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Yasmin gave us a significant module lecture. The pres kit is so important, which is like a short summery for a media project. There are tips of making it. It is better use the same title design with the project, which can keep an identity. The cover art design is the fist important thing, which relates to what the project is. It should create the feeling same as the project itself. And an attractive sentence for the tag line is really helpful. Reader can easily get the point. Yasmin helped us to create a tag line. It cannot be getting straight away. We did brain storm, everyone came out some points, and we wrote them down. Then we put them together and twist it, and gradually close to the point.

Furthermore, the short synopsis is not easy too. It is like use one sentence to describe the whole project. We can use some adjective but not too much, it should be easy simple. The long synopsis can provide more details. The character’s background is also help reader to understand the project. She showed us some press kit samples, which is really nice. I think if I have it I will not reject it. So the pres kit is the essential key to the broadcast gate.

Publicity is really important in media industry. We should know what kind of film we are going to public first. Then we will know who is going to be our target audience and where we are going to launch it. According to that we can focus on to pubic widely.

I have never known the photo is really important for the publicity. The company, I am working in, is publishing the whole series DVD. I am help the publicity and marketing staff. We did few advertisement and promotion at newspaper. Before we try to use different photos to attract audience’s attention. However, the professional publicity person point out always use the same photo. It can help audience familiar with it. Also the quality of the photo is really important, she always find a brilliant photographer to take the photos. The background of photo should be clean, which can help the main character outstanding. Also Never worry about getting too much photos, you will find they all useful.

Media production is teamwork, however, sometimes it is not easy to work together. Unless they realized that in order to achieve the goal they should work hard together, they cannot have a good result. I don’t know other groups how did they work together and split at last, they may have their reason, but it can approve how hard to work together.
This semester, the director and scriptwriter left the course. So we must have someone replace him to be a leader in our group. If I want to this project survive, I have no choice to be that one. All the staff came to me; I have to think how to make this project. Before we only have idea, I have never seen any script. At that moment, I seriously consider how to continue the project. For myself, I would like to do a personal story rather then artistic story. Thus I made an appointment with my interviewee, to figure out how to tell her story. Those things I can manage by myself, but for the production I must try to organize everything.
If everyone with enthusiasm contributes the project, it would be an easy job. However, everyone was busy, who always need give them a call to tell them what should we do. Luckily, they would like taking the responsibility. Otherwise, I don’t know what should I do. During the whole process, I felt really stressful, I need write a script, book the equipments, organize shoot schedule, go for shooting and interview. At last I need do the editing as well. Finally, I feel a bit enjoy that I can control all the situations. I found I would like to be a producer or director.

The film, Home Song Stories, directed by Tony was based on a real story of a Chinese woman who came from Hong Kong then migrated to Australia in the 70’s, has been filming since the end of April. Joan Chen is the main actress, who has been well known from few American movies.

As a media student I have never placed myself into a real filming position and receive the first hand information of how they worked and put together. Although I do not have an opportunity being a crew in this production, luckily I got a chance being an extra in the film.

The scenes which I have been engaged are about protagonist’s family going to cinema and watching movie. The location was at National Theatre in St. Kilda. So all the extras plays a role as audiences in the cinema. I am the one of audiences as well. I have been there for around ten hours as volunteer. Even though I was really exhausted at the end, I feel that to have such experience is worthful.

All the crews take their role seriously. At the beginning, art department people help more than 60 extras to find a suitable outfit. As we all need to look like people from the 70’s. Some one also received hand bags, earrings, necklace, glasses, and so on. They check out all the details during the shooting, like asking people to take off their watches, keep everyone’s cloth looks good. Director assistant told us about the story and what we should do. When everything has been prepared, all the technicians came to set up the equipments.

Before the actual shooting taking place, we all got props like popcorns, candies, empty cups, fake ice cream, some smokers also got herb cigarettes in their hands. The props are looks like 70’s products as well. Continuity person kept writing done the details. We need to take two scenes, the first one is waiting in the front foyer for the movie to start, and the later one is watching the movie with the protagonist’s family. For each scene we did as many takes as possible to satisfy the director’s recognition, takes like testing equipment, practising, unsatisfying shot, different angle shot… and the impression for me is being an actor is not an easy job at all! Sound person also need record the sound effect after the shooting. The crew all work so hard with so much passion to mark the point, measure the distance, and etc. I really appreciated their attitude.

The mobile telecommunications market has undergone a stream of rapid changes in recent years, including the progressive deregulation of the industry, the challenges of the digital revolution, the increases in new technologies and communications channels, and the race to rollout third generation (3G) technology.
New technologies are constantly causing an effect in the creative industries but none more apparent than mobile phone convergence. This is for the reason that like Hutchinson Whampoa, many believe that this new technology “will be as significant as the birth of television after a generation of radio”. This revelation is fitting to today’s situation as companies have been rapidly revamped, merged, acquired and have been forced to make real competitive decisions to capitalise on and stay afloat of the new technology.
In the past it was difficult to justify the vast new investments in 3G, as most service ideas were only theories and no evidence existed to validate the concepts. Today companies, for their own survival, have been impelled to get behind the technology with big budgets for research and development, advertising and sharing of tangible and intangible assets. Rifkin agrees with this when he says that the industries of telecommunications, media and information technology once divided by their differences have come together forming a single integrated communications grid as a kind of global nervous system enveloping the world today. According to the the industry is realising its new role as “more than just network providers- but service and content providers as well”. The redefining of roles as a result of this form of convergence has brought enterprises together in deep webs of, where they share activities and pursuits. Businesses are connecting with suppliers and customers to share intangible resources in the form of information and expertise, as well as physical resources, with the conviction that by pooling their strengths, each firm can better optimise its own objectives) imparts that mobile phone convergence has “affected companies far removed from the digital content industries, such as vending machines, rock concert ticketing, gaming and public transportation”. These industries are adapting mobile phone based solutions to save money, improve customer service and profit from this convergent technology.
The effects on the creative industries from this network approach have invaded every type of business and will be a key to success and profits. It is necessary then for the industry to of the opportunities and threats generated by the convergence of mobile phones, to be able to prepare to survive and win in the emerging new e

Melbourne Central City studios located at Docklands, just few minutes away from the city center. From the outside, it looks like merely a warehouse. I have passed there few times before, but never took notice of its existence.
It comprises five purpose-built, state-of-the-art soundstages ranging in size from 743 square metres to 2,323 square metres. Unfortunately stage was not occupied while we were there, we just visited one studio. The house comprehensive production support facilities, including make-up rooms, green rooms, star dressing rooms, and general purpose spaces. In side, film maker can set up any set that they need, even like sand and water. It is unbelievable. Before I don’t know a lot scene that looks like outside, but may be is an artificial set be built indoor.
Of course, hiring this smart production house is not cheap. They have always been used by the high budget film, like the American films; otherwise it is hardly to afford the expense. Even though they encourage Australian filmmakers come to do their productions, but the fact is there, those domestic filmmakers simply do not have enough money to cover that cost. Therefore, all the studios remain in the “empty” status, which is a kind of waste resource. During its low season, or the gap of two big productions, it may be wise for them to consider in providing a special rate for domestic filmmakers to buildup the Australian film industry.
They also plan to construct an office tower. This will house a variety of service companies including leading edge post-production, screening rooms, state-of-the-art IT facilities and a full complement of other technical and creative services required to give producers the highest production values. We are looking forward to see this multi-functional center, and hope it will become a popular place in the industry.

I do aware that the route to enter Media Industry is narrow, but what I did not knew is many people started this career at a low paid level and some of them even worked for free. Two staffs that works for Digital pictures both started at a tap operator, some of other new people begin their career at there as coffee makers. Although they are not sure how long it will take for a decent position in the industry, but they still kept their attitude and continue to do the sample job. I believe many people left the industry due to lack of passion and patience. If someone who do not have a strong determination and stamina, he cannot keep doing some kind of boring job for nothing. However, this kind of boring job seems hardly have any connection towards the professional job they dreamed of, which can get a chance to watch, to learn, and get familiar with the industry. When you have the opportunity to do the actual job, you will get much involved to it easier. Also you provide yourself a chance to show your own ability, your determination; they can believe you are the right person to handle the job, who really loves this career. So when they have a chance, they will let you try first.
I have a friend who has worked as internship at ABC for few months, without any paying. During that period, she learned a lot and let them knowing her capability. After the internship, whenever they have a space to fill will let her to do. Now she is casually working with some programs in ABC.
Working in a professional field is really valuable, but receiving accurate training, learning and studying at university still matters. One of our classmates asked “it does not make sense to have a degree, if all we have to start as a coffee maker”. The knowledge learned from University provides us with a further step to get into the industry, and help us improve faster in comparison with others who does not have equivalent background. In my experience, we would not truly understand the importance of the learning part until we encounters problems in work, when we start working we will realize that how the knowledge we have learned makes its own sense, its usefulness. Also we can practice into the professional job easily.
So this filed trip is really worth while to participate!

As Media industry is a very tricky field, knowing the basic the Media Law is obviously important.

I have a friend who once had a co-worker that helped her in making a documentary, thus he was inside all the footages. At that time they had a good working relationship, so they did not feel the need for a release form. However, they came to disagreements and without a release form the footages containing his images could not be used. This meant that many important footages could not be used with an amount of cutting.

In this case, the fault is that my friend did not follow the legal process of production. So she put herself in a hard situation. According the media law as long as my friend can prove that he was willing to do the job, she would be able to use the footages. Although she can use the footage, her job is still in a passive point. From this occurrence we can see that a release form is very important in a documentary and film. However unexpected things always happened, so you have to be prepared for everything in production. Thus, if the interviewees change their mind or if you have not signed any required paper work, you will not lose all your money and waste time. Other wise you could also ask them to pay for this. In other words, if you have a contract you will have the power to control any situation.

After this lesson, she realized the important of the release form. So she signed the release form before interview, when she made a documentary about prostitutes. During the postproduction, one of the interviewees changed her mind that she does not want to broadcast the documentary. She also asked a lawyer write a letter to my friend. At this time, she can totally control the situation. She calls a media lawyer who is a law consultant of Channel 10 to reply them. At last, this interviewee just kept quite.

If we need the law to protect us, we should know and use it properly into our production.

The first thing is to find a central character. This protagonist is the soul of the story, whose action can prolong the story’s tension and evoke the audience’s emotion. This character is the hero of the story; he or she may appear “un-heroic” at the beginning, so “the audience might struggle to empathize with him or her”. Then the protagonist must have a goal, and the process of achieving this goal is the whole story. However, to realize this goal must not be easy. As other characters may have the same aim or are against this aim. The central character has to overcome the problems in order for them to complete his or her mission. That is the conflict, which makes up the essential point for every story.

Although we have a protagonist and conflict, it does not necessarily mean we will have a good story. This is especially the case for documentaries. Sheila Curran Bernard has written, “The concept of telling a story for greatest emotional impact and audience participation is perhaps the most difficult.” We are always told to “show, don’t tell”, which means we present the evidence or information that allows audiences themselves to experience and come up with a conclusion, rather than being simply told. They should actively follow the story line, rather than passively accepted storyteller’s idea. To achieve this emotional impact, the filmmaker must instruct the story with the moment of conflict, climax and resolution and the moment of achievement, loss, and reversal into the internal rhythms of storytelling. Then audiences will naturally follow this tension, and become involved with the story. When audiences know the characters and understand their wants and needs, they tend to care about what happens to them next, then they become involved in the stories.

A good storyteller should be sensitive to the issues of daily life. As all the stories are created on the real life. As we all know, every person has many good stories to tell, but a sensitive heart is needed to find them and put these story on screen. Observing the things around you is a good way to find a story. I have a good example. I met a language teacher at the La Trobe University, who show me her Chinese daughter’s photo when she found out that I am also Chinese. I was very curious about her reasons for adopting a little Chinese girl when she already had a son. At that time, I just need to make a twenty minutes radio documentary, I felt this was a fantastic story. Little did I know, she had a really emotional story of the adoption process, and the love she gave to this child who did not have any blood relations to her was also very heart warming. If not for a little bit of luck and curiosity, their story would never have been told.

All the stories are from real life, however being a story should more than real life. To be a storyteller we need have some real life experiences, because only then can we can transform them into a story and do it justice. If we create a story which we do not know where the origins are from, it will not be a good story, because it may not be from real life experiences. So we need to use our eyes to observe, use our ears to listen, and use our heart to feel. Only then can we accumulate many real stories, and can easily tell them. As we can choose different elements from the real story to develop an interesting story to evoke audience’s emotion. For a documentary, the purpose is not only to tell the story well, but to also promote the audiences to consider a particular issue that they may not otherwise.

Media production is teamwork, however, sometimes it is not easy to work together. Unless they realized that in order to achieve the goal they should work hard together, they cannot have a good result. I don’t know other groups how did they work together and split at last, they may have their reason, but it can approve how hard to work together.

I joined the group in the second semester; just because I was interested the topic and I had got along with the some group member. After I involved into the group work, I realized that a lot of thing was wrong with this group. The scriptwriter had the idea first, did a heaps of research and paper work. I want to do some to help him, but I don’t know how to start and where should I start. There was without a leader to organize everything, so the others just waiting, the scriptwriter felt unfair. I felt so sad to be in this situation, and nearly gave up. However I thought I have involved into this group I should tried my best to contribute it. Then I just tried to do things I can do, and communicate with each group member to ask him or her to work together. At the end our group did the rough cut, nearly finished the part of the project that we should do. Although I know we have some conflict, the next semester we will continue work together. as long as you have patience and confidence to work together, you will figure it out.