Media

Media 2021

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” - Elliot Erwitt

Media students were again forced to consider the world around them in 2021. This often meant finding beauty in the banal - seeing that thing or place you've walked past 1000 times in a new light; from a new perspective. It also meant learning from the media they engaged with - applying the ideas, and conventions of their chosen media forms and products.

While they may not have had full access to the school resources they otherwise would, students were creative and innovative in their approach to Media, using myriad different approaches to the tasks set out by their teacher.

Students were required to design a poster for a film concept they had conceived. They were required to apply the conventions of film posters, while also using settings, character's and typography befitting of their chosen style or genre. This is the first task students undertake when learning the key skills in Adobe Photoshop: file management, selecting, transforming and combining various different types of layers.

Year 10 Photography tasks - Various

Sidney Isip - Photography folio

Sidney Isip - Magazine concept

Chloe Z - Narrative Statement

My sequence of photos aims to express the personal stories and reflect the emotions of each of my subjects. The thematic essence of my photos will be identity, which is expressing the characteristic and lifestyle of people through their hands and their chosen object. Through shooting the photos both indoors and outdoors, I aim to provide an intimate snapshot demonstrating the memories and feelings of chosen objects with their hands reflecting on their age and life experiences. Thus, it gives the audience an insight of their values, personality and lifestyles, as well as illustrating the affection time has given to their most valuable objects and their hands. I will shoot the photos through my point of view as a third person which depicts the feelings audiences would get from the photos. Through the photos, the details of the hands compare with the appearance of their chosen object, which demonstrates the time the chosen object has travelled and the time the person has experienced.

As the image is focusing on illustrating people’s stories and life experiences reflecting in their hands and their chosen object, audiences will read technical and symbolic codes that will highlight the themes of my photos. This will be companies with short captions from my subject explaining why their chosen object is the most valuable and memorable to them, which will help me to communicate the idea, whilst helps audience to receive and to be able to relate and recall to the feelings such as receiving a gift from a important person whether from a family member or a friend. Although my images are not linked with chronological events, they will present their individual timeline reflecting from the look of people’s hands and their chosen object accompanying the captions from themselves. Audiences are also able to see the ideologies from individuals through the photos and the captions, based on each person being raised differently and the time where their chosen objects exist.

I will also try to match the background with the chosen objects and each person’s backgrounds, to be able to make audiences feel a sense of immersion from the photos. In this way, presenting people’s hands holding their most valuable/memorable objects with a valid background helps me to communicate my theme better, whilst audiences also have a better understanding of the background of each individual holding their most important objects. Lastly, audiences will engage actively with my product as it evokes curiosity to observe people’s life experience through the photos and find a sense of identity from the photos.

Grace G - Statement of Intention

I plan to shoot, edit and publish a narrative music video in a montage style that explores the youth of a now older couple, being my grandparents.

My music video will be a nonlinear storyline, going back and forth between old home photographs of the couple in their younger years, match cutting to actors playing out what is in the photographs.

To do this, I will shoot a variety short clips of the actors playing the couple, in a playful tone. I will do this in many different, mostly outdoor environments. This will explore the sense of adventure that the couple once had, showing the fight to hold on to past fond memories. I aim to create a very upbeat and playful narrative that is constantly being challenged with pangs of loss, mourning and sorrow.

I aim to film the older person looking back on old photos with the shots desaturated or black and white to convey to the audience that the happiness that once was there has mostly dispersed and dissipated. The rest of the narrative of the young couple will mostly be shot in colour, with these shots saturated. The song will correspond with the shot, will be silent or quiet when focused on the old person, but clearer and louder when focusing on the young couple.

When filming I aim to keep in mind my audience and what feeling and mood, I want them to experience. I want to share with others the exciting and feel-good relationship that is heavily treasured, but also reference other emotions that everyone has experienced from losing a love one such as grief and loss to empathize with others and make evident that no one is alone in these feelings.

I plan to cast two young people that have a similar love for adventure and fun to make the narrative authentic. It would be a bonus for some similarities such as hair length and height. I think it would create authenticity to edit the clips of the young couple so that they have a nostalgic home video, grainy style that is common of the time period in which it is set in. When match cutting, I want to create accuracy by replicating outfits and settings as best I can. I will do this by finding all the home photographs I want to employ and locations scouting to find a similar settings/ backdrop. I can source vintage and older clothes that are similar to what is being worn in the photographs from thrift and op shops.

Brooke H - COVID 19 VLOG