Make your own documentary!

Introduction

The Governments proposed changes to the workplace relation's act 1996 have generated intense controversy. Unionists claim they will break the law and go to jail rather than comply with the new legislation. Business groups suggest that unless we make these changes Australia may become a third world country. In the new post globalization world order we may end being the butlers and housemaids for high tech entrepreneurs living in India, Finland and China. Your task is to prepare your own documentary using MS Producer or Microsoft Movie if you are familiar with it evaluating the impact of these changes on our economy.

The Task

Prepare a 5-minute documentary evaluating the impact of the amendments to the workplace relation's act on the Australian Economy. (This includes their impact on you!)

Key questions to get started

• Will we be better or worse off as a result of the act?
• What will happen to our standard of living? (Material and non-material)
• Will a more efficient labor market solve the problem of skill shortages?
• What are the costs and benefits of the changes?
• Who are the winners and losers?
• How will these changes affect our rate of economic?
• The distribution of income between persons?
• Our rate of unemployment? Consider the impact on long-term unemployment?
• Will they affect you and your career?
• Will they change the way the labor market works?

Task Requirements

1. 1. You must produce a plan of your proposed documentary. This can be an annotated timeline or a storyboard. Your plan must use some economic terms in the headings. See templates at the back of this document.
2. Your documentary must include at least one edited radio broadcast and at least one edited video clip. Relevant resources are available on the intranet.
3. You must produce a list of costs and benefits of the proposed changes. See template.
4. You must include at least one cause effect diagram of your own design that shows the impact of the changes on at least one economic objective.
5. You must complete a self assessment.

Advice to students

There is a huge amount of audio and visual material on this topic on the Internet. It is impossible for you to either use or view it all. The steps below are designed to help you work your way through this task effectively rather than wasting hours of time viewing materials that are not really relevant.

• The first step is to work out what you want to say about the workplace relation's changes. Draw up a list of headings that cover what you think are the key points. Make sure they address the requirements above. It helps if you use your textbook to jot down some key points about labor markets that should be in your documentary.
• Make use of the audio and video materials provided on the intranet. They are all you need to complete the task. Use Audacity and Producer to edit these files according to your needs.
• You may record more current material on this topic at home. The school's network is to slow for this too practical here. You will need a memory stick of at least half a gig to transfer these to presentation files at school.
• You can make your own material. Use the school's video camera and/ or digital camera's to interview staff members and make your own movie clips where it is necessary. This is quicker than trying to find appropriate material on the Internet.
• There are some technical issues you need to be aware of.
• Make sure you keep back up copies of your producer files and the image and power point files they reference.
• Make sure you save your Producer Presentations using Pack and Go. This is more reliable than just saving in MS Producer.