Monthly Archives: April 2016

What is Audience?

This week’s workshop was cancelled, which is a shame, but my group took the time to discuss and research for the upcoming project anyway. We’re doing audience, and if I’m honest we’re all a little collectively confused by the brief. There’s still a lot of time until it’s due, but we wanted to start brainstorming now because we don’t want the time to run away with us. Everyone did a little research on what audio/video essays actually are, which I didn’t know about at all before this brief. I found some really helpful video explanations of things. We also did some research just on Audience – our topic – which I feel slightly more confident with. I actually did quite a bit of audience related work in Year 12 Media, so I wrote a list of some things I could remember just off the top of my head. Here it is!

Audience is an individual or collective group of people who consume media texts. This consumption can be categorised in a variety of ways. Over the years, many theories have been developed in order to ascribe types of media consumption and media influence from the perspective of said audiences.

Some well known theories are the Hypodermic Needle Theory – the theory that suggest audiences are entirely dictated by the media they consume, the Agenda-Setting Function theory – which believes media cannot decide what people think but can ascribe what to think about.

Audiences can be radio listeners, television viewers and movie goers. Audiences occur whenever there is media to consume – from advertisement to novels.

Terms like ‘target audiences’ exist in order to create media specific to a type of individual which the media creator wants to view their product. For example, the movie Frozen has a target audience age of children, and possibly even of gender. Target audiences are also important when it comes to rating the appropriateness of a film, novel or TV show. That’s when ratings from G – General, to R18+ are used to tell people what media is consumable for them. Target audiences (and audiences overall) help categorise media and make it profitable. Without audiences, media cannot make money or even be produced in the first place, as there would be nobody to consume it.
There are several types of audiences, ranging from impressionable to sceptical when it comes to the level of influence media has on them.

Film Festival!

Last week we sat down for a ‘film festival’ screening of everyone’s interview shorts. This would have been terrifying enough for me, only we were divided into groups and allocated ‘thinking hats’ (green, red, yellow, black) in which we’d have to talk to the class about what we thought. I have a huge fear of public speaking, even in such a laid back setting. As a result, I got a little nervous and stumbled on my words a few times when directly addressed, but I’ll live.

My group went first.

We watched Luka’s film “Filthy Rat Bag” – the name alone was intriguing to me. I really liked the relevancy of this topic – social media and art are elements I really enjoyed. I liked the informality of it, too and just everything that the girl was talking about made me think which was good! I would have liked to have seen some more footage of the actual interviewee, personally.

Second was Alec’s “Head Trauma”, which was about a man who experienced memory loss. I really enjoyed the experimental art-house feel of this one, and the eerie quality of the music and footage accompanying his explanation of what it felt like to have head trauma. One thing to change might be not to have the audio still running while the credits roll.

Then Anna’s – “Olivia” – which was probably my favourite, though I really loved everyone else’s. I think the subject matter attracted me the most, because I have always been very passionate about LGBT+ issues and the concepts, especially about gender expression and perception of femineity and what makes someone a woman, were very interesting. If I had to say anything negative, it’d be that some shots seemed a little overused/repetitive.

Lastly in the group (before myself) was Jasmine’s “Healthy Clean Times” – which was really uplifting. I enjoyed the use of animated found footage – which hadn’t really been used by anyone else. The only downside to this was the unusual backdrop to the actual interview – old bookcase – which didn’t seem to fit the atmosphere of the whole project.

After our group a number of people showed theirs too – we got around to almost everyone and I was really delighted and interested in every film shown! Well done class!

Vivre Sa Vie

Vivre Sa Vie was a very interesting screening choice. Going into it, I was very tired, or at least the movie made me feel tired. I know I sort of nodded off once or twice for a few minutes and I had to shake my friend awake twice too. I think sometimes subtitles do that to you, coupled with the black and white and the long, exhausting shots without breaks. Overall, I liked the aesthetic of the film, especially the cinematography. I was a huge fan of the lead actress, she was radiant on screen, despite my misgivings about other elements of the plot and so forth. I enjoyed listening to the French language and the experimental nature of the use of audio, which was the focus this week to begin with.

Some of the audio aspects that intrigued me the most was the lack of backing track in terms of instrumental sound. I think a majority of the film was relatively silent in that regard (minus of course dialogue and atmospheric sounds). The scene that stuck out for me the most was the dancing scene in which Nana dances around the men to an up-beat instrumental song playing on the radio. I really enjoyed that sequence, I thought it was a very clever use of sound when the rest of the film very deliberately lacked in such a thing. I think because of the quietude of a majority of the film, these particular scenes are emphasized and noticed more by the audience. The scenes with the most unusual amount of sounds are the ones I remembered – firstly the dance sequence, secondly the balloon miming and lastly the gun shooting.

Mystery Road

During last week’s seminar we had an interesting discussion about narrative, notably in relation to the movie we watched the day before, ‘Mystery Road’. Personally, I was a fan of the film simply because it was Australian, which is hard to come by. There were a few times that it lost me, especially in the shoot out and the overall discovering of who killed the girl, but it was easy to overlook when the film was just so beautifully shot.

The opening title is apart of the film, which is interesting considering most would simply superimpose. It’s the sign of Mystery Road itself and the clouds are parted enough to make out the silhouette. When the frame gets tighter though, the cloud shrouds the ‘road’ part, so that you can only read mystery. I thought that was a very clever way of indicating the thematic concerns of the film before it had even opened on the first scene.

I have to admit; narrative confuses me a little. Things like inferred events (when something is talked about but not shown and usually takes place before the plot chronologically) are relatively easy to understand. But when it comes to the difference between plot and narrative, I get a little hazy.

From what I can tell, narrative includes objects, place and people that all help illustrate the plot. I think! In Mystery Road, this would be things like the girl’s necklace and phone, which are clues to her death which is the whole plot. Place would be obvious – Mystery Road and outback Australia in general. People would be Jay, the protagonist, whose perspective is established within minutes of the opening scene.

Enemy of the State

I’m a little behind when it comes to talking about the movies we’ve been watching. A few weeks ago we watched Enemy of the State. I was sick that day (as I was most of the week), so I attempted to watch it from home – on Netflix – between bouts of feeling ill.

I’ve always been a fan of action films, especially the post-apocalyptic kind, but this was an exception for me. Maybe it was my short attention span that particular day, but I found the film dull and repetitive and I barely finished it.

I also happened to still be sick the following day, during which we apparently discussed editing in relation to the film. I’m going to have to just try and think about this with what small amount of editing we learnt in year 12 Media.

In a lot of scenes quick cuts back and forth are used to heighten the pace of the film and to add tension. This is done several times in The Enemy of the State, particularly chase scenes and fight scenes. Cutting back and forth helps create a sense of urgency, where the audience have little time to settle on a shot/angle before it changes to the next.

The film also utilised establishing shots to demonstrate the surveillance of Will Smith’s character throughout. By using these long shots we’re privy to the POV of the people trying to catch Smith’s character. Even though I personally didn’t enjoy the film, I thought these two uses of editing were really integral.

PB3 – Capturing Life

I found this project perhaps the most challenging of all three. When we were given the brief, it definitely excited me. I brainstormed some ideas about who I wanted to interview pretty much straight away, so that process was very easy. However, as it got closer to the due date and the actual filming and editing process, it was a lot harder. I think this is probably to do with my limited experience in this kind of movie making. I did watch a few examples and the ones on the media blog helped put things into perspective. I was very stressed though, if I am honest and I was having one of those messy thoughts kind of feeling about the whole thing (which I only get when I’m really confused and doubtful about my abilities). I think most of my anxiety about this though, was just the overwhelming workload I suddenly had piled up. This wasn’t because I’d been lazy or anything, I had been sick and suddenly I had all these assignments to do. I had fun looking for found footage and I actually got in contact with the National Film and Sound Archive Australia to get permission to use some of their stock footage.

Once I actually got stuck into the filming though, I felt more at ease. I obviously was comfortable around my own dad, who was the subject of my interview, so that was fun. We got all the interview part down in about an hour. He just answered the questions naturally, I got a few different angles and that was that. Some of the ‘action shots’ is what I call them, took a bit more time just because I did a few takes, but even that was very straight forward.

I talked to Seth, my tut and organized to borrow a lapel mic and a regular rode mic for the interview. I wanted to have a back up rode mic for all the ‘action shots’ and use the lapel, as it captured sound better, for the interview part. I used my own DSLR for the filming.

Overall, I think the project went well, considering it was my first attempt at documentary style film making. I think I was not very good planning everything, I had a very brief list of shots I wanted and a list of questions as listed here:

Questions

  1. Name and profession / brief introduction
  2. How did you first get into photography?
  3. What do you love most about it?
  4. Tell us about the Northcote Hysterical Society
  5. What Camera do you use?
  6. What process do you go through post-production?
  7. Tell us about your current project?

Shots

  1. Found Footage (to go along with whatever relates to his topic, especially when talking about photographing houses and things in the 70s)
  2. Front on traditional interview (in front of studio backdrop)
  3. Close up, profile angle interview
  4. Action shot #1: sorting through film/photographs
  5. Action shot #2: Taking photos, in the street, getting ready etc.
  6. Footage of the studio (establishing, interior, him on the computer)
  7. ATMOSPHERE RECORDING AUDIO

I was very happy with the filming process overall and sorting through the footage didn’t take long either. The actual editing part, though, was my weakest. It took me a lot time to wrap my head around how I wanted it to start (the introduction etc.) and I didn’t even have a title until today. I’m still not convinced the ending transitions well, but I think I did my best. In the future I would allocate more time to planning and maybe consider doing some more research on the film and editing techniques that work with the project brief.

Capturing Life from Lucy Wadelton on Vimeo.

‘Capturing Life’ Teaser

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‘Capturing Life’ is a short interview piece with celebrated photographer and painter, David Wadelton. The interview focuses on his photographic career, most notably the establishment of ‘The Northcote Hysterical Society’ – an online archive of Melbourne’s northern suburbs during the 70’s as captured in the eyes of the artist. Mr. Wadelton also discusses the process of capturing ordinary life that other people may normally overlook and photographing them in a way that revitalises the mundane.

I Will Survive

Anybody love a good 70’s classic? Gloria Gaynor? Anyone?

I’ve spent a lot of my week at home. Scratch that – a lot of my week in bed. Whenever anyone empathises with me I just say ‘I WILL SURVIVE’. I actually haven’t been to Uni since Monday, which sounds crazy, except I only have 3 days in a week anyway. I was weirdly nauseas on Tuesday, recovering Wednesday and then my chronic illness decided to knock on my door Thursday morning – or rather – knock on my train carriage as I was mid-commute to my 9:30am Workshop. And then to top it all off, Friday my body thought a cold would be a really good addition to an already stressed out Lucy. So it’s really been fun! (I really hope you can sense the sarcasm).

While all that has been going on, I’ve been trying my hardest to manage the workload that’s all due next week. I’ve done a very rough draft of PB3, almost finished by Cinema Studies essay and slowly been working on blog posts. I churned out 4 in one go on Monday, but then was hit with illness for the rest of the week, so those 4 weren’t so impressive anymore, just the bare minimum for the week.

One thing I did do through the week was attend a Top Secret Research Program. Basically I got paid to analyze and critique advertisement and media that hasn’t been released to the public yet. I obviously cannot tell you anything about it aside from that, but I thought it related to my course in some distant way. It was really interesting looking at media that way, it reminded me of year 12 and when we used to analyze elements of media campaigns. Things like codes and conventions in order to attract target audiences. An enormous amount of effort and talent goes into things that we just ignore or not give a second thought. Even things like pop up animated ads (which we were shown at the research place) which usually I’d not even see because of adblock. Made me actually appreciate the work that goes into these things, but won’t change my opinion on clicking next whenever I see one!

Narrative Structure

Okay so I may or may not have been chronically ill Thursday morning during my Workshop, but I was told about this exercise by my friends so here I am. We were supposed to do this so that we might ‘consider and analyse the narrative structure of your PB3 portrait piece’. It’s just a few questions I’ve answered about my project. I skipped one or two just because they didn’t apply to my particular piece, but it was good activity to really get me thinking about it regardless.

  1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ of your portrait? My portrait focuses on the artistic career of my interviewee, David Wadelton. He is a painter but I focused specifically on his photography for this project. I wanted to focus on his photography because of his unique style. I suppose you could say the ‘controlling idea’ is to do with capturing a moment in history or noticing elements of our environment that you would usually take for granted – because this is what he does in his photography.
  1.  How is your portrait film structured? Though still a working process, I’m primarily using face-to-face recorded interview for my project. This is the base narrative, so that I can experiment with cutaways, display his photography and also use found footage to help enhance the conversation while my interviewee narrates it.
  1. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? I think the thing I want them to get away from it is how much the world and our environment can change just through our life time. My interviewee talks about documenting Melbourne in the 70’s and how in many ways it has completely transformed since then.
  1. How is your portrait being narrated? It’s being narrated by the interviewee, so that the focus is entirely on him and his work. I chose this method because it is the most self contained, all footage is of him and recordings as well. But it also means focus won’t be detracted from the interviewee if you heard my voice or another person narrating.
  1. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait? The role of the found footage is actually pretty crucial, I’d say. Without giving too much away, I gained permission to use stock footage of Melbourne in the 60’s and 70’s to overlay while my interviewee discusses his photographic archive of the same era. It works really well to help enhance what he’s talking about, I think.
  1. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point? No.
  1. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum? It’s hard to say when it isn’t completed, but I think the use of cutaways and a few different angles helps to keep it interesting and maintain a flow that is engaging to the audience. I hope to use audio as a good momentum, having little to no silence but a steady flow so that it isn’t too much in one go.

 

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It’s Recording!

In a workshop a few weeks back we were told to get into pairs and practice recording interview style with borrowed equipment. Although I didn’t end up using the H2N Zoom in my PB3, it was helpful to test out the overall process.

I did this project with my friend Amber and we went into the RMIT Library and surrounds to ask each other questions. This was the result. We encountered a few problems right off the bat – firstly that the class had spent so much time trying to figure out the mic that we had about 10-15 minutes to complete the actual thing. It was also difficult finding an area to record that was both quiet, and that we wouldn’t be disrupting people by talking in. We hid in a corner of the library, but even then we must have frustrated everyone near us (hence the whispering in some parts). It was also kind of difficult to avoid making additional noise, like cluttering and movement etc., especially when we kept accidentally recording things. There’s a lot of ‘it’s been recording the whole time!’ and shuffling around.

Going through all the audio tracks was interesting for that, many conversations that I’m sure we didn’t even know we being recorded and a lot of 3 second snort laughter. Overall though, that activity was a lot of fun in my opinion. You can probably sense the humor in our voices, we weren’t really taking it seriously and it was hard to just make things up on the spot knowing you were being recorded.