Inspired by Olive’s recent YouTube premiere, here it is, my own official online debut. It’s all part of making media for ALC701 at Deakin Uni.

Thinking about making this video started with what I knew I DIDN’T want it to be, and that was me, reading a script and staring awkwardly into the camera. Instead I had lots of ideas of how to make it, what I thought at least, would be a little more interesting for you as the audience and a lot more embarrassing for myself!

But despite a little bit of embarrassment (there were a few takes of hitting that cricket ball!) I’m glad I chose to incorporate those ideas. I think it shows a bit of creativity, that I enjoy a laugh and that even though it made me nervous, I could overcome those nerves when it was necessary to achieve a goal. Overall I think that makes for a more authentic video and tells he audience more about me, than if I had ‘chickened out’ and opted to simply read a script instead.

Brainstorming the ideas on paper though was the easy part. The actual DOING…this was completely new for me! Of course I wanted to showcase some of the South Perth Foreshore in my video as not only is it a great backdrop, it is my new home. But filming outdoors presented some challenges! Especially when the weather can change daily, which makes it hard to test before hand. In the end, on filming day I got some sunshine, and it took some time to find an acceptable balance between levels of shadow and leaving me squinting into the sun. The sun really dictated for me the city scape I could get into the shot but I think it’s important to stay flexible in that situation and not be too locked in to doing something one way only. Otherwise you might miss out on an even better idea. Perhaps one of the other challenges was communicating my ‘vision’ to my camera man (Cheers Jordan!). I hope he was able to understand my rookie explanation of ‘the rule of thirds!’.

When it came to my monologue, I think you would laugh if you had seen my set up! Lamps situated precariously around the room, me trying to hold that selfie scope still without it looking uncomfortable, and then trying to keep eye contact with the camera and not get distracted looking at myself on the screen! All without setting my hair alight on that candle!

Once I was happy enough with each short video the fear set in about ensuring it all stitched well together. But in the spirit of ‘learning by doing’ I found an easy to use editing app for my smartphone and while it wasn’t the most technical of tools it did the job and prompted me to play around with things like music, sound effects and transitions between videos.

While some of you would already know some of these things about me, what I also wanted to convey was why I’ve made this sudden leap in the online world. Some would say long overdue leap, as I’m still the one with a huge DVD collection and buying CDs to load onto my iPod Classic.

But really, I do feel as if I am at a bit of a cross road, having moved recently to WA and now considering my future career path and while I may not know exactly where I’m headed, I like to think that I am making some good progress to get there anyway.