I am not too sure when the actual documentary started, if it was from the very beginning with the overlapping stories or when the second narrator started talking but this confusion also carried across to the subject of the documentary as it was very hard for me to keep up with what all the speakers were talking about. Obviously the overlapping stories at the beginning were impossible to understand, this was intentional but I think unnecessary and did not set up an easy listening environment for me. These voices continued under the first narrator introducing the stories and faded into a recording of a train which then continued for the entirety of the ten minutes. This monotony made it feel like I was listening to an audiobook rather than a radio documentary, yet the subject matter and the way of speaking made it very difficult to understand and keep up with what was being said. At times the train noises were too loud and the narrator too quiet which added to the confusion. The story did in fact sound interesting but I think a little simplification of the storytelling and possible more variety with the soundscape could have helped with keeping my attention.

My goal of Film/TV 2 is to make a documentary that I am proud of, that I feel was made to the best of my ability and that I was able to extend my filmmaking skills to make a hopefully coherent and entertaining documentary. I would like to have more of a leadership role in the making of the documentary as I am quite fond of my idea for a documentary subject. If I was to be the director of the film I would hope to be organised and creative and challenge myself to be a good leader who also makes a good film.

This semester I really would like to familarise myself with the equipment a bit better, I am hoping that using the cameras and sound equipment becomes slightly more natural and smooth as at the moment it is still a bit of a daunting task. It still takes me a while to figure out the process and I am hoping that by the end of semester this becomes easier.

From Imagining Reality by Pawel Pawlikowski.

1. Documentaries shouldn’t be used as recorders of an objective reality, rather they should be instilled with the directors own personal vision. A director has the power to, and should, manipulate the subjects through various stylistic choices in order to establish a specific form. The subject of a documentary is most important and the filmmaker must be able to understand the world of the subject through their eyes.

2. The institution of TV and its instant and disposable framework is threatening the future of documentaries. The verite style of filmmaking is stagnant, boring and uncreative yet it is the style which is the most marketable and convenient to the television model. It is getting harder to tell real stories about real people as by financing coming from TV means expectations do not allow for the kind of scope required to produce such documentaries.

The aptly named documentary ‘End of the line’ gave a moving, almost macabre yet accepting portrayal of a small country town populated by the elderly who are all very much in aware of their own mortality. In my opinion, the film set out what it achieved to do as with such a morbid subject the film could have easily taken a much more depressing direction. The film actually gave off a sense of warmth, the acceptance of their mortality by these people made the film quite uplifting, it highlighted the community aspect of the town and gave the impression that these people were content with their lot in life and wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the world.

I feel as though this documentary was more about the town of Broken Hill rather than the people in it, it gave me a sense that these people come and go through the town, it is the town that affects the people not the people changing the town. Broken Hill is stagnant, it gives nothing to the young people and the elderly use it and pass it on. This impression is giving off by the various filmic techniques, the feeling of isolation is portrayed with shots of the outback and broken down cars.

‘Generation Like’

Empowerment, verification, freedom.

• Share obsessions with the world. In real life people look at your weird, but the internet is all about it.
• Companies wanting to reach children have to transform their communication with consumers.
• Learn to participate in those channels.
• When kids like something it becomes a part of who they are.
• A perspective on culture that is profound- oreo. Gay pride.
• When you like-retweet you creating data, -online persona
• Currency of likes turns into actual currency.
• Fame by association
• Professional fan.
• Build and leaverage a social network- to get famous
• Want validation- ability to get attention.
• Quantifying value.
• You are your own media company.
• Instead of selling the product to the audience the idea is to get the audience to sell the product for them. They want to make the interaction seem open and transparent. But all that transparency takes a lot of planning.

How does this documentary alter your understanding of the way you use social media?

The documentary highlights my lack of thought when using social media. Using social media means a lot more than just contacting friends and looking at photos, when we use social media we are becoming an audience, a specifically targeted audience where companies can map our interactions and use them to their advantage. It seems like we gain more validation from our online social networks than we do from our real life interactions, by using social media we are changing not only the way we communicate but also the way we legitimise and verify ourselves which ultimately will change the way we form our own self identity and awareness.

Coffee and Pi.

This was a very cleverly written film, the nice little pun in the title fits the story perfectly. Due to being well shot and well acted, this was a tidy and well put together film with the text and montage showing some quirky characteristics. The score was simple and appropriate, diagetic sounds were polished and worked well. I think this was a nice little twist on the classic boy meets girl storyline.

Pranking Frank.

This film really stood out because I really enjoyed the performance from one of the main characters. He was hilarious and it just goes to show how crucial good acting is to the success of the film. Apart from the brilliant acting, the script was really well written and the film was put together nicely.

Milk.

Evidently Milk was a crowd favourite and I do not disagree. A really simple storyline meant that emphasise could be put on how the film was acted and put together, and a simple script meant that action was a pivotal component. Luckily the action worked brilliantly, great camerawork to capture fast movements with an especially great stand out shot of the characters running towards the camera which was moving backwards on a dolly. This film was the result of a great script-writer, director, camera-man, actors and editors.

Link to Project

By Nadine, Grace and Kate.

save: Ctrl+S
import: Ctrl+I
Undo: Ctrl+Z
Duplicate: Ctrl+Shift+/
Link: Ctr+l
Select all: Ctrl+A

As we are colour grading our entire film, paste attributes is a handy shortcut so the same colour levels are used in each shot. The shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+V
Mark In and Mark Out are used all the time so their shortcuts are handy also.
Mark in: I
Mark out: O

In this scene of the Coen Brothers ‘Blood Simple’, there is an enormous amount of ambient sound throughout. The volume of these sounds is unrealistically high, helping to heighten the intensity and uneasiness of the scene. The crickets, footsteps and ruffling of the envelope are all examples of these heightened sounds. Silence makes an audience uneasy but so does an abrupt break in this silence.
All sounds in this scene are diegetic, meaning they occur within the world of the film. Non-diegetic sounds like music are completely absent.

Guest lecturer Sandra spoke of some tips on what to do on the day of shooting our films. She told us how to direct actors, not to be judgemental and how an iron fist will only hurt their confidence and offend them. As a director you must be able to properly explain and describe to the crew and cast exactly what it is that you want. Being able to show them exactly how you want something done would be advantageous.