1. Turn the camera off at the request of the participant (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2018).
2. Show the participant the finished film before the public (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2018).
3. Love the people that you film. (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2018).

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REFERENCES:

DOC NYC PRO: Casting Case Studies 2016, streaming video, DOC NYC, New York, viewed 18 November 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bndwq27kkjc>.

The collection is about city of Melbourne, which means we can shot anything which can represent Melbourne, like historic building or residents. We went to Yarra river, Melbourne central and chose different kind of people as protagonist in the lens, such as people who chat with friends on the ground; kids with her grandmother; students who through road so on. So, this collection tells us Melbourne’s scenery and history: The unique train in Melbourne is a good sign; Women with scarves represent diversity and inclusiveness in Melbourne; Street art also shows fashion style of Melbourne. Look at the picture above, a man who sit in the café shop and read something. He looked down at the file in his hand and looks like calmness. I guess he had finished his busy morning, so he needed to a cup of coffee to relax. The frame of the picture is great because we put the character in the mid of the lens and the light is suitable. I think the man represents that there are lots of people like him on the streets of Melbourne: sit in the café shop, chatting with friends or dealing with work. It shows Melbourne residents’ leisurely life in the afternoon.

1. Write about what you want from this studio.

 Before the first lesson of this studio, I have read carefully about the content of this studio in the Canvas. My understanding of this studio is limited to the surface, like I know our aims of this studio is that participation in contemporary applications for non-fiction media making and practice production skills for non-fiction stories, such as observational filming and recording interviews. At the same time, we need to develop a reflective practice in order to respond to our work. Also, our assignment includes multiple studies such as a photo essay, an observational montage film, a promotional video and a short documentary and so on. But most of these contents are completely alien to me, I don’t know what is non-fiction media and what is making skill of observational filming and recording interviews. I seem to have rushed into a completely new and challenging field, but I am excited and eager. An unfamiliar environment makes me more motivated to break through obstacles and get ahead.

My greatest wish is to know what is the way to succeed in a movie, it includes lens analysis, shooting skills and editing ways and so on. I want to know how the director can make the audience feel his/her expression. This is a huge and amazing process, and also that’s what I dreamed of. I hope that I can use the next two years to achieve my goal, and get some experiences from filmmakers Frederick Wiseman or Molly Dineen. During the six weeks, I hope I can understand the aim of this studio with practice rather than superficial such as what is non-fiction story. I found that when I watched ‘F For Fake’, I cannot really understand the meaning of this documentary. I tried to connect the questions in the activity one with this documentary, but I cannot answer all the questions. So, this may be a challenge for me. In addition, I am very interested in photography in the next class because the recording is a special way to recall life. Maybe I should have a camera of my own. The first week is a good start, which let me begin to familiarize with the concept of non-fiction. I believe that after the end of this studio, I can use my productions to show what I have learned in these six weeks.

2. Reflect on the class materials in Module 1A

 ‘F for Fake’ is a documentary film in 1973, the film used several different styles and was also described as a typical essay. From the content to the narrative to the form, the product moves between the boundaries of true and false. The story is interspersed with the story. The characters and characters are intertwined. It is not only a new step in the film editing technology but also a new possibility of the documentary. In order to show that opinions persuade identity as the purpose of creation, and to accurately produce the real world as a result of creation, in this sense, the film should belong to the documentary. I think the film belongs to non-fiction and conveyed to us the word ‘fake’, especially forgery art. And the director also mentioned that what is art and the problem about the ownership of works. The strategy to convey this information is through the starring performance, Welles’s voiceover and reveal and letting the audience participation in the fabrication of reality. F for Fake is one of the most singularly poignant examinations of the essence of the medium itself, a dream, a document, a lie that is at times capable of becoming more real than reality, host to a wealth of paradoxes and contradictions, much like life. My expectation for documentaries and non-fiction is that the director can reveal the truth to let the audience know the truth and record complete details.

I watched ‘why doesn’t Cathy eat breakfast’ and ‘anorexia recovery story’, I think these two videos are interviews and self-reports respectively. We can define them from the way they shot. In Cathy’s video, there is a man’s voice kept speculating about Cathy’s ideas and her response to the voice sometimes smiles or shakes her hand. She is a film character in the video. But in the second video, we can see that the protagonist has been telling her own story in front of the camera. Though sometimes she is not in the camera, her voiceover is always explaining to the audience what has happened. These two videos all use some sound effects, such as bell voice, water voice, voiceover, and background music. Also, there are some edits in these two videos, especially the second video. In the second video, there are edit effects about video and picture synchronization editing and audio and video separation. Unlike Cathy’s video which has some simple editing, the editing techniques of the second video seem a little more complicated. In Cathy’s video, we all obsessed with the problem of why she doesn’t eat breakfast. I think this video is a mystery of the original question raised by the Nation Dairy Council, they didn’t give people answer, but let the generations of people think. Maybe the commercial interest of the film is that by asking the audience to connect the question and some dairy products. In my opinion, the second film can be a public welfare project in order to encourage people who have anorexia. These two films all convey the question of appetite. Let us think about the problems that extend from appetites like anorexia or something else. When I watched these two films, I easily associate ourselves with the characters in the films and let the audience have the same feeling or think of the people around us, like me, I don’t eat morning every morning. I think the anorexia film can represent the real world because the film records the mental process of the patient in detail and it’s easy for people to feel the same way.

3. Reflect on the ‘F for Fake’

 ‘F for Fake’——The last complete film of Orson Welles’s life, thus achieving an extremely important position in the history of the “new” documentary, and a classic sample of prose movies. It breaks the traditional documentary style that has been dominated by coherent narrative and calm observation since the 1960s.

Welles is an extremely powerful vocalist in the film. His performances, narration, and dialogue run through the entire film. In the film, he played a role in the field, providing the audience with an omniscient point of view, telling the audience about the details of the counterfeit, the author of the counterfeit, and the behind-the-scenes details, and the unknown truth. Under his well-controlled morphemes, he presented a sense of authority and added trust to the audience. The scenery changes behind Welles, the slow push and pulls of the lens scene, creating the effect that Welles has traveled through different time and space. At the same time, he is also a bystander, reminding the audience not to rely on the media completely, to be vigilant about the information provided by the media. The director used a lot of ways to set the separation effect, reminding the audience not to completely indulge in the film, thus losing judgment. In the film, there are often scenes of life, such as: pulling out from a certain screen, the audience sees the monitor, in fact, the director is watching the playback footage. Work scenes such as this (somewhat similar to what we now call footage) remind the audience of the difference between real life and the life that the media displays. A large number of fixed shots, repeated and repeated, emphasizing the behavior, expressions and so on of these fake authors. The montage of these pictures is also spliced, which has a new meaning. In this way, the audience is reminded to be wary of such post-production methods. Perhaps, the media is using this way to create eye-catching news and guide the audience to understand and imagine.

This is a photo I shot in last semester when we went to an exhibition. The girl who stands in front of a picture is my classmate. I noticed that she was interested in this picture because she stared the picture and description for a long time and keep this posture. So, I took out my camera to record this moment because I thought this scene is very beautiful. The color of her coat is also very matched with the wall and the picture. When I see this picture every time, I always feel relaxed and comfortable.

The second photo is about a drama scene. We can see two characters sit in the chair and express a serious atmosphere from this image. There are some blocks as window and some chairs in the middle of the stage. I remember when the story develops to here, the lights suddenly dimmed and the two characters sit there without saying a word. I use my phone to shoot this moment because they attract me and let me in the plot. Also, this is the first time my best friend has appeared on the stage, I want to record their most dazzling moments.

There are a couple in the picture, and they seem to be discussing. I shot this picture in Victory library when I was required to shot some interesting things in class. I saw the couple sit in the front of the three images and talk about something. I remember they whispered because they are in a very quiet place, the reason I shot this moment is that I think still share ideas with your lover is a very romantic thing when you get old. When I see the picture every time, I always think if I get older and older, I hope I can have a partner who has some same habits with me just like the couple.

Reflection

Looking back at the process thus far, I felt like I am a little more competent compared to the first day of class. I never expected I could make these programs that can interact with the audience. In many ways, Max is an interactive piece in its own right. So, for every action or a combination, there is a reaction. This is a fundamental part of the interactive art, then it requires the audience to participate in the art piece. Finally become a complete work.

Compared with previous works, <Take Me Home>, <Up or Down> and <Save The Snow White> has become a lot more fine-tuned than what it was at the beginning of this semester. If you asked me to create a product at the beginning of this semester, I don’t know where to start and not even a clue. So, the most important factor that affects me is that when you are nor inspired, just have a look at what other people have made through the google drive. When I find some interesting inspiration in class every time, I know this is a chance for me to create a new product. Now I feel as if I can truly create something of my own.

The thing that encourages me most this time was that many of my classmates were influenced by the program I had done before and improved on it to do more interesting interacted art. Thus, when I start to improve others’ product, I realized that it is very important for the audience to interact with my product an I need them to participate in my product like playing a game. In the beginning, I was impressed with Amy’s product because it looks like a chase game, it’s really fun. Then, I put a maze image to set a background for the work which is you need to find a right route to go home, and then I had set an effect with is when the green monster catch you and these two images will jump back to start and a ‘boom’ image will come out, which means you failed. So, I named it <Take Me Home>, under the background music, I hope that the audience can enjoy this little game. Same with this product, <Up or Down> is based on our group work which is manipulating the size of the voice to control the change of the emoji face. My inspiration comes from Amy’ work that is not being hit by apples. So, I have an idea about protecting balloons or attacking balloons. I still use voice system to control nail fall and then I use ‘down’ key to let the nail go up. Finally, my interacted art presents a game which needs two people to play. <Save The Snow White> is based on my own previous product, so I use Amy’s work and Rachel’s work to improve it. The audience needs to find that apple which can be controlled by voice and then you need to let the apple to the snow white’s hand. At the same time, you need to avoid other apples. Actually, my original idea is that the special apple also can move around with other apples and then the audience needs to clap hands or make some noise to find the special apple. I think this is more interesting and more difficult for participants. But I tried my best several times and the effect was not successful. So, without Camille’s help, my work is still not perfect. But it’s better than the beginning of the semester because I’m going to take the initiative to try out some skills and get inspiration from other students. I was very serious about our three studies and gave them a lovely name. Once again, during this design process, I have realized that keeping the audience in an interactive state it can create for genuinely engaging interaction with the art. By this way, the presentation of the art should be simplistic enough for the audience to understand the idea of the art and what it makes them feel. We all know behind the hood of each presentation, are some different stories.

At the end of this semester, I believe that I can improve my work to achieve a more proficient effect on Max. The few ways that I have been trying to improve Max, besides always asking Camille for help, was looking at tutorials on YouTube. There are lots of valuable information and skills out there on the platform and there are also a lot of people using Max creatively as well. It is a great source of information that I can take inspiration from and learn unique or fundamental functions in Max. Compared with the beginning of my lack of understanding of Max and the limited knowledge of interactive art, I feel that I have come a long way and I am very much pleased. Every task I created made me feel like an interactive artist, this incline of skill is very much evident from my first creation to the study 8. Overall, I am very satisfied with this semester’s understanding and experience of Max, and I hope I will not give up using it in the future.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1acVdLB3Xr_q6VLSAya78vvQ2nZQVDM5Z

Statement 3

<Save The Snow White> is based on my previous product which use voice to control the object. Then I learned some skills from Amy and Rachel’s work and create a new product. When the audience opens my product, they can see lots of apples and then they need to find a special apple that can be controlled by voice. The audience can make some noise or clap their hands to send the apple to the Snow White’s hand. At the same time, they need to avoid bumping into other apples that are moving. This product combines the effects of voice control and free movement in order to give the audience a game experience. However, this work has not reached my original goal. Actually, I want to let the special apple can move around with other apples because I think this can increase the enthusiasm of the audience and make the game more difficult. But I tried lots of time to do this effect and failed. Although this work is not perfect, it’s still a work I’ve spent a lot of time working on. So, I hope <Save The Snow White> can bring a good gaming experience to the participant and they can feel relaxed from this product.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HeXJOEchs86MIf6-7QvitAF92BFRXmZP

Statement 2

My study 7 is based on our group work which use voice to control emoji face. So, <Up or Down> is a game that combination of voice control and keyboard operation that requires two people to control. I made a voice system to recognize the voices of participants to let the balloon up, such as clapping. When the participants open my product, you can see three balloons and a nail and then you need to choose whether to protect balloon or attack balloon. If you are the one who protects the balloon, you need to clap your hands to prevent nails from falling. If you are the one who attacks balloon, you need to press “down” key fast to let the nail fall. It looks like a competitive game, and participants need to win as much as they can. If the nail touches the balloon, the balloon will explode and there will be a picture of ‘boom’. Then you only have to wait for 5 seconds, and the game will start again. It is not a very complicated product, but is very funny I think. So, at the exhibition next week, I hope that other students will like my product and find pleasure in my product.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vKN40mDSnuLOBpo7pkcT8TK2zTgnfEpi

Statement 1

Study 6 requests us to discuss and reflect on the work of another student in the class, so, I make a product which bases on Amy’s work. <Take Me Home> is an about maze game, under background music, participants need to lead the small image to find a right route and cannot be caught by the green monster, otherwise, you need to start again. Amy’s original work gives me a lot of inspiration because she laid a foundation for chasing. So, you can see a maze and two small images when you open my product, and then you need to press the “front”, “back”, “left” and “right” key as quickly as possible to ensure that you will not be caught by the green monster because the speed of the green monster is very fast. More importantly, participants need to find the right route at once and if you take the wrong route or go to a dead end, which means you cannot move forward, then the green monster will catch up with you and you need to start again. It took me a long time to do this work because some effects are really hard to do and it always shows some codes don’t match. I hope my product is a relaxing game and when participants interact with my product, they can feel happy and relaxed.

Reflection

After this assignment, I have made great process in the operation of Max and I realized that inspiration is very important at the same time. Maybe I adapted to the way East countries educated me, which let me feel it was very hard for me to take the initiative and do a work alone. However, during the process we made a production, inspiration is the most basic, and this assignment requests us to do some interesting things.

So, according to the requirement of assignment, we are required to start with a specific emotional/intellectual goal: to make audiences feel or think about something. At first, we just want to make two extreme expressions which are a smile and angry because we think these two faces occupy lots of people’s emotion and this can make a sharp contrast. Then we set a voice induction system which can detect the volume and then according to your voice from small to loud, the image will turn from smiling faces to angry faces. After that Amy think we can enrich the meaning of our production according to our daily life, so, she points out that we can make this production as a ‘class warning system’, which remind people when you voice is loud in the class and it will disturb other classmates. Then with the help of the teacher, we set up some numbers to make the voice system more sensitive, when people’s noise reaches a certain volume, the smiling face will change to the angry face, and there is a camera to catch the audience’s face and freeze in the window at that moment. I think this is a very interesting and meaningful work for each of our group members because we have contributed to what we have learned and our own unique ideas during the process.

However, after we show our work to other students, lots of problems arise. Some of the classmates said that when they shouted in front our computer, they feel embarrassed instead of angry. At the same time, when they were testing, the sensitivity of voice is not very good, participants need to shout many times to succeed. So, they suggested us to adjust the sensitivity to be stronger to make it more sensitive. At the same time, when our teacher tested other’s work, I feel these works are really attractive and amusing. I have very appreciated these unique and interesting assignments because these works reflect their inspirations and creativity.

ACMI is the most profound lesson for me at this stage because it inspires me to open my mind and help me to get some inspirations. There I can see a lot of interesting, unique and charming works of art. Although I have not understood them fully, I am always be attracted to them. I remember when I stood in an open small room surrounded by cameras and I know if I did some actions the cameras will catch these moments. At that time, I felt the artist was trying to communicate to me and I was involved in this interactive art. I love this feeling, and I find that art is like magic, I want to explore its mystery. So, my independent work is based on the works in a museum, and with the help of my teacher, I think I made an interesting work.

In the previous reflection, I mentioned that our biggest problem is that we cannot show our idea clearly via Max. However, throughout the development of study 1 to major project, I have learned some knowledge about the creative process. For example, often when thinking creatively I can image an end product before having completed any research or strategic thinking. Setting a goal can allow me to have a clear mind and create motivation to work towards it, so I think this can be beneficial to the whole exercise. I think I still need to explore the technical producers in Max, I believe this is not something that can be grasped overnight. Once you understand the terminology and system, you can use it adroitly. Also, I have learned a great deal from my peers throughout these studies. Each student has created a range of amazing works which show their creativity and uniqueness.

After these two stages of assignments, I firmly believe that I didn’t choose the wrong studio. Although I doubted in the beginning, and I also considered whether I was suitable for this studio, during this time, I find the meaning of making a program. So, I believe it is important to push yourself into things that you may not be as comfortable with, I choose lights, camera, interaction with the understanding that I was providing myself with a challenge. Overall, it is important to remember that I chose this studio in order to push my media abilities. As my skills develop, I hope I can make a complete product independently. I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone come up with over the remainder of the semester.