MUSINGS OF A SLIGHTLY LOST BUT CURIOUS MEDIA STUDENT
Let me begin by saying that I wish I had a clearly defined, overarching career ambition in the media field but I don’t. In a way I kind of envy people who have this burning desire to do the one thing like be a film director, a film festival curator, a DOP or what have you. Maybe I used to be like that too once. What was it again…a writer. I think when I was little I wanted to me an artis first, but coming from a rather traditional family background those ideas were soon killed off. Especially since you stopped doing art class in middle highschool, access to materials and a stimulating environment dropped off. Then I turned to penning little verses and little poems, I possibly wanted to be a writer, to write for a living. But I’ve never written a single page of fiction towards that goal. Terrible.
Anyways I fell into Media at RMIT, hoping to find creative trajectory that would catapult me into action, into fruitful, CONTENT-MAKING action. I’ve had an exponential jump in personal and professional growth over these past 3 years. I’ve learnt a lot about myself, my weaknesses and my strengths and how to minimise one and build on the other, I’ve skilled myself in the tools of the trade, and probably most important of all, I’ve learnt how to work more and more productively in teamwork situations. Are these things going to help me get a job? I hope so but it’s not enough.
I’ve tried to throw myself into things at RMIT to make sure I was in a good position once I graduated to get a job that I liked doing. But what I’ve discovered from my experiences is things that I now know that I don’t really want to be doing (however collecting invaluable skills along the way). That’s a bit disheartening in a way because it’s almost like slapping the Media course in the face and saying I don’t really want to do anything that you think I should be doing.
WHAT AM I MOST INTERESTED IN AND WHY?
On the other hand, it’s now my final semester at RMIT and I can step back and clearly identify what I’ve really loved about the course: Cinema Studies, Networked/Online media, and getting stuck into editing video for our uni projects. I don’t exagerate when I say I could edit quite happily for several hours on end (learning when to let go is something I’m still working on).
Everything always changes is about the only thing I know for certainty. I had a career EPIPHANY once. I was watching Holiday (Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black) and when I saw what Cameron Diaz’s character did for a job, i cried out incredulously “THAT’S MY DREAM JOB!’. Yes that’s right, so enamoured was I with video editing and cutting something together that hit the spot, I thought making Hollywood trailers or whatever trailers would be my ticket to career satisfaction. But c’mon, there is no glamourous LA-mansion funding job called “Hollywood Trailer Maker”. But what I can do is speak to film/video editors to find out what the realities are of their day job and the industry. Is that something I’d like to do? Could do? Should do?
What I have learnt that I don’t want:
I liked the satisfaction of producing our drama and doco shorts where I took on directing, camera, editing & producing roles but I don’t think I want is to stake out a career in the Australian Film Industry. I volunteered heavily at RMITV and got involved with live broadcasts and outside broadcasts because I thought that was the right thing to do, and have discovered that I don’t really enjoy the TV production environment. I don’t want to sound like a sad sap, and believe me I have been trying to give most things a shot, so everything’s been a good learning experience.
The course has also taught me a few things a long the way, like the fact that media practitioners can’t really rest on the one skill anymore, and are expected more and more often to be multi-skilled, across multiple platforms and to be able to communicate and engage their target audiences through appropriate mediums, whatever they may be. Media is in a constant state of flux and so am I, but I hope through this Personal Networking Report that I can at the very least take stock of what I’ve learnt so far, and evaluate the areas in Media that tug at me the strongest.
What are these areas of interest?
I generally have a great love of the online space, and the possibilities it opens up for connection, sharing, collaboration and interactivity (inc. games!). My utopia these days is probably a world where I just get to make little video pieces, video art/video docos. I’m a firm believer that it pays to be savvy in the digital era to make use of the tools and platforms available to you to get your work out, or to create your work in. But what exactly do people do in these areas that I could do? I know I don’t want to be/lack the skills to be a webpage designer or anything like that, and I don’t really mean that when i say the online. I just like ideas like leveraging UGC and social platforms to achieve creative aims. Where/What/How…need to figure those out. Like where would i work, what would i do, how do i get there…
I also love good advertising and clever and well targeted marketing and communication campaigns. Advertising gets bandied about like it’s the industry of the devil, but I’m not convinced. To me it’s like the happy marriage of creativity and bottomline. But I know it can’t all be glamorous, more research needs to be done here on my part on what career options there are for someone like myself.
I’d like to be a part of an organisation’s whole media/communication strategy, because I think that’s where I’d be able to incorporate a lot of the things I like, digital/online space, new media, video, advertising the whole shebang. There are always new technologies being made and new ways to connect to your stakeholders, and I’d like to work within this kind of environment.
WHO HAVE I CONTACTED AND WHO’S NEXT ON MY LIST
Contacted & Interview organized:
Anne Carter – Film & TV Editor (credits inc The Jammed, City Homicide). Emailed interview
Jeremy Bowtell – Video Editor, Visual Domain (professional video editing services – property market). Video Interview
Ed Howley – Junior Art Director, AJF Partnership (advertising agency). Video Interview
Paul Kooperman – Education Officer, Australian Poetry Centre (cross-platform media promotion). Video Interview
To Contact Next:
I would like to speak to more professionals from the Advertising industry from what I’d like to call the ‘bigwig’ agencies. I’d like to speak to people from both the account management side of advertising, and the creative side. Out of curiosity I’d also like to speak to video artists, do these people have a ‘day job’, is it just about working off arts grants, how does it work? (Is it an “industry”? Video Art? is Art an industry per se?).
M&C SAATCHI
David Brown
Managing Director
Steve Crawford
Creative Director
Angus Geary
Digital Director
Jo Rozario
Client Services Director
Ben Keenan
Digital Creative Director
Anna Pearce, Digital Strategist
Michelle Excelle Senior Producer
Felicity Harris, Senior Account Director
Shaun Wilson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Wilson (Dr Shaun Wilson is a Melbourne-based artist, curator and academic working with themes of memory, place and scale. He is currently a Lecturer in Video and theory in the School of Creative Media at RMIT University.)
SOME CONTEXT INTO THE INDUSTRY: Digital, Crossplatform Media & Advertising
Spending on online advertisements in Australia reached $1.7 billion by the end of 2008, and increasingly as Australia’s broadband technology improves as well as devices on which to consume new media, more and more advertising and content will be targeted across digital channels (networked/online delivery). 2009 may see increased use of targeted advertising delivered over the internet as well as increased use of mobile internet advertising by firms which has been driven by the iPhone development which have allowed content and applications like never before. (1)
As the Australian Internet audience grows many advertising companies have jumped on the digital media bandwagon however there are established digital media specialists that include The Belong Group, BlueFreeway and Hyro. Advertisers are moving from traditional media to new media as the web audience grows. Digital platforms will in future enable digital advertisers to employ targeted advertising based on a user’s specific profile, and the rise of aggregated media content is also effecting this (where a person’s media content is filtered/vetted through a trusted provider). (2)
Digital Advertising is the new Online Advertising. This is awareness of using all media channels in the new digital age (digital TV, Radio as well as the web) to create effective communications and advertising. Understanding that increasingly people are accessing their media across multi-platforms (including their mobiles/iPhones! especially) and needing to adapt your content and your messages to this environment. You don’t make content anymore just for the one channel, eg a film. You have to think of cross-platform (and almost always online) content too. (3)
What emerges is the importance of considering your traditional media object such as film or TV in the wider digital scope. It is imperative to have an understanding of the digital landscape and ways to ‘add value’ or extend your media object into an online space or anywhere where it can reach a wider audience or help your existing audience connect with your piece in extra ways. ABC and SBS for instance are increasingly demanding this digital component from their filmmakers for instance. The idea of cross-platform outcomes is also becoming increasingly important where you stop thinking of your film or TV show in terms of broadcast and cinema only but across other digital platforms. An example of a successful show is ABC’s “Not Quite Art” which broadcast both on TV and online but recently saw that more viewers consume this show via podcasting than they do via TV broadcasting. (4)
Over recent years the traditional media companies have well and truly established themselves in the emerging digital media market. The more adventurous traditional media firms (Seven, Nine and the ABC) made early attempts to gain market share in the digital media space, but publicly funded organisations like the ABC and SBS are now gaining market share amongst digital viewers. Quality content is now crucial as digital platforms are becoming relatively commoditised. Telcos tried to claim this territory but continue to struggle to leverage their natural advantages. In Australia, alongside the ABC and News, Fairfax Digital has continued to compete for digital viewers. (3)
KEY PLAYERS
Very established award-winning advertising agencies include M&C Saatchi and Clemenger BBDO. Both belong to larger multinational parent bodies – Saatchi & Saatchi and Clemenger Group respectively. These advertising agencies regulary top the list of best agencies in Australia and are also home to some of the best advertising campaigns and big-ticket clients that range from beer (Fosters) to banks (ANZ, Commonwealth Bank) and everything in between (Campbell’s Soup). Both these firms have digital arms to their agencies that concentrate on cross-platform and digital solutions for their clients.
Other key companies in the digital media industry include The Belong Group, BlueFreeway and Hyro.
When it comes to government funded bodies and general industry bodies, key players are Film Victoria and their sub-department: Digital Media which provides funding to new intellectual property concerning digital content. Other organisations include the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association. The AIMIA was founded in 1992, and is the peak industry body for interactive content and digital media in Australia. Both goverment, education and business sector is represented in their membership/board.
TIMELINE TO COMPLETION
Semester Break:
Conduct Interview with Jeremy Bowtell
Conduct Interview with Anne Carter
Line up an interview or two with professionals from Clemenger or M&C Saatchi – preferably in digital/crossplatform advertising.
Start setting up a blogsite or tumblr page to host my showreel. Start collecting all my work from uni to upload.
wk 7-9
Conduct Interview with Ed Howley
Conduct Interview with Paul Kooperman
Work on showreel site and get all content edited together in one smooth show reel and include links to full length versions as well on my site.
wk 10
Compile and edit interviews and upload research and video content to my blog. Be reflective and personal, what have I learnt and discovered about the industry and myself.
Are there new industries or new trends that I’ve uncovered that I want to do more research in? Incorporate that.
Finesse my showreel site. Should be done by now.
wk 11
Final edit on both Personal Network Report blog and Showreel website.
Hand in by end of wk 11!
