Paste the link here from your version of the abstract editing exercise.

Then reflect on the whole process – Consider: the quality and usability of your recordings; the effect of layering and juxtaposition of both the audio and the video and; the things you learnt from working with this kind of audio and video.

Abstract Editing Exercise

The whole process of the abstract editing exercise was really in the hands of the usability of the recordings, which when completing with no real objective in mind can sometimes turn out a little unusable. Venturing out with no real idea on what you want to achieve it’s hard to try and visualise the recordings you’re going to get – however I believe this process was to make as document the real, the things we see and hear every day but have blocked out of our consciousness and re-appropriate that into something where we do notice it, therefore the recordings would influence the final product. I found the audio recordings Mardy and I took really interesting, as we went into an elevator and just recorded, the sound of people shuffling in the space, the automatic voice identifying each floor, the awkward silence and the sudden music. However the video recordings I took the week after weren’t as engaging, I only ended up using one of the shots we filmed and sourced the remainder from other groups on the server. In the development of the piece I didn’t want to fiddle with the actual audio too much, but more so appropriate the images to the organic sound we recorded. Therefore I found myself harvesting from a bank of footage, and trying to match it all together. I used the exercise mainly to re-familiarise myself with Adobe Premiere, layering audio and splitting it up to repeat certain sounds, such as the elevator floor select button, and to play with different visual effects, like making the image black and white when the card access sound in the elevator noise was heard. Through this editing I tried to relate the images to an elevator, where the mundane sound of the floor button makes the world loose the vibrancy that colour ensues. For me, this was the most interesting part of this whole exercise, trying to place the pieces of the puzzle together and create relationships between unrelated sound and images, which re-instated the importance of the quality of the recordings and how it can impact how you’ll put the whole piece together.

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you. 

 “It is essential that film-makers concentrate on the film-making as opposed to recording”

Filmmakers have an ability to get inspired at certain moments where possibly someone who isn’t obsessed with film might not. It’s important to remember that today everyone has the opportunity, and more than likely the ability, to record moments – but it’s the ability to priorities these moments to have relevance for an audience that gives the filmmaker the ability to create something much more than a recording.

“For me the point of making films is not to convey objective information about the world, but to show it as I see it and to find a form which is relevant.”

Pawliowski talks about the importance of form in the documentary structure and notes that films that challenge viewers to think not through words or rhetoric, but through their very form have the ability to seduce and entertain its audience. He identifies this with the example of television and it’s corruption of documentary, contrary to it allowing it’s survival. Their difference being, that television asks for films that are not worried about standing the test of time, but instant visibility, high ratings or kudos among other media people. And whether we like it or not, the TV documentary is the future. A reminder that sometimes you don’t have to say anything, you can show it in other forms to the audience that when they realise

Their use of real people and places, their moments of truth. They managed to tell touching stories without theatricality and literary dialogues. Therefore the subject of the documentary is crucial, and sometimes it’s luck that allows you to find a subject where the process of making the film became also a process of spiritual and formal discovery. To see the world through the subjects eyes, while at the same time maintaining an aesthetic and often ironic distance from it. With the task of our future productions in mind I believe this point is the most resonate in the reading, as the subject has the ability to inspire and create the piece – letting them organically lead the discovery, while making sure that that discovery is interesting is key.

Reference

MacDonald, K & Cousins, M. Imagining Reality, (p. 389-392). London: Faber & Faber, 1996.

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. 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?

Audio Recordings

When Mardy and I ventured out to record audio, we decided to focus on capturing the sounds of mundane practices, such as catching the elevator where through the awkward silence you hear all the sounds in the small space and the city noise of crossing the road in day traffic. In technical terms, we just started to record whenever we saw necessary, choosing to capture the sounds of space before and after the major audio we sought to get. In some cases we choose to isolate sound by putting the microphone close to things, such as the pigeons at the State Library, who decided not to co-operated and make pigeon noises when we did this. Otherwise we wanted to capture the sounds as heard through the headphones, where some are louder and more prominent than others within their environments.

From a poetic perspective it was all about appreciating these sounds that we have come to take for granted, therefore making you not only more aware of sound, but form an appreciation of each individual sounds importance to the environments we experience. The audio of the elevator evokes the feeling of being there in that claustrophobic space, as though we tend to block the sound out the orientation of place still occurs. The rapid beeping of the pedestrian walk sign indicating go and the slow beep designating you to stop, have deep associations in our understanding of doing within situations. It’s hard to try and understand what images these sounds might suggest as you know personally where they are recorded from, so when you think of expressing the sound in a pictorial manner you generally think of your encounter with the sounds. In order to express them through images our sounds may have to be disassociated from their pre-established environments therefore allowing them to be used for rhythmic qualities, or their associations can be played on to disorientate the viewer. The sound of the elevator has the ability to suggest the possibility of a conversation, something that many of us have to withstand when travelling between floors; and the road crossing suggest the sound of car motors, sounds which further establish these spaces.

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

Record your impressions in a paragraph or two.

Glenn Gould’s radio documentary “The Idea of North” (1967) begins with a woman’s voice describing a lake with a distinctive Canadian accent. A man’s voice then starts to overlap, the word “North” used as a linking thread between both their sentences. This overlapping continues to happen throughout the start, where one voice talks for a while and then is overpowered by another individuals speech – with each new voice becoming more interesting than the last, allowing you to focus on the different tonal qualities of the participants to differentiate them. Another woman talks towards then end of this section about peacefulness of a sun setting, this imagery juxtaposed with the constant flow of voices. This contends the listeners’ ability to concentrate, where the piece is not about guiding the audience but about placing the audience in the middle of the haphazard soundscape.

When I first heard the beginning it was easy to get confused as it jumped from one story to the next, and you can’t really grasp exactly what the people are talking about especially as you’ve been given no background or context for what is being said. The technique is like a domino effect of sound, where each sound moves onto the next but the previous still sits under creating a confusion as you don’t know what to focus on; which reminded me of a busy coffee shops rambling of everyone’s conversations where the only thing you hear is what’s relevant to you. Gould does this by making the most pivotal parts of the subject’s speech the loudest when they relate to his idea of the North most. I was a little unsure of the technique at the beginning; however after reading that Gould was inspired from listening to the radio stations shifting back and forth across the dial, I can see how this overlapping of voices and accents helps to paint a picture through sound.

At approximately three minutes Gould introduces himself and tells us the program is called “The Idea of North,” as the collection of voices turns into mumbling in the background. He talks about always remaining an outsider from the north, and therefore we hear him at a louder volume to the North’s inhabitants. As the topic of the north train ride begins distinctive train sounds, like the screeching breaks on the track, can be heard and the documentary beginning with the train crossing signal. People’s voices are then heard, with the background sounds of yelling on the train platform and train horns, which sometimes contest the subject’s voices. Towards the end of the clip the train starts to get louder until eventually the first man’s voice fades out being overpowered. We then hear a man with a British accent juxtaposed against the melodic Canadian accent, with the interior sound of space in the train heard underneath. He says that the North is a land of very narrow, thin margins – thin margin of transition; Gould portrays this idea of loneliness and isolation in the way that each person’s audio is isolated like the geographical space of the north, though they come together to create the community that drives this place as a whole.

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. 

In the scenes from Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ it was hard to fathom what was going on as we were shown a series of scenes with no prior knowledge of how the documentary came to this point. Just why was the guy singing in front of the roller door? Perhaps to show the delirium of drunken song, or maybe just to add some humour to the piece. It was pretty interesting choice Hill made to virtually place a music video in the middle of the documentary, having the ability to question the viewer to associate its purpose within the overall piece. In the scenes we begin with an interview of the man, but the interview slowly starts to turn into song and before we know it this man is on a barren street singing in front of a roller door, the song having strangely familiar qualities to Semisonic Closing Time. It’s hard to understand how the documentary has come to this and the purpose of this moment; however its spontaneity adds appeal and you are more interested than ever before. The song cuts to montage sequences of people drinking beer and the man standing in a stereotypical bar with bar lights and a foggy interior. From this we can gather the different form of documentary this piece has chosen to take, and though the song doesn’t have the best rhythmic qualities and may displease some with the stylised acting, its presence illustrates the ability to surprise the viewer and that the piece has an understanding of its audience.

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. 

Not many moments can surpass sitting in a cinema theatre filled with people and watching them react to something that you’ve created. Having learnt from the successes and mistakes of our film in Film/TV1, this semester I’d like to put my knowledge into practice to again create something to be proud of and that people enjoy, but that’s also refined in technique and construction. In terms of the subject of the documentary this course is built around, I hope to choose something interesting and that I may not have much knowledge about, so that the process is as intriguing for me as it is for the viewer. Through the production groups it will be nice to interact with new people as we work collaboratively to build an understanding of documentary through knowledge and experiences in the course.

Building on Film/TV1 I’d like to continue my development of the key features of professional film and television production, this time specifically in documentary. Individually this would include continuing to enhance my technical skills in terms of filming, having been producer last semester, I’d like to have more of an opportunity to deal on the technical side of shooting. From an analytical side I aspire to develop my ability to analyse documentary programs as a practice and how to apply that knowledge to my own work and others. Also to keep building my ability to direct and evaluate my own learning through outlets such as the course readings and analysis/reflection tasks, in helping to identify and solve problems relevant to my media practice. And finally to have fun and enjoy the whole process because before you know it twelve weeks are gone.

“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.” No? Go back and have a look.

Now we’d love you to do the same at this end. Please reflect on how you feel about the course. What surprised you, what excited you, what disappointed you. What we could have done better. What you could have done better.

Week 1 Film/TV 1 Anticipations

Looking back at my Week 1 aspirations for Film/TV 1 I believe I achieved them. One thing I wanted to do was “improve technical, creative and organisational skills as [the group] share knowledge and experiences.” This element alone was paramount to the production and what surprised me was just how well our group did get along, a part from a few minor bumps along the way mainly from stress and probably sleep deprivation, we all worked together really well. It made the process so much better that we had the ability to voice our opinions and concerns freely. When you’re undertaking something that requires everyone to put in you need everyone’s presence in the group, and I’m happy to say everyone lifted their weight which helped in the sheer volume of the processes required. And working with people that were passionate in different areas of the production making process “improve[d] technical, creative and organisational skills as we share[d] knowledge and experiences.” It was also great to work with people I had never talked to before the production, the people you see around because you’re in their course but have never spoken to.

Another element I wanted to achieve was an “enjoyable film… something that you’re not only proud of but that will be well received by others.” I was proud of our film by the end and all the work we put in as a group to make those little things, like the blocking of Oliver’s moves in Zoe’s house, payed off. The most exciting part was probably the shoot day, a day where all your energy, thought and organisation has been leading, and where anything could go right or wrong. You have no idea what’s going to happen when you wake up that morning, but you just have to be organised that you can plan from what does happen.To watch it all unfold in front of you is an amazing thing and that was exciting on it’sown.

It was really refreshing to be prompted to go outside our classes and really get to know the people in our course. In supergrouping and helping fellow students the course formed a little community and it was nice to know if we ever needed help we could always email Robin and Paul. I think the lectures where great, with some the moments and key knowledge I remember most being the theatrical presentations, with Robin up the front constructing a lighting set or students role playing scenes from films, it was here that I appreciated the creativeness of teaching and remember the most.

The only constructive comment would be to perhaps timetable the Analysis/Reflection tasks so that students are aware when they are due. I think the emailing is great but if it was documented at the start of the semester I think I would have been better prepared to submit them, as I would do them on my blog and when I came back to paste it into the Blackboard Test it was taken down. I remember being confused with the whole process in the beginning, especially when it’s the start of semester and you’re just getting into the process of things, and it wasn’t until a couple of weeks in I started to get into the process of things. In saying this, I could have kept up better with the work at the beginning of the course, I always did it but as I’m a perfectionist always spent more time drafting the product than actually getting on with it, and I saw this change over the semester.

At the beginning of the semester, I wanted “to develop more of an awareness of the processes it takes to produce such things as film and television, and then understand how to apply that knowledge not only to my own creations but the analysis of others as well.” This course put in perspective just how much work it is to make a film, there is so much you can do and bring upon yourself to perfect. And the film making process is as much a personal as collaborative process. The course in teaching all the different elements of film allowed a greater knowledge to apply to the analysis of work, and I believe this is invaluable with my future studies in both Film/TV 2 and other courses.

“Lastly and most importantly I want to be able to enjoy the whole process.” Film/TV 1 was a really enjoyable course this semester, it was a course that gave me the opportunity to learn things that can not be taught, but that require trial and error, and experience in order to be understood. In this respect the course gave a platform for me to learn invaluable skills for the future, for example I had never conducted a casting call before we had to get actors for our film which not only required a professional attitude, but also asked for social skills. And just the sheer organisation needed to produce a film, or anything where you have certain deadlines put in perspective all the elements you need to fulfill to get it done, and then more importantly to get it done well.