Week 11

Group Meeting Tuesday

October 13

Today we had another group meeting, held on a deck nestled next to the pacific ocean. It was a beautiful location, and kept all of us relaxed and calm. Today we finalized what recipe's still needed to be found, and cooked. We planed the final template for the recipe book. We also planned the artworks that are to be submitted for the end of year SOCA exhibition. The meeting went for an hour or so. It was a productive meeting that has helped us get back on track with our project.

Week 9 The food stall and the Big Presentation

The Food Stall
At long last we are going to have our food stall, Katja asked us if we could do something as there would be lots of people around from our creative exchange presenting to an industry panel and there was a one hour lunch break. We decided that this would be a great opportunity to showcase what Nonna's Kitchen was all about and maybe make a few dollars to help pay for the costs that were now starting to add up.

The Menu
Roma tomato and basil bruschetta $2 each
BBQ Honey soy chicken wings with sour cream and chives 3 for $2
Greek dips with pitta bread - Guacamole and Tatziki $2 each

We sold out in 30mins and it was great to watch everyone sitting down to eat like one big family all enjoying the great tasting food with no spare seats and lots of good conversation and happy satisfied students and lecturers.

The Presentation
We were to present to an industry panel of creative industries professionals
from Townsville, Melbourne and Germany and they included Michelle Fillery, Laneway Productions, Ingo Petzke, Red Avocado Film, Leanne Tattersall, Novellus Graphic Design and Katrina Youngman, Mojito Solutions.

Our presentation was well received and we improved on our previous effort by including Italian music, lots of great pictures of Nonna's, salami's and Italian and Greek food. We even had a selection of Greek dips for the panel to nibble on while we pitched our concept and work done so far. It was a great to interact with experts in the creative industry and get real world feedback about our project and possible opportunities to we had not even thought of yet.

Week 8 The day we filmed Nonna Guliana

Today was a long day. It started off well when Maria forget to pick up the boom mic and this resulted in a few emergency calls to Ben Van Houts and a quick drive back to the University to pic up the forgotten equipment. After that initial minor hiccup it was smooth sailing. Nonna Guliana arrived on time and was ready to get to work. Today she we were cooking Melanzane, Giuliana's Tomato Sugo, Pesce, Funghi, and Veal. It sounded simple enough, and it was, but because of Giuliana's authentic Italian nature, she liked to talk, and talk and talk and talk, and it took us 2 hours to film the making of all of the recipes. Really, the only problem with this is that our video editor, Matt, has a lot of editing to do to turn the two hours into half an hour.  Things are running well for us as a group and we are on schedule. We should have an excellent project to submit. 

Week 7 The weekend we went to Yungaburra

The anticipation was finally over and Nonna Guliana was finally in town. The weekend to Yungaburra was finally upon us and the road trip was about to begin. This trip would potentially test not only our ability to work together but also our friendship. 24 hours of constant close proximity can potentially drive anyone insane. Luckily though, our group is made up of relatively mature people and we were able to enjoy each others company during the 6 hours of driving, the four hours of working and the 10 hours of room sharing the 2 hours of meal sharing.

This weekend was not about us. It was about watching Nonna Guliana, the reigning Salami Queen try and reclaim her throne for the fourth consecutive year. After we arrived in Yungaburra and were settled in we headed to the restaurant to start filming and photographing the main event. We captured footage of people arriving to the venue and people singing and dancing. We captured footage of the massive amounts of food prepared and of all the people consuming it. Then, it was time for the competition to begin. The judging process was something closely akin to mayhem. There were about 15 judges ranging from the age of 10 to 70. There job was to taste all of the different salami's and then give them a rating from 1-10. This tasting process would have taken nearly 40 minutes. During the judging there was music playing and people were dancing as well as lots of laughter talking and wine drinking.

Finally, after great consideration and much deliberation the winner's were ready to be announced. Unfortunately everyone's hopes for Nonna Guliana were devastated when she was announced as the runner up of the competition. This of course, did not sit well for the reigning salami queen and she protested loudly and proudly that the winner was undeserving because their salami was too small. But once the protest was over, and Guliana had settled down there was more time to relax and enjoy dessert and each other's company.

It was a great weekend where we were able to capture part of the Australian-Italian culture. We were able to photograph and film some great footage which will assist us in the look and feel of the final product. It was also a great weekend for us to bond as a team and was a weekend where we have lots of great memories.

Week 7 The day we filmed viva and we had no cameras

We were finally ready to shoot Viva and Viva was ready to come to our shoot. It was supposed to be different to last week and be a week of smooth sailing with no dramas. However, this was not what happened. We had major drama's with video cameras. We had a plan to pick up the HDV camera from the honours student, who uses the Video camera on tuesdays. But this week, she didn't use it. Maria went to uni to pick up the camera. But unfortunately, there was a replacement employee in the equipment store, who did not know what he was doing and informed us that there were no HDV camera's in the store room at all. We found out later that the camera was there all along but he didn't know what it was we were asking for or where it was.

Maria was able to borrow the Sony EX but we still needed a second camera in order to capture all of the required footage needed to make a tv show. After an anxious phone call from Maria, i suggested that we use the video capabilities from the Canon 5D camera to get those extra necessary shots. Fortunately for us, another student from Creative Arts who was familiar with manual focusing was able to work the camera for us, and basically save the day.

Viva was a great guest on Nonna's Kitchen. She was efficient and provided us with great ethnic recipe's. With Viva's help we were able to capture a great footage that will be an asset to our project. Once again we were able to put all of our problem solving skills to great use and create a positive outcome against all odds.

Week 7 The day we presented and got a d

Today we presented our first pitch to three of the lecturers. When we received our feedback from the lecturers we were given a distinction for our presentation. Even though the grade was good, the feedback reminded us that we still have to learn a few things about the difference between a presentation and a pitch. As a group we focused more on just sharing the product with those who already know the product. What we didn't do was try and convince investors that this product was worth there time and money. This would have been done easily if we had have shown more of the product, rather than explaining the product. Also, we could have given evidence as to how we know that the greater community will enjoy and benefit from our product.

Week 6 The day Nonna Viva didn't come

This day, wednesday, our usual filming day, was supposed to be the first day we captured video footage and begin filming Nonna Viva. When it comes to projects, if everything is going right something will go wrong. We were organised and prepared. We had everything set up and were ready to begin filming. All we needed was for Nonna Vivia to come and we were going to get our first pilot underway. However, things did not going according to plan. Maria called Nonna Viva to make sure everything was ok and that she was still ready to come and cook for us.

Unfortunately, Nonna Viva was not able to make it to the first filming day. Her husband had cut his hand and need to be taken to the emergency room. After overcoming the initial disappointment we decided as a group to have a break for lunch and then try and hoped that Viva's husband would be well enough so that Viva could film in the afternoon. However, when we reconvened to try shooting again Viva called to inform us that she could not leave her husband as he was preparing for surgery and she was not able to make it. It was a huge disappointment as we were so prepared and ready to film but it was not meant to be. However, having Viva's husband sick meant that they would not be in such a hurry to move to Tasmania.