There were 6 presentations from the other week, some of them I think are quite interesting. And Ada’s presentation strikes me as the most practical and broad. She is investigating on car scenes in film, which is kind of what I’m doing; we are both researching on a specific type of scene.

It is interesting that she brought up lots of aspects in the short 5 minutes. From the notes I took, they included “comparing the similarities and differences of the scenes”, “looking into directing styles”, “the equipments used in car chase scenes” and two or three other things. Honestly, I think it is impossible to complete such a research with so much content within two or three weeks; it is going to take at least two months. I assume that she will cut off a few aspects as she goes; otherwise she may not be able to finish on time. Although Ada’s topic interests me well enough, I still wish she could show us some clips to illustrate her ideas clearer; pictures would be helpful too, instead of just throwing out some ideas verbally.

I like this idea of using comparison to investigate a certain topic, David is doing that with different adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo, Chloe will probably compare the 6 different types of long takes as she introduces them. I think Alex’s research would be the one that could use comparison to illustrate his points, if he is planning to include some comparison between some similar scene done with handheld camera and other types of camera work, it would really be easier to show what is distinctive about handheld camera and why it is important. I am going to try a similar approach in my research project. Some scenes will look really different if they are not set in an elevator, and I will be making hypothesis to make a point about why some techniques achieve different effects in such narrow spaces like elevators. That would be a really helpful approach in my research project.