Theanna

I certainly did not expect to feel as moved by ‘Theanna’ as I was, having assumed that I was somewhat familiar with the film’s format and subject matter before I watched it.  Tiana’s interaction with her grandmother and the careful way the film was translated leant it an intimacy which I felt set it apart from its counterparts. The subtle technical composition of the film was an appropriate vehicle for its storyline, but took a back seat to the narrative elements of the piece which was by no means a bad thing. All in all the film was brilliantly sensitive in its construction and presentation of Theanna’s character without coming across as trite.

Chinese Whispers 

Responding to a prompt as abstract and complex as the concept the film was based on must have been an enormous task, however it was executed so brilliantly in Chinese Whispers that the film was nothing but absolutely captivating. Every scene was shot really sensitively and competently and edited together in a manner which allowed it to explore and extend characters beyond that which I had thought could be achieved in a 7-minute slot. With this considered, my only criticism of the film’s construction would be that I would have liked to have seen a more reciprocal exchange depicted in the trailer presented (a format which I thought was ambitious but completely appropriate), while it was interesting to see Alan respond to the piece Jordan had created for him, it would have been interesting to see his approach to a role change (this might also have worked to contextualise Kelly’s character, beyond her appearance in the film’s opening sequence). Taking time constraints into account however, the film’s theme was really effectively communicated.

Althea

This film was absolutely hilarious, not only was it cleverly shot so as to highlight the bizarre juxtaposition between the elaborate costumes and personas adopted by its subjects and the local oval the event took place on, the style in which information was presented was really engaging. It is interesting that the group opted not to show Althea’s subjects out of costume, rather depicting a subtler contrast between their day-to-day and larping lives as they were shown breaking character at the end of the film. Similarly, I think the film’s themes were communicated really effectively through the footage the group presented without the need for titles, narration or interview cut-aways.

Tape For No Rape

I thought this was a particularly contentious and complex topic to take on for a short documentary film, one which would inevitably evoke a passionate response among many audience members. While I found the sentiments of the film to be commendable, I think they could have been enhanced had the more abstract elements of the piece been contextualised by less obtuse interview footage or consideration for the intersecting discourses surrounding the notion of ‘rape culture,’  without this I found certain elements of the film to be slightly disjointed, incomplete or unexplained, but powerful all the same.

My primary goal at the semester’s beginning was to increase my technical aptitude (I missed analysis and reflection 1 so have not recorded this), At many points in the production and post production stages of our film I have endeavored to expose myself to as many applied roles as possible, this was made somewhat inevitable as neither members of my partnership were particularly competant in this area. While indeed this semester has required me to try my hand at all aspects of the production process, this has been at the detriment of the overall aesthetic of our film, due to our limited understanding of equipment troubleshooting, it seemed as though our we were beset with a new disaster every time we tried to shoot! Putting this in perspective however, it is important to note that my ability has improved somewhat over the course of the semester making for an experience which has been continually rewarding.

-original image

-Brightness turned down to -48.0 and Contrast to -33.0 in order to

-original image

-input levels remain unchanged
-shadows pulled down slightly to blue-green in order to enrich and emphasize dominant tones in pallette
-mid-tones pulled slightly toward green in order to balance out patches of light bouncing off skin tone
-highlights pulled toward green in order to make pale patches of grass appear vibrant as opposed to washed out

– input/output levels balanced in order to create truer blacks and whites in palette
-shadows pulled from blue-green to green in order to maintain vibrancy and dynamism of palette while appearing truer to natural tones
– tonal range: blacks turned up, whites turned down
-contrast turned up to 10.0, brightness to -13.0 in order to create a richer sense of colour
-highlights on skin appear slightly unnatural or sickly in both graded shots, unsure how to correct

The film establishes an off-kilter quirkiness which I found quite striking, right from its opening bout of sweeping, disjointed narration, the spoke piece, a poem of sorts seems to allude to quality in the selected footage which is both fundamentally absract and universally relatable. While indeed, no real sense of narrative or purpose is imposed on the film’s footage, the daily activities and interactions it depicts serves in some areas as a time capsule to the era and place the film was shot and in others as a reminder of the behavouiral commonality shared by humans across countries, generations and periods of time. It is interesting to note that the films rambling, at times erratic score seems to dictate the mood of the piece rather than the events depicted on screen, this was particularly notable to me when an old woman greeted a little girl in communion robes to a somewhat sinister score. While it bares little value with regard to the film’s analysis, I could not help but note Ravel’s fixation with a certain subject, a man handing out flyers on the street, seeing him incorporate various shots of the man into several sections of the film. As the film progresses, musical changes become increasingly rapid, changing shot by shot, I might note that the notion of a ‘shot’ as it is appearant in this particular sequence is significantly longer than that which i would associate with a high action scene, lingering static as it so often does in order to avoid disrupting a sense of verité which is established through Ravel’s voyeuristic shooting style and content selection.

Find the keyboard shortcuts for Premiere (hint, film-tv blog) and note four or more functions that you’ve never used before and why they may be invaluable to your editing. (Different functions to what you wrote last semester)

‘Speed Duration’

Shortcut: ‘CMD+R’

It is inevitable, at some point  in the editing process that we will need to alter the speed or duration of our footage, whether this be tostylistic effect or to shape a clip to best suit an allotted time slot. Being able to employ a shortcut to call up the speed/duration menu will save a huge amount of time in this process as well as serving as a quick way to monitor the duration of each clip in our sequence.

‘Duplicate’

Shortcut: ‘CMD+A’

This shortcut will be valuable as it will allow us to extract sections of our edited film and trial advanced editing such as colour grading on separate sequences without risking damage or confusion to the footage we have cut, it will also allow group members to edit the film on their own, and separate their own edits from the main sequence. The ‘duplicate’ short-cut could also be used to stylistic effect, allowing us to copy and layer b-roll in the film.

‘Razor’

Shortcut: ‘C’

The razor tool, in particular its short-cut will be essential when working make precise edit maximising clean and easy cutting and splicing of footage, particularly with regard to interview seuquences in which it is imperative to capture audio accurately.

‘Record Audio’

Shortcut: ‘A’

I have largely included this shortcut because I was not aware that this feature of Premiere was so easily assessable, this will however prove useful if we choose to record supplementary sound effects or narration in the post-production process.