Deliberate Film Reflection:

Throughout deliberate film I feel that I have gained the ability to plan out what I am doing more thoughtfully, and the importance of having a purpose with every shot. Although not being able to experience most of the course physically made things more difficult and I was unable to improve my technical skills as I had initially hoped, I believe I have learnt the importance of slowing down when shooting something and thinking of everything critically. I have particularly enjoyed the collaborative aspect of this course, working with people with more skills in certain areas has really helped enrich my learning and skills. Throughout this course I have begun analyzing the media I consume much more critically, paying particular attention to the different shot types and angles I see on TV. I feel much more comfortable deconstructing and understanding scenes, I have also found it makes TV that I would have previously found unenjoyable, much more interesting as I like to attempt to deconstruct each scene. Throughout the assignments we have completed, I have found my ability with Premiere Pro has gotten much stronger, and I now feel slightly more comfortable editing and trying out colour grading. Although this course has differed from what I initially expected because of lockdown, I feel that  I have learnt a lot in terms of my ability to shoot and deconstruct shots.

Assessment #4 Reflection:

For my assessment 4 media piece, I chose to use the script ‘Unlocked’ because I was very intrigued by the confusion and suspension the script utilised, and felt it could be portrayed well as a short film. Although I am quite happy with my final product, given the difficult circumstances I had creating it, I believe I could have done the script more justice if it were shot in a more typical manner. In hindsight, I probably should have considered the tricky logistics of shooting a piece of media over zoom, as I believe I was slightly unprepared and unaware of the unique difficulties it would pose. Although I may have been able to produce a more cohesive film with a different script, in retrospect, this script definitely tested my creativity and lead to me thinking more outside of the box, as I adapted the script to make it appear more seamless and cohesive. The adaptation I made to the script was to utilize a phone conversation to make it more understandable to the audience. I aimed to not lose the captivating suspension that attracted me to the script in the first place by adapting it, but felt it was a necessary adaptation as the initial shots were very incohesive and the two different shooting locations couldn’t be merged together.

Below I included my floor plans of the shots I wanted after the adaptations:

Floor plan of Amber’s car

Floor plan of Lucy’s room

My final film definitely has some continuity errors (due to isolation the actors had to use different coloured boxes as props) but I am choosing to focus less on whether or not it makes perfect sense and more on the atmosphere and tone it has. I am quite happy with my final product despite the obvious errors, as I am very happy with how I edited it together with very little footage (I forgot to pin the video on zoom when I was recording the footage, so a large portion of my shots were my face) and was able to present my desired mood through editing. This has been a huge lesson about the necessity of checking footage immediately after I shoot to see if I need to reshoot.

Collaboration Reflection:

A consistent theme for me throughout my time creating media has been my general disorganisation when it comes to planning what shots I need and why, I believe I made a definite improvement throughout this media piece, in large part due to working in a group setting. Working with my other group members really helped me remain organized and prepared as we would have set times when we needed to shoot and I believe this rigidity with timing extended into this media piece. It was also motivating to be in a group with people who had planned out exactly what shots they needed, and had a very clear vision of what they were hoping to achieve with their film. Vision is often something I have struggled with throughout this degree, as I usually am unsure of exactly what I want my final product to portray until I am almost finished creating it. Because of my difficulty knowing what I want to produce and making decisions, I often do not direct when working in groups, which is sometimes a pitfall for me as I am not pushed to make creative decisions as frequently. I found this assignment to be a perfect balance for me as I experienced a wide range of roles of media production, yet was also motivated by my group members organisation.

My group’s crew logistics spread sheet

Experimentation and Colour Grading:

I experimented with attempting to edit ‘Unlocked’ into more of a horror genre film with some new colour grading and suspenseful music. I was very happy with this experiment even though as a viewer it doesn’t seem to make much sense, I was still proud of the atmosphere I was able to create through editing. I chose to focus more on one bigger experimental edit because I did not have enough footage to do a compilation of multiple edits. I’ll include some colour grading stills below, first is the original shot, next is the colour graded version for the final film and then there is the colour graded version for the experimental film.

No Colour Grade

Colour Grade for Final

Colour Grade for Experiment

Summary and What I’ve Learnt Through Filming in Isolation:

I believe my film could have been of a much higher quality, had I been more prepared with a more thought-out shot list. This would have  given me more of a sense of which essential shots to priorities and which shots to get if I had excess time. Had I been prepared with a few more shots-such as an establishing shot of Amber’s car-my film could have been much clearer and easier to understand for the viewer.

There is no question that, for me, filming in isolation has posed a new set of challenges that I had not been anticipating, but I believe that being more self-reliant throughout this assignment has taught me the importance of truly preparing myself for shooting to ensure a concise and understandable final piece. This is a lesson that I will keep in mind in the future and will implement with practical measures such as a well thought out shot list or an animatic.

Note: Again I have embedded both of my videos, but they are only showing up as blank white squares when I check it – here are the links just in case!

Final

Experimental

Unlocked experimental – Deliberate film from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Unlocked final – deliberate film from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Here is my reflection on the making the bed homework

Here is my reflection on the ‘What’s in the Box?’ film

Here is my scene deconstruction

Here is my reflection on my attempts at colour grading

BEFORE: (First Still)

This is the initial still of the clip I was attempting to colour grade. Through colour grading I was hoping to fix the warmth of the clip.

1. I attempted to neutralise this warmth with the white balance tool of the Lumetri colour panel, I then did some manual adjustment to get the red, green and blue colours of the RGB parade scope as even as possible.

2. I noticed the still was slightly faded looking, so I increased the saturation.

3. Finally, I increased the shadows level.

BEFORE: (Second Still)

With the second image, the obstacle was the window in the back of the room. This posed a problem because of the completely different lighting schemes inside and outside.

1. The first step I took was fixing the white balance. However, in retrospect I think I definitely washed the clip out too much.

2. I then fixed the exposure, as it was a little washed out.

3. Finally, I tried to adjust the colour of the sky outside by using the HSL secondary tool. This was not the most successful grading as I had never used the tool before.

BEFORE: (Third Still)

The third image was a challenge for me because of the light from the lamp and the extremely dark window outside.

1. I first white balanced the image to remove the warmth and then also did some manual temperature adjustment.

2. I then utilised the HSL Secondary feature to fix the colour of the bear on the bed.

3. Finally I attempted to play around with the sharpness to try and dilute the brightness of the lamp, however this proved to be unsuccessful. In the future I would love to learn to dilute the brightness of direct lights in stills, as I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it for this exercise.

In Conclusion: I think it is definitely safe to say that colour grading is not my strong suit, so it was good practise for me to get back to the basics, which is why I chose very simple clips to colour grade. In the future I will begin to practise colour grading with more challenging clips, as I believe the reason I wasn’t too successful with any of these stills is that they didn’t have any blatant colouring issues to fix. I’m aware that none of the changes I made to these stills are very exciting or dramatic, however that was deliberate as I would really like to learn how to make practical changes to my clips before I can experiment with more fun and bold colour grades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekfPU0SwNw(0-2mins)

For my scene deconstruction I chose to analyse a scene from the romantic drama film, ‘The Room’ directed, produced and written by Tommy Wiseau. I have not seen this film in its entirety, although I have heard references to it many times. ‘The Room’ amassed a box office of $1800USD and has been referred to as “The worst film ever made” by ABC. This scene is incredibly confusing to watch, as there appears to be no rhyme or rhythm to the shots. Part of the confusion may arise from the actors constantly changing and swapping positions, moving around on the set. The dialogue is mostly filmed with a range of mid shots with a few over the shoulder shots and panning shots. The panning shots serve as very distracting as they prevented me from becoming immersed in the scene, due to them being incredibly shaky without any clear purpose or cinematic goal. This lead me to believe that the budget was so low, that equipment needed for a smooth panning shot could not be afforded. I believe this scene could have been much more seamless to view, had there been a panning establishing shot between the doorway Tommy enters and the seats where, he and Mark sit down.

When I did some research on the plot of ‘The Room’, I discovered that Mark (The character in the red shirt) had been having an affair with Johnny’s (The protagonist) wife. The constant movement of the characters could be an attempt of Wiseau to visualize the deception and dishonesty between the two characters. It is also interesting to note that Mark’s character is always the one to change positions first, with Tommy following behind. I feel this could have been put together in a much more interesting manner had the shot construction been more thoughtfully planned out.

The production design is clearly done with a low budget, and is quite dull and unnoticeable. In my opinion, the production design gave quite a melancholic feeling to the scene, as the greenscreen behind the two characters is keyed to show an arguably bleak city scape with billowing puffs of smoke in the air. One interesting element was the more bright and colorful green screen keyed as Tommy first enters the scene, this background then changes to the aforementioned grey city scape during his conversation with Mark. Perhaps this was Wiseau representing the deception between the two characters through the apparent change in color schemes. The performance of the two actors is not very inspiring as they spout insulting and unbelievable dialogue. I believe this scene could be enjoyed more if it is viewed as if it is satirical, as the script and acting is so ridiculous it is, in my opinion, quite humorous.

I had quite a lot of difficulty shooting the ‘what’s in the box’ film over zoom because it was the first time I had ever tried shooting something using this medium. I am not particularly proud of this piece of work, but I am glad that I have now learnt the gist of shooting over zoom, as it is something I will have to be used to for the coming months. I think I found it most difficult to shoot over zoom because I found it very difficult to communicate with my partner due to bad internet connection. This was a definite hurdle for us, and impeded our quality of work, because it was extremely difficult for the director to articulate exactly what shots they wanted. Although this lead to a very disjointed and badly shot film, I am still happy that we both had the learning experience of navigating the difficulties of zoom. I hope that next time I use zoom to shoot something, I can possibly utilize it to boost the quality of my work, rather than impede it. I haven’t quite figured out how I can use zoom as a resource, but it could be a great way of shooting something with an extremely low budget. A realization that I came to while completing this task, was the importance of remaining calm when technology is frustrating, which is inevitable and bound to happen again. Despite this film not being something that I am particularly proud of, I think that it is more important that I have learnt to navigate shooting through zoom. Hopefully the next film I make using zoom will be better thought out and higher quality. In the future I would also like to use technology as a resource; enhancing communication with other group members, rather than hindering it.

note: I have embedded the video, but sometimes it has trouble loading. If that is the case, the video can be found here

I found the homework activity: “make the bed” very interesting to film and edit. I think it was a great exercise to get me thinking about camera operation and shot construction. I was quite happy with my final product, as I think all of the different shots blended together quite seamlessly. However, in the future I would love to be able to include some more interesting shots or camera angles, as, although I was quite happy with my final product, I think it could have been a bit more exciting. Throughout editing this homework task I came to the realization that the content matter of a scene can be far less important than the editing and shots. This had never really occurred to me before, but I began to think about how thought provoking or moving any scene can become if it is shot with purpose and thoughtfulness. In the future I think it’s important that I am more considerate with my planning of each shot, (even for smaller homework tasks) as I think it is great practice for the future. I was quite happy to notice whilst editing this, that premiere pro has become far less confusing and daunting to use than it was initially. Editing this scene was the first time I stopped to notice how much progress I had made with my technical abilities on premiere pro. It was a rewarding and gratifying feeling to not have to dread opening up premiere pro. Now that I feel more comfortable with the basics of editing, I hope the next step for me is to learn more complicated tasks such as colour grading. In the future I will also endeavour to think more carefully about each shot and why I’m choosing to include this shot, as I believe this will lead to creating more interesting and thought provoking media.

note: I have embedded the video clip, but sometimes it has trouble loading, if that’s the case the link is here

Something that has grabbed my attention in the media recently is the editing style of reality TV shows, what they aim to achieve through their editing, and how the viewer has become conditioned to expect it. I am not an avid viewer of reality television, however I have begun wondering what the magic blueprint is to keep viewers coming back for more, and if it’s possible to incorporate into my own media practice.

I discovered that there is a very formulaic and cookie cutter style of editing and shooting that is used in almost every reality TV show, regardless of what the show is about. Some common editing techniques used in many reality TV shows are; “Missing or misused context, cherry picking quotes, cherry picking scenes, casual deletion, pointed questions, prompting, temporal shenanigans and music” Manipulative Editing. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2020, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManipulativeEditing. The overall opinion that I came to throughout my research was that, in order for reality tv to keep producing content that viewers want to consume, it relies heavily on manipulating the audience and the subjects of the TV show. The heavy manipulation of the subjects of the tv show, leads to a plastic, imitative formula for success in the realm of reality TV. Many TV viewers are so used to seeing the characters of reality shows fit into moulds that it is comfortable and expected to see over the top and audacious characters. I believe the formula that is used in reality TV is so commercially successful amongst viewers, because it follows the same fairy tale storyline that we have grown up with. There is a villain, a protagonist, a love interest, and often, a plot structure with exposition, climax and resolution. An easy example of this is the bachelor, which at it’s most basic level resembles a Disney story in terms of plot, setting and costume. Although many of us know that what we are consuming is inauthentic, I think many people would be as surprised as I was to learn just how much power is given to the editors and camera operators of these shows. Although I don’t agree with the ethics of reality TV, I think it is very interesting to learn about the power editors hold in these particular scenarios – to have shots of people on camera, supposedly saying things they did not in reality say. In a strange sense, this makes me feel more desire to become an editor because an editor has the power to piece different shots together and create something entirely different and unexpected. I found it very comforting and interesting to learn about the editing of reality TV because it lead to me realising the power an editor has to completely shape and change the characters and plot of a story.

2. Homework #1:

I found the first homework for deliberate film much more difficult than I had initially anticipated, this lead to me building up the task into something big and scary in my head, and therefore, putting it off. I believe the reason I was so anxious to start the homework was because I hadn’t edited or shot anything (even just on my phone) since last year, semester 2. I decided for my deliberate film homework #1, I would shoot myself repeating an action, as I got closer towards the camera with shots ranging from wide shots to medium close ups. Although my video is shot on an iPhone and incredibly rusty, I still am proud of myself for pushing myself to create something and accepting that it will not necessarily be interesting or entertaining. For me, a moment of discovery came when I was editing this video and despite it’s terrible quality, still felt a sense of pride that I was able to produce any form of media at all despite feeling so nervous and unpracticed. In future, when I get this feeling of uneasiness, I think it’s better to just push through it and pull something together (even if it’s not my best work) rather than just putting off the task at hand until the last minute. One aspect of my homework that I was happy with was the diegetic sound of the ball hitting the ground as I feel that it adds depth to my video. Although, I was slightly disappointed in myself for not finding better lighting – the quality of this clip could have been vastly improved if I had closed the door at the back of the hallway as it would not have been so overexposed. I was also quite pleased with how I utilised my available surroundings (The hallway) to accomplish my vision of getting a wide range of shots into my video. Overall, I feel that this video was probably not my best work because of it’s poor quality, however I feel that I have learnt a valuable lesson about the creative process involved in creating media.

Lenny 5 Exercise 

I found the Class exercise “Lenny 5 – The book” difficult to edit and complete because we could not shoot all of the footage that we needed to due to class being cancelled. This was a very big roadblock for me, as the first part of our scene could not be included. We also had several other continuity obstacles as we constantly switched actors so everyone could have a turn as director. I tried my best to edit the footage, but it still turned out rather disjointed and confusing. I hope that the footage is able to be understood, despite both of the characters being played by different actors in each shot. The realization I came to, when I saw the footage for this exercise was that I need to be more conscious and aware of what is going on when shooting footage. If I had been more attentive to what was going on during filming, and communicated more clearly with my group , the editing process could have been a lot smoother for all of us. Our group members should have established a more effective method of communication when filming, as it could have meant a more cohesive final product, rather than all of us simply directing their own shot and having no creative input for the rest of the shoot.

• Throughout this Media 3 studio, Deliberate Film, I hope to learn how to incorporate my own taste and aesthetic into my media practice, while also improving on basic skills involved in editing and camera operating. The studio prompt mentions that the projects throughout this studio will be “inspired by prompts, and guided by constraints” which peaked my interest, as I feel I will greatly benefit from a more structured style of learning. At this point in my media practice, a structured style of learning is what I need as I don’t yet have the confidence to choose what I need to create in order to grow my abilities as a media practitioner. I hope this course will lead to me becoming a more well-rounded and able filmmaker, with skills in many different areas of film making. I am also hoping to learn more about different styles of editing and how to recognise them in different mediums, as I feel this will greatly improve my ability to be a conscious media consumer. An area which I particularly hope to improve on is my ability to operate technical equipment such as cameras, tripods and lights, effectively – this has been a struggle for me since I first begun this Media degree, and this semester I would love to finally bring my abilities up to the standard of the rest of the cohort. Another outcome I would love to achieve, would be more of a confidence and certainty with my own style as a filmmaker. In a practical sense I can achieve that confidence by volunteering myself as director more often in small group projects, to gradually build conviction with my creative decisions.

Deliberate film Assignment #1:

1. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/erinsaunders/2020/03/23/introduction-to-deliberate-film/
2. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/erinsaunders/2020/03/23/reflection-of-exercises/
3. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/erinsaunders/2020/03/23/initiative-post/