Ehpifahknee 1

This week i had a cold so epiphanies were hard to come by. I tried to epiphanising but that doesn’t even exist.

On a serious note, I was thinking of what Paul and Robin were saying about how directors are very different about how they approach a scene, pre-planning, the process they go through on set, and how that turns out for the editors in post production.

I then thought about my favourite director in terms of how they set up a scene and David Fincher was the first that came to mind. I watched this video about him a while ago, and this youtube guy unpacks Fincher’s ‘directing’ style, and demonstrates them through a couple of different scenes over a few of his movies. I feel like a lot of what Fincher does takes a lot of planning and it makes sense. Especially, when he discusses his limited use of hand held camera shots in his movies, preferring a more fluid, detached approach. I like this idea of having the camera as a vision for the audience where they feel they could view the scene from any angle, as if they could float through the scene and view it for what it is. As opposed to feeling the presence of the camera man with hand-held footage etc. (which i definitely don’t have any vendetta against) i believe this would be more challenging.

Sayonara

fightclub3

Abstract Exercise

The original footage that we had for this abstract task didn’t turn out that well because we had trouble with the focus ring and the getting it into the editing software as it wouldn’t let me import it. I was able to convert one of the videos and used that for this video. On top of that, I had trouble getting the audio files I recorded so was unable to use them. I thought this was a very interesting project as it forced you to think outside the box which is something that has been encouraged this semester.

LOL wait a SEC

How does this documentary alter your understanding of Internet?

This documentary altered my perception of the internet into a more transparent entity that has the power to make change on a number of levels. It showed me that there is a ‘community’ of people that are able to come together from their own living rooms and make a change.

How is social media used to create a community of people who share a similar interest and politics?

Social media has pages and words that help determine what sort of groups are made for you based on your likes and interests that you have let know to the particular networking platform. Joining these groups then lets you converse and engage with people who share similar interests and politics which can then lead to bigger things.

What ideas does this documentary raise in regards to designing an event that asks people to participate and become part of a community?

This documentary shows that the online platform and communities is a very powerful device that can be used to hold events all across the globe which happened much to the surprise of most of the participants of anonymous. They based the event around one particular event occurring on a particular day that hit a very strong chord with most of the anonymous community making it the success that it was.

4OUR CORNERS

Firstly i found this quite funny because on my day off when i was chillaxing on the couch I actually watched this and thought it related very closely to what I learnt at uni, TV is educational!

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

When we spoke about social media producers in class I though “How on earth do social media producing stack up as a viable working position”? This doco completely changed my perception for this question and went way beyond. I especially found the guy who started up ‘The Audience” very interesting as I didn’t think such organisations existed let alone be as successful as he was. I also found how companies exploit social media users as a form of promotion for their brand with competitions, hashtags, interactions etc. Some would argue that it in someways takes advantage of the social media user who make money off them from clicks, likes and retweets. Personally, I don’t see it in this way, (I probably didn’t explain it properly), however it is the next wave of brand promotion and engagement with audiences and has seamlessly become a way of life for the modern person.

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

The role of a social media producer seems to vary and can be utilised in different ways. One example showed the use of analytics to help determine what kind of advertisements would best correspond with the celebrity or brand that they were representing. Another is the optimisation of posting times and content to best spread the image, this was usually pre-determined so that it would reach the widest audience.

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

One of the main things that I took from the documentary that could be related directly to group assignment is that social media users aren’t always looking for the straightforward videos, or pictures, but rather things that they would not usually see. This makes me think that the more juicy and crazy we can make our event appears, the more intake we will receive from a wider audience.

Week 8 – Shields, David. Reality Hunger: A Manifesto

This weeks reading is by David Shields who genuinely comes across as a bit of a weirdo. The reading covers a number of different thoughts that David Shields has about the idea of collage. Some that I agree with and some that I don’t, and some that I don’t understand.

Ones that I found most interesting

342 ‘The main question collage artists face: you’ve found some interesting material – how do you go about arranging it?

317 ‘The law of mosaics: how to deal with parts in the absence of wholes’

Some that i just completely didn’t understand

353 ‘I hate quotations’

362 ‘Nothing is going to happen in the book’

Week 6 – Soar, Matt. Making (with) the Korsakow System

This reading is outlined by one of the makers of the Korsakow system, Matt Soar and his thoughts towards the evolving area of new media. As the media forms expand with the depth and development in software tools new ways to create things are introduced, therefor creating a whole new platform on which ‘things’ can be assembled.

The section regarding the relevance of Korsakow and the number of other interactive documentaries for future art makers was very interesting and makes me think of what I personally believe will be the future of interactive documentaries. I believe that there will be programs (there sort of already is) out there that will be universally popular as interactive form of documentary. On this note, snapchat is one that just came to mind being quite revolutionary in the way that it allows the users to share videos as ‘stories’ that can be viewed as many times as the audience likes within a 12 hour time frame. Unlike Korsakow, a majority of the users aren’t making these stories with the intention of making a documentary however the concept is there! I personally believe that Korsakow is a interesting program however I don’t think that I personally achieve anything from making interactive documentaries on it. I’m sure there are people that like the ambiguity and quite abstract format that allows makers to create, however I have been moulded to be more attached to the traditional forms of film and documentary making.

Analysis Reflection 5

Q1

During the lecture a number of different lighting techniques and lights were displayed to give us an overview of what we may be able to use for our films.

For our film I initially thought that lighting wouldn’t be a real issue as it is a mood piece which doesn’t really have any focus on extra lighting to create the atmosphere. Whati did not take into consideration is that fact that lighting can be used to illuminate the face, in a natural way. Soft lighting, such as the LED panels, can be taylored to enhance the moody feelings. Hard light can also be used to enhance outside sunrays which will be helpful for our project.

After undertaking a practice shoot i found that the lighting can enhance the frame and add another element to the scene which is great and something i need to be more aware of for future shoots

Q2

Reading ‘Lighting the shot’

Light metering is a principle that is covered in the reading that I have always wanted to understand and the simple explanation helped me understand what it is all about. I have seen some behind the scenes videos of movie sets where the DOP uses the light meter whenever a new shot is about to take place. Although we won’t be using a light meter it was still very helpful to finally understand what it is used for and how it works.

This reading helped me come to the realisation of the importance of lighting continuity, especially if you are using artificial lighting. I think this will be hard however if you use the same 180 degree principle that you use for the camera with your lighting, it could help manage this continuity.

Q3

Cues would have been the most important aspect of Michelangelo Antonio’s directing this particular scene. The characters were constantly on the move which would have made it difficult for continuity but by choreographing and setting up the shots in the scene.

Another thing that Antonio would have had to consider is the placement of the actors in the shots which would have been achieved with tape or items as placement cues on the ground or on the wall. One thing that I am not 100% sure on is if there was more then one camera used. If there were two it would have made it a lot easier to capture the different angles of the actors while keeping continuity.