What makes a film different from a random edit of clips. It’s the way in which we invoke meaning in both creating it and viewing it. Or at least that’s what I think it is. We watched a lot of examples of the different ways we could make a film throughout this class, but today was a bit different. These were actually films that almost went outside the norm, the same way I think Robin would like us all to do as well.

For example if we were to make a short film about a local football club, why don’t you just show the club members only and their relationship to the team, but throughout the entire film never show the actual team. In “We are the Faithful” we witness the club supporters of FC Basel cheering and crying for their team. We witness all their pain and their joy for the game that unfolds in front of them, but we never actually see the ‘main subject’. We only see their faces, their reactions and their passion. I also noted how at the beginning we weren’t properly introduced to anything aside from these rabid fans. These people came across as very obnoxious at first, but as the film continues we see these people become vulnerable and by the end your opinion of these mindless masses changes to focus on the individual that stands there alone. I thought this shift in the way we think of the fans in this crowd is very interesting, because its easy to assume one thing, but for it to turn completely around. I think this film was a great example of what we can show in a film without having to actually show everything.

 

During week 6 we were shooting  small script in class. The tale of Rachel and Barney. It was a brief look at how the set of a film should probably look like, although in a very informal way. I’ve actually had the opportunity to work in many different environments and set procedures. As one of the latecomers to class I had no chance of actually getting a role. The script only required two actors, so no extras were needed, and the main production roles were already given out before I got there. I wasn’t disappointed though. I got to sit back and observe how my peers would act within a ‘professional’ capacity. They got through multiple angles of the classic shot-reverse-shot coverage, and a few mid and wide shots. In the end it was an example of how we should conduct ourselves on a set, and what roles we need to keep in mind. So having a full crew on site would be in the best interest of all the different projects we will eventually create, and in the end we will be all grateful that someone was there to record which takes were bad and which were even worth our time considering in the final piece.

So I have completed my first graded assessment practical exercise and to be honest I feel very conflicted with the result. It was a very quick shoot, with Alaine’s help I interviewed one of my new friends of the year Eloise Large. Elly has become one of my favourite people this year and I think her story of coming to live in Melbourne at pretty much the same age I was during my first year is very striking.

I think the reason why I chose to interview her was that her life was just different to mine, and that she took the chance that I never took. I wanted to know what it would have been like if I had followed what she did, and moved out of home, to another island, away from family and friends.

Armed with an EX3, a boom mic and a micro LED panel I opted to have the traditional one-take of answers. I didn’t want to force her to answer or repeat certain phrases, and instead wanted an authentic experience of Elly’s personality. However, that did lead to a lot of unscripted responses and repetition. Elly is also a media student and knew the kinds of answers I wanted, but she also did that too well, and as I reviewed the footage from the interview she would repeat certain phrases multiple times, and try to word things purposely in ways that seemed more professional. At the time of interviewing I didn’t realize it was happening, so I couldn’t comment on it. I think I was too invested in just the interview process and not the editing that would come later on.

Another note on editing was that I realised with an unrehearsed question comes an unrehearsed answer, and a lot of stuttering. Elly was already a quick talker and with the added pressure of being in front of a camera, her words would leave her brain too fast and she would stumble for words, using “Um” very frequently. I was able to capture the clear sentences and edit around her bad habit, but I think it still comes across in the final product. I think if I had the confidence to ask her to re-structure some of her sentences and if we had more time to shoot, than it could have come across smoother. But I liked her genuine comments on being independent-ish, and her experience was what I wanted to capture. Her transition from young naive teen into ‘adult’ is happening right in front of me as her first year of uni goes by, and I really just wanted to document this moment of her life.

Someone asked if we had to use the Sony EX3 camera exclusively for this class, and Robin replied both yes and no. No because it’s not completely set that this will be the only camera available to us in the future, and Yes because it would help us build a professional discipline when working a job. Carrying around heavy equipment, bumping in sets, picking up catering, location scouting; these are all necessary jobs that are integral to making a film, and yet they get very little recognition. People rarely see the value in these small roles and tasks that build the foundations of any film, and yet they forget that this is where most people start in the industry. As a university student I’m not going to have a big production house or studio backing up my projects yet. At this moment in time all I have is the equipment office in building 9, my friends and family, and a small network of actors who I’ve made friends with over the course of my education. There’s no flashy camera grip to come assist me, or a hired lighting director. I am starting from the bottom of the chain, and that means putting up with the large equipment hauls onto the trains, or enlisting my friends to come hold a boom pole for 3 hours. This is something that we need to get used to early, so that when we do eventually get to a point where there are more defined roles, and a more professional scenario, I can appreciate every little cog that works in this big machine.

The more low budget you are, the more you can find yourself carrying everything, but it also means you get to control everything the way you want it. Being limited with both resources and money will also help with me being able to overcome those obstacles and find resolutions that I wouldn’t have thought of in the first place. So I think I’m getting used to it, I think I’m building thicker skin and more muscle dragging those pelican cases around the Melbourne CBD. One day I’ll have someone else do it for me, but right now collaborating with classmates is enough for me, and this experience will be something that will shape how I conduct myself in the future.

Along with Robin doing his magnificent impression of a basic story-teller from what I could only describe was from the stone-age, I actually took away a few things in class this. The few main key words that stuck out for me was the phrase “Don’t tell a story”

Robin described how the whole process of us writing down these observations were about grabbing what you are observing, and completely not focusing on anything. It’s supposed to be a moment we capture, that has either interested you somehow, or just something you remember on a quiet day. I found this helpful advice, especially as we are coming closer to the mid-semester break and have been doing these observations for over a month. I was loosing focus on what an observation was, since it was drawing to the point where we will eventually have to look at these observations are inspiration for a film eventually, I kinda worried that I was skipping ahead to the narrative part, but like Robin said

“Narrative is not a priority”

This has definitely alleviated a little stress when I was overthinking my recent observations and blog posts. I’m not used to writing unstructured things, because it was always easier to follow a formula, or framework wit guidelines. But this is teaching me to trust in my own way of writing and documenting of events and things, and with no pressure to make it entertaining or funny helps a lot.

This has also let me create my own style of writing. I know Robin says that we shouldn’t have a great style in mind, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t form our own through this process. I think I like writing things that break the fourth wall a bit. Especially reflecting on Observation 4 I genuinely love the way I wrote it, even though I can’t even remember how I wrote it. It just flowed naturally and it has now become something that I would love to translate into a film style, not even the content itself.

A.B.C

Always Be Careful? Considerate? Cautious?

I’m not sure if that’s what it stands for, but it is something I will be considering when operating a camera now. To me it stands for Always Be Conscious, which doesn’t really work, however in this reflection it works perfectly.

For too long I would turn on a camera, change the settings to my liking, and just press record. In the end my rushes would come back inconsistent, with only the first few minutes of a take looking like what I had intended. The rest would end up looking too messy for my liking and after Robin’s speech about how we should always be making decisions while filming I realise that it was because I had fallen into the terrible habit of Set and Forget. It’s the standard approach on would have when not actively operating a camera, and whenever I would do TV productions sometimes we could afford to have multiple people on standby for camera, so I would set the shot, focus and lock off the tripod so that it would be stationary the entire take. It was common in TV, but when you are working on a film that requires fluidity I failed to see the difference and have made mistakes in the past. I even succumbed to this during a few of the class group tasks that we have been given, not really being active in the actual filming of a take, but just letting the camera do its job and not changing or altering anything as we continued with a shot. It made for an internal conflict, especially when I would notice something was off half-way through a take. I didn’t have the confidence to interrupt and ask if everything was okay with audio or exposure, I just trusted in the settings that we had made at the beginning and hoped that I was just being paranoid. But now I think this another improvement that I need to make when creating and filming in the future. I want to become the active camera-person that Robin wants us to be. I want my work ethic to be constant, and not just happening at the beginning or end of a take.

For a while I wasn’t entirely sure what to write in these reflective blog posts, but in class something stuck with me that I realise could apply everywhere. Never assume the person before you did their job right. This was mainly in reference to when we would hire out media equipment, and the camera settings would be in the same place as the last user had them at and not what would be the default or recommended layover settings. This got me to actually think about my etiquette when I used these shared items, and how I would just pack up the equipment and rush to get them back to the techs instead of the meticulous process it is to reset or change things to how they were given to me.

In my head I always assumed it was just up to the next person to change the settings to how they would want them, but I was once naive enough to not know how to change things on a camera and suffered some pretty terrible rushes in my first year because I didn’t know the monitor settings on a camera had been set too low, or that the audio gain was way too high.

These things are now common sense to me, and especially with how much emphasis Robin placed on making everything purposeful and making sure everything within the frame was a decision I made, I realise that I need to become more aware than ever about what I do on a set. The finished result needs to be a product which I had full control over, or at least was conscious about. The lighting needs to be purposeful, the positioning needs to fit to my aesthetic, the direction and action needs to be blocked and everything that we see and hear needs to be in your head before you even press record. This is ultimately a lot of pressure to put on one person, but it is also the role of the Director essentially, and if I want to become one (or at least try my hand at being one) then I need to completely understand and grasp the ideas and images that I want to create, and make sure that I replicate that to the best of my ability within the final frame.

 

 

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