Reading: Imagining Reality – Pawel Pawlikowski

It was interesting to see how Pawlikowski addresses filmmaking as a platform to show the world as he sees it. It’s inspiring to see that there is so much freedom with film and that we shouldn’t make films for the benefit of our audience, but to capture and produce something that means something personally, and then leaving it up to your audience to interpret it for themselves, personally.

Another interesting thing I took from the reading was the impact of TV on documentaries, and the commercialising of TV. It further inspired me to think about making films based on the way I want to make them, rather than making something for money, or for an intended audience.

In the lecture we screened a short film called ‘End of the Line’ – the film shot in Broken Hill. 

Listen to the audio you recorded in Tute #1.  Here. Write a paragraph or two about your recording from a technical and/or “poetic” perspective.  

Consider:

• What these sounds evoke for you.  What associations they have. 
• Do any of your recordings suggest images?  What might they be?  
• Do any of your recordings suggest the possibility of other recordings?

Without context, the music in the background provided our recordings with a bit of texture, the image I would pair with this, would be the outside of a club, or just outside a house party- muted music, and distant chatter. The recordings suggested the possibility of recording an interview about party, music or drugs. It would make the perfect background track to an observational shot, which would lead into an interview.

Unfortunately though, the music has become the main feature of many of our recordings, despite not having specifically wanted to record any of it. But it demonstrates how music is a good way to set the tone for your piece.

Listen to the first 10 minutes of Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, “The Idea of North”.

The idea of North 10min.wav or Files are here (experimenting with different sizes and file types) If possible, use headphones.  Record your impressions in a paragraph or two.

At the beginning I was unsure of what to expect as I was given no context whatsoever to the piece. I found that the woman’s voice was very unappealing and it made me not want to listen. The other voices came in and I got extremely frustrated. it was too busy, I had no idea what was going on- I thought that I had opened another link or a separate video was playing somewhere. i realised it was just the “texture” of the radio doco when I paused it. It made me feel very uneasy, there was just too much. When it finally settled, I had realised I was only listening because I had to, not because I was interested in what was going on. The background noise was too much for me. It was way too loud and instead of creating a mood, it just layered too much texture, making everything an audial blur. Bleugh. Hated it.

In this week’s lecture, scenes from Scott Ruo’s ‘Four Images’, Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ and Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’ were screened.  Choose one of these, and consider, in a single paragraph, what might have intrigued, interested, displeased or repelled you.

Brian Hill- Drinking for England

I noticed the changes from interview to i guess… “observational” visuals, which were very busy and seemed a little cluttered, leaving me a little displeased and repelled. I think that the observational shots just seemed like time-filers. And the awkwardness of just vocal and ambience was very uncomfortable. There was no mood-setting music layered behind the documentary. It also made the testimonies and interviews seem staged and unnatural. Also the way the testimonies were shot, lounged on a couch, or what seemed like staged shots- i found it unnatural and to be honest, quite cringeworthy.

In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. Many will rethink this dramatically by the end of the course – this is a good thing.

More than anything else, I really want to make a documentary that appeals to me as a viewer. I would want to make something that I would stop flicking channels for, on a topic which forces others to question their own lifestyles, or which reveals a kind of lifestyle generally unspoken about, or is generally underground. I want to be able to discover things in my documentary, just in the same way that viewers will learn new things while watching it.

On a technical side of things, I would really like to be more involved in the editing process, and the production process. I’d like to be behind the camera, or in front of the camera, as last semester I Firsted and felt very uninvolved and insignificant (tear!).

If I come out of the course thinking I have made a doco that will benefit the knowledge of others, I will be extremely happy.

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

In a way, I think I already had a similar understanding of the concepts explained in the documentary. What you publish on a public social media forum is tailored to appeal to your audience; you need to craft your content in order to receive a certain amount of attention. But with that said, you also need connections in order to share your content. The more followers or friends you have, the more people see your posts, and the more people will respond to your content. Social media has become the modern day form of communication, if you don’t have Facebook or don’t have a phone, you will not be able to keep up with the everyday happenings of your “closest” 900 friends.

What connections can you make with the role of a Social Media Producer?

A Social Media producer posts content based on character and audience- what will get likes, and who does it appeal to? I won’t post a status if I think nobody is going to respond to it, or I won’t post a photo if I don’t think it won’t get likes, or sometimes I’ll post something because I know pushing it into the newsfeed will mean somebody specific will see it- a passive way of communicating without actually addressing a specific person. I want people to know what I’m up to, to share my thoughts, problems, complaints, etc. An SMP tailors social media content as a big publicity bit, which is what most teens do on social media anyway.

What ideas does this documentary raise in regards to the event your group is planning and the task of achieving participatory engagement?

In order to reach a great amount of people, we need to broaden our audience by using our own connections, and creating smart posts which will:

1. Catch the attention of the audience

2. Be creative enough to get people interested or curious

3. Make sure our audience is the right one who will go far enough as to participate and help create content/push it into the newsfeed or share it with their friends, thus broadening our audience

and the cycle goes on!

In my previous answer, I had hoped to develop my production techniques, including writing, editing, film composition, sound and editing.

I can confidently say that I have learnt so, so much about Film and TV construction/production, especially in regards to sound and lighting. Writing will always be of strong interest to me and I will continue to do my own research and experimentations to teach myself more.

I would have liked to learn a bit more about using the camera- the in-class theory was great however I feel that I was not getting enough actual “play time” with the equipment unless I was in that role for our films. (Being first AD, I was not able to do much in terms of the technical side i.e. sound, lighting or camera). In addition, the Editing classes helped significantly to get the hang of Premiere, as I had never used it until this semester.

“If i can come out of this semester saying I know twice what I knew coming into the subject, I will be content with my learning experience”- I said this at the start of the course, and I can confidently say I have achieved my learning goals! I have learnt a LOT more than twice what I originally knew, and can confirm for myself that this is the area I want to work in when I come out of this degree.

Title: Moments of Pause

File Title on Server: Regina.Rebecca.Xiang

Group Members:
Regina Lee s3429446
Rebecca Jones s3430989
Xiang Ji s3314093

Teacher: Hannah Brasier

Link to K-Film

Link to Essay

Having never used Premiere before, there was a lot about the program I was unaware of, but I found that I easily picked up certain things.

Shortcuts that I had never come across before but found extremely useful included the shortcut tool to the razor in the tools panel (C)- Of course, clicking is no issue but it is extremely convenient to switch between selection (V) and razor (C) when you’re in the timeline.

The Enter key was something I wish i knew about before!!! When pressing enter after clicking on a gap between two clips in your timeline, the enter key snaps the two clips together, elimating the gap! I have spent SO long in my editing days selecting all the clips and dragging them over, getting them all lined up, etc. I’m kicking myself for this one!

My favourite discovery however, was the comma (,) key. The comma key inserts your clip from the preview window in to your selected part of the timeline according to your edited in and out points (I and O). Again, clicking and dragging isn’t hard, but it was just too convenient for a lazy person like me to pass up!