Category Archives: Tutorials/ Workshops

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Week 8 | Good Form Studio Weekly Update

  By Matthew Duong • September 16, 2016 , ,

This week in our studio, we were left to our own devices as most of us are either closing in on the pre-production or starting filming. My group, Shriekers, sat in a meeting with the updated scripts for a table read to gauge the length of the scripts were enough and the substance within the scripts.

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The table read was smooth as we each took roles in the script and got a good laugh at the comedy in the scripts. Overall we were happy with the scripts and we only needed a few tweaks here and there in each script to deal with making a connection with the audience and the continuity in the series. Later we talked about the content needed in each episode and what is expected of the writers in terms of content for the last remaining script still to be complete, which we weren’t happy with the content of with the first draft of it. Then we made casting decisions.

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We casted all our actors and drafted up an e-mail to each of them as well as a rejection letter for those who missed out. We had a dilemma casting one of our characters Callie which we had two really good auditions for the character however we went with one of them with the other as a backup as she didn’t fit into any of the other characters. Also, one of our characters casted for Brinton, after e-mailing him he was not comfortable with ‘kissing a guy’, it was unfortunate as we felt he was by far the best audition for Brinton but as he was uncomfortable with his role we wouldn’t want an actor that wouldn’t feel that way towards the character they are playing so we decided with the 2nd best audition.

On Wednesday, we went off to our own groups for meetings again where we had another table read of the yet again updated scripts. Overall we were happy with them and would be ready to shoot these episodes as they are. With regards to the yet incomplete script written by one of the writers we briefed him on what we wanted in this script and had a base outline script ready for him for reference. In this meeting we also came up with a plan for the next two weeks. We got our costume and ‘look book’ ready as well as planning for a cast & crew meet day for the 23rd. On this day we would introduce the cast to each other with the crew and play get to know each other games so we can build chemistry within the team. We also plan on shooting our character profiles similar to Scream Queens on that day where we’d have the photo shoot and organised our crew to book the rooms, have equipment ready etc. Personally I am going to record some sample music, as a past musician, it would be a refreshing experience dusting off my guitars again to record something new for this project.

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Ultimately, the week was productive in that we have a plan ready for the next couple weeks before we start shooting and finally editing. I am hoping the project goes smoothly despite the few hiccups we have had so far with the scripts. I am excited to put forward our marketing and production plans for Shriekers in the future.

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Assessment 2: Long Story Short – I had to Write an Essay | Reflection

  By Matthew Duong • August 11, 2016 , ,

Whilst analysing Long Story Short – I Had to Write an Essay I learned a few things about comedy web series relative to what we need to strive for as a studio. Each episode of Long Story Short has a similar tone or theme to its comedy that is short cuts with short sharp dialogue narration. As with Dan Williams reading the comedy has to be short and concise with a punch-line feel to it which Long Story Short did in many bursts. We also have to create our content for our audience in this way. In regards to Shriekers we have to make the humour in a similar vain. We can’t make long drawn out jokes because it wouldn’t fit with how web series convey their humour. Whilst analysing Long Story Short I found that web comedy series must have a general theme across its series no matter what it is, in this case it would be the narration and the narrator. So with each of our murders we have to have a similar punch-line humour attached to each one, however this doesn’t mean that every murder is more or less similar, just the humour would be similar.

Also we have to keep in mind the shots we are using and the speed of the cuts. Generally we will be shooting in low light with quick cuts for a horror mood, we just have to add humour to it. In retrospect to Long Story Short they generally used short or medium shots that were quickly cut with the rhythm of the narration and the background music. Also with regards to background music, it’ll play a huge part in my studio group’s web series. We also have to base characters and the premise in such a short space of time. Which Long Story Short has with the narrator and has its topics broad enough to relate to most people. Most web series that are parodies do generally base their humour off generalisations or stereotypes because it is something most people can relate to and I think it’ll be useful in Shriekers.

We also have to introduce a narrative such as in Long Story Short, though short in Long Story Short I believe in Shriekers we will have an overarching story because of our premise which we have to base from the pilot. But each episode has to have its own plot and storyline to make our audience feel invested in the story and then we would defuse the situation with humour. The describe and analyse exercise made me think of what really goes into a web series and the themes and style it generally goes with a web series. I have a better understanding of how to produce one after this exercise.

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A Really Amateur Production | Assessment 1 Reflection

  By Matthew Duong • July 27, 2016 ,

So today we started and finished (mostly) our assessment 1, we were given a script and we each got into groups to film these scenes however we liked and edit accordingly. I was really looking forward to this opportunity, this would be the first time since high school since I’ve worked with a script and producing a video of that script (even though it was Low-Fi). As for what worked, we had a blast of a time going through the script and filming the shots, we also improvised on pretty much all of the attempted humour of our video. Getting the scenes right as amateur actors just so we can work with something in editing.

I really liked our cuts to Ash (me) saying ‘whatever’, we wanted to do a disconnected not caring type of ‘whatever’ and with our random cuts of being outside of the room and comedic ‘asian squatting’ to make it seem what Chris (Oliver) was too uninteresting to listen to. We wanted to establish the comedic side of not caring about whatever Chris was saying. As for a scene that didn’t work, there was a whatever where the sound quality isn’t too good, the one where Ash is lying down, and generally the sound quality of the video is bad in terms of production value. However we did the shoot and edit in about 2 hours on my phone (Samsung Galaxy s7), while the picture quality is decent, the sound due to the microphone used and the ambience around us is that of a low quality. If I had a chance to do this again, I would have two things I would like, that is more time to rehearse, brainstorm, set up, edit the scene and to have higher quality equipment so the production value is at a decent standard. This would be ideal but we had to work what we were given, which is what we produced. With better equipment and more time we could get an idea on what our production quality would be like for our webisodes, however I’m not fussed about the product of this low-fi project.

Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B32yH54QH6CEYkF6VUJ3M2w4WE0

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New Semester, New Opportunities

  By Matthew Duong • July 20, 2016 , ,

So here I am, start of a new semester. The holidays… Let’s just say they were eventful and I’ll just leave it at that for you to speculate. But overall I really did enjoy the break. Anyway, during the holiday period, we decided on our studios that we would like to be a part of in this semester. I was pretty happy to get my 1st choice in Good Form. I thought it would be great to be producing a web comedy series. Then I got my results and was proud of what I got considering I did take a significant amount of time during being in Hawaii for holiday.

I was excited to be back at uni before class on Monday. In this class we had discussion on what we are actually making. That is Comedy Web Series. So expanding on each term as if they were their own was interesting, gave me new perspectives on how to approach this project, after all theoretically the possibilities are endless. We can make anything into a web series in essence. Then conversing to each other what actually makes a good web series or a controversial one that even though may be very controversial is still very well produced. Take Onision for example. If we get people to even watch these web series it is a success whether they love it or hate it, what we don’t want is for people to find this boring. Which for a comedy web series, we do not want to happen. Conversing with the collaborative creative writing students we discussed what they would like to write about in general. However we have to provide a pitch on what is available to us so they can write accordingly.

On Wednesday we wrote up our pitch on what we are able to produce in this stage of our early careers. We decided to go on a no budget production as having a budget would provide complications later on with expectations. With a budget comes the expectation that the end product would be of high quality. So having no budget suits as we have access to the equipment available. Eager to get into the swing of things, we established a starting point on what is achievable by us at a base level. Things like having one location per episode, certain roles and the rotation of those roles within the production crew, the number of actors per episode etc. All of those in mind to give a pitch to the creative writing students so they can start writing based on the resources available for them and what is realistic in their goals. Like having an airport runway scene with speeding cars is a big no no simply because it is not within our budget.

So here’s to the first week in 2nd semester, I’m excited to take this opportunity to finally produce something with so much freedom. Also getting into the nitty gritty of producing, like table reads, casting, editing etc. would be very immersive. See you next time.

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Refining Ideas | PB4

  By Matthew Duong • May 14, 2016 ,

Today we refined our ideas for our video and audio essay. A common theme with our research was the conceptualisation of ‘The Audience’ and we had a lot of ideas to convey and we had to find a common topic to draw them all together for the essays. However we had to keep in mind that we couldn’t overlap much of our content for both essays.

With our discussion with Rachel and between ourselves we had to find a topic that we could talk about a certain aspect/topic about the audience but broad enough that we could use our research. We went on the basis we would base our audio essay on audio based mediums and video essay on TV or Cinema. For our video we came to the argument that ‘there is no such thing as a passive audience’ and we would use different points backed up with different case studies to show this. This way it doesn’t limit our content in terms of the research we have already done. For our audio we came up with the argument that ‘audio based mediums have not diminished over time but in fact increased in volume and thus their audience base has increased’. This was on the basis that audio mediums such as radio and music has branched off onto other things like podcasts, audiobooks, radio dramas etc. and thus has created more mediums for different kinds of audiences. We would talk about the different mediums and their audiences.

Here is a couple of pictures from the notes I took during our discussions

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What the audience is & was.

  By Matthew Duong • May 9, 2016 ,

The Audience has changed dramatically over the last 100 years with the age of digitalisation. The readings and our workshop this week we had a discussion on this topic of ‘The Audience’.

We discussed on ‘What the audience used to be’ and it is interesting we see the progression of what is thought to be the audience over history. For the entire time probably before the digital age or more precisely the invention of the press the audience was thought to be this ‘passive thing’. Where the media they were exposed to would only affect them, nowadays it is more the other way around. The audience would go to the theatre to watch the play, watch a show etc. Then came the invention of the press where there were tabloids, which was basically mobile versions of telegrams people were sending around and anyone that would be able to access these tabloids would become the audience.

Then more and more interaction between the institutions, mediums and the audience has increased with the digital age, with things like cinema, TV and internet. Now the audience have the ability to affect the media produced, due to reviews, social media, ratings and viewership they can affect how the institutions go about making their media. The audience has more and more become more active in their influence within the media world, as the producers create content for the audience and if the client isn’t happy they will change their approach. Where as before the digital age the audience will only view the media and it will affect how the audience goes about their lives.

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Listening to an ‘audio essay’ in class

  By Matthew Duong • May 1, 2016

In class we had a listen to an audio essay on sleeping in class. Not for the content, however the content itself was interesting.

My thoughts going through my mind while listening were being painted by the audio essay itself. It was a good example of what an audio essay could or should be. The hosts and panellists all contributed to this picture painting in everyone’s head and it was very clear what they were trying to convey. To get different perspectives on the topic makes it very intriguing for the listener.

To be able to tell a clear story and paint a picture in someone’s mind is the goal for our audio essays in the next project brief. I would like to achieve something similar or like this piece of work for our next project.

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Look over there, then over here.

  By Matthew Duong • April 23, 2016 ,

This is a reflection on other project briefs in my class and on my own that the others gave me.

Adrian Lapiz

Was different to the others, focused on the relationship he had with his interviewee rather than who was his interview was. His found footage was well implemented. His style was a bit more laid back but also added to the tone of the interview.

Vanessa Wong

The topic kept us intrigued, the lighting was also well done. The found footage was unique and the colour pallet used within the interview added well done to add to the subject manner. The subject however was quite edgy and may put off some viewers.

Blair Conway

Could have more interview material as in voice. The stock footage was used quite well however. It was quite natural and fit with the stock footage.

Eloise Large

Good use of stock footage, good interview footage. Nice calm feel to the video which eases the audience.

My own video

Good couple-y stuff, humanises the dog. Too much reverb. The intro was natural and established the setting. Good symbolism in stock footage – helps link the subject.

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Hawaii Blog Post Arrival/Day 1

  By Matthew Duong • April 9, 2016 , ,

Hey guys, I don’t know how often I’m gonna be doing these ‘initiative’ posts, I feel like 60% of my posts are these types of initiative posts. Anyway, today has literally been the longest day in my life. I spend most of the day waiting at the airport for my flight at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Friday (Melbourne time) and arrived in Hawaii at 8 AM on Friday (Local Time) so I experienced two Friday’s so far. I am actually spewing I miss out on class because I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of work but I gotta deal with the situation and work hard and play hard. I’ve done a fair chunk of the load for PB3 (which I’ll talk about in another post) and I plan on doing the final touch up shots on the Monday I get back.

Anyway here’s some pics of me from the plane

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Yea the plane was dark at the time I took the photo. 

I experienced American food for the first time and it was cheap, quite a good price to pay for the amount of food they give you. This is the largest pizza slice I’ve ever had and I got full without even finishing the pizza. The drink size is also perfect for me, it would be a large back home but here, the regular size here is perfect. 

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Mostly today was just checking into my hotel, and walking around browsing everything before we actually go out and do things. 

The highlight of the day however was upon checking into my hotel, I had a request on my room to ‘have a framed picture of the Nicolas Cage in the room’ and upon walking into a room with my cousin we see this…

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Well played Hawaii. Anyway until next time.

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Thoughts/Afterthoughts of our discussion on media in our tutorials

  By Matthew Duong • March 19, 2016 ,

In our tutes this week we talked about how media (social media in particular) has evolved in a way that everything has become a lot more public and interactive leaving the old idea of ‘don’t get in the car with strangers’ out of the window.

In reference to Gauntlett’s article/s we discussed how we use social media these days. Most of us, me included, use Facebook for its messenger and discussed how its easier to message and keep in contact with people. With this we talked about how the positives that have come about this new age of media, with its new thought out way of being creative and unique rather than being something that is mass produced, boring and the same. We have to be innovative and creative about the way we approach media, to produce, to communicate, to study. By doing so, we will attract more audiences and more producers of media alike.

Another thing we raised up was this notion that we have changed from avoiding strangers to now embracing them. We used Uber as an example. Now we can go into strangers cars and no one bats an eye about it. Even when we were brought up we were told ‘not to go into cars with strangers’. Now strangers can interact with each other with this Uber app and go into each others cars, this saves a lot of money as opposed to taking a taxi. Most older parents do not like this notion of getting into a strangers car but we argue that it is in fact safer than a taxi because of how Uber is monitored. I personally do not use Uber because I have not gone around to actually downloading the app.

This new conception of thinking about media is better for the future as the newer generations learn about it and we use it. It has evolved into a much better, innovative and creative way of thinking rather than a monetised, capitalised system.