Media Industries 2 , Seminar Critique.

Seminar #2 - Melbourne Hub.

Firstly I must say that our own group did set a bench mark for other groups to follow, we're very proud of that and had indeed worked hard for it. 

The Publicity material for this group is quite good. It enticed me to actually turn up and the facebook group was quite informative. As I am interested in events management and music festivals, the guest speaker from  Future Entertainment attracted me alot and i feel that what he had to say was very relevant to my interests. There is a very nice spread across the media industry, in terms of choice of guests invited: TV, Events and Digital media. Thumbs up for that one!

Upon approaching the Seminar room, We were greeted by an assortment of refreshments and sweets for us to eat during the seminar. There was even a Channel 9 Pen for everyone to write with! that was very thoughtful of the group and also helped channel 9 to do a little bit of product placement. 

The flow of the Seminar went pretty well, with the guest each coming up individually to introduce themselves and showcase their work and after that sit down together for a panel discussion about the different industries. I must say that all the guests speak with upmost relevancy to the topic of the seminar and the MC was very professional in asking questions. It was an enjoyable seminar and very informative. 

How ever, The Sound setup was rather sloppy , with messy wires crossing the stage. The Tech provided   Dynamic microphones together with small table top mic-stands which caused a distant between the speaker and the mic resulting in a bad pickup. there were a number of feedback sounds during the seminar but it did not really compromise with the clarity of the dialogues. 

All and all i gave this seminar a Distinction, for the appropriate guests and relevant topics and the professional MC. 

Seminar #5 - Indie Online

The Indie Online group have the nicest Poster ever. It suits the theme too, the drawing being very "indie" looking. It definitely caught my attention and interest to attend!

This group too, has a Facebook event Page that is Linked to the main "Media Industries Seminars" page.  I feel that the area that this group explored into is very important and interesting. Alot of Us choose Media studies because we want to get out of the 9-5 job routine. Alot of us want to be different and want to create our own things. whats better than starting an independent lable or production company and be self-employed. This seminar really caters to the budding entrepreneurs that are within our cohort, and the Panel is impressive too!

I am upmost impressed by the group's ability to interview Zack Klein or Vimeo, although it's only a recorded webcam interview, it's an honor to listen to what he has to say in our context. it is very informative to listen to what this successful entrepreneur has got to say for us.

The Seminar itself was pretty smooth flowing. with the panel engaged in a light hearted , yet informative conversation about the happenings in the independent media industry. Lots of tips and tricks to starting a business were given and it is really inspiring to learn that we can be our own bosses and creat our own content someday!

Once again the sound was not fantastic, but i can see ample effort put in to keep the quality of the seminar up. This Group deserves a High Distinction for the smoothness of the seminar and the excellent choice of Speakers and the nice publicity pior to the seminar.

Seminar #6 - Film & TV

Firstly I must say that the Poster is very eye catching an loud. The fancy colours and bold words gives an impression that the seminar will be fun and interesting to attend. This group also made use of social media to promote their seminar on top of just using posters and word of mouth. Facebook was once a gain proven to be the best medium for advertising, much of their seminar details could be found on their event site, which i was politely asked to attend. Although I'm most likely not looking into joining The film and TV industry when i graduate, i was enticed to attend this seminar to broaden my horizons. 

One of the reasons why i choose to attend is the impressive guest list of filmmakers and directors. The International guest, Jeremiah Oh, a director from singapore that was interviewed via a recorded webcast is one of my personal friends! The out look of the seminar itself was good. The refreshments were good and ample. Light music was played prior to the commencement of the seminar helps lighten the mood a little. 

However, when the seminar proper started, it was not as excellent as i thought it would be. The MC was inefficient and the guests seem to ramble on on insignificant topics. we can;t blame the guests as it's up to the group to brief the guests on what the seminar was about and it;s the MC's job to steer the guests back to the main topic of discussion. I wouldn't say they did a bad job, but i can see some room for improvement. The sound was bad though. most of the time I could not really make out what some of the softer speakers were saying and the feedback situation was quite bad. but all in all, they manage to pull it off and nothing seriously bad happened. However the lights in the room were too dim and it was impossible to take down notes during the seminar. 

I would give this group a Distinction, despite the setbacks. I can see effort being put in the pre-seminar activities and the effort to keep the seminar as interesting as it can be.