So, I’ve been having a read of the brief for PB4 and have been pleasantly surprised and also petrified by some of the constraints. Below I have listed some of the constraints and how we can potentially use them to our advantage:

• Combination of Found and Original materials: for the visual essay we could possibly use found footage from a variety of texts and use voiceover to layer original explanations/definitions over.
• Genuine collaboration: not really an issue at this stage, but the use of a group conversation and a google doc ensures that everyone’s ideas are outwardly heard by each member of the group. The more brains, the merrier.
• 30% Crossover: I think the best thing to do for this constraint would be to only use the same information in both essays when absolutely necessary (e.g. when defining text, narrative).
• Copyrighted materials are partially permitted: due to the fact that this can only be used in context during critical analysis, we could incorporate this material into our definitions and further expand on it through examples and discussion.

In the spirit of researching for Project Brief 4, I stumbled upon a video that is very similar to a visual essay by ‘davegud’ on YouTube and thought that it was definitely worth sharing and referencing on my annotated bibliography.

This video goes through each specific aspect of narrative (visual, structural, verbal, technical and symbolic codes and conventions) and distinguishes between what a narrative is, and what a story is, and how they differ. The video is both informative and engaging, providing specific examples of narrative texts that are relevant to the respective aspect of narrative.

I think that this video will be extremely useful to Project Brief 4 as the selected topic for my group is Narratives and Texts. Narrative is the focal point of this video, however it becomes broader through it’s discussion of relevant codes and conventions that essentially establish cinematic narrative. This video can be referenced in the discussion of defining what a narrative is, and can also be useful when selecting the example texts that we will draw upon. More than that, the definitions in the video are highly articulate and can be paraphrased in both the audio and visual essays. This video is also a major inspiration for our visual essay, because of the way it engages the audience while still being very entertaining, which is similar to the way we would like to deliver our information for PB4.

Due to this week’s public holiday, there was no lectorial, which also means no set topic or readings, so I decided to dedicate this blog post to some valuable information for PB4 that is a part of my annotated bibliography.

Wojik-Andrews, I., 2000. Children’s Films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory. Garland Publishing Inc. – Pages 7-9.

The pages from this text really encapsulate what a major aspect of our presentations will be. The discussion from this excerpt focuses in on the generic narrative structure of children’s films in particular: the “disruption-resolution narrative structure”. It goes on to describe a key feature that is said to have originated from Greek tragedy and is known as an Aristotelian concept that changed cinema permanently, the “beginning, middle and end” structure, which basically refers to establishment, conflict and resolution which is seen across cinema genres even in the 21st Century.

This article will be absolutely integral to both the visual and audio aspects of PB4, mainly because our chosen focus is children’s Narrative and Text. Having a scholarly insight into the structure of linear cinema as well as the structure of counter cinema of abstract or non-narrative children’s films (which we will also be discussing) will give our project credibility as this article directly aligns with our main discussion. This excerpt also touches on the idea of “happily ever after”, which is a key point of our overall discussion, as that is a generic cinematic tool that filmmakers use to gratify audiences so that plots make a full circle.

Also, today we were assigned our groups and presented with our task for our final brief for the semester, Project Brief 4.

I have been allocated into a group with Hannah and Alec, who are both ridiculously talented and seem to be very organised and on-task.

Our topic for this brief is Texts and Narratives, and our task is to complete two essays, one audio and visual, centred around this topic and working with and around the constraints of the two mediums.

We have decided that the most appropriate time to meet will be Mondays, straight after the lectorial for two hours to complete the bulk of the task. We also exchanged Facebook details and decided that a group chat would be the most efficient way to communicate.

This task seems really huge at this point, but I am feeling confident both in myself and my group.

Today we viewed a majority of the classes PB3 submissions in a mini film festival, which wasn’t a bad start to the morning of my 18th birthday.

I was honestly blown away by the skills of some of the kids in my class; I envied their ability to seamlessly join audio and visual in a holy matrimony to create these productions of a professional standard. It’s so intimidating when you know that you’re sitting in the same room as these incredibly talented people based purely on luck.

We ran out of time for my group to have a crack at the ‘coloured hats’ evaluation process, however the most striking film to me was by a girl named Hannah, who interviewed her grandmother in her nursing home. These were the notes that I jotted down:

• Lack of score is jarring, but in a provocatively good way.
• Grandmother is excellent talent – delivers really well in front of camera and presents as a loveable character.
• Found footage ties in seamlessly with the discussion of love and marriage, it almost seems as though that is footage from the grandmother’s wedding.
• The background noise from the nursing home gives the interview an overall realistic and voyeuristic feel, brilliant.

In this week’s lectorial, Rachel delivered a lecture on the topic of Collaboration, not only for PB4, but also for a career in media. She made it clear that communication and mutual respect are key to a successful group project. Despite the seriousness of this topic, all I could think about were those memes floating around Facebook about group work, let’s hope my group isn’t like this!

I stumbled upon this quote while browsing on Tumblr earlier and realised who wonderfully it tied into this week’s topic and reading; storytelling through any media platform is a means of understanding and communicating, it’s almost empathetic and I think that’s a really beautiful thing.

“Story telling is about connecting to other people and helping people to see what you see.”

– Michael Margolis

Last week I came down with a really awful spat of glandular fever.

After emailing my tutor in the morning, informing him that I’d be unable to attend yesterday’s workshop. I proceeded to idly and tried to think of something witty to discuss on my blog post regarding the Workshop, considering I hadn’t attended it.

I worked through the workshop activity and it got me thinking about the decisions I had made throughout the pre-production of my portrait. I had a very distinct idea of how I wanted it to look and sound, I knew exactly at which angle I wanted to shoot Connie and Darren from, I had already decided the exact location for each  spot, and I had been unaware of this entire mental process, going completely unnoticed by my conscious thoughts.

But then I pondered further: do each of those subconscious decisions have distinct meaning that my brain had given to them?

I want my portrait to be highly emotional, an ode to my best friend. And there are few things that sound sadder than a sorrowful piano tune, so I need to find a licensed track on keys. I want Connie and Darren to be close to one another within the shot so that their spacial distance will convey and denote the fact that they are close both physically and emotionally. I want a mid shot so that the viewer could directly engage with the emotions on their faces, while also providing the distance that a close up doesn’t provide in order to evoke a sense of personal involvement in their private life. I want to shoot them in their house, in the corner of their L-shaped couch for two reasons: one, I have so many beautiful memories right there with Ricky and two, I wanted them to feel as comfortable, open and respected as possible while discussing such a sensitive topic of conversation.

I can’t wait to shoot this film and hopefully do Connie and Darren’s incredible story some justice.