During my time at Greensborough Shopping Centre, I actively noticed my surroundings by marking (commenting on what I had noticed as I noticed it) and recording (taking a 5 second video of) the things that stuck out to me as interesting or unique. I noticed especially the abundance of green in the shopping centre itself, with a lot of plant life and wooden furnishings around, and made an effort to emphasise this in the footage I recorded. The atmosphere was particularly busy as it was approaching the the afternoon, with people milling about and the sounds of footsteps and general commotion. I also made sure to record both static and moving shots in landscape format as was outlined in our recipe.

While recording footage I also attempted to alternate between shot sizes, with close up shots of certain details (e.g. the floor tiles) and long shots of the ceiling. I discovered that panning from a vantage point gave the observer an interesting perspective, as there is a lot happening in the frame to notice. I also found that tracking shots where the camera was mobile allows the viewer to notice more things as the camera approaches them. This helped add a layer of diversity and visual interest to the footage which I had wanted to improve upon from the last assessment.

As I was obtaining the sound recording of the general atmosphere, I remembered our class discussions about Mazen Kerbaj’s Starry Night and sound, and Peter Cusack’s description of field recording as ‘sonic journalism’. Cusack explores the idea that “all sound (even unspoken) conveys information about places and events that are different yet complementary to visual images and language”. I would like to reinforce this idea as I am editing audio, and draw attention to the contrasts and similarities of the atmospheres of both shopping centres through sound.