In week 10  lectorial, we were given a lesson in sound. Since our Project Brief 4, not only was it a group project, but we had to produce an audio piece. Up to this point we were only doing video related work, so we needed a briefing in sound. In the lectorial we were given many things to listen to as it is a way for us to analyse and focus on how we listen to pieces. I had a hard time giving my 100% attention, because sometimes when I listen to things, I kind of just drift off into my own world. So I lost focus on what the audio pieces were about. But I do remember briefly the audio pieces were about how we humans listen to sound and how it we analyse them, seeing what sound does to us. The listen to itself passed by, it was lot of information to try to listen to, it doesn’t have the same feel of when someone is standing up and giving a speech. But I get the message of when listening to an audio piece, it is very important to draw and get someone’s attention, because the only thing that is really working as the listener, is their ears. This does help give me some ideas and ways to approach the project brief 4.

In week 9’s lectorial we were given a talk about collaboration work, because our next Project Brief was going to put us to the test of working in a group. So this lecture was warranted and a guide for us, to learn the ins and outs in working in a group. This is not just a skill for our own assessment but also a skill for our future in looking for a job as one of the most important things an employer looks for is cooperativeness in the workplace. Not only does it help in the workplace, but it especially helps in the industry I’m trying to get into, and especially for others in the media course. Because the majority of any media related work is done in groups or teams. Teamwork is very important for anyone, because the old saying two heads are better than one can apply. We learnt that working together can help work a project in efficient way, rather than one person carrying a workload, we can divide it up. When we were discussing the positives of working in a group, there were also negatives, such as someone not doing their work, which lets the team down. We were shown a video of how to not work in a group project, it showed all the things we should avoid in a team environment, such as not doing any work, putting it all in one person, one person taking over or simply not committing. It was good insight on how not to work, even though the video was obviously staged with very low production, it was still able to get its point across. Not only does working in a group help to complete a project or goal in efficient manner, it also helps us develop our own skills with others, because networking and communications is very an important factor in media.

It was funny how in week 8’s lectorial and workshop we talked about the audience, people and fandom. And coincidentally there was a convention during the weekend, that was Supanova, a pop culture convention. I like conventions, it really showcases what the media has done for the audience and the people. You see people all over the place, whether they interact with pop culture or become part of pop culture, like cosplaying. Its really amazing to see how pop culture has been a big influence on us over the years. Every guest at Supanova had long lines of people, there were so many different fans waiting for people. Whether it was people who just wanted to see the person in one of their favourite shows, or even some people cosplaying as that guest. I went to Supanova to just hang around with my friends, I wasn’t there for any particular guest although I would’ve love to met Nolan North a video game voice actor. I was just there for the atmosphere and to just to cosplay. We can see many different fandoms for many different series, it brings us all together in unique ways. Media has been a big influence on our life, we interact with it and we are also part of it.

During week 6’s lectorial were told how media operators work and it got me thinking, I somewhat suck at interacting with other people. And part of working in the media industry is to go out of our way and interact with other people. I always get nervous when I’m shooting or filming someone I don’t know. Because I’m always concern about them, because I don’t want to waste their time, so I somewhat sometimes rush things. Especially when I’m working with the public and getting them to sign forms, because usually that’s the part that take awhile, because you’ll have to get them comfortable and get their approval.

Another thing is not only getting permission from the people your shooting, but also getting permission from someone you probably never met before. Say you picked many spent a long time to plan something, you have a vision in mind, you got your gear and actors ready, but you don’t have permission to the location, especially if you’re shooting in a public place. I find shooting in a public place really nerve racking, because it takes more effort looking for the right person to talk to, and I’m always nervous on pitching my idea, and getting an approval from someone who will not be involved and only just there to give to go ahead, even though they are not involved.

Working with other people is nerve wracking, but we should also keep in mind they are probably just as nervous.

So instead of a lectorial blog post for week 7, we are given the opportunity to make an initiative in place of week 7. And considering week 7 is a the week before the mid semester break, why don’t we talk about holidays. I personally think holidays are needed in our life, because with the pile of workload that everyone gets, its nice to take a break here and there. Why does it always feel like breaks go by so fast, well there is a saying “times go by, when you’re having fun” and this is too scary and true, because sometimes we don’t even realize how much fun can be had. Now during the mid semester break, it feels like we didn’t exactly have a break, considering it was just one week. But I find it funny how we start the break in the middle of a week and begin again in a middle of the week. It doesn’t really let me get into work rhythm, as I think most of us prefer things to start at a start of the week, so have a quick reset. Because it sort of messes things order, consider we may end some of our classes on week 7 before the break, but after the break we begin again one week 7. Isn’t that confusing enough? Oh well it was a fun little break we had, I managed to sort not be as productive as I can be, but then again, I was just sometimes thinking what needs to be done, but I decided to procrastinate and just enjoy myself.

For week 8’s workshop, we did our final analysis of everyone’s Project Brief 3. It was our last chance to get everyone’s opinion on our own work to see how we  can improve and what changes can be made before we submit. There were two main criticism to my work; there were too many cutaways for one part, so I removed some of the cutaways and the second criticism I got was the use of my font and lower thirds, it looked too modern for their taking, which didn’t fit the person that was talking. So I changed the lower third and font in my interview, to suit him more. With the criticisms I took, I went to the market for one more day, to get some extra shots to replace certain cutaways that’ll fit more with the interview.

Also in class we viewed everyone’s week 7 “The Pursuit” a video where we make no edits and just play and view what ever was filmed on camera. It was funny seeing what everyone else did and seeing how creative people can be, when just given a camera. Nonetheless, our work didn’t turn out quite exactly as we would have hoped, it was still fun though.

No Edit – The Pursuit from Joey on Vimeo.

 

Self Portrait2 from Joey on Vimeo.

Reflection:

For this project we were asked to shoot an interview. For me it was quite the experience trying to organize and prepare for a one on one in depth interview with a talent Because I have never really interviewed someone one on one privately before so, I was quite nervous going through the whole process. To the keep the interview simple, I decided to interview one of my co-workers, because I thought with his experience, he would have something interesting things to say. After I shot my interview and edited a sample of what I’ve done and recorded, my classmates told me I had too much cutaways. At first I wasn’t ever really thinking I had too much cutaways, because I initially thought I was still lacking something during the editing process. For me it felt so plain, but unfitting, and my classmates told me off for that, and I accepted the criticism and changed some parts. Such as making the font look older than fonts used in recent years. I was also told that some of my shots felt repetitive, and didn’t really correlate to the person that was talking. As I learnt from this project, that having too much footage can be a bad thing, because it just increases the work load, because I would have to pick and choose sections I want in the video. What I found the most challenging thing to do while shooting this interview, was to know who and where I can shoot, because sometime’s getting permission can be tedious. I only managed to get permission from the store holder, for filming him and the store, however I didn’t have permission or never really bothered getting permission from customers. So for the majority of the shots I used for cutaway, I purposely left any customers in the store out, so I wouldn’t have to deal with them. But it’s something I’m going to have to get use to, and that is filming in public, right now I’m not confident to film and get permission in public.

One of the most important thing I learnt about was how to ask questions in an interview. Considering I wanted long answers to my questions, I really needed to think how could I ask a certain question, because some of them started simple, then I would add more to have my interviewee clarify for me. Considering I cover and interview random people at conventions as a hobby, this project helped introduced me into another world of interviewing people. Because I had to learn the full process, of getting permission and working around my guest. Normally I would be nervous asking any strangers to interview, but with someone like this close to us, it feels like we have to impress him to.

What I can take and move on from this project, is learn how to adapt and adjust my self to edit in a pace that works with the interviewee. Because at first my draft was considered a bit fast and not fitting with the theme of the old man. Another thing I can learn from this exercise is learn how to treat the people around me, when doing an interview, learning to respect the interviewee and working alongside with them to get a successful interview off. Learning and organizing forms for myself and guests are another thing I have to go through one day, and when we did this project, it was a step for us because media practitioners, because we are going to need a lot more permission forms to most likely shoot in the future.

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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.