So What Now?

Recent graduate: ✓
Loves to work and wants to begin her career: ✓
Lost in which way she should go: ✓
Everyone keeps reassuring her things will be ‘okay’:✓

I love fashion, always have and always will. I had a cray cray thought surrounding combining fashion and media through an online boutique (nothing new, I know). But it’s a huge huge risk in today’s economy as a lot of start up businesses fail! If you’ve ever thought about this or even in the process of doing this I would love to hear your insights (even if it’s just run, run away from that idea and never look back) ;).

Follow me on Twitter!

Hello,

If you have Twitter you should follow me!!!! I do follow back and not only that but I would love to see what you’re tweeting about as I follow some pretty amazing people through WordPress!

@tashzirafi

Seminar Day – 26/09/14

The day has come, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I got up extremely early, packed my car and did my makeup and makeup. I drove into the city and make it dead on time, to my surprise not many people made it on time. That didn’t matter 8am was a little early anyway and we didn’t get into the room till 9:30ish. My job that morning was presenting the platter that I got last night of-course, display the food, props and audio. When it hit 9am Chris, Simone, Ange and myself went down to the props to collect a lot of things I had previously placed on hold. To my surprise we were greeted with a nicer props manager who told us we could borrow the nicer couch set and more! I was really happy because when I booked the props the other guy was really restricting and didn’t like us renting new things. We got stuck though on the elevated stage! He was really reluctant to give the stage to us because it was really heavy and they don’t usually rent them out. That got us thinking, where at RMIT did previous seminar groups get their elevated stage. The hunt was on for an elevated stage and lucky enough Simone found one! Four trips later with props and I hated the stairs/elevator. It was okay though because we worked really well as a team!

I quickly got changed and when I came back, our host Michael was feeling extremely sick. He ended up going home and we decided that Simone was going to be the second host. My job was the audio, which I was extremely nervous about because EVERY seminar previously had screwed up their audio in one way or another. When the audio was screwed up, every ones eyes in the audience went directly to the audio tech. There was also huge talk about the previous seminars audio tech not recording the audio! Because I was in charge of the audio I was extremely nervous after we set it up. The professional left me and I was there fixing levels and making sure the audio worked. When the seminar began I hit record a good 3min before Ezra began talking, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. I kept my eye on levels and the recording the entire time, and I was only worried about touching the Maranz (recording device) because I didn’t want it to play up. During the break, I had no choice but to push pause as we may run out of recording room and a good thing I did this because we only had 4min and 16sec to spare!

I’m extremely proud not only of myself for actively contributing, audio and props but also the entire team as we all worked hard and collaboratively produced an amazing seminar which is the highest rating seminar so far.

Good work team!

The Day Before

COSTCO DAY! I got so excited because it was Joyce and my job to go and get food and drinks for the seminar! We met at Flinders station and got the tram to Docklands for Costco. I’ve never been and was really excited to see what Costco was like and hopefully save a pretty penny on our seminar. We ended up buying lollies and chocolates for the bags on entry to the seminar. Also added to our shopping were water bottles and a few other little things to make the seminar amazing. The trip back was pretty horrid with all our purchases but we made it and waited for Ezra to show up. When Ezra showed up we started packaging up our gift bags, coming up with the great idea that gold was for the first people who showed up to our seminar and the silver/white were for everyone else. After packaging up all the little bags, I went to PP2 and returned for our final meeting! After the meeting where we discussed meeting time, costumes and finalized what people were bringing. I went to work till 9:30pm and than had to go and pick up the platter at 11:30pm. I got to bed so late and knew I had to be up at 6am. I knew that all this hard work will pay off and our seminar will be amazing!

University Assignment: Seminar Blog #3

On the 19th of September I attended the ‘Reel Crimes’ seminar surrounding breaking into the film industry. Their guests were, Nadia Tass from Cascade Films, Trevor Blainey form Cut Snake and Veronica Gleeson from Screen Australia.

Content – Distinction
I felt that their content was lacking, especially since I went into this seminar knowing next to nothing about the field. The only thing I knew, which was thoroughly established, was that funding is a huge issue in the film industry. They had a great array of guests, especially Nadia Tass who is well known for her film work. She was funny in her responses and enlightening that there are ways in which you can succeed all you need is an idea, know your audience and a camera. She was truly inspirational and maybe hogged the spot light a little, but the content was there even though sometimes a little dry. I gave the group a distinction for content mostly because their guest’s panel was really well researched and the fact that they got them.

Approach – Credit
The approach wasn’t really engaging; they just asked a question and really Nadia answered majority of them. Veronica Gleeson who works for Screen Australia will probably never be back to RMIT after the seminar. I felt like she was attacked because of her organization even though its clearly she is just one of many. As previously stated I had no knowledge on this industry but maybe for the seminar they could have done something a little more creative in the approach. This could have consisted of many other ways including a game; something was needed to liven the content up a little more which could have been established through the approach. For approach I gave them a credit because they had the right idea, they just didn’t go far enough with it creatively.

Theme – Credit
Their theme ‘Reel Crimes’ wasn’t displayed well in their presentation, however I did like the red carpet that was sticky tapped to the floor. They seemed like their aim was to let the guests shine and hopefully people wouldn’t notice that the presentation wasn’t to the best they could do. I found their theme great though and creative use of a montage of films for their trailer was original and funny. I hated the font they used for the breaks in the trailer, but in all I believe for theme I gave the group a credit because I feel there was more they could do.

Staging – Credit
There isn’t a lot I can say about the staging. I liked how they each had their own bottle of water and was set out like a panel. The lighting was horrible for the audience, it was way to bright behind me and I felt like the spotlight was actually on me and not on the guests. It was very distracting and sometimes blinding even.I think it could have been where I was sitting but it was still horrible so for blinding lighting I gave them a credit because they did put in effort for props etc.

Promotion – Credit
Finally promotion I gave this group a credit, the event in itself was done well as there were lots of posters up in good timing, as previously stated their video was funny and original. So both their poster and video and came out in perfect timing and also created great engagement. They seemed organized in promotion and I highly enjoyed their seminar.

Overall I would give them a credit.

Dark Side.

I’m not too sure if I can pull off this colour! It looks blurry in the photo and not lined with my lips, yet I can assure you it was (weird camera moment). I’m usually the one in the brightest pink you can buy, but for this interview I wanted to try something new and exciting. The biggest downside to this was after we ate lunch I didn’t get a chance to re-apply my lip stain as she needed fresh air. The end result I looked like I just had a bad and indulging moment with a whole lot of chocolate and the evidence was scattered on my lips. This would have been easily solved with re-application.

University Assignment: Seminar Blog #2

The next seminar I went to was ‘Female Fatale’ on Friday the 12th of September with guests Jenni Tosi, Brodie Lancaster and Elizabeth McCarthy.

Content – Distinction
The content Female Fatale was clearly there, I feel like it was actually too ‘research’ content driven and not interview content driven. I believed they were asking questions that were already known and supported with facts that they had presented through slide shows. The only way in which it became full of interest for me was when they were discussing commercial radio as that is one of the main fields I’m highly interested in and person stories of over coming this obstacle that a lot of women face in the industry. For content I gave them a distinction, it may not have been the content I wanted but I did walk away more informed about woman in the creative field.

Approach – Credit
The approach taken by the women good with choosing a male to be the host, however like stated above their approach on content was off. I can go home Google facts to make myself informed or in this case insanely worried. The seminar didn’t make me feel better about being a woman in the creative field other than making it obvious I will meet with this hurdle. I believe they could have held a more uplifting approach and celebrating that there are woman that fight sexism every day and those woman are amazing, and they had three of them right there in front of all of us. I gave the group a credit on approach as the game was fun but depressing and my mood didn’t lift after that.

Theme – High Distinction
I loved their theme; I personally believe this was the best theme out of the seminars so far! The poster was designed so elegantly and their video was technical, engaging and had me hooked from the start to the end.

Promotion – High Distinction
They did an amazing job promoting their theme and I highly enjoyed the food and drinks that was provided in a ‘cinema’ kind of feeling. I gave the group a high distinction for theme and promotion as I feel they were the most creative and engaging seminar yet and they had lots of posters up around campus very early on!

Staging – High Distinction
There isn’t a lot I can say about staging other then the fact they were the first to use a raised stage for their seminar. This was great because it added to the height and importance that should be placed upon the guests! It was a great idea as well as the fairy lights to create that old school feeling to the stage. Overall I gave them a high distinction in staging as they used new props and utilised the space to its full potential.
Overall I would give them a High Distinction.

Design Group Meeting

A group meeting was desperately needed for the design team; a few people couldn’t make it however I did attend this. I went in with a few of the other girls and we started looking up prices for platters and ideas surrounding food and drinks. We got a list up and going about possibilities for food and drinks and then we looked at Pinterest for ideas on how we could decorate them. Unfortunately a lot of these ideas required time and more than one nights effort (food could go off/stale in prepared any earlier) so it was a miss. A few of the girls went and we had to wait until what we thought was the props department (RMIT TV) to open at 1pm. However we learned that the props department was in fact downstairs and I was pretty angry because there was no signage or anything, I did radio so I had no idea about TV stuff. Going downstairs to the basement I took photos of the props we might use, the guy was really restricting in what he could provide for us. We ended up getting a few props and I put the photos on Facebook.

Meetings!

This meeting was to establish guests and really work out our theme. I took noted during the meeting and provided some input on guests and of-course the design/theme. We had a lot of ideas as you can see on the piece of paper and it was a matter of finding a universally agreed upon theme. We decided to go with a transit lounge and have a soundscape for music, combined with jazz music for that first class feeling. This was a lot easier then a hotel room or something else heist related, and we began to plan our seminar. There were a lot of meeting following this, however they were minor and just really quick. I attended every meeting we had and put in a great deal of effort to voice my opinion and actively donate to every meeting.
What I did at meetings:
– Take notes
– Actively donate
– Try to find guests
– Pitch ideas regarding design
– Bring ideas to the meetings

Good Things Come in Twos!

You know what they say that good things come in threes, however this time they came in twos! To begin with I was aimlessly walking around Topshop and saw that they were taking 20% off last chance items. Now I had to stop and re-read this because that is RARE for a store to take any percent off last chance. The reason those items are there is because they sold out and there isn’t enough stock to replenish the layout, or a newer item had overthrown the last few sweaters. The jumper caught my eye first which was from findersKEEPERS the label for $150.00. The jumper has that diving suit feel to it, combined with a thick layer of material under and toped off with two zips at the front and the floral 45. I could justify the $120 for it, the material is out of this world, plus it’s unique i’ve never seen a jumper like that. The skirt is from Topshop and I paid $40 for it. I fell in love straight away as I’m a cat lover and this mirror pattern is adorable. The skirt is a great length and I’m lucky it was my size as it looked like a ‘small’ size 10.
I love last chance as I say to myself ‘fate’ and ‘meant to be,’ but with 20% off last chance… well that is just perfection right there!