In this session we spent time discussing Project 3 (a 2 minute video portrait). Everyone in the class took turns to explain their ideas (or in my case lack of ideas). While nothing tangible had yet been created, I could see that others in the class had solid plans for who their subject would be and how they would go about presenting them.
At this point in the week, I was still trying to decide who to focus the piece on, but after explaining my ‘bare-bones’ ideas, Robbie gave me a better idea of how I should go about the project. This project has a fairly quick turnaround and while this means that I’ll have to essentially spend all weekend editing, I do believe that pressure like this provides good practice – in the future (if all goes to plan), I’ll need to be accustomed to similarly tight deadlines, so getting to practice working under pressure now is fairly essential.
In the second half of the class, we were sent out to experiment with, and collect audio samples with the Zoom h2n recorders. In partners, we were tasked with capturing a variety of audio samples in multiple locations. It was good practice to start using this equipment and to learn how to adjust settings such as gain and direction. Alana and I tested out the microphone both outside and indoors, and the samples the recorder captured were interesting to listen to.
I think it’s good that we’re being given chances to learn how to use a variety of filmmaking equipment, as in today’s ‘filmmaking scene’ an expansive range of technology is readily available for us to use. Additionally, smaller crews are now being used by many independent creators, and thus we should aim to have a more broad spectrum of abilities – from handling a camera, tripod, microphone and more (not to mention drones, stabilisers, rigs, lights, etc.).
This activity reminded me of a video I had seen earlier this year – this will be the video I share in this post. It’s a short video from the GoPro YouTube channel (a great resource if you need some motivation) which shows musician ‘Broke For Free’ recording different sounds using a microphone, and then creating music with those sounds. It’s really interesting to see how he layers the different recordings in his music. I recommend watching it (its pretty short).