In the workshop we just continued working on our project briefs. Mr. Rowlands gave me some good advice as to how to present my images amongst my clips to make it seem more informative about who “I” am. All I need to do right now is to flesh out my 350 word reflection since the video itself I completed in the workshop.
In the lectorial, we got some more guest speakers. The first speaker (Adrian Miles) told us the importance of researching. He also claimed that we have a separation of mind and body, we have ideas and make things as a species (“I think therefore I am”). We write, think, and, of course, film. These ideas can become physical and concrete in the universe. We learn how to write an essay by writing a film, riding a bike by riding a bike, and making film by making film. If we make without ideas, we may find ourselves obsolete when technology changes (e.g. with lighting and sound). We are being taught to think of the ideas beyond what we know, beyond becoming the “inbetweener”. The technical expertise needed 20 years ago to operate a $30,000 camera is now a click away on a $200 smartphone.
To follow Mr. Mile’s lecture, we did an exercise where we are encouraged to think about writing as consisting of kernels and chunks. These chunks may be an idea, an event, or an activity. We worked in pairs create 5 blank cards, then write a narrative on each (the 1st is the opening, and the last is the ending). Cards 2, 3 , and 4 are arranged in any order but the narrative must still make sense and is to be about “our” day, and thankfully, it can be fictional. We did many alterations during this exercise to add more sections, different endings, and others. The little time we were given during each phase wasn’t particularly helpful.
The second lecturer, Liam Ward, talked to us about editing. He said it wasn’t the simple idea of “fixing” problems with the shoot, but rather breaking things apart, fragmenting footage and clips. A clip from “2001: A Space Odyssey” showed the perfect example of how an editor is supposed to “break” footage; the jump cut. From the bone flying in the air straight to the spaceship in the future. We all create movement out of nothing, whether its a blockbuster film or a doodle on a page corner and flipping the pages of a notebook. A jump between photos of Christopher Pine and Joeffrey Baratheon demonstrated how these aspects from different points of time and space can seem like they are part of the same world, just by having the pictures jump between each other.
While I admired the tough-love, straight-to-the-point attitude that will prepare us for the cruel job market when we leave (from Adrian Miles), Mr. Ward did seem to have a very charismatic approach about him. I think a balance of speakers like Miles and Ward is what is needed for students, and especially for media students.