March | 2016 | Michael Firus

Adaptation.

I think most year 11 media students have heard of this film. Only because it featured prominently in the screenwriting section of the curriculum textbook. This was my only experience with the film before the screening, and I must say, despite the trendiness of bad-mouthing Nicolas Cage as an ‘over-actor’, I found the film quite…

Experimental Film

Experimental film is a rather difficult area of cinema to define. These, however, are its general characteristics: Experimental films are deliberately nonconformist and usually independent of the commercial elements of film-making. Usually instead of a story in a conventional sense, sentiment, mood, or viewpoint are used to construct meaning. Some examples: Ballet Mécanique (1923–24): Ballet…

4’ 33″

Listeners of this track fall into 3 basic camps: the confused, the intrigued and the annoyed. I have to say I am a synthesis of all three. John Cage’s 4’ 33″ is… well watch the video: (no cheating now, all of it) So which deem are you? In 4’ 33″ the performance is the sounds…

My Own 4′ 33” in Blog Form … ;)

You must read for at east 4 and a half minutes because this is probably the most profound blog I’ll ever pen: …

“Cakes (and sound) have layers” – Donkey (Shrek 2001)

Ok fine. So the quote doesn’t quite go like that. But perceived sound does indeed have layers. These layers can be defined in three categories: Figure – focus of interest (immediate) This would be like talking to a person face to face Ground – setting or context (support or middle) This would be like the…

Sound – Not Just Heard?

With all the discussion on the importance of sound, I began to wonder what a member of the deaf community could contribute to the discussion. My sister, Caroline, is 13 and has been profoundly deaf since birth. This means that she can hear almost nothing of the things we take for granted unaided. She can,…

Sound affects (not effects)

When someone has the same notification tone as you do, we all occasionally experience a split second where it seems that it must be us getting an unexpected message. Some of us are even on the way to checking the screen before realize that we aren’t quite that popular. This first-world problem intensifies with the…

A Little Bit of Me – Project Brief 2 by Michael Firus

Reflection: The style of the clip is not obviously abstract and this is something which reflects my own personality. I see myself as somewhat practical, though still appreciative of abstraction. Thus, the clip tends towards symbolism which is not overriding. The extent of the symbolism comes with the “Mediated” scene in which one of my…

Visuals for a Haiku

Haiku, for the uninitiated, is a very short type of poetry. Originating in Japan, it has been adopted as verse in its most distilled form. Traditionally in print form, Haiku poetry consists of three lines or phrases. The first line has five syllables, the second 7 and the last 5 again. This week in RMIT…

A shift in Media – Unpacking David Gauntlett

The media environment in which we find ourselves is constantly changing. It is changing at a rate that surpasses that of any other field of the humanities, arts and mathematics. I can make such an audacious statement is because as an entity, media is created and consumed on a scale which surpasses that of any…