During week 8’s lectorial Brian gave us a insight on the audience. We were taught how to approach our audience in terms of presenting our own work and thinking about who are we trying to appeal to. It’s interesting to see how much media affects the audience, before, during and after. Using a great example, he showed us a clip of Portlandia “One More Episode” It may have been a skit, but it did show a good representation of people before the media presented at them, during it and the effects afterwards. It’s always good to know, even though the content is not made for this certain person, it could appeal to another demographic. I like how the audience can be described as the people as well, showing that we the audience can influence media, we can become our own media and create something as well. Because we had human beings are looking for ways to get recognized and noticed.

In the second half of the lectorial we were given a quick indepth into premiere pro and how to edit and manipulate the audio. I’m going to use what I learnt from that and see if I can incorporate it into my work.

So during week’s 7 workshop class, we were to pr sent what we have done so far for our 2nd Self Portrait exercise, the interview. Unfortunately I haven’t had any footage or shot anything at the time, so all I could do was critique others while also gathering helpful information for myself. While analyzing everyone else’s work, I learnt some of quality of footage ans style people shot at. I was recognised some minor mistakes in the shot which I kept noted so, my footage wouldnt look like that. I noticed we have to focus a lot of audio gains, to make it clear for the audience to listen to. With all that in mind, I hope my interview goes well.

So after having a sneak preview of a few people’s work. We were given an exercise, that exercie was to shoot a short film without any form of editing at all, we can only use the cuts within the camera. Out group shot a story about a guy bumping into girl and losing his assignment paper, so he has to go a look for it. Out group in particular was pretty organize i must say, because I think we were the quickest in the class to plan out how we will shoot and setup the plot quickly. I was the main actor, so I couldnt be behind the camera much. With things like this we had to go through multiple rehearsals in each shot to make sure we got it right, since we can not do anything to the footage once we shot. We manage to finish on time and I hope our footage looks good, I wouldn’t have any sort of idea what kind of shot and camera angles were exactly used since I was the actor.

Our storyboard.

So this past week a anime movie I was highly anticipating finally came out to Australian cinemas. That movie was A Silent Voice. Now if you’re familiar with anime movies, you may also heard of Your Name (Kimi no na wa) that came out last year and broke records for Japan cinema. Well A Silent Voice also came out around the same time, however it was overshadowed by Your Name. In my opinion, although Your Name has the story to appeal to a wider audience, I thought overall A Silent Voice was a much better film. The story had a much deeper meaning, with the themes of bullying and growing up, forgiving one another while also forgiving yourself.

For a quick summary of the film, it about a Deaf girl who was bullied by a boy back in elementary school, the boy does eventually get what was coming to him, and everyone around him started bullying him. Fast forward a few years later they meet again, and the boy is trying to earn her forgiveness and make up for lost times. It’s a really cute and beautiful story. The animation is by god amazing, probably one of, if not the best animated film I have seen.

Now I have talked to some of my other friends who have also watched it, they said it was really good as well. Some of my friends include myself were also manga readers, so going into the film, we already kind of knew what was going to happen, and even though they did cut some part out from the manga, this movie was still enjoyable to watch. It’s not perfect by any means, in fact nothing is, but its still one of my favourite stories and watching it adapted into a fully animated feature, it was just amazing to watch.

I highly recommend if you have a chance, go watch this film, especially if you liked Your Name. It was a shame this film came out around the same time, and was really overshadowed by the Your Name hype, which in my opinion, I guess you could say was a bit overrated, but still entertaining none the less. I give it a 5/5 as a fanboy of the manga and finally seeing the beauty on screen, but really I think 4.5/5 should be good enough.

So during week 6’s workshop we were sent out to film a long shot. Basically a sequence all within 1 take. This was quite a fun, interesting and challenging exercise. It was fun, because our group decided to pull off something very cheesy and memey. The hard part was actually setting up and literally acting on the spot for one take. So we had to improvise on the spot, considering we only had like 1 hour to film. So our group decided to film a cheesy sequence about two guys separated by lava, actually they’re just playing the floor is lava and do it all in one shot. It took a couple of takes before we were satisfied with one. But anyways, the video is up on Matt’s vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/211863785

During week 6’s lectorial we were given advice on how to be Media Operators. And by that it means, learning how to organize our productions and handling with the public. Because when we go out to work on a project, there needs to be some procedures we have to deal with first in order to get the production rolling. Such as when we’re filming someone else, it is important to get their permission to film, and also we have to use common sense and not bring certain props that can cause a lot harm for the public eye, even if it really is nothing. Getting permission and letting the public know, is an important job in being a Media Operator. Organization is key when making a successful production.

We also looked at previous student’s interview assessment. I always find these really handy, because when you have an idea in your head, but not sure if it’s the right thing to do. Seeing an example really just confirms whether you want to go ahead with your original idea or do something different. It also lets us see and maybe give us motivation on to one up other students. Well I’m hoping my interview will go well, now knowing the previous competitions and how to work with my interviewee.

In week 5 workshop we where given a camera and asked to go around and shoot footages for an interview. It was our first time using the camera, it was a Sony MC50. It was my first time using this camera, and I was very uncomfortable with it, since I normally use my own cameras. And from what I see, it was a very simple camera, because I’m use to using the Panasonic AG-HPX250 P2 HD, which is a complex camera, so using a simple handy-cam, really threw me off a bit. Our group went out to shoot about RUSU. We were able to o setup the interview and get all out shots needed for the exercise. However there was one big problem, when we got back to the class, we realised none of our sound was recorded. We don’t know what happened, we follwed the manual and all our settings were in order, but our sound wasn’t recorded. What this does do for us, was teach us to double check and triple check our equipment. We should’ve probably apporached the task with more patience and check our footage with headphones on. Well at least we’ll know dor next time.

Week 5 lectorial was actually probably one of the most engaging and interesting lectorial for myself that is. I was really interested and engaged in what Louise had to say. Because I was for once giving my 100% attention, most other days I’m probably around 50% to 70% engaged. But for this, I was engaged and interested in how to conduct interviews. Why is that? The biggest reason is my youtube channel. I would sometimes go out to conventions and film myself giving interviews to con-goers. I already know I’m not the best interviewer and I get nervous as well, but I’m pretty sure we all do at some point, especially when it comes to speaking with strangers. But the tips she gave us in the lecture really helped me grasp a better understanding and gives me knowledge on how to improve my interviewing skills for the future. I love how she talked about the 5 Ws “Who, What, Where, When and Why” It made me realized what I was doing wrong and what I was doing correct. I hope I come out of this next assessment a better interviewer, and I hope I can make a huge step from the kind of interviewing I’m doing casually.

For those curious on what kind of interviews I do, here is a video of me and my adventures at Madman Anime Festival 2016.

Nostalgia is one of those things you just experience every so once in awhile. What is nostalgia, well according to Dictionary.com “a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’slife, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time:” Well for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been getting this feeling. Mostly because I recently watched the 2017 Disney live action remake of Beauty and the Beast. I must say, I didn’t know what to expect going into this movie. I never saw any of the trailers, nor was I really that interested, until I heard it was a musical. For an adaptation of the original 1991 film, this was done very well in my opinion. The fact that they kept most of the story intact and faithful to the original while also adding more characterization to some of the supporting cast and some the main made this one enjoyable film to watch. I remember watching the original as a kid, singing and dancing to the songs. Now that the live action basically sung the same songs, but in a more modernize version. The songs that were stuck in my head years ago, are now back, because this live action reminded me of how much I love this story. When I was watching this, it just brought back so many nostalgic memories of the original. Unlike the original, where I was going in with unknowing head in the plot. This one I was just literally constantly being reminded of what’s going to happen next, but only in live action, because I remember all these plot and story progression from years ago. This is a great movie for those who loved the original, as it’s very faithful, while also adding more. It’s great for a nostalgia trip, the songs are just as good as I remembered, with a catchyness that just doesn’t leave the head too easily. If I were to rate this film, I give it a solid 4/5.