Film Festival Reflection

week 7

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

As time goes on, we are getting closer to the date of the film festival, and I can feel everyone’s attention at this phase. Although with the increase of pressure, we did feel the pleasure of this course. Watching some results unfold slowly, I can’t wait to know what interesting and exciting things will happen on the day we hold it and how the audience will respond to our film festival. It’s meaningful for me because it’s my first time I’ve personally hold a film festival.

This week, we finally started making trailers about Chinese people. However, it’s not as interesting and simple as we thought, it’s a long process. On the day of the shooting, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but when we edited it on the laptop, we found that some of the shots were not stable enough, some of the backgrounds were exposed and some of the noise was very loud. We can only try to fix it or re-shoot it. It took us nearly a week. It’s a challenge for us not only to highlight the theme of our festival but also to make our trailer nature and interesting. However, my team members give us a lot of help. Through their shooting draft, also let us have more inspiration. Through our online communication and meeting outside, I am still confident and looking forward to our works.

In my reflection last week, I mentioned that the most important thing about a film festival is its content. What kind of movies we need to think about is what we want to present to the audience. Marco Muller says that film festivals should ‘reveal what the markets hide (Cousins, M 2019). So, when we lock in a movie, we should consider whether the content of movies is innovation, interesting, or controversial, but the pressure will follow. Finally, I hope that the trailer we made will attract many people in the end. And I also hope I can be fully involved in this process, and even put forward some ideas to help others relieve stress.

346 words

Reference:

Mark Cousins, “Film Festival Form: A Manifesto (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” on “The Film Festival Academy.” website, accessed 12 April 2019.

Film Festival Reflection

week 6

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

This week we invited Mia Falstein-Rush to give us a lecture on the process of the programming film festival. Mia provides a very powerful and realistic perspective, and give us an insight into the development of the Australian film industry and her role as a programmer. What impressed me most was that Mia said she spent more than one year to organize the Seen and Heard film festival which is a film festival celebrating women in film. And Mia mentioned that ‘Seen and Heard’ is an inspiring and shocking theme because it determines the purpose and significance of the festival. As I read in one of the reading, “Programming for your festival should be purposeful, not random. It is important to nail down topics and themes before you begin looking for films” (Bartosova, Kulhankova & Rausova 2015, p 27).

So, I think a film festival should be promoted and disseminated in an attractive, purposeful and explicit way. Until this week, we’ve received hundreds of movies, and the real challenge is to watch and screen them to ensure the theme of our festival. On Thursday, we also join the film submission group to watch some Chinese movies and may present our feelings and ideas. So, it is very important to sort out the data and statistics, and classify movies when necessary, such as some movies for 15-18 years old viewers.

At the same time, when we meet before class with our group members, we also assign our jobs. We have made detailed plans, such as filming and editing trailers about the Chinese part before next weekend. To compare with last week, we have big progress in filming and the script. It’s very exciting for me. I feel that this product is being perfected little by little. I seem to be able to see its final appearance.

Reference:

Kateřina Bartošová, Hana Kulhánková & Zuzana Raušová, “Knowing Yourself and Your Audience: Programming and a Humming Rights Film Festival”,  in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 27-46.

Film Festival Reflection

week 5

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

Week 5’s content of the class was interesting. I feel the atmosphere of everyone working together for this film festival. And I noticed that many people started their work under the leadership of the organization and got it done very well. The ability to organize is something I have been lacking since I was a child. I don’t know how to gather people and how to arrange tasks, so from this activity, I also saw the organizational ability of others. I hope I can make some progress in this area in the future.

Tessa has clearly developed her strengths in our group. She communicates with us and guides our mind. She suggested that we could make a formal trailer and some short trailers that were even a few seconds. So that we can put those mini trailers in some social software to attract people. So, maybe I can make a trailer about Chinese students seeing the propaganda of our film festival.

“In order to make the festival successful, you need to let people know about your event and make them want to become part of it. Even though your team has worked hard to put together a rich programmed, you can lose potential audience members if you try to introduce the festival to the public in all its complexity.” (Rambousková

, 2015). In his words, I think that making Chinese trailer may be an effective way to attract potential Chinese audience.

How to complete expected high standards under the real situation, it is a new challenge. In class, I saw how different people deal with different situations. At the same time, I realized that how to cooperate with others is also one of the most important contents of this semester. So, whichever team you are in, you need flexibility to get involved. I think it’s a challenge.

In a team, combining different approaches may help balance. Optimists and realists may quarrel, but eventually, they will see problems with each other. Perhaps this is balancing. All in all, I respect people’s different ways of dealing with problems, and I’m trying to sum them up to achieve our goal.

Reference:

Bohdana Rambousková, “How to Successfully Promote Your Festival. Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 97-114.

Film Festival Reflection

week 4

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

Week 4 has been really focused on how to launch our film festival. So, organizing and planning have been the most important thing for us this week.

In these two classes, we have been writing, planning, and making to-do lists. But I don’t think it is a really happy activity because when people were discussing what are they good at or what are they interested in, I have no idea about what can I do. I feel embarrassed and depressed. I wonder what I can do for this festival through my own strength? However, under the guidance of my teacher and my classmates, I realized that maybe I could do something related to my majors, such as photography or editing. Although pre-production is a burden for me, seeing that our works are maturing, I noticed that I fell in love with the process of working together and discussing.

“Before you start with the actual hands-on work, you need to plan thoroughly what you will need in terms of manpower, materials, and money (or, in most cases, how much money you can spend and what you will realistically be able to get with it). Do this planning well in advance, as it is probably the most important stage of festival preparations” (Kuhn 2015). This passage seems to sum up what we have learned this week.

Pre-production is a result of collective effort, when we make plans, we divided everyone’s roles. Someone do graphic design or film programming or marketing coordination and so on. When we distribute the content of these tasks, it becomes much easier for us because people can choose what they want to do through their expertise. It makes me feel hopeful to produce our entire film festival.

Finally, after hours of preparation, we can see that the product is developing. I am looking forward to what challenges and difficulties we will encounter in the coming weeks, and how can we overcome them. Personally, I’m getting more and more excited about this film festival.

Reference:

Andrea Kuhn, “Who Is Organising It? Importance of Production and Team Members. Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 71-83.

            Assignment 1- Reflections of Film Festival Culture

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

Reflection 1

From the guest lecture by Richard Sowada, I have a preliminary idea of a film festival. Richard put forward many planning and opinions about how to organize a film festival. What impressed me most was that Richard showed us a machine of roll film that given me enough curiosity about the history and evolution of movies. And up to now, roll film is still used on a small scale in movies, even though it may not become the mainstream film format because of its tedious operation process and high technical threshold shooting, but high-quality images captured by film cameras also become its advantage. Richard also discussed the important influence of future trends and technological advances on the cultural prosperity and development of film festivals. He also mentioned that what we think is important today may become irrelevant in the future, which means the rapid development of an era. Although holding a film festival sounds like a long way off to me, his valuable tips still have a great impact on me.

According to Marijke (2016), when people talk about “film festival”, red carpets, paparazzi, open-air screenings, a bustling crowd that fills the theaters first be reflected in people’s mind. These are the most iconic things at the festival. For lots of foreign film festival, size may be one of the signs of maturity. Thus, government and private sponsors have invested heavily in many activities, and have set up new film funds and markets to compete for global rights, such as in the international film festival in Busan (1996) and Beijing (2011) in Asia and Dubai (2004) and so on. At the same time, these major festivals advertise themselves as ‘international’ activities, which means that they cater not only to domestic or local audiences but to attract international tourists, so subtitling films in international spoken languages such as English and French; operating industry and press offices; networking opportunities and social events and so on become an extra service for holding international film festivals. As a result, these film festivals are more dependent on financial support from various stakeholders.

On the contrary, Kirsten (2016) pointed out that at the end of the 1950s, Australia had established two locally important film festivals which are Melbourne(MFF) and Sydney(SFF) film festival. Firstly, these activities organized by film society members and non-professional film workers. Secondly, MMF and SFF have developed its own character in the first decade, and their development is obviously different from that of European festival traditions. European events are known for their participation in national politics, celebrities, and international relations, but Australia’s festivals are far away from the European politics and the need for glamour and international appeal and lack the support of local industries and any size. More importantly, Australian festivals have developed their own ideologies and structures which based on the wishes of those who organized activities, the needs of participants. Finally, the more generally film festivals in Australia will develop their own film festival templates in a hands-on way and on behalf of grass-roots communities, rather the international situation.

Reflection 2

Last week I went to the Chinese Koala Film Festival with my friend. I think film festivals are very meaningful for movies. We can see that there are many people from different countries who love movies and have their own opinion about movies. When you watch a movie at a film festival, you have a different feeling than when you watch it at home or in the cinema, it is amazing. Because of the reason I chose this studio, when I attended this festival, I am not just going to watch movies, I would think about who the target audience of this festival is and what its overall layout and size are. It’s also one of the reasons why I’m willing to attend the film festival.

The film spa shows us the history and development of The Karlovy Vary Film Festival (KVIFF). Let us know KVIFF is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. After the end of World War 2 in 1946, a group of people who were enthusiastic about the film industry founded the KVIFF in Mariánské Lázně and Karlovy Vary. However, in February 1948, the Czechoslovak Communist Party took power in Czechoslovakia, and the film festival was started by the Czechoslovak National Film Ministry which means after the Czech Republic took office, the film festival largely needed to serve communist propaganda. Under the strict control of the Soviet Union, the International Film Festival became a celebration (Howard 2015). Until after the velvet revolution of 1989, this situation had completely changed. And in the following years, the quality of the participating films has been increasing and the style has become more diversified. These have enhanced the image of the KVIFF and established its status as an excellent film festival in the world. Film Spa uses a lot of black and white archive videos and records a lot of interviews with directors which attracts us very much. The documentary offered even more insights into the talent and culture that it generates. KVIFF attracts talented people from all over the world who contribute to the festival and even make many advertisements to promote it. It’s amazing and incredible to see The Karlovy Vary Film Festival go from humble to prosperous.

From the guest lecture by Richard and Film Spa, I had quickly learned a lot about the history and development of the festival. This two-week experience has provided me with a wealth of information and ideas about film festivals. From seeing the history of a KVIFF and Richard’s attitude towards the festival enlarged my understanding of the film festival.

REFERENCES:

“Enthusiastic Amateurs: Origins of Australia’s Film Festival Movement” in Kirsten Stevens, Australian Film Festivals: Audience, Place and Exhibition Culture., Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2016, pp. 17-46.

Film Spa 2015, DVD, Evolution Films, Czechia, directed by Miroslav Janek.

Howard C. 2015. ‘Local and/or General… Of Time and Place at the 50th Karlovy Vary and 6th Odessa International Film Festival’, Senses Of Cinema, no. 76.

Marijke de Valck, “Introduction: What is a film festival? How to study festivals and why you should.” in Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell and Skadi Loist (eds), Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice, Routledge, New York, 2016, pp. 1-11.

Two separate edits of a sequence of your work. Embed two different edits of a key sequence in your media work and write a 350-word reflection on the aims, strengths, and weaknesses of each.  If you are working in another medium (i.e.: a photo essay, photographs), you might like to explore two different layouts or formats for the work to be presented in.

After our first rough editing, I don’t think we have achieved our goals. In the first video, we edited so many the lens of Melbourne central because we want to show the whole process of their painting through a fast-moving way, but that let the audience felt tired when they watched it. And the first video lacks some transitional lenses, such as we can take some scenery of Melbourne and recording some background sounds like bird sounds. In addition, the inconsistency of subtitles and mouths is also a big problem. Especially after we watched other people’s videos, I think our videos lack rhythm. We haven’t switched the length of each video very well. So, in the final editing process, we had dealt with these issues one by one. We cut most of the Melbourne Center lenses and pieced together other street artists’ paintings to achieve a smooth effect. At the same time, an interview about visitors’ impressions and opinions of these creators came up. We focus on editing the lens of interviewers and street artists to ensure that the rhythm of the video is smooth. Then we recorded some scenery of Melbourne at different times and recorded some bird calls and old tram sounds and added them to the middle of the video for the transition. In terms of subtitles, we also made corresponding improvements to make the whole picture more harmonious. Moreover, after we’ve perfected many details, we’ve added background music to the promotional film to make the whole video more professional and persuasive. We hope that after editing and improving, again and again, we can through this video to publicize the graffiti culture of Melbourne to more people.

Synopsis

As a unique culture of Melbourne, graffiti has become one of the most vitality parts in Melbourne. Walking through the streets of Melbourne, people can find diverse graffiti which conveys different concepts. It is a great backdrop for tourists to take pictures and is a special way for creators to express their spirits. This promotional video gathers the creative process of different street artists and shows inclusiveness of Melbourne for graffiti cultures has been demonstrated through these two interviews. Accompanied by the view of Melbourne and the sound of the ancient tram, this promotional video spread the graffiti cultures to the audience.

Filming: Xinyue Dai (Amy), Yating Shi (Poppy), Yuchen Chen (Rain)

Editor: Xinyue Dai (Amy), Yating Shi (Poppy), Yuchen Chen (Rain)

Music: Yuchen Chen (Rain)

A 350-word post reflecting on your semester – Review the Week 1 blog post where you outlined your goals for this unit. Did you meet them? What challenges did you experience? How did you overcome them? What did you learn along the way?

Review the week 1 blog post, I had mentioned that I am unfamiliar with photo essays, promotional videos, and short documentaries. Also, I mentioned my learning goals about this course which is how to make movies successfully, it includes lens analysis, shooting skills and editing ways and so on. Fortunately, before the end of the course, we had an exercise on photo essay and making a promotional video. I attach great importance to these assignments and am enthusiastic about it. I hope we can achieve the highest level through limited expertise and editing skills. At the same time, the corresponding difficulties will arise from time to time. For example, in the process of completing the photographic collection of like-subjects, because I am not familiar with the camera, some of the photos did not focus successfully, or some of the indoor photos were too dark. So, I can only adjust these shortcomings through post-production, these problems affect the quality of the final photographic collection. Moreover, in the process of shooting the promotional film, editing is our biggest problem. We are not very confident about the control of video rhythm, such as some lenses are too short and some lenses are a bit burdensome. After we watched other people’s video in class, we edited our video again and record some Melbourne’s view. When we encounter such difficulties, we would focus on discussing and even draw a draft map to help us clear our mind and then revise one by one according to the sequence on the draft. Sometimes we get some new inspiration by watching other people’s videos. I think these are all quick solutions to problems. In nearly a month, I learned the importance of video rhythm, because the comfort of rhythm can provide a good viewing experience for the audience. More importantly, a good editor is also the most important factor in completing the whole video, so, editing will be my next goal. In fact, sometimes a few simple fixed-frame lenses can be a good way to highlight the video theme. Therefore, in addition to passing the technical barriers, the sense and rhythm of the lens also need to be cultivated to make a good film.

A 350-word post appraising your final work – What was your intention with this work? Did you achieve it? What aspects of the work are you proud of? What media production skills do you need to improve?

The reason why we chose graffiti as our topic in assignment 4 is that graffiti as an indispensable part of Melbourne’s culture is very attractive to us. Compare with other countries, graffiti arts are not popular in China. Because of the historical background of our country, there is no such place and streets to allow people painting on the wall and it is illegal in China. On the other hand, due to the different ways of receiving education, some Chinese people cannot fully understand and integrate graffiti cultures. But in Melbourne, we can see the inclusiveness and freedom of the city from various graffiti designs. Everyone can show their creativity and imagination in graffiti arts and every graffiti has a different meaning include positive and negative. Finally, they turn these unique design concepts into a representative tourist attraction. So, we hope to make a 3-4-minute short promotional video to spread Melbourne’s graffiti culture. Even if this art is hidden in some corners or alleys, we hope that not only Melbourne residents, more foreigners can comprehend and appreciate this art through the video we make. Although there are many shortcomings, I think we have achieves this goal in general because we focus on the theme of graffiti and record the productions and interviews of some street artists. I think these materials might make our promotional video more convincing. During the shooting process, what I am proud of is that our cooperation is very smooth because we can solve problems effectively and quickly when there are disputes, like when we were confused and arguing about how to record graffiti in Melbourne central, we decided to shoot from different angles. Moreover, we interviewed a man from China, whose interview content is very important to our whole video because he not only praised graffiti art and mentioned a lot about cultural background. In terms of media production skills, I think we still have many shortcomings. It is hard for us to edit the effect we want because we are not familiar with software and cameras. Some blurred lens has no focus; some of the shaking pieces because we didn’t use the tripod. In addition, we haven’t used some editing skills skillfully, such as how to use professional noise reduction function or other technology. These problems make it impossible for us to make the video that comes to our mind. There are all things we need to improve, but after this exercise, I hope to have improved in the next video.

1. A 350-word post on collaboration – Did you have any issues in the making of your work? How did you overcome them? What makes a good collaborator?

In assignment 4, we are asked to work in a small group. Cooperation is a very important course in college because it is related to whether you can finish your assignment or get a high mark. In this exercise, our cooperation is very smooth but sometimes we also face many problems. The biggest problem we encounter is that everyone has their own ideas, sometimes it is difficult to unify. For example, graffiti is our theme, when we were shooting street artists in Melbourne central, we had a disagreement about shooting methods. I think we should focus on the details of artists’ paintings, but rain felt that if we recorded the whole painting process, it would shock the audience. So, we decided to rent two video cameras to record them from two angles. When disagreements arise, communication is the most effective solution. Also, how to assign tasks is also a challenge for us. Because we shoot a lot of videos, we need to divide the work of screening and editing the videos. So, each of us needs to roughly to edit more than 100 videos. But we haven’t considered is that in this process, the video may be duplicated or omitted. For instance, a shot you want to add is not in the video you are assigned to, so when we finally merge the videos that each one has edited it, it is also a big project, even a little waste of time and energy. So, we decided to work together in the final cut, which is good for the effect of the final video up because if someone comes up different opinions we can immediately try different methods, such as one person finds a better video and the other one can edit it. It is unavoidable to encounter contradictions in cooperation. Sometimes it is not beneficial for the work to stick to one’s own ideas. On the contrary, sharing ideas and communicating with each other may be more conducive to the completion of the work.