Author Archives: Joyce Yap

About Joyce Yap

If you think you know me, read my blog and think again. I'm imperfect and I'm Lovin' It. I'm the only witness and the only person who can judge my life. Go around the world. Grow taller. Wisdom, Knowledge & Talent. Fame, Beauty & Fortune. ♥ .

Analysis Reflection 5

Posted on by
Reply

Question 1

As per lecture –  in a sequence you’ve called ‘colour’ you will have clips that are indicative of a particular colour or lighting state. To the right of that clip you will have that same clip repeated 2 or more times with different colour grades on it.

Take screen grabs of each clip then upload to your blog the series of stills that show us ‘before and afters’ of your colour grading. Provide a few different examples of at least two different clips – each with a description of what you did to the clip and why.

This is a learning exercise, not necessarily a qualitative one, don’t stress – it is the act of doing it and the reflection on that, that is important

IMG_5437 IMG_5436

For our doco, we used a green screen setup and the lighting has been the same for all interviewees. However, eventhough this entire doco will be in black and white, i still think the colour makes a big differences for the images. Picture one is the one without editing any of the colour and picture two is after editing with the colours. The first differences is that after the colour editing, the image tells more story. Instead of a dull, and plain black and white, we crank up the colour contrast to make a more dramatic effect for deeper story. The second differences for me I think, its the background. Before editing the colour, i’ll feel as if the object and the background are ‘blending’ together whereas the one after editing, the object ‘stands out’ and pops up to make it more appealing.

 

“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. You may rethink this dramatically – this is a good thing.”

You were asked this at the beginning of the semester. Now, could you review constructively what you got from this semester –  has the course lived up to your expectations, delivered what you expected, maybe even surpassed it?

At the beginning of the course, when we were asked to outline our goals for the semester, what i had in my mind was, skills, more skills about the camera, the editing, the shooting, the lighting, more skills that I want to get out of this course. But what i felt i got most out of this course is actually experimenting.

For this semester, what i tried to do is mostly experimenting stuff, my group experimented with the green screen, the lighting, the idea, and even the post production. Paul is always encouraging us to try different techniques of editing, trying to put different things together without thinking instead of starting with a plot, because that way you could most probably get the most out of it. I think there is always skills which one can never finish learning, but what i realize was that, experimenting different stuff generates experiences, and thats the most precious thing, the most I got out of this course.

Film TV Reflection #4

Posted on by
Reply

Question 1

In this clip from Forbidden Lies, Anna Broinowski’s 2007 film: describe in detail all of the audio, how it may have been recorded/sourced and how you think it has been edited / layered in post. (You do not need to describe how the music was recorded)
In the short clip from Forbidden Lies, the sound that were being used was quite complex. To start off with, the sound that they used in the beginning was background music layered with sound effects, the sound of the bird chirping, car driving and throwing scarf and scarf dropping etc. Then it moved on to the interview, the sound have been layered with several sound effects, and overlapping reading sound. There’s also a mix of sound recording on the spot while doing the interview, and also a voice over and sound effects throughout the entire clip. Towards the end of the clip, there’s a constant background music with the voice over and sound effects.

Question 2

Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that you use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts).

Find the keyboard shortcuts for Premiere (hint, film-tv blog) and note four or more functions that you’ve never used before and why they may be invaluable to your editing. (Different functions to what you wrote last semester).

The keyboard shortcuts for Premiere are available here (Premiere shortcuts).

The first keyboard shortcuts that i don’t normally is Save (Cmd+S), normally i’ll just use to old fashioned way which is to go file, and then save, which I will only save after I’m done editing for the day or so. I find it really important to remember this shortcut, as there’s a few times where the software may crash and leaving the work unsaved and everything have to start all over again, with the shortcut, I can save it every 10 minutes or so to prevent any unnecessary time waste.

Second shortcut that i find useful is the Bin (Cmd+/), I think that editing with bins are more effectives, it enable us to store the footage in a more organized way, by dividing them into different groups, creating a folder structure as comprehensive as the project requires. I work better organized, so to save time, this is a shortcut to learn.

Thirdly, the shortcuts to save more time is to Match frame (M), instead of going back to the Project Panel, navigate to the right bin, find the right clip and load it in the Source Panel myself or to just simply scrub back to the first edit on the sequence and press M on the keyboard to Match Frame. Video editing is very time consuming, this shortcut definitely saves you time.

Lastly, Zoom to sequence,  \ (backslash). How useful is that? Nothing is handier than being able to work nice and close in the Sequence Panel. That needs no more explanation.

Question 3

“From a distant gaze …” (1964) directed by Jean Ravel, picture Pierre Lhomme & Chris Marker, words by Louis Aragon, narrated by Jean Negroni, music by Michel Legrand.

Describe a few things that intrigue you – it might be shot construction, camera work, editing, overall structure, thematic concerns etc. Describe the camera work and why you think it has been shot that way.

 

Question 4

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that interest you, something you could apply to your own documentary.

The readings i have selected is The art of the documentary by Cunningham, Megan. The first point that I’ve taken away from it is that, they do set up a little bit, to stimulate natural drama. As she mentioned in the article, film makers are not like surveillance camera, there are certain shots that are desired for the documentary, so we could actually get the character to repeat something that they did that the camera were not able to capture.

The second point that i’ve taken away from it is, the way she starts her new project. For me, starting a new project has always been hard, from topic, to styles, theme, and shooting angles etc, I often get stuck for a very long time before doing something. For her, she often seeks from help with the director, to think about the themes, and move on to questions that she asks herself, like what could we include in this, how, and what.

 

Film&TV 3 Analysis and reflection

Posted on by
Reply

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.

 

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. (Please put a full stop when you return so we get a paragraph break. Makes it easier to read.)

The readings that i’ve picked is

Pawel Pawlikowski. Imagining reality

The article talks about the details of human brutality and the filmmaking that has tried to cope with it. The point that i’ve taken away from it is that, making films is not to convey objective information about the world, but to show it as how I see it and to find a form which is relevant. Shoot what you think about the topic, the message that you want to convey, instead of shooting something because you think it ‘should’ be in it.

Besides that, from the author’s point of view, making a documentary involves a degree of schizophrenia, he tries to understand and enter the subject, see the world through its eyes, accept its logic, while at the same time maintaining an aesthetic and often ironic distance from it.

Film& TV Reflection 6

Posted on by
Reply

Consider Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” and describe at least a couple of points that you took away from it (even if you’re not the director).

Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” talks about the importance of maintaining a good relationship with the actors. While on set, director should be giving out clear direction instead of overwhelming them making them to feel confused. I think this is one of the main point for all film makers, decisions should be made clear before giving out to the actors, no matter what position you are in, one of the main thing is to ‘act’ or be professional in front of others, even during the times that you are unsure, to give them a sense of confidence.

Moving on, she also talks about how everybody should be aware on set, even when you’re not doing anything. It is very important that each member of the crew knows exactly what is going on on set. For my group, I was the producer, where most of my job are mainly focus on preparing the film, as compared to the cinematographer and director. During that day, i didn’t have a lot of things to do, but i make sure i’m aware of everything that is going on and point out the problems that i thought was wrong. Fortunately, our group worked really well together and everything went smoothly and finishes on time.

In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple’ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.

This scene of Blood Simple (Coen Brothers 1984, USA) has a really great audio recordings.

Firstly, most of them are ambient sounds throughout the whole scene, the sounds that i catch up from the scene was the crickets sound, the toilet flushing sound, the lighter dropping on the table, footsteps and the sound of siren etc. Sometimes I do feel like a well recorded sound effect like that are definitely a big plus point to the whole film. It is something that break the suspense.

The scene uses a lot of medium to close up shot on their actors whole constructing the story and overall i think it’s a great scene.

Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts).

Find the keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Premiere and note two or more functions that you’ve never used before that may be invaluable to editing.

I’m the type of person who uses a lot of shortcuts in my laptop. So i’m quite familiar with most of the main shortcuts like undo, save, group, find, delete, copy and paste etc. However, I found a new shorcut that might be helpful for me while i edit for our film, which is Snap and Trim. I think these are the shortcut that i wasn’t familiar with as they are only useful when it comes to editing.

Participation for im1

Posted on by
Reply

Here are my favorite sentences of the readings accumulated over the course from Readings 01 to readings 10.

Readings 1:
“Interactive Documentary: Setting the Field.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 125–139.

Favorite sentence:
Feed-back loops that are not possible in linear narrative
can give the opportunity both to participants and to the artefact to re-define themselves and to change. Where this is the case, it is through enacted engagement with the artefact that the reality being portrayed comes into being.

Readings 02:
Sørenssen, Bjørn. “Digital Video and Alexandre Astruc’s Caméra-Stylo: The New Avant-Garde in Documentary Realized?” Studies in Documentary Film 2.1 (2008): 47–59. EBSCOhost. Web. 19 Sept.

Favorite sentence:
They Must be Represented. This title denotes a ‘they’ and a ‘we’, where all good intentions of acting on behalf of others very often leads to a cementation of existing social constellations.

Readings 03:
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.

Favorite sentence:
One standard description of rhetorical form suggests that it begins with an in­troduction of the situation, goes on to a discussion of the relevant facts, then pre­sents proofs that a given solution fits those facts, and ends with an epilogue that
summarizes what has come before

Readings 04:
Ryan, Marie-Laure. Avatars of Story. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Favorite sentence:
Eliminates bad stories. This is the most controversial condition in the list, because it straddles the borderline between definition and poetics, and because it needs to be complemented by a full theory of the different ways in which narrative significance.

Readings 05:
Rascaroli, Laura. “The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.2 (2008): 24–47.

Favorite sentence:
“despite overlappings, this genre of filmmaking needs to be distinguished from a documentary tradition and an avant-garde/experimental one.”

Readins 06:
Soar, Matt. “Making (with) the Korsakow System: Database Documentaries as Articulation and Assemblage.” New Documentary Ecologies Emerging Platforms, Practices and Discourses. Ed. Kate Nash, Craig Hight, and Catherine Summerhayes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 154–73. Print.

Favorite sentence:
“A challenge of researching interactive texts is that the whole text is never completely available for analysis.” Each viewing has the potential to be different from the last.

Readings 07:
Frankham, Bettina Louise. “Complexity, Flux and Webs of Connection.” A Poetic Approach to Documentary : Discomfort of Form, Rhetorical Strategies and Aesthetic Experience. (2013): PhD Dissertation, University of Technology Sydney.

Favorite sentence:
The key issue is to provide the constitutive elements in a context that still permits a heuristic, exploratory engagement that may be taken further rather than setting the elements up as an algorithmic recipe that is definitive in the understanding of a topic.

Readings 08:
Shields, David. Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. New York: Vintage, 2011. Print.

Favorite sentence:
Story seems to say that everything happens for a reason, and i want to say, No, it doesn’t.

Readings 09:
Luers, Will. “Plotting the Database.” Database | Narrative | Archive: Seven Interactive Essays on Digital Nonlinear Storytelling. Ed. Matt Soar and Monika Gagnon. N. p., 2013. Web.

Favorite sentence:
Search, fast retrieval, user control of temporal ordering – the qualities that make databases unique – leave standard plot effects, such as foreshadowing and suspense, ineffective.

Readings 10:
Dovey, Jon, and Mandy Rose. “We’re Happy and We Know It: Documentary, Data, Montage.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 159–173.

Favorite sentence:
Video content ‘of the web’, live to the affordances of networked connectivity, has particular attractions to the documentary producer. It has the potential to introduce different voices into a linear text, to offer in-depth investigation of particular sequences, and to re-contextualise documentary material through mobilising the enormous co-creative potential of human discourse captured in the web.

Film& TV Reflection 5

Posted on by
Reply

Question 1:
The lecture that was covered during week 7 was the key and basic principles of lighting and some introduction to the equipments and the use of different type of lights. Lighting in my film plays a very important role, not because we want the most light out of the daylight, but because we need to restraint our lights during the daytime to create a darker scene. Most of our group members are not quite familiar with the use of light, but because of the lecture we actually sort of have an idea on what light to use and how to use black cloth or cardboard to restraint the light.

Question 2:

Week 7’s reading about “Lighting a scene” definitely highlights some key point that could help us with our short film. Since we are shooting mostly indoor, it is stated that for day interior, windows are the most logical light resources. If the major light source is window, it might be obvious to the audience that the time during your shooting which we do not want it. For our film, it is located at a garage, which is being set up as a ‘Bunker’. We definitely do not want any lights coming in from the window as we are trying to create a darker film. The second key point I got from the reading was the night interior. Since we are to create a night scenes during the daytime, the illusion of night is created by the angle and the distribution of light. Anytime you have a source of light in the frame it adds definition to the picture. So we thought that we definitely need to do something to control the amount of light that is being distributed. During our shoot, we actually cover a black cloth over the light to limit the lights that are coming our and using a pole to adjust the lighting direction and amount of lights that we want during the shoot.

Question 3

Blow Up is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
In this scene note the choreography of the actors, camera, frame and focus. As covered in the lecture describe the things Antonioni would have to consider when directing the actors and the camera.
I realize that this film is very complicated even if it looks like a relatively simple scene. Many shots were taken from multiple angles. For example, the opening scene, it started off with a medium close up shot of the men character, and changes to a long shot without moving the camera, but the character himself walking towards to camera to create a long shot.

There were also a lot of angles coming from the top, sides or front. The panning shot for the film would be deliberate, not just because the actors moved sideways but because the director planned this way. It was also mentioned in the lecture that the use of tracking and panning for camera movements, there will be at least three people to operate. There must be several rehearsals with both the camera and actors to ensure the scene goes smoothly as there is a perk for doing these kind of shots, as it might take longer time for the camera set ups and might take multiple takes for a successful shot.

Reflection 4 Film&TV

Link

Reply

Question 7: Please outline some points that you took away from the Lighting Lecture. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you, perplexes you or even one you take issue with.

Lighting is very important as a camera only capture the images for a film through light. Every lighting set up provides a specific mood, emotion, and atmosphere to overall film viewing experience. The importance of it is pretty straight forward, but the procedures of the set up can be complicated. This overwhelms me as there is so many things to consider.
The key light, fill light and back light each plays an important role in setting up. The different amounts of key and fill light can be used to create harsh lighting or soft lighting which provides different atmosphere. I’ve seen some BTS of some movie, due to budget and time constraint, they could actually use lighting to shoot ‘night scene’ during the morning, and shoot ‘morning scenes’ at night.

Question 8: Please insert the link for your Lenny ex2 here. (use insert link tool)
List the things that you learnt from this experience – this could be things that went well or not so well.

I think the main thing that I’ve learnt through the Lenny exercise is the shooting schedule. As a director I had to watch the time and keep up with the shooting schedule. As it was our first actual shooting, most of us was unprepared and wanted to give several attempts to a scene, thus it will take up a lot of time.

We could have planned a bit better before shooting to have a clearer idea of possible problems and to fix it. Overall, the shooting went well and we were the first group who returned to class on time.

Sketch Essay

Posted on by
Reply

Film essay
Integrated media one 2014

The Korsakow project film that I’ve picked is “Kitchen Stories” (2012) made by Sebastian Tan, Liviana Andrain, and Nuraidah Binte Mohamad Taip. It’s a film about food, cooking and eating. I’ve watched a few Korsakow films before picking up on this one, and the main reason why it attracts me is because of the color and pattern of the film. I find the pattern of the film very interesting and I love the concept and design. The pattern of the film is arranged according to color sequence. It started off as Yellow, Red, Orange, to Red again. I find the pattern through the thumbnails, how they arrange it to the same color category, it immediately appeals to me visually. As Adrian mentioned in his blog, patterning is useful to help getting others to understand the value of reflective practice. One of the things that stood out the most for me was what Adrain said about patterns. We are natural pattern makers. Some things to think about in relation to patterns are speed, shape, colors, and interior or exterior. Through the thumbnails, I think the main relationship that are connecting the videos together are the color, they are structured in a color coordinated way instead of the ‘type’ of food.
Nonetheless, I find that the thumbnail, in this case, is lack of abstraction. Through the thumbnails, I could actually sort of get the idea of what is going to be in the video even before clicking into it. It sorts of reveal too much about what the succeeding clip will entail. After awhile, it gets boring because you already expect what is going to happen next. So I thought maybe it could be more abstract to coax the viewer along and maintain viewer’s fascination of the film.
Furthermore, this is work from students from three different countries and so they were encouraged to use their own recipes but also to narrate the recipes using their own languages. , I like the idea of how they use different languages to make connections across different food and cultures. However, it also sort of turning the film into narration. I think it was too limited and authoritarianism. Adrian has also mentioned that the K Film is about story telling, not narrating. I think this film limits the audiences to find out their own pattern and the meanings in their own thoughts.
I thought that the interface of the film was great. It was also one of the reasons why it attracts me. The interface fulfill majority of the spaces in a good way. I love how the background was filtered into light brown and blurry effects, I think it worked really well at the same time it did not overtook the attention away from the videos.
On the other hand, I think one of the things that could have been done better is the grid. I think they could have made better use of the space to build it up. It should be arranged into an aesthetically balanced view to make sure clips and thumbnails are aligned properly and correctly sized. But in this case, it wasn’t really clear to me. I also realize that due to the size differences of the thumbnails, some one the videos preview doesn’t fit perfectly. The composition of the video looks off in the thumbnails are in different proportions that the video. Perhaps the thumbnails size differences was intentional, so that the audiences view the videos closer to what the makers are trying to put across. I also realize that there were no text or caption inserted for any of the videos. However I do think there are pros about it. The pros are that since the soundtrack is narrating about the recipes, more text inserted might drag the attention away from the soundtrack and videos.
Lastly, I think that one of the things that the film did really well was the ‘Clouds’ that Adrain has mentioned about, which create multiple pathways and meaning to the film design of the work. The clouds in this film were connected in color thematic ways.

References:
http://vogmae.net.au/vlog/
http://vogmae.net.au/classworks/2012/KitchenStories.html