Making media reflection.

I took making media as one of my first courses in RMIT Professional Communication program and had enjoyed every moment of this class.

I have always been a crafty girl who loves to create handmade stuff as a way to turn my creativity into reality, but had never thought about making digital media products until I attended this course. It was a completely different experience from handcrafting a sketchbook – it is still ‘handmade’, but in a more modernized and high-tech way, and I think I may have found my new hobby now.

On the first days of the class, we were introduced to some theoretical lessons and got to choose our teammates for the two group projects – podcast and magazine. I immediately got close to my three deskmates after our self-introductions, since I felt like we share a lot of common interests and there was a strange connection between us. Therefore, we formed up a team and that turned out to be one of the best choices I have ever made. Our group worked perfectly together since our creativity harmonized with each other really well to my surprise, and we always listened and respected each individual’s idea, which made our teamwork come to the best result.

For the first two assignments, we chose Dating app to be our theme after a ton of discussions and subject replacements. Our first task was to create a podcast, which, at that time, was still an unfamiliar media to me and my friends due to its lack of popularity in Vietnam. We had to do some researches and listened to many types of podcasts at first to find inspiration, and after about a week of struggling, we managed to understand it well to be confident about creating one for ourselves. The process of making the podcast wasn’t as hard as we thought, since we all had some technical skills already. We shared the scriptwriting part– which was totally interesting, and then came to the recording, mixing and editing part. The result came out was a heartwarming and engaging podcast which we absolutely love and proud of. Although there was some minor technical issue which deducted our mark, we still view that podcast as a valuable lesson to improve ourselves in the future, and a lovely memory as our first steps in the creative field.

For the magazine, we also had a great time. We spent 3 days hanging out with our friends who are couples to take photos of them and input in our magazine. It was heartening seeing our friends genuinely happy throughout the photoshoots, and I enjoyed it really much as photography is one of my biggest desire. The article writing and designing part was a bit tricky, since we weren’t able to decide which subject to write about or what theme should the magazine be and how to use designing programs, but at last we came to an agreement on those criteria and the magazine came out polishing to my eyes, too.

Lastly for the website. Personally, designing is my strength since I have mixed aesthetics and always have a hard time choosing only one theme – whether to be minimal, colorful, vintage, or many more like that. I placed everything randomly based on my feelings at the time, but overall my theme was pink and grey and I reckon they go well together though. For the blog, I also had difficulty in wording, since I have many ideas but don’t know how to write them down. But at last, I have written blogs that described me in the purest and barest form, and I feel pleased with how they turned out.

Throughout this course, I have learned a lot of things. Firstly, I learned to improve my teamwork skill and some technical skills, such as photo and sound editing. I found out that this course had brought out the talents I never knew I had, and I am both surprised and proud of them. The course also enhanced my creativity through the projects, especially in the scriptwriting part of the podcast and the designing part of the magazine. I am now more confident to do things that I am not used to and exploring more of myself. Overall, it was an interesting 12 weeks I had and I wish I will have more practical classes like this one in the future.