Author Archives: jackiematthews

March 13, 2014

Vine Documentaries?

Are what we are creating, these short videos, documentaries?

In my “True Lies” course, it was suggested in a reading that every piece of media is documentary, as it is a product of the society in which is was created. I would say our short clips are documentary of sorts. They give insight into our own thoughts, perspectives and visions, though i’m struggling to decide where i draw the line. Is something ever not a documentary?

Is a photo of the ground taken by mistake documentary? It is documenting a mistake, a memory and the ground itself. So what makes something a documentary? I guess it depends on interpretation and intent.  In regard to my own vines, i thought of them more in terms of art; trying to capture something from a  unique perspective in a unique way, anything taken from them is mostly due to the viewers interpretation. Documentaries should have some take away idea or point of  view that they present. They should present their own perspective of something for the viewer to consider or experience, and i don’t believe my own vines do this effectively.

In the class it was interesting to hear what people felt and though about other peoples clips. Though i feel many of the opinions were just that, opinions, rather than people finding the true intent of the creator. I thought of this because many of the interpretations contradicted, so it sounded more like people interpreting a piece of art rather than finding the explicit point of view from a documentary.

March 12, 2014

Film-TV Reflection 1

Question 1

Throughout this semester, i hope to develop my skills as a film maker, particularly in the technical area. I find ideas quite easily, though i have a difficult time figuring out which ones are good and which are bad, so perhaps i will learn that too. Technically, i am still a novice, and have little idea about how to make a film, and more importantly, what makes a good film. When i am confronted with film to analyse, it is easier for me to find themes and meanings than to determine whether it is technically good or not. “Does this shot work?” who knows, certainly not me. If i have enough time, such as when writing an essay i can generally figure it out, but my analytic skills could also be developed. So i hope to become more natural and comfortable with film techniques, terms and practices.

Question 2

“Do not write as if it is real life, as real life is boring.” We all know this in some way, but i took it down as a note because sometimes when writing ideas we tend to forget, and our characters end up being uninteresting. You don’t aim for your character to be boring, but if you are focused on the plot aspect, you may forget about your character. The same goes the other way, if you are really character based, you may come up with a really mundane plot, so something with potential to be really interesting seems like real life again. It was also useful to know, specifically, what makes a good character. A character with a dramatic reaction to something that affects them, they want something, they react outwardly. These are all things that i know in the back of my mind, but forget to consider when i am coming up with ideas. Having these points from the lecture noted will be really beneficial to me as i think they are really strong, universal ideas, and as outlined in question one, i struggle with differentiating a good idea from a bad one.

Question 3

Slogans for the screenwriter’s wall. In Mackendrick, A. On film-making, (p. 40-43). New York: Faber & Faber, 2004.

In this reading from week two, i found each of the points from the “Screenwriters wall” useful and to the point. Particularly how movies show, and then tell. They are first and foremost a visual medium, and the visuals alone should be enough to get the point across to some extent. Movies can still be brilliant if there’s no sound or dialogue, or, as the reading suggests, if they are in a foreign language.

This also ties in with the point raised about student films being too long, and i think in many of those cases, perhaps the students didn’t utilise the visual aspect as well as they could have. there is a reason films are much shorter than books, a picture says 1000 words. This excites me because it makes me want to create something short, with as little dialogue as possible, and just focus on the visual aspects of film instead. It could really develop my awareness as a film maker.

 

March 10, 2014

The Importance of Creative Freedom

So, i made the effort to incorporate concepts from the course into my everyday conversation today, and though my friend probably thinks i’m a little stranger than they remember, we ended up having an interesting discussion about the concepts in the week 2 reading. Particularly in the notion of: “Now that anybody can create and share media, how does that affect ‘serious’ media makers? What about amateur media makers who have a harder time finding a viewership than a cat playing a keyboard?” 

We came to the conclusion that some videos on YouTube can be simple, ‘funniest home video’ style recordings, but that is a necessary part of online video sharing. These are the  videos that generally get shared around and draw in viewers, which boosts the sites overall audience. Their short, comedic  style makes them good for a cheap laugh, and can be enjoyed by a wide range of people. Furthermore, we cant condemn those who make these videos, as although they aren’t particularly polished or ‘high brow,’ they have a right to be there. This is the price we pay for creative freedom, and its a pretty fair price. People shouldn’t have to meet a standard to share their media, and this is the exciting thing for amateur media makers, this is what widely accessible media sharing is all about.

I also read a few posts about interactive documentary that were quite interesting. Gina emphasises that “you have to consider the best possible manner in which your story could be told. ” The same story can be extremely engaging in film, but extremely boring in radio, regardless of how you try to embellish it. Interactive documentary is an example of how new media opens up even more options to media makers about how best to display their work.

March 10, 2014

Desensitisation

I was in my ‘True Lies: Documentary Studies” lecture as we skimmed over the way that in the past, people would become scared of moving images and run out of the cinema as a reaction to what they were seeing on the screen. I began to think about how that differs from the way we interact with media today, and one word in particular came to mind; ‘desensitisation.’ But then suddenly something clicked in my mind, they are desensitised to the medium, not the content.

It has been argued that children are more violent due to violent video games and television shows (which is complete nonsense, by the way) as they are able to play/ watch this content without being scared or emotionally affected. But that would only be true if we were back in the days where people would run out of movie theaters. Children are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for, and they know that what is on the screen is not actually real, unlike the people watching those first motion picture films. And that is just the effect that media has on our perception of reality. We find ourselves less emotionally affected by what we see on the news than the situations we experience first hand, because although we know the event is real and affects a lot of people, i have a theory that we subconsciously separate ourselves from it, because we have learned that what in the screen isn’t really there.

Just a thought…

March 10, 2014

Reading 2: New media, and geriatric1927

This reading outlines how technology has evolved over time to allow anyone to make media, as video cameras and editing software became more available to the public. Furthermore, people are able to distribute this media more effectively with use of the internet. Equipment has become so readily available, to the point where it is all condensed on the regular smartphone. One can shoot, edit and even upload and distribute from their pockets.

I was particularly interested with the line on page 54:

” Vacillating between democratic potentiality and superficial vulgarity.”

It really sums up the online community well, and sheds some light on the reason why although a world where we all create our own media and distribute it freely sounds great, to many it can also seem a bit superficial and low brow, simply because its on the internet. Many traditionalists have this idea that media online is not real media, and believe it is mostly made up of vulgar people who only post home movies of their cats and insult others. Yes, this area of the internet exists, but the internet also gives media makers the potential to publish their work freely.  It is both superficial vulgarity, and democratic potentiality.

The reading goes on to specify how YouTube, for example, has more of less succumbed to the superficiality, the serious and dedicated media makers are mostly drowned out by the enormous amount of babies, dogs, cats and marketing that is uploaded to the site. It’s not all bad though, like in the case of ‘geriatric1927’, many content creators still experience the community of YouTube strongly. While YouTube is still a great video sharing site due to its amount of users, i now understand why Adrian suggested we don’t use it to publish our work, particularly for this course, so i created a Vine instead. With a limit of 6 seconds to each video, i doubt advertisers and casual home-movie creators would give it the time of day.

Regardless of what platform he uses, ‘geriatric1927’ illustrates how media makers can emerge from anywhere, and how the online community has become a free distribution network and audience for these media makers.

March 9, 2014

Reading 1: Intro to Interactive Documentary

At first i wasn’t entirely interested in the idea of ‘Interactive documentary,’ though i have come to the conclusion that that was because i hadn’t really thought about it enough. IIn my mind, i was just picturing a documentary on DVD, and just navigating it via ‘scene selection’ as being like ‘interactive documentary.’ But through this reading, i have realised it can involve the viewer more than that, it is really about the viewers choices. It reminds me of in primary school when i was able to walk around ancient Greece and learn about it through a (really primitive by today’s standards) computer program, and was thus able to become involved in what i was learning.

This also opens opportunities to create more meaning to the documentary. Rather than just a means of ordering or presenting something, the interactive aspects of it can create a whole new experience. For example, the difference between someone showing me a picture of ancient Greece with some text, and me walking around the streets experiencing it for myself. If more media creators venture into this, i look forward to the time when virtual reality is a thing.