Sunday, November 18, 2007
Project Making IIV-Presenting Idea
Yes, week 5 is the week of presenting video idea in class. It is a chance for us to gain feedback from listeners whether our idea is nice or not. The outcome proves our assumption, we indeed get valuable suggestions from our listeners.
We are 'lucky' to be the last group presenting idea. The process was going well as everyone knew what he/she was responsible for. When explaining our ideas by displaying the storyboard, i could feel that our audience understand them but....
After presenting, we began the interaction time. We asked our audience whether they got what our video wanted to say or no. The answer was 'yes' which comforted us. But Blossom also said when Ardi describing the shot size, it was a bit unclear for her to actually shape the image in mind. This problem was able to be solved when our video comes out on screen.
However, the next few questions surprised us a bit.
Several audiences said we gave limited information about how to be an organ donor in our video which they were eager to know after watching the video.
It was also reinforcecd by Toula that she had the same feeling. She wanted to know more about organ donor register within the video. So she said why we didn't make it a documentary.
Actually we'd ever thought about making a documentary where interviews of organ donors and tertiary students dominant. However, it was figured out that in this case the video would lose its interest towards our target audience. The length of documentary may also bore them.
More important is, based on our survey questionnaire, tertiary students's awareness of organ donation was the main problem. That's why we wanna make a video which mainly aimes to motivate or encourage them to be an organ donors rather than teaching them how to be an organ donor.
And another point is, the process of being organ donor will specifically published/introduced on the website of our campaign.
After explaining to Toula and classmates, they had a clearer idea. But they still wanted to directly see some hints of registration in the video.
Therefore, we may try to improve our video, maybe this kinda information will be added after our video. Anyway, it's still in discussion and consideration.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Project Making IV-Improving Idea
Finally, we worked out our video idea. Cheers!
As a writer, i mainly did work on synopsis while others doing storyboard or script.
I first discussed the one sentence synopsis with members, outcome was not satisfied.
When life met the end, Emily received her life gift and decided to pass it on...
It sounded more or less confused..but on the other hand, it had some secrets which were expected to attract our audiences to actually see our video..
wut is the life gift?how did she receive it? etc...
So...in this case it was okay...
but we hoped to get feedback from Toula~~~
In addtion, i wrote down my own synopsis which worked well for me...^-^
Life is a relay match, you can pass it on, like what he did...
YEAH...it is my way of thinking..i dun know whether it is proper or not..anyway..i like it..
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Project Making V-Developing Idea
The current task of our group is deciding the video idea which triggered different opinions in last discussion. We agreed to ask Toula for help. Toula's feedback on both ideas were similar, ideas were a bit abstract, especially Faye's idea. As our video is set up as an advertising, we have to make our audience understood our content and intention within several mins. But from Faye's storyboard, Toula worried it was over abstract and passive for audience.
Overall, Toula strongly agreed the idea of Relay Match, but, she suggested us to work out some more detail and clear ideas about video. If we still couldn't decide on one video script before next week's presentation, we were welcomed to display both ideas to our audience and gain feedback from them.
After communication with Toula, our group immediately hold a meeting discussing solutions of video idea. We aimed to try to make only one video idea before next as it would be heavy work for all of us to accomplish two scripts, treatments and storyboards. Then, we started analysing disadvantages and advantages of both Ardi and Faye's ideas while trying to mix them together in one video.
Firstly, we came up with an idea that Ardi's video could be shown first as a documentary for the whole video project, then Faye's video could be used as a subsdiary advertising about organ donation. In this case, both ideas could be included in the video.
However, this idea was given up after discussions as it required relatively high techniques which was beyond our ability.
Secondly, we started combining two ideas together.
Faye's idea-keep the relay match, main character-boy and girl
Ardi's idea-organ recipient survived after organ donor's donation after death
Following this model, several ideas were tested...but outcome was poor...
After several trials and improvements, a rough version which seems to be nice came out-
The whole video is about telling a 'real' experience of organ donation by a successful organ recipient who restared her life 5 years ago because of organ transplantation from an anoymous organ donor.
So the benefits and importance of organ donation can be displayed or conveyed to our audiences through their communication with the story teller even it was not 'true'.
Since the rough idea was approved, details about each scene were discussed by us one by one.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Project Making III-Brainstorming
The latest group meeting ended 2 hours ago. It was nice, tough and helpful. We went through two different design of our project's video from Ardi and Faye. But when we actually deeply discussed it...problems came out...from the availability to the content...at last..we hadn't reached agreement on one idea...sign...However, it was really valuable to see those ideas and to see every group memeber trying their best. Now i'm gonna explain Ardi and Faye's ideas about video.
Ardi-
Characters: A-died in car accident
B,C,D-waiting for organs to survive
Location: Park
Storyline:
first half: A walks on the road, passes B, who needs a heart to live on; passes C, who needs a lung to live on; passes D, who needs a liver to survive- They all fade out of the screen-representing they all pass away.
Second half: A walks on the road, meeting B, hug B, they smile together, so with C and D. In the end, A happily fades out of the screen with B,C,D watching.
The end: White letters on black screen: Die for nothing or die for something?
You can choose one
Be an organ donor
Be a life saver.
This is the idea of Ardi’s video for organ donation campaign. He wanna say to target audience that you can make decisions between saving lives or let them go. He sets up the character who’s already dead and other three who are waiting for organs to live on and makes two different endings which four ppl die together and three ppl survive because of the dead’s organs. He wanna show the audience how important organ donation is. We can help save several lives through losing one dead life, why not doing it? It makes our lives more worthy, isn’t it?
For me, this is really a meaningful idea. But I think it blurs the differences between living donors and dead donors, and his story makes us feel encourage people to die to save lives…@_@
Faye
Characters: Girl and Boy
Location: Street, Church, Hospital, Running Track, University Campus.
Storyline:
Scene One: Street: girl and boy pass each other
Scene Two: Church: The girl prays and suddenly passes out
Scene Three: Hospital: Parents of the girl in coma are praying beside the sickbed.
Scene Four: Running track- the boy, in prepare for running, sets out when gun shooting. He is sweating while running.
Scene Five: Running track-the girl is waiting at the end of raceway.
Scene Six: University campus-the boy is filling up an organ donor registering form.
Scene Seven: Running track-the boy passes his baton to the girl. She starts running.
End: Boy and girl are happily chatting with each other on the racetrack.
Basically, Faye’s initial idea about RELAY RACE is fantastic! All of us agree with this point which totally express the key of organ donation-pass our lives on to others. However, when her script came out to us, things changed a bit. Several down points were found out of her video:
l Whole video needs four locations which cost time and money.
l The connection between relay race and girl’s story is a bit choppy. As an audience, it might be confused.
l (Personal viewpoint) The involvement of church may be not so match cos it brings some religious feelings.
Actually, our group failed to reach an agreement on idea of video. We decided to ask Toula for help the next day.
Even though we didn’t make the idea, it was really worthy to have this discussion which improved our cooperation and communication.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Project Making II-Butterfly Man
Today's class was fantastic, from watching video to learning camera, everything seemed to be pretty fresh and funny to me. The most shocking and touching short film-Butterfly Man brought me overwhelming thinkings about a people's life as well as our own video product.
The synopsis i wrote for this movie was...
The story of a man and butterflies, who find his life blossoming from dancing like a butterfly...
Actually, this sentence is quite simple but meaningful to me. Coz it's my first time to see an aged gentleman so much addicted to butterfly. Also, it's my first time to see an aged gentleman dancing like a butterfly...when he dances, i can feel his passion, his young and his lover over butterflies...Butterfly, is his second life.
In addtion to the unique storyline, the beautiful camera work did impress most of my classmates. Different from many videos we've ever seen, this director used lots of distorted angles, lights and frameworks that bring us mystery and attractions.
When the director shot the university museum, objects in the screen were arranged as a triangle which reinforcing the antique atmosphere of this movie. It was a bit strange, but creative, i think.
When butterfly samples were shot close-up, the special blue light shocked me as it was so beautiful and incredible.
The video is not for the butterfly man, it is also for the butterflies. They are both shining in this film.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Project Making I
This is the opening question we came over in our first discussion
Can our life be continued after death???
Yeah! Sure.
Organ Donation-keeps our life going on
Organ Donation is a non-profit campaign assigned by our group (Ardi, Faye, Jin and me) made for Australians Donates (http://www.organdonation.org.au/).
We figure out organ donation is a popluar and controversial issue in Australia. Most people hold resistance for donation under encouragement of the government. Y-generation pretends to be less concerned about social issue because of easy life.
Therefore the campaign aims to change people's rejected or careless attitudes towards organ donation, especially targeting Y-generation aged 18 to 28.
An essential element within our project is a TV commercial -wut we are supposed to do in Toulas' class.
The very first thing we need go thru is knowing our target audience in detail.
We open our questionnaire this week as a basic step of understanding the organ donation's situation in Sydney, Australia.
Specifically, this questionnaire is set up to see who care least and most about organ donation in society among 4 age groups:18 to 28; 29 to 45; 46 to 60; 61 or above by asking 5 questions about organ donation.
Our group spent two days in conducting the first questionnaire aimed at the four different aged groups. Jin and I were allocated to do survey on 46 to 60 and 61 or above 2 groups. We started at market city then transferred to George street.
During the survey procedure, we were really impressed by several respondents' unique answers. Luckily, information about where to register as a organ donor was also gained from them.
Among them, there was a lady from Perth who had already registered as an organ donor. According to her, most of Australians know about organ donation and are willing to register as donors. However, few of them finally agree to donate their organs when needed. Why? She said maybe they were scared or worried about losing a part of body, and they wanted to have a complete body after died. Whatever, she highly suggested organ donation as it was a social benefit for others as well as the whole country. Everybody should do it!
In addition, we met a 83 years old lady at Town Hall whose whole family had signed the organ donation paper from grandma to grand daughter. We felt surprised but more touched by her saying that organ donation was significantly important to every society. It was more than helping yourselves, it saved lives.
On the contrary, a young lady who as well took our memory not because of her agreement but for her carelessness about organ donation. She directly answered ‘no’ when we were doing survey about her mother whether she would like to donate organs if she could. It was shocked us that she didn’t even think about there were thousands of patients waiting organs to survive. What a pity.
Monday, October 8, 2007
To Lulubear
Say goodbye to your mom and dad is not easy
I know
You love them so much
I know
You're experiencing the pain, grief and despair.
But please be strong
Please try to smile
I know it's hard
Look at your mom and dad
They are smiling at you in the heaven
They are happy
They don't want you to cry, to be sad, to droop.
They want you to be strong, be optimistic, to live on well.
If you were unhappy
How do you think they would feel?
Can they live well in another world?
No they cannot
So please
my dear lulubear
Trust yourself
You can get through this time
the leaving of your parents may be their extrication
You don't want them to be trapped here and worry about you, don't you?
Let them go peacefully
Send your love to them
See them off happily
That's the best present for you to give them
And
We will always be with you
Friday, September 14, 2007
Blog Critique

Blog or weblog is a regularly updated personal website created in form of diary (Pointblog, 2005:6). It varies from traditional dairies for the hybrid of texts, videos, pictures and music. The special style of blogger-to-user interaction brings blog into a worldwide popular stage where anybody can connect to. This critique is gonna look at the blog, Post Secret to see how a popular blog works and influences our life.
Post Secret is a following blog of its ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. The anonymous-based format does attract large numbers of participants in this project while the secret content make this blog more welcomed. 95,966,418 people have ever visited this blog.
Different from other popular blogs, Post Secret mainly deals with pictures, post cards exactly than texts and sound effects. So viewers’ attention will naturally pay onto the postcards telling mysterious stuff of others. Black color sets off the white characters and the colorful pictures but making the ‘secret’ theme pop out. What’s more, language used in Post Secret is definitely easily understood as most of them are originals words from anonymous contributors who wanna freely express themselves out.
What makes a popular blog?
- Exclusive sources
- Sexy-celebrity
- Honest-petite Anglais
- Original voice
Yes, Post Secret is popular thanks to its exclusive sources which cannot be accessed to in normal life. Everyone has his private life where secrets can fine their home. However, here, at the Post Secret the people are willing to publicize their secrets and make their deep voices heard. The uniqueness of blog content gives priority to be popular. Actually, I was a bit shocked when firstly seeing this blog because i wondered how daring these people were to speak their secrets out. Although they are done anonymously, it was highly possible for postcard makers’ friends or relatives to recognize. On the other hand, the way Post Secret operates does play an important role in our life or society.
This blog, working as a public space for people to display their secrets helps us discover some ‘dark’ or ‘hidden’ information in people’s mind. Like the postcards I read on Father’s Day, most of them were written by children to thank their dads or tell dads how much they love them. To see these posters is touching? Or thoughtful? I was thinking how fathers would react when they saw these postcards. Were they surprised or regretful about their blames or complaints on children? Maybe or maybe not. At least, children release themselves out of the ‘unspoken’ love. They say their real feelings out.
Post Secret, a blog basically necessary to everybody’s life. We are living under various kinds of pressure: love, study, friendship, career and etc. We need place to set our mind free. Secrets cannot survive only being kept inside; they need fresh air as well. Don’t push yourselves so hard; find some pathways to announce your ideas. It might be worthy or interesting to be re-read after several years of posting. You can get who you were and what you thought from what you had written.
BLOG is a magic tool enabling people to see who they are and how they are living.
Monday, September 10, 2007
My lover
i fell in love with you
Your passion
Your charm
Your arrogance
deeply attracted me
When i left my hometown
holding your hands and saying goodbye
sad took up my mind
When i missed you in South Hemi.
I decided to bring you back to my life
Calling....
When i got through the line
You told me the ways to send u through the Sydney Custom
I did
When i was picking you up
You lost some friends
but saying 'no worries'
It'll be fine.
When i was dating with your friends
The familiar smell pushed me back to the past
The time we spent together
When i finished arrangments
I looked at you
My lover...
Glad to see you again~!!!
When i started feeling you
Everything was back
Happiness....
HOT POT....
MY LOVER...............
LOVE YOU FOREVER~!
[p.s i really love hotpot
everytime i see it
i feel i'm back to my hometown
i'm laughing with my family and friends
i could throw all my troubleness into the pot
Boiling then forgeting it...
Having hotpot....
Enjoying life....]
Monday, September 3, 2007
Miss
I miss you, my dear family
I miss you, my dear friends
I miss you, my dear hometown
I miss you, my yummy food.
Yes
I miss every single piece
I miss my life over the ocean
I miss the life i had before
Yes
I miss my family
I miss their appearances
I miss their laughters
Yes
I miss my friends
I miss the happiness we shared together
I miss the fooliness we had together
I miss the secrets we told each other
Now
I am missing myself
missing my childhood
missing my lovely toys
missing my tears
Because
I cannot go back anymore
I am not a child anymore
I am learning to be strong
I am learning to control my sentiments
I am learning to be independent
But
I'm learning to miss someone
[P.S
To the moon
Could you hear my blessings?
Could you bring them across the ocean?
Could you?]