Category Archives: Assessments

Project Brief 4 Research

Faced with the prospect of producing both a video essay and an audio essay, I had to ask the question: what are they? So, as it was a long weekend and I was expected to be 1.5 times more productive, it was research time.

First up,

THE VIDEO ESSAY

This is a voice over type of video essay. The main information is relayed through voice over, matched with visuals, in this case copyrighted footage from films that underscore what the narrator is talking about at that point in the video. At certain points, text is shown on the screen that reinforces the narrator’s argument by providing another visual representation of what is being said. The background music is quite faint so the speaker is easily heard. Clearly, this particular style of essay would not be appropriate for PB4 in terms of its heavy reliance on copyrighted materials, but then again, it is also a film analysis essay, and not a strictly academic one.

Next is the video essay Adaptation’s Anomalities. Like the video essay above, it is also a film analysis style video essay (the majority of the essays I found, if not all, were related to film) that relies on copyrighted material, in this case from the film Adaptation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o47Lr9GXEnI

So I moved on to What Makes A Video Essay Great? by Kevin B. Lee. This video was interesting as it offered more insight into what exactly a video essay is. Lee discussed video essays such as Tony Zhou’s, from the Youtube channel Every Frame A Painting. His style, also similar to the videos I’ve previously discussed, is to produce short, smart video essays. Zhou’s style is, as Lee puts it, “assertively opinionating” but delivered in a conversational tone that makes it appealing. The words and images are fast paced and compressed, delivering a “high impact sensory experience” (Lee). Zhou’s videos are engaging and easy to watch, which perhaps aligns with the almost superficial way in which modern audiences consume media – but that’s a topic for another blog post.

Another video essay Lee mentioned is Thomas van den Berg’s On (Un)Reliable (Un)Reliability. Van den Berg makes the distinction between video essays and essay videos, the former of which is van den Berg’s. Where video essays, like those of Tony Zhou, consist of instructive, formal analysis, video essays incorporate theoretical framework, citations and references, and audiovisual rhetoric. Van den Berg’s essay video is, I think, more in line with what we are expected to produce for Project Brief 4. However, I found this format less engaging than the first examples. This was due to the flat tone of the hyper narration and the dreary academic language, not to mention the video’s considerable length.

Moving on,

THE AUDIO ESSAY

Examples of these appear to be scarcer than video essays. I found a guide here, that helped shed some light some light on the process of producing an audio essay. This website suggests:

  1. Use a conversational style.
  2. Use vivid details that paint a picture in the listener’s mind.
  3. Use a simple and clear method of organising your essay.

Also, the exercise we did with the Zoom recorder in the Workshops will also come in handy, no doubt.

I found another audio essay here, Remembering Those Who Serve. The figure, the main sound, is the narrator, who is crisply recorder and clearly audible over the background sounds. At one point, snippets from news recordings from the 70’s become the figure, which are in turn clearly audible. The key to this audio essay is the mixing and balancing of the different sounds. Notably also is the skill of the narrator to create interest and drama through his manner of speaking, for example, pausing to create dramatic effect, and thus heightening the audience engagement.

These are just a few examples, and I will likely further my research, especially to find more audience essays, but I feel I have grasped a basic enough understanding of these formats to contribute to the discussing amongst my group members.

 

Project Brief 3

 

For Project Brief 3, I interviewed my sister, Ashley, who is transgender and enjoy making costumes. I initially wanted to focus largely on her being transgender and how this has affected her life, and therefore I wrote the questions also focusing on this. I organised the interview with her fairly early, so I’d have plenty of time to edit, and recorded it using the Zoom recorder which I borrowed from the school.

As I created a storyboard for Project Brief 2, and found it immensely helpful in streamlining the production and post production process, I wanted to do the same thing for this project. However, as it was difficult to predict what my subject’s answers would be, I really struggled to do so. In hindsight, I think this was due to a lack of creative vision in regards to the narrative structure of the project. Next time around, I will need to spend more time in pre-production and work out what I’m trying to say with my project. Admittedly, I think my slackness in this regard may be due to the fact that I was interviewing my sister, who was readily available. As a media practitioner, I need to be consistent in my work practices and not allow myself to skip important tasks, as a lack of a strong plan really hindered my progress on Project Brief 3.
Keeping in mind the Lectorial regarding interviewing, I tried to write open ended questions. Despite this, my sister was still quite shy and her answers were not as elaborate as I would have liked. This made me think of one of the points Louise raised, regarding making sure the interviewee is ‘good talent. My sister was definitely no Donald Trump in terms of charisma, but nevertheless, I thought there was an interesting story to be told and I was determined to make it work.

I sourced my found footage from www.archive.org and Youtube. This footage consists of shots from 1950’s instructional videos that show women in traditional roles, such as sewing, as this linked to my subject’s practical skill of making costumes. I also used footage of ‘cosplayers,’ as this provided more visual reference for what my subject does with the costumes she makes.

My initial idea was to have purely voice over, through the interview clips recorded on the zoom recorder, which would be combined with visuals of my subject and found footage clips. I struggled editing this together however, due to the brief answers of my subject, I found that it didn’t tell the story I wanted it to.

After the Narrative Structure Exercise in the week 6 workshop, I realised that there was a lot lacking from my portrait. I decided add a stronger focus on my sister’s costume design, and to tie this together with her being transgender, and how it helps give her ambition, and helps her cope. Thus, I wrote more questions and interviewer her again, this time recording the interview on a Canon 600d, as I didn’t have time at this point to borrow the Sony camera from the school, and I thought this had comparable visual quality. However, the audio quality was not as good, and it ended up being quite noticeable where I transition from using the original recordings and the new ones. By adjusting the volume and adding background music, I tried to minimise this effect, but as I mentioned earlier, this problem could have been avoided by being more clear about my creative vision during pre-production.

In the end, I’m glad that I recorded the additional footage as it added a lot more to the final portrait. I also thought the simply animated opening credits (which I created in Adobe Photoshop and caused me a fair share of frustration) worked quite well and suited the overall motivating tone of the portrait. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I wish I’d planned the project better so the portrait would have been stronger and more unified, but overall, I’m not entirely dissatisfied with the result.

Week Four: Project Brief Two and Evaluation

 

 

A Girl from Jasmijn van Houten on Vimeo.

My background is a big part of who I am. I also like foreign films, so I thought that for Project Brief Two I’d blend these two. My intention was to create a video that was a parody of/inspired by foreign, especially ‘art’ films. However, to reflect my nationality, the narration would be in Dutch.

I tried to achieve this effect in several ways. Firstly, I shot the footage in the 4:3 aspect ratio, to create a more vintage look than widescreen.

I wrote a short script for the narration and then asked my father to help me record the voice over, as he is more proficient in Dutch and his voice suited the style of narration I was trying to achieve. I wish I could have used better recording equipment to record this, but I was limited to my phone, so the audio quality wasn’t as good as I would have liked. Similarly, I also wanted a higher quality recording for the forest sounds at the end, as my phone’s microphone wasn’t able to pick up on the subtle sounds.

It was difficult to get some specific shots as I was working by myself. If I were to do it again, I’d plan my production so I’d have time to ask someone to help me.

Whilst initially I imaged the film to be in black and white, I changed it to be in colour because it looked better. Whilst this distances my project from the stereotypical ‘art’ film I was trying to imitate, I think it is still an improvement.

Since my first foray into Premiere Pro with the Haiku exercise, I already felt like I improved a lot. The overall production process of PB2 went quite smoothly. I knew what I wanted to do, I created a storyboard, got the shots I wanted, recorded the voiceover, and was able to edit it all together with relative ease. I’m a lot happier with PB2 rather than PB1, and I think this might be because I put a lot more time into planning before I actually started the exercise.

Project Brief One

This was an interesting exercise (especially due to the ‘no-selfies’ rule), which lead me to consider how I would actually go about expressing myself through media artifacts, and then doing so, with varying levels of success.

Firstly, the three audio recordings were the most challenging. I am not musically talented, nor will I ever be, I am uncomfortable with the sound of my own voice; so I decided to reflect myself through the thing I do know and love: ambience. Sound is important – it can make or break a mood or atmosphere – so I recorded the ambient sounds that contribute to the atmosphere in places where I am most often. This includes the laughter and music of a bar, the relaxed chatting and familiar noises of a coffee machine in a cafe, and the soft call of birds outdoors.

Photography is the medium I am most comfortable with. For this first photo, I decided my subject would be a selection of my favourite plants I keep in my room. I adore green stuff and this is a key part of who I am.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/24951037843/in/album-72157663238031853/

The second photo is a quiet moment I captured in a cafe. I love early mornings and the beautiful lighting and atmosphere it brings. Being a morning person makes those 8:30am lectures a lot easier on the soul.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/24947182674/in/album-72157663238031853/

Thirdly, this photo is a close up of the miscellaneous cuttings I keep on my study wall. I change these around often, when I need new visual inspiration, hoping it will make me more creative, so it comes to represent my interests and thoughts quite well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/25210117939/in/album-72157663238031853/

This photo further draws on my love of mornings and colours and light. This is the vista that usually greets me when I wake up in the morning to go to uni, and it never stops being amazing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/24950959873/in/album-72157663238031853/

Next up is a shot of the times I carry with me every day. I think that the objects a person carries on them can provide great insight into their life and the kind of person they are, so that’s why I included this photo.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/25551497776/in/album-72157663238031853/

Finally, I took this photo because I love taking photos of interesting places and angles that people don’t usually consider unless they are looking for them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116095465@N04/25459048262/in/album-72157663238031853/

Next up: videos. I had some technological struggles uploading these, so despite what you may think, they were not recorded on a potato.

The first video is a very art house pseudo-artistic video of me walking, to the station, as one who lives in the outer Eastern suburbs may be very familiar with. I certainly am. As this is an activity I do frequently, and sometimes even enjoy, I thought it was fitting for this project. I can even get really deep and suggest it is a metaphor for my journey through life, but let’s not go there (yet).

Time for video two: more walking, yay! This time, it’s a pretty morning. How quaint. Let’s ignore the fact that I’m terrible at handheld and compressing videos, and think about how beautiful this scenery would have been in person. Trust me, I was there – it was gorgeous. This is the kind of time in the morning where I’m feeling the most introspective and positive.

Last but not least, a somewhat confusing video of a fern that somehow survived being looked after by my mother whilst I was overseas for 6 weeks. This fern is representative of me: it gets a bit sad sometimes, but it always pulls through, and loves having fans pointed at him for dramatic effect.

Last but not least, here are some suitably abstract and poetic words that reflect my musings:

If we are made up of many parts of a whole, then what do those parts constitute? Are you your breakfast this morning, the TV shows you watch, that moment at 7:35 am when the sun shines just right through the clouds and washes the world in a spectacular orange?