Bowie
Although it happened three months ago, I’m still devastated about the passing of David Bowie. However, since then I’ve gotten to rediscover Bowie which has been amazing. Realising just how many incredible songs he had so consistenly throughout his career is brilliant.I’ve gotten to see so many covers of Bowie live by bands I love and gone to so many tribute nights just to celebrate the greatness that was Bowie. Its incredible how music can bring so many people together, the night he died I went to a bar doing a tribute and just being amongst this huge crowd of people screaming the lyrics to “Starman” was so comforting. RIP Bowie.
City Calm Down
On Thursday I went to see City Calm Down play at the Corner Hotel, I’ve been really sick the past week and a half and there was nothing I felt like doing less than going to a concert on a cold Thursday night. Despite the mood I was in before the concert I did my best to get into the music. There was an absurd amount of bass in one of the support bands and although I tried to enjoy feeling it in my whole body I couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain sound lecture we had two weeks back. There’s no escaping uni. This kind of thing happens a lot, being out somewhere and noticing something we’ve learnt in the course so far. Most of the time it’s really cool when this happens as it makes you realise the relevance and importance of what you’re learning, but sometimes you just want to listen to a podcast without thinking in depth how they’ve edited it. I’ve only myself to blame by electing to be a media student.
Sounds I love and hate
I feel like we’re not meant to include music in this list, but I absolutely despise screaming in music, like death metal/screamo screaming I just think: why are you yelling at me? I hate thunder, or I don’t hate it I’m just really really scared of it – but I really like the sound of rain when I’m inside and dry. I hate any sound on an airplane because that’s also terrifying. I’m scared of a lot of things. I hate the noises that my house or any house makes naturally. It’s 2016 why haven’t soundless houses been created? why do I still have to deal with the fear of there being a murderer in my house when I’m home alone at night? Conversely I like the sound of people moving around the house when I know they’re meant to be there cause I pride myself on my ability to tell who’s coming upstairs just from the sound they make.
I really hate the sound of people like gagging or doing a phlegmy cough that sound makes me want to be dead. I love the sound of laughter, I think laughter is the most genuine expression of happiness in the world it makes me really happy to hear it. I really like the sound of the city, like being in a really busy area which I think is quite uncommon to enjoy but I find it really comforting. I like the “pop” champagne bottles make because how can you not associate that with celebrating something or having a good time?
Listening vs. Hearing
I think a running theme in this blog is me being aware of something but never considering it in detail. Obviously there’s a difference between listening and hearing but who takes the time to consider it? A media student scrounging for a blog post, that’s who. Right now I’m sitting in the library and while I’m listening to Simple Mind’s “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” I can still hear all the sounds of the library around me, although I’m not focusing on them.
A lot of the time I’ll be listening to a podcast while doing something else and ten minutes later I’ll realise I have literally no idea what was being spoken about, as I’m hearing it not listening. In lectures it can be a challenge (especially at 8:30am) it can be really hard to force oneself to listen rather than hear.
The lecture the other day (almost two weeks ago) made me question how much we can actually listen to at once. For some reason I thought this concept was different to multitasking, shocker: it isn’t. Many articles informed me the human brain can only actually focus on one thing at a time, so multitasking is really just switching between different tasks really quickly which ultimately lessens the quality of each completed task I guess.
back to the blogging
In today’s workshop we began by watching everyones films. The general vibe was absolute dread. I was actually ok with my peers seeing my film, not because I’m incredibly proud of it or anything I just felt kind of detached to it as I made it like two weeks ago. I don’t think thats a good sign in terms of my emotional investment in my work. I really enjoyed watching what everyone else created, there was so much variation in terms of content but there was some common themes throughout.There was a lot of people’s feet and a lot of nature which contrasted to my ‘urban jungle’ I presented in my film.
Project Brief Two Reflection
Trying to communicate your identity in a one minute film is quite a big ask. I wanted to focus on things that are really big parts of my life in the short space I had, so theres a lot of emphasis on the city of Melbourne, my family, and food. The music I chose, which EOM (Elements of Music) was kind enough to let me use, is representative of my chilled out nature and gives the right feel to the video. I chose to tell this story because I find it really funny, and still embarrassing eleven years later. I really like the juxtaposition between the aesthetic of the video and the nature of the story, it’s very telling of my sense of humour.
I didn’t use any colour correction on the footage, I would have if I felt it necessary but I was happy with how it looked and this way it is more representative of me – stripped back and honest.
I was surprised with the quality of the footage I was able to capture using my phone. I was kind of dreading having to use it as I don’t have a camera and haven’t figured out how to borrow equipment yet, but I’m really happy with the image quality I produced. It would have been nice to capture higher quality audio but that can be something to work on in future productions. Another thing that worked well for me was the times i was able to film. Again, I was originally quite stressed about when/what to film but I found a lot of inspiration within my surroundings. By chance I was on a train heading into the city at sunset and thought to film the skyline, and I’m really happy with those shots. I’m getting finicky now but I did struggle to figure out how to work photos into the production and I think the photos at the beginning do feel awkward.
There will always be things I’d change about any work I produce but all in all I’m happy with how PB2 has come out as an honest representation of myself.
Haiku Exercise
Haiku Exercise_2 from Holly Karas on Vimeo.
Three types of knowledge
A lot of people want change in the world. People are all in with social justice, but sometimes without doing their research. To make a super relevant point to us Australians, heaps of people have jumped into the Hilary Clinton bandwagon without considering her policies. I feel quite misogynistic saying this, and that is literally the furthest thing from my intention, but it’s not right to vote for Clinton just because she’s a woman. If people are serious about making real change, there are better democratic nominees like… I don’t know… Bernie Sanders for instance. I’m also not trying to any kind of endorsement, not that this effects us on a day to day basis at all. It’s about having the knowledge of how to make legitimate positive, and just voting for Hilary because of her gender may seem like its taking steps forwards but in the long run we’re going backwards. Let’s be completely real there will be so many female candidates (and certainly presidents) in years to come, there will be women with the policies to “make america great again”.
ch-ch-ch-ch-changin
Transitions are a really important part of editing that most of the time you shouldn’t notice. Not only do transitions help to make editing appear seamless but they can also add meaning to a text,for instance a fade to white often signifies death. It’s been a bit of a challenge considering the transitions to use in PB2 to express my identity and communicate the right meaning. I think it’s most important the transition matches the aesthetic of the overall product so that’s what I’ve done.