Author Archives: miguelcamacho

Film/TV 2: Analysis and Reflection #3

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Question 1:

http://vimeo.com/102615654

I found this exercise to be hugely interesting. Because we were unaware that we’d be piecing together the audio recordings and video recordings, we captured really raw and essentially meaningless, disconnected material. However, after a bit of weighing up, I was able to extract some form of very mild narrative from the material and cut it together in a way that didn’t seem completely irrelevant. I was initially a bit concerned over the relationship between the visuals, so decided to apply a black and white effect to the clips, adding a bit of uniformity between them, and helping to tie the whole exercise together.

All in all, the quality of the recordings was decent. If anything, I’d say the levels in the audio could’ve been monitored and adjusted more scrupulously, but the video footage was what we set out to achieve. By layering the audio and video together, there was an interesting relation that took hold and the initial discomfort I felt about the exercise disappeared. What I learnt from this exercise would be to monitor the audio levels more closely, to think more carefully about where the mic is pointed and perhaps to be adventurous with the filming of abstract material on the camera.

Question 2:

For this question, I chose to look at the wk 4 section of the ‘Rabiger, M. Directing the documentary’ reading.

  • I was drawn to the point about recognising dramatic units whilst filming documentary. Rabiger makes the argument that it is important to look for a ‘change in consciousness’ (or beat), in your participant, recognise it, then respond to the change and capture it on film. Rabiger states that this is where the skill in documentary filmmaking comes into its own and when truly great, dramatic tension is created.
  • The point on exposition of facts throughout the documentary raised by Rabiger was also compelling. I think the reason many of my previous films mightn’t have had the strongest narratives is because I didn’t consider the knowledge of the audience carefully enough. I had understood its’ importance, but never really paid much attention to the fact. The idea of using a list of all the facts that the audience will need to know in order to understand the film and bringing them out through the participants is something I’d definitely like to consider more carefully in the film project this semester.

Integrated Media 2: Response to ‘Us Now’ Documentary

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The ‘Us Now’ documentary is centered around the idea of collaboration and power of the people which is being empowered through increasing access to, and understanding of the internet. The film focuses on a number of different perspectives throughout, but is all based on the idea of people coming together to make change and help one another online.

More and more these days, people are taking to the internet and forming groups in order to achieve something which is in mutual interest to members of the group. ‘Us Now’ looks at the power of things like forums and mass-voting sites, as well as a communally managed football team in the UK. Whilst none of these relate directly to the events that we’re hosting for Integrated Media this semester, they represent what our prototypes have the potential to evolve into, post-event, and once the social media side of our project truly takes over. Although my groups’ idea, ‘The CBD Games’ isn’t going to change much in Melbourne in a political sense, it just goes to show that an idea with an online community behind it has the potential to grow rapidly and become something special.

As with real life movements, revolutions, protests and the like, online lobbies form out of mutual interest and often grow rapidly. This tendency of people coming together to achieve something is something that ‘Us Now’ recognises as having happened previously in history, and as finally making a resurgence now, in the digital age. With the aid of the internet, people are more connected than ever and it is easy to exploit this phenomenon to achieve positive change, as the interview subjects in ‘Us Now’ demonstrate. Subsequently, through the power of the internet, people are empowered to get involved, to participate, to help one another and to work towards something that is beneficial, both for them, personally and in a wider sense, communally, nationally or even globally.

Due to the power that the internet provides to regular citizens, people are becoming less reliant on their governmental institutions for change, taking matters into their own hands and using the power of mass-collaboration for good. ‘Us Now’ reflects on the diminishing role of such institutions and recognises that the internet is becoming a tool for society to achieve what they want, even if the government is opposed or unwilling to help. Through this empowerment and the growing tendency for online lobbies to materialise and make a difference in the real world, the role of the internet in society has completely shifted, becoming recognised as a tool for making things happen.

Although ‘Us Now’ definitely focuses on the idea of mass-collaboration, it is all made possible by peoples’ willingness to participate. This notion can be applied to the events that we’re holding for IM2 this semester. Sure, we can have a great idea, with a great plan and put in all the time we want, but it’s not going to go anywhere or be successful unless properly promoted through social media, recognised by a number of people and responded to on the day of the event, whilst also being followed up in the days after on social media.

 

Film/TV 2: Reflection No. 2

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1. ‘End of the Line’ was a really captivating film. I was pleasantly surprised with the documentary after having not been sold on the treatment and Paul’s first introduction of it.

Whilst it is relatively difficult to recall any distinct editing decisions that contributed to the success of the film, the music selection left a great impression on me. Using that creepy, eerie music in conjunction with the ‘haunting’ shots of Broken Hill was really powerful and helped to create a feeling of unease that I imagine was intended by the filmmakers.

The narrative of the documentary, from memory, was pretty strong and there was a definite progression throughout the duration of the film, as the true nature of Broken Hill and its’ occupants became clearer.

The subjects of the film were brilliantly selected and it really helped to develop the unfolding of the film as each individual out ‘Broken Hill’d’ the last, essentially building up the documentary and resulting in a powerful impression of the location being left on the audience.

That’s about all I can remember…

2. Chosen Reading: Documentary Story Telling, Curran Bernard, S.

– Finding the story: It was interesting to read about ‘finding the story’ of a documentary as proposed by Curran, as I had experienced this phenomenon in Broadcast Media in 2013. ‘Finding the story’ refers to the makers of a film finding new meaning, purpose, or narrative direction for their film either during the production or even the post production stages of filmmaking.

– Passion: I also found Bernard Curran’s summary of what it means to be passionate about a film subject to be hugely captivating. Curran states that discouragement, boredom, frustration and confusion can all be minimised if a filmmaker finds a subject that they’re interested, excited and passionate about. I completely agree and see how the application of such theory will be beneficial in the future.

IM2: Response to ‘Generation Like’

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This Four Corners documentary was really interesting. Reflecting on social media in a way that not many of us do, it presented a hugely informative and critical viewpoint from which social media can be understood.

In terms of the 3 major points we were given to respond to, ‘Generation Like’ was really helpful and it isn’t hard to see the connection between social media and the future ahead of us as prospective media graduates.

How does this documentary alter your understanding of the way you use social media?
My understanding of the use of social media has always been relatively sceptical, never having really accepted it as a true showing of a persons substance, but more as their own idea of their ‘perfect self’. ‘Generation Like’ reflected briefly on this stance during the sequences with the high school kids as they sought to out-perform one another in the quantity of likes they receive on their pictures. I see this as a form of worthless self-promotion with far too much importance perceived by our generation. Sure, it’s nice to get likes – but they mean nothing in comparison to receiving a compliment in real life from an actual human, not just their online persona through the internet.

The idea of likes as a ‘social currency’ was a term that really stood out to me and it’s quite clear that certain people do go out of their way to achieve higher numbers of likes and to feel accepted. Whilst the need and desire for attention and social validation has always existed, ‘Generation Like’ recognises a change in the stage through which these are achieved, whereby individuals promote themselves online and bask in the glory of their likes.

‘Generation Like’ also makes an interesting observation and likens the world of social media to an ‘arena of likes’. This metaphor perfectly sums up my understanding of social media, whereby those with the largest numbers of likes, followers, shares and retweets are winning… or so they think.

What connections can you make with the role of a Social Media Producer?
Where this documentary proved most informative to me was in bringing light to the role of the social media producer. Social networks, initially intended to be used by friends to keep in touch, have become one of the largest advertising platforms available for corporations today. Unparalleled audience numbers can be reached because of ‘sharing’ and ‘hash-tagging’, allowing companies to be hugely efficient with their marketing strategies and even now using their consumers as a form of marketing in their own right. Because audiences have now changed from relatively passive couch potatoes into active couch potatoes, with computers, companies are able to sit back and watch the numbers grow as their audiences like, share and spread advertising material without even realising it.

With the uprise of YouTube and some organisations catching on to the potential exposure of the network, product placement and corporate sponsorship has become a truly enormous venture. YouTube vloggers who attract large numbers of views can receive what might equal another persons’ salary through the commission of the advertisements that play before their videos, giving them the cash, equipment and clothes to wear in order to keep making videos and expanding the reach of said organisations, and it’s a frightening prospect that advertising like this actually works.

The importance of ‘transparency’ in the advertising that takes place online is another aspect covered by ‘Generation Like’, proposing that the effectiveness of such techniques is due to ads not feeling like ads (through carefully considered planning and ‘drip feeding’ strategies) resulting in audiences thoughtlessly spreading the ‘fire’ that is online hype.

What ideas does this documentary raise in regards to the event your group is planning and the task of achieving participatory engagement?
Lastly, there were a few parallels that could be drawn between what is raised by ‘Generation Like’ and the events that our IM2 groups are going to host this semester. The importance of hash-tagging and connecting content (even across different platforms) to reach the largest possible number of audience members cannot be overlooked, as exposure leads to attention. Similarly, the importance of promotion through one online presence supporting another (and both benefitting, as stated in the documentary) could be applied to our project.

Evidently, social media is a hugely powerful tool in the world of media, and its’ benefits are there for the taking, it’s just a matter of the right approach, the right strategy and the right connections.

 

Film/TV 1: Test 6 Question(s) 6-8

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Q6: Consider Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” and describe at least a couple of points that you took away from it (even if you’re not the director).

I thought Sandra’s lecture was hugely useful. Being the DOP I still managed to take a lot from the lecture, mostly about being confident and professional when working with seasoned actors. We found that this went a long way on our shoot as the open relationship with the actors allowed us to approach them if we were after something different, but also to take suggestions from the actors as it came to them and to consider that.

Another point raised by Sandra was about being as efficient as possible whilst on such a tight schedule. She made a case for b-roll footage and being prepared to cut certain shots if time was tight. Whilst we managed to get all that we planned and more, Sandra’s advice was considered and we did prioritise certain shots over others when we filmed.

Q7: In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple‘ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.

This clip from ‘Blood Simple’ is an example of how a simple conversation between two characters can be edited together in a way to build suspense and create drama, by selectively showing visuals other than who is speaking at the time. For example, by showing the reactions of the man when the Hitman delivers certain lines, tension builds and insight into the character’s motivations and understanding are brought to the audiences’ attention. The fact that the Hitman is playing Julian Marty’s character slowly becomes apparent to the audience and ultimately to Marty when he hears the gun being cocked under the table.

The use of sound, or lack thereof in this sequence is interesting as the Coen brothers are still able to create a hugely tense and uncomfortable scene without the addition of non-diegetic music. Through the obvious diegetic sounds of the fish slapping the table, the lighter being put down, the cigarette being put out and the sounds of Marty’s character being sick, the Coen brothers build towards a climactic moment when the Hitman cocks his weapon. The use of ‘background’ noise such as the crickets outside and occasional sirens also cue the audience and create meaning within the scene and its use of diegetic sound.

Q8: Keyboard shortcuts. 
Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts). 
Find the keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Premiere and note two or more functions that you’ve never used before that may be invaluable to editing.

  • New Title: CMD+T – right at the end of editing our rough cut, CMD+T became hugely helpful and saved us a lot of time as we edited in our closing credits and a number of timestamps in the film.
  • Render Effects in Work Area: Return/Enter – as we begun to insert fades and dissolves in certain parts of the film, this shortcut saved us a bunch of time and allowed us to render then quickly playback the edits as we implemented each one.

Integrated Media: Participation Self-Assessment

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What I did well:

  • I feel as though I’ve done a reasonable job of keeping up to date with readings and required blog posts, despite my absences from class and the unlectures.
  • I was pleased with what I achieved in terms of the essay assessment and sketch k-film.

What I’ve learnt to do better:

  • I learnt how to use Korsakow, got a bit more into the use of things like Vine and Vimeo and felt as though I gained skills in integrating these things with one another, through the platform of my blog.

What I could have learnt to do better:

  • I feel as though I could’ve and should’ve attended more classes and made more of an effort to get to the unlectures as it would’ve helped my understanding of the course in a broader sense and helped me to apply a bit more knowledge as we progressed through different readings and concepts each week.

Integrated Media: Reading 10 wew

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From the beginning, Rose and Dovey set out to establish that there is a new wave of interactive media continually evolving and being developed. Their abstract states that the ‘new affordances’ in digitally interactive media present the opportunity for media makers to develop and entirely new ‘visual and informational grammar’.

They frighteningly reference O’Reilly (‘Strata: Making Data Work Conference’) and state that new capabilities ‘will unseat and launch entire industries, hold governments accountable, and empower society’ – a scary prospect to consider. They include that data power will change the world in the same way that steam power did.

The article talks about data as a ‘sea’. Which is an interesting metaphor as the sea is: large, deep, scary, unexplored, partially inhospitable and did I mention scary?…

Integrated Media: Reflections on Reflections

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As I didn’t completely grasp the Shields reading, I went out into the sea of data in order to find someone who could show me the light.

I landed on Mia Campion-Curtis’ blog and came across her summary of Shield’s spiel.

In summary:

  • Shields’ writings are a non-sequential collection linked by key ideas
  • Shields sees traditional narrative perhaps becoming extinct as it is ‘tired’ and ‘purposeless’, which will be lost to forms of narrative such as mosaic and collage which are an ‘evolution’ of traditional narrative.
  • Shields proposes that a traditional narrative could be re-arranged (through something like Korsakow) and then told in the form of an interactive documentary.

Integrated Media: Reading 09 – Plotting the Database

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This interactive web-based reading was interesting as it summarised and provided me with a lot of information about networks and interactive documentary-making – which I’m not entirely convinced about.

Main points I took from the reading were:

  • how he begins the journey of ‘plotting the database’ with a reference to some words said by Jerome McGanne. McGanne states that interfaces are critical to the functional operation of databases and promotes the importance of ‘free play’ when interacting with an interface, for the purposes of audience occupation.
  • Luers then continues to reflect on ‘how plot and interface perform similar roles of providing interaction and cohesion in their respective domains (time and space)’.
  • Luers talks about the importance of entry points. Mostly how ‘entry points can establish narrative frames, metaphors for navigation , genre motifs, present views of data sets, describe elements of plot, character, setting or theme – or withhold any and all of these.’
  • This leads to the desire for interaction, therefore it is important to encapsulate your audience from the beginning, that’s what will keep them clicking their way though your work
  • A number of previous interactive documentaries made by all sorts of creators: Whale Hunt, Constellations, More on these to come in a later post.

Film/TV: Test 5

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Q1:

In the lecture, different types of lights and some lighting techniques were covered.

They are definitely relevant to our project because we should be seeking to re-create certain stylistic elements of films we’ve seen that inspire us, communicate a certain meaning or even just look plain great.

Lighting is arguably one of the most important elements of film but constantly seems to be overlooked. It is really great to be spending time learning about proper lighting techniques and the approach to achieving a certain aesthetic quality on camera.

In our film, the use of lighting will perhaps be most important during the exterior scene whereby our protagonist needs to appear as though he’s under street light.

Q2:

From ‘Lighting the Shot’ (Week 7):

1. It was interesting to read about the emphasis on the importance of consistency and continuity in lighting. This subject sort of makes me uncomfortable because I’d imagine it’s a lot harder to keep a track of continuity in lighting as well as action/tempo/etc. whilst on a shoot.

2. Another interesting take away point from this reading was what was said about spot metering. Although we won’t be using a light meter on our shoot, it was good to finally read a simple explanation of the process of light metering as well as the purpose.

Q3:

In creating this scene, Antonioni would have carefully considered the blocking of the sequence. Becuase his characters were constantly on the move, it is likely that there would’ve been a huge number of cues for certain actions (actors) and reactions (crew/camera) to be executed.

The way in which the photographer and the model are framed is interesting ways all throughout the scene and remain in focus for the most part. It could be argued that this precision in execution was partly due to the influence of the director whilst the scene was filmed – the scene runs like clockwork and feels as though it was choreographed.

Because the characters also move through different spaces, there would most likely have been either multiple cameras used to cover the action or a very considered plan for continuity in the action.