Tag: Week 3

Pushing Boundaries: Entering Other Worlds – The world of Audio Documentary

Alaine Thompson on

For this weeks exploration I decided to explore the audio documentary. Since Kyla Brettle showed us some examples of her work in our lectorial this week, I found it very interesting how much more powerful it was to just listen to the content and imagine the situation, rather than both see and hear it simultaneously. I saw the power of audio, as it allows the audience to really, truly create the links in their head, they aren’t as guided by the director and are more free to make up their own mind.

The first audio documentary was simply anthropological observations ad historical recordings of daily life and civilisations, much like the “first films shot by Edison and the Lumière brothers — no edits or narration or stories.” (Carrier, 2014) The first incident of this was in 1890, when “an anthropologist named Jesse Walter Fewkes used a phonograph to record the songs and speech of the Passamaquoddy Indians of eastern Maine. For many decades this was the extent of audio documentary — recording oral history and music.” (Carrier, 2014)

Some examples from 1890 (Carrier, 2014):

Snake Dance:

Mr. Phonograph:

Kyla Brettle is a prolific producer of audio documentaries, such as ‘Trauma’ which, “In a kaleidoscopic style shifting between observational and experiential forms of documentary, Mark Fitzgerald, the Director of Emergency Services takes us into the heart of his department – a place where dramatic, life-changing events occur with relentless regularity against a background of routine order. As staff and patients share their experiences of either unexpectedly arriving at the hospital or coming home from it every day, documentary maker Kyla Brettle seeks to discover what place the big questions about life, society and human nature have in an environment that by definition strives to maintain the mechanics of life from one moment to the next.” (ABC, 2013)

“Why radio? Why documentary? Answer: No other medium can provide me with more freedom of creation and investigation. It meets my urgent interest in reality and the desire for a ‘musical’ expression. The material (der Werkstoff) is sound. And sound always surrounds us. And: I’m not so much interested in the description of stable situations, but in processes. Our medium is not space, but time; our stories are not glued to the ground, but have motion, life … That’s why!” – Helmut Kopetzky, German author, Self-portrait

 – Carrier, Scott. ” A Brief History of Documentary Forms. 6. NPR & Radio Docs.” Apr. 3rd 2014. Available at: http://transom.org/2014/brief-history-of-documentary-forms/
 – ABC. “Trauma.” Oct. 20th 2013. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayfeature/trauma/5032004

Pushing Boundaries: Entering Other Worlds

Alaine Thompson on

Today in our lectorial we had 2 guest lecturers, Anne Lennox and Kyla Brettle.

Anne came to talk to us, in brief about copyright in Australia and other countries. It was interesting to find out how our work is automatically protected here in Australia, but in America, there are unfortunately a large number of hoops to go through before a work can be copyrighted. Listening to Anne gave me a much greater appreciation for Australian legislation (in some areas) and allowed me to understand the impact copyright can have on my work. I found it interesting that under ‘fair dealing’, it’s ok to use copyrighted work so long as it’s for research and study, criticism and review, reporting news, and parody and satire.

Kyla came to talk to us about her experiences in the industry, which seem to have evolved through non-fiction, going from documentary film, to radio documentary, and various forms of journalism in between. I found it very interesting listening to Kyla talk about all of her amazing experiences, which never would have happened, had she not decided to poke at the boundaries she saw herself within. Not just the amazing people and situations she told us about constantly observing, but also the courage to transition from the widely used and distributed medium of the film documentary to the radio documentary, a lesser known, yet equally, if not more powerful medium. Listening to examples of Kyla’s work was quite amazing, as I found it even more overpowering than a film documentary, as the imagery is left entirely up to you and your own mind, your own relative experiences, to fill the gaps, allowing a strangely personal bond to occur.

Kyla talked about how difficult and worthwhile it is to stretch yourself and get out of your comfort zone and how rewarding it can be to see things unfold that you normally would never experience on a purely observational level. She spoke about how difficult it was for her to do these things but how worthwhile it was in the long run and all the amazing things she’s been able to do throughout her career.

I feel like I myself am at a stage where I could go the path that Kyla has, pushing not just the social boundaries of our society through her observations, but pushing the boundaries within herself. Or I could go the other way and choose to take no physical action, instead staying in the artificial world known as the internet. I feel as though I am at a turning point. And what better place to turn around and change then at university. And hey, why not blog about it too.

 

Self Portrait Reveals

Alaine Thompson on

Today we revealed our self portraits and explained why we chose to create those products, as well as gave feedback to all the other people in our little groups of five as through the use of four of the De Bono six thinking hats. Either the ‘positive’ yellow hat, ‘gut reaction’ red hat, ‘there’s something wrong here’ black hat, or ‘oooh! Now do this!’ green hat.

six thinking hats

It was surprisingly comforting having all these creative minds appreciate and accept my work and give me advice and ideas and inspiration. I was so anxious for no apparent reason and it felt so good to just de-stigmatize so many things for myself through photos and film and audio. I can’t wait to try and create a one minute fluid sequence with new, fresh ideas, footage and images as well as some old ones from this project.