Blurb:

After having a warm bath to soothe his pulsating headache, Ed Rickards collapses on his bathroom floor. 3 days later he wakes up with no memory of where he is or who the people were at his bedside.

This photo was taken before the interview took place. I made sure to place the interviewee in the right side of the frame as it formed an asymetrical balance to the background elements

A screenshot from the Finished Film. I applied a blend mode on the fish tank so when overlapped with the interview photo, would cause saturation of specific areas

1. 1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?
      So far I’m framing the participant (Ed) in a situation which he had no control in. I can kind of shape him as a survivor as he had a 1/10 chance of dying. I can also shape him as a reformer because he has looked back and re-evaluated his life and his memories. If I unpack his story carefully I will be able to have distinct zone where these ‘controlling ideas’ are evident.

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   1.  How is your portrait film structured?  (Remember there might be multiple forms of structure employed)  E.g. Discussion and depiction of an event or process? A Journey? Use of voiceover narration? Other?
      This will be both a journey narrative and a voiceover narration. I’m going to make it so that it seems like the participant is just narrating the video but at the end finally show him in motion in an interview setting. I’m going to make it so there are three (or four) zones. The introduction (before the title reveal) will have a sharp statement to attract the audience to his story. The second zone will explain how the interviewee lost his memory. The final sequence will be a reflection of what happened. It will show how he lives on.

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   1. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? (e.g. What are you saying through them and/or human nature, human folly, or noble human inspiration?)
      Through the interviewee, I want to emphasis to the audience how fragile life can be, or show how simple problems such as a headache, can turn into a life or death situation. Most importantly I want the audience to sympathies with the interviewee and connect with him. Most people wouldn’t have been in his situation but everyone has family and memories which are precious. His family could have lost him and he could have forgotten his family.

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   1. How is your portrait being narrated? Why? How does it affect the structure?
      The interviewee narrates the majority of the portrait. BUT friends and family have told most of the information to him because he was unable to remember what happened. For this reason he has multiple perspectives and conflicting views. I will have to be careful how I structure the narrative so it makes sense. Showing the interviewee talking at the end will also give the video better structure because it make it look as if it is current time, looking back on his experiences (which were narrated).

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   1. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait? For example, reinforcement? Ironic counterpoint? Contrast? Comparison? Other?
      The found footage I will definitely compliment the narrative. I will use footage from ‘Dead men Walk’ and ‘The indestructible Man’, which obviously work well with the theme of the documentary. I will get footage from when they are creating the indestructible man such as the electric bolts followed by a shot of the indestructible mans head to represent the seizure and the change his brain is going through. When the indestructible man wakes up, the narration will also be talking about waking up. the footage will act to visualise the audio narration.

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   1. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point?
      I think the portrait will have at least two or three turning points (if that’s even possible in three minutes). Like I said earlier I there will be a very abrupt sentence at the start of the film which will entice the audience into the narrative. They will know there will be a dramatic turning point somewhere. I think the main drama will come from the coma sequence and the waking up sequence where the interviewee doesn’t remember who anyone is.

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   1. When does this turning point happen  in your portrait and why? At the beginning? At the end? Two-thirds through?
      Id like to think that there will be various turning pints in the portrait. The centre one, which is when he falls into and out of a coma will be in the middle, or 2/5th of the way in. Obviously the Ed is still alive because he is narrative, so, being that this event happened in the middle, will make the audience want to watch right though to the end to find out how he has progressed.

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   1. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
      The portrait will gather momentum from the start as the audience is plunged into “I didn’t know who my Mum of dad were” or a narration a long those lines. I’ve chosen three songs with will lift the audience into each narrative zone. The songs have no words but they are constantly evolving with the narration. The pace of the narration will also be in time with the music so its not like I’ve just chucked music over narration. The momentum will also be maintained via thoughtful planning of the narrative. I don’t want to sell the candy too early so I will have to pace each zone into separate climaxes.

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   1. Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from? The gradual exposition of an overall situation? A volcanic, climactic moment? An impending change or crisis? The contrast between what the interviewee talks about and the found footage?
      The dramatic tension will build from the first words as previously said (I don’t think its necessary to talk about them again). I will throw the audience into the situation. Each of the two or three peaks will give the portrait tension. the found footage will compliment the narration. I will select clips that demonstrate emotions of fear, curiosity or ‘awakening’.

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   1. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution? Outline them.
      I feel like the climax and the resolution will mash over each other in the end. Every documentary needs a resolution and without a resolution, the climax will be crummy.  Climaxes usually happen just before the end but i hope to have a few throughout the 3minutes

Does good equipment matter? i think it does.

This week and last week we tested the Sony MC50 and the Zoom H2N. I remember i always wanted to own a camera like the MC50 but it was until a few years ago that i realised how horrible these camcorders actually were. These were some reasons why i didnt like it.
1.  The picture quality isn’t great especially when you take into account the file size per second (24mb)
2. It saves the video in a AVCHD format which is annoying to export onto the computer.
3. The one board shotgun mic is very bad quality and has lots of noise in the background
4. Interlaced video and not progressive
5. Its REALLY hard to find things in the settings menus

Compared to a DSLR like the Canon 6D (while i use), the picture quality doesn’t compare at all. Yes the 6D is a more expensive camera (by about $700), but the quality is superior (the shallow focus and tonal depth). You can change the lens on a DSLR where as camcorders have fixed lenses. I will not be using the MC50 for future projects

I have worked with an H4n before which made working with the H2n very easy. For others it might seem like a hard piece of hardware but I found that the simplicity of its design very user friendly . Its audio quality is pretty much the same as the H4n although it does have less inputs. I will probably borrow a H2n for the approaching Brief 3.

One thing that kind of bugs me is when people say the ‘equipment doesn’t matter its the plot/narrative that does’. I understand that plot is one of the most important elements in a production, but there needs to be some level of professionalism to accompany.

There are films which are solely filmed on iPhones but the only thing they have going for them is the message that anyone can make a feature length film.I think its an inspirational gimmick. If its an experimental film, sure thats fine. With student projects it does matter because the plot/narrative ideas are usually under developed which is why we need to overcompensate with good technology and practice. I’ve been filming my previous projects and exercises on my iPhone because the quality didn’t matter. It was more about the subject matter and the meaning.

The point i’m trying to make is that for student films, we ‘need’ the quality equipment because otherwise our videos quickly fall flat.

(I do acknowledge that as first years we deserve to get the lower end equipment and work our way up slowly. I also acknowledge that the equipment RMIT loans us costs a lot)

What problems did you encounter?
When i was editing I found that the audio quality was subpar even when using the lapel on the SONY MC50. We also forgot to record an ambient track.

What did you try to do to get past or mitigate these?
To get past this i fine tuned the audio track using compressors and noise reductors. I also placed music into the sequence to slightly mask the chatter in the background.

What did you discover about camera technique (e.g. composition, framing?)
Its important to position the interviewee to the right of the frame, and the interviewer behind the camera to the left (or versa). This means the interviewee is less likely to stare into the lens, and also gives the composition a visual gap where they can talk through.

What problems did you encounter? What did you try to do to get past or mitigate these?
Occasional popping would occur when speaking too close to the mic. To get past this we would give notice to the operator with the headphones on before shouting into the recorder (courtesy), or we would just speak further away from teh mic.

What were your most successful recordings?
The well planned and tested ones. We recorded in the space as a test and then we would make actual recordings as heard in the Soundcloud.

Did you have difficulty getting ‘clean’ sound – ie good ‘signal to noise ratio’?
At some times background noise was impossible to avoid. There was a high pitched frequency in the toilet interview. It couldnt be avoided but could be fixed in post production. Especially filming outside near the basketball courts, is was nearly impossible to get clear audio with teh basket balls bouncing in the background.

This was the final mixdown in Audition
AS you can see, the larger areas in red are where there is the most noise in the audio (near the end when we were outside), and the audio with gaps is where there is least noise(the middle)

Haiku project: I decided to edit the footage loosely to the rhythm of the music with the robotic voice reading the Haiku, complementing both the visuals and audio. I chose the footage from the drive based on its frame placement and its subject matter. In the video i have coupled the footage of tram moving with the phrase in the Haiku “naked i am riding”. On a almost subconscious level these two elements pair. the robotic voice and the deep syths also have a sense of unity. This type of element of complementing ot which is very important to my projects

This week in our workshop we went over peer analysis, the ‘Coloured Hats’ system. While im still pretty confused on what they actually mean i see why using this system can be useful. It directs clear thinking attention in one direction at a time, help avoid jargon as someone backtracks a possible negative criticism. It allows for equal talk all aspects of someones work. Primarily each seperate Hat specialises in management, information, emotion, discernment, optimistic response and creativity.

At one point i had the ‘green hat’ on. The ‘creative hat’ is meant to generate ideas on how the ‘thing’ can be better and solve a solution to the previously said discernments. I ended up critiquing the video and had to backtrack quickly to avoid an argument.

While i see the Hat system has merit i don’t like it. Its just too ‘robotic’ and considerate. I think conversation shouldn’t be formalised.