Comedy Festival
Over the past month I’ve worked for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival handing out flyers. Standing outside Town Hall for three or four hours a night for a month exposed me to the best and worst of Melbourne’s population – the best being people who actually stopped to ask about the show you were promoting and the worst being people who just didn’t acknowledge that you’re a human person who exists.
Aside from the prime people watching experience, I started observing different reactions to the flyers I was handing out. Particularly one for a certain “Star Wars meets Shakespeare” show I was promoting, generally people just walk past you or take a flyer without looking, however with this certain one people would initially refuse then double take and walk back to get the flyer. People would recognise the iconic Star Wars logo and immediately gain interest. Although the show hardly resembles anything Star Wars related because of the branding on the advertisement people will still invest their time in it.
PB3 Synopsis
“Vic”
In her first ever interview, Victoria Meehan discusses how she got started in her career as a singer/songwriter, her artistic process and the obstacles she’s had to overcome to be successful.
Week Six Workshop Exercise
- What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?
The most interesting thing I want to communicate about Vic is her passion for her work. Music is what she really loves to do and I hope that comes across in my portrait.
- How is your portrait film structured?
My portrait film is framed by ‘found footage’ of a trailer for Judy Garland’s “A Star is Born”, the portrait then cuts between footage of Vic being interviewed and shots of her playing guitar. Vic responds to questions that aren’t heard in the video.
- What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? I want my audience to see Vic for the cute, kind and passionate woman that she is. I think the portrait really displays her being herself, she’s not putting on an act or anything so it’s an honest representation of her. I also hope to make my audience realise how talented she is by using her music as the backing track for the portrait.
- How is your portrait being narrated? The portrait is narrated by my participant Vic. I think at times it can make the structure slightly confusing as she occasionally would forget to restate the question in her response but I think my audience is able to still understand what is going on.
- What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?
After playing around with my found footage I found it worked best as a bookend for the portrait. I chose this found footage because I think it reflects how I feel about Vic’s talent and how I think she needs to feel about herself, so in that sense it’s slightly ironic as she isn’t currently ‘the most beloved entertainer of our time’ but she is on the right track.
- /7. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point? When does this turning point in your portrait and why?
In a sense the portrait does, but not so much from the content of the interview as the change from the found footage into the footage I shot myself. I made this decision to give the film a dramatic turning point.
- How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
The portrait gathers moment by opening with a considerably long shot of found footage before cutting to the footage I’d captured myself. The portrait maintains momentum by continuously cutting between interview footage and b-roll footage of my participant playing guitar to keep the audience engaged.
- Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from? T
The portraits dramatic tension comes from Vic talking about the hardships she’s faced as an artist and what she has had to overcome to be successful in her career.
10. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution?
I would say the climax of the portrait is the previously mentioned dramatic tension, to resolve it I followed that response with Vic giving advice to herself, and young artists generally, on how to be successful.
In case you were unsure, I didn’t make this video. I stumbled across it last night and it brightened my day so I thought I’d share it with my media cohort.
Can’t Tell Me Nothing with Zach Galifianakis from S Hernandez on Vimeo.
“Anna”
I just stumbled across this video, written by Will Butler from Arcade Fire, while looking for some music to listen to while I blog. I always think its really compelling when music videos, or in this case a musical short film, uses a big name celebrity in the video. It shifts a lot of focus away from the music and to the star I find, and will generally bring in a lot wider audience than a video with unknown actors would. The first video of this variety I remember seeing was Aerosmith’s “Crazy” with Liv Tyler and Alicia Silverstone – I watched this just after I’d seen “Clueless” for the first time and was obsessed with Alicia Silverstone. I say this as if it’s past tense, I still love Alicia and Clueless is to this day my favourite movie. The cameo in the music video brought Aerosmith to my attention, albeit many years after their heyday, through Alicia’s popularity due to other mediums.
Dramatic Development, Time and Story Structure
Michael Rabiger, 2009, Directing the Documentary, 5th Edition (Focus Press) pp.283-291
This chapter focused on elements that can be used to create drama within a documentary. These elements included the types of characters necessary to create drama – heroes and heroines, structural ways to create drama – the dramatic arc and three act structure, and the use of time.
The books author, Michael Rabiger, is an English director, editor and producer. Having worked on the production of over 35 films, Rabiger certainly has authority in this field. Given his experience in the area, readers are far more inclined to take what he says on board. His points are made clearly in language accessible to anyone, making them easier to understand and process. “Directing the Documentary” has been cited many times as one of the best guides to documentary making ever written, adding to Rabigers credibility.
The chapter brought to my attention how even documentaries, that are seemingly focused more on truth and fact rather than the narrative created rely on narrative structure and dramatic arcs to be effective. This makes a lot of sense, a documentary where nothing happens – no complication or climactic event – would make for very dry viewing. Further, heroes and heroines don’t belong solely in the adventure or fantasy genres, but also in the documentary. This makes sense as generally a documentary will try to create reality as realistically as possible, and there are heroic people in reality although it may not be evident in our day to day lives.
Behind the scenes part two
I think the point of this post is I need to learn how to put photos into a blog post without it looking like a scrap book made by a five year old, at least I got the photos onto the internet.
Surviving Uni
Surviving Uni from Holly Karas on Vimeo.
Behind the scenes
In Friday’s workshop we completed an exercise to familiarise ourselves with both the Sony MC50E and the interviewing process. Surprisingly we didn’t come into too many technical difficulties, the biggest one that comes to mind is the tripod not being secure enough so the camera would pan upwards slowly without us noticing.
Other difficulties we encountered included background noise which was out of our control. Filming outside may not have been the best idea as we picked up a lot of traffic and wind, as well as two women who were completely oblivious to us filming and stood talking loudly in the background of the shot for a very long time.
It was smooth sailing up until making this post, when trying to add photos of group bonding and behind the scenes exclusive for some reason the photos will not upload to WordPress. Luckily, I’ll get another blog post out of overcoming this problem.
Narrative
A classic structure for a narrative film is the ‘three act’ structure. The first act establishes the story: characters are introduced, the setting is established, and the events of the film will be set in motion. It can be noticed clearly when the first act of a film ends as it’s generally when the protagonist has their motivation, which is what keeps the story moving and viewers interested.
The second act will develop the plot further and l introduce some complications to build the story. The second acts purpose is to build up to the films climax. The second act will generally end with a major event, a conflict of some sort or just a significant problem to be overcome.
The third act is all about the resolution of the narrative. The protagonist will overcome the conflict of the second act and will generally come out better off than they were before. Having tied up all storylines, the story resolved and the film can end leaving a viewer satisfied.
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”(David Petrie, 2003) along with most hollywood romantic comedies, can be used to illustrate this structure. The first act sees the audience introduced to Andie, a successful woman’s magazine columnist who is inspired by a friends break up to write an article, the title of which is that of the films. Her love interest, Ben, is then introduced to the audience, he has been challenged by potential employers to prove he can make any girl fall in love with him in ten days, if he is successful he’ll receive a huge promotion. Now both characters have motivation, they then meet which leads us into act two.
As the two begin to date, complication arises as they both begin to genuinely fall for one another. The audience is aware this will cause conflict as they know the pair are manipulating one another. The second act draws to a close on the all important tenth day of their relationship, where it is revealed to both Andie and Ben the other has been lying to them and they consequently break up.
The third act begins with the couple depressed over their recent split, which has lead to Andie deciding to move to another city. The story is resolved by Ben realising they were both in the wrong but still wish to be together, he follows her to the airport and they are reunited, thus the story is resolved at the end of act three.