Final reflections

As the final post-production meeting wraps up, it's hard not to look back on what has been a fruitful and productive content producer assignment. Not only were we given the freedom to decide our project, we were given the chance to show our skills through different media platforms.

With our assignment asking us 'to develop and produce a conceptually and technically sophisticated creative media production project exploring the theme of 'my tribe', with reference to convergence culture theory', the group of me, Stevie Day and Michelle Wong brainstormed on the media platform that we wanted to showcase our project on. We discovered that each of us was skilled in a certain area: Stevie was good with the camera, Michelle knew how to operate audio well and I liked photography. We then decided to combine the 3 together into some sort of a 'tri-media' platform that would fully utilize all 3 of these.

The next issue was agreeing on a 'tribe' that was unique. This was an extremely tough decision to make as we listed down a whole lot of tribes that were all equally appealing. In the end, we decided to focus on the tribe of car enthusiasts/street racers. The main reason was because of how topic had an 'illegal' and 'dangerous' and 'exciting' feel to it; something that people would love to see without hesitation. Furthermore, street racing cars was a hot topic that was much discussed on online forums.

Now was the hard part: finding willing participants to be part of the project.

Stevie initially had contacts, but we were to find out that these contacts were not the ones we were looking for. We were behind schedule. However, we managed to get things back on track when Stevie successfully got people from an online car forum to participate in our project.

Production day came. As we kind of expected, some people pulled out at the last minute but we still managed to get 2 participants through Stevie's contacts. Despite facing a setback halfway through filming, we had still managed to get a good range of camera shots and photos and audio recorded interviews. At the end of the production, we felt that we had enough quality work to produce our showpiece.

Post production was split between the 3 of us. Stevie would capture and edit the video, Michelle was to refine the audio recordings and I was to beautify the photos that I shot. We also set up a tumblr website to host everything that we had done. Over the final few weeks of the semester, we re-edited and re-tuned to the best of our ability.

Our final product: http://pp1.tumblr.com

Reflecting on the project as a whole, there were definitely some positives and negatives.

The positives: The group was efficient and co-operative throughout the project, helping out one another and making sure that everything we did was of substantial work. We contributed evenly and we attended every meeting. Production day went really well with no major hiccups and technical faults.

The negatives: Perharps we should been have more pro-active and not procrastinated much and leave things to the last minute. We should have started contacting participants the moment we decided on the 'tribe' that we wanted to focus on. Instead, we nearly gave ourselves a huge scare and were fortunate to escape with it. We could and should have pushed each other a little bit more to keep things on track.

What I can take from this project: I can take this project as a way of looking back on how my photography skills can be improved. There were certain shots that I had wanted to achieve during the production shoot but I was unable to attain it.

But the most important lesson I can take away from this is the 'tribe' that we focused on. Initially, I had thought that these people lived their lives dangerously and aimlessly, spending huge amounts of money on a car that would inevitably wear and tear. But I was glad that I was proven wrong. I learnt from their passion that everyone is different. To truely accept people is to see from their point of view and understand they live in and come from. Through this 'my tribe' theme of the project, I have come to learn that all tribes are unique and special in their own way.


If I were to grade the project, I would give it a D.

this week's reflection

so meeting with kyla went something like this:

1) she digs our camera visuals and shots. she tells us that they have potential to create a really good documentary.

2) she says to do up a 'related to topic' archive to give our tumblr website more substance and 'feel'.


overall, we still feel that we're able to pull something off, despite the heaps and the pressure of final assignments all over our courses. We're meeting on monday again to see where we can piece my photos and Michelle's audio interviews together. Stevie has got all the shots down and probably dedicating the weekend to complete the camera shots.

Still feeling confident about the final product. alas, wont be here to view it on the big screen in week 14.

little update

so some minor updates:

1) Stevie and Josh took alot of camera shots and got to say, they had some nice angles on tape and we could really use alot of them.

2) Michelle now has to assess her audio and see whether the recordings are clear enough to listen. She'll probably pass them to Stevie on Monday.

3) We're planning to edit some time next week to get this project out of the way. We're heavily loaded with some of the other coursework.. finishing this will lighten our burden haha.

4) From what I've seen, I have a good feeling that the video will turn out good. Some of the audio content is littered with solid interview from some of the car enthusiasts. We could combine them with some of the still shots that Stevie and Josh captured. As for my photos, I have pretty decent shots of the cars. I'll have to see how to fit the photos into the video..

till then!

production!

After a night of rain, mayhem and wet shoes, we finally got the production done and dusted! (well almost.. say like 90%? Stevie feels that there's some shots left to shoot)

We met first in school, discussing interview questions to ask the car enthusiasts. 2 of the agreed participants pulled out at the last minute, but luckily Stevie's friend had called another friend to come along with his ride. Josh was there to help us with the camera work. The weather was very nice to us, despite an onset of rain clouds blowing towards the Docklands, our location for the shoot.

We reached Docklands at 430pm, half an hour ahead of the agreed meeting time. Stevie and Josh set up the cameras, Michelle tested the mic while I went around looking at the angles to take good photos.

here are some pre-shoot photos while waiting for our participants to arrive..











(click on the photos to enlarge!)

the participants arrive on the dot at 6.. we had skyliners, an evo 8 and a civic showing up. All of them classic street racing cars and the excitement could be felt. Michelle wasted no time interviewing the drivers, Stevie and Josh got down to their camera work while I went around snapping shots of the cars.

We had them driving them down the dirt road for some nice camera angle shots at one point. The first take went really well and Stevie wanted to take another shot for safety reasons. But then was when 2 security guards showing up out of nowhere and they stopped us. Everyone was stunned because no one saw them coming! They had just appeared *snap* just like that!

'Is that clown gonna drive by again?! This is bloody private property!' They said they had called the cops, but we were pretty sure that they were empty threats and just wanted us to leave. Just as we were exiting the Docklands, the rain started pouring. We re-grouped at St Kilda's but the rain was still unforgiving. Most of the drivers had to leave for other appointments.. so Stevie had them drive down another empty road while he filmed them driving by.

We went to another empty car park and got down a few more shots before we wrapped it up. The interviews with the drivers went really well, they had alot of material to say (i think we probably clocked close to 20-25 mins worth of interview). When I got back home, some of the shots turned out great (i shot 100plus shots, but according to the rule of photography, 0 or 1 shots out of 100 photos will be good) but still need a little tweaking here and there.

I guess as a group, we're satisfied with what we got and all that's left is EDITING EDITING EDITING.. I've done editing in the past and I've pulled my hair out even when producing a simple 3 min promo video for church back home. Yet again, I'm confident that we'll be able to produce a flashy 6 min video that everyone will look in awe and say 'great job!'

production this week!

finally, we're set to film this week! Stevie has managed to get some of the car enthusiasts down for interview and film this Friday night at the Docklands. We'll meet roughly at 5pm and should end off the night at 9pm.

here's an overview on what will happen that day (quoting from Stevie's email to everyone):

'...We will all meet in the late afternoon at our meeting point which is in the docklands, then after everyone has arrived and we have all had a chance to meet, have a chat admire your cars etc we will go on a drive through a few locations, about 5 in total, we have scouted in the city for stopping at points for filming.

Our crew consists of two cameras filming everything, two sound recordists who will be periodically chatting and interviewing people, and one or two people taking still photos.

What we are hoping to do is have our crew jump around between our two cars and your cars to get a variety of footage and see the night from many different angles. Once we have driven the short drive we have planned depending on peoples time and plans we are open to continuing for a cruise to wherever you all think would be nice, i'm fairly sure you will know melbourne's roads better than us so we are open to anything.'

I've got my Canon 400D on standby and Stevie will be helping me get an external flash as we will be shooting in low light.

It promises to be hectic but I'm sure the end result will be beyond our expectations. Fingers crossed nothing 'epic' happens and all will go smoothly!

a massive update

its been quite a while since this whole assignment started. so lets do a huge recap on what has transpired so far:

Stevie, Michelle and I decided to focus on the zest and groove of street-racing with the application of a trimedia concept. It involved combining the artistic concepts of videography, photography and radio. With this combination and the 'illegal-sense' of the topic itself very much appealing and attractive, we are looking to cast street-racing in a positive 'cool' light.

How it'll go: Photographs from different angles and radio vox pox/sound-bits will tie in together alongside the filming. We plan to film from different angles as well e.g shots from inside the car, a pan shot as the cars drive by, interviews with the car enthusiasts, shot of the skyline with road in the foreground. We have plenty but a clear picture of what we want to achieve.

Pitch day came and went. Stevie pitched our idea in front of ABC representatives. Although they asked a few questions, they were relatively agreeable with the idea. The 'illegal feel', to quote, was the main appealing feature and they can't wait to see how it will turn out.

With approval granted, we set out to divide our tasks. Stevie had the contacts and he would go to get some people to be interviewed and have their cars filmed. Although his task was the most important among us, it would not succeed if not for supporting 'roles'. Michelle would create a tumblr site for our project to be uploaded and viewed, whiel I would have to do some research on street-racing online and compile it up into an archive to be put up on the tumblr site too.

At first, it didn't look like it was going well. Stevie had minimal contacts and most of them were not keen to be on camera. As a last act of desperation, he posted on several forums, hoping to get favourable replies.

The result was beyond his and our expectations. Almost 40 people replied and most were willing to be on the project. After our consultations today, we sat down and shortlisted the people to be filmed. We selected around 6 (of which includes a chick!), all with different car models. We then settled to do a night shoot and it will probably take place next friday, saturday or sunday night.

The only thing left now is crossing of fingers. We hope that no one will back out as it is nearly the end of the semester and any setbacks now will... I don't dare to imagine.

Here's hoping for the best, that the shoot will go well, that everything will go according to plan, that no one will do a last minute back out.. it may be exhausting but i'm definitely positive that the end result will be well worth the effort.

the plan

For our content producer assignment, us as a group (myself, Stevie Day and Michelle Wong) are to produce a sophisticated media platform using the 'convergence media theory' as a guiding tool for this project.

We decided on a trimedia approach - using the concept of merging photography, film and radio to produce a piece of media for POOL. The only problem was to sourcing out a community or a 'tribe'. Rather than the usuals like photographers, item collectors, food lovers, film-makers, radio DJs, bands, we wanted to do something different. It boiled down between 2 'tribes' - buskers or street racers.

After much discussion, we decided on street racing. We felt that the illegal feeling of the topic made it even more exciting. It proved to be a hit with the other groups in the tutorial and it was encouraging to hear that they were supportive of it. Hopefully it will prove to be the same when we pitch it on Monday in lecture.

Here's to a fruitful production!