Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival



MBFF 2012: Molly and Polly Swimwear

In my previous blog ‘What Next?’ I talked about working at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Well now I am more than half way though, in fact, I only have two shifts left and I could not have wished for a better last 5 days. It has truly been an amazing, eye opening experience. Although to my disappointment, it has only given me more ideas about a career choice than narrowing them down.



In the past 5 days, I have managed guest’s questions regarding a problem prior to the opening show, which lead to the evacuation of the marquee. I have been surrounded by many established and up and coming designers. I have also witnessed enough fashion shows to make almost any girl happy, but most importantly I have met an amazing group of young ambitious people searching for careers in a wide array of fields.

Even though my main aim this week was to narrow down and make a career choice, which I possibly will not do for a while, I am certain, if it is possible to be any more certain than I already was, that fashion is where I want to be. I love everything about it, the clothes, the makeup, the hair, the models, the press and even the guests. It is something I seriously believe I will never grow tired of. The tasks I have been given this week have in on way been glamorous or ‘fashionable’ but I have enjoyed every second of it. I would almost rather do this every day than go back to work or even university.

I have no interest in managing events but there are so many jobs and fields I never knew about that appeal to me that I would love to experience. I didn’t have the opportunity to do any back of house work, such as dressing the models and organising the clothes, but that is something I would love to try, not only this, but working with guests and designers would also be a wonderful opportunity that would be great to participate in during future years.

MBFF 2012: Paul Hunt

Lecture 5: Picture Stories

William Klein's 1955 "Gun Play"

The ‘Picture Stories’ lecture was the third part of the text, sound and image focus of the last three weeks. Although it may not seem like it picture stories are everywhere they really are. Not only in the obvious things such as newspapers, magazines, television and movies, but in less obvious places such as social media and networking sites like Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and memes.  The most surprising thing Bruce mentioned where picture stories are located for me was graffiti. I would have never considered graffiti as a picture story, as their technique is not as straightforward as a picture or movie, but in the case of artists such as Banksy the meaning is conveyed just as simply.

The first part of the lecture focused on the history of picture stories, such as French cave paintings from 15000-10000 BC, Aboriginal cave drawings, holy books and stained glass windows. From this we examined the history of news in regards to pictures. Amongst the examples mentioned was the move from line illustrations in newspapers to the first images relating to a news story, Henry J. Newton’s “Shanty Town”, to the first colour image printed in a newspaper in 1936 and ending with the first photo posted on the internet in 1990. My favourite part of the first half of the lecture was the facts presented at the end chronicling how many photos are uploaded to Instagram a second, 60, the total number of photos on Facebook, approximately 190 billion, and how many photos are uploaded to Flickr daily, 4.5 million. We then explored the way photo journalism is changing due to technology, such as being able to capture an image and immediately send it to a newspaper or editor, the ease with which photographs can be manipulated and is this a good or a bad thing and how through digital newspapers a photo journalist is able to create a gallery of images taken at an event compared to only one or two that would be published in a newspaper.

From this we looked at cinematography, beginning in France in 1895, to Australia’s federation film in 1901, and Sergi Eisenstein, the father of montage. This was then narrowed down in relation to news, how news was first shown in cinemas, various propaganda films, most memorable I would claim are Hitler’s, how television news was first read straight to the camera without any footage of the event, like a radio but with pictures, occasionally even being read from a newspaper. All this has evolved into what we have now, 24/7 news, amateur and eyewitness images and film, which particularly took off after the 2005 London bombings, and the new career of a VJ, a video journalist, one person who films and reports, like a one maned reported crew.

Lecture 4: Telling Stories with Sound

As this is my blog, I might as well be honest, and cross my fingers that we are not marked on our opinions of the lectures. Its not that the ‘Telling Stories with Sound’ lecture was bad, radio just does not hold any interest with me. Whether that’s because I hate the sound of my own voice being played back to me or because the only radio I can remember listening to was the tacky popular stations, although before I got my first iPod I loved them, or being made to listen to ABC as Dad drove us to school. In year 11 and 12, I warmed up more to the AM show on the ABC, probably because it was more ‘hard, world’ news rather than the local fluff pieces. Radio holds no interest for me, not in the technical side, not in the manipulation of words and sound, it really just does not appeal to me. That said, I did not hate the lecture, I just did not find it particularly stimulating.

The lecture was two interviews with two radio hosts, Richard Fidler and Steve Austin. Richard talked about his two programs, ‘Conversations’ and ‘Afternoon.’ I really liked the point he made about a radio host needing to be more personal that the host of a TV show, as the viewer is more removed when watching TV compared to listening to radio, which Fidler claimed is like a voice “that comes from your head.” He also raised a good point that when interviewing or speaking to a guest the conversation needs to be kept open, as the listener may feel unwelcome or excluded to an extent. Fidler mentioned that he had interviewed Adam Gilchrist and Gough Whitlam, which really impressed me, more so about Whitlam as it would be a fascinating interview to host. He also mentioned the successfulness of podcasts in creating a larger and more accessible base for radio shows. My favourite part of Fidler’s interview was his advice to “expose yourself to the thoughts and ideas of people you don’t agree with” as this is such a valuable tool to be able to create stimulating conversation.

Steve Austin talked about the “radio being the theatre of the mind” as the host has to create images with words, similar to an author creating a picture with text. The most interesting point I think Austin made was the claim that listeners can tell when someone is lying on radio better than on the TV, as the visuals of television are too distracting. While I do not entirely share this belief, I think body language tells the viewer a lot, its interesting to think that one could examine a person through only there tone and language.

Both men said that one of the best moments in their jobs is when someone reveals or remembers something and shares that with the host and the listeners, almost as if they are revealing a part of their soul, which would be an amazing moment to witness and be part of.

What next?

The 'photographer' stage

As I mentioned in my first blog entry I am interested in the area of fashion journalism. Although I am uncertain of how much I will continue to want to do journalism, I know fashion is something I really want to pursue. I'm sure this just sounds like the typical teenage girl career choice like the rest, there was that stage where everyone wanted to be a lawyer, or a vet or a teacher/nurse/doctor, or at least my friends and I did but my interest in fashion goes deeper that just reading Total Girl when I was young. At about 13 I went through the fashion designer phase, I was certain that my best friend in the whole world and myself were going to make it big. Unfortunately our designs, if you could actually call them that, were more Supre than Sass and Bide, and like many young dreams, eventually fell apart. After a string of spontaneous career choices that various adults often shot down, or I realised were not going to be as glamorous as I’d hoped, I decided I was going to be a fashion photographer. It fit the criteria of glamorous, it looked exciting, beautiful, fun, and involved fashion, which I still loved to read and explore, only at this stage it was Vogue and Harpers Bazaar that the previously mentioned Total Girl.



Another from the 'photographer' stage

I studied photography at school, and while I loved it and did really well, I knew I would not make it. It might have been mum that ruined this dream, or maybe she just reinforced my own thoughts, but I just remember her telling me either I would have to work as one of those Kmart baby portrait photographers, or that is where I would end up. That single thought alone shattered my hopes of being the female version of Mario Testino.

Now I have resolved that even if I change my mind about doing fashion journalism I have to at least get a foot in the door. There is no point hoping and dreaming of fashion shows or having my own by-line unless I do whatever I can about getting into whatever position they will let me have to build up some kind of leg for myself to stand on. This is what has bought me to this point, the slightly stressed but eager and apprehensive feeling I know will only grow in the coming days. I didn’t actually think that I would be successful in gaining a volunteer position at this year's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, but somehow I have. I'm hoping this will be my foot in the door, or at least the make or break in my current ideal career choice. However, if it does ruin my hopes of becoming a famous fashion journalist I know that it will not ruin the rest of this course for me.

Fashion Week in Paris

Lecture 3: Text

Week Three’s lecture revolved around ‘text’, hosted by print journalist Skye Doherty. Thinking about text and journalism together seems upfront right? Well apparently not. I have a vague recollection that at some point in my schooling we looked at journalism and newspapers, I have a feeling it was primary school as all I remember was being told an article in a newspaper had to have a headline, the authors name and the story. Of course, before Skye’s lecture I know the ‘authors name’ part of an article is called the by-line and all those other things you somehow just learn as you get older. I knew the news was ever expanding, but I did not understand the various processes that go into producing a story that will be able to cross all the new ways of accessing newspaper articles.

The basic techniques outlined were Poynter eye track, where in print journalism a picture is more likely to draw in a reader compared to online journalism in which it is the text that appeals to the reader. Skye also covered the inverted triangle in relation to how a story should be written, with the most important aspects at the beginning and slowly filtering down to the ‘fluff’ at the end. Although these were both new to me, they were not eye opening; it is merely a matter of common sense, to an extent. It was the concept of creating a layout that can be transferred with ease to all different kinds of mediums that made me realise just how much more effort and thought process must be required now than 20 years ago in this field. Not only is a different layout required for print journalism in newspapers and online news, but different layouts for smart phones, tablets and social media.

The most important part of this lecture for me was about hypertext. Skye quoted Ted Nelson who defined hypertext as “a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented of represent on paper” or now the internet. The reason why this was my favourite part was the interesting point made that journalism has not yet exploited hypertext or multimedia and interactivity. The idea that there is so much that could be done through this is astounding. Skye identified through hypertext various articles could link to primary source, thus giving them more depth. She also raised the point that instead of just adjusting print to digital; shouldn’t we be asking what else could digital media offer us?

Vogue Australia magazine cover, left , Vogue Australia homepage, right

Assignment One: Media Use Journal

Although I was already aware of the obscene amount of time I waste on different types of media, having to log it for ten days really opened up my eyes more. I'm sure that I should have maintained my media use accordingly to how much I would usually use it. But after working out on the first day, the 7^th, that I managed to spend 7 hours using media but doing nothing productive, and had worked for 5 hours that day, I made a very conscious decision to try to cut back the time I was on the internet and watching TV. I am hoping this change will continue now that I have finished my media diary, and so far, it is.

Figure 1 illustrates my time, in minutes (except for texting); spent on the four categories all my media use can be broken into. These are social networking, such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, texting, internet use and watching TV and movies. As previously mentioned there is a drop in most media use following the first day, with an exception to the 9^th and the 14^th. The only major factor that alters my media use is work, for example, on the 12^th I worked 12.5 hours, so aside from the amount of texts I sent and received, which was consistent throughout the ten days, my time on the internet and watching TV significantly dropped.

Figure Two graphs my total time, in hours, over the ten days using various forms of media in comparison to the average of these times. This graph reinforces the point that my media use follows no real pattern and holds no real consistency as it varies so much from the average.

The only two types of media that I used that haven’t been included in my diary are listening to music and using my computer for things other that the internet or watching movies. The reason for this is that I use them too much, more so in regards to music. The only times I don’t listen to music is at work, in university lectures and tutorials, and only occasionally when around friends. The only things I used my computer for was logging my media use each day/every couple of days and writing another assignment.

In the survey most people submitted, the amount of time the majority of people, 24.8%, claimed they spent on the internet per day was between 3-4 hours, and 27.9% of people said they watched around 1-2 hours of TV a day. Figure Three compares these two answers with my use of internet and TV over the ten days. It can be seen there is no real pattern between my use and the results of the survey, some days I spend a lot more than the majorities estimate and other days I spend a lot less time online or watching TV.

I don’t think my media use follows and kind of pattern, particularly in regards to journalism. The only types of media I used in the ten day period that relate to journalism or communications are Facebook, Twitter, and I only saw the news and the Olympics when they were already on the TV, as I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to turn them on. I think this is something I need to work on, not just to help contribute more to this course but to broaden my knowledge of what is happening outside my own bubble.

Lecture 2: New News

Lecture two was about the new types of news. We began by looking at the old types of media such as newspapers, magazines and radio, and then progressed through the different types of the web (Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0). Web 1.0 was the first kind of internet where the focus was on companies and was advertisement friendly. Web 2.0 was the start of the social web, with sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, narrowing the focus to social groups. The focus of Web 3.0 is on the individual, particularly due to the use of smart phones. From here, the question of what this wil mean for the news was raised. The two main points were hyperlocalisation, where one can narrow their news intake from areas such as entertainment and sporting to news in relation to the area they live in and specific content delivery. The advantages listed for specific content delivery were the ability to limit what news a person views to their preferences and through this, advertising companies will be able to advertise certain products to an audience who will be more susceptible to this product. The disadvantage, which I believe outweighs the advantages, are the realistic potential for ignorance. For example, if one only consumes celebrity gossip ‘news’, it is unlikely they will ever hear or see much of more important news subjects such as elections, war and other social problems that may effect their lives.

The lecture also covered the new trend many online newspapers are following of making people pay for their news. When I first heard this, I thought it was a bit stupid and although through the rest of the lecture I understood the reasoning behind it, it was not until I was explaining this concept to a friend that I fully understood why newspapers are justified in charging for online news. As Dr Redman pointed out through a creative demonstration, once a person or group of people have been given something they believe they are entitled to it, when in fact they are not, they hold the belief that they should continue to be entitled to it. In my opinion, charging people to read the news does have one particular large disadvantage, what if people stop reading the news. I have never bought a news paper in my life, and I am sure neither have many others, so what if charging for online news stops people being involved in the news?

Lecture 1

Unfortunately, I missed the first lecture, I did not realise my stupidity until the second lecture and witnessed what a great speaker Dr Redman is, but here is my summary after watching it on lectopia. Unlike most lectures in week one, that only offer a summary of the course I most likely could have read in the course profile, Dr Redman jumped straight into different peoples opinions on journalism. From Philip Graham’s inspiring belief that “journalism is the first draft of history” to Edward Eggleston’s cynical opinion that “journalism is organised gossip” it can be identified that due to the many differing types of journalism there are a wide variety of opinions on the significance of journalists. Often when I think of journalism the phrase ‘dying art/career’ springs to mind, but now I can see that it is not journalism that is dying, it is just as it expands through the ever changing forms of technology that types of journalism, such as print newspapers, may be slowly dying out. The lecture also covered the difference between studying journalism and doing journalism, plus reasons for studying journalism even if one is not interested in becoming a journalist. From this lecture, I can tell JOUR1111 is going to be a fun, and somewhat challenging course this semester, and I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and learning many new things.

Introduction to my blog

I am currently studying Arts this year with the hope that by the end of it I will miraculously know what career I want to follow. I am relatively certain that I want to be a journalist, hence my choice of JOUR1111, but I am not sure what kind of journalist. As with most 19 year olds or at least the ones I know, my career path choices always change. At the moment, I think I want to get involved in fashion journalism but this has bought me to a place where I am questioning what journalism is. Is it any kind of reporting, about anything? When I was young if someone had of asked me what I thought journalism was I would have just assumed it referred to a man or woman who reported news stories for a newspaper. Not tabloid magazines, just your basic finance, world or local news. As I've gotten older I understand that those who report news on the TV are journalists, those that seem to find glee in reporting on the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous are journalists, there are journalists for online papers, freelance journalists and I am sure many others that I have yet to encounter. I'm beginning to realise that with journalism, stories don’t always fit into black and white categories, and through this course I'm hoping to not only be able to make a solid choice on my future career path but to gain a better understanding of what journalism is and what it entails.