On a random note (or One Random Note)

As most of you already know, Victoria is now the swine flu capital of the world, even overtaking Mexico where the pandemic began. So I just wanted to remind everyone to take that extra precaution in maintaining a good hygiene by sanitizing your hands and avoiding over-crowded places. The number of swine flu cases in Victoria keep rising and this is definitely freaking me out. I guess it’s a good reason to stay at home if there’s no need to be out and wait for this awful pandemic to subside or clears even.

Well, I really should be working on my thesis so wish me luck!

 

Some lessons learnt…

This is about what I’ve learnt from Transient Spaces & Documentary-Making:

• It helped me bond with some of the FreeZa boys & also got to know them better
• It has definitely taught me more about the Hip Hop Culture & FreeZa itself in terms of what they do & who they are
• Learn more about the different social softwares (and even got hooked onto one!)
• Learn how to make a video which I have to admit, owe a lot to Allan for helping me out
• Know how tedious and how long it actually takes to make a 5 minute video (no, it does not take 5 minutes!)
• TIME MANAGEMENT! (hmm, maybe not)
• But most of all, I know the meaning and definiton of  a ‘community’  (i.e. the CI FreeZa Hip Hop Community) and how it functions within a bigger society, both with their similarities and differences

 

Some feedback from The Boys

I got an email from Lama last week which made me really happy.

Subject heading: EVERYBODY LOVES IT!

Everyone here at work including myself love your work!

-Lama

I’d have to say that I am pretty happy with my documentary. I’ve had lots of feedback about it and so far, they are all good! Samantha helped with inviting the FreeZa members into my Facebook group and so far, there’s about 18 members. I’m glad that the FreeZa boys have had an opportunity to see themselves in the video and this also includes the rest of the Hip Hoppas that belong to their community. I will soon make Lama an ‘admin’ so that he can administer the group and update it from time to time with news/upcoming Hip Hop events organised by Cultural Infusion. This goes for the Flickr and Youtube account which I’ve created for them as well. I know that these platforms would be of great use to them and will definitely help in one way or another with their exposure and also as a communication tool.

 

I’ve got the TwitterBug!

Okay, so after I got to know about Twitter through one of Jenny’s lectures, I decided to go home and sign up for an account of my own. Having no followers and with no one to follow (at that very moment), I didn’t think too much of it and just left it as that. Just about a month ago, my friends started talking about Twitter quite frequently and I remember admitting to them that I had an account which was pretty much inactive. However, when I went home that day, I decided to find some of my friends and add them to my list and that’s when…I got caught with the Twitter Bug!

And to think that all I needed was some friends to follow and of course, some friends to follow me! I mean, that’s what all Twitter is about, isn’t it? I began tweet-ing very often and since the purchase of my new Nokia e71, I was able to tweet from almost anywhere, and at anytime! I’d have to admit that this is my first time owning a ’smart phone’ and this whole ‘Internet on-the-go’ thing has got me pretty hooked. Everyone knows how much I love texting/talking on the phone but now, I spend almost all my time (if i’m not doing anything else) on my phone- Twitter-ing! Up until now, I have 21 followers, out of which 19 I am following. Most of them consists of my friends here and also those that are back home and I honestly think that it’s quite an cway of keeping in touch with one another. I remember that the only way to find out how someone is was to send him/her a message through Facebook which we can’t do very often (if not, this would start to get a bit annoying). But now with Twitter, all I need to do is log in and I can know what everyone is doing at that very moment.

Who would’ve thought that I’d get the Twitter Bug? I guess it’s just me keeping up with the ‘trend’ right now. Allan sent me one of his assignements, an Organisational Communication paper which he aims to investigate whether or not Twitter can be used to compliment traditional crisis communication tools in the event of an accident, in which he used the TACA flight 390- one of the biggest Latin American which suffered a crash on 30th May 2008. I thought his paper gave a very interesting insight to Twitter and Organisational Communication in which I do agree can work in today’s modern day and age.

In his paper, Allan also mentioned that one of the limitations of Twitter is the fact that it is a social platform. As we know, social networks come and go and only time will tell if they continue to exist in their current form and functionality. For me, the 2 social networks that I am currently engaged with is Facebook and Twitter. I sure hope that it stays that way for some time because I am not one that fancies changes. It took me a while to catch on to Facebook only because I was already comfortable with Friendster. Well, I guess only time can really tell… but for now, I am down with the Twitter Bug and am having lots of fun Yay!

 

Finally Done!

I have finally completed my documentary blog and have submitted my link to Dean earlier this afternoon. I hope that it has met all the requirements and hopefully also get good feedback at the end of it. I’m quite happy with what I’ve done so far and am also glad that I got one assignment out of the way. Just one more research essay for film & tv and then its thesis all the way!

Another stressful weekend ahead…no, actually, make that another month!

On a random note, my thesis is about ‘How Disney Represents Chinese-ness in Mulan’.

This is a 10 thousand word minor project that is due at the end of the month.

 

Just some final touch-ups…

My final cut is finally ready! So again, big thank you to *Allan who helped out tremendously during the course of this documentary (despite having your own thesis to do). All that’s left for me to do is some updates on my documentary blog about FreeZa and the Committee, linking the Facebook group and uploading the video onto each of these platforms. Am aiming to finish it by tonight so that I can email Dean with the website links for assessment.

I’ve also created the Cultural Infusion FreeZa Hip Hop Facebook group and have just invited Lama to join it. I will soon make him part of the administration so that he can edit the info or upload any photos/videos/links accordingly and then invite the rest of the FreeZa members in. Since there is only a Relink the Elements Facebook group, I am hoping that they will use the group that I’ve created to communicate within one another in their ‘community’and also share ideas, links, photos and other Hip Hop related things.

Just another 24 hours from now…

 

One Last Meet!

Allan and I have scheduled one last editing meet on Wednesday to tweak the ‘almost-complete’ documentary of mine. Hopefully after a few hours, it will all be done and I can finally upload it onto my blog. Other than that, I am still working on my documentary blog, trying to make a few entries on FreeZa, the committee & their events. Everything should be up and running by Thursday night and ready for submission on Friday.

Now, getting back to thesis-related work as I am meeting Adrian (my supervisor) tomorrow!

 

“Almost” There!

Day: Saturday

Date: 23rd May 2009

Time: 1-8pm

Venue: Unilodge on Flinders *Courtesy of Samantha Jim

After spending a good 7 hours (without lunch/break), I would say that we completed at least 80% of the video today. Allan & I managed to get the titles/effects done and also adding in music to certain parts. However, the only thing left right now is probably finding a good enough ending, because the one that we have now seems a bit “abrupt” and “dry”. I’m still cracking my head trying to figure out how I might want to end the documentary and will decide over the weekend and meet again sometime early in the week to tweak the remaining parts. I think the overall outcome is okay and the only thing we need to do is make the transitions smoother and make it look better.

There’s much to do over the weekend. It’s already Saturday night so that just leaves Sunday! I’m glad my final cut is “almost” done. *Thanks Allan. You were a BIG, big help (tool) today!

 

Rought Cut Feedback

Everyone’s work was really good today! It makes my documentary seem pretty “puney” if I must say. Before today, I wasn’t sure if it was necessary for us to create another blog just for our documentary/community but after today’s class, it seems like most people have done that and even manged to interlink everything together to make all the different softwares that they are using accessible. Some of the work shown today were seriously interesting and ‘almost’ complete so I think I’d better start getting my act together and finalizing everything so that I don’t have to rush everything in the end.

I have created a separate blog called ‘The Cultural Infusion FreeZa Hip Hoppas Blog’. Dean’s feedback was for me to have a separate blog, only because I have so much information to cover and within the blog, I would have to explain more about who they are, what they do and what FreeZa is all about. I think I will cover that within the next 2 days and prepare to do some serious editing over the weekend.

So much work and so little time! And I’m getting sleepy now too…

 

Deadlines for Wednesday

It’s been a crazy, crazy week with so much happening and so little time left. Problems have arisen in regards to my Rough Cut but after going through what may seem like hell, I’ve finally found a way to fix things (hopefully!) and will have my Rough Cut by tomorrow’s class. The incompatibility of PC & Mac has definitely caused some problems for me and the other thing would be the expectations & accessibility to facilities for non-media students. After meeting with a friend who is in fact studying Media, I’ve realised how tedious video-editing can actually be and for me to put myself on that level/standard, has made me wonder why I even chose to do a video for my documentary when I could have easily just used images & text! Ambitious, I would say & definitely risky! But as usual, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that everything will turn out tomorrow.

With my other deadlines such as a submission of part of my work to Adrian by tomorrow evening doesn’t really help in this sort of situation. Sometimes, I really do wish that we either had 2 subjects to do or a Minor Thesis Project to write. Not both. It doesn’t seem all that bad but when you’re stuck with deadlines on the same day, that’s definitely more than stressful and there’s only so much you can take! Sigh.

I just need all the luck I can get for tomorrow (or more like today since it is 2.24am Wednesday right now).