FRESH MEAT: WELL DONE – WEEK 4

The Critic’s Choice!

Great seminar, I must say. Awesome set up, really nice lighting and feel. Although, these old ears struggled with the music up so loud.

My first critique would be to Tom. All in all a great performance as host, however at times it seemed as if you were trying to steer the convo. A guest would offer a response and you would follow them by summing up what they had said and making it seem as if you had offered the advice. Apart from that, job well done.

Oh, and smarties? Great attention to detail!

Now for the guests. Fantastic picks. Peter Hitchener in particular was fantastically insightful. An old school stalwart with a new age sentimentality who can at once say’if someone’s got a job, you take it! As far as I can tell!’, then follow that up with a reference to Insta and a considered comment on Twitter – ‘I don’t see any point in twitter being anything other than a two way street’. Great insights into the position of Free-To-Air and being a cog in the machine. Nice work.

Aside from this, very interesting to hear both Emma Freeman and Chris Bendall positioning the ‘work’ over ‘networking’. For mine, it seems of utmost importance to get your work out there, and while you can focus solely on the work, surely networking is just as important? A refreshing moment to hear the contrary.

WELL DONE you could say.

FRESH MEAT: WELL DONE – WEEK 3

This week saw the Chew Meatier team taking the stage and delivering a very interesting seminar indeed.

Guests included TANK Creative guy Jim Antonopolous, Western Bulldogs Media man Tom Nickson and Campfire head Richard Leigh.

Jim was interesting. I would say he was rather polarising. Regardless of TANK creative’s accolades it seemed a little strange to seemingly belittle a client in the AFL Player’s Association by posing the question of how do you treat a client that deals with 800 boys? That being said, it does bring to light the position an agency such as TANK might need to assume in order to truly connect with the essence of their client and achieve a great result, as evidenced by their multiple effectiveness awards.

Next up we were treated to Tom Nickson. Tom was very candid in his approach to the cut throat nature of the industry. In particular he made it clear that as a student leaving the University environment you must ask the following question, what differentiates you? After all, we all receive that piece of paper.

Lastly, Richard Leigh treated us to his own interesting approach to education that he’s tirelessly filtered through Campfire. In a nutshell, collecting short films and making them available to teachers in schools. Perhaps most interestingly, Richard offered a revision of the old adage ‘content is king’, suggesting it is more akin to ‘audience is king and content is the banquet’.

All in all, a great, informative seminar with plenty of tid bits of info and helpful advice on entering the media landscape.

Fresh Meat: Well Done – Week 2

Despite a few technical difficulties plaguing the beginning of Week 2, Fresh Meat: Well Done got off to a great start.

First of all, nice use of the space. Backstage pass, oscars on a table, great lighting and drawn curtains all worked together to set up a nice atmosphere for the seminar. Very clever use of Christian Bale flipping out on set to initiate the audience into the general discussion taking place too.

Choosing to go with a one on one interview structure did seem a bit clunky at first. Without the ability to bounce of one another it did take a little while to really get into the discussion taking place between Corrie and Tom. That being said, Corrie Chen was a great choice of guest. Corrie was really able to hit the middle ground of transition we are all about to undertake and touch on aspects of crowd funding.

Perhaps most interesting was her suggestion of ‘restriction’ being a good thing. As a writer she found that having set parameters enabled her to streamline ideas and focus her writing rather than letting ideas float wildly around. In particular, it was interesting to hear her take on the ABC and the restrictions enforced by them when it comes to creating work for the network.

Second on the billing, Rhys Graham, is on his way to being a film veteran having remained involved with films across 15 years. Rhys was not afraid to tell it how it is and reinforce the idea that you don’t move into the film industry for money, rather, for the love of it. The interaction between guest and host improved here, and Rhys’s candid approach was helpful.

Lastly, Richard Lowenstein. An absolute stalwart of the Australian industry and verified veteran. Most interesting to consume was Richard’s insights into funding and the shift in attainability since the 80’s (no wonder, we all know how Antony I. Ginnane got things made). Richard made particular note of the ease in which we can now make film, a nice counterpoint to the aforementioned insecurity Rhys warned of during his interview. After all, you’ve just got to get out there and make stuff – a hark back to Neil McCart from Week 1 and our discussion about ‘Tourism’ (guerilla) filmmaking.

Overall a very well run ship and informative, entertaining guests. Bar initial technology hiccups the seminar ran smoothly, however considering the immense knowledge base Richard Lowenstein offered I found myself wanting a little more digging into his career and anecdotes.