..said Pat Puller, mother of a 16 year old boy who shot himself through the heart after playing Dungeons & Dragons.
This fantastic quote originates from this article, published January 27, 1985. It jumped out at me as it is an intriguing example that fits into the ongoing debate regarding moral panic and the ability of the media to influence audiences. Arguments for and against the ability for Dungeons & Dragons to drive young people to commit suicide are included in the article, with the spokesperson for the game, Dieter Sturm, saying “this is a game. It’s make believe.”
New media has been freaking out concerned parents since the printing press. Time and time again, this debate this brought up, for example after the Columbine shooting in 1999, when two boys were said to have been influenced by violent media to go on a shooting rampage at their school.
David Morley, in an entry on ‘Audience’ in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, outlines that in the past audiences were largely assumed to be passive entities, which I think is an assumption that Pat Puller, and others who believed that Dungeons & Dragons was as dangerous as ‘heroin,’ was making.
This may be an interesting case study to look at in regards to Project Brief 4.
[1] David Morley (2005), Entry on ‘Audience’ in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Ed. T.Bennett, L. Grossberg & M. Morris (Wiley-Blackwell), pp.8-10.
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.
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:
Use a conversational style.
Use vivid details that paint a picture in the listener’s mind.
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.
After watching all our Project Brief 3’s in class, the main criticism for almost all the videos was sound. Often, the background music was too loud, or the audio was just recorder poorly.
The consensus was that more thought needed to be put in on where to record (apparently cars are excellent places for recording sound). In a live room, sound bounces off everything, like rooms with lots of hard surfaces, which is why big old churches are so echo-y and it’s hard to hear your friends in you resident white tiled and concrete floored hipster cafe. In rooms like the one in which our workshop is held are designed to reduce reflected sound and thus be better for recording. Fun things like carpet and acoustic panels (pictured above) can help absorb sound.
I know that the audio in my PB3 is very mediocre, due to recording most of it on a DSLR without a separate microphone. Recording better audio will be important especially in the upcoming audio essay for PB4 so these it will be crucial to keep these issues in mind.
Keith Sawyer in Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (2007) discusses Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi’s coinage of the world “flow” to describe a “particular state of heightened consciousness.” This can be achieved by a task suits a person’s skill, there is a clear goal, there is constant and immediate feedback, and they are free to concentrate fully on a task.
This led me to think about times when I’ve experienced this “flow,” like when I’m painting or drawing. When I’m drawing something difficult, my skill does not match the task, and so I can become frustrated won’t achieve this state. However, at times when I’m able to concentrate and I’m drawing something that makes me feel comfortable, I can be so absorbed in what I’m doing that I lose track of time. The constant and immediate feedback is the progress that I’m making on what I’m doing.
“Flow” can also be achieved as part of a group. Sawyer sets ten conditions that are necessary for group flow to occur:
The group’s goal is clear
Close listening > deep listening
Complete concentration
Being in control
Blended egos > meeting in the middle
Equal participation
familiarity > problem solving
communication
Moving it forward
Potential for failure > not all ideas will work.
It’ll be helpful to apply these ideas to the upcoming Project Brief 4.
Today I decided to notice, mark, and record some of the shadows I saw on my walk across campus. It was late afternoon and the shadows were getting quite long and pretty which was fun to observe until I entered into the dark abyss of building 9.
(Pro tip: it looks nice if you zoom out your browser so the photos look like a triptych)
In today’s workshop, we screen a mini film festival of our completed portraits. We teamed up into groups to give feedback on each other’s films, keeping in mind de Bono’s six hats system, which I mentioned earlier on this blog, the technical and aesthetic aspects, the controlling idea, and more.
Firstly, Jason Hendriks’ portrait of a barber. I thought this portrait was really well done. I liked that it opened with a few establishing shots of the barber shop, and there was really good coverage of the shop overall, utilising different angles and shot types. The opening titles look good and it was clear that time and effort was put into this. As with many of the portraits, the audio quality was quite poor and it is quite jarring when the barber first begins to speak, but it was clearly audible over the background music. Also, the split screen editing used the space of the frame in a quirky, interesting way.
Sylvia’s portrait of an artist used lots of varied camera angles which made it an interesting film. It was however hard to understand the subject at times as his voice was competing with the background music. I think some of the transitions between shots were quite hard and could have been softened a bit. However, the controlling idea (art, creativity) is clear and the film remains interesting throughout.
Yolanda’s portrait was about a student fashion designer. These was a variation of shots of the subject working on a dress, but these shots were quite long – I think some faster editing could have heightened the engagement of the portrait, perhaps interspersed with more shots of the interviewee speaking. I did like that different shots were included of the subject buying fabric.
Watching everyone’s projects was really interesting and inspiring (and a little sad for me because they were all so good). It’s cool to see how everyone takes a brief and fulfils it in very different and creative ways.
If you came here expected a Buzzfeed quiz in the vein of what dog are you?, you’ve come to the wrong place. If not, feel welcome to keep reading.
Whilst discussing the readings in our workshop this week, regarding teamwork and communication, we touched upon the topic of the type of people the media industry attracts. In general, the media industry is a creative one, and therefore attracts creative types. These types, as we discussed, tend to have traits such as being obsessed with details, extremely passionate, eccentric.
One trait that we couldn’t really pinpoint was if these types are likely to be extraverted or introverted. From my experience, no person is fully extraverted or fully introverted. How people behave and express themselves is dependent on the situation they find themselves in, for instance, a person may me introverted at work but extraverted at home. They may be introverted when they are sad or extraverted when they are happy. I know that when I’m happy and comfortable around people I know I can be extraverted, but these moments are more rare than moments that I’m more quiet and reserved.
In the end, it comes down to empathy. People may behave in different ways, but to help you work with them, it’s important to understand how they feel and where they are coming from. So, in the eloquent words of Luke O’Dell, introvert, extrovert, doesn’t matter.
I was recently watching TV/procrastinating and noticed an interesting advertisement for a funeral services company whose name I cannot remember and cannot find online anywhere. Instead, I’ve provide you with a different funeral related video that is no less interesting and a good way to spend 10 minutes instead of reading my blog.
The advertisement comprised of snippets from interviews of different people, saying things like “there would have to be fairy bread” and “I’d have one of those big floaty men outside” and more. The advertisement leads the audience to think that these people are talking about hosting a party, which I also believed, however at the end it reveals that these people were talking about their own funeral.
Personally, I felt a bit betrayed as I’d been excited about the prospect of parties and fairy bread and funerals were the last thing I wanted to think about at that point in time. Then I thought that the advertisement was a great example of manipulating audience expectations to present an argument (in this case, sell a service), and was thus also a good example of rhetorical form in non-narrative film. I think it uses a subject centred argument, which according to Bordwell and Thompson in Film Art, An Introduction (2006) say “ appeals to beliefs common at a time in a given culture.” (p. 349). I would propose that the dominant belief in 21st century Australian culture is that funerals should be personal and reflect the life and desires of the person they are commemorating, which the advertisement appeals to in an attempt to persuade the audience that this service is right for them and their loved ones, as it recognises this value.
One of the topics covered in this week’s Lectorial was teamwork, and how communication is crucial to a successful team. However, different people can have different ways of communicating, which can be a cause for conflict. Personally, I’m a big fan of communicating through messaging on Facebook – it’s quick, easy, and has almost instant gratification as you can tell when a person has received a message. But I do recognise the flaws of this way of communicating. Some people are not active often enough, or will give you the dreaded ‘seen’ treatment, whether this be intentional or not.
I’m not one to make a phone call unless it’s absolutely necessary. If it can be done through a message or email, I’ll take the easy way out. Other people, particularly older people (I’m looking at you, my grandparents) are of the sort that believes mobile phones are solely for phone calls, and will call for anything. There are also those who are difficult to communicate with via any media, and who will prefer face to face communication in almost any situation.
In all aspects of life, you’ll meet people who communicate differently. Whilst it may be difficult, a way to work around this must be found, especially when having to work as a team. This will be especially relevant going into Project Brief 4.
Non-narrative documentary films can be presented in different types of form, which according to Bordwell and Thompson in Film Art: An Introduction, (2006), pp. 342-370.
Firstly, categorical form. These categories don’t have to be strict and exhaustive, they can blend with each other. These films may have simple and logical patterns of progression – however, they can also risk boring the audience if the categories are too dull. An example cited by Bordwell and Thompson is the film Gap Toothed Women, directed by Les Blank, who has chosen a category that is both interesting and broad enough to include a variety of women.
Rhetorical form is seen within a film where the filmmaker is presenting a persuasive argument. The filmmaker is trying to persuade an audience to have a certain opinion and act on it. There are different types of arguments, including arguments from source, subject centred arguments, and viewer centred arguments.
Abstract form and associational form are characteristic, but not limited to, of experimental film. A good example of abstract form is Ballet Mecanique (1923-1924), which is organised by shapes, colours, forms and music. Ballet Mecanique is interesting for me because it manages to make me feel incredibly uncomfortable – through a combination of discordant sounds and the odd combination of images. It is therefore very successful at shaping my experience of the film.
Associational form relies on grouping images together to suggest ideas. Bordwell and Thompson compared some aspects of associational form to poetry, and techniques of simile and metaphor used within that.
I thought these are interesting ways of looking at non-narrative film. Some aspects of this had already been covered earlier in Introduction to Cinema Studies, so it was helpful to have further discussion about this to help me gain greater understanding.
