05-04-17 (LECTURE) How to be a Media Operator/ Project Brief 3 discussion

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How to be a Media Operator

 

When conducting you need be very tidy, an hour and a half early, and you need to leave the place tidier than you came.

Consider

  • Communication
  • Location Release
  • Insurance
  • Location
  • Performance Release
  • Safety
  • Nightmare
  • Serendipity

Project Brief 3

Examples of some good interview material

 

One Minute Wonder

There’s many panning shots of various nearly random material to add interest. Even random shit like just filming the hands on her lap.

My Favourite Picture of You

A bunch of old photos and even an old video recording. The interview plays over a bunch of old photos and videos conveying memories. The interview sounds like it’s conducted by someone who knows this woman. “Sometimes it’s kind of fun to back and talk about where we’ve been” The whole interview actually seems to be a bunch of old photos and videos of this woman Matilda growing up and living life.

Oliver

He’s made this video about his little brother really interesting with just with the use of camera angles, close ups of eyes, videos of interesting material like pets, old source material of cityscapes and stuff. He’s really made this really boring kid look interesting and makes the interview look quite meaningful with the use of music, some really cool over the shoulder camera shots, and just shots capturing facial expressions from various angles. Really fantastic work by Lucas James.

 

Haha Bryan said “Maori it up”

This other interview where the guy stuffs animals also consists of a bunch of photos and stuff as well. There’s even some pretty seemingly unrelated videos of just animals like tigers walking around and doing tiger stuff.

Most of all these interviews rarely just have the interviewer just sitting down listening to the interviewee talk. It’s lots of other source material and music to keep the interview interesting.

An interview about “retinitis pigmentosa” or colloquially Tunnel Vision, seeing life through a tunnel, shows a depiction of how the vision might appear for the person being interviewed, with a fuzzy static and just a small space in the middle where you can see the material like mouths moving and eyes. The interview ends with a small shot of the man himself, and finishes shortly after.

Epsiode 3: The cost of the Free

The virtual Revolution

This source is a documentary, and it once again talks over a lot of just visually stimulating almost unrelated stuff. This documentary simply states the internet has people distributing pretty much everything you post for profit. There’s a lot of just shitty visual effects of lens flares on people’s faces. There’s also heaps of scenes of just little closeups of faces.

There’s actually only very few scenes where people are filmed talking about the topic itself.

The host of the documentary goes to various different places and to talk about her topic like the beach, even though it doesn’t really seem related to her topic, but it does keep the documentary interesting and a lot more stimulating. The music in the background that pushes the documentary forward also helps to keep the interview interesting. There’s even just shots of her just driving her car down the road, and just random shots of the city, that doesn’t even look like their footage. Other shots of her just sitting on the ground drinking a coffee with her laptop. Or sitting in a bar on her laptop drinking something, with shots of her just looking all surprised and shit by the crap she finds.  Each shot suggests something like “This is a big thing” or “I’ve been studying this topic a lot”

Overall the topic is pretty dumb because it’s just old people freaking out at the idea that the evil men of the internet are spying on them, when it’s really just computers scanning for key words in order to make advertisements present you with stuff you’ll actually appreciate.

“This is the beating heart of google” -_- It’s just a bunch of servers.

 

Shots I see a lot of:

  • Crowds of people walking
  • Host walking towards the Camera
  • Random establishes shots of the city and just the environment.

Interview Practice

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As a group we encountered a few problems when conducting the interview itself. First and foremost was finding a quiet area that didn’t have too much white noise, but we managed to find a small theatre room. The establishing shot proved difficult however, as we weren’t sure whether to have just the two people in the group facing the camera, to have it side on or an “over the shoulder” shot. We used lots of professional interviews as guidelines of what to do. Another thing I personally found difficult was having the camera zoom in and focus on the interviewee after the question was asked.

We did have a few nice successful professional looking shots after some trial and error however, as shown in the video itself. I personally appreciated the nodding shots, and how they fit in well with the interview despite being filmed separately.

I think during this process we learnt a fair bit about camera technique, and how the little things like positioning and the perfect amount of zoom can contribute so much to an interview overall.

29-03-17 (LECTURE) Structuring stories or interviews

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Narrative

  • A way of structuring meaning in the form of a story
  • A sense of sequence of events in some kind of temporal order
  • Inference of casual connections between events

But also Narrative refers to the way in which particular generalised stories circulate widely within a culture and are seen as valid and predictable, also referred to as ideology by media and cultural analysts.

Key Elements of Story

  • Controllng idea
  • Character
  • Conflict (Competing goals)
  • Structure (Progression)
  • Character change/growth

What is a controlling idea? Mckee – Value + Cause

Character

It’s important to confirm, Who’s story is it?

Who is the protagonist and antagonist?

Protagonists

  • Doesn’t die
  • Is the one whose life is made difficult
  • Is the person whose head we are inside
  • Is the person who changes the most
  • Usually drives the action
  • Whoever speaks in voiceover is the protagonist
  • Is central to the story’s dramatic high/turning points
  • There can be more than one

Antagonists

  • More than one?
  • Need not to be the protagonists enemy but always cause change or trouble for them
  • Not necessarily less interesting than the protagonist, often the story is written for them
  • Powerfully driven and their wishes are in opposition to the protagonist
  • Better depicted from the outside

Conflict=drama. There’s external and internal competing goals physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Structure and Progression

How do you build in a structure so the audience is kept entertained “flattering the viewer” in their knowledge of the events and leading them places through their knowledge.

 

Look into how stories are structured (Like Lord of the Rings)

Act 1- Establishes the setup (characters relationships, situation, and the dominant problem they will face)

Act 2- Escalates the complications in relationships as the central character struggles with the obstacles that prevent them from solving the problem

Act 3 Intensifies the situation to a point of climax

Louise’s Presentation

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Skills of Interviewing

 

The who?

  • Do they have something to say?
  • Are they credible?
  • Can they deliver ‘on camera’?
  • Are they good ‘talent’?
  • Who is my audience?

The what?

  • What are you going to ask them?
  • Research- reading speaking observing
  • Write Questions
    • Simple, as short as possible,

open ended, check wording (bias)

  • Practice

 

 

The Why?

Closed Ended

  • Do you get on well with your boss?
  • Who will you vote for in this election
  • What colour shirt are you wearing?
  • Is the highway going to affect your business?

Open Ended

  • Tell me about your relationship with your boss?
  • What dod you think about the two candidates in this election
  • Why did you choose to wear that colour shirt today?
  • How do you feel about the highway being built?

 

 

Leading Question

What problems do you have with your boss?               Questions are bias and implies fault

How did you smash your car?

 

The where?

Location would be important, whether to interview at home, work or other.

You should consider things like light, sound and background when doing the interview.

The When?

When interviewing you need

  • To brief the subject
    • Repeat the question in your answer.
  • Maintain Eye contact
  • Listen (nodding, expressive etc)
  • Be flexible/adaptable
  • Be respectful and show empathy
  • Stay focused
  • Be quiet. It’s not about you.

 “If someone comes up with a great answer it’s probably because they had a great question” `

How does a Camera tell a story?

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How does a Camera tell a story?

 

Film Form

In the dark knight, Youtube movie analyser Nickolas Dobbie looks over the camera angles and techniques used by director Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister. In this analaysis we look at the scene where Batman is Interrogating the Joker as he’s held in captivity.

As the scene begins, the camera is planted behind the Joker, already showing the Jokers position of power, as the camera slowly zooms into Gordons face, we see that the words that the Joker says really have an effect on him. The Joker wins the confrontation, and Gordon leaves

However, the confrontation changes once Batman enters the scene. We initially see someone out of focus behind a closeup of the joker, both facing the same direction.

Camera angles look up on Batman and Downwards on Joker which presents the power dynamic of the two characters. Though, as Batman sits down opposite the joker, they are shot close up as equals.

I noticed that again, a huge amount of emotion is purely conveyed through the eyes, as mentioned previously by Tony Zhou.

Screen Direction is a technique to show continuity in film, usually the screen is shown from left to right, like that of a book.

I’m not sure I necessarily agree with it, but Nicholas argues that the joker changes from being presented on the left side of the screen to the right to confuse the audience on who is the antagonist and who speaks truth. But I really don’t think having a character on a particular half of a camera shot really has that much power to dictate the way we analyse characters moral standpoint.

When Batman grabs the Joker and lifts him into the air, the camera switches to being handheld. This conveys the wild unpredictability of the actions that are about to unfold. The Editing becomes faster giving the audience less time to think about what’s going on.

When Batman has lost complete control, we go to the scene of the Joker in a Dutch tilt, “twisting the scene into madness”

, and during the scene that batman is attacking the Joker, Batman’s fists are presented in the middle of the camera shot.

Showing us the extent to which Batman holds an advantage over the joker, purely through physical strength, and we find out that that is not enough.

The scene and camera work communicates that despite the fact that Batman has his enemy in captivity face to face with all his strength, he still does not have the power. Which creates a very interesting dynamic of knowledge over strength.

 

 

-Nick Dobbie

 

23-03-17 (Where to find visual Comedy)

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Where to find visual Comedy

Jacques Tati

 

Visual Comedy is something of a lost art nowadays. Most comedy is on just characters talking.

To create a comedic scenario:

  • Modes of Find a way to make the character struggle to do something they need to do.
  • Interrupt them from getting from point a to point be. Taking advantage of objects and the world around you

 

Tati’s greatest gags are based off this. The key to make a visual gag is to have it being exaggerated, he only used sound to really sell the gags, rather than the make the gag. Sound can bring life or personality into an object or location.

Little Tich and his Big boots was a funny example of Visual Comedy.

Tati was first trained as a mime artist. He stated If you’re going to exaggerate something, you’ve first got to have something. You want to exaggerate everything you’re doing for the art of humour, often delivered Deadpan.

Tati’s humour is often based on humour or things often overlooked in life, like the way people act in a traffic jam, yawning and picking their nose, not really paying attention to the outside world.

The three key parts of visual comedy are

  1. Props
  2. Sound

Angles

You may see something from one angle, but once the angle is changed, it’s not what you thought it was. Set up a situation, cut away for a moment, and then bring it back. A gag needs space and time to forget about the setup so the punchline can hit all the better.

Observation is very important, often the smallest thing can end up being the funniest

– Andrew Saladino

(The royal ocean film society)

 

Louis CK and the art of Non-Verbal Communication

 

Comedians mostly talk, and that’s their main way to communicate. Louis CK makes a lot of gags about the lag of an easy communication, not understanding what other people are trying to say.

When Louis CK can’t communicate, the scene is edited to have focus on Louis’ face, and he will convey his emotion with things like his “not-face”

Close up shots of facial features can really communicate a lot of emotion and feeling of the situation.  Louis points out that instead of constantly yelling or talking, we should focus on body language.

-Luis Azevedo

 

 

The Art of the Gag

Buster Keaton, is a silent comedian, his work is shown through lots of other work, he focuses on al comedy. He told his story strictly through action.

Back in the day, most stories were told through title cards, he focussed on gesture and pantomime. Keaton believed each gesture done should be unique.

“Every single fall is an opportunity for creativity.”

Visual gags work best from one particular angle, and it’s difficult to find the best angle. An angle with a car driving off with a wheel not attached to the car can be viewed from an angle either showing the car, or one showing the wheel and Keaton’s face.

 

The rules of this world

  • World is flat and governed by one law
  • If the character can’t see it, the audience can’t see it either.
  • The gags are about human movement in the flat world.

The Grand Budapest Hotel used a lot of this skill, Keaton found humour in geometry, showing what is going on through circles, triangles etc.

A lot of the humour is designed to play like magic tricks, and part of the fun is trying to guess how it’s done.

Impossible Gags

Break the rules of the world, and started calling them cartoon gags. For visual comedy, you have to keep your mind open for improvisation. 50%  of Buster Keaton was in his mind before the picture, and the rest is through improv.

Buster Keaton said to “Never Fake a Gag” The only way to convince the audience that what was happening is real, was to actually do it.

– Tony Zhou.

(Every Frame a Painting)

 

500 days of Summer Film Analysis

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500 days of Summer interesting film ideas relating to readings

 

500 days of Summer was a really interestingly edited film, and a great deal of thought went into Symbolism and cinematography that would often go unnoticed.

An example of this is its use of colour. As noticed by Reddit user bonkeyfonkey,

We notice that the main character Tom’s character and often his world is very brown, as if to symbolise a different season.

Whereas Summer is seen as being very blue.

We also find that when Tom begins a relationship with Summer, the world and character surrounding Tom begin to have a blue colour scheme as well

Other than the blatant colour symbolism, the cinematography in the film I found to be really interesting and captivating. For example the dancing scene as shown above really captures the emotions being conveyed.

As Tony Zhou communicated in the “How does an Editor think and feel” video many scenes expressed the emotion the characters were feeling predominantly through their eyes, like the shot of Summer above.

 

I quite liked one of the simple techniques that Eric Steelberg used to show Toms expectation of meeting Summer again compared to the reality, as he simply filmed each and put them side by side, as shown below.

This techniques relates to the text studied “Blood in the Gutter” by Scott McCloud as well, because it works similar to that of a comic strip using the Scene to Scene technique, transporting the idea of these two different realities, and putting them side by side.

Reading 23-03-17 (The Clarity of the Craftsman Reading)

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The Clarity of the Craftsman

 

This article seems to be backing up what was stated in the lecture, having a passion for you career.

Bluegrass is a type of music that this character Jordan Tice produces. He lives in a rundown home, but he had his first record deal in High School. He’s passionate about the music.

“Musicians’ career paths are idiosyncratic, often relying on unusual circumstances and lucky breaks early in life.”

 

‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”

 

Jordan Tice was happy to spend hour search day busting his ass working on his skills to become amazing, in a rundown old messy flat.

The passion mindset focuses on

  • the question of who they are and connecting it to work
  • what the world can offer you.
  • Makes you questions who you are, and what you want, which is impossible to answer,

The craftsman mindset focuses on

  • what you can offer the world
  • leaving behind self-centred concerns about whether your job is “just right”
  • Putting your head down and working at becoming your best.

You shouldn’t envy the craftsman mindset, you should emulate it.

 

Fighting the cloud of external distractions is an ongoing battle. What you produce is what matters, don’t waste your time wondering if you’ve found your “true calling” or not.

“You adopt the craftsman mindset first and then the passion follows.”

 

 

*idiosyncratic means distinctive to the individual.

Project Brief 2 Written Reflection “Me, Myself and I”

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Video Production Techniques and intentions

For my Project Brief 2 assignment, my objective was to convey a feeling of a fast pace environment contrasted with serenity and independence. To contrast the first Haiku I created, I wanted this video to have a very soft and flowing feel to it to it.

I’ve created the flowing feeling through the use of:

  • Fading transitions
  • A written soft flowing written piece based of Erik Satire’s Gymnopédie No. 1
  • Levelled sound effects and volume.

About 12 seconds in I had the sound of a gas stove being clicked on, and the juxtaposition of the water contrasting the sound of the gas generated flame. I repeated this effect with the sound of flowing water combined with a dimly lit candle.

I wanted the words to go on different parts of the screen and pan out like a book, starting at the top left, and finishing at the bottom right. I’ve had the middle of of the message appear in the middle of the video, in centre screen, as that’s the most important part of the message.

Communication and Symbolism

Throughout the video, I’ve tried to show my individual insignificance, I’ve communicated this with my bicycle looking at the city over the handlebars. I’ve used my bicycle as a repeated motif as it’s my primary source of transport and it shows my financial situation. I also added the picture of my hands to show my independence, as everything I need to have done, I need to do myself.

The picture of the jar with paper stars was a gift of good luck from an old friend.

The candle, slow flowing water, nice views and serene situations convey my search for relaxation and peace in a stressful and fast pace world.

The message “There’s so much to do and so little time. The way I see it, you either love yourself, or fail.” I believe that self-deprecation either physical or mental is never beneficial, and I believe putting yourself first is really important for getting ahead in life.

 

Lastly, I didn’t have credits because I only used my own material.