reflections – Ilham's

Storytelling

I assumed that most of you have watched the latest series of Fast Furious, Fast 7. It was a great ones and it also left me wonder, how can a great director such as James Wan creates such a masterpiece?

Daniel today speaks about causality, which also known as the cause and effects of a story. Causality is the idea that one event causes another, and that in turn causes another and so on. He then broke the idea of ‘causality’ in narrative media down into three parts: plot, resolution and character development. These are the three importance elements in a storytelling.

If you one of the movies geeks, you must have aware that the climax is always towards the ends, and it is pretty obvious. Just imagine a movies starts with a climax, I am pretty sure it will get boring towards the end, depending on how the director narrates the movies. For instance, in Shawshank Redemption, the movies starts with how Andy ended up being in a prison. He then met with Red and several prisoners. This is what we called as character development. The story went on and how the director plays with the plots left the triggered to know the resolution of the story. Resolution is basically what happens in the entire movies.

Narrating a movies is not an easy job. Yes, everyone can create a story but what makes the movies beautiful is how it is done and how can it relate the audiences with the message want to be delivered.

p/s : James Wan is a Malaysian and he is a RMIT graduates!

Salute!

April 29, 2015 Reflections, Thought, Weekly Reflection No Comments

Project Brief #3 Peer Review

That feeling when Rachel open up my blog to show my Project Brief 3 to the whole class was, nerve wrecking. I don’t know what to expect from my classmates since they have shown some cool and good piece of videos.

After we have viewed my videos and also others, we had some small talk in a group of 5 reviewing the work have done. In overall, they pretty much like my video but of course, there still also some improvement I can do according to them.

Maggie told that my opening shot was too long, up until 15 seconds. I agreed with her since I personally thinks that it should have be much more shorter so that the audiences doesn’t have to wait too long to know what is all about. She added that maybe I can add some dialogue overlaying the shot of Aiman playing the guitar.

Bianca said that he love the soundtrack as it suits well with the videos. Rob said he love the stock footage I have chose for this project as he can’t differentiate much between the original footage and stock ones. He also love where all the shots are properly organised and he feels like I actually do the shooting in Japan.

Here are the links of my peer’s projects. Go and check them out!

Bianca, used her neighbor as her subject matter for this project. How lucky she was to have a tarot card reader as a neighbor and able to produce an amazing piece of video to cover his fascinating and one of a kind possessions.

Here is Sandy‘s. She was pretty worried by choosing her mother as a subject matter but I can say that she have done some good work to cover her mother’s life and experiences in a 2 minutes short of videos.

I can say that the ones that I love and enjoyed watching is Maggie‘s. I thinks she have produce a good and quality pieces of videos. Just like me, she chose her best friend as her subject and the ways she portrayed his best friend was very creative. I love the way how she narrates her video and how she used flipping books to cover the life of her best friend.

https://youtu.be/9V3pBO1IpKY

Unfortunately, one our our friend, Rob was pretty busy lately and wasn’t able to upload his on time. Hopefully he can do that later and I definitely going to link in here. Stay tune for that!

Cheers!

April 28, 2015 Project, Reflections, Thought, Uncategorized, workshop No Comments

Project Brief #3

Self Potrait – Aiman Saripuddin from Ariff Nordin on Vimeo.

My project brief 3 is all about my new friend in Melbourne, Aiman Saripuddin. Through out this project, I wanted to show the audience the personality of AIman by bringing them into his world and what interest him the most.

I believe the most successful part of my project is that the footage that I have gather really show what is Aiman really is and what interest him the most. Through out the interview as well, I manage to blend it in with the footage I gather and also with the stock footage I found on the internet. Plus, I do personally think that the soundtrack chosen is really suit in with the video as well, as it bring much more effects to the video.

In editing, I still use Adobe Premier Pro CS6. The reason of doing so is because I am comfortable with this software as it is much more easier to use, to manage and also to play with compared to the other software out there. I did some experiment by adding some layer to one of the footage.

There are some problems related to my videos as I can’t use the full videos of my interview with Aiman. This is due to, I think because of the different format as the sound can’t be played when I want to put it Premier Pro. I need to convert it to mp4 then only I can use half of the videos. In the end, I think I did pretty well. The stock footage and sound track I collected from the internet really blend it with the original footage.

By using original footage and adding some stock footage, I was able to create a personality of Aiman through the video. He is really cheerful and I believe that I managed to show it through the sound track and also by the plot itself. I was also able to get into him closer.

Last but not least, as a media practitioners, there are several problems and challenges that I need to encounter. For example, I need to think of another way to create the videos as I only able to use half of the interview recording. This for sure is a good thing for me as I need to critically think on how to react when I encounter such problems. The experiences I gained by using the Sony MC50 video cam and Zoom H2(N) audio recorder is really good. It is kind of preparation for me to step into broader and challenging world of media later on in life.

April 22, 2015 Project, Reflections No Comments

Workshop #6

So in our last workshop, we had some exercises with the equipment we required to used for our Project Brief 3, Zoom H2(N) audio recorders. Through this exercise, I can explore more about this gadget as it would be helpful for my next project brief.

We were divided into a group of 2 and all we got to do is try to gather as many sounds as we can using the Zoom audio recorder. It was pretty interesting and challenging as we can’t get the exact sound that we need especially in outdoor environment.

All in all, we manage to gather the sounds needed and we also manage to differentiate between the recorded sound and also the normalize ones. What happen when we normalize the sound is the sound become more clearer compared to the original ones.

I really thought that I need to discover more about the audio recorder as it would be helpful for me in the future. Not to forgot, as a media practitioners, for sure I need to get a little touch on anything I learned as I will be use it later on in life.

Sound clip below is the differences between normalized and the original version of a sound.

Cheers!

April 22, 2015 Reflections, Weekly Reflection, workshop No Comments

Sound

What is sound? How can sound be produce?

Sound is actually a pressure wave. When an object vibrates, it creates a mechanical disturbance in the medium in which it is directly adjacent to. Usually, the medium is air. The medium then carries the disturbance in the form of oscillating and propagating pressure waves.

The frequency of the waves are dependent on the frequency of the vibrating source. If the frequency of the vibrating source is high, then the sound wave will also have a high frequency. The sounds that we hear, from the voice of the person right next to you, to the music coming from your iPod earphones, to the crashing noise of shattered glass, all come from a vibrating source.

How sound wave looks like? In this video embedded below, you can see a experiment done related to sound wave.

Cheers!

April 22, 2015 Reflections, workshop No Comments

Project Brief 2_Media Self Portrait

MEdia Self Potrait 2 from Ariff Nordin on Vimeo.

What I am trying to portray through this 60 second edited video is the journey of me, myself in this world. I am a survivor and throughout the journey, there are lots of experiences I would like to explore. To try out and discover new things and to explore everything possible. Through this video as well, I want to show to the audience that I am an independent man, a man who can stand on its own two feet and the man who enjoys doing all the things he loved, the man who always seek for a new adventure in life, the man who knows not that it is not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong, even when you are not. No matter how far you have walked on this planet, there is always one thing we need to be sure of and that is that we, are our own self who creates the destiny of our future, with our bare hands and own head.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to edit this project. I used this application before back in Malaysia when I was editing one of my short films assignments. I gathered most of the materials I used for Project Brief 1 and two new videos to make it more interesting, hopefully. I used the time lapse feature on my iPhone, showing the current world I am living in and the journey I am walking through now, in Melbourne. All the photographs are basically telling you about me, an extrovert, a person who loves new adventure, challenges and being sociable. Also, I have added some narratives of a conversation between some of my friends and I, with the subtitle included in order to make the audiences understand of what we are actually conversing about. I downloaded an acoustic audio track from Freesound.org and made it as the soundtrack for my video as I am an acoustic lover, and also I found that it suits surprisingly well with my video.

In my personal thought, I do think that the most successful part of my video is the time lapse. Well I know it is just a feature in my phone, but the real deal is when I need to sit there waiting for about 45 minutes just to gather a 30 seconds worth of footage. Unintentionally, I found that by adding such feature, it gave my video more meaning. Well on the other side, the least successful attempt of my self portrait is the photograph material. I personally think that it could be more meaningful and purposeful.

March 30, 2015 Project, Thought, Uncategorized, workshop No Comments

Lectorial #4

Interesting and informative I must say. We had some sort of an editing game in lectorial week 4 the other day. What basically we need to do in a group of 3 or 3 is to create a narrative by using only 5 cards. The tricky and interesting part is when we need to narrate using 5 cards at first. then add a ‘turning point’ by replacing a cards to either cards number 2,3, or 4 and each one of it are moveable. And lastly, we need to create another introduction and conclusion.

My personal opinion is, most of the editor are the creative ones. I mean, I seriously had some trouble when we asked to add the ‘turning point’ cards. It just a simple plots, but as an editor who edit thousand of artworks, they really need to be creative and critically thinking as they need to think what the readers or audiences think about when they read or see certain artworks.

So yeah, credits to all the creative thinker out there!

March 30, 2015 Reflections, Thought, Weekly Reflection No Comments

Project Brief 1_ Media Self Potrait

Ilham. The inspiration, the ideas, an intuition. An extrovert, lover of life and family. 25 years old, originally from Seremban, Malaysia. The eldest of four siblings, cheerful and outgoing. Barely can differ secondary colors or you can also say I’m color blind. Lover of new adventure. I am a leader.

The Audio : Features the conversations in my mother tongue language, Malays which I had with my friends during dinner. We were talking about Nasi Lemak, one of the favorite dishes for most of Malaysians. Second audio is basically the sounds I hear every night in my current stays, Malaysia Hall.

The Video : Two videos I have choose are related to myself which I admire the passion of someone doing something they love. Passionate and creative, money isn’t everything but the most important thing is I enjoy doing the thing that I love. I love something original and something comes from the bottom of the heart.

The Images : Four images I have selected are basically portrayed who is Ariff Nur Ilham and others may see in me. I am extrovert, I love mother nature, I love to seek for new adventure and challenges. I am in love with creativity, love to see everything from different angles and perspective. I am cheerful, simple and easy going person as portrayed in my image of myself with my bicycle.

So basically, all the medias I have collected are basically reflect me as who I am currently and in the future.

IMG 0306 from Ariff Nordin on Vimeo.

IMG 0109 from Ariff Nordin on Vimeo.

Cheers!

March 18, 2015 Project, Reflections No Comments

Lectorial #3

“You are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships.”

Christopher McCandless, Into The Wild (2007)

Have you ever wonder how wonderful and beautiful world is? Have you ever traveled to some place just to experience what it looks like and how different people from different place can treat you?

Kyla Brettle, one of the lecturers in Media course in RMIT were invited into our lectorial today. I found it interesting to listen to what she had deliver entitled ‘Entering Other World’. Being in other’s place, other’s environment, other’s culture can be a life changing experiences, as she said. I personally believe that being in others can shape up our life and the way we think. I traveled to United State of America back in 2008 when I was 18 years old and what I can say is it is totally worth it. The experiences i gained through out a year there was something unforgettable. Being in totally new world, I explore something which I don’t even know before. Give and take, being honest and try to learn what other side of the world can offer to you. I mean, if you want to learn something, go explore. Discover new thing is not something bad instead you will be amaze with what the world could offer.

She advices :

Explore something you don’t know
Observe yourself
Observe on location
Become one with technology
Let a story & subject evolve
And remember that it is life relationship

Regarding the movie Into The Wild, my advice, watch it!

Go discover!

Cheers.

March 18, 2015 Weekly Reflection No Comments

Deep Vs Hyper Attention

Based on the text we were given, I can conclude that deep attention is when someone only able to concentrate on a single things they do, for example reading a book without any interference and be able to stay there for quite some long times. He or she is able to ignore all outside interference and prefer to be focus on one single major project he or she is working on.

Meanwhile hyper attention is basically characterized by the ability to switch focus rapidly. The easiest example I can give is when you are play a video games while be able to talk with your friends at the same time. These type of people usually are multitasking, means they can do two or three works at the same period of time.

From what I have observed within myself, I am practically more into deep attention person. I found it is hard for me to get my works or assignments done when there are someone around. I need to stay focus within one work and when I got the jobs done, then only I can switch to any other tasks.

So, where do you fall in? Deep or hyper?

Look within and figure it yourself.

Cheers!

March 14, 2015 Thought, Weekly Reflection No Comments

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