Author: lukeegan

First Filmmakers (the initiative post)

by lukeegan

We are lucky in modern society to have powerful video technology that fits in the palm of our hands. We have the ability to instantly film with the click of a button and output high quality video. If we accidently shoot the wrong thing we can simply delete it and try again. The beauty of the digital age. Robin has stressed in class that we shouldn’t take this for granted. It’s too easy not to think about what we are filming and how we capture it because today technology can do so much of it for us. To truly appreciate film as both an art and science we should look back to those who pioneered the movie camera. Using the most basic movie cameras they created masterpieces so I wanted to learn more about some of first filmmakers and their creations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4

In 1894 inspired by Edison’s peephole kinetoscope the Lumiere brothers developed the cinematograph which was a portable, crank operated camera. A year later they shot their first film titled The Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory and it featured exactly that. One of their other early actuality films was titled Arrival of a Train at La Coitat Station. French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier described this film as evidence of the Lumiere brothers being much more than inventors of the cinema or the first filmmakers but genius in ‘their very modern approach to filmic composition, such as their use of diagonals and contrast’. This 50 second film simply documents a familiar everyday occurrence, despite this it’s attained fame and is now a film history icon. It’s interesting to note that this film actually caused fear and terror by cinema audiences. German journalist Hellmuth Karasek wrote “although the cinematographic train was dashing towards the audience in flickering black and white (not in natural colours and natural dimensions), and although the only sound accompanying it was the monotonous clatter of the projectors sprockets… the spectators felt physically threatened and panicked”. It seems to strange to look back and think people were frightened but it’s important to remember the audience weren’t accustomed to seeing a moving image, especially not one that appears to be moving towards them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_9N68MO9gM

The Lumiere brothers were the first real documentary filmmakers and they mostly stuck to making these ‘actuality’ films. George Melies on the other hand was quite the opposite. His films were much more fantastical, theatrical and often involved film tricks or special effects. The ‘cinemagician’ discovered the classic substitution stop trick in 1896 and was one of the first filmmakers to use time-lapse photography, multiple exposures, dissolves and hand painted colour in his films. While the Lumiere brothers documented reality, Melies transformed reality through cinematography. Furthermore, unlike the Lumieres who shot on location, Melies worked mostly in a studio, often using elaborate sets. Interestingly, Melies was an audience member of the Lumiere brothers’ first screening and approached them wanting to buy their cinematograph device. The brothers refused his offer so he built his own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlsWesjhNWw

By learning about the Lumieres and Melies we are contrasting fiction and non-fiction methodologies. Melies created fantastical fiction and the Lumieres made actuality documentaries yet both tried their hands in the others art.

 

Over and out,

Luke Egan

White Balance / Color Balance

by lukeegan

In today’s studio we learnt how to adjust the white balance both manually and by using the preset buttons in which we could customise. Color temperture is measured in Degrees Kelvin (K).  The color tempertures we use most are Daylight which is ballparked 5600K and indoor Tungsten lighting 3200K. Higher color tempertures such as Daylight are considered cool (blue) and lower color tempertures such as Tungsten are considered warm (yellow/orange).

Considering this, if I am shooting indoor under tungsten light I will set my cameras white balance settings to 3200K. The camera will then correct your camera’s settings to ensure that white appears white.

To mannually set white balance get a white card (white paper will do, even though its not pure white, it’ll do for most cases) and hold it front of the camera so it is taking up the entire shot. Angle the paper towards the light source you want to use. Then click the manual white balance button on the camera and it will read the exact color temperture of the light source.

White Balance

 

Over and Out,

Luke Egan

50 Second Shot – Reshoot

by lukeegan

Our task this week was to shoot another 50 second shot at 12mm in our own time. By doing this we further familarised ourselves with adjusting camera settings to obtain a aesteciallty pleasing and vissually correct shot. Mitch and I decided to hire a camera between us and do our shots together. His 50 second shots were of a digger on a construction site at RMIT. Annoyingly, everytime he started to shoot the digger would stop doing anything interesting. This is evident by his second take where the driver jumps out and has a ciggerette and a chat 5 seconds in. This is one of the challenges faced in actuality filming or documentary in cases where you can’t control the scene.

My 50 second shots were of the Victoria St intersection near Bowen St, RMIT. I choose this location as it was early in the morning and there wasn’t alot going but this intersection was quite busy. My first shot was front on with the pedestrian crossing and primarily featured people crossing the road. For my second shot I choose to shot on an angle to the intersection as to capture both the pedestrians crossing and the cars on the road. This compisition was much more aestetically pleasing. Although my shot was more or less correctly exposed I made a rookie mistake of forgetting refocus the image after moving the camera so the image was too soft.

Here is a picture of cats because this is the internet.
Here is a picture of cats because this is the internet.

 

Sound and Location

by lukeegan

Part of today’s Film 3 studio was focused on recording audio. We were to choose a location and record a variety of sounds to evoke a sense of that place. We used the h4Zoom audio recorder. I partnered with Mitch and we choose the RMIT hub as our location to record. I think our location would be identifiable to a student listening due to our recording of the hub loudspeaker announcing ticket numbers. However if we put that recording aside we failed to clearly illustrate our place through sound. Our other subjects of recording were quite general and could of been a variety of places for instance the microwave, elevator,  payphone and person walking up the stars. The audio contained a lot of background noise due the hub being a busy place filled with people. If we lowered the gain and position the microphone closer to the desired subject the unwanted noise would be minimized. In saying that, the background noise of people talking and walking isn’t necessarily an unwanted sound as it does evoke the sense of the place. So to an extent we did evoke an audible sense of the hub although its limited as a listener would struggle to identify the site.

Hands on with the Sony EX3 Camera

by lukeegan

I was relieved when I first walked into the classroom and I saw a trolley with camera cases. Finally some practical work after purely theory filled first semester. After Robin familiarized us with the SONY EX3 Camera we left the classroom and started to shoot video. Our task was to go out an film something for 50 seconds with a fixed focal length of 12mm without any camera movement. This exercise was interesting as it caused us to carefully think about the perfect position to place and angle the camera to frame the shot we wanted, as there was no option to zoom or move the camera once we begun filming.

Sony PMW-EX3 XDCAM EX Camera

Another part of this exercise was to practice adjusting the IRIS to gain the perfect exposure with the addition of using the inbuilt Neutral Density filter to limit the light entering the lens. Furthermore, by taping off the zoom lens we were unable to zoom to a subject to accurately focus and would need to estimate the distance to gain clear focus. Luckily we wanted the whole frame to be in focus so we could just use a small aperture with a deep depth of field.

I learnt something very useful today and that is how to correctly calibrate the brightness and contrast settings on a video camera’s viewfinder. If the viewfinder settings aren’t what they should be then what you will see through the viewfinder may be significantly different to what the camera is recording.

For homework Mitch and I have to re-shoot the 50 second video by next weeks class. To improve on our first attempt we must be more careful with adjusting the exposure as our first clip was noticeably overexposed and our second clip underexposed. Its important that we remember that it’s always better to have a slightly underexposed image then an overexposed one as its easier to fix in post production.

Over and out,

Luke Egan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Ontological Cartography’

by lukeegan

‘Maps, Things, Boundaries’

 

My gallery of 100 videos is a spatial representation or map of the beach-side from St Kilda to South Melbourne. It is a list of objects that exist along this landscape. Maps simplify and make “reality” easier to understand.

 

 

For this project I set the following constraints:

  • Start from St Kilda Skate Park
  • Walk towards the City
  • Take a video every 30 seconds
  • Each video must be 5 seconds in length
  • Film facing inland
  • Take 100 Videos

 

I choose these constraints as I did not want my ‘selective noticing’ to affect what was filmed. I did not choose things I found interesting as I wished to create without imposing. I simply documented what was in front of me. In the words of Bogost I attempted distance my project from ‘‘anthropocentric narrative coherence in favor of worldly detail’. Therefore, when I look at my list I attempt look at how these things exist in their own world, rather than what humans use them for.

 

When we look at a conventional map we see the topography of the land, yet the objects that inhabit the area are not revealed. It is easy to draw a map of roads and boundaries but it is difficult to represent objects and their facets in such a way. The use of video however allowed not only the mapping of the landscape but the objects that inhabit it, allowing examination of these ‘things’ and their facets in detail. I call this study ‘ontological cartography’.

 

The list maps the structure, shape, color and movement of individual entities along this particular beach-side. Through this we able to see what these objects mean beyond our own existence. When I go to the beach I normally look out to the ocean and take little notice of the objects around me. By examining these videos I am able to focus on the specific objects along the St Kilda beach-side.

 

Maps have boundaries and interestingly I learnt that the placement of ‘things’ acts a boundary for the beach. The brick wall meets with the sand acting as a barrier between nature and the vast amount of man made things beyond it. I am leaning towards commenting on this with my final AV work.


For the first stage I set out knowing only the constraints and the overly general topic of the beach-side and extracted the idea from there. For the next stage of this ontograph I would re-shoot videos to focus on the objects more closely academically and visually. Rather than having a video which contains a fence I will have multiple videos showing the facets of the fence. For instance the ground, the wooden post, the paint, where the chain link connects with the post and the chain link itself. My mistake the first time around was attempting to map a large area and therefore a large number of objects. I have now realised I can present more detail by narrowing down my documentary to a singular object per shot. To truly map an object I must capture all facets of it. Then I will be able to draw more questions and understand further in relation to my idea of mapping.

 

 

 

 

Bordwell & Thompson

by lukeegan

Here are three quotes that help me and make me think about my project:

“The film presents a process, but it does not tell a story in the manner of narrative film”

“Another way in which the filmmaker can maintain our interest across the segments is through patterned use of film techniques”

“The experimental filmmaker may tell no story”

 

Frankham Reading

by lukeegan

Frankham, Bettina Louise. “Complexity, Flux, and Webs of Connection.” A Poetic Approach to Documentary : Discomfort of Form, Rhetorical Strategies and Aesthetic Experience. (2013). 137-176
Here are three quotes that interested me from this reading:

  •  “It is a shape that evokes the fragmentation of experience and can potentially accommodate distracted or absorbed modes of spectatorship” (Frankham, 2013)

 

  • “the temporal ordering of elements is less important than the comparisons and associations the user is invited to make between the documentary’s elements” (Nash, 2012)

 

  • “associational formal systems suggest ideas and expressive qualities by grouping images that may not have any immediate logical connection. But the very fact that the images and sounds are juxtaposed prods us to look for some connection – an association that binds them together.” (Bordwell and Thompson, 2008)

 

Alien Phenomenology (Enjoy, Trouble & Intrigue)

by lukeegan

  1. You enjoy

    “He suggests that objects do not relate merely through human use, but through any use, including all relations between one object and any other”

  2. Trouble you

    “But we can no longer claim that our existence is special as existence”

  3. Intrigue you

    ““To be a speculative realist, one must abandon the belief that human access sits at the centre of being, organising and regulating it like an ontological”

WHAT it’s LIKE to Be a THING

by lukeegan

Chapter 1 – Alien Phenomenology (Ian Bogost)

“To be a speculative realist, one must abandon the belief that human access sits at the centre of being, organising and regulating it like an ontological”

This passage intrigued me. Mostly because I had no idea what speculative realism is. Speculative realism opposes the former modern dogma that philosophy can speak only of the human-world relation rather than the world itself. I should take this on board and explore my media ‘thing’ as a speculative realist.

 

Chapter 2 – Ontography  (Ian Bogost)

“Ontographical cataloguing hones a virtue: the abandonment of anthropocentric narrative coherence in favour of worldly detail”

This passage relates directly to what we have been discussing in our studio about narrative and how things exist in their own world and don’t follow narrative like us humans do.

 

Alien Phenomenology

Unfortunately due to technical issues I was unable to access the following article for reading:

Frankham, Bettina Louise. “Complexity, Flux, and Webs of Connection.