Tag Archives: reflection

Advice from the Industry: Reflections

It was incredibly fruitful to have an industry guest in our class today. It is easy in an academic context to get lost amongst the minutiae of screenwriting theories and approaches, so having a reality check from screenwriter Catherine McMullen was fantastic. McMullen has a lot of industry experience, including working on shows like Wentworth, Nowhere Boys and The Leftovers. She is also in a unique position because she has experience working in writer’s rooms both in Australia and in the US, so it was good to hear about the different industries and how they approach the screenwriting process. For example, she mentioned that the writer’s hierarchy is more rigid in the states, yet while in Australia there is an appearance of equality amongst screenwriters, there is still a hierarchy but it is not as easy to perceive.

McMullen was very honest about getting started in the industry, which, like any role in the creative industries, is difficult. But until I listened to her discuss her career path today, I realised that I until now I didn’t really have any notion of how one would build a career as a screenwriter. McMullen started out working in film and tv production as a runner, and worked various jobs whilst writing between them, making sure not to lose track of her goal of becoming a professional screenwriter. After hearing this, I have a new optimism about working in production, as for a while I wasn’t that drawn to a role as production crew, but today reaffirmed that this might actually be a really good stepping stone to further work that does draw my interest. Building networks after all, is invaluable.

McMullen also walked us through her process of writing a screenplay. In the case of her successful breakthrough screenplay, it began with a short story, writing a treatment (which she proposed should take the most time), plotting out the scenes using Blake Snyder’s save the cat structure. It was also interesting to hear her opinions on the standard screenwriting guidelines – she didn’t agree with avoiding camera directions entirely, but to take a considerate approach to when it is useful, and warned against using narration, saying it is difficult to pull off well as a beginning screenwriter.

This guest lecture was for me one of the most useful sessions we have had in this studio. It is so invaluable to hear advice from a professional, especially from someone who, by her own admission, has only recently broken through. I feel like I have been provided with some renewed inspiration, which is impeccably timed, now moving into the production of my own short screenplay.

Week 10 Reflection

Seeing as we didn’t really do an ‘activity’ per se in this week’s workshop, but mainly focuses on working in our groups for project brief 4, I decided to take this opportunity to provide some brief reflection on the progress we’re making and how we’re working together as a team.

First off, I’m super pleased with how our group is working together. We all seem motivated and organised, and are working towards the same goal. We’ve been meeting regularly, both in person and online (through Skype and Facebook.) The Facebook group we have created has been invaluable for sharing interesting relevant links, arranging time to meet up and posting any other important stuff. It’s also been helpful using Google Drive and Docs, as we are all easily able to edit documents at the same time.  This has led to some really productive (and humorous ) results.

The hardest thing so far has been finding time to work on PB4 together, as all of us also have personal commitments to balance with university work. So far, though, I’m feeling positive we’ll be able to bring together all our work to produce great results.

Individual SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths; Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Terrible stock images give me joy. Source

In regards to the project you need to complete, what are your strengths?

My strengths definitely lie within organisation and communication. I think I’m good at making sure the everything is on track and we’re never held back because something hasn’t been organised. I also think I’m quite creative so I can bring that to the project as well. I also find the topic of audience interesting and I’ve studied it somewhat before, so that previous understanding might come in useful.

In regards to the project you need to complete, what are your weaknesses?

I think my technical and production skills are not as good as other members of my group. I’m not very skilled in recording and mixing audio, so the audio essay will be a weakness for me.

In regards to the project you need to complete, what do you perceive is of particular interest, or presents an opportunity to extend your knowledge in a way that interests you?

I’m interested in extending my skills of working with others. Previously I’ve mainly worked alone and have always seen this as the most efficient way to work, but after the Lectorial and readings about collaboration I’m convinced that working with others is a great skill to have and this can also lead to increased productivity.

In terms of your own personal situation, what threats do you identify which impede the completion of the project? 

One threat that might impede with the completion of the project might be that I’m quite busy with uni and work so it might be difficult to organise times to meet up or record interviews/footage.

Outcome: The members of my group have lots of different skill that will hopefully compliment each other and lead to a successful project.

Project Brief 3 Feedback

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.

 

How do we communicate?

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.

Sony MC50 Camera Exercise

As you can see in the finished result of this exercise embedded above, we faced a few challenges. When we struggled to even set up the tripod properly, we knew we were in for a fun ride (we did figure it out eventually!). It was hard to find a suitable place to conduct the interviews that was quiet enough, had an interesting background, and decent lighting, we ended up having to compromise on all three of those points.

Upon viewing the final footage, I realised that some of the shots weren’t properly focused on the interviewee, so this is something I will have to make sure of in the future, as this really affected the quality of the shot. It was also hard to make the reverse shots of the interviewer look consistent as we didn’t have control of the lighting and were inexperienced at setting the white balance of the camera. It did help us to realise that framing the interviewer and the interviewee properly had a significant effect on the consistency of the interview.

I think the establishing/wide shots were the most successful, as it was easy to get a shots that reflected RMIT life in and around building 80 due to the interesting architecture and large numbers of students.

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.

Haiku

I wanted my haiku video to reflect a ‘modern’ haiku. In the spirit of experimental film, I experimented with some editing techniques to create interesting effect.

 

Audio from www.PartnersinRhyme.com

Review of reviews

In my Media 1 seminar we discussed our reflective portraits in groups. After some difficulty with missing cables and confusing audio jacks, we got started. Except, there was a twist: we were to use Edward de Bono’s ‘six thinking hats’ to give feedback to our fellow group members. To simplify things, only four of the ‘hats’ were to be used:

Yellow = positive

Green = alternatives, creative, new ideas

Red = gut reaction

Black = something that doesn’t work.

This process, however, began with a rocky start and never felt comfortable to our group. Perhaps it is meant to be somewhat uncomfortable, to put one out of one’s comfort zone in an attempt to foster new ideas. One challenge was that each group member was charged with a specific ‘hat’, which created some conflict if, for example, a person with the ‘green hat’ wanted to mention something that didn’t work. I think this thinking strategy would work better as a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. From my understanding, this thinking process is intended as an indirect and creative approach, but in the way we applied it, it felt rather limiting.

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?