Tumgik
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 12:
My last week at RMIT already. Sometimes I felt like time was going very slowly in Vietnam, but looking back on the last 3.5 months now, it seems like all that time just flew right past me. It’s a hectic last week, with a lot of big deadlines all coming down at the same time. We did manage to hand in our magazine last week, one day before the deadline even, because I was at my internship on friday and didn’t think it would be manageable to still edit the magazine on that day. Now to the overall reflection of the last 12 weeks, where to begin? My style for all these blogs has been very down-to-earth and relatively informal, so I’ll just say that while writing this I’m actually feeling a bit sad about bringing this exchange to a close. Over the past three months of being an exchange student at RMIT Vietnam, I learned an incredible amount, especially in the Making Media class. Both my father and my grandfather are and have been journalists, and for me to become one too has always been an ambition. My current bachelor in the Netherlands (Global Sustainability Science), is very scientific and dives more into scientific branches and skills in data analysis. Although I have pursued photography as a hobby for a couple of years, I have never had a proper incentive or guidance with it. Making Media changed all that; Applying my Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop skills has been rewarding, and learning a whole new world of information on programs such as adobe InDesign and Audacity has opened new doors for me. Not only has this course taught me to use these programs, Erik has also showed us how to find sounds we can use in Audacity, with free websites such as freesound.org being a great resource, not only in the podcast assignment for example, but also in the future if I work with audio assignments again.
Like other courses I have taken at RMIT this semester, Making Media has been a first-time encounter with a course of its kind, and I’m really grateful that this semester, I was able to lay so many foundations for new potential paths I may take in the future. I believe Making Media has laid the strongest foundation however, as it comes closest to my ambition to be a journalist. Sure, there is a long way to go to actually becoming one, and this course is by far not everything you need to get there, but it has opened new doors for me. I also think Erik’s teaching style was great, always using humor to try and keep the mood friendly. Something I always enjoyed seeing was Erik speaking english the whole lesson, only to say one word in Vietnamese in a flawless accent and watching all students react like they saw water burning. The “OOHHHH” that followed Erik’s chosen word in vietnamese was always hilarious, also because I couldn’t follow either party on what was being said.
One point of criticism I have to the class is that I feel as though sometimes the classes were moving along quite slow, which is a matter of the curriculum. My recommendation would be that more time was spent on actual hard skills in using the programs, during class. For the podcast and magazine assignments, some (bad) examples would have been useful, with a detailed explanation of why it is bad or good. I think a lot of students could benefit from this because they would know right from the get-go at least what NOT to do.
So as my last blog comes to a close, I would like to thank Erik for his undying enthusiasm to teach and to some of my classmates that made my time in, as well as outside of class, more enriching. Tạm biệt việt nam!
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media
An edit I made in Photoshop for Utrecht University’s instagram page. The left half is Utrecht and the right half is  Ho Chi Minh City
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 11:
Happy new year! I’ll start with the new year’s celebration itself, which we started at an all-you-can-eat/drink, on a rooftop restaurant. The price was 700.000 VND, which is quite pricey, but very little if you compare it to what you would get for this price in the Netherlands on new-years eve. We had a great start to the night, making the most out of the bottomless dinner and beer. At around 11.30 we travelled to Bui Vien walking street, where we were for the count-down. I did miss my family a lot in that moment, because for the past 18 years I have always spent new-years with them, and it felt strange with all the strangers around me. Regarding more academically relevant things, I did my photo walk with Huy this week, which was a great deal of fun and was very successful. We interviewed several ‘scooter owners’, and I took sharp portraits of them. After we took them and I got home, I spent around an hour editing them all in Adobe Lightroom, because although my camera is a DSLR, it is quite cheap and usually doesn’t capture the light/contrast right. After the editing, I sent the photos to Huy and Mari-Louise, who were both happy with the results. I also picked up my motorcycle on the 31st of December, a Honda XR 150. I’ve rented it for two weeks now and will use it to get around town and hopefully travel to Vung Tau before I have to go back to the Netherlands. I spent the last day of 2018 driving around the city by myself aimlessly and ended up parking it somewhere in district 10, near a market. As I walked through it, some men sitting at the entrance of a house, signalled at me to come over to them to have a drink with them. Me, not having anything better to do and actually waiting for something unique to happen, didn’t back away from this chance to get better acquainted with the locals. They served me a type of strong liquor and told me to wash it down with a type of raw meat. I did as I was told and was immediately poured another. I turned the second one down as I still had to drive a while later and didn’t really feel like drinking at 2 pm. A few moments later one of the men went inside and got his son outside, a kid of around 12. His english was near fluent and he stayed with us to translate whatever superficial conversation there was. The father then brought a set of tea cups along with tea, and kept serving me more whenever I finished my cup. At some point he even replaced the basic tea cups with beautiful ceramic ones, probably because he saw me as a guest and wanted to be hospitable. Then he asked his son to invite me to their house later for their new-years celebration, even though we had just met ten minutes before and couldn’t understand the slightest of what either of us were saying. I said no as I had my own plans, but was so incredibly humbled by this hospitality. It is an encounter that I will never forget from my time in Vietnam.
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Link
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1: Men and women sit in the shadows, during the hottest hours of the day
Photo 2: Two men pose for a photo in their scooter-cleaning store
photo 3-4: Two men and their scooters pose for a photo
Photo 5: Drinking tea with a father and son I had met 10 minutes before
Photo 6: A soup I had ordered at a street-food restaurant. The price for the soup and a sugar can juice was 1.20€.
Photo 7: Bui Vien a few minutes before 12 o’clock on new years
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 10:
My first christmas outside of the cold has been an experience in its own. It felt strange to walk around Ho Chi Minh City in a T-Shirt and see all the christmas decoration, just like back home in Europe. Only difference was the temperature; give or take a 30°C difference. Anyways, this week held a lot more in store. Recently I approached my home university on their instagram account, and asked them if I could a 24 hour take-over (post the experiences of my day on their account story, a feature which expires after 24 hours online). To my surprise, they were incredibly forthcoming and within a week they had sent me the password to their 18.000+ follower account, and gave me more or less the freedom to design my own story. I did the takeover last wednesday, and was quite nervous at first, because their stories are viewed by more than 4.000 people (only a fraction of followers actively look at stories). It went great however and it has taught me a lot about how to handle the spotlight on social media, a stage which is only growing with more and more people joining instagram every day. During the take-over day, Nhi, a fellow making media student took me around town on her scooter, and showed me places where I could report my stories. We had a great day together and I’m really thankful to her for being so forthcoming and warm. Furthermore, I participated in a film-shoot at RMIT this week, where I was supposed to represent a “out-of-the-box, cool” character. The film-shoot will be a commercial for RMIT and might even be shown in cinemas as advertisement. It was my first direct encounter with such an acting experience, and it was amazing. The team was incredible and I think we’ll meet up again for drinks or dinner at some point. Today (Tuesday, the 25th) we were supposed to have making media, but as its christmas, all classes are cancelled. Instead, I spent the day walking around district 1 and 2, taking in the raw street vibes and taking photos wherever I could, I still have to edit the photos but I’m really happy with how they look. Also, I’ve discussed with Mari-louise and Huy, and we are going to take the photos of people on scooters soon, for our magazine article. Huy and I will walk around district 1 together, letting Huy translate, while I take photos.
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1: Our christmas dinner. A whole lot of meat
Photo 2-7: Some photos I took the day after christmas, during a walk throught district 1 and 2 
Photo 8: A screenshot of my phone after my university instagram take-over. I needed to get a video of me talking for maximum 15 seconds, talking about how it is to take a scooter around Ho Chi Minh City
Photo 9-10: Snaps from the video shoot I did on the weekend, with the crew
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 9:
This week was dominated by two events; Vietnam’s victory over Malaysia in the Suzuki cup, and my internship on Monday and Friday. For the final match, I went to Nguyen Hue with my housemates, where I was shocked to see how insanely crowded it was. It took us several minutes to cover a distance of a few metres, only because the sidewalk was overflowed with excited Vietnam supporters. Good thing I’m relatively tall for Vietnamese standards (1,85m), so that I could still watch the game on the screen from the sidewalk. Once we found a free spot, not too far from one of the many screens, we decided to stay and enjoy the game from there. Halfway the match I climbed into a tree, and was able to see over the whole crowd, which was an amazing view. Thousands of heads, all facing screens, waiting for the magical moment when Vietnam would win the match and thus the championship for the first time in 10 years. When Vietnam did finally win, the city went mad. I thought I had seen it all when I was in Berlin when Germany won the world championship in 2014, but as I found out, the Vietnamese could party so much harder for a victory so much seemingly smaller. A contrasting event to that this week, was my monday and friday at the internship in the factory. On monday I didn’t have much to do and spent the day counting minutes, something which is only makes it seem like there are more minutes. Friday was more interesting, with meetings on how to reduce electricity usage in the factory’s refrigeration system.   This week
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1: A photo of me getting ready for the football final match between Vietnam and Malaysia
Photo 2: Vietnamese watch the game at Nguyen Hue
Photo 3: People celebrate the victory on the streets afterwards
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 8:
This week was somewhat of a rollercoaster. On Sunday Lee came to Ho Chi Minh City, a guy from Laos that I had randomly met while waiting on the train in Berlin, Germany. He came to me asking if his ticket was valid for the route he was taking, and although it wasn’t, my ticket technically covered both of us and we had to travel to the same destination. Thus we ended up talking for an hour or so, and when we split ways, we exchanged facebook contacts. That was more than two years ago, and out of that random encounter in Berlin, became a day of exploring Ho Chi Minh City together. This is for me a great example of how social media can make way for opportunities and unlikely friendships like these. Furthermore, I started my internship at a milk factory in Binh Duong, a great distance away from my apartment. I first went there this Monday, and had to get up at 5 am to be there at 7.30 am sharp. The company is called FrieslandCampina, but is more commonly known in Vietnam as Dutch Lady. The company is Dutch and I had already figured out I was going to do it when I was still in the Netherlands, so I visited the factory and R&D facilities while I was still there. My first day at the internship was a tricky one, because I realized that nearly all employees have miserable english skills, making any talks quite hard. Especially when it gets technical, like discussing ideas in meetings, it was very hard to be sure that both parties were on the same page.   Furthermore, I partnered up with Mari-Louise for the magazine article in the making media class. While we were having lunch together we realized that we were both about to work on the magazine alone, and decided we would be good working partners. I think it will be a great collaboration, as she wants to mainly write, while I can focus on the photography.
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1: The Vietnamese flag, the Dutch flag and the FrieslandCampina flag. It was the first day at my internship
Photo 2: Inside the factory
Photo 3: Lee and I, the guy I had met in Berlin for an hour and then again in Ho Chi Minh City
Photo 4: Traffic jam in Ho Chi Minh City 
Photo 5: The refrigerators are not covered in the supermarkets. This is incredible to me because it wastes so much energy 
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 7:
Week 7, break week. This week I travelled to the Philippines to visit a friend that I hadn’t seen in over two years. We went to high school in Berlin, Germany together, and were both starting out with photography at the same time. Because he didn’t have sufficient grades, the school expelled him and since he was only in Germany on a educational visa, the government forced him to leave. He went back to his home country, the Philippines, where I have now finally met up with him again. It was an incredible week, where we caught up on everything we could and travelled to some of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. We went snorkeling one day and as I was completely awed by the beauty of the corals, a sea-turtle slowly passed by me. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and I will always have that memory as a highlight of my exchange in Vietnam. We also stayed on a volcanic island for two nights, where we rented a motorcycle and toured all the way up to the peak. We hiked to waterfalls, drove off-road and nearly lost our motorcycle in the mud, relaxed at the beach and visited the party corner of the island. I was sad to go back to the mainland and then fly back to Vietnam, but was also looking forward to the peace of my own home again.
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1: My friend and in on the top of a volcanic mountain in Puerto Galera, Philippines. We had rented a motorbike and travelled around the whole island with it
Photo 2: The view of Puerto Galera from an altitude
Photo 3: My friend and I infront of a sand sculpture made for touristic photos like this
Photo 4: A selfie of me snorkeling in crystal-clear water 
Photo 5: A waterfall in Puerto Galera
Photo 6: My friend and I during the night in Manila, Philippines
Photo 7: A philippino taxi; a motorcycle with a extra cabin attached 
Photo 8: A coconut farmer with his ox
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 6:
This past week had me bound at home, due to assignments and typhoons coming on the radar. The assignments have been stressing me out a bit, but there’s nothing as relaxing as a heavy rain storm outside when you’re in the comforts of your own four walls, with a window tilted open. After submitting our podcast on friday evening, I had some time to chill, so I went to a karaoke bar, which I’ve wanted to do ever since arriving here, because it is a very traditional thing to experience here in Vietnam. A combination of a high-tech karaoke system, a private room and cheap beer, let everyone loosen up enough to have their go at the microphone, and although most of us probably thought we were fantastic at singing in the moment (including me), I saw on videos the next morning that I was definitely not.
During the class on Tuesday, Erik took us through the basics of photojournalism, talking about both the key ingredients needed for a striking image, but also on how to write content to go with it.  I felt well-prepared for the photography part, but enjoyed the advice he gave regarding the writing. I have decided for this assignment to work alone, because I want to explore my own creativity and learn a lot about photojournalism.
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Audio
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Photo 1-3: During class, we had to create “scary” edits. These were some of the ideas we came up with 
Photo 4: A screenshot of the weatherapp ‘windy.com’ showing the typhoon coming closer to Ho Chi Minh City
0 notes
jaspermakingmedia · 5 years
Text
Week 5:
It seems like the trips never end, but this weekend I spent in Can Tho, the third biggest city in Vietnam. I had planned to meet with a friend there, whom I had first met in Mui Ne, a couple weeks earlier. He came down from Cambodia, and I took the sleeper bus from Ho Chi Minh City. Although Can Tho has such a big population (1.52 million), there was incredibly little to do. We both arrived in Can Tho in the evening, went out for dinner and some beers and then decided to call it an early night so we could visit the floating market the following morning. So, as planned, the next morning off we went, to this floating market which Can Tho is probably most famous for. By the time we had explored the market and were back in Can Tho, it was only 10 am, and the list of things to do in Can Tho was not big. We visited a mall, had some lunch, and then decided to cancel our next night in Can Tho and go back to Ho Chi Minh City instead, because we had completely run out of ideas of what to do there.
When I came back to Ho Chi Minh City, my team and I discussed how to incorporate another interview from a student with Myopia into the podcast, and Vi Anh told us she had a classmate with glasses who was willing to help. She did the interview, and then also transcribed it. I refined my interview with Ms. Chau and Mr. Shaipudin and sent it to Vi Anh so she could put everything into the final podcast. In the class on tuesday, we were almost done but still had some editing to do, as well as filling out the transcribe form. Then, Erik introduced us to the second assignment already, which was going to be about a magazine cover and an article in there with at least eight photos to accompany it. I loved the concept of this assignment as I am an avid photographer and I want to improve my photo-journalism skills.
0 notes