https://youtu.be/xi3TxKi5WM8

In this week, we studied to remix archival and found footage. Mentioned to remix, I used to know about the music remix, a lot of electronic musics are based on remixing, but when it comes to the video, I was skeptical about it at the beginning, using other people’s video to remix made me feel that it lacked your own ideas and attitudes, and it seems easy to involve the problem of plagiarism, this is undoubtedly a serious problem. After reading the article “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon(2012), he put forward a new theory in the article that stealing from others is not shameful, this seems to be contrary to the education that I have always received. However, when I keep reading it, I found it pretty interesting that he represented that “There is only stuff worth stealing, and stuff not worth stealing.” A good artist’s understanding is that nothing comes out of nowhere, all creative work builds on the work of previous generations, nothing is completely original. We should selectively collect some useful materials and resonate with them. In Devo’s music video “Beautiful world”(2010), he uses the archival footage of natural as the beginning, renders a beautiful and calm atmosphere, there is a huge contrast with the subsequent war fragment, makes a strong irony in it. I was inspired by it, so in my work, I choose forest fire as my topic, I used some archival footage of forest at first, which selected from the video website with public copyright. I interspersed the fragments of fire in the natural scenery, the contrast between the front and the back of the forest environment also formed a sarcastic effect. I added all the background sounds and the tense sound effects to enhance this contrast, made it dramatically. Nature has a certain self-healing ability, but if humans do not stop the footsteps of destroying it, then we will finally lose our home.

reference：

Beautiful World. 2010. [MV]. Directed by Devo

Kleon, A., & Ebrary, Inc. (2012). Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative. New York: Workman Pub

https://youtu.be/gNQYZkBrMb0

In this week, we discussed an new emerged audiovisual form called “desktop documentary”, it is an interdisciplinary computer-based variant of essay film(Bešlagić, L. 2019). I have never seen any film like this, before watch this kind of film, I was skeptical about this new form. The whole story and true emotions can really expressed by a computer desktop screen recording? However, I watched the example film “My Cruch was a Superstar”(2017), it was an excellent film, I felt the emotions and passion of the main character and got to know the things happening step by step, which made me excited. Desktop documentary subvert my stubborn understanding of traditional movies. In order to explore this kind of film in more depth, I searched for some popular desktop documentaries that have been shown in movie theaters. Interestingly, I found that some suspenseful movies filmed with desktop form are very popular, such as “Searching(2018)” and “Unfriended: Dark Web(2018)”. I watched these two movies in my spare time, and after watching them, I couldn’t think any of a better way to express these twisty and bizarre stories than desktop documentaries. As a post-media practice, desktop movies no longer rely solely on film medium. It represents a mixed audio-visual type that takes place entirely in the digital environment(Bešlagić, L. 2019). It makes extensive use of materials on our computers, Internet software and tools to form new stories. For my first desktop documentary attempt, I discussed the most popular topic coronavirus. Our lives have changed dramatically in recent months. When it comes to this virus, people all sigh for it. In the past three months, I was quarantined in China then fly to Thailand for a transfer of 14 days and finally returned to Melbourne, however we are here still experiencing “Stay Home”. This was a very bumpy experience for me. I used a desktop documentary to show this process, It will definitely be my unforgettable experience.

Reference:

Bešlagić, L. (2019). Computer Interface as Film: Post-Media Aesthetics of Desktop Documentary. AM Časopis za studije umetnosti i medija, (20), 51-60

My Crush was a Superstar. 2017. Vimeo, Directed by Chloé Galibert-Laîné.

Searching. 2018. IMDB, directed by Aneesh Chaganty

Unfriended: Dark Web. 2018. IMDB, Directed by Stepheri Susco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzEXbJbvx6Q&feature=youtu.be

This week’ s topic is “getting creative with interviews”, I was quite interested in interviewing, this is the most direct way to get to know a character’s story, however, for making a successful interview isn’t an easy task. In the tutorial, we tried to interview our classmate by collaborate Ultra, however, the interview across the screen made me encountered many problems. I found that we were hard to focus on an specific subject, our communication was empty, so before starting your interview, topic choosing is an important part, you have to be clear about your questions. Moreover, in order to show a good interview, you need to let the audience know the interviewee, it helps them understand the whole process. There is some other elements in an interview can not be ignored, such as the environment and atmosphere. In “Capturing Reality: The art of Documentary”(2008), the director Pepita pays much attention to the lighting during the interview, his interviewees were always in the middle of the scene. In the film, he represents the importance of sharing feelings, the authenticity of the conversation is very important, the interview process must be natural and relaxed, so that you can get the interviewee’s real thoughts and emotions, and you can feel the same. In my work, I interviewed my roommate about some feelings and experiences during the coronavirus outbreak, however, I used some dramatic way to show this conversation rather than serious single questions and answers, making the whole process looks like a story. Before starting the interview, I have talked to my roomate about my question, I shaped him as a playful person, getting struggle in this strict time.

Script:

Evelyn: Hi James, what are you doing.

Aisie : Playing computer game obviously! God I almost tried of this game, I have been playing computer games at home for over eight hours per day since the new policy released. I thought it was my dream life but now I found that I was wrong.

Evelyn: Uh you mean the quarantine policy?

James: of course! I am sick of this kind of life, I have been staying at home for the past two months, I mean, in China, I have gone through a lot of hardships and finally returned to Melbourne they told me they blocked the school and asked me keep staying at home, Jesus, I can’t believe, I just want the normal life.

(Stands up ready to go out)

Evelyn: well, you know it’s not working, you will get penalty up to 1600 dollars, you sure you wanna take that risk? Calm down James, the epidemic has been brought under control, it won’t take long. Why don’t you find some meaningful things to do.

James: alright, I’d better to finishing my essay.

Evelyn: that’s wonderful if you can make some food for me!

Reference:

Capturing reality: The Art of Documentary, 2008.[film]. Directed by Pepita Farrari.

week1:https://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2020/03/22/blog1/

week2:https://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2020/03/22/blog-2/

week3:https://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2020/03/22/blog3/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlVRnMktyp0

In the first week’s tutorial, we all did a presentation talking about “what documentary can be?”. In my presentation, I showed a work that I did in last semester, which is a video about a girl’s life experience. At first, I didn’t consider it as a documentary, cause the video didn’t record the process that she growing up. However, after showing to the class, the classmates and Kim told me it is a documentary, which changed my perception of documentaries. Documentary could be anything about real life recording, it based on the real life. In my presentation, I also mentioned a film called “Transcendence”(Pfister, 2014). It’s not a documentary but it talks about the environment, in the film, the main character seems do whatever it takes to control the world and all human beings, in the end, he just wants to improve the global environment. It left a deep impression to me, makes me rethink about human nature and the terrible global environment definitely needs people to make some changes immediately.

During the process of taking class, we watched a documentary “Scenes from a Dry City”. After watching this video, it inspired me about documentary filmmaking. In the past, documentary left me a impression of academic, serious, even a little bit boring, but the film use many dramatic way to show the strict current situation of South Africa, which attracted and impressed the audience. I will try to treat documentary filming multiply.

The first video that I took recorded the environment that I live, my three kittens take up most of the shots, cause they also take a large part of my life. I recorded the details of their daily life, such as fighting, eating and sleeping. In my video I shoot the views of my house, combine this two elements, it made up my flat but great life.

Reference:

RottenTomatoes, 2014, Transcendence, viwed 15th March,[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transcendence_2014]

Wood, S&Verster, F2019, Scenes from a Dry City, Field of Vision.

Due to the difficult environment recently, I couldn’t attend the week2 class. It will be a challenge for me to finishing this week’s blog. However, for this week’s topic is activism, I still want to share some of my thoughts and ideas. Parades rarely happen in the country where I lived, because most of them are illegal. People in non-capitalist countries hardly ever want to use some strong means to defend their interests. When I came to Australia, I have never participated in any parade, the way that they speak out against was totally different with my education and growing environment. Security issue is one of my biggest concern, I was afraid of some violence happened during parading. Since I came to Melbourne, I found that there are always some parades, most of them are heat, orderly and friendly. In week2’s class, students used the camera and microphone to record the parade, I’m regret about not being able to participate with my classmate, it was definitely a chance for me to have some technical experience and get to know deeper about activism. I have thought about the meaning of recording human behavior, culture gaps lead us to think differently, how it will be changed in our life? In Madsen’s documentary “A Film for the Future”(2010), it used the way of theatrical documentary to explore and convey the impact that human civilization brings to the planet, it was a more imaginative and thoughtful way( Hughes, 2014).

I have an experience using professional equipment to interview strangers, this is a bit embarrassing for me, cause not everyone is willing to spend that time and appear in front of the camera for you. But it was quite interesting to capture how people behave in front of the camera. If I got change, I will overcome my psychological barrier and learn more about activism.

Hughes, H. (2014). ‘Green Documentary: Environmental Documentary in the 21st Century’, Bristol: Intellect. Print.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfsOOlWLG8

In this week, I learned a lot about contemplative documentary, it was a new concept of documentary for me. Due to the current strict environment, we could not go to the class to discuss this with others, it is indeed a challenge for me. However, I have watched the video and resources online, helped me get to know “contemplative documentary”. In Hughes’s words, the importance of environment is an unavoidable and elusive concept in the movie industry. The contemplative documentary use an different way to show the environment, which leaves more space for the audience to think and imagine. This is a more subjective expression, without much modification to the film, or even without music and narration, presents the real things directly.

In Our Daily Bread(2005), the director shows the process of a food industry, it was complex and diverse, but it intuitively shows the operation of a factory. After watching this film, I get to know how is our necessities food works in system. Although, there is no background music or people’s voice, the whole process still makes me feel the greatness of farm industry. In another documentary 13 Lakes(2004), it used many long shots to show different lakes in different weather. It also filmed by contemplative documentary, the director used nearly the same angle to shoot different lakes, without any vocal, background music, there is only the sounds of nature, gives people a pure visual experience. In the modern film industry, few popular movies have used such shooting methods to record scenes and events. People are pursuing excitement of sense organ and often ignore the most authentic part. In my video, I also shoot the lake, due to the limitation of condition, I can’t shoot different kinds of lakes, but I tried to bring the real scenery to the audience. In my video, the sound of wind was too loud which made me a little bit confused, that’s why I added the background music to cover it up. I shoot the scene that people fishing, and playing basketball, it was an peaceful and joyful environment, the background music that I added will not disturb the audience. My phone shakes a bit in windy weather, I think next time I will use more professional equipment to improve that.

Reference:

Hughes, H. (2014). Green documentary : Environmental documentary in the 21st century. Bristol: Intellect.

Benning, J. (2004). Thirteen Lakes.

Geyrhalter, N.(2005). Our Daily Bread .

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