Today we received our first task to complete for Media Brief 4. We are required to collect five academic resources each based on our topics and then provide an annotated bibliography of them. This is the beginning of our collated research for our Institutions project and will help us to gather ideas and facts. We also completed a brainstorm session of avenues we could take within the topics of Institutions. Here are minutes from our meeting today:
MEETING 1 MINUTES 30/04/15
Summary
-Brainstormed ideas about institutions
-Received annotated bibliography
-Decided to each have a separate word document for our bibliographies
-Researched Institutions as a broad subject
Goals For Next Meeting
Have at least 5 annotated bibliographies between us, but aim for more
Have more of an idea about what institutions are and which direction we want to go in
‘NARRATIVE is any kind of retelling of a sequence’
CAUSALITY- Cause and Effect
Causality allows for three key elements of story telling
Character development
Plot
Resolution
STORY MAPPING (group activity)
SHREK
Lives by himself, is content, but lonely.
Life is turned upside down when he has to go on quest to bring back princess Fiona for the Lord
He befriends Donkey and is irritated by him but has an underlying sense of gratefulness for his company
They rescue Fiona and Shrek begins to develop feelings for her and the narrative rises in terms of emotional highs
Shrek then overhears Fiona talking about an ugly ogre and assumes she is talking about him so he angrily leaves her in the hands of Lord Farquaad instead of confessing his feelings for her and the narrative drops to low emotion
Donkey later tells Shrek that Fiona wasn’t talking about him and Shrek then runs in on her wedding ceremony and confesses his love for her and the film ends on a high note as the two get together.
Is there such a thing as ‘non-narrative’
SHORT FILM NARRATIVE DISCUSSION
NARRATIVE
Followed ‘Birth, Between and Rebirth’ sequence
Followed a pattern of weird movements, slow motion and reverse movement
Birth and Rebirth were accompanied by the same music
Camera pans down from sea to pool at beginning and pans up from pool to sea at the end
Always heading to an end point in each sequence
NON-NARRATIVE
Lack of cohesion within story
There’s no point of conflict or emotional highs and lows
No explanation as to why these events are taking place
I came across this article today on the JUNKEE website, a site I rely on for my daily dose of media and the kind of news I want to hear about. The article lists five short films made by Aussies with next to nothing in ways of money and equipment. I was surprised to see that ‘Granny Smith’, a film that recently won Tropfest 2014 was amongst the five. When I first saw ‘Granny Smith’ towards the end of last year I thought it was so well executed that they must have had to raise quite a lot in order to produce the final product. But apparently not. Additionally, the director of the film, Julian Lucas, is also a graduate from the RMIT Media and Communications Bachelor Degree which is a little bit exciting I have to admit.
I missed this week’s screening however the set chapter for this week focused on the concept of editing and how this enhances a film. I often find myself wondering how it was possible to edit a film before computers and modern cinematic technology were invented. Upon reading this chapter, a few of my questions were answered. Prior to the 90’s, in order for a cut to be made (immediate joining of two shots together), someone would have to physically ‘cut’ the film role in the desired position and tape it back together, which I guess is where the term ‘cut’ really comes from.
This chapter also states that there are 4 main dimensions in film editing. They are Graphic, Rhythmic, Spatial and Temporal. A Graphic relation between two shots refers to when the two shots are seemingly disconnected but relate to each other either in composition elements such as lighting, sound, colour etc. Rhythmic usually refers to when shots follow a pattern of sorts, most likely in relation to the musical score of a film. Spatial relations are key in establishing place or setting. This is often done via extreme long shot/long shot followed by a series of close up/ medium shots. Finally, Temporal relation seeks to display different angles and views of the same scene without disrupting the time sequence. I’ll be keeping these elements in mind as I attend the screenings from now on to observe how they aid the narrative of the film.
Today we were assigned groups for our major group assessment. The brief involves us being given a certain media topic of which we have to research and eventually produce an artefact about. Haylee, Andrew and I were given the topic of ‘Institutions’. We spent a long time trying to actually figure out what this topic meant and what would be required of us. We ended up finding this basic definition: ‘A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.’ By the end of the class we had a bit of a clearer view about what we would need to do within the task, however there will need to be a lot of research and commitment from us as a group to pull it off.
Watching everyone’s films in class the other day was actually really inspiring. I realised I’m surrounded by a bunch of hugely talented people and it makes me want to step up my game.
Everyone seemed to enjoy my film and thought that I did a really good job in recreating the atmosphere of the 1930’s. It was a shame that the file I used pixelated my film so the details weren’t as refined but overall it was received well and the content was appreciated.
Below are some of my class mate’s films and snippets of my feedback:
– Camera skills were really amazing, looked like a feature film
– Portrayed wisdom of brother and reminded audiences that children can be quite wise
– Contrast between first half of portrait to second half was a good stylistic choice. First half was very upbeat and second half was more reflective and mellow which showed diversity within the subject.
PATRICK “THAT’S LIFE”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/patrick-hills/
-Conveyed strong emotion in subject
– Immersed himself in the film (was literally in the shot) which showed his relation to the subject
– Maybe more shots of his Nonna could have intercepted the film for a broader range of footage
-Excellent use of found footage to tell the story, was really moving
ELISE “MY NANA”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/elise-milner/
https://vimeo.com/125760105
– Use of narration introduced Nana well at the beginning of the film
– Focus and set-up of shots was clear and well executed
– Maybe needed more diversity in shots
– Found footage was utilised really well to enhance the story
KRISTIAN “PANAYIOTU GRIGORIOU”
https://vimeo.com/125531590
– Significant shots of subject’s facial features were really nice and artistic
– The portrait was filmed really well however maybe the colouring was a little too bright for the subject matter
– Found footage enhanced narration
– I really liked the set-up of the family photographs behind Kristian’s grandmother. It shows she’s a family oriented person and tells us more about her without words.
DUSTY “CHARLIE AZAR RESTORING LIFE”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dusty-johnston/
– Targeted and successfully altered the audiences point of view on taxidermy
– Imagery captured was really vibrant and exciting
– Music perfectly suited the film and was mysterious and quirky
– Found footage looked like Dusty’s footage at times, was blended seamlessly with the portrait
I actually had a lot of fun creating this portrait. The film had to include a certain amount of found footage which ended up working extremely well with the subject I’d chosen to do my portrait on. This being my best friend and her love of the 1930’s era. I found that there was a lot of silent film material in online archives that I could use without any copyright issues and that actually improved the standard of my portrait. I didn’t actually use any of the footage from the camera I borrowed due to the fact that I lost it via the nebulus ether that is my computer. So I filmed the portrait on my Nikon D3100 which worked quite nicely. However, I did encounter a few problems when it came to editing the sound together and finding the right song for the portrait. Obviously I didn’t use one long track of talking, but cut up little phrases that I’d edited to make sentences. I think I did an ok job of doing this but there are some noticeable glitches in the soundtrack that I wasn’t sure how to deal with. When it came to choosing a song, I had found the perfect track in a Billie Holiday tune called ‘Georgia On My Mind’. But of course I wasn’t able to use this! It literally took me two weeks to find a song that worked just as well and that I was able to use without issues of copyright. If I were to do this task again, I think I’d also double check that my camera was in focus as I’ve had to use footage that I didn’t realise was out of focus until I watched it back on my computer. But overall, I think I’ve replicated my friend’s love of the era quite nicely as well as recreate the atmosphere of it.
Yesterday we were sent out during class to records certain sounds with ZOOM H2N Sound recorders. It took a bit of fiddling around with the device at first to understand how to use it but once we got going it proved to be a valuable tool. Attached are some of the sounds recorded using the device.
Sound is an integral part of creating media and every day life. Today in our media tutorial we discussed sound and put our knowledge into practise using Zoom H2N sound recorders.
Some points discussed in class included:
-Sound comes in the form of waves
-Sound is air pressure changing
-Sound enters our ears and is processed in the brain
-Unlike eyes, there is no physical barrier to stop sound entering our ears
-Silence doesn’t really exist
-We need to think about the aspects of sound in order to have creative control over it
-Difference between sound and noise
-Hearing vs listening
-Always aim for a high signal to noise ratio
-There are 4 types of sound: musical, speech, sounds and noise (unintended sound)
Rachel mentioned that there is a difference between listening and hearing, between sound and noise. Listening occurs when one is actively and willingly partaking in interpreting sound and what they are hearing. Hearing occurs whenever there is sound around us, however this does not mean that we are interpreting the sound. Until we ‘listen’, it is just noise.
Part 1 of this week’s media lectorial focused on effectively using the RMIT library search to get the best resources and results when studying and completing assignments. I already knew a lot of the content, which I was pleased to realise as I’d had to complete my first research assignment last week for my elective class. However, there were also quite a few helpful tips that I hadn’t known about.
Part 2 of the lectorial revolved around the idea of collaboration and group work. Rachel had us brainstorm upon previous experiences of working in a team and the good and bad things that came with it. I’ve done a lot of group work, especially in my diploma class last year and quite often I found I clashed heads with at least one person and practically wanted to give up. But one thing in particular that I’ve found about working in a team, is that it multiplies the sense of achievement once the project is completed. We were told that we’ll be collaborating with each other a lot throughout the degree and so the point of Rachel’s presentation was to ready us for this. I’m honestly looking forward to our first group task which will be coming up in the next few weeks and will also be our major media assessment for this semester.
I really enjoyed the screening of ‘Sunrise’. I had never watched a feature length silent film from start to finish and was fascinated by how much could be said without dialogue. This week’s reading focused on cinematography and framing. I realised how important framing actually is to a narrative. Long shots and extreme long shots can help to establish setting whilst close ups and extreme close ups draw the focus in on the emotion of a character or even an intention. ‘Sunrise’, being a silent film, relied heavily on the particular set-up of these shots as well as music and lighting. Music in the film strongly suggested when a scene was supposed to be foreboding, or romantic, or quirky as did the lighting of each shot. The first half of the film, when the husband is behaving immorally, is of a dark palette highlighting his dark behaviour. The other half when he is trying to redeem himself and begins caring for his wife is of a lighter palette. I thought it was great that a black and white film can still use colour and shading to emphasise aspects of the story.
The other day I wrote a post about being a runner on a film set for a day. I uploaded that post to this blog. OR AT LEAST I THOUGHT I DID until yesterday when I received an email from one of the editors from Semplesize (the music blog I write for) asking me if I was going to finish my review about working on a film set! I realised I’d uploaded the post to the Semplesize blog and not my uni blog which both look VERY SIMILAR and completely embarrassed myself. I mean the editors were really understanding about it, but thinking about it still makes me cringe. Perhaps I need to get more internet savvy? I think so.
In yesterday’s Media lectorial we recieved our task for Brief 3. This assessment requires us to make a 2 minute media portrait of someone we know. This had me pondering about the idea of a ‘portrait’ vs ‘documentary’. I suppose to me, a documentary is usually quite broad and covers a subject rather than a person. A documentary is long and informative. A portrait seems to be more symbolic and focused on a singular person and a singular interest or story of theirs. It seeks to capture the essence of them in a short amount of time.
This task both scares me and excites me. How can I capture someone in 2 minutes? I’m still building up basic editing skills and figuring out my way around a camera. Who will I choose to do my portrait on and will they be happy with what I’ve produced? However, during the lectorial, Rachel also mentioned that some of the best documentaries she’d seen were the most simplistic ones and this gave me hope. Simplicity is something that is underrated and something that I will use in my favour. I’m a creatively oriented person and so the more I brainstorm ideas for this task the more excited I get about it. I think not planning was where I went wrong in Brief 2, which resulted in me submitting something I wasn’t proud of and something that didn’t really represent me.
I’ve decided to to create my portrait around my best friend, Tiggy. She has a wonderful fascination with the 1930’s which is reflected in her clothing taste and the places she goes.
