The day of the seminar arrived and despite the tremendous speed at which it had approached we were all generally well prepared for what was to come. A group of us met a couple of hours before the seminar was due to start in order to ensure that everything was under control. I was part of this group, having successfully made the journey across three changes in public transport with my 100 cupcakes unharmed.
Together the group of about 4 of us finalised all aspects of our presentation through a combination of printing, tweeting and general logistical discussion. We fiddled around a little in order to make sure our live twitter feed was up and running, this resulting in my 3 year inactive Twitter account being resurfaced with a flood of posts hashtagged “SocialSeminar”. Once more group members began to arrive we started to move across to building 80, transporting all required props with us. At 3.30 Ned met with the guests and took them for a coffee/brief while the rest of us set up for the Seminar now that we had gained room access.
Despite having a few technical difficulties during setup and also not realising that we were in fact allowed to stop people from entering the room before our start time of 4pm, everything was sorted and we were away and running by 4.02pm!
REFLECTION:
Overall, I feel that our seminar was a success. Despite having little time we had managed to gather three unique, engaging and beneficial guests to speak in front of our peers. I think the content that the guests provided was a perfect mix between being interesting and insightful whilst also providing valuable information about working within the social media/online industry. Another thing which I felt work particularly well was our live twitter feed, as this was a simple and entertaining way for our audience to engage with us and our guests.
During the seminar I was responsible for live tweeting from both the RMIT adventure twitter account, our own In(ternet)ception account and then also my personal account where appropriate. Although this was a minor role I felt that it was essential in maintaining and content in the feed. I feel that with this role, as well as the other task I undertook as part of this assessment, that I contributed evenly to my group. It was great to work within a group where we all seemed to be on a similar wavelength and where we were easily able to establish clear roles and intentions. As we were able to distribute tasks so well we made a process which could have easily become highly stressful a relatively smooth endeavour and I think this is something we should all be congratulated for. Finally, it should be noted that we would have never have been able to achieve such a result without the tireless work of our tutor Mark. He supported us every step of the way and was a huge component of our success.
After purchasing all the required ingredients and doing a little research I came up with the idea of creating social media inspired “Facebook Like” cupcakes. The main thought behind this was being able to use the phrase “we’ll give you a like for a like at our seminar” for promotional purposes and also just because I knew they would make a cute and hopefully delicious addition to our In(ternet)ception seminar.
I documented my cupcake journey, appropriately thought the social media platform of Snapchat and my Snap Stories can be viewed below:
Here is also one of my “cupcake updates” which I posted into the Facebook group in order to keep the team updated:
From the time of discovering our group, topic, theme and short turnover period, within the two weeks following the week 2 workshop we were able to achieve much more than we had initially anticipated. Having, such a large group it was quickly discovered that meeting as a whole group outside the allocated class time was not realistic so instead we communicated as a whole through Facebook and met in smaller groups where necessary.
Over the two week period and by the week 4 seminar we had accomplished the following:
- Locked in our three guests: Nick Pearce (co-founder of Homeless of Melbourne), Sophie Draper (Communities and Marketing Manager, Uber Australia) and Sarah Stone (Youtube Sensation)
- Allocated specific roles for each individual
- Designed promotional posters and videos
- Created a Twitter and Instagram account (ideally want to have a specific hashtag so that we can organise I live twitter feed during the seminar)
As well as contributing to group discussion over Facebook and attending required group meetings through this two week period I was also allocated the task of building questions to be asked to our guest during the seminar. I started forming these in a google doc so that they could be viewed by the entire group with Bec and Ned being able to also edit the document as Bec would be writing the questions with me and as Ned was our MC so it was important he be familiar and comfortable with what he was going to have to ask. I also nominated myself to bake some social media related goods to be shared during our seminar, a task I would not be able to complete until the Thursday beforehand.
Below are examples of my contributions within the Facebook group and also the google document which I formed in order to collaboratively write the questions/script for the seminar with Bec and Ned.
In our workshop today, based on individual interests, the room was divided into potential seminar groups and topics. Personally, being interested in the online and digital aspects of the media industry, I headed to the section of the space titled social media. Unfortunately, with the majority of the course population drifting towards film, television and documentary the survival of “social media” as a seminar topic was initially looking quite bleak…
However, slowly through a combination of nominating absent friends and convincing a few to switch from their first chosen group we were able to get our group numbers up enough to ensure we remained. Our celebrations were somewhat short-lived though, as minutes later we discovered that we would be leading the way and that Social Media would be the first seminar to take place. After a vote, a theme for all of the seminar’s was also established this being “Epic Adventure”, which then formed the steering committees’ page of RMIT Adventure – the title of the entire seminar series.
Having a seminar topic of social media, a theme of epic adventure, an almost secured group of 13 people and a mere 3 weeks before out seminar date we spent the last part of class frantically brainstorming. We made both a Facebook group and a google doc in order to communicate outside of class, looked at potential people to contact over the next week in order to lock in our required three guest speakers and also began discussing in depth the requirements of the task and the different individual roles that would be needed.
As part of one of my first task for the new academic year I have found myself exploring some of the historical buildings of the RMIT city campus, this being for the “Ghosts and Space” course that I have chosen to undertake. In the first week of semester I have been exploring areas of the campus I didn’t even realise existed and it has been exciting to explore these new places and discover a bit about the history of not only RMIT but also Melbourne in general.
For this particular post I have decided to focus specifically on building 20 of the RMIT city campus. This building was once the Former Magistrates Court, this being something I was not aware of before last week. I had always known that from the outside the building appeared to be old and historic but I had never considered the beauty, age and stories that existed within the walls.
Walking through the building for the first time I experienced many different first impression. Initially I think that I was just amazed that a place of such age and significance had survived and existed right under my nose for the two years I had already spent at the university. Although it was obvious that many adaptations had been made to the building both for the practicality of its new uses and also to maintain structural safety, there was the same detail within things such as the windows, archways and doors that I imagine would have been present in the original structure. The further I walked into the heart of the building it seemed the more historic detail remained. I became intrigued not only in the architectural beauty but also in imagining the sorts of people who would have existed in this space throughout the many years it had survived. When I first saw the old courtrooms I found myself experiencing some form of internal conflict between what I was seeing now and how the area was continuing to exist today, alongside all the stories of conflict and triumph that must have been once experienced in these rooms years beforehand.
The first time I stepped into the courtrooms it was with my classmates and during this visit engravings that had been made in some of the woodwork had be pointed out. This was wood that had obviously been there for many years, however, the mystery of when the engravings had been made was left somewhat up to the imagination. Maybe they had been made back in a time when it was an active courtroom, or maybe it had been more recently when the space was filled for a presentation organised by the university. It was questions such as these that I kept continuing to ask myself while exploring the different areas of the building.
Initially I felt comfortable exploring this new space as I was with a group and I was receiving a relatively strict navigation throughout the rooms and corridors. On the occasions that I returned alone, however, I did experience some feelings of unease. I feel that this was caused through a combination of the fact that it was an area that ordinarily I shouldn’t have been wondering around in and also because this building was unlike any of the others I usually spent my time in whilst on campus. The area was relatively empty whenever I visited and I think this also contributed to a feeling of slight discomfort as the vacancy really provided the opportunity to imagine how differently the area would have been used over the years. Although this could be considered the most fascinating aspect of the space I also found that at times it could almost seem overwhelming as my presence at that moment in the history of the building was so insignificant comparatively.
Below I have included images that I have taken when exploring building 20 at various times throughout the past week.
Whilst the above images show the buildings interior in present day, below are some additional images borrowed from the State Library of Victoria showing the exterior of the building in the early 1900s.
Another document I found particularly interesting through my research explains a bit about the refurbishment of the building. This can be viewed here.
Colour Grading Exercise:
Above are 2 examples of various colour grading trials from our documentary film “Black Cat”. The original colouring of the still shot can be seen in the image in the top right corner. The changes made in the remaining three stills in each collage are outlined below:
Photo Album –
- colouring was changed to black and white in order to follow consistency of other shots used throughout the film
- the contrast and brightness was adjusted in order to enhance certain aspects of the objects featured within the frame
- played around with highlights in attempt to achieve more detail in the pictures featured in the photo album
Interview –
- contrast and brightness was again adjusted in order to enhance the colouring of many aspects within the frame
- as the shot comes across quite yellow in one of the images the colouring has been played around with in that the reds were turned down and the blues were turned up in order to achieve sharper whites
- sharpness of the shot was adjusted to see what effect it had on the overall look of the image
Reflecting on Film/TV 2:
This semester the course was definitely not quite what I had expected. In comparison to film/tv 1 I felt as though there was a lot more freedom and it was exciting to be able to collect the content of our film throughout the course of the semester as opposed to one sigular day of stressful shooting. As a result fo this I feel that the films that we have produced have been subjected to a lot more change than could have ever been anticipated as there was always oppertunity to collect more footage in order to manipualte the direction that the film was taking. Sometimes through this process of bringing together older and newer footage together the film would begin to adopt a completely unexpected form but this wasn’t necessiry thing as often we were pleasently surprised.
I feel like overall what I gained most from this semester is a taste for the many different forms that documentary film making could adopt and the countless ways of going about it. The course has also exposed me to the necessity of having flexibility and an open mind as you never know the effect of what different creative decisions or experimantal ideas can have.
Below you will find my responses to a series of questions relating to things discussed recently in class.
1. In the lighting lecture there were several different aspects of lighting covered. Firstly there was an introduction to some of the different sorts of lights available to us. We also learnt about a little about how to technically operate them as well as some key safety pointers such as managing cords, heat from the lights etc. Other things covered were the colour of light from various sources (blue light from the sun, yellow light from the lights in the lecture theatre) and how to deal with the colour light various sources omit to achieve the best result. Finally we learnt a bit about how to act professionally while using lighting equiptment eg. ensure that you say “light on” before turning on a light in an actors face!
2. From week 6 I found the reading on developing a crew particularly interesting and relevant. The section of this reading on “crew member temperaments” didn’t necesserily excite me but it was something that I believe is essential to be considered. There is nearly always conflict that arises when working within a small group and the crew for our short films definitely fall under this category. It was interesting to read the traits to beware of and also those that are valued when working on a film set as I feel personally I was able to assess these things and adapt my own behaviour to ensure I am a valued member. Another thing from this reading that excited me was reading the section about the role of the director. As director for my film I found it really interesting and valuable to read the suggested personal traits that make a good director and really try to addopt these qualities in preparation for my own shoot day.
3. Through watching the scene from the 1966 film Blow Up there were numerous things to note. The actors were choreographed to make great use of the space available and the us of the wooden frames in the studio to frame many of the shots was very effective. The accents and tones used by the actors gave more insight into the background and relationship between the characters and the body language used by each of the characters during moments without dialogue were essential in distingusihing mood. Moments such as the one where the male character dives behind a chair in order to reach the phone and the manner in which he goes about answering it work significantly to build information about him and the staging of the woman in the reflection as he holds the phone over the chair is a very effective and simple way of covering the moment. I feel like something the Antonioni would really have to considering when directing the actors and the camera would be the 180 degree rule are the interation between the two characters in this scene is shot from many different angles around the same small space and it would be easy to confuse the shot. Another thing he would need to consider would be the use of space and the room available for the actors to work with given the various positions of the camera within a relatively small area.
Notes on Lighting:
In previous filmmaking experiences I have had, lighting was not something that much attention was paid to despite it’s importance. I found it really interesting in the lecture to learn about the different ways in which various scenes can be lit to create different effects and the ways in which the best results can be achieved. It was also really beneficial to learn about the different sorts of lights that were available for us to use and which ones you would choose to use in different situations, such as taking into consideration the colour of the light that might already exist in the environment you are shooting in. I feel that I have a lot more to learn and discover about lighting, but I now definitely have a greater appreciation for its role in filmmaking.
The “Lenny” – as practice for the actually shooting of our short film we were given the script of a short scene involving the character of “Lenny” to film during class.
I think that the main thing that I learnt from the experience of shooting the Lenny was the importance of being highly organised given the amount of time that it can take to achieve a single shot. Setting up each shot can take a considerable amount of time and you need to ensure you are as clear with the actors as possible with what you want them to do otherwise you spend time repeating shots for minor hiccups, therefore using more precious time.
Follow the following link to view my group’s Lenny scene – https://vimeo.com/92120715#at=0
Having been introduced to the Korsakow and it’s products we have been playing around with program over the past few weeks. Below is a link to a sketch film that I have produced using Korskow. I am my no means happy with what I have created as I have run into many issues. Firstly something about the format/size or shape of the videos that my phone records have not agreed with the program. As a result my videos appear skinny and rotated sideways in very poor quality. I have played around with everything I thought possible with the interface and have still had no change. I have also had difficulty with adding text to my videos and the only way in which I have been able to do this is to have text solely in the thumbnails.
Although I haven’t done well with this task and this is proven when viewing my film, I feel that this was a good learning experience as I now know that I should take future videos on a device other than my phone and also that I still have a lot to figure out about the program. Hopefully given the difficulties I have experienced here my next film will see drastic improvements!
Click here to view my attempt at a K-Film.
In the film Clown Train how does sound contribute to the atmosphere of this film? Describe what you heard? Can you make reference to another genre film and how they utilise sound to create tension and a unique filmic space?
The sound in this film contributed greatly to the atmosphere of this film as there was an effective balance of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds as well as moments of silence which contributed to building and deciding the level of tension in different sections of the film. The the dull, buzzing long notes which were played as music in the background at times to built up at times to determine the moments of greatest tension and yet the combination of silence and the electrical sounds of flickering lights and the train also worked effectively build tension in not know what to expect next. The sound used in the film worked to produce a spooky, horror like genre whereas in a genre such a drama although tension is also built through building music, the type of music usually varies (less minor notes used), silence is as common and dialogue can tend to play much more of a role.
Select from one of the readings, up to but not including Week 5, and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.
I found the reading from week two on script layout to be really interesting because script writing is something that I have never really attempted so although I have read various scrpits in the past I wouldn’t have much of an idea of where to begin with layout when writing my own. Firstly I learnt how to write a proper scene title and that you have to include the scene numer, whether it is inside or outside and the time of day. Another thing that I found interesting was that you are able to place description in brackets above dialogue, for example the word “whispering”, I had previously assumed that this went in the scene description.
In the tute we screened a short film called Rolling – a film made in Film-TV1 a few years ago.
In 300 words or less describe what you thought worked or didn’t. At this stage we don’t expect you to have a great deal of film knowledge or language. Don’t be afraid to use your own words. Things you could talk about – script, casting, timing, camera movement, location. You may not remember much detail, if so, it could be helpful to talk about your first impressions, after all this is what most of us are left with after one viewing.
I found this film effective in that it was entertaining and I connected well with it and understood what was going on. It had a simple but engaging and amusing storyline and a strong character was created thorugh the main male role through effective script writing, casting and acting. I can’t remember specific details but there were some small technical aspects I thought at the time of viewing could have been improved but overall I thought the film was put together very well. I really liked the setting of the supermarket finding it worked perfectly for the unravelling, awkward crush conversation that was portrayed and I found that the incorperation of toilet paper made the piece both a little unexpected but highly amusing. I feel that this past student film served to give me a taste of the level of work that I could be capable of producing by the end of the semester.
