Year: 2022

Throughout the past 4 weeks in science, we have been tasked with an engineering project to construct an earthquake-proof tower made of spaghetti and blu-tack in groups of 3. Through this time, we went through a step-to-step process including, defining, researching, designing, creating, testing, evaluating, and sharing our experiences. When creating our tower, we had to keep in mind regulations such as 60cm in height, 30x30cm base (Max), and a keeping costing under $60 (one spaghetti cost $1, same as a gram of blu-tack).

The main purpose of this project is to educate us on how towers constructed today are built to withstand and force of P, S, and Surface waves generated in an earthquake. Furthermore, when we tested our towers we could see how well engineering strategies to earthquake-proof a tower work in a simulation and whether or not the strategy that we implemented would be the best for buildings in our world today.

In this process I am quite happy with how our group designed, create, etc. Even though my group wasn’t entirely successful I was still able to learn what worked and what doesn’t in a real-world situation. Our group had many disruptions with absentees (some of them I’m to blame) however we worked around this still being able to create a masterpiece, that still didn’t meet all regulations. From this experience what I would do differently in the engineering process is research how successful earthquake-proof buildings are constructed and also how buildings in earthquake-dense areas are constructed rather than this as a general topic. This would help me understand on a deeper level, therefore, leading to me further constructing our tower in a better way.

My final evaluation of the project however is that it is very entertaining compared to the basic test and more projects should be made like this one in the future.

Describe the process you went through to create your production.

During the process of the creation of Bootyman, our group went through a process that both made it easier for us as well as making us more efficient.  At the very beginning of our process, we had to decide on what our film had to be, after our group brainstormed ideas, we landed on the Bootyman, a humorous film that has elements of the boogieman in it. After deciding on this idea as a group we all created a script and storyboard to outline the plot and characters of our film. After finalizing this document, we got to filming. This was the main girth of the process however mostly the easiest. Finally, we edited the film where we added the final touches to finish it all off.

How did you come up with the original idea?

Our group used our own creativity, and all collaborated to shape the base idea of the Bootyman. From this base idea, we gained more inspiration from movies/tv shows that we had already seen. Once this general idea was formed our group created the script to follow a similar storyline to horror films that had already been made. In the end, our finalized idea was created from an array of sources that all influenced the creation of the Bootyman. We also decided upon the Bootyman being in the same universe as OMJ (Old man Jenkins) creating the Jenkins verse which we also hint in the film.

Describe three obstacles or challenges that you encountered when creating your production.

Three obstacles that our group experienced were the completion of our script, having people away to film scenes, and finishing the film by the deadline. The first obstacle was the least worrying out of the three although was quite challenging, while shaping our story we found it hard to fit all the information we wanted in the actual film, so we ended up cutting quite a lot of scenarios and plot choices. The second struggle wasn’t one that we could get around, we just had to work around people being absent and work with what we had each day. The last struggle with finishing our film we ended up cutting even more of our film out just to get it done by the deadline however I am happy with how it turned out.

What would you do differently next time? In the creation of Bootyman the thing that I would do differently is managed our time more efficiently to allow for us to pack all the plot and extra scenes into our movie. This also was one of our main letdowns. In the Bootyman there were many debatable plot choices that we had to cut because of time, next time by managing it better we can add everything we wanted into our film (e.g. in the Bootyman: The Booty World). However, in the end, I am still happy with our finalized product.             

The case of John Button in 1963 is the case of a man who was wronged in the court of law and convicted for a murder he didn’t commit. John was only 19 years old at the time when his girlfriend Rosemary Anderson was run over by a car driven by a serial killer of the time Eric Cooke. John was then put on trial in the same year and later imprisoned for approximately 5.5 years of his life (a 10-year sentence but freed via appeal). His court case highlighted many flaws and very few strengths in the Australian legal system at the time. Within John’s court case, the Principles of Justice were mainly compromised while very few were supported. The Australian Justice System isn’t perfect and will never be. However, these Principles of Justice allow for criminal/civil cases to be decided in the fairest way. In regard to the case, the common Principles of Justice applicable to this conflict are equality before the law, high-quality evidence, and the right to silence. These principles of justice within the case were all compromised and consistent during the whole case which affected the outcome of the case.

Equality before the law or legal equality is a principle of justice to which each and every person much be subject to and abide by the same rules/laws of justice. No one can be discriminated against regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, income level, national origin, colour, disabilities, and any other characteristics that can single out people. This is very important in any court case because in the court of law the other Principles of Justice revolve around this such as the right to a fair trial. This is where the verdict (judge or jury’s decision) should be based on subsequent evidence and not personalized traits that directly point out key characteristics of the case leading to either the innocence or guilt of the defendant. In the John Button court case this aspect was neither followed by the law court nor the police where both parties believed from the start that John was the one who committed the crime. A clear example of this in the court case was in 1964 when the serial killer Eric Cooke who was later discovered for committing the murder came out and confessed that he did it however neither the court nor police listened. Instead, they both passed over the confession and still believed that John was the murderer just because he was present before the crime and also being the boyfriend of Rosemary. This clearly violated the principle which later cost 5.5 years of John’s life in jail. On the other hand, however, there wasn’t entirely much media coverage of the case meaning that the court of law or police couldn’t have been further influenced. Although this played a part in the case it didn’t change the outcome. One way how to uphold legal equality better is by both the police and law court assessing the crime and seeing what has really happened before rushing to conclusions, this allows for other possible confessions or evidence to come up. In the end, this factor demonstrates that this Principle of Justice was not upheld in the court of law in regard to the John Button case.

The principle of high-quality evidence in regard to the court of law is where the evidence used in a court cannot be presumed or forged by the law enforcement/court. This aspect is very important in the Australian Legal system because it ensures that all the court cases are discovering the truth of any crime and not just one person’s own experience. Within this court case, this principle was again violated without any regard by both the court and the police force. An example of how this principle was miscarried was in the investigating process, this was when the police had no regard for finding proper evidence of the case and just putting the man they thought was guilty in jail, being John. In 1963 while the police were sweeping the crime, they did not investigate any other possibilities and concluded that the car that hit Rosemary was John’s car while he was driving it, they didn’t even consider any other options and immediately landed upon the easy solution. After this presumed evidence was found the court didn’t follow up on its sources and instead blamed the murder on John. There was also not any time points when this principle was upheld in the court of law during John’s case. A way of ensuring that evidence is of higher quality in the legal system is by getting multiple people to investigate the crime and not just one. If it is only one person, they could go off their opinion when sourcing evidence. To end upon this example this clearly conveys to us that this principle was compromised in John’s case.

The principle of the right to silence is where a suspect is entirely allowed within their own rights to remain silent while being detained, arrested, or interrogated. This means that they are entitled to that of which the police cannot force anything out of the suspect. This is important in the legal system because it doesn’t allow for the police or court to force false confessions and find other false evidence that affects the case. It also allows for the legal system to follow another principle the presumption of innocence. In relation to the Button court case, this Principle of Justice was followed by the court however the police heavily disregarded this aspect. An example of this is when the police were gathering evidence after the murder of Rosemary, they were in the stages of interrogating their prime suspect John. With their hardest attempts, they eventually turned to other solutions while presuming that John really did kill her. They then forced a false confession through long hours of interrogation knowing that John had suffered trauma in the past, this clearly passed the boundary and violated the principle. Although this is again only half the story, on the other hand with the law court this principle was somewhat upheld. This is due to the court respecting John’s rights and approaching the matter with more legal regard that in fact followed the outline of the principle, but they still took the forced confession as evidence that then led to John losing the case. One way of protecting a person’s right to silence in and out of court is for the court to double-check its sources of evidence and confessions with those primary sources and to also regulate the police force to ensure that the Principles of Justice are upheld. This example of the case demonstrates how the court somewhat followed the principle and the police didn’t, this conveys to us that this Principle of Justice was compromised.

In 1963 John Button was falsely accused and imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit. Over the duration of his court case, we were able to outline key factors of the Australian Legal system that are both strong and weak in regard to the Principles of Justice. The examples presented were principles that were turned aside and compromised in John’s case leading to his imprisonment for 5.5 years. These principles were equality before the law, the right to silence, and high-quality evidence. The majority of these were again passed over among many other cases. However, John’s case highlights how the justice system is and will always be imperfect. The above examples still outline to this day how if only the legal system didn’t assume from the start that John was guilty then the resolution would have been over without costing 5.5 years of an innocent man’s life. The Miscarriage of Justice was heavily presented in this case.

This term we have been researching possible job offers that we looked into, and we had to find three possible jobs that look appealing to us. My final decision was to research the job of an actor since it appeals to me with me being highly interested in acting.

As seen in the table above actors need a very specialized skill set to be able to be successful, for actors you need many years of experience and built up skills for specific roles. Acting is very specialised and hard to achieve.

The graph above shows the main employment industries that actors can be employed in, as seen there is a very small range that adds to the difficulty of the job

Interesting facts-

• Size: This is a very small occupation.
• Location: Actors work in many parts of Australia. New South Wales and Victoria have a large share of workers.
• Industries: Most work in Arts and Recreation Services; Information Media and Telecommunications; and Education and Training.
• Full-time: Less than half work full-time (35%, less than the average of 66%), showing there are many opportunities to work part-time.
• Hours: Full-time workers spend around 44 hours per week at work (compared to the average of 44 hours).
• Age: The average age is 37 years (compared to the average of 40 years).
• Gender: 46% of workers are female (compared to the average of 48%)

Here is a link to an interview that gives further insight on how to get your first acting job-

Interview with Stevie Ray from McGregor Casting (Top Casting Agent Interview) – YouTube