MEETING #5 MINUTES

Thursday 21st May 12.30pm

Present: Haylee and Elle

 

• Showed Rachel the videos we have collected so far

 

• Wrote up a ‘Timeline’ for the film as Rachel suggested, illustrating what would be seen on the film at what time and what the voiceover would say

 

• Wrote up any new references we had found

 

• Hired a camera and interviewed some of our classmates for the ‘vox-pop’ segment

 

• Roughly edited these interviews, cutting out any useful bits and deleting the rest

 

• Downloaded a few more clips from YouTube to use in the final product (piracy trailer, iinet advertisement)

 

• Planned to meet up later in the week to film some stock footage (people walking, people on computers etc)

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

STACE

Genre: Horror/Vampire

ELLE

Genre: Music Video

MATT

Genre: Western

 

 

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

Panning

Tracking

Cinematography

Symbols and icons

Effect of sound/dialogue or lack thereof

Costumes

Make-up

Editing

Pacing

Hipster/Indie culture

Soundtrack

 

RESEARCH IDEAS

How the film was made

Background of Director

Inspiration for film

Past films by Ana Lily Amirpour

Myself and a few of my other Media friends had the opportunity to attend the St Kilda Film Festival for free last week! I wasn’t too sure what to expect, maybe something similar to Tropfest? When we got there we were all astounded at the huge turn out of people! There was hardly enough space to walk. It took us about 45 minutes to actually claim our tickets and luckily it was worth it as the films turned out to be fantastic. My favourite was a ten minute short called ‘Flat Daddy’. This film had quite a few well known actors in it including Kat Stewart (OffSpring). What I liked most about it was the fact that it fit so many emotions and content into such a small time slot. I began watching with zero knowledge of what was going on and when the film ended, ten minutes later, I was close to tears. It opened my eyes a little to what is actually possible when it comes to film making.

My Cinema Studies group have decided to do our final assessment for this semester on ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’. I’m super excited about this because there’s so much within the film that will provide a good discussion for our task which is an oral presentation. As there are three of us in the group, we’ve also noted that there are three main genres the film presents which are: Western, Horror/Vampire and Music Video. So the aspects of Mis-en-scene that I discuss will therefore revolve around the Music Video genre of the film and so on.

I JUST SPENT $30 ON A DVD?! I didn’t even think dvds existed at that price anymore, especially when you can stream online for free. I guess that raises the question of why I bought the film in the first place. I’ve decided I like having hard copies of things, especially when it comes to films and music. The film I bought was one we watched in Cinema Studies recently called ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’. It’s by the director Ana Lily Amirpour and happens to be her first feature film. Usually if I’m going to buy a film, the storyline has to be really solid and interesting, however, the main reason I bought this film was because of the way it is shot. The lighting and the cinematography are absolutely incredible and are made all the better by the film’s western-inspired/indie soundtrack.

I went to see Ex-Machina with a few friends the other night and was pleasantly surprised by the film. I went into the cinema knowing that the film was centred around the idea of Artificial Intelligence but the humorous undertone of a film that was mostly sci-fi and drama really caught me off-guard and was something that I really enjoyed. The film also seemed to centred around the idea of female objectification. Towards the end of the film it becomes apparent that Nathan (Oscar Isaac) is creating these AIs as a means to serve himself sexually. I also love a film that keeps you questioning things even after the film has ended and Ex- Machina did just that. After watching it, I found myself wondering if Ava (the AI robot) was programmed mainly to escape or if she became so intelligent that she used her own free will to decide that escaping was best for her. H

Here is a link to the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGzRB4Pnq8 

MEETING 4

Project Brief 4

Present: Haylee, Elle

Time: 4pm, 20^th May

 

• Went through new articles and resources

 

• Learnt how to record what is happening on computer screen (a technique we’ll use for our final artefact, we used this technique to record the Dallas Buyers Club trailer and stage the action of illegal downloading)

 

• Wrote out a draft of our script for the film

 

• Decided to hire a camera during class tomorrow for filming parts of our vox pop

 

• Remember ask Rachel about what types of footage we are allowed to use in the film

 

• Contacted Andrew to check on his progress

-Term from sociology

-Concern with organising structures of society

-Social, cultural, political, economic relations

-Principles, values, rules that underly these

Struggle between rules and constraints that are in place and how individuals can work within those structures

Marriage as a social institution 

-Expectations, values, monogymy

-Social contract, agreement

– Legal framework, regulatory

-Widely accepted/ practiced

– Rituals, symbols and rights

 

Media Institutions:

-are enduring

– regulate and structure activities

– develop working practices

– public is aware of the status

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4211976.htm

Project Brief Four: Group Meeting #2 Minutes

Present: Haylee and Elle

11.30am Thursday 7th May

– Discussed how we went with the annotated bibliographies and what research direction we both went in

– Found that we both looked into piracy and regulation

– Decided we would like to use film as our medium

– Thought about interviewing people around uni, asking them if they illegally download/stream media. Could possibly conduct a mini research project to acquire statistics to include

– Decided to further research the governments response to regulating piracy

– Recent relevant topics in the news: Game of Thrones and Dallas Buyers Club

I’ve always been fascinated with how sound actually affects the viewer when watching a film. As someone who is prone to crying during a movie, I know that the main reason I cry is not so much because of what is happening within the film but because of the way the music manipulates me to feel emotion. I’ve actually tried watching a scene without the music to evoke feelings of sadness and as a result, was not moved to tears at all. Sound is one of the key elements of a moving image that hints at what the director is trying to portray. Bordwell and Thompson state that it is a mixture of the loudness, pitch and timbre (texture of a sound) that create the overall aesthetic of the soundtrack. Myself, and a few others made a silent short film last year, our main intention being to create tension and suspense using just visuals and music. The end result was really effective and proved just how vital music really is to filmmaking.

Sound effects are the other main component of a soundtrack. These usually blend so seamlessly into film that we hardly notice them. A lot of sound linked with action is actually created using foley which is the recreation of sound to make it look like it is happening in sync with an action. It is important to remember the role sound plays in film and to notice how it affects what is happening on screen.

 

Elle Sablotny