I’ve recently be cleaning out my computer and hard-drives, which means going through all of my old documents and finding what’s worth keeping and what’s not.
Yes… Everything.

Once I built up the courage to go through old edits I’d made for school or myself, and I was kind of impressed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the editing was absolute crap. But there were some great ideas in there and editing techniques that I now know are actual editing techniques. It’s funny to be able to make sense of general ideas of aesthetic now that I’ve actual studied what to do.

I went to my home in NSW over the weekend to film majority of my footage as I am a true farmer at heart. However, the idea of what exactly I wanted my footage to reflect didn’t come to me until I was well into the editing process.

I decided to just throw my footage onto my Premiere Pro timeline. It was chaos. However, when I looked back over the sequence I created, it was (almost) perfect. The random bits of footage stitched together in a kind of disjointed, wild snapshot video, was, as it turns out, exactly what I wanted my self-portrait to be.

Obviously, it still needed work, but that became my theme: chaos. I wanted to demonstrate an almost flash-like look at my life. I created loud, fast music to go with the genre of the film (action) and synced it with the footage.

I feel the most successful part of my video is the start. The moving image of the photo wall in my room shows the parts of my life the rest of the video doesn’t. While the backing music builds the suspense, and sets the tone just right.

In contrast, I wish I could go back and re-film some of the footage with my phone horizontal. The black outline in some videos reduces the flow of imagery.

I had created the background music in garage band, which was quite fast paced and the audio that meant the most to me was, in comparison a lot slower and more relaxed it made the mash quite jarring, and I found it difficult to place.

I have some experience working with Premiere and I enjoy the process editing the video’s to get them exactly the way I want them. However, I had to manually sync the music I was creating in garage band with the flow of the film as I was making it which was a new area for me. I had to get the beats exactly right, down to the millisecond. I loved the challenge of it and I think it worked out quite well.

I am very happy with the outcome of my self-portrait, and I think it captures me quite well.

This week I was watching one of my go-to favourite movies – She’s all that while I was cutting and editing my material for Project Brief 2. The end scene reminded me of what we had learnt in the class, and the way you can cut out key pieces of information, or just show part of it and the audience fills in the rest with what they already know.

In the end scene ‘Zac Siller’ (Freddie Prinze Jr) graduates naked (after losing a bet). The audience is shown him sitting in line waiting for his name to be called, wearing nothing but his graduation hat and coloured shoulder throw. The audience sees where he is strategically holding his soccer ball before it cuts to the heroine of the movie ‘Laney Boggs’ (Rachael Leigh Cook). Suddenly she catches the ball and laughter is heard.

While the audience doesn’t see Zac graduate naked, we know he did. We know what the ball was covering, and what must not be covering anymore since it is now in Laney’s hands.

I found this such a good example of the Kuleshov effect, one that can be found in quite a number of movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T43uKfi1riI

This week was all about Project Brief 2 and making sure we’re all ready to hand everything we need to in to the right place. (Thank god!)

It’s always so reassuring to know that pretty much everyone else is wondering the same things you’re wondering, and worried about the same things you’re worried about – misery loves company!

I showed my nearly finished video to the people at my table, as well as to my tutor. I got some great points about working on the artsy and abstract side of the video (not entirely my forte to be honest, so feedback was appreciated).

It was super helpful to have time in class to do the project, and ask the questions that would otherwise plague and make you question your material.

I definitely walked out of the workshop feeling a lot more comfortable about the Project and it’s requirements, so that’s always a win.

When it comes down to it? What is media? What boxes does something have to tick before it falls under th ever growing umbrella of ‘Media’?.

I’m glad you asked. Media is: Film and tv, it’s news papers and magazines, a source of information, an experience in itself (how you feel during/after you’ve consumed), it’s constantly developing and expanding, a form of communication between you and the world, and it’s everything in between.

Media is amazing. It has, arguably, been the focus for most increases in technology (Apple and Google), and it’s these technologies that have allowed media to change the world. It’s made the world much smaller with various communication apps, (snapchat, Whatsapp), and platforms to spread news and videos across the globe (Youtube, Facebook) and allows people to communicate wherever they are.

In the week 2 lecture, the ever expanding idea of what Media really stood out and rendered with me. The size and vastness of the possibilities is amazing.

The big idea from the lecture today reflected the reading. The idea that your passion doesn’t have to be what you pursue, in fact, you don’t have to have a passion to pursue.

The idea of the ‘the craftsman mindset’, the theory behind focussing on what you can offer the world as opposed to what the world can offer you. It’s got some great logic behind it, and for those like me, those that have a rough idea of what they want to be and where they want to go, but without a clear line of passion to follow, it can change the outlook of your career mindset.

In the video lecture we were presented with the idea of ‘Newports law’: “Telling a young person to be passionate about something will probably result in them becoming less passionate”.

Man is that accurate. It’s like when your mum tells you to do the chores you were just about to do, but now that she’s told you to do them you’d rather walk through the gates of hell than make your bed.

I really appreciate this theory, it doesn’t follow the vague lines that work for one in a million people of “follow your dreams”. It realistic to the world, and accurate in building a real career that you’ll love.

I’ll be honest… I read the wrong reading for this week’s workshop… But I think that talking about it in class with the context of the lecture the general idea was covered. (But no, don’t fret – I did do the actual reading after the workshop… I swear)

It was really helpful to watching other people’s videos for the upcoming due project. To see the standard, and see what it is we are actually meant to create.

The feedback, as it did last time, really helped. It’s just a great opportunity to bounce ideas off someone else that’s in exactly the same boat as you.

Camaraderie at its finest.

I do not like Haiku’s. I love every other form of poetry, but Haiku’s have always been lost on me.

I wanted to make this one funny, in the same way that it gives the positive message of… Laugh. Always

I find the editing behind juxtaposition so interesting. It’s amazing how you can throw a few things together and create something completely different.

The Kuleshov effect is one of the most powerful forms of editing. It’s how a lot of political propaganda works as it can manipulate the mind into thinking whatever the editor wants it to think.

(Not e the title as an example of how much information you can cut out and people will still understand what are saying)

I’ve attached a link to the explanation we watched in class