So here it is. The one and only Project Brief Two. I wanted to communicate some of the basic parts about me, and I feel that this video somewhat communicates that I’m easy going, like music and movies, just to name a few things about myself. I felt like I learnt a fair bit about editing through this project, but I realise that it’s not perfect.

In my voiceover, I wanted to achieve an epic feel through a deep voice and slow pitched dialogue, but I realise now that at some points it feels washed out from the music. Also, I recorded it on a headphone microphone so the quality wasn’t near what I wanted. I also recorded the music for this assignment to also try to give an epic feel, but again I’m not the most technologically advanced so it’s mixing isn’t as great as it could’ve been. But now you all know the type of music that I like to play so thats nice…

Another issue that came up was the pacing (and having things perfectly synced). To achieve one minute I felt that I had to stretch out the video’s of my guitars, which may feel jolted and not exactly fitting perfectly. The audio overall wasn’t perfect, but either way, it’s a good way to learn I think.

In the end I wanted to create an easy going video which shows just a small bit of who I am. My attempt to make an ‘epic-ish’ trailer shows me, I think it’s sort of funny when things are over the top for no good reason. I feel like the ‘random’ tone of the video demonstrates me to an extent, I can make no sense a lot of the time. For instance the ending I made purposefully contrasting between fast paced images/text and building music with the ambience of QV markets. It’s fair to say that it’s challenging to capture small bits of yourself and communicate that properly, but at least it’s over now. But all in all, at least you know I’m weird.

What is it? Breaking things deliberately to create gaps with meaning. The exercise of 5 card stories was very interesting to see how stories could develop from apocalyptic into a twisted romance. The idea that putting something together is way too basic now. It’s about the meaning, which I never really thought could so easily be changed so quickly.

I found it quite interesting to see how when things are contrasted (for instance having King Joffrey morph into Christopher Pine) that meaning can be found so easily found. It’s interesting that often editing isn’t just about making sure there is flow to a story, but meaning within each shot to fulfil what audiences expect or perhaps be a curveball which they’re not expecting.

You’re looking out the window. You see that massive famous celebrity person who you have admired since you first saw him/her on that thing which made him/her famous. What’s going through your mind? “I should most definitely get his/her autographs.” But you don’t do it. You only imagine that scenario and see that him/her has walked away, and that you have missed your chance for eBay dominance. What will you tell your friends? “I totally saw him/her right outside…” you say.”Wow!” says your friend, quite enthusiastically. “Did you get their autograph?” they say. “Nope”. And then all of a sudden, your friend hates you.

Aside from this all too real situation of seeing the number one celebrity ever and somehow your friends hating you with a the fires of one thousand suns, the question of ‘why is it that we’re afraid of getting what we want’ becoming all too real? “I want to be a fireman!” says little you. But somehow that becomes too unrealistic, too hard, I haven’t done it before.

Well! It’s time you do something. Go get what you want. You want an autograph? Go get it. You want to be a fireman? Then set things on fire and then put them back out again… or maybe just go to fireman school instead. You want your life to change? You want life to be something great. Go outside and go get it, don’t just sit there and think of what could go wrong. The floor’s only a few feet away, and that’s pretty much the furthest you can drop.

I really need this advice, so I can go take opportunities and go make them, and so should all. So there you go the world wide web. Your daily dosage of inspiration has now been fulfilled. So go get that autograph.

You suck… is an example of feedback, although it isn’t exactly helpful. Of course it’s entirely untrue of everybody reading this right now. You are writing a blog post, one which, one day, somebody could see. What they think of it is entirely up to them. Until they decide to tell you all of your posts are far too deep and boring. Thanks person. It’s definitely not always fun to have somebody critique what they think, and how they may do it better.

But in some ways, linking to getting out of your comfortability zone of being comfortable, it’s positive to allow for somebody else to tell you what they think. Who knows, it may be able to help you, in some way or another, to I don’t know, learn something? That would be positive. I don’t know about you, but when the thought of somebody else getting their say, it also helps for you to try just that little bit harder. To put that bit of extra effort. And thats good.

So, I think it may be a good idea to get feedback, since it helps you to actually try harder for starters. What else? It is uncomfortable! It can often confirm your hard work as being great, or in many cases, knock you off your high horse and back down to reality. But either way, when somebody tells you of what they think of your work, don’t feel offended, don’t be insulted. I guess, taking it in would be the best course of action, it helps quite a fair bit.

Your comfort zone. It’s a very comfortable place. I think I should leave it behind some day or another though. We need to step out of our comfort zones, into a place where we know is going to help us grow. That’s always inspiring to hear. So, why not do it? Because it sucks.

I’ve found it’s extremely easy to just find a place where things are working okay, where I don’t have to stick my head into new situations. In some ways it could be nice to have things we want come to you. But things that we want are usually the things that are hard to get. A filmmaker can never expect to film in France without leaving America. A guitarist can’t perform a shredding solo without picking up a guitar. These things are obvious. But when it comes to leaving behind what we consider to be comfortable, for instance having only one day of work per week and wondering why you are so poor, I think it should too, be obvious.

Even though its easy and sometimes fun to be a hermit at home and reject all the opportunities around you, it can mean you’re never experience what you may want. And maybe what I want is still unknown to me, and the only way to find it is to go out of my comfort zone…

SO, note to self. I should at some point, seriously consider going out of my way to experience something new, and instead of trying to get out of it, get something out of it!

How can you make a group of reasonable people almost go insane? Ask John Cage. John Cage was a prolific music composer, and just to make it clear, unfortunately he isn’t the father of Nicolas. But like Nicolas, he too had his oddities. His avant-garde style culminated into the famous 4’33”, which was a surprise to many, as within his orchestral compositions, came this masterpiece which some consider to be his most famous. What’s the catch? The piece happened to have no sound at all.

Now, I think I would definitely become surprised at this. But what about an entire audience? What goes through their mind when they hear this sudden sound of nothingness coming from the orchestra? Do they think, “have the performers all forgotten how to play their instruments? Have they gone mad?” Do they think that John Cage is lazy? Or that he too is mad? Probably all these things in fact and more. They have quite a lot of time to think in silence. And this perhaps is the reason why the piece is so famous. It heightens the senses to hear things which would usually be un-noticed.

And in this way, Cage proves that even in ‘silence’ there is sound, and the heightening of being uncomfortable creates an atmosphere which definitely creates tension. And he does this by doing absolutely nothing. Thats pretty cool. Audiences no longer hearing what they expect creates a mental chaos for a whole four minutes and thirty-three seconds. And that’s how you can help make a group of sound-minded people go nearly insane.

Hello again world. Noticing. It’s such a simple word, and such a simple concept. You’re walking down a city lane, and you see a billboard. This isn’t any normal billboard, it happens to be fairly large. You look at it. What’s just happened? You’ve noticed the massive Will Smith poster for ‘Focus.’ That’s noticing for you right? Well maybe not. In this post, which I’m almost certain will be very confusing, you’ll too may notice that noticing can be far more impacting than simply seeing, hearing or smelling something.

Are we thinking at all when we notice things? Whether it be Will Smith’s gigantic face at Melbourne Central or not, is seeing something, the same as noticing something? When we see a car’s boot smashed in, what do we do? Do we see the crash, and think, “oh cool , car crash,” and instantly move on? Or do we see it and begin to wonder how this may have happened, or how perhaps you yourself could avoid creating such damage? The key difference between seeing, hearing or smelling something and noticing something, is that ‘noticing’ should actually help us learn. We can’t live our lives on auto pilot, it’s up to us to experience life by being alert to things. We need to constantly learn things to keep growing as people. And how can we do that? One way perhaps could be to try to learn things through noticing not just the things around us we see or hear, but the ideas around us all also.

It’s perhaps now time for us to ‘focus’ (insert canned laughter here) on the idea of noticing things, as a key tool in learning to make things better. Where would technology be without Steve Jobs noticing the idea of the mouse for instance, instead of just seeing it and thinking it was sort of cool? We need to realise that there are so many things around us which could indeed make the world a better place. The power of the internet, such a broad idea, has been noticed by Mark Zuckerberg, who is working constantly to make the world wide web available so that we can all be connected. These people have noticed an idea to have immense potential, and have acted upon it. Now we know that not everything we notice is completely world changing. But perhaps people, it’s time to notice not an idea, but ourselves as this potential. We can really be whoever we want to be and it’s time for us to begin to notice this.

It’s not hard to notice the media when it is almost jumping in your face. Any billboard, poster, whether it reside on the side of a tram or a building, any logo, and perhaps even the welcome you get inside of the store, could be seen as forms of media. Today, the Queen Victoria Market proved the media is everywhere, slapping you in the face (maybe literally, luckily not today though) with it’s information and constantly trying to jump into your mind through you noticing it. Seeing as it’s not just your average shopping centre with the standard roof which so many of the boring shopping centres have, through this Pharrell approved roofing there are many things you may see. Heres a list of just a few of the things:

UP HIGH: Blimp for ‘Appliances Online’, Children’s Book Festival banner, QV welcome sign,

ON THE GROUND: Movinpick logo, Riot paint

MID-GROUND: Gong cha Menus, Recycling bin sings,

BACKGROUND: ANZ bank logo

FOREGROUND: Mad Mex food packaging, Vodafone flag, Schnitz logo on it’s walls,

IN YOUR HAND: Facebook, iPhone, GQ Magazine.

It’s interesting, to list just a few doesn’t account for the every single experience you notice. Even the simple , “Welcome to ____” that store employees state on your arrival (in my case “welcome to riot” which may or may not have been staged just for this blog post) is something which reinforces a brand, and can even be considered as a part of the overall media experience. It’s interesting to see that to take a break from experiencing the noticing of the broad range of media in QV markets was through immersing myself in more media; through my phone, which you could say is one of the most intimate media experiences which of course, makes it hard not to notice.