Everyday Media

An everyday blog about media by everyday blogger Louise Alice Wilson.

Page 7 of 12

My Work In Progress

September 14, 2016 / / 0 Comments

My video on Claire Bridge is coming along pretty well, so far I’ve managed to have a look at the footage and start compiling the ‘narrative’ of the piece, which is essentially just a three-minute compilation of all the audio with matching visuals that I want to use. Like friends of mine who are currently editing their portraits I’ve been finding hard to decide what makes the cut or not. I would really love to delve deeply into Claire’s process, but it seems that in a 3 to 5-minute video that it’s hard to fit in everything your artist has talked about.

 

I originally asked Claire six questions and had planned to use the best 30 secs of each question to compile into this 3-minute narrative, that I would later colour with other footage, music and editing. However, I should have known that there are some answers which go for say 45 secs, where everything is gold, which has meant that I’ve had to drop some questions out completely. I do think though, that my artist portrait has a clearly defined narrative and that’s extremely important to me, so that people, after watching feel like it makes sense and that they’ve understood everything Claire speaks about.

 

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

The Shoot

September 11, 2016 / / 0 Comments

This week I shot my Interview with Claire Bridge. Myself and Riah travelled, I would say all the way out too Wheelers Hill, but it’s really not that far away, unless you live on the North side, which we both do. Riah and I carried our gear on two trains and 1 bus to get to Claire’s studio out in Wheelers Hill. I can see why Claire lives here as it’s a pretty beautiful place, it’s still suburban but there are trills, hills and birds everywhere, and for someone that’s passionate about the environment I can see why she lives here. Meeting Claire was awesome, after having spoken via phone or email for so long, it was nice to speak to her in person. The filming of the interview went extremely smoothly, I’d put this down to having planned out everything, such as all the questions I was going to ask prior to the interview. By this stage I had helped Riah film as well as Elise and it was noticeable how much smoother Riah’s interview went because she had pre-planned her questions. Rather than spending an hour asking various questions that you might not use anyway, it’s much more efficient to spend 20 minutes covering exactly what you want to cover. By this stage I’d also had practise setting up lights, doing sound and getting camera shots for people’s portraits so I already knew everything I wanted to shoot.

 

Our setup was pretty simple, two large lights, one on Claire’s front right and one on Claire’s front left, two Canon EOS 60D DSLR’s at different positions (one straight on, one to the side), a Sony H2N handy recorder and a lapel mic. Everything ran super smoothly, we did the interview first then myself and Riah shot various things in Claire’s studio. Whilst shooting various things in Claire’s studio we also got a chance to both speak to her which was nice, discussing what it is like to be a woman in Melbourne’s art scene and finding out who some of her favourite artists were. Overall the experience was also, I have a lot of friends who are artists so I hope to do more artist portraits in the future.

 

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

Reflection On Video Portrait

August 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

The collaborative process between me and Claire Bridge has been good so far. Upon finding out her email address we had a brief email exchange culminating in me sending her a list of potential questions for the interview. Claire quite liked a lot of the questions, but overall there were too many, so we proceeded to reduce the number of questions to six main questions. These questions would then form the basis of the artist portrait, with an attempt to limit answers to no more than a minute, so little had to be cut for the final edit. The six questions we arrived at are as follows:


  1.  How would you define creativity?
  2. What does it mean to you to be an artist?
  3. Do you feel a painting or piece of art can house an energy/a feeling from the original artist? Do you feel that your own works house this energy?
  4. Change and transformation are recurrent themes in your work. What are you exploring and why do these fascinate you? And recently we saw a change in your medium too, incorporating video works and photography.
  5. You seem to draw on many influences in your work, from quantum physics, astrophysics, to environmental ecology, psychology, philosophy and metaphysics. With titles like “Dark Matter”, “Touching Infinity”, “We are made of Stars”, “Rising tides” and “A drop in the ocean” or “Alchemy”. Can you tell us something more about the convergence of these ideas and influences?
  6. What continues to motivate and inspire you as an artist?

We both felt these questions addressed the initial topic of exploring creativity, explored why Claire became an artist, gives insight into Claire’s work and practise and looks toward the future of Claire’s practice. After refining the questions, we proceeded to organise a day to film, which will be on the 16th September. Hopefully if all goes well we will both have an artist portrait that lives up to our expectations.

 

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

Contacting Our Artists

August 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

This week was an exciting week as this week we got given the artists that we would be working with on our project. As soon as I found out who my artist was I began looking at her website and various places online that house her work. I was actually quite surprised to receive an artist like Claire Bridge, I’d never really thought that I’d receive a traditional realist painter. I run an online art blog, where I post random works of art that I really love and looking back over my archive it’s rare that I ever post any traditional realist works, so it was refreshing to learn about a style of art I didn’t know much about.

 

I spent a lot of time looking over her work and reading into traditional realism. Although Claire is a traditional realist painter she does mix this traditional mastery with more modern practises such as distorted figures, abstract backgrounds and a diverse array of colours. I decided to send Claire a brief email just letting her know who I am and that I’d be working on this project with her. I also then wrote up a list of questions for Claire that she could look over and refine for our artist portrait. So far I’m pretty excited to begin work on the project and hope that Claire and I can create something that we both really love.

 

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

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Street Art

August 10, 2016 / / 0 Comments

This week we were organised into groups and tasked with creating a street art video. I was put with Jasmijn and Dusty and the three of us headed off with our massive camera to go film some notorious street art laden alleyways around Melbourne. Filming the laneways was much harder than expected, as we didn’t realise how busy they actually get, it was almost impossible to get shots of the art without having people covering the frame. We decided to walk down a little alley off the main alley and we happened to catch a dude putting a piece. The dude happily let us film him as long as we didn’t get any shots of his face or his side, just sticking with shots of him from behind. It was cool to get to see art in motion and to be able to capture that on film.

 

Because I wasn’t that happy with the shots of the street art that we got and I know Melbourne has some really great street art to offer I decided to do extra filming by myself. I walked around my local area in Thornbury and managed to find some great pieces and also headed down to Collingwood as that place is literally covered in street art. It was kind of cool to walk around streets that you know super well and to look at them in a different light. Walking down different streets and alleys, keeping an eye out for a great piece of work. Overall I had a lot of fun with the project and I personally love street art so this project was a combination of two of my favourite things.

 

Catch you later,
Louise Alice Wilson

Statement of Goals

July 29, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Having completed a degree before beginning my media degree taught me a few things:
Completing a degree is hard, it takes time, effort, money & hard work, but it does pay off in the end.
Time goes SUPER fast, before I knew it I was in my last year, then before I knew it I was on to my second degree.
If you don’t keep track of your learning and you engage in a lot of ‘cramming’ then it’s likely that you will forget a lot of what you learned.

These three gems of wisdom, combined with my slightly perfectionist nature led me to follow this mantra: If your going to do something, do it right THE FIRST TIME.

That is why, before starting my capturing creativity artist profile I have decided to write a statement of goals. This way I know what I want from this subject, can keep track of my own learning and will end this semester with a number of shiny new skills. I know it’s dorky, but I skateboard on weekends, which I think makes up for it.

The aforementioned ‘Statement of Goals’

By the end of this semester I want to:

  • Learn about the history of Australian art and the current influences shaping our artistic landscape.
  • Develop an understanding of known signs, references and meanings often found within art.
  • Develop an intricate understanding of ‘the art world’ as a financial and social system.
  • Investigate the notion of ‘creativity’ and develop a personal understanding of what ‘creativity’ means to me.
  • Discover novel and interesting ways to express specific notions via documentary film.
  • Understand how art galleries such as Gertrude St Contemporary are funded and function.
  • Develop a close relationship with my allocated artist from Gertrude St Contemporary.
  • Develop a greater range and more in depth understanding of camera techniques, skills and abilities.
  • Learn how to construct a compelling narrative within documentary films.
  • Increase my understanding and skill set regarding Adobe Premiere Pro.
  • Develop an intricate understanding of lighting setups and how optimise current lighting.
  • Become a better collaborator by helping others make the most of their abilities.
  • Learn how to ‘let go’ of projects and let spontaneity break predefined patterns.

This goals will most likely change over the course of the semester, but I think I’m off to a good start.

Catch you later,
Louise Alice Wilson.

Riding around on the 86

July 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I’m not sure how, but it seems that I’m trapped on the 86 tram line. (Which sounds especially bad, post the release of The Bedroom Philosopher’s – Northcote (So Hungover).

Since moving to Thornbury everything I do generally relates to that perpendicular line of tram tracks leading into the city. I work along the 86 (Collingwood), I eat along the 86 (Bang Bang, Moors Head, Seoul Soul, Trippy Taco etc.), I drink along the 86 (Joe’s Shoe Store, The Grace Darling, The Gasometer, 303), I go to house parties along the 86 and I do just about everything else along there, I’m even writing this blog post along there.

Maybe it’s because I’m a poor uni student and I catch public transport everywhere? Maybe I’ve found some great places and feel no need to change? Maybe it’s because all my friends are along the 86 also? Maybe I’m lazy? or maybe the 86 is just great? Who knows. But long story cut short, this is why when I found out that for my capturing creativity studio I would be paired up with an artist from Gertrude St Contemporary I was like ‘oh shit, the 86 wins again’.

Gertrude St Contemporary is one of those places that I’ve seen literally THOUSANDS OF TIMES (that’s how much I catch the 86), but i’m ashamed to say I’ve never been inside. The 86 does that to you, you feel like you know a place because you’ve seen it so much, but you’ve never actually been there. So it’s safe to say that I’m pretty excited for my first visit.

Catch you later,
Louise Alice Wilson

What is creativity?

July 18, 2016 / / 0 Comments

What is creativity?
How de we define creativity?
Where does creativity come from?
How philosophical is the notion of creativity?
Is everyone’s ‘creativity’ different?
Or is it an ill conceived, simplified term that is used to describe a very specific series of neuronal & bodily reactions to certain stimuli?
These are all the questions I’ve been thinking (and googling, and youtubing) since beginning this Capturing Creativity studio* and I have found some answers or maybe I’ve just found more questions:

Creativity is generally defined as the ability to make new things, or come up with new ideas, it’s an ability to think outside the box, to see unique solutions and employ them in inventive ways. In this sense creativity is not always utilised when being ‘creative’, as to be creative is simply defined as the ability to make or produce something. However I guess that depends on your definition of creative, how different, unique, special, once off, un-influenced does something have to be, to be classified as creative?

This is where creativity get’s tricky.

It’s all well and good to be like oh this is what creativity is, so it’s easy to investigate it, but what if you don’t define that as being creative, maybe that was just following a formula, a somewhat inspired formula, but maybe it is just a formula. Creativity to most people seems to be a random mix of once off genius combined with solid skill and hard work and for us humans these percentages are unique to us.

Maybe creativity to you is 90% unique idea, 5% skill and 5% hard work.
Maybe creativity to you is 40% unique idea, 50% skill and 10% hard work.
Maybe for you creativity doesn’t have to involve any hard work at all.

For me when it comes to creativity I’m most interested in that unique idea portion; where does that unique idea come from?
Is it simply random?
Is it a gift from the gods?
Is our unique idea just a product of a lot of subconscious effort, only made aware to us in the sense of a ‘random’ idea?
Have we been influenced by something, processed it subconsciously, then come up with a creative idea, only to be unaware of the original influence?
Or is creativity a combination of genetic preferences, individual tastes, things you viewed on tumblr that day added together with a little bit of ‘what your friends like’?

I’m not sure what creativity is, but this is a good thing.
That allows me to be open minded and to listen to what my artist is saying, without pushing the narrative in a specific direction. My artist can inform me of what they think creativity is, how they are influenced creatively and what they believe the route cause or process to be. Maybe i’ll agree with their version or maybe I won’t, but by the end of the studio myself, the artist and our class of film students will be a little bit closer to understanding our own definitions of creativity.

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

 

It’s The Final Countdown

May 30, 2016 / / 0 Comments

It’s the final countdown and it’s also my final reflection.

Take Me Home

My first ever blog post, entitled ‘Take Me Home’ reads: “Media is the home for our practise and theory, a place of experimentation, individual customisation and inherent filtration and workshopping of all that is presented to us.” However on reflection, at this latter stage in the course, I’ve learnt that this home does ‘exist’ but only for those that seek it. Throughout this semester I’ve been challenged to appreciate and grab at the opportunities presented to me throughout this course. Seeing this original statement reinvigorates that drive, to be all that one can, and to learn and engage from everything that is presented to me and I hope to take that drive into second semester.

Don’t Follow Your Passion

‘Don’t Follow Your Passion’ for me is a record of my lightbulb moment achieved after reading Cal Newport’s statement: “If you wan’t to love what you do, do what Steve Jobs did and not what he said”. That statement as well as Cal’s various articles killed the little anxiety bug in my head that constantly attacked my creative process often asking questions like: “why are you doing that”, “your not that good at this”, “but would you really be happy being an video artist?”. I realised that it was that anxiety, rather than my ‘inner self’ that was killing any chance I had at finding or enjoying something I love to do, which revolutionised my thinking.

Blood In The Gutter

I still stand by this statement: “Scott McCloud’s ‘Blood in the Gutter’ is a great comic and probably one of the best descriptors of editing that i’ve ever read.” The concepts I learnt here: closure, gaps and transitions have since completely changed the way I think about media. Being quite a visual learner, Blood in the Gutter was a major impact on my understanding of how we as media viewers interpret and subtly change the narratives we view, purely based on our individual creativity and preferences. As well as how the manipulation of each concept can completely change one’s own interpretation and engagement with events.

My Lo-fi Self

This post for me represented that first hurdle I had to face, that question of revealing yourself to the world through your creative endeavours. It was a challenge to sit down and show other people what i’d done, to reveal myself and to explain myself to others but it was ultimately rewarding. It also permanently switched me from ‘half creatively engaged with the world’ to full blown ‘see’s every view as a potential film shot, motif or angle’. I remember that moment when I sat on the tram, looking at the world, wondering what aspects of it I could frame, use, or take inspiration from for my project, and I love that I’ve permanently maintained that ability.

Be A Media Maker

The whole idea of Media Studies 2.0 in general as presented by Brian Morris, as well as by David Gauntlett and William Merrin was a mind-blowing lightbulb moment for me. Having only learnt about media in regards of the old broadcast model I’d never thought about the aspects of current media that were actually more influential to me than any ‘archetypal’ text. Since reading Gauntlett’s blog i’ve thoroughly adapted my understanding of media, i’ve also felt a greater sense of creative importance regarding the media I make. And I also pay more attention to what is often truly influencing me, such as my peers, artwork on tumblr and instagram constructed narratives & visuals.

Premiere Pro Is A…

Premiere Pro was one of the first tech related challenges I had to face, when I first viewed the program it seemed impossible to understand and use, and I even struggled with sequencing. However I can now navigate the program quite easily and understand the basics of editing, I do have a long way to go, but I now see that as being obtainable considering my progress so far.

Everyday Me

Everyday me was a struggle. Coming up with a creative idea, planning it, attempting to execute it, editing it, re-editing it, that was my first taste of the video making process and it really taught me a lot. It’s also one of the first creative things I am proud of, I showed this video at Melbourne Filmonik, which was cool getting to hear audience feedback, everyone actually really loved it, which was a surprise to me..haha.

A Tutor A Day

Having guidance from tutors, for me has been invaluable. I’ve learnt a lot from mine, and I also feel that your tutors enable you to make your creative ideas into a reality. You tell them your jumbled thoughts and they decode it into something legible, something structured. Slowly I am learning to do this for myself, to follow their guidance, to sit down, to plan it out, to think about what’s most important, maybe I will master it one day.

Sound on Sound

I have still have 75gigs of hard drive space taken up with this project. This project was amazing and so extremely difficult. I spent along time thinking about my idea, planning what shots I needed, planning my interview questions, writing up a minute by minute script, searching for hours through archival footage and then putting the whole project together. It taught me so much about each one of those processes and by doing it all myself I learnt invaluable skills, that I hope to utilise throughout the rest of the course.

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

Life Of Brian

May 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Life Of Brian is a 1979 comedy film written by British comedy group Monty Python

Jokes.

After spending the last couple of weeks organising our audio essay, today within the workshops we were given feedback from jesus christ Brian Morris. Up until this point our audio essay is essentially a written essay that is being read aloud, much in the academic style. After listening to a number of other groups audio essays it was our turn. We dragged our laptop over to Brian, him sitting on one side of the desk, us sitting on the other “much alike Charlie’s Angels” I joked, Brian said “it feels more like an awkward job interview”, we all laughed. As Brian listened to our essay, we looked awkwardly at one another, each time that person was speaking, they’d have a funny face on as they listened to themselves. We all kind of had the feeling that: this audio essay is good.. but still pretty lame, Brian however was much gentler on us and gave us some great advice as summarised below:

  • It might be nice to mention that Disney has made an attempt to ‘change’, as there is a lot of talk regarding ‘the new Disney films such as Frozen and Tangled’.
  • Even if you don’t agree with that statement, you could set it up as “A lot of the discourse surrounding Disney films suggest that Disney has made an attempt to reconstruct it’s highly gendered narratives, but is that really the case..?”
  • Don’t keep it too neatly wrapped up, you can state that Disney has made an attempt to change, without it undermining your argument.
  • State your argument clearly and round it out by the end of the essay.
  • There’s a nice opportunity in the intro to add in the Disney princesses voices saying “I’m Jasmine, I’m Ariel, Hi I’m Cinderella” enhancing the idea that Disney keeps doing the same thing over and over again.
  • You can have scenes play out at a lower level in the mix, therefore you don’t have to waste time listening to an entire scene by itself.
  • A Ted Talk or an online version of an academic speaking could replace the tradition interview.
  • Add more texture to the intro and the conclusion sections, whereas the body can be the dense info.
  • There is a high pitch noise in the recording, that seems to come from the recording environment, therefore you should try and edit it out.

Receiving this feedback from Brian was great, I think he touched on a lot of points that we were secretly worried or thinking about, so it solidified to us that these parts need to be worked on, before the final version. Based of off Brian’s feedback we decided to re-record our audio in order to eliminate the hum, but we will also re-word it to make it sound more like a casual three dimensional on air conversation, much alike a podcast rather than a dry reading of an essay. We also want to reference the point that Disney has indeed attempted to change, but rather that it has not been enough, hopefully adding enough to our argument to convince the listener of our point of view. We will also hopefully find a good Ted Talk to use as well as go through our Disney clips in order to find some appropriate sound bites that will add texture and add emphasise to the arguments we will make throughout the audio essay.

Coming back to the Life of Brian aspect (even though I did only make that pun based off the similarity in names, haha), but I guess for us students, lecturers and tutors become a kind of messiah, or touchstone. A person through which we get to receive valuable words of wisdom, through learned experience. Often within other courses (such as my Psychology degree that I studied previously) I never really got to interact one on one with lecturers, or the people who shaped the course I was studying. So I think it’s really great that we get the opportunity to have our tutors and lecturers listen to our work. It also really allows us as students to make sure that were on the same page as the tutors and lecturers, regarding expectations for assignments and the coursework in general. So I really hope that receiving feedback and interacting with our lecturers will continue throughout the rest of the course.

Also if anyone hasn’t watched Life of Brian, you definitely should!!

 

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

 

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