When I’m procrastinating, I always go off on massive YouTube binges, clicking linked side videos like there’s no tomorrow. One particular topic to find me in this absolute video oblivion was, ‘Neil Hilborn- “OCD” (Rustbelt 2013)’. I used to like watching Slam Poetry, but had forgot all about it, Youtube hadn’t. In reminding me of what I used to love, I got to thinking what it is I finding interesting about these performances. I think our contemporary world is often infatuated with things of a instantaneous and visual nature and these videos (of performances) are a nice, little contrast to that obsession (how ironic that I am watching on YouTube). I know the dramatic, staged nature of these stand up poets can be viewed as “tacky” and often made fun of in films but there is something I love about it. With a lack of screens/images and merely only one (or few) passionate voice(s) to listen to, words spoken can truly resonate. To me its like watching a one-person play, but the actor has made up the words, deliberately attempting to incite some form of emotion. I would really love to go and listen to one of these events in Melbourne as I am quite interested in language use. I believe the more avenues that people can utilise language-play and listen to creatively-crafted poetry, the better.

I love watching everyone’s films. They are fantastic. Today, I was captivated by Maggie’s portrait of her friend Xavier. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I think it has a lot to do with her intriguing method of story-telling. Whilst most people (including myself) chose to interview their subject, Maggie used narration as a key aspect in her work. The sound flowed, and it permitted the audience to focus on the visuals.

A picture story book was used to set the scene, but also was the background to  polaroid-esque clips of footage. The result that this scattering of film had was of a collage.I believed it was very effective and added heaps of personality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V3pBO1IpKY

I would love to learn how she “superimposed” the footage on to the still background. I am sure it is a feature on Adobe Premiere, so as a future media practitioner, it may be time for me to start learning the software. 

https://vimeo.com/125760105

I believe the successful aspect of my work to be my incorporation of found footage. I discovered relevant, eclectic material that illustrated the idea of my portrait. I needed more of it than first thought, bringing me to the least successful part of my work, my equipment usage complications.

My mistakes began from equipment hire. I didn’t book a camera with enough notice, so I could only use the Zoom H2N and a personal camera. When I conducted the interview, I recorded simultaneously on the sound recorder and camera. I was unaware that 8G would not be enough memory for footage and I neglected a second memory card. Therefore I ran out of room for coverage footage not long after the first interview. During this interview, I also only had the recorder on single microphone, so the result was not fantastic. I decided to record again. The second time was better, however I made three major mistakes that cost me the audio. Firstly, I pressed, “start/stop” recording in between each question rather than letting the whole thing roll, to give feedback to my nana. I forgot that I could edit my questions out. Secondly, I was watching so closely to ensure the sound didn’t clip that I got into an incorrect rhythm of “stopping” and “starting” and therefore recorded the incorrect pieces of information. Finally, I did not check every audio file to make sure it had worked. I checked 3 and they sounded fine, but if I had listened to every single one I would have realised that I did not in fact record correctly. I only discovered this audio issue when I went to edit and my subject was not free to record again. These issues resulted in a lack of coverage and decent audio recordings. I struggled to fit mediocre, mismatching pieces together. I am disappointed and believe my work turned out unprofessional and messy.

This entire brief has been a learning curve for me. Whilst I did learn how to detach audio and relay it over other footage to create continuity, the fundamental lesson I learnt of broader media development was that editing will not fix bad audio or footage like I once believed. Recording is a vital step, and therefore I need to be more conscientiousness in the filmmaking process. I am going to take my time and write lists so that exhaustion cannot get the better of me.

PEER FEEDBACK→ My group consisted of: Pat, Lucas, Dusty, Kristian and Elle. The feedback I received from this brief was quite positive. Hearing, “You really did save the lack of coverage with the footage you found” was music to my ears as it was my biggest fear all along, that I wouldn’t. It was also nice to hear that people liked my beginning and my ending. The ending got a couple of laughs (possibly due to appropriate-ness) but I think it fit perfectly with the humorous aspect of my subject that I was trying to convey.

Sometimes when I’m watching Rage I like to try and guess the budgets for the film clips to the songs. For up and coming artists (much like media students completing their briefs) video funding will probably not be at its highest…..but that may not in fact be a bad thing. I find it incredibly interesting to see the creative possibilities one may have with minute funding when creating music videos. I tend to think that it actually stretches the imagination; creating interest in every day objects, locations or people themselves. The thing I liked about this clip for Fishing’s “Nineteen/Boy Wunder” was the use of an inexpensive projector and lights in combination with fast cuts to evoke emotion. It makes me want to get creative and utilise every-day objects at my house for my work etc….

This brief is quickly turning into a dog’s breakfast and I honestly cannot wait for it to be over. Following on from my previous blog post, I have now not only struggled to find quality sound from my interview, in the absolute zombie-bubble of tiredness that I still exist in, I accidentally deleted much of said sound. On the train to my Cinema screening on Monday I was trying to delete all of my recordings from the Zoom recorder to hand back to RMIT, but I forgot about sounds from other folders on the memory card that I was yet to retrieve……. And voilà, the sound is gone!

Still, I’m trying to remain positive and pretend the jigsaw of sound and footage as a challenge to fit together, like a mix-matching puzzle. I’m also trying to pretend I’ve worked with a shocking camera and sound team, and now have to fit all their mess together in the best way I know how. However, I cannot pretend that awful team is not in fact ME “^) :^D !!!!! Much of today I have taken a different approach to my assignment, gathering more found footage and crafting myself as a narrative voice instead of more coverage of my nana.

I am just disappointed because I don’t think my original idea to portray different “teacher” aspects of my nana will shine through…. And if they do, it will be a very unnatural, forced depicted I think. History is repeating itself from my first assignment… Again, my idea may not be coherent enough. I also don’t want to show my nana as I don’t believe I have done her as a person, justice.

I write this in absolute rage, but I can’t BELIEVE I’ve been so stupid! After recording an interview with my Nana and not being happy with the sound quality, I sorted out the issues and recorded again. The second time was 100% better HOWEVER, I stupidly watched the device so closely to make sure it didn’t clip, that I failed to realise that most of the second time wasn’t filming. I made the mistake of stopping and starting the recording after each question and got into the wrong rhythm of when to press ‘record’ resulting in NOTHING ACTUALLY RECORDING!!!!! I played back 2 of the questions, and assumed the rest must be okay as well, and have no only realised (2 days later) that they are not in fact there. So frustrated with myself. The second interview I did, also went off track from my original questions and was I actually really happy with the information I was getting about my Nana’s life. As I don’t have enough time to go down to Mornington to re-record this week and my nana is busy next week, I am now stuck trying to “normalise” and fix up the first interview, and also go without the awesome sound bites from the second interview.

Secondly, I forgot to take a spare memory card with me and therefore was very, very restricted in the amount of things I could film. I kept having to delete footage I may have liked to use as there was no space on the memory card. I should have used RMIT’s camera in the first place but I left it too late to book a camera and therefore decided to use a sound recorder instead. If I stuck to the best-suited camera, I wouldn’t have had this memory card issue.

Things to be learnt today:

1. I’m an idiot I’m only human, but I must be more conscientious when filmmaking to avoid making silly mistakes

2. Book a camera in advance, so you can use your preferred equipment

3. Bring spare memory cards (when using a camera other than RMIT)

4. In interviews, let the whole thing roll on the sound recorder. Don’t stop start as you run the risk of not recording anything (like I).

5. Check to see if said sound recorder is actually recording during the interview

6. Listen to EVERY file after recording

I think Mitch Gobel is an incredible artist. Today I went to check out his “Voices” exhibition today and was blown away. He grew up down near Mornington and thus most of the contrasts in the works are of the ocean (nature) and pollution. On Instagram, Mitch states that the artwork saved his own life. Personally I also think it has assisted in conserving the life of those around him that he is most passionate about, our wildlife. 2 months ago he donated 25,000, aka half of his wage, to the #wildlifewarriors.

Much of his following on Instagram has boomed the past 9 months and I think it demonstrates how through the medium of social media, art can help to raise awareness of social issues.

The detail, and layers that can be seen on his famed resin art cannot be fully appreciated anywhere but with one’s face mere millimetres away. Yes, that’s right, I spent majority of my 2 hours in Mossgreen Gallery with my face absolutely glued to these 11 humungous pieces. My friend and I studied so closely that we actually found a hair and some bugs in the art. We did decide to let Mitch know, so he could obviously re-do the $10,000 works, but he simply laughed it off and told us to keep it a secret.

Today Elle and I practiced recording sound on the Zoom H2N from RMIT. It took us a while to get into the swing of thing, especially in relation to clipping but we did manage to get a few clear sounds in the end. Here are a couple of examples:

According to MTV, the average person attending Coachella festival in California is set to spend approximately $361 per day, topping both Tomorrowland and Glastonbury! MTV states that No. 1 Currency, a travel money specialist, worked the cost out to only include admission, alcohol and meals per day. If you ask me, I’m sure the average person would actually spend a lot more…….. On that “festival-perfect” outfit. Celebrities with the likes of Alexa Chung have been known to spend $5000 on outfits for the event, but I think many people would spend approx. an extra $300 to get the boho look that characterises the desert wanderers of Coachella. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at all the festival outfits people post on social media, but I do truly think if Instagram etc were no more, people would care far less about what they wear and concentrate a lot more on having fun rather than snapping Insta-worthy photos.

Side thought: I always wonder if who are famed on social media must feel the pressures to live up to expectations that they spend all their time crafting perfect images? It is easy to create the perfect version of yourself if given enough time. Likes and followers can become dangerously important to people when it dictates their self worth. I know far too many average people, girls in particular, who strive to feed their ego through likes, and will delete photos if they do not get enough. These girls are not even teenagers, stereotypically insecure, but in their 20’s and whom I would otherwise describe as confident and self-loving. I think social media is great fun, but actually quite sad when it gets to this point of control in one’s life.

I put my metaphorical big kid pants on today and went to the study and learning centre. Despite my referencing difficulties, pride had held me back from heading over and asking for some help. Instead, I had taken to googling questions (for an essay due that same day may I add) and frustratingly received different answers back every time. Really do wish that I’d gone there sooner because I found the staff super, super helpful and thorough. I thought they went above and beyond to assist, even giving me sheets to take home to make sure I remembered the answers.

Would (and will) definitely return