Just Georgia.

OPERATION GREENSCREEN

Thats right everyone, you read correctly, the time has come in my young worrying life that i can physically operate a green screen and edit the footage into a video! I never thought the day would come to be honest with you. I thought that you had to be on of those “have done 5 internships in film editing already and its only my second year” type of students, but apparently not! However ill get to this triumphant fact later on in this post.  So this week has been the last, before i fly away to kiwi land for a short period  of time. Therefore it has been the last week of my involvement in the seminar preparation. I’m quite sad to leave the project at such a crucial stage, however i feel as though i crammed as much contribution as i possibly could in my last few days left in Australia. OK! Lets rumble. So here is a wrap up of the hectic but productive week that has past:

THE MEETING:

So this weeks meeting was productive but also a little disappointing due to unforeseen circumstances . Unfortunately i didn’t exactly receive a positive response from Sharon, she is overseas on the date the seminar would be on so we cant use her as one of our 3 industry professionals. Max Conroy suggested he knew a few possible candidates that he could get in contact with this week, so I’m hoping the best for the group. Heres the email of Sharon’s response:

The positive side to the meeting is we totally locked in David Delmenico as the host, have 2 locked in industry guests and are starting to develop a structure and run sheet. I assisted Regina and Will in creating a basic draft rundown of the seminar and order of the guest appearances . It needs a lot of tweaking to do however i think its definitely a start to something AWESOME.

Okay and now to the epic part of the post; the part where i achieved green screen knowledge! So Miguel, Jenny and i finally finalised the clips we thought would be the the most humorous, appropriate and iconic to go in the promo video, I downloaded and converted them to MP4 on clip converter and then we all shot the footage for the green-screen. It was generally a really successful day, Miguel figured the lighting out for the green-screen immaculately, which as i learned, is the most vital component in achieving a realistic green-screen edit. Jenny and i directed David and helped with the shot set up of each TV scene David was getting magically ‘clicked’ into. In order for it to be realistic in the final product we had to ensure that the camera angling had to match the style and continuity of the scene we were emulating.

 

We also had a pretty successful time down in the dreaded DUNGEONS OF DEATH! AKA the editing suites, even though it was treacherous, it was victorious! The three of us basically knocked over the whole promo vid in the space of the 2 days i had left and Miguel taught Jenny and i how to insert davids body into any backdrop we please using Adobe Premier Pro. SUCSESS! This is a photo of Jenny feeling a little too institutionalised after hours of editing.

 

Well all in all i feel as though i contributed as much as i possibly could before i left. Although i wont be able to attend the seminar i believe that work required in the production process of a promo video was an adequate amount to say that i have fairly contributed to the outcome of the  project. I can only be there to support the rest of the team at this stage posting and sharing the page on Facebook and Instagram, and be there to assist in any more development via correspondence. I wish them all the best in the rest of the ‘remote journey’ to the seminar and i can’t wait to hear how swimingly and flawless it runs.

ITS FORMING… SLOWLY BUT SURELY

So after this weeks meeting i can finally say that we are starting to determine some structure! Wohoo! To be honest i didn’t think the day would come where i could say i think we are on the right track, but today I am confident that our crew of passionate rookie Tv enthusiasts will slowly but surely KILL IT.

As i essentially only have two weeks until i nick off to the snow, I have accomplished quite a few tasks that are aiding in the development of the seminar. Firstly, i acted on the idea i played with last week of emailing an old work experience employer , Sharon (who co-incidentally happens to be my second cousin :/). She is a producer on Fremantle Medias TV show of Grand Designs Australia, so I thought she would be an extremely appropriate and knowledgeable guest for the seminar. The following is the email i sent her; lets hope i receive a response soon enough.

 

THE MEETING:

In this weeks meeting with the rest of the group members, we further delved into the allocation of everyones roles for the development of the seminar. As i am leaving in a week and a half, and i feel as though i need to pull my weight before the seminar (as i can’t be there on the day), i thought id be best suited to work on the promo video. At this stage it is going to be Miguel, Jenny and I working on the project, however we are going to employ a friend of ours… the famous… DAVID DELMENICOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Sorry i got totally carried away, but David is truly Australia’s next big star and sorry if you are some how reading this David and are getting creeped out, which is totally valid. Anyway the point I’m trying to make is David will starring in our video will make it truly fabulous! Whilst we are on the topic of David, in this weeks meeting myself and a few other group members came up with the idea of asking him to host the entire seminar. I believe that his stage presence would be extremely entertaining and thus engaging to the students in the seminar audience. So we contacted him via Facebook, and at this stage he is locked in to host!

Miguel, Jenny and David and I will shoot and edit the promo video all of next week. We have came up with the idea of having David go on a ‘remote journey’ of his own in the video. We tossed up the idea of green screening him into iconic scenes throughout Television history and essentially having the TV remote taking him on a journey throughout the years of television. I think this idea could work brilliantly, as all we need to do is book the green screen and download a bunch of scenes that we think we could structurally insert David into! At this stage, we’ve come up with the following scenes that we think could work quite well:

First Television broadcast – http://youtu.be/6iWJ5LObN2o
Tyras Tyrade, Americas Next top model- http://youtu.be/dVhDL9uaf1o
Red wedding- http://youtu.be/-rgDvP39Lqw
Princess Diana Wedding – http://youtu.be/qkVzK3fjzCE
Homer Simpson –http://youtu.be/DLYSMgHreog
The office (U.S.) – http://youtu.be/Ccg6A5XdmZc
The Bachelor – http://youtu.be/skmsWFh9ZSg
The O.C – http://youtu.be/iyS7-_XMS

 

Soon to be Seminar…

Today marks the day that i have discovered i will be  partaking in a group collaborative project. A group of 13 of us to be exact, and we will be all combining our skills obtained in the course to create a Media Seminar!

The 13 3rd year media students i was teamed up with were all drawn to the subject of the Television industry and thanks to the steering committees NOT so genius idea, the theme the seminar has to be circulated around is “an epic journey” (come on, reality TV as a theme would of been way better, you all know it).  At this point in time my feelings towards the task and the logistics of it are that I’m intimidated! Im used to collaborating with 4 or 5 people at most, but encompassing 13 peoples ideas and discoveries into 1 hour long seminar will be tough. However I’m determined to contribute and reflect my ideas into the groups vision and try to get along with this young wacky group of television fiends.

At this stage , observing the tasks required in constructing a seminar, I see a few key ones i would be interested in taking care of. I would love to try and source an Industry contact that the seminar would feature as-well as getting involved with the Promo video side of things (an epic journey relating to the subject of television… Yes,  it has so much potential!).  After we all had a lovely chat and brainstormed a few witty puns we could use as our title of the seminar ( a  “remote journey” was the winner), the group began allocating individual tasks and i decided to formally lock my self in being responsible for trying to source an industry contact and creating the video! I think i would also be interested in designing the layout of the seminar and getting creative in constructing an insightful but also entertaining information session! I will mention this to my group next week as another responsibility i might want to tackle 🙂

I was disappointed to discover that i will be absent on the 28th of August which is co incidentally the date of the seminar aswell as the date I will be participating in another type of ‘Epic Journey” myself; skiing in Queenstown New Zealand! However, i discussed this with my group and with Shelly & Christina,  and as long as make significant contribution in the organisation and preparation for the seminar, everyones happy!

Curious to see how this one will go!

Bellow is a snap of my new Television industry buddies!

Lets Kill it guys!

Analysis & Relection #1 Question 5

 

Music: The Loud Music recording evokes excitement as well as nostalgia. The muffled sound along with the peoples voices over the top reminds me of a night out with friends. I feel this creates Imagery of an outdoor nightclub scene,

Traffic: This recording creates a soundscape in my imagination of a walk to work. The distant sounds of trams driving past, the random conversations picked up from people walking in to the foreground of the scape and then back into the background. This soundscape creates the imagery of the traffic light set on my way to work in Toorak road.

I don’t feel these sound recordings suggest other recordings. They are very basic.

Analysis & Reflection #1 Question 3

In the snippet of “Drinking for England” that we watched, i found that there were several aspects that intrigued and interested me about the documentary. The use of poetry as the way of portraying the stories made for a far more interesting and honest take on the essence of the characters, rather than solely through the bias or guidance of an interviewers questions. Additionally this allowed for a degree of anticipation for the audience as they are not quite sure on the direction of the documentary and it also keeps a sense of ambiguity by revealing the ‘truth’ of the documentary through stories.. For me personally I found the construction initially quite interesting but at the same time quite unsettling. I think this was due often to the lengths of the cuts and their juxtaposition with the poetry.

Film/TV 1: The Final Reflection

Question 1:

CURSED

I thought this film had a really comedic and clever idea and the script was well written, however I feel as though it was lacking some sort of clarity in the ending that would of wrapped the ‘idea’ up better and more comprehensively. The camera work was good, as well as the cast. However, I feel as though ‘rapping’ was a little inconsistent and out of sync with the music as well as being a little inconsistent in aiding the plot. Perhaps a little more pre production planning in non-diegetic sound and direction to the actors could have corrected this problem.

 

THE HOLE:

I loved the artistic elements of this film, and in particular the ‘black and white film’ slapstick comedy utilized. These elements in the film were excellent ideas in expressing the contents of the plot. I feel as though to make this film more successful and heighten these artistic elements even more, the film editing should of committed to the whole ‘silent black and white’ idea 100% and cut the actors dialogue recording completely and use subtitles. This would have really executed this ideal more clearly and would of aided the comedy in the script.

 

CARL:

This film was spot on! I loved the script; the props ( AKA the teddy bear) and the actors were brilliant. This was my favorite film of the night, as it was executed beautifully, and I really can’t think of any criticism in the practical and stylistic techniques. I thought the switch from the lady being skeptical of Carl the teddy, to her becoming well acquainted with Carl was a really great idea that came across well on screen.

 

Question 2:

This course really gave me an insight into the depths of working in the Film/ Tv Industry. I learned a lot of technical & practical skills that can only be learned through experience in working in a ‘Production crew’, and this class allowed us to gain that industry like experience. The main thing I discovered is the importance of the crew to establish a clear and concise plan of how the filming is going to take place. Having a well-prepared filming schedule and allocating specific roles to every member is a vital preparation component that can’t be skipped over in order to create a successful short Film. It also important to grasp scripts vision thoroughly, and stick to this vision throughout pre production and post, to create clarity and continuity in the onscreen contents. I could of done better in pre production of organizing costumes and the location, as I feel as though I did it all at the last minute and the on screen mis un scene wasn’t as ‘spectacular’ as it could have been. However I feel as though the mistakes I have made have turned out to be a positive experience as they have allowed me to learn from them and thus grow into becoming a more professional and knowledgeable Media maker.

Integrated Media: Film Essay

This Korsacow piece entitled ‘Hands’ was quite an interesting film to interact with. Whilst entering the film, a sense of tranquillity was evoked from the first slide, whereby the movement of the title, ‘Hands’, moves along with slow acoustic guitar music and flickers almost like a candle. This immediately set the mood for the piece to be calming and almost ‘Zen’.

After watching the ‘Hands’ letters flicker, I soon discovered the eleven squares show different images of hands in black and white below. These images were audiovisual as when your cursor swiped on each image a video would play. These small squared images lead to different snu’s (hyperlinked videos) when you clicked on them, and in these links is where the explorative sense of Korsacow was portrayed really nicely. After clicking onto an image on the first slide, you are then directed to 4 larger Images of Hands that each play an individual clip depicting a different use, story and visual composition. Each clip relates to one another with varieties of hands in different environments and situations.

 

The sounds within the clips are diegetic to which when swiped over or clicked plays a corresponding soundscape. The main acoustic guitar soundtrack is played softer in the background adding a complex layer then therefore intertwining the tranquillity evoked from the beginning slide into the whole piece. The ‘hands’ videos are of a high quality and are all black and white until clicked on; they then turn to colour. I quite enjoyed interacting with this film, as it was quite unique in the way of portraying a form of narrative. I find it beautiful because although each clip is disconnected in some way, they are all relatable to one another as they are all faceless and therefore anonymous clips. This leaves the creation of differing identities for the hands up to audience interpretation.

‘Hands’ uses a geometric simple interface that suits the raw shapes of the hands. I feel like the intricacies of hands as moving shapes balances with the geometric layout of the interface creating a simple coherency. There is a black and white theme throughout but once you click on a clip from the bottom – it comes to life in colour and highlights the realism of the clip.

The first slide is a simple template that is easy to navigate. None of the clips are moving apart from the flickering letters until the cursor skims over the thumbnail. There is no overriding ‘bigger’ narrative that all of the clips follow, rather an overall concept of each clip being a new narrative. I think that is the beauty of this piece – that each clip takes you on its own journey, in quite an abstract and experimental way.

The creators of this piece really utilized the technique of being ‘simple but effective’, as the opening moving title is so evocative yet so simple due to its accompanying acoustic soundtrack and simple black background. The frantic flickering title accompanied by the tranquil soundtrack whilst the introduction of the images is occurring not only adds movement that draws attention from the viewers, but also adds an alluring sense to the beginning of the piece begging for you as a viewer to put it to life.

This piece would be really amazing as an instillation in a gallery as the simplicity of it allows an audience to really engage with its content and not feel confronted by it. Essentially you as a viewer are only observing the narrative of human hands and therefore as a human you can relate to each individual clip. Different hand movements and gestures trigger different ideas of what story is taking place outside the frame. For example the clip whereby a hand is on a knee- This clip triggered my thought process to imagine if the hand and the knee belong to the same human, and if not who does the hand belong to? Is the hand on the knee just friendly affection, or is it a gesture of flirtation? As hands are a significant part in human interaction they are a perfect subject to observe as an audience as your imagination runs wild!

Once you click on one of the 11 clips below the title, the next slide appears- this time only a screen with 4 thumbnails. The image clicked from the previous slide is now in colour. This creates an asymmetric configuration where the viewers’ eye is drawn to the left (where the coloured clip is). Each clip shows different hands doing different things accompanied with diegetic sounds. The diegetic sounds being accompanied simultaneously to each clip was a meticulous and purposeful creative decision as combined with the acoustic over riding soundtrack creates an atmospheric soundscape.

 

I think the creator of this K film understands humans’ natural tendency to enjoy voyeurism. Observing hands and trying to use every gesture as a piece of information to discover “the truth/ the narrative/the identity” behind the hands’ facade is riveting and this creator has thrived off the curiosity of the human imagination. We live in a voyeuristic society where as humans we are attracted to the idea of following the life of another, and thus we are drawn to voyeuristic art.