In last week’s reading, McKee, Alan (2001) A beginner’s guide to textual analysis. Metro Magazine, he highlights very clearly that in any form of media, reality can not be truly reflected, however someone can argue that they they agree with the interpretation of the reality. As he states, “Never claim that a text is an ‘accurate’ or an ‘inaccurate’ representation; never claim that it ‘reflects reality”. He talks about how every text that is seemed to be a reflection of reality is merely another text. What comes to mind when I think about this theory, is reality tv shows such as Geordie Shore, in which a bunch of young English “lads” and “birds”, stay in a house together and go and get drunk every night. What is portrayed by the camera is that these people are low intelligence, non-aware, two dimensional people because we only see that partying side to them. This cannot be a complete picture of their reality as we have never seen them in a family context, helping the elderly, working in their jobs, so therefore we cannot say these tv shows are true “reality” tv shows.

 

The three act method that was discussed today in class, became relevant to my other subject of Cinema Studies, as in that class we evaluate, deconstruct and comment on film structure, composition and functions. I am now able to watch films with a new perspective (however somewhat annoying) and have a new appreciation for every single shot in films as they are all planned carefully. The most recent film we watched in Cinema Studies was “Zodiac” 2007, which was adapted from a true story and had a similar format of introduction, complication and ending (however there wasn’t a direct resolution as such).

 

 

After today’s lectorial, I am now getting together my ideas for my interview coming up and how I am going to structure it. Before the lectorial I thought I knew what I was doing and how I was going to create my portrait of a person, but I realised I really didn’t. I’ve started jotting down possible questions for my interviewee and am currently planning what type of shots I am going to take. My interviewee has been away for the past few weeks so it has been hard to keep in contact, but hopefully after a few sessions this week I can start to create the video.

In this weeks workshop we worked in groups of 3 to produce footage of two interviews about a survival guide to the first 6 weeks of uni at RMIT. We managed to find a quietish place on the stairs outside a building and filmed some footage of question and answer. We also filmed some extra footage of places around uni. It was really fun getting to know the camera and it’s angles and now all that is left to be done is to edit my own version in Premiere.

I googled one of the first sounds ever recorded, and it turns out that the machine it was recorded on was only meant to record sound but not play it back, almost like a beautiful mistake. I think this is quite relevant to many media forms as many times when filming movies or writing books, a “mistake” can be positively detrimental to the outcome of the media.

Due to my old macbook pro, it has been a bit of a struggle to work on my recording project on Audition as my computer can’t handle anything new on there. Hopefully it will survive so I can continue working on it but it’s so frustrating to work with. I am slowly figuring out Audition on my own but it is tricky.

In yesterday’s lectorial, we were talked to about interviewing skills which I found really interesting as I always love watching them on tv. We learnt how to ask open ended questions rather than close ended questions, for example; what colour is your shirt?(close ended) compared to, why do you choose to wear that colour today?(open ended). We also learnt that you need to find an interesting subject or person that has something unique to say that will entice an audience as without that, no one will watch it. We watched some interviews and I noted some of the camera angles they used and background footage which could be useful for my documentary coming up.

My top 5 favourite sounds would have to be:

1. Waterfall gushing (it relaxes me and makes me feel like I’m in the middle of nature)
2. Crackle on a record being played (something about it adds to the retro feel of the recording)
3. “Now arriving at Ivanhoe” (it means my day is over and I’ve arrived home)
4. The sound of something cooking (dinner time is near)
5. The rain (when I am inside, it’s refreshing to listen to)

Top 5 sounds I like the least would be:

1. My alarm clock in the morning (the once peaceful iPhone melody now haunts me)
2. People cracking their joints (not a fan of anything gruesome to do with the body)
3. Cherrypicker beep (the sound of it automatically gives me a headache)
4. Vacuum cleaner (not only does it annoy the dog, it annoys me)
5. Leaf blowers (possibly the most frustrating noise on a Sunday morning)

In yesterday’s workshop, we were able to play around with some sound recorders. We were asked to record a casual and formal interview about RMIT, using the recorder. The device was relatively easy to use, however what to say on the recording wasn’t as simple. We decided to rehearse what we were going to say multiple times before we recorded, as well as doing a test recording to ensure the sound quality and volume was at it’s best. For our formal interview we had to record in a silent area, so we managed to get to the top floor of building 80 and sat in between lockers.

I find it really interesting that sound is such a complex medium, after reading the Roberts-Breslin reading, it highlighted the fact that sounds are physical movements in contrast with visual stimuli that rely on light and colour to be represented. Sound is processed in a completely different area of the brain and many sounds are often disregarded by our conscious as we live our day to day lives. The field of advertising is something that has always interested me as I always wondered how they manipulated sound and video/images to persuade an audience. The mixture of bold titles and prices with convincing voice overs is how advertisers make use of both.

The reading also talks about the physical properties of sound such as sound waves and their elements. It is fascinating how you can also see a visual representation of the music and it’s properties through their crests and troughs.

The way that people reproduce sound is similar to the way our ears process sound. Sound waves travel through the ear and are then converted into electrical impulses that the brain can process. When someone wants to reproduce sound, firstly the microphone converts vibrations into an electronic signal and then the speaker converts the electronic signal back into vibrations of the air

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