Taiwanese Film in Australia: Week 1: Master of Film and Television

Shot by Shekhar

What is "Master"?

I have a Master's degree in Computer Science from my hometown in Taiwan, and I also studied for an MA(Master of Art) degree at NTUA for one and a half years.

Another "Master" I have is the certificate of Scrum Master.

However, when it comes to mastering life, I've learned that optimism is the key.

"A pessimist may be correct, but an optimist always continues to improve." This is the quote Mason shared with us in the English online study group.

Our lives are always a struggle, regardless of whether we are rich or poor.

Especially for full-time students, the struggle is present every day.

This week is our first week of this trimester, but the lecturer didn't come to class on the first day. It made us nervous, so we looked for someone in Student Central to ask the reason.

Afterward, we found out that Monday's class is held online and would watch the recording sometime during this week. Yes, actually, the lecturer had updated information on DeakinCloud, but no one knew to read it before the class began. So, it's nothing much happened today.

Just with my classmates Shekhar and Quang, we explored the campus and filmed lots of material for our future series.

Filmed by Shekhar

Then it came to the amazing second day.

Writing with the Camera

The first unit in the morning, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, is a very practical lesson on how to manually operate the camera and tripod.

The place is on the first floor in the P building

Our lecturer, Lachie, brought us to the equipment office, where two technicians, Matt and Mark, demonstrated how to borrow these devices, including the camera, battery, microphone, cables, and tripod.

It's so cool that around 2 to 3 students can operate one camera and tripod for practice.

Lachie showed us, step by step, how to unpack and pack the Miller Air Solo 75 tripod.

Shekhar is familiar with manipulating the Panasonic HC-X2 4K

Lachie also demonstrated each funtions of the camera

The Writers Room

Next, we went to the B building, where we have a class called the Writers Room, to learn how to write a script for a web series.

The goal of this unit: Devising and writing an epsodic short-form web digital series

This unit is awesome! I never thought that reels could be so attractive and dramatic. The lecturer, Mary, showed us many clips from TikTok channels. It was very helpful in understanding how the current business markets have completely changed.

The younger generation spends a lot of time on social media, where content rotates quickly, but some of it has flourished on the internet as web series, with episodes typically lasting about 1 to 3 minutes, which online viewers often watch.

It means that we will have a Pitch for our final assigment in this unitl.😱

Our lecturer, Mary, gave us a formula to create the story for a web series.

The formula is really helpful and simple

She encouraged us to share our ideas in class.

I shared a story about my first day arriving at Southern Cross station in Melbourne. There was a homeless person staring at the locker where I was preparing to store my big suitcases. At first, I was a little nervous to notice that he was looking at me seriously. I was afraid that he might hurt me or steal my belongings.

Then I found out that he just wanted to tell me how to operate the locker. I apologized for it and said "thanks" to him.

Mary said it's a good story for practice and suggested adding a twist, such as revealing that the homeless person's real identity might be incredibly wealthy.

On the third day of this week, Shekhar, Quang and I went to Port Melbourne, which is 20 minutes away from the city.

We really love this hidden gem. (I learned the term "hidden gem" from the old couple we met there.)

There were no tourists, and the quiet atmosphere made us feel relaxed.

After dusk, we met an old couple with a big dog named Z Buddhist.

They are very kind and willing to share anything with us. Although I felt a little scared of their dog when I was feeding Z with a snack, haha😂. The old lady talked to me about many countries they had traveled to, including Taiwan, where they had met their daughter who worked there and learned Mandarin many years ago.They stayed in Taipei city for several weeks only, so they didn't feel very positive about their last trip to Taiwan. I suggested they should visit eastern Taiwan in the future.

It was a good interactive experience with locals in Melbourne for our future filmmaking projects.

Actually, there will be many projects coming up in this trimester. One assignment was announced on this Friday, where we have another unit for filming a documentary.

Documentary Production Practice

This is a fantastic unit where we need to prepare many potential subjects(the subject should be a person) for our upcoming documentary production. There will be a small discussion next week for the potential list, and in the following weeks, we will pitch our main subject.

The professor, Dr. Simon, screened a documentary titled "Bastardy," which tells the story of Jack Charles, an Australian Indigenous actor who struggled with criminal activities and drug addiction.

It's very touching and showcases the hard work behind this production.

After this class, we originally planned to play table tennis (TT), but it was closed. So we went to the Friday Friends event where they were hosting an activity to paint traditional Australian boomerangs.