awareness of how I am as a researcher, and it has also highlighted things about me as a person individually. Its shown me that I really do love talking to people, and it has showed me that I really do love design more than I thought I did.

What have I learnt problem-solving wise? One simple lesson, but a big one: to KEEP TRUCKIN’ ON.

To just keep trucking on and on and on… to just keep on going.

We didn’t really have a fixed topic till late, or should I say, we kept on switching… and then we had the tremendous workload, and then we were innundated with tons of research, and then we had to pull together a solid report, website and a presentation together… there was really nothing else to it but to just keep trucking on.

That’s the greatest lesson I’ll take away from this whole subject. Sometimes I do tend to give up easily, especially if they are things that I am not that interested in, but the outcome of this project (which brings a smile to my face) has shown me the results of persistence and trucking on.

We, Gen and I, were in this together from the beginning. We were complete strangers who didn’t know one another at all, not in the least bit. We’re quite different too, and I’m really pleased at how we worked together to pull this project off. The project has shown me that when I make the effort to connect and relate to people, that the results can be beautiful. (:

I’ve put my heart into this, and gone out to talk and to interview people, partially because I love connecting with people. I also bombarded friends with the surveys, and the response that I got was overwhelming. It really touched me because I had a personal goal of 100 or so, but we had more than 15o responses. It was amazing!

Through all that, in networking with people, asking for help and this and that, it somehow brought me closer to people. It gave me a reason to talk to them once again, and it made me realise how important it is to continually establish contact with people.

Someone once told me that you know how important you are to people when they treat you after they don’t need you. It is so true. I’ve come to realise that I need to learn to value the relationships that I have in my life more.

And when it comes to networking, it shouldn’t be so much of a “Hi, I’ve not spoken to you in 10 years, how have you been? I need a favour from you, could you help me?” but it should be something that’s more personal, and that would be done more out of friendship.

Its all about the personal touch, I realise.

When people matter to you, it makes networking a lot easier because it becomes more about the people than about the result.

And the project also made me realise that who you know matters a lot.

Like for me, my ex-housemate’s dad is a well-respected psychologist in Singapore.

Absolute coincidence that her dad is a psychologist and that I’d need to interview one for our project, but brilliant nonetheless. The power of networking seen! And the power of human relationships too. I’d established a friendship with her, so asking her for help was done out of friendship, and wasn’t one of those awkward things.

All that I’ve learnt and discovered about msyelf through this project, I think, will count greatly towards my future work experience because I intend to get a job that involves relating to people. I don’t intend to be holed up in some office cubicle somewhere from 9am to 5pm just staring at a computer screen entering data or doing work like that, but I intend to have a job that involves relating and commnicating with people…

I’ll probably land up somewhere in communications, maybe media communications or marketing communications. Maybe even advertising and promotion, which is what I did previously and what I do love doing as well.

All this will factor in, I suppose.

The research that we did… I don’t know how that itself will factor in to my future career! The fact that technology does not define privacy, but that people do…hmmm. I guess its showed me that I need to learn more about people, perhaps.

One thing that I’ve learnt from this project is that people will always be people. There may be different external ways of “manifesting” things, but the root is still the same. Take for example the thing of becoming famous, getting attention and so forth. Its always been there, but the Internet, as my interviewee Sebastian Wong said, just helped people to promote themselves to get the attention they so desire. It wasn’t about them becoming more open, really. It was about them being able to manifest what they wanted.

Another result of this project is that I’ve discovered the dangers of the internet and technology, and to be careful. I was one of those innocent beings who put up my profile on Friendster, and I didn’t realise the dangers that it possessed – that I could be impersonated. Gah, scary thought.

Its still up there though, haha. I kept details about myself to a bare minimum, and I think I’m going to keep it that way, especially seeing how Diana DeGarmo’s account got hacked into. That really scared me!

I’ve learnt quite a lot from this subject on a more personal level than on an academic level… but academic wise, it has been great to learn about how people think and feel about technology. In doing the research for this course I’ve learnt about learning, and developed new techniques for research, so its been cool.

Its been good.

Grade Evaluation: HD

***

OVERALL GRADE: D.

The Musings After The Presentation

The presentation went absolutely awesome. I think the compliments that came flowing our way did catch both of us off-guard even though we’d both been slaving like mad over it and had many late nights (for me) and early mornings (for Gen)… It was brilliant, and I am supremely proud of both of us!

For us two girls to have produced such a project… its awesome, and I am truly proud, really ever so proud.

What makes me proud is that we’ve come such a long way from the beginning, and that we managed to pull of a project with depth in it. Perhaps it wasn’t as in-depth as it could be, but its good enough for me, and I am glad. We covered things in a BIT of detail, and that was cool. And for us two to get 150 plus people to do surveys?! Its pretty good, I think! Am really proud!

But I think what makes me most proud of the work that we have done is that this is something that we actually like to do, and its something that we are proud of.

I realised that during the other presentations, people were just reading off the slides, and they were just presenting what they did because they had to. Us, on the other hand… I think we’re a bit different because we really are quite interested in this that we are researching – online media and communications is something that’s close to our hearts (at least to mine), and after having invested so much time, effort and energy… its become well, a proj with real involvement.

I think what adds to it is that there’s only us two, no more no less. Its up to us to pull our weight and do our part, and I think we really gave it our best shot. We really got involved in this… really involved. In part its probably because there’s just us two.

There’s not really that many roles that we can play, and even in distributing the work, its only between us as well. Not much dividing to do. We just work together as best as we can. And I think we worked pretty well together… To me, the presentation really topped it all off, and I am supremely glad indeed. Pleased as punch!

I’m really pleased also because after the presentation, one guy, I think his name’s Josh. I can’t remember. But anyway, he came up to me to ask me about the whole Diana DeGarmo thing. It showed that he actually listened and was interested… cool!

I met so many new people that day from the presentation, and at the drinks session at the Oxford afterwords, a lot of whom I’ve never seen before in my entire life. It was really awesome to meet the other people in the cohort. And getting compliments from them which I knew were ramrod-honest… that really was awesome.

I’d not slept much the previous few days, but gosh, it really feels like everything is worth it. EVERYTHING is so worth it.

Slaving over the presentation, the report, the… gosh. It was all worth it.

Ah, too bad I didn’t take a photo with Gen. We’d both worn black and white somehow, and that wasn’t even planned. Haha. Absolutely cute!

Had a blast working with Gen. Its been great fun. (: I had my doubts over how things would pan out, and was concerned about whether two of us could pull this off… but we did, I am proud, and now I really hope to do so so so so so so so well for this. Haha.

The Practice Run

So the practice run went pretty alright… we managed to get everything pulled together nicely for the practice run. I think we did okay, but when it comes down to the actual presentation we’re going to be in a bit of a tight spot because there’s just so much information, so much things that is essential to our research project that we need to present, but how we manage to summarise and slice and dice the information to squeeze it all within the alloted time will be a huge challenge.

I’m looking forward to this. It’s the culmination of a whole semester’s worth of work and research.

We’ll be doing a report, a webpage and a powerpoint presentation… that’s a whole lot of work, but I’m excited, partially because I love designing stuff and designing a report would be cool. I don’t want it to be a fuddy-duddy kinda report, but a nice, sleek looking report in which all our information is presented..

(: Hopefully I’ll be able to do that!

Gen’s a very literary person (well no surprise then that she’s doing the Lit and Philosophy major, haha), while I’m not as literary, but love dabbling in a bit of design.

I guess this whole she-writes-and-I-design thing we’ve got going on works out well for us. It ought to (:

I used to think that writing was my strength but as I grew older, I realise that its not as strong as I’d like it to be, and neither is my design. I dabble in a bit of both, and can merge the two together pretty alright. Would love to be stronger in either but I guess its not too bad being a “hybrid” person because at least I get a mix of both worlds yeah.

I kinda envy Lydia because her design skills are absolutely fabulous, and Gen’s style of writing is beautiful.. The grass is always greener on the other side, I suppose.

Okay. Time to shut up and get down to work!

Stressweek!

Have been absolutely bogged down with my Fashion work that when I tried to start work on Media Industries, it just didn’t click. I’m supposed to type out all my parts and email it to Gen by like, tonight or tomorrow. We really need to meet to discuss and finalise what we are going to present and how we’re going to do it… And also to double check that whatever that we’ve done won’t overlap.

There’s just SO much to do…. and so little time.

Post-Sydney Reflection

I went up to Sydney last week and had an absolute blast… too much of a blast, I think, because now I’ve got so much work to do for Media Industries!

There’s so much information gathered that it is kinda hard to sift through it.

Previously I thought that by using delicious, it would make compiling and sifting through all the research that Gen and I garnered much easier. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Plus, not everything that we’ve got is on delicious – I had quite a few academic journal articles and so on that I saved as pdf files, so that wasn’t up on delicious, and not to mention what Gen’s gotten, and there’s also stuff like magazine clippings, newspaper articles and so on.

One of the things about our topic is that it is so current and “now” that there’s quite a lot of information out there. Good because this means that its easy to find info, but bad because it means that we’ve gotta sift through everything to see what is and is not relevant.

So lets see. Hmm.

Things to do:

1. Sift through all the information
2. Interviews!! Analyse it and see how it tallies with the information
3. Start on the powerpoint slides – come up with a design!
4. And of course… Meet Gen to discuss.

When Things Go Wrong

I’ve been waiting on end for the reply from ex-housemate’s dad but nothing so far. Its really unnerving me because we’re coming so close to the deadline….

 … and I just found out that its because they’ve experienced a death in the family.

Ouch.

This really stinks because I had such high hopes of getting him for an interview. I still do hope he’ll answer my questions, but as things go, I’ll have to contact another psychologist, who hopefully will get back to me ASAP.

I hate it when things go wrong like these.

As far as research goes, I guess we’ve always to have a backup plan. My fault for not having pressed the panic button earlier, or for having gotten it done earlier. Oh well. What can you do but to make the best out of the situation?

I think this whole “saga” has just gone to show that not only is having a backup plan important, knowing all the right people is really key too. Networking.

Networking helps a lot when you want to conduct primary research… because if you know people, or people know people in places… its really good because you can get first-hand information off the ground, and information that may not necessarily be found in textbooks. You get the real deal, and see the picture from a person’s point of view.

I’ve realised in this project that while I’ve done a lot of second hand research, I actually prefer doing first-hand research like talking to people, interviewing and surveying them, and so on… its brilliant. (:

Guess I’m not the kind of academic researcher, but more a people-oriented, practical researcher.

Or maybe I just like talking to people a lot.

Well well… hopefully this love for talking will help me get out of this fix!

Survey Questions

I’d come up with a list of questions that we could possibly survey people with for the previous topic.

The new topic’s kinda similar, but because we’ve changed the research question and the focus, so the questions need a bit of reshaping.

Have drawn up a brief list of questions to ask the people that we survey, and so I’ve sent them over to Gen to take a look at because she’ll be the one handling the surveys.

One thing I realise, though, is that Australians use Myspace and Singaporeans (or SouthEast Asians in general, I thikn) use Friendster. So prolly it’ll have to be two seperate surveys for those.

Seeing as how things are so vastly networked, hopefully we can get a good sample size, perhaps 100 people? Its ambitious, but that’s what I personally hope that we would be able to achieve.

Interview Candidate!

My ex-housemate’s dad is a pretty recognised psychologist who’s been called to stand at trials to provide “ammunition” for the prosecution/defense to shoot the other party with. He’s really good when it comes to things like analysing people’s behaviour, thinking from their perspective, and he puts it across pretty well too.

I’ve emailed to ask if he would be able to grant the interview.

Think its not so much about whether he would or not but the time constraints.

I’d love to do a phone interview with him because, having been in England for so long, he’d definitely have a quip or two to enter into the conversation and that’d make for really good reading/listening on a topic as extensive as ours. But well, seeing as he flies around the globe so much, teaching, lecturing, going for conferences etc, I doubt that’d be possible.

Ah well. Here’s hoping he’d be free enough to at least do an e-interview.