In the short film rolling made by past students screened in the tute, my first impressions that I got out of the film is that it was a funny, comedy love story. I couldn’t remember about it much in detail, but from what I can remember the story was about a guy who likes a girl for a long time. One day, he visits her who works in a store, however he is too shy to ask her out. I think the script, casting, and timing was pretty organized and well timed out. The two main characters managed to play their characters well. The location was appropriate which helps the camera movement as they had sufficient space for the angles they wanted. In addition, I also liked how they made the story well by using toilet papers and particularly when the guy pretends he wants to buy a whole lot of toilet papers to donate to the orphanage. I think in general they were successful in doing what they were trying to achieve.

From the reading about sight and hearing, a couple of points that I picked up or was completely new to me was that if the eye is entirely won, we should give nothing or almost nothing to the ear. One cannot also be at the same time all eye and all ear. Secondly, when a sound can replace an image, we should cut the image or neutralize it. That is because when the ear goes more towards the within, the eye moves towards the outer. These two points stood out for me because of the eye to ear coordination has to be spot on in order for the film to the successful.

I think that sound plays an important role in the short film Clown Train, as it adds the dramatic tension and element to the atmosphere of the film. From the beginning, what I heard was the sound of a train moving and then, and eerie and scary musics at the background from time to time when the clown reappears a to different seats in the train and then eventually right next to him. I also liked that they added the sound effects of the florescent lights in the train, and how the clown was totally making fun and trying to entice passenger. To make reference to another genre film, the clown totally reminded me of the character Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, who sadly passed away shortly after his role, in the film Dark Knight. From certain scenes, we could draw some obvious similarities between the two. For example, in the interrogation scene between Batman and Joker when Batman was demanding answers from him, they also utilises sounds in a similar way to create drama and tension in a small confined space, which is the interrogation room.

The 2nd week’s reading, Astruc’s main worry was primarily of an aesthatic kind. He maintained that the dominating film industry had failed to grasp that the media products distributed every day to an audience of millions were incomplete in that they were barely able to make use of the communication possibilities inherent in the film medium as language and culture. Astruc’s also contains three implicit conclusions, in addition to the overarching one.

There are several different modes in interactive documentary which are;

1) The conversational mode

2) The hypertext mode

3) The participative mode

4) The experimental mode

These modes are important because each mode creates a dynamic with the user, the author, the artefact and its context.

The two points that stood out for me from the week 2 reading (Slogans for the Screenwriter’s wall). Firstly, that screenplays are not written, instead they are rewritten several times, which also three different which are Long, Too Long, Much Too long. Secondly, the role of antagonist may have to do more to do with the structure of the plot rather than the character of the Protagonist. We should also think through our situations from the point of view of whichever characters oppose the will of the protagonist, if we are stuck for a third act.

A point that excites me from Jasmine’s lecture on Screenwriting that I have taken is that screenplay follows a more rigid set of rules such as protagonist vs antagonist, active protagonist, journey based pilot, as well as 3 act structure. It’s also not like real life, and we create the world, characters, the plot or story, and the beginning, middle and end.

My goals and desires from this semester are to develop extensive or general understanding and knowledge regarding Film/TV Production, following up fram what I learned from the previous semester in Broadcast Media. Also to learn the skills of screenwriting. Apart from that, my main goal would be trying to obtain a high grade, which is hopefully a Distinction or higher from this semester. I am not sure how hard it would be, but I would certainly try my best to achieve that. At the same time also, to have fun with my fellow coursemates. Finally, I also hope that this could help set me up in a career in the media industry and hopefully build a network with future media practitioners.