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Week 2: Golden Gorillas, Bond Villains and Perpetuating Stereotypes
This past week was an interesting one. At AFTRS we’re now becoming more focused on various areas which culminated in a ‘three minute feature’ on thursday where we were given a video camera, placed in groups and told to make a 3-ish minute dramatic story in about 4 hours to be screened that afternoon. The results were hilarious and were reviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald’s Garry Maddox, our group winning the coveted ‘Golden Gorilla’ award for Best Film.
Friday I went on a tour of Foxtel. I’d have never thought that so much effort, time and money was be poured into television. Highlight of the trip: Master Quality Controll where a couple of guys stare at two 20-feet high screens with all content that Foxtel is putting out at any one point. Hundreds of streams all being monitored at different stages, computers and monitors everywhere – it looked liked a Bond villains lair (no pictures, I’m afraid).
Friday night a large bunch of us went to the local pub to socialise for the first time which was really good and I found some fellow Adelaideians. Saturday night went to a party at Manly (cheers, Adam). It seemed that about 50% of the people there were Swedish girls who have convinced me that Sweden is a place where if you’re not a beautiful person, they must deport you, your nationality revoked. And while we’re perpetuating stereotypes, every second person at Manly can surf.
Next week we start getting down to the nitty-gritty as all the students scurry away into their dark little rooms, only to venture out at free-food time (4:00 in the Cafeteria, if you’re wondering).