DIY Communication: Why I opted for making a zine

For our college unit relating to Communication, I opted for doing something that was perhaps a little outside of the box (as I had spoken about in a previous blog post) and make a zine.

At first, I wanted to work around the way the media portray certain people, social networking, and advertising, but as I moved along with the project, I realised that I was taking to much on board, and instead, it would work a lot better for the point I was trying to get across about certain media manipulation if I focused on one particular topic – ‘celebrities’.

Celebrities and the celebrity culture has always been foreign to me because I have never gotten the attraction of heaping praise on someone that you don’t know, and viewing them as a kind of idol (even to the extent a Godly figure.)

This is something I am going to speak about in another topic, but I’ll give a brief outline of what’s to come before I speak more about my intention with my zine.

My fellow college students and I, have been given two separate industry sectors to speak about (all within Digital Media, of course). We have to speak, or present, these topics in the way that we feel most comfortable (mine is going to be a detailed blog post, that mostly reads like an essay, but is fed with a series of images, and video clips to add to the Digital aspect of the work). Through speaking about our two chosen industries, we will naturally end up talking about those that we weren’t assigned, which will lead into our understanding of the Digital Media Industry and how it works; how it combines everything from Film to Graphic Design.

You’ll have to wait until my next post to see what two industries I picked, but before I get sidetracked, back to the zine.

The reason I opted for a 90s style of communication, one where it required me to collage my work onto paper, scan the glued paper carefully onto, new, separate sheets so that I wouldn’t ruin the format, and then staple the work together with a special magazine stapler, is because, I believe, it showed a complete opposite to the tech savvy world we live in.

By using a hands-on medium, I think I have made something that has more of an impact than if it had been totally digital.

It’s a statement to the polar opposite of the world we live in now. Speaking about something that is so heavily digital based, so heavily media based, but through a DIY process.

As a society, we ignore anything that isn’t fast, quick, and gets to the point – we like everything to be in the palm of our hand and this tool of communication is the complete opposite.

Pictures to follow of the zine shortly.

The Art of Negotiation

Negotiating is something that we all have to do in life, and, in some cases, it is a craft.  We do it subconsciously, but a lot of the time, to get the better deal, we do it consciously. While we want something out of negotiating whatever it may be, we always have to think about the recipient or the recipients, and what they are going to get out of the negotiation. It is a skill that we pick up from an early age, but one that takes a considerable amount of time to hone into something that can take us to all the places we want to be in life. 

Let’s single negotiating out to working in your place of work, and how it is needed to step up in the ladder of whatever profession you choose.

To get where you need to go, negotiating is not just a tad helpful, but it is a required tool. No matter the work place you reside in, and who you are intending to negotiate with, it can be what makes or breaks your career. Especially since it is linked with communication.

If you can’t communicate yourself well enough when trying to get what you require, then taking this communication to the next step where you are negotiating something important is useless. You won’t be able to get what you want out the negotiation and nor will the person you are trying to sway into whatever scenario it is.  

Say that the situation is a really important one like trying to sell something to a would-be business partner. Without a clear route of communication (which could be through a presentation, emailing, or just talking) what could end up as being an excellent money making deal could fall flat on its face because of how this negotiation is communicated. You need to show the pros and cons of what the would-be business partner is buying into, otherwise, they are just not going to buy into it. 

This is one of the many reasons why negotiation can get you to places you may have not been able to go without it. It can be simple 'negotiating' with family for the last bag of sweets, or it can be broad; one that jumps over to the work place where you have to step up your game if you want to further your chosen career. 

And there you have it, a scenario of negotiation and why it is a must-have skill. 

On communcation...

Communicating to others and to the public has drastically changed over the years. From word-of-mouth to social networking, somehow, information will be spread regardless of wherever you are in the world. There isn't any escape from it. TV, Newspapers, The Internet - it is all so prominent in our day to day lives that we barely bat an eyelash at it.

The ridiculously rapid rise in technology has shaped the way we communicate with one other. For the better, that is uncertain - ways of communication always has it's good and bad points, just like everything - but we can't deny that the usage of Twitter, Facebook and the like have changed how we speak to one another,

To represent communication in completely different formats, I have decided to create two parallels of how communication is fed to us. I have decided to go all out and make my own magazine. Yes, you heard right. I shall publish the magazine online via Issuu in it's online format, but it shall begin in a collage fashion in the form of a zine before making it's way up online.

What is a zine? Well, a zine is essentially a self-published magazine, hence the shortened name. Popularised in the 90s (and a key header for the Riot Grrl movement), zines were the place to go to if you wanted to get a message across, while creating something artistic and giving yourself and others a voice that may have not been heard from major media outlets.

Zines could be of anything and everything, and it's still a way to get heard - through self publishing.

Though it is perhaps not as DIY as the heydays of the zine in the 90s, it is still a valuable way of communicating, particularly with comics.

More on this one later.

My Video Profile, Script & Review

Video profile script - video

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For a first attempt at creating a video profile, my shot at making a profile that made me come across as how I wanted to, including the creative elements, was okay. The lighting has worked well, and so have the shots. The shots used are simple and affective in what I am trying to get across, remaining more professional than if I had experimented.

While for a first attempt it is satisfactory, there can be many critiques made about the video, and it is a prime example of needed experience – essentially, I should have gotten a lot more footage than I did. It was a struggle to work around a skimp of 2 minutes of footage as in editing terms, it was extremely difficult to edit round.

I should have learnt from my past experience working on a project in Final Cut Pro on a video intensive course, where my lack of footage remained an issue in the back of my mind, but I was able to work around the failure to have captured all the shots I needed on that occasion, but not here.

Secondly, my eye line is not correct. This makes the viewer feel as if I am not interested in what I am doing; what I am saying, and distances those watching and myself from the importance of what I am trying to get across.

Music is another key factor to the video profile. In the intervals of me not speaking, and in particular the start, music would have been a vital source for creating mood and an atmosphere, adding to my words.

The outtakes were remarked as feeling “out of place”. Where I come across as “professional” in my speech, the outtakes make the whole profile seem as if I had been joking in my seriousness. The tonal change of the profile was not needed, and worked a lot better where it had been kept to a professional standard

However, apart from the simplistic shots in which I directed, and the lighting (when seen on a computer screen, blown up, it looks slightly yellow), there are other positive factors of my video profile.

Being split into three segments created an easy-to-follow profile and kept the viewer interested. The three parts were presented not as questions, but as sentences continuing from what I had said, keeping the viewer forever involved with what I had to say.

The beginning where I had used a Final Cut Pro credit template had been commented on as “a template of a professional standard”, and set up the profile for being of “high quality”.

Overall, the experience of making my own video profile, editing and finalising, has been an eye opener. It reminded me of the basics of Final Cut Pro which I had learnt previously, and also taught me that more footage is better. Always.

  

Miss Trunchball swinging Amanda Thripp's pigtails

What's up guys?