Category: Production

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

J.E. Malpas and the influence of place

Malpas fluently articulated of land around us as a “reflection” of not just our practical and technological capacities, but also of our very own human needs, dreams, preoccupations, aspirations and hopes. He talked about how humans relate to land in the economic and suitability sense, (e.g. building a bridge over a river or planting apples rather than mangoes because of a colder climate) but also the more pervasive: “our relation to landscape and environment is indeed one of our own affectivity as much as of our ability to effect.

He talks about the the ties between human identity and location as something not limited to romantic nature poetry, but as an idea that has an ancestral history. I recently found out that Aboriginal people, after marking a land as their own, would never leave the place as they have claimed it as their own. In Wordsworth’s words, the land becomes their “living Being, even more Than [their] own Blood.” And I find that extremely fascinating as an immigrant of this great country.

I wasn’t born in Australia and for almost half my life, I had lived in a place that I had called home. And though it seems like a very long time from now, a part of me still lives in that place. My place of birth. And it is called “place of birth” simply because that certain space was given meaning by our welcoming into the world. Malpas credits Gaston Bachelard, writer of The Poetics of Space wherein he claims that the “life of the mind is given form in the places and spaces in which human beings dwell” and that in those spaces themselves, our human memories, feelings and thoughts are shaped.

This topophiliac claim validates the notion of “cultural differences.” I was inherently shaped and moulded by the place of which I was born into, the social, economic, cultural way of thinking and acting. The stuff of our “inner” lives is thus found in the “exterior spaces or places in which we dwell.” And I find that fascinating as now, having lived in two countries for ten years each, I have a part of me in each country that shapes the way I think and behave in terms of places and dwellings.

Definitely something to further explore and ponder.

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

A visit across: State Library

I’m going to be frank. My visits to the State Library usually involve me trying to catch up with somebody to exchange filmic idea and progress. And throw in the use of their public space and free wi-fi of course. I remember Project 51* met up there a while back to work on a short video for someone’s Dux speech and it was my first ever download and use of Adobe Premier Pro.

So when the Ghosts of RMIT team sat inside their “tutorial” rooms and were taught database, I had a moment of re-assessment of my State Library use. I got myself a library card.

The State Library is a rich source for Victorian-specific information. Articles from newspapers, journals and books, file clippings, photographs and images are all available if you simply know how to use its database a.k.a the search button. I know that even with the RMIT catalogues I am still very much a novice, but I’m thankful to have learnt of the resources that the State Library has to offer. And with Abigail Belfrage lending a helping hand with her guiding light, I am even more challenged to access the State Library’s resources for future research.

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Le Museum of Melbourne

The team went on a little tour of the Museum of Melbourne at a time when I was as pale as death and thus, was unable to join the fun. #tears

However, thanks to Rachel for letting us know that students get in for free so I went on my own little trip, though in a much haste as I had only half an hour to spare. And boy did I get out of that museum sweating like an Olaf.

What ARTEFACTS indication particular notions of place?
Can I say the entire place? But as a history nut, I was moved by the WWI: Love and Sorrow exhibition. Particularly the objects, the posters and photographs and the stories behind them all were profoundly affecting. It was both a sobering and reverential exhibition and really felt Hornstein’s claim of the inseparability of memory and place during that time. Very moving.

I like the dinosaur exhibit too. I think Marcus mentioned that they didn’t have time to go to the dinosaur exhibit but I so very much did! And the insect exhibitions were gross.

What elements on display are distinctly Melbourne?

What could be more Melbourne than the public transport life, particularly our good ol’ tram system. There was the West Gate bridge as well and some of the more known Melbourne city-streets. I think I remember reading this on Steph’s blog, but I also adored the model of the interior of the Capital Theatre. I adore vintage films, the whole classic look and impression. I was moved. I felt as though I was transported right at that time!

What have you noticed about WAYFINDING techniques used throughout the exhibition?
A lot more descriptive than imagined, but I expected it to be.

How does the Museum deal with ‘difficult” or “tragic” stories?
In a very clinical fashion. Forget festooned stories to wash the soul  in tragic increments. Cold, hard facts, no opinions, “this is what happened” and “it was sad” and that was it. Some could say it’s a little cold, but I think it’s perfect to deal with tragedies in this way. And I credit the Melbourne Museum in doing so in this fashion because no one wants to be bombarded by undercurrent political sentiments.

What “media” do they use to tell the stories?

Very similar to most museums and exhibitions I’ve been to. Soundscapes, alien-like body pods (those are real cool!), maps, interactive “peepholes”, documentaries and the like.

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

Virtual Tour shenags

A brief post about the Virtual Tour group shenanigans!

In my previous post concerning Ghosts of Building 20: The Virtual Tour, I elaborated on the fact that my main job was mostly initial research and on-the-day photography shoots. I did all of the back-up panoramas using Linh’s trusty iPhone 6 and I did I say shaking? I recognised that my default is a total pivot-less idiot so contorting my body 180 degrees to get the full shot was a bit harassing. In any case, what I really found enjoyable and a learning experience is finding the best spot to do the panorama of large rooms (courtroom, in this project), an L-shaped courtyard that was ridiculously awkward at first try, and dark interiors. Did someone say post-production?

I’m keen on the final product and how everything’ll turn out.

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The discipline of noticing by John Mason

As I walked to work this morning, a colleague asked me if I noticed which type of chips were on staff-discount sale in the team room. Suddenly, I could see the image in my mind. It was blue packaging, yellow-orange writing, it’s definitely got something to do with cheese. But until I was asked about it, I would not have any explicit awareness of it.

John Mason explains the usefulness of distinguishing between “ordinary-noticing (perceiving)” and “marking.” I found, in relation to this scenario, that simple perceiving is easily lost from accessible memory because I simply don’t pay attention and that Mason’s right. It is only available when someone reminded me of it.

The next time I entered into our team room, I made sure to properly notice, to mark what is around me. This time, I initiated the conversation in terms of half-eaten pizzas still inside pizza boxes that no one bothered to throw out. In doing so, I was able to access this memory for further reflection and re-construction in the future. I did so by thinking of ways I could tell those who ate from the boxes to perhaps assign someone to throw it away as the team room, without windows, would reek of its junky, delicious smell. Thus, this marking of mine required a higher level of energy and commitment because it required more than just my casual attention.

Like my dad, I have this eccentric magnetism to unintentionally notice things around me. And like the above example, I have to be reminded about the object, person or event to fully realise the extent of my knowledge about it. What I found to be real motivating and challenging is the art of intentionally noticing as Mason explains.

I strive to practice my professional noticing and in the future, record down what I have noticed. I’ve had minimal experience in professional noticing last year in my Writing Media Texts when we tackled the subject of Sound. You would often always find me with my earphones on when on the train home and for my Writing Media Text, I recorded diagetic sound without plugging my earphones in.

Using Mason’s more disciplined approach, and part of my own experiment, I took notice of the sounds I heard without my earphones and with my earphones (no background song/podcast) . Basically, a muted version of the diagetic sounds in the train. I find that this approach helped me in my reading as I am not a good reader when distractive noises permeate my reading air. At the same time, unliked what seemed salient and important at the time of my reading, did not recede into my distant memory as often as it does when I read without earphones on.

 

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Hornstein’s Losing Site – who knew there was more to architecture than maths?

I’ve only read the introduction and chapter two of Shelley Hornstein’s Losing Site: Architecture, Memory and Place and already I found myself re-evaluating my misconception of the word architecture. Sure, my bias is towards its association with the maths, geometries, planes and angles, trigs, inaccuracies, a.k.a the death of me. But never did I believe the word architecture could also be identified by the intangible, omniscient presence of memory?

Hornstein defined architecture as the “mapping of space – physical, mental or emotional.” It is the act of “delineating” and shaping space to basically carve a place. What I enjoyed in her piece is this fact: the inseparability of memory and place, wherein the architecture can exist or be found beyond the physical site itself in our recollection of it. I, for one concur with this conclusion. If you were to ask me about my childhood, the first thing I will respond with is where it took place and what memory I have that accompanies that particular place. You just cannot divorce that fact at all.

In my personal reflection, I find out many new things. Pinterest and Tumblr are two social sites I am heavily invested in for their clean interface and availability for photographic collation without harassing my tabs with various online portfolios that are, almost always, ebbed with personal stories that, don’t get me wrong, are fascinating, but not so much as something that I would like to entertain. At certain times, sure, but Pinterest and Tumblr is a pool for photographs of places.

I follow various blogs posting photographs of places around the world that I could only ever have dreamed of. And as a photographer, they give each photograph their own sense of self, their signature in the angles, the iSO, aperture-use. And what I am absolutely fascinated with, and what I value in my creative endeavours, is how I myself, though I have not been to any of these photographed places, could somehow give meaning to each place. It’s as if I’m accessing a part of my memory. I’d like to call it the creative memory which is not exactly a tangible, experience-based memory based on an absolute fact, but it still counts as memory nonetheless as, in accessing it, you feel as if it’s been there all along.

The photographs of buildings, cracks on walls, a lonely chair in a classroom abandoned after the attack on Hiroshima. It has a broken leg. These photographic monuments “encourages our reflection in the present.” What does these mean to us now? How do we connect the real events of the past to the present now? Because obviously, the past is an opaque surface, and history tells us that it is usually the winners who erect shrines of remembrance for themselves, right?

I find that places hold deep, special meanings not just to the people who have experienced them first-hand or have some sort of connection to it with a family-tragedy or historic affiliation. I believe that we ourselves can give meaning to these architectural sites whether we do so through empathy or pure reverence. And in my creative endeavour, I would like to explore this more.

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

Jeremy Bowtell talks Adobe Premier Pro

“I AM A MASTER ADOBE PREMIER PRO USER!” is a capitalised cry-out you will not hear from me until perhaps after an intensive short course, much crying, practice, and that which makes it perfect. As a media student, your alphabet starts with A = Adobe Premier Pro, B = B-roll footage, and C = crying, and so forth. It used to be F = Final Cut Pro but upon my commencement last year in this Bachelor strand, they have now transitioned to the creative cracker that is Adobe Premier Pro.

The number of times I’ve used Premier Pro is less than the phalanges on my one hand. So if you’d like to shout out, “Novice,” why yes, that I very much am. I have also been doing many things wrong or well, inefficient as opposed to what is.

Here comes Jeremy Bowtell, a real pro in this area. Some tips he gave were:

  1. Name it
  2. Locate it
  3. Scratch Disks: Get a Premier Scratch Disk
  4. Window: workspace (choose one comfortable for you) – Editing is the usual one
  5. Create a sequence, NEW ITEM – Sequence – Sequence Name
  6. Re-name some clips
  7. Organise Folders/ Scenes
  8. Change Sequence Settings to match clip’s settings: Change Sequence
  9. Shortcuts:
    Input -I, Output -O, Blade – B, T – Track select forward tool
  10. Edit using source window
  11. What does this, 00:00:00:00, MEAN?
    He explains, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Frames
  12. Slip Tool – changes input and output
  13. When adding TITLES:
    Title, Safe, Action Safe line – don’t put titles out of the title safe line (duhh)
  14. Colour Grade: Fast Colour Corrector, White Balance > colour pick where white is

He tried to help me out with some plug-ins as well, various effects that I could use for Premiere but they were outdated so we both gave up on that. Best part: he wanted to know how plug-ins worked so in a way, we both learned something new together! (even though it really didn’t work in the end. Whatever.)

In any case, thanks heaps, Jeremy!

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

W.I.P – Caretaker Woes

I’ve been pulling my hair the past week prior to submission in terms of the following:

  • Scaling – found-footage VS recorded works = DISASTER. Of course, I had to manually scale each clip and in the paraphrased, suited-to-my-situation, Taylor Swift words, “I was lying on the cold hard ground…trouble, trouble, trouble-e-e.”
  • Effects – I tried so hard, succeeded and eventually failed after export when the smoky shadows that was supposed to be part of the background turned out to be as blurred as the next person with astigmatism. I left it coal black and I’m not particularly happy with it, actually.
  • Scaling (part deux) – last export, and it still wasn’t small enough as I had intended. The Premiere Preview screen really does the opposite of wonders to your visual capacity. (*whispers* lying on the cold hard ground). And I ran out of time…. of course. I will upload the scaled version in the near future, ladies and gents!
  • Closed Captions –  I abandoned the use because there was no use. WHY ARE YOU SO STUBBORN?!
  • Titles – worked wonders, and I was able to use you as subtitles too. Thanks for the support.
  • Thank you for listening to my speech.
Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

Ghosts of Building 20: Virtual Tour

Title: Ghosts of Building 20

Type: Virtual Tour

Crew:
George Downing, David Spencer, Jake Baldwin, Jackie Matthews, Cassie Chiong (moi), Stephanie Wu and Marcus Pedrigal

PURPOSE
The Ghosts of Building 20: Virtual Tour is a platform for the Ghosts of RMIT‘s students to showcase their individual work for the semester.

ROLE
My role in this project was initial research for free platforms that will host our virtual tour. This included trying out the tours myself online and assessing which one could best represent our works and the building itself. Our group often utilised class time and our Ghosts of RMIT Facebook page to communicate by sharing links, posting and commenting. On the day prescribed for filming, Stephanie, Linh and I went about in taking the photographs and panoramas required for Jake, George and David to install and eventually stitch together in the final form.

Steph and I mapped out the general outline of Building 20 and the paths we would take before going about in taking the photographs. All three, including Linh and I worked really well together, making sure to take turns in capturing images, doing panoramas and making certain that the photographs we took had a sense of continuity about them.

In terms of peer collaboration, the team worked really well. In my part anyway, we communicated very well and we got things done as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Some aspects that would require movement would include proper use of equipment for aforementioned continuity as sometimes we would do guess-work with camera placement. But this is a minor thing.

IN THE MEDIA

The Virtual Tour is such a great way to showcase our individual works. The audience and viewers are granted a 360-degree perspective of the building and I think this is the best way to fully appreciate and have a feel of the Old Magistrates’ Court as it is an incredible architecture, grandeur and the very hauntings of the place lies in having the full feel of the place. Though it is still incomplete as of yet, the viewers will be able to walk through empty hallways showcased in mine and my peers’ works, enter courtrooms and courtyards, surveying the area that could not be done by any passer-by. For Building 20 is a fortress of such a huge magnitude from the outside.

Through research, I believe that the industry is making more room for Virtual Tours as most Universities, even RMIT, have employed this platform for marketing, advertising, and giving viewers the immersive feel. Museums, galleries, hotels and restaurants, real estates and even restaurants have also used the Virtual Tour platform.

I believe that, reflecting on the semester, especially when it comes to augmenting place, Virtual Tours are a sure way of giving meanings to spaces. And with our individual works, instead of simply using digital portfolios and simple websites, the interface of a Virtual Tour really does give it the immersive experience, allowing everyone to really have a feel for the spaces and places around them. It also reflects the concepts and themes we have discussed in this studio in this studio very well. Though it takes a lot more work than simply presenting using digital portfolios, the outcome, in my opinion, is a lot more arresting, fluid in its motion and you are swept away in it.

And let’s not forget the teamwork that goes along with it too.

Posted on in Media, Production, Spaces and Places

Experimental Short: The Caretaker

THE CARETAKER

What happens when all that is left is the quietness? No pounding of gavels or black robes and unwashed wigs harassing the hallways? Of murderers on trial, of justice-seekers and curious peepers? No one really knows, but the old man who cleans, cleans, cleans.

Length: 3 mins 37 seconds

SYNOPSIS
In the eyes of the Caretaker, the great Magistrates’ Court is nothing but a place wherein he succumbs to his loneliness.

PURPOSE
The project is my first foray in the Experimental Film genre. The piece is a poetic, abstract reverie of what the place is to the invisible character of the Caretaker. I wanted to give meaning to the space and the place occupied by the building itself (the walls, halls, doorways, rooms) and how the Caretaker gives meaning to the place that has become mundane to him for he is always never seen; in the silences, when the doors are locked and no other soul is about.

The short film is to be incongruous, hence, it being experimental in its genre. There is no narrative to follow, but the clips, both found-footage and recorded, are deliberately placed to allow the viewers to freely interpret what is being told.

CREW
Produced, edited and directed by me.
Thank you to the Ghosts of RMIT team on the day of the shoot for helping with camera problems (there were heaps).

THE PROCESS
The making of this short film definitely came with its problems. My first dilemma was where exactly to place the captured clips and videos in a sequence that will encapsulate the concept I have of putting meanings to the spaces through the eyes of the Caretaker. This was my biggest challenge in the production of this film. I went about in finding a resolution to this by going through some of my video inspirations with an addition of Ballet Mecaniqué by Fernand Leger, who gave me the idea of repetition as a motif to represent the distress the Caretaker is experiencing in his bouts of imagination due to his lonely job.

The production began quite smoothly. I followed the work timeline I prescribed to myself stringently albeit with the surfacing of aforementioned dilemma of the delivery process. Nevertheless, the filming went really smoothly. On the day, I took as many shots as possible of the interior of the Magistrates’ Court but what I found that inevitably helped in my final storyboarding and editing process was the visit to what is known as “The Plant Room.” It was an old, decrepit storage room located in the far recesses of the main court behind two supposedly locked doors and an eerie gaol cell to fit the bill. It was an atrocious sight and Jackie and I would not have dared to enter the room if not for Rachel (thank you, kindly) and a fellow student, Linh, who ventured on, turning the lights along the way.

The room was forlorn, dusty and a treasure trove for all things old-fashioned. But what got me the most was the single chair that sat in view of the open door. It was curious, it was lonely, and I knew then and there that the Caretaker, his character, his soul, whoever he may have been in the past, was an incredibly lonely character.

This epiphany drove me to evaluate my draft storyboard, which then also allowed me to appropriate the concepts I learned in class to the differences between space and place with place as a space that has meaning. In my video, I applied the techniques of opacity and scaling to the very extent of my skill in such. I’m thankful to our guest lecturer, Jeremy Bowtell for the basic tutorial for Adobe Premiere Pro, but mostly, I thank this class for allowing me to test my skills, add on to, and really push myself to my editing limits (and that is an incredibly short limit, f.y.i.).

FINAL FILM
The final outcome, eventually, after much harassment from a very neutral-looking editing suite, turned out as hoped and planned and even more. The chosen music, ghostly and haunted with the appropriate title of “At the end, everyone dies” by the ingenious Kai Engel (I bow to you for the royalty-free) was inspired by Abigail Belfrage who made certain that I think about what fits well with the overall thematic I had. The colours are minute black-and-white, easier to manipulate to encompass the ghostly, almost macabre message I had in mind with the Caretaker’s loneliness. It also worked really well with the found-footages.

An abundance of improvements include mastering Adobe Premiere Pro as the go-to editing suite. Finding out how plug-ins works, particularly subtitles, is a must too. I was to include subtitles in this piece as opposed to narration (in the final film, I utilised titles as subtitles), but Premiere’s built-in closed captioning were stiff and incredibly frustrating to handle. I decidedly gave up, but I plan on experimenting with that medium in the near future. I uses titles and “subtitles”, albeit vague, to give the piece texture as well. And the only colour is during the “poisons” scene…appropriately. And before I forget, incorporating images would be quite helpful too.

The class has taught me to appreciate spaces and places in a whole different way. Through The Caretaker, I was able to give meaning to places as opposed to simply admiring its architecture and the echoes of its past. I was able to wander through the halls and assess the cracks and fissures, the importance of the little nooks and crannies and what they are used for and most importantly, the people who give meaning to the space, particularly, the caretaker in the Old Magistrates’ Court in this case.