(May 2018) Master of Media Students film Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) Awards for Foxtel Broadcast
A team of Masters of Media students led by RMIT Lecturer and ADG Victoria Head Mark Poole recorded the Australian Directors' Guild Awards for Foxtel Broadcast on May 4. Students will gain a production credit.
Students also recorded Vox-pops and some of their footage was picked up by ABC news (see below).
(APRIL 2018) OUTCASTING SELECTED FOR 2018 VMC FILM FESTIVAL AT ACMI
Outcasting explores cultural diversity in casting. With 7.6 billion stories to be told, it’s about time we heard from some different perspectives. Created by Natalia, Christine, Vanessa and Katie for the first semester course Contemporary Media Work Practices. Selected for 2018 VMC film festival at ACMI
First year students Natalia Chernaya, Christine Gjelstrup, Vanessa Crouch and Katie Graham, creators of the documentary 'Outcasting' (2018)
(October 2017) CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR course award winners
Contemporary Media Work Practices
Course prize for Innovative Project Promotion online/offline: Sandi Prasetyaningsih, Minh Ha, Chao Fu (Lynn), and Carlos Andres Cifuentes, for their site Coffee RMIT
Hon. mention/s: Christine Gjelstrup, Vanessa Crouch, Katherine Graham, Natalia Chernaya, for their site Outcasting
Sound and Image
Course prize for Excellence in Reflective Practice and Production: Enisa Muranovic & Natalia Chernaya
Hon. mention/s: Christine Gjelstrup & Katherine Graham
Story, Genre and Medium
Course prize for Best Fiction or Nonfiction Proposal: Eleanor Porter for 'Cabal'. Hon. mention/s: Minh Quang Ha for 'The Teachers'
Post-Industrial Media
Course prize for most viable pilot: Rebecca Small, Ting Ni, Zhuoying Yang for 'Abby Tries Dating'
Hon. mention/s: 'Angela's Kitchen', 'Another One Bites the Crust', 'Melbourne in Moving Images', 'Murder Mansion'
International Media Collaboration
Course prize for Xian Zhang (Miro), Zhengxiong Ning (Lyn), Yutong Huo (Hannah), Ksenia Fedotova (KC), Pan Xiong (Wing), Xiaotao Bian (Bessy), and Hong Nhung Nguyen for Best Client based project: The Golden Fish
Hon. mention/s: Nan (Mona) Wang, Ding (Rachel) Yu, Xiaoqing (Jacinta) Zheng, Ming (Bruce) Yang, Zixin (Shena) Wang for Dok Champa on the Bowl.
New Directions in Narrative
Course prize for Best blog: Andrew Dunstan; Hon. mention/s: Federica Fichera
Strategic Media Project
Course prize for Innovative Project: Abdullah Maghram & Xiaotao Bian for New Academic Street
Course prize for Best Podcast: Eugene Yang & Megan Brewer for Cordova
Course prize for Best Fiction: Shiyuan Zhu, Chenxu Wang, Xiaohua Xie, Han Jin, Apinun Julthong for Grandmother
Professional Research Project
Course prize for Excellence in Practice-based Research: Fiona O'Connell for "Unbalanced: representing working mothers in Australian feature film 2000-2017".
Hon. mention/s: Calum Alexander for "Significant Moments in the Multi-camera Sitcom"
Hon. mention/s: Eugene Yang for "Speak Up: treatment and exegesis for a feature length horror film"
(September 2017) 360 video documentary
As part of a work integrated learning (WIL) course in Strategic Media Project (Master of Media) Abdul Maghram and Bessie Bian have developed a short NAS virtual reality (VR) documentary.
Read more here - https://nas.rmit.edu.au/news/wil-project-capturing-nas-a-short-vr-documentary/
(August 2017) Jack Charles talks to Master of Media students
Jack Charles and Master of Media students
Jack Charles, a prominent indigenous elder and a role model, gave a guest lecture to International Media Collaboration students on 18 August. Mr Charles talked about Race, Culture and indigenous Cinema in Australia and provided an overview of the representation of indigenous Australians in media. Charles stressed that one should understand, learn and value the story of the struggle and the resistance of the indigenous people. He also gave a “welcome to the country” to the international students, as he felt that the international students should be given opportunity to learn and understand about the indigenous culture of Australia. The students really enjoyed the interactive session with “Uncle” Jack!
One of the nation’s most respected and enduring actors, Jack Charles is a member of Australia’s stolen generation. Removed from his mother as a baby and raised in a Salvation Army boys’ home, Jack knew nothing of his Indigenous heritage as a child. At 19 he began a career as an actor, but his life was plagued by personal demons. His addiction to heroin and a life of crime saw him jailed. Despite his struggles, he co-founded Australia’s first Indigenous theatre group, Nindethana, meaning ‘place of corroboree’, at Melbourne’s Pram Factory in 1971. His first play, Jack Charles is Up and Fighting, was a runaway hit. Jack has appeared in several movies, including the landmark film, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, and more recently Pan alongside Hugh Jackman. He has also toured his own one-man stage show locally and internationally. Now calm and centred, Jack is a strong role model for a new generation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
(August 2017) Students video ecological change in FNQ Rainforest
Eight students in the Master of Media had the opportunity to learn about, listen to and creatively render World Heritage Nyungkal rainforest country for the UN-driven ecological assessment platform, IPBES. https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2017/aug/rainforest-field-trip-collaboratively-records-ecological-change
Watch their work on the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on IPBES's YouTube channel.
(JuLY 2017) FINALISTS in the POWERSHoP FILM COMPETITION, MIFF
Harish, Rebecca, Lise and Dylan (Masters of Media students) got together in the semester break to make a film for the Powershop film competition in MIFF. They have made the finals!
View and vote for their film here: ADDICT
(June 2017) CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR course award winners
Thanks to Mitu Bhowmick Lange, for coming to the mid-year Master of Media screening.
Mitu is the founder and director of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and the director of Mind Blowing Films, a film production and distribution company that specialises in the distribution of Indian films throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Mitu was kind enough to give out our course awards to our graduating students. Here is the full list of our course award winners:
Strategic Media Project Course Award for Best Documentary: Hsham Aburghif and Anagha Saggar for Eden Again
Strategic Media Project Course Award for Best Online Fiction Project: Jixian Ma, Yachen Zhang and Yihui Kong For Love Isolator
Strategic Media Project Course Award for Best Web Series: David Buckley-Jones, Brian Oti, Kim Williams and Adil Hasan For Where
Contemporary Media Work Practices Course Award for Innovative Social Media Promotion
Nan Chen, Nga Yu Law, Zhenyu Ding, and Zhuoying Yang for their Let's Be Friends photonovel
Honourable mentions: Jason Cheetham, Lise Othelie Andreassen, Zemine Lee, and Nonhlanhla Bulle For Fair To Wear - a story about the Fairtrade fashion industry
Sound and Image Course Award for Excellence in Reflective Practice: Rebecca Small and Nada Almofadda
Honourable mentions: Jason Cheetham and Pooya Sadeghianvarian
Story, Genre and Medium Course Award for Best Fiction or Nonfiction Proposal: Pooya Sadeghi Anvarian
Honourable mentions: Dylan Hartnett, Zemine Lee, Christina Stenseth and Evan Rowe
Post-Industrial Media Course Award for Best Social Media Campaign: Annette Omondi, Makara Vorn and Yiying Zhang For Recycle Right, Make The Future Bright
Collaborative Media Project Course Award for Excellence in Collaboration: Ksenia Fedotova, Pryankar Ray, Nick Chan, Annette Omondi, Nhung Nguyen, and Federica Fichera
International Media Collaboration
Honourable mentions: Cameron Power and Liang Yue For 'Kabanji - Nyungwarra'
Honourable mentions: Abdullah Maghram, (Kayla) Mingzi Gao, and (Stacy) Xiaohua Xie For Tabet's Bakery VR Experience
Honourable mentions: Shiyuan Zhu, Vanessa Wang, Han Jin (Quentin), and Julian Grant for 'Japan - Kimono & Culture'
New Directions in Narrative Course Award for Best Digital Narrative Proposal: Renee Peterson
Honourable mentions: Calum Alexander and Thalatassuroury Bin Sulaiman
Media Career Development Course Award for Distinguished Engagement with Industry: Megan Brewer
Honourable mention: Vivi Octaviani
Professional Research Project Course Award for Outstanding Creative Research: Kim Williams
Honourable mentions: David Buckley-Jones, Brian Oti, Hsham Aburghif, and Laura Lu Xie
(June 2017)
Radio Birdman Doc Descent into the Maelstrom Gets National Dates
Jonathan Sequeira, Master of Media graduate, releases his feature length Radio Birdman documentary, Descent into the Maelstrom. The film about iconic Aussie band, Radio Birdman, is getting a national theatrical release, with Living Eyes and Umbrella Entertainment announcing screening dates in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth throughout July.
Descent into the Maelstrom: the untold story of the band who changed Australia
http://descentintothemaelstrom.net/
https://www.facebook.com/radiobirdmanfilm/?fref=nf&pnref=story
Sydney, Australia. 1974. A group of outsiders band together with a mission. In world of satin jumpsuits and screaming teens on Countdown, they form the high energy rock’n’roll band RADIO BIRDMAN, forever determined to keep compromise from their art.
Switched off, shut down and booted out of venue after venue they stay determined to do things their own way, and they slowly accumulate a cult-like following of youth, a ‘New Race’ of disaffected youth who rally around the band.
Descent into the Maelstrom is the true story of Radio Birdman, from their original formation to the present. Like the band itself, it’s an independent production, made from outside the industry. It shows what the band meant to the fans, and how they changed Australia, by inspiring a golden age of indie music from Cold Chisel to Midnight Oil.
Descent into the Maelstrom features interviews with all surviving members of the band and doesn’t shy away from the internal conflict which sometimes fuelled the band’s performances. It’s already been called the greatest Australian music documentary ever made and is crammed full of Radio Birdman music and rare archival footage and photos, some not seen for over 40 years!
(May 2017)
Winter Web Series Launch
Master of Media graduate, Alex Hipwell, is launching his web series 'Winter' on the 26th of May, 8pm, at The Wesley Anne in Northcote:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1319979324755358/
He is releasing a trailer for it along with creator/actor interviews and Instagram posts upcoming to the event. There will be a live performance from the band, with two other special guests as well as the screening of the entire series.
(January 2017)
Jonathan Sequeira signs distribution deal with Umbrella Entertainment
Jonathan Sequeira, who graduated from the Master of Media in 2016, has just signed a deal with Umbrella Entertainment to distribute his feature length documentary on Radio Birdman: 'Descent into the Maelstrom'. Release dates and details to come.
(December 2016)
RMIT Indian Film Festival, 1 - 4 December 2016
An eclectic mix of Bollywood blockbusters, indie & cross-over films, alternate cinema and regional movies were screened at this year’s RMIT Indian Film Festival. Dr Vikrant Kishore, the festival director and Master of Media lecturer, chose the festival theme ‘Indian Stories, Australian Screens’. The festival provided exciting opportunities to discuss issues of developing and creating content, funding and distribution through traditional as well as new media outlets in India and Australia. Spread over four days, 21 films were screened along with music & dance performances, a conference and Q&A session with filmmakers. The festival was hosted by RMIT’s Centre for Communication, Politics and Culture.
Indian stories, Australian screen: film festival and conference
Indian Stories, Australian Screens 2016 - Conference & Film Festival!
RMIT initiates Indian Film Festival and Conference
RMIT Indian Film Festival, truly a box-office hit
Indian stories, Australian screen - RMIT Indian Film festival to Kickstart from 1st December!
(October 2016) Congratulations to our 2016 award-winning students
2016 Master of Media Award for collaborative leadership
Winner: Alex Hipwell
Honourable mention: Han Jin
2016 Master of Media Award for documentary
Winner: Sabine Fritsch for 'Kuona Trust'
Honourable mentions: Helena, Ahmed, Jingwen and Zhang for 'Sovereign Hill - the forgotten Chinese of the Australian Gold Rush'
2016 Master of Media Award for social media
Winner: Makara Vorn and Stella Pongsitanan for 'Stop blaming the victim’
2016 Master of Media Award for client relations
Winner: Helena Maoqing Lu for 'Sovereign Hill - the forgotten Chinese of the Australian Gold Rush' and Ardour
Honourable mentions: Emma Sharp, Julian Grant, Shamir Muhammad and Keifeng Wang for the Lake Condah project
2016 Master of Media Award for engagement with industry
Winner: Ekaterina Kologrivova for her professional research project, in which she interviewed television industry professionals.
Honourable mention: Megan Brewer for her work with womens' AFL
Honourable mentions: Ahmed, Stacy (Xiao Ma), Ailee Ma, Jing Wen and Dera Huang for 'Start Up Melbourne’
2016 Master of Media Award for innovative mobile video production
Winner: Vivi Octaviani for ‘Eight colours of sound’
2016 Master of Media Award for Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
Joint winners: Ksenia Fedotova and Priyankar Ray
(August 2016)
New app to promote Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area
In semester 2, 2016, Master of Media students took part in a 10-day field trip to learn about Gunditjmara culture, land and people.
The students are collaborating with members of Winda Mara Aboriginal Corporation on a mobile app to be used in the promotion of the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area, near Portland in Victoria's south-west. Currently in post-production, the work-integrated learning (WIL) project is being created as part of the Collaborative Media Project course. The app uses GPS technology to trigger audio, video, photographic and textual content as the user progresses through the site. The content includes interviews with Gunditjmara Elders, rangers and tourism officers, and aims to enhance tourism to the area. The mobile app will be released in 2017 by Winda Mara on the Apple and Google app stores.
(June 2016)
Pride not Prejudice videos for the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
Less than 20 years ago in Victoria, LGBTI people had no legal protection against discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Change finally came in 2000 with the inclusion of two new attributes to the Equal Opportunity Act – sexual orientation and gender identity.
Pride not Prejudice is a collaboration between the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) and RMIT Master of Media students in the course Collaborative Media Project. The project is a series of short films that engages with the amendment to the Equal Opportunity Act in 2000 that included protections for the attributes of sexual orientation and gender identity. The videos feature interviews with prominent members of Victoria’s LGBTI communities 15 years after the amendment came into effect.
RMIT Lecturer Patrick Kelly said the aim of the project was to give students the opportunity to work on real-life projects, responding to a client brief that helps them prepare for a career in media.
(February 2016)
Bollywood Study Tour
In February 2016, Master of Media students travelled to India on a two-week study tour to explore Bollywood culture and gain an understanding of the world’s largest producer of film. The tour was organised by Master of Media lecturer Dr Vikrant Kishore.
Master of Media student Prachi Daga said “This experienced really solidified to me what I want to do - make docudramas based on history and culture and take it to a global market…The two weeks in India was extremely eye-opening. In such a short amount of time I was exposed to a range of influential professionals in the industry and learnt about how Indian cinema functioned.”
Students interpret Bollywood through a lens
Dr Vikrant Kishore talks about RMIT media students India study tour