Project Reflection

Reflections on the project creation process:

The topic:

- The Sudanese Refugee Community in Melbourne

- Jane and James came up with the topic and I think it is a very interesting and under exposed area of news where there is an obvious need for stories that do not take the mainstream media angles that have been used (and arguably abused) in the past.

- The Appreciation Day event just happened to nicely coincide with the time frame we had for the project and was a great way for us to create a narrative about the community for our website.

My goals for this project were:

- To create a positive soft-core news website on the Melbourne Sudanese Community

- To learn more flash action script etc. so that I could create professional looking web pages

- To be able to create a website that included video, audio, text, external links etc. that successfully conveys a narrative which is created through the use of those elements

Things I learned in this project creation process:

- I learned how to do a lot more action script in flash than I knew how to do before

- Improved my filming skills; especially learning how to use external microphones and frame shots for interviews.

- Improved my interviewing skills

- The importance of Google Documents for assisting in writing shared content and to help organize interview questions, share background information and contact information so that each person in the group can access and change shared content

- Perhaps having 3 camera angles and 9 tapes of footage for one concert was going a bit overboard and made it hard for us to choose and edit footage in the time frame we had to work with

Things about this project I would have liked to change:

- I would have liked to have been able to work out how to add a loader to the flash site so that it loads and works straight away. At the moment it takes a few minutes for the site to load properly – this is not obvious to the user and the links do not work properly until the whole .swf file is downloaded.

- I also would have liked to have had some more of the concert footage on the website. Especially the speeches that occurred on the night because some of the speakers had some very interesting things to say about the Australian Sudanese community.

- It would have been good to do this project with more time to work on it and without a thesis to write at the same time – then could perhaps have included more of the footage and really made the site absolutely polished.

You can see our site here:

http://opax.swin.edu.au/~4150384/ConvergeJournAppreciationDay/sudan-1.html

Just wait a couple of minutes for the site to load once the intro has played and then the links should all work.

Multimedia Storytelling exercise

Site Used: Gangland -http://www.theage.com.au/gangland/multimedia/Index/index.html

How well does the site use navigation?

It uses navigation poorly especially since most of the site is video- the main navigation only comes up when the video is playing.

How effectively is it designed?

It seems to be designed for people who want to spend a long time looking into the gangland connections as the navigation is poorly designed and the videos lengthy. Also, it takes up only a small proportion of the page -the top left corner – this renders the presentation less imposing and attractive as might be full screen – especially as it focuses on a visual element – full screen this might be a lot more powerful in it’s effect on an audience.The backgrounds for the main menu and the start of each video are well constructed and look the part for a website on Melbourne’s gangland – guns and gun-cartridges.

How effectively does it use photos, graphics, broadcast and interactive elements? List the elements that are present.

It used the visual elements very well the video and photos used really create the story they are trying to portray.

It used: video(mostly newscast footage), voice over, historical photographs, video stills, flash, and music (only in site intro).

How well are the stories written/presented/packaged?

The video is good and the use of old photos and news footage is intriguing. However, the voice over is uninspiring and hardly adds to the videos atmosphere – the script and voicing could be more dramatic so as to  hold the viewer on through the duration of each of the visual sequences. The is also no scroll function for the video windows – this means that if  you click on a link to another part of the page and want to go back  to finish a video you need to watch it from the start again.  The use of music may have also boosted the audio part of the video presentations

What did you love about it? Hate about it? Why?

I hated the reliance on flash as the basis of the site and the over-use of video material – some text rather than one link to The Age’s archive of gangland stories would have added depth to the site away from the video. Also the fact that the window took up so little of the screen was also quite annoying.

Discussion Page Up

Hiya,

I just created a reading discussion page for HAM 420 (see top right for link). This is where I will post my notes on the readings for the subject each week, this weeks notes are also up now.

Cya,

Tamara

Hello world!

Hi All,

First Post = Scary!!

Anyway, check out all about me at the “About Me” link in the right-hand corner.

Looking forward to getting into HAM 420 – Online and Convergent Media, it sounds like lots of fun, but also sounds like a lot of hard work.

See you around,

Snuffi