week 3 tutes transient spaces

Just before the tutorial for this week, I started rethinking my options for the documentary. I know I should probably have a solid idea on what I’d like to by now but judging by how I have so many ideas, I keep thinking ‘how about…..’. Well all that has now officially been put to rest. I know I’ve said this before but this may very well be it. =D *hopefully*

At the beginning of class I was torn between the idea of either doing the documentary based on an aspect of gaming in the virtual world (as I mentioned previously) or an issue within the Brunei Students Society in Melbourne. I reopened the idea of doing the idea based on BSSMelb because I thought it would be perfect opportunity to showcase my skills where Bruneian officials monitor. I felt that I’d have better access to the people involved in BSSMelb (since I previously was an office bearer) and I knew the issues that normally took place within the society.

After speaking with Jenny, however, I decided to go with the online virtual community idea instead. This is because I realised that I was too close to the issues and the conflicts that are experienced by the student’s society and that no good could come out of ‘airing the committee’s dirty laundry’ for government officials to see. So yea, there is such a thing as too much conflict in a documentary. Jenny suggested that instead of doing this documentary in the participatory/reflexive mode, I should do it in an expository manner. But by doing so, I’d most likely be ostracised from the Bruneian community and I wouldnt be able to create a good documentary because of the lack of support that I’d get from the local community.

So now I’m permanently settling on doing a documentary based on the online virtual community. I was thinking about this last night (before actually laying eyes on the Fraser Allison and Harry Milonas documentary entitled Griefing and you )and I was considering choosing an issue that followed the same path as bullying in the virtual world. I think I should look for an alternative conflict now.

Jenny suggested that I should look at the Jakobsson and Taylor reading entitled “The Sopranos Meets EverQuest: Social Networking in Massively Multiplayer Online Games” to get ideas on the sort of conflicts that arise in online virtual communities. So I’ll start there. I also think I should do some reading into online subcultures, maybe I’ll get ideas from there as well.

I still think that this documentary will conducted in a participatory and reflexive manner considering I make up a part of the online virtual community and my avatar may make an appearance in the documentary (I have yet to decide what sort of angle the documentary will take).

After I come up with solutions to my current problem, I’ll have to answer the questions below as homework for this week. This seems like another version of Adrian’s four sentence abstract.

a. One sentence defining your community,

b. One sentence defining the issue you want to explore,

c. One sentence defining the conflict,

d. one sentence outlining the social theory that is relevant.

Anyways, expect another post before next friday with answers to these questions.

Decision made?

I’ve decided to conduct my documentary on online virtual communities. I know this was previously a suggestion made by Jenny and I turned it down because I was initially planning on doing my Research Project on CMC in virtual worlds, but now that plan has fallen through it is now in the clear to be the topic for the documentary.

I just have to think of an angle and a way of presenting my findings.

I can think of so many difficulties that I’d experience while collecting information, especially since I dont know a lot of my online acquaintances personally. One issue that I could raise is that the online virtual community is a community of interest that doesnt rely on geographic proximity (seeing as people who play are from all over the world).

I suppose now, making a video with live interviews is pretty much out of the question because I really wouldnt know where to start. It’s still possible to make a slide show but I’d need to find a software that will allow me to record my in-game experiences. In my previous works with online games, I managed to ‘print screen’ (capture still images) and use the images in my produced work. I could do that again but what if I need to capture events in motion ? I’ll just have to do more research on in-game recording. If anything, I’m open to suggestions on angles in which I can conduct this documentary.

Week 2 Transient Spaces

Trying to decide on a project to do a documentary on is pretty tough especially when there are no actual guidelines. I was bouncing ideas off walls and I still havent exactly landed on one that I plan to stick on. Having an idea about what sort of community to base the documentary on is easy, it’s finding the issue or an angle to make the documentary interesting that’s the problem. I worry now because it seems that people in class really know what they’re doing and they’ve gotten started somewhat on their plans.

My ideas for the documentary are sort of flimsy at the moment. Initially I wanted to do a video – Jenny said they had to be about 10 minutes for a proper video and I needed to find a crew to help me if I were to do interviews. After that I changed my mind and decided to do a documentary with slides and some video footage. That would mean that I wouldnt need to be in the frames when I shoot. These ideas are still brewing. Hopefully I’ll find something worth documenting before class time on week 3.

For now, the communities that I have been thinking about are sports communities (as in clubs, sports bars) and student groups that are external to the universities. These groups are communities of interest and I think a good idea would be to investigate the readings from Week 2 a bit further to get a better idea on what document on.