Today we were editing in edit suites, before we start editing we reviewed the footage we shot on Tuesday, everything seemed good and looked like we had what we wanted until we watched the interview footage. We had some major issue, we realised there was a lot of unnecessary background sound in the interview footage, such as buskers playing music, the sound of trolley being pushed by shoppers and sellers yelling out promoting their products.

We started editing and halfway through the day we had a rough cut, When Rohan watched our Rough edit, he was not happy, because the sound wasn’t quiet right, we didn’t have good content in our interview and we didn’t have enough cut away shots. We started editing from scratch with a new structure and we had to go to market again to get more establishing shots and more interview with Karl and Belinda.

We spent the rest of the day making index cards, an other great technique we learned from Rohan. Making index cards made it easier for us to edit and see what content we have. Index Cards is added to my knowledge database and I will use them in my future projects. Thanks to Rohan!

 

Today I am celebrating Australia day with my family, the traditional Australian way,  making BBQ and gathering with Friends.

Happy Australia day!

Because of the availability of Belinda and Karl we were a week behind, It wasn’t their fault, it’s just that we had to get in contact with them a bit earlier. We were glad that Belinda and Karl were co prating very well with us filming around while their business is operating.

Anyway we were determined and focused to make up for the week we were behind, so we decided to come to uni today and organize our footage, so when we come next week we can start editing straight away.

We archived our video and sound footage, then started drafting how we are going to approach the edit process. We written down everyone’s idea in our group on post it notes and stick them on the wall. I had different ideas for this project such as using green screen and shooting in 4K but our time was limited.We all agreed that our video theme would be vintage because the American Donut Kitchen has a long history and vintage theme would suit our project.

Earlier this week we asked the owners of American Donut Kitchen if we could interview them in their house and we got rejected, so Today we went to Queen Victoria Market to shoot our first Interview with  Karl and Belinda.

We started interviewing them in front of the Donut Van, it wasn’t the best place to conduct an interview but we had no choice. After finishing the interview we went inside the van to film the process of making Donuts. We spent the whole day at Queen Victoria Market, filming the interview, establishing shot and record atmosphere sound to use in our edit.

It was a hot day but we enjoyed it. When we finished our filming we were given some free Donuts by Belinda, very kind of her, we finished our day by eating some tasty jam filled Donuts and Called it a day!

Today we went to Queen Victoria market to film some establishing shots for our documentary project. The market was busy, most cafes were full, and buskers were at every corner. We setup our equipment to get time-lapse of the donut van while they were making donuts and serving customers. Then we went to the other side of the van to get some area shot, in middle of filming we were approached by security guards asking us to move, even though we had permit to film in there, their excuse was that we were blocking footpath. We changed location and moved to the other side of the van to get the shots we needed.

Every 20 minutes the market security guards would come up to us and asked for our permit, some of them were nice and some were not. After a few hours of filming and moving around we completed our shot list and called it a day. We couldn’t interview Belinda because she wasn’t available, we are due to interview her next Tuesday where she will be at QVM with her kids.

Today me and my group had a pitch presentation about the documentary film we are going to make. I’m working on this project with Samuel and Camilla. We are making a 4 min documentary on the iconic American donut Kitchen van located at Queen Victoria market. This van has been there since 1950. In this documentary we are going to explore the history and legacy of this business and also their plans for future.

After doing a bit of research we found out the original business owner has passed away, and the business has been running by remaining family members. We got in contact with Belinda the grand daughter of the original owner Arnold, and told her about our project, she was a kind lady and agreed to us making a documentary about their business.

We started to work on our questions for the interview. At the start me and Samuel were struggling to come up with questions, we asked Rohan for help. He suggested we do a mock up interview and design the question in a way that would get us the expected answer, without offending the interviewee or making them uncomfortable. This practice helped us come up with questions for our interview, another awesome lesson.

Today we were learning about interview questions techniques, Rohan was explaining how we should ask questions in an interview to get the answers we want. It was very interesting for me, because in the past I have been struggling with getting answers to my questions during an interview, they would either reply with a short reply that doesn’t answer the question or sometimes go over the topic to the point they  lose the main topic. I think these techniques are a must for a documentary film maker.

What I learned in today’s class:
It is important to make interviewee feel comfortable at every stage of filming.
we should be clear about what we want to achieve by making a documentary film, for example, raising awareness about a disease.
It is important to edit thoughtfully and carefully so we don’t misrepresent a person or a business.

In the end of class we had the chance to choose a topic to make a short documentary about, I chose the American Donut Kitchen for the simple reason of Donuts involved, who doesn’t like donuts right?

After finishing today’s class, I’m stressing about the upcoming assignment #PB2 , even though I have read the book, I struggle with words, I have written about 75% of it but I can’t think of anything else and it’s due in 2 days, I have watched a few different Documentaries so maybe I can change to one that I’m more comfortable to write about.

I decided to continue on with what I started  first which was  on a documentary called  “Ladies first:Saudi Arabia’s first female candidates”, which explores the story of women who are registering to vote for the first time and the first female candidates who are running in national election. The journalist uses this opportunity to explore women’s place in Saudi Arabia and uncovers some bitter truth, for example in Saudi Arabia a woman can’t open a bank account without her husband permission and they are banned from driving cars.

After reading Tim Cresswell’s book twice and re watching the documentary, I had alot to say about this movie, and I wasn’t struggling with words anymore. Reading cresswell’s book gave me the ability to look at film from different point of view and observe the depth of the movie which was something new to me, I was watching the documentary with professional manner, with an open mind, observing every detail, and character.

 

Today Our teacher Rohan explained the basics of using a camera in a professional manner. He started with a power point presentation, which included information on white balance, ISO, aperture etc.
Even though I learned these information years ago,  I enjoyed the presentation, It was very neat, well explained, and it was very easy to understand. Any camera dummy could record a professional shot after this presentation. I wish my previous teacher explained white balance and ISO like Rohan.

After the presentation we  practiced what we have learned on SONY cameras, except a few everyone was using the camera like a pro, (holding a white paper to set the white balance :O).

Overall it was an amazing class and it was freshening to refresh some of the basic knowledge of camera, I hope the class goes this well through the semester.

 

Tim Cresswell’s Place an Introduction explores the meaning of the word “Place”, he looks at it from different points of view.

When we say place, the first thing that comes to our mind is a physical place like home, school and etc, but Cresswell argues that a place can be virtual, it can be art, it can be a national icon. He redefines the word “Place”, for example art can contribute to a place, a protest in a place can make a place iconic and historic and the new place which is virtual world which is a parallel world of our society, where we “can fall in love, perform concert and fall in love. ”

Reading Cresswell’s Place an Introduction gave me a better understanding of Place, and what it means in different place and time.