Reflection of two selected groups of work from my own studio

The first piece of project work that I’d li ke to reflect on is this Melbourne Digi Tours, this could be an amazing app in aspect to reactivating the city’s energy. Due to the covid city lock down, to reactivate the city, they’ve created this app that has a number of different digital augmented reality tours to offer to the tourists whether the on site or at home. The highlight that I’d like the most about this project is that, it could be link to the mobile media art, as it’s an app but has amazing art reality tours that composed this relationship between technology and art together. This app also includes interactions with the users to view the reality art, which provides the users more experiences. 

Another piece of project work that I’d like to reflect on is Friend, which is a mental-health app that has an AI bot to communicate with users and keeps the users away from social anxiety or social distress. I really like the idea of having an AI bot acting as a psychological help for a lot of users who don’t know who to talk to in aspects to their depression. Because not everyone has the determination to actually go and find someone to talk to deeply. Another reason why this app stands out to me is because, most of the app are like socialising app or functioning app, but this one is really trying to provide well-being to the users, which is also a sufficient way to use the platform of social media and provide mental help to the public. 

Reflection of two selected groups of work from another studio (The scene in cinema):

From my perspective, I suppose the key idea this final project of this studio is having the ability of producing a short clip of movie-like video. The main focus is to show their ability of using shooting techniques to create a nice videos which can show the main theme of their video. 

The two selected projects are: Jessie and George, and The Tinder Date.

Jessie and George is a quite longer video clip that tells a story between a boy and a girl enchanting each other, and the four possibilities that happens between them. The background music was nicely used to show the mood of the four versions as well as the character’s inner feelings. It also tries to use different camera angles and slight changes on the actors to illustrate the characteristics between each versions. Even the scripts of the two characters among the four versions are the same, but the use of camera movements and background music totally changed the mood of the videos. Their use of shooting techniques were highly represented by this shot video clip. 

Another piece of work is The Tinder Date, which tells a story of a girl meeting up with a date from dating app, and realised that the guy she’s meeting up with is a murderer wanted by the police. It starts off with the girl viewing a piece of news on her phone, which is talking about a murderer is on the run. And when she actually meets the guy, who says himself is a butcher up in the north. Which also implies that he could be the murder. Lastly, the girl saw a wanted picture of the murderer, and realised that the murderer is sitting right in front of her. This video clip is short but yet full of tension, its narrative plot is suspenseful, really eye-catchy for the audience. 

This has three parts, Slide link, scripts and the summary at the bottom, thanks.

Slide:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g1JG8-dlNgY3BMSoh6zEpUxuXDgi9HDEQxIQvbJhy_o/edit?usp=sharing

Scripts:

Hello, everyone, In today’s final presentation. I’ll be presenting my finished mobile media application work – Thunder Drone.

Before I start my presentation, I will briefly introduce how I was inspired and how its developed. Because the city where I live now is in lockdown for two months, and it was truly a problem because we could not get food or life essentials like we normally do. Therefore, I came up with this idea of having drones to do the delivery, which can sufficiently avoid the social contact and more precise than human delivery. From my former presentations, I’ve introduced the app’s functions; (which are delivery, food takeaways and FlashEx), the pros and cons, (pros are obviously easier which saves more time; but cons are that there’d be a large investment needed for this app to run); and the safety regulations and privacy policies (such as, it should never fly above the maximum height, 120m, a specified maximum weight to prevent falling, etc).

And in today’s presentation, I will be showing the interface design of the app, how the icon logo was designed, and some survey and interviews between me and my friends, in aspects of drone delivery technologies; and lastly, I will explore my vision of drone technology in the future. 

This is my icon logo design. I have set the background colour yellow on purpose; as yellow is frequently paired with fast food companies, (like mcdonalds) or even delivery companies, (like dhl). It somehow represents fast, as the purpose of this app, fast and precise. This is the loading screen of the app, I decided to use “how fast the function FlashEx is” as a slogan for my loading screen of this app. It somehow can give the users a feeling that our app is the fastest delivery app. For the main page, the interface design is quite simple, after all it’s an app that provides services. We’ve got three options to choose among the home page menu, and a search box at the top. The flash ex is the first option to be selected, which leads to a page that provides ordering a flash ex, checking your tracking status, the addresses and the confirmation code which allows the user to collect the item. The next is delivery, which is just like other common delivery apps, that states out the sender address and the receiver address, and tracking status as well. What’s worth mentioning is the food takeaway function. Inspired from the interview between me and my friend and family, I decided to have some cooperation restaurants on the app, which will make ordering takeaways easier. And the tracking status will also be available in this Takeaway page, so that the users know when their food is coming. 

Next are the two questions I simply interviewed my friends, in aspects of design features:

What do you expect to have in spite of the design features?

They’ve claimed that they would love it if the app has this “one-click” function, such as “one-click” to check tracking status, etc. Therefore, I’ve got this FlashEx function that’s sort of like this “One-Click”.

Also with the food takeaway functions, they were quite confused about how the food is going to be sent out; and in response to that, I’ve got this idea of cooperating with certain restaurants, and launch their restaurants onto our platform, through this way, It’d be easier for the users to order takeaway, as well as for the owners, to send out takeaways easier. 

I’ve also came up with a thought, that if we’re having drones to deliver the food, it has to be solid food, which means food like soups cannot be delivered through drones, that would be a major problem which needs to be considered. 

And for this question:

What do you think of this drone delivery app, and if it’s launched in Melbourne?

They’ve all worried about the potential danger, and afraid that the drone would fall onto their heads. That’s obviously a potential safety hazard.

However, it’d definitely saves more time, and easier, also more quickly, as in the delivery is no longer manually operated. 

Finally, what my vision of the drone delivery technology is in the future. 

As a matter of a fact, based on the current drone technology and reality factor, this drone delivery app might not be able to launch onto the market. For the fact that the drone technology is not fully developed, and the government would not authorise this technology. But I do hope that later in the future, where the drone technology is mature, and with the authorisation from the government, this drone delivery app will be able to come to service. 

Summary:

For my final work, I do hope that the audience would consider it as a sufficient way to reactivate the city after this covid city lock down. Indeed, there are already a lot of mature socialising media platforms on the market; however, there has been a lack in the innovative delivery platforms. It cannot be denied that there are ubereats or auspost to replace this kind of media work. However, to combine them all into one application and with a modern delivery technology – using drones to do the delivery might be more eye-catchy to the audience. Other than this, I would like the audience to be attracted by our modern delivery methods, (unlike the traditional delivery apps). It is obvious that my promotion points is that having drones to do the delivery. It might be act as a significant role in this modern mobile media era.

If I was going to continue working on my media project work, there would be two things I would consider the most in aspect of developing and improving in order to transition into a more official work. First, to be able to launch this project to the public, it has to be authorised by some sort of organisation, whether government or going through other legal registration. And in order to do that, the drone technology must be a bit more high-end and advanced. (otherwise there’d be lot of errors) Other than improving the drone technology, I’d also need some software improvements, such as the interface design features. For now, I have a basic structure of the app’s interface design, but it’s as common as other delivery apps. To be able to stand out of other apps, the interface design has to be unique, and innovative. The reason why I wanted to have more variation in aspect of design features, is that I would need certain amount of users first, with enough loyal users, this app could then operate actively. There will be more research needed in aspects of design features so that the app would be more appealing to the users. (fits more to the public) A lot of tests would be needed for the drones to be able to service the users, in case of any accidental problems and avoid potential danger hazards. 

With these two improvements, I believe this project would be thoroughly complete and able to face the public.

In fact, for this course along with this semester, I finished most of the projects on my own, there was no group work for me, (for the assignments). However, for the on-class exercises, I was assigned to various groups. From the very beginning of this semester, I was bit shy during group discussion, I’d only type in the chat box. Later on, I would unmute myself and actually discuss with my group mates on class. I suppose my group work skills have been improved over this semester. For individual assignments, because this assignment is a whole throughout this semester, so I completed as an individual one. Instead of working in a group, I decided to interview other peers and get inspiration from their advices. I would usually tell my peers the structure of my ideas towards assignment briefs, and ask them whether I need adjustments or extra comments. Especially in aspects of the design features in assignment 4, they’ve inspired me a couple of innovative functions to be added to the project. With their help throughout this project, I was able to have a more completed project. This is also like a collaboration. To be honest, at the very first assignment, I was a bit overwhelmed, because among all those categories of app projects, I didn’t know which I should choose to explore. I was in hesitation of whether to choose drone delivery technology or a social media platform to explore. I asked my friend, and she’s in lock down as well, she then suggested that I could go with this drone delivery app. With this idea coming up, I successfully completed the assignments from 1 to 4. Even though I was doing this individually, but I was able to complete them as a group with my peers.

From the last presentation, I’ve briefly introduced the drone program, which it could be the centre of the delivery services, etc. And today, I’ll be broaden my ideas on drones program, how it’d operate, what’s new with the innovative functions, and I’ll also be critically discussing the pros and cons about drones, and its safety regulation. 

To develop this drone delivery app, I’ve given it a beautiful name: Thunder Drone. (As it’s as quickly as a thunder), I’ve also came up with some new innovative functions, unlike the other delivery apps. Do you sometimes forget something at home but can’t be bothered to get it? Thunder Drone can help you. Do you want to drop something off at friend’s place, but can’t be bothered to go there yourself? Thunder Drone can help you. I’ve got this brand new delivery idea, that if you make a flash ex (express) order on the app, a nearby drone will automatically accept the order and arrive at your desired destination within 10 minutes; then as soon as you put your stuff into the drone, then it will be on its way. Of course, the food takeaway functions will still remain. 

Next, I’ll briefly explore the pros and cons about drone delivery technologies. The pros are obvious, it’s quick, which saves a lot of time for the users, and it’s also more convenient, in comparison with the traditional delivery services. Unlike the traditional services, which you need to take the actual item to a post office and send it off, Thunder drone would only take a click, simply clicking the button and order a flash ex, the drone will do it for you. And it’s an app that’s combined with three functions in one app, flash ex, food takeaways and parcel deliveries. It’s more precise than human delivery, as it’s a machinery. However, there are some cons that needs to be considered. Because a drone is an unmanned aerial system, or UAS, because the vehicle alone is useless. At a minimum, it requires a controller, a network and a signal to operate. (Richardson, 2020) Therefore, there will be a large investment needed for the network technology, and a lot of human resources needed, as there will be many maintenance and supervising operation needed, and only human can do it. Besides, once this app is launched, there will be thousands of drones flying in a low height in the sky, there might be collision for sure; also, the drone itself cannot carry heavy items, otherwise it might fall as well. There will be some potential hazards if operating it in a wide range. 

To prevent certain danger, I’ve perfected some new safety regulations. According to Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the drones can only fly 120m maximum above the ground within Victoria, (Drone Made, 2019). All these commercial drones must be approved by the government before they start servicing. For there are other aircrafts flying in the sky, and with the approval from the government, it’s much safer and can be trusted by the customers while using this app, as it’s a legalised app and accepted by the government. In case of collision, the drones should avoid flying above schools, parks, beaches, etc. For privacy purposes, to prevent users collecting the wrong item/take away, they should receive a confirmation code before collection, this can help avoid item being taken in error or missing. The weight of item of takeaway must not exceed the specified maximum weight in case of falling due to overweight.  

Slide link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1–_P88ZtPCWopdvhGuV7OeVpivocXwdXr3QSBBHEA8o/edit?usp=sharing

Slide: doing mobile media a2 pitch

Idea: Using drones to do the delivery services to improve lifestyle and help to reduce covid risks.

Script:

Hello, today I’ll be presenting an innovative idea of a new delivery technology. Right now click on ubereats on your phone and order a pizza, it might take a while, or trying to contact your delivery guy because you cannot find your parcels. Under the influence of covid, I believe every one of us has been through or is going through a city lock-down time. I can understand how difficult it was for people to get life essentials or medicines during lock-downs. Like I’m in Shanghai right now, and I’ve been locked in my own house for about half a month already, and we’re unable to purchase foods, life essentials, etc because the city’s in a lock down and no delivery is allowed. Therefore, I’ve decided to invent an app that can be easily accessed on everyone’s mobile phones, and have thousands of drones to “work” for the app. The app is just like ubereats or auspost, you can order food or buy stuff and gets delivered sooner than ever. However, instead of hiring people to deliver the packages or takeaways, I’ve got a better idea, which is having numbers of drones to deliver packages or takeaways to every household. Every neighbourhood would have about 10 drones, these 10 drones would only deliver for this specific neighbourhood to avoid collision in the sky, (so like if there’re too many drones in the sky flying in a high speed and gets bumped, it might hurt people when it falls). This way of having drones to do the delivery, it can efficiently reduce the contact times between the delivery guy and the residents in the area. Less contact, less covid cases, it can obviously help to reactivate the city while getting everyone’s life back on track and helping them getting the needs they want. My proposal might be a bit shorter, but I suppose it’d be really useful in daily life especially during the pandemic time. Thanks

Script:

Hi everyone, today I’ll be introducing a very special genre of tiktok stream. Before I disclose what specific genre I’ll be discussing, I’d like to briefly introducing the background story of tiktok. Before there was tiktok, there was an app called musical.ly . Due to high demand of users, the data centre was reaching its capacity, therefore, the founders had an idea, and eventually, tiktok was then appeared online. (Chris 2021) According to research, just in January 2018, tiktok had 54 million monthly active users. tiktok has gained 75 million users in Europe and the US by the end of June, 2020. Which took youtube a decade to achieve the same number of users as Tiktok. (Chris, 2021)

Now, I would expose the exact video genre I’d like to discuss about, which is the restaurant or coffee shops visiting kind of videos. Since the tiktok has gone viral, media publicity has started to develop on tiktok. Therefore, the shop visiting kind of videos has started to spread among the social media influencers. These kinds of videos are often taken by the influencers themselves, and filming them walking into a restaurant or a coffee shop, and record them ordering food, then enjoying the food while introducing each piece. Some of the restaurants may have an ancient history and finally got known by the viewers because the influencers had introduced it on tiktok. Because most influencers would film these kinds of videos in their own cities or at their own town, so these kinds of videos can obviously attract urban residents. Also for tiktok, not only people from the urban area can see the video, but everyone else outside of this area can see the videos too. Therefore, the influencers’ videos can tell the story of an ancient traditional restaurant to the whole world, and viewers from even outside of the urban area, can actually go and have a look. Some coffee shops are supposed to be advertised by the influencers, because the deco(ration) of the coffee shop is somehow fancy or cute for young girls to have a sip and take pictures to post onto instagram, (which seems to be a trend now on social media, me myself was also one of them). Influencers who have videos like visiting these kind of coffee shop will sometimes also earn money from the owner of the shop because he/she has created a potential benefit to the shop. 

After the pandemic, many restaurants can’t make it anymore longer so they were closed; however, some were opened. How can the brand new restaurants gain more customers while having fewer advertising fee to invest tho? They can invite these influencers to dine in their restaurant and have a video uploaded to tiktok, soon after, the popularity of the restaurant will rise virally. The more videos like that have been uploaded to tiktok, the more active the city is, this is definitely a boost to reactivate the city, the shops as well as the economy. 

Slide show link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bQtW60SZIMkU7NGADxVY3HWd9ZgLAhJ9nvWdL9Ab2e8/edit?usp=sharing

Reflection 1

(This is a re-written reflection because the original one that I wrote that day along with another one were gone on my laptop unfortunately.) Today, my tutor Robin had a little conversation on Zoom because I haven’t been able to attend class for a week or so. The main reason why we would have this conversation was to have a general idea of my thoughts on the following assignments, which was the research essay. There was a class before this little zoom meeting that I attended, my idea was to have a research project on my favourite director Wang Kawei. After this class, I missed one again. To be honest, I am very appreciated to have Robin as my tutor for my studio. In spite of the fact that I have been missing out on lots of classes, I was still able to catch up on my studies with the help of my tutor. During the discussion, I’ve explained my idea of doing a research on the director Wang Jiawei. Then I heard that there were three other students from my class were thinking about doing the research work on Wang Jiawei as well; I could switch to another director James Wan, because he was also graduated from RMIT; however, Robin says that I can insists with my original idea. I’ve learnt a lot from this class, not just the knowledge and stuff, but also some methods to improve myself. I wanted to have a look at the interviews and film clips by Wang Jiawei to start my project; In the contrary, I was told to start writing a reflection on this zoom meeting right away. It’d be better for me to write down some ideas first rather than procrastinate things later in order to watch clips. 

Reflection 2

Today, I had another Zoom meeting with my tutor Robin, we had a further discussion on the specific topic that I’d be doing and some key aspects I’d be mentioning about; it’s supposed to be my assignment 3 I think, to present our first draft or plan to the tutor. Before we had this zoom meeting, I’ve already done some research about Wang Jiawei other than those information of him that I had already known. I’ve went through some interviews that different social media platforms had with the Director Wang; and I went over some classic film clips from his previous film pieces again to have a better analysis of his film. However, when I have explained the dot points that I’d like to do for the research project, Robin emphasised that I needed to focus on the concept of coverage. Then we’ve had a discussion of the concept coverage. Due to the fact that I was away for the class that introduced the concept of coverage, I didn’t understand this concept throughout this semester. I had to ask my peers from this class and google it on different websites that I thought had explained it very well. It turned out that I had a completely different idea of the concept of coverage. Then my tutor finally explained to me what exactly the coverage means in the field of films that I could finally understand what it actually means. The knowledge of concept is not only what I’ve learnt from this, I’ve also understood that when something doesn’t make sense to me or I’ve came across to new unknown concepts, I need to discuss my confusion with my tutor to sort them out; because those knowledge cannot be found online. Other than that, I should be more engaging on class and have more reaction to the questions that are raised on class. Hope one day eventually I could go back to school to have on-campus classes.

Reflection 3

This is a reflection focuses on the film ‘Fallen angels’ specifically. This film was produced by director Wang in his early film careers. It’s not hard to find that Director Wang likes to have extreme close-up on the actors, and the shots are usually shot shaky. He also used a lot of wide shots on the actors to demonstrate the delicate relationship between Yang (the female main character) and Ho (her ex-boyfriend), the use of wide shot can create a special atmosphere that makes the audience feel like, the two character are close in distance, however, their heart and soul feel apart. I believe the director is implying that the character in the film all have a sense of unfamiliarity and alienation. Another speciality that I discovered was that, I could see a lot of presences of mirrors in the shots throughout this film. The use of background music in this film is also extremely appropriate. The director illustrated the sense of apart and vagrancy of the characters to the audience by telling stories of these few characters and their life trajectory. It seems like that these five characters (angels) are living their own lives separately and lonely on their lifeline; but somehow their lifelines trace across each others’. There are somehow some relationship between one another. One interesting thing that I found was the canned pineapple, because this was not only mentioned in Fallen Angels, (he accidentally had the expired canner pineapples); but also was repeatedly mentioned in Chongqing Express, (by the same actor, eating the canned pineapples counting down the days his girlfriend left him).

Reflection 4

This is a reflection in relation to the research essay I completed. I panicked when I first read through the assessment criteria, because at that time, I had no idea what should I write, no topic, no specific research area. Then when we had one-to-one discussion with my tutor. I figured out a general idea and had decided my topic for my research project, which was about a famous director in China, Wang Kawei. Then I heard that there were about three other people that were doing this. I insisted my idea of doing the research project on Director Wang after consideration. I read some reviews people have about him, and watched some interviews people had with him. I went over to watch the movies I selected for the essay again and chose some of my favourite scenes to analysis the use of coverage. I sent my first two paragraphs and my overall plan to my tutor to see if any improvements or changes were needed for my essay. Once I got my feedback from my tutor, I went back to my essay and edited it. I added some more detailed explanation, and emphasised more on the concept of coverage. Most of the time I spent was going over and over to the short clips of the scene that I selected and figure out the use of coverage (camera angles, movements, focal length and shot size, etc) in those films. Then once I noted everything down, writing the essay became so much easier for me. Also another process that took a lot of time was reading interviews or reviews about him online, because I needed to filter the information and comprehend them well. At the first draft, I overwritten about 400 words more, then I edited it again and again, because it appears to me that everything matters, so that editing took some time as well. I am totally satisfied with my final work of research project. 

Reflection 5

This is a reflection that will be reflecting on this whole semester; how I did well, how my ideas about this studio has changed throughout this semester and how my study habits have changed. This might be a bit longer than my other reflections because there are so many that I could write about. I selected this studio as soon as I’ve spotted it on the studio selection lists; the particular reason for this was that I had learned some basic knowledge about camera language before, and I was very much interested in exploring these concepts bit further. Before university in high school, we were asked to write essays on analysis of different kinds of films, especially in the aspect of camera language (movement, shots, etc). When I actually get into this course, I discovered that although this course is basically about concepts of cinema studies (shots, mis-en-scene, camera angels, etc). However, because I’ve missed some  classes throughout this semester, I didn’t realise that this course was mainly discussing the concept of coverage, (or in French, decoupage) (the exact angle and position camera was placed when shooting the scene) also the intention of putting the camera the way it is. I got to discuss this with my tutor, that I finally got the idea of what coverage actually means. I thought of it a completely different definition and so much more complicated than it actually was. During each studio session, we would watch some classic clips and analysis the use of coverage in those scenes and why. The meaning of coverage is: lighting, what exact amount of space is planned in a scene (a wide shot or an extreme close-up shot on the actors), where the camera is positioned (from behind or at front), what the camera angle is (high or low), how the camera moves throughout the scene (pan or tilted), etc. All of these can compose the best performance for the audience to enjoy. Even though I’ve missed out a lot within this semester, but I’ve made it to catch up with everyone else. I’ve got a distinct understanding of the concept of coverage, from not only the theoretical perspective but also can try shooting some down as practical experience. (can only picturing them in my brain though, no one could be my actors, but still enjoy the process of planning every scenes in my head). Hope one day when I got the resources, (a nice camera or even with my iPhone, and people that are willing to take the parts to be in my little film clips). I’ve done a lot in my year one at RMIT and in high school, but I believe with the knowledge that I’ve learned in this course, I could make a short clip in a deeper depth and nicely-cut.

Reflection 6

This reflection is based on the reading of a chapter called ‘Face, body, voice, movement: Antonioni and actors’. This book mentions that film acting often operates with a set of technical constraints which are different to those in theatre acting. I pointed out this was because this somehow relates to the concept of coverage. Because the actors have to be in front of the camera and move within a limited frame in order to present themselves to the audience. And within this frame, there are still many potential variations, it mentions that the camera can be set from different angles to the actors and can move along with them, or set still; the distance between the actors and the camera can be different as well; (like long shot or close-up shot). This book gives an example of a opening scene from L’eclisee, and introduced a complex shot that starts off from above the actress’s head, who’s looking at another actor that stares beyond her. And it explains how the camera dollies back slowly to the left when the actress leaves the actor. This scene ends with the actress remains on the extreme left of the shot, leaving the whole space of the room within the camera. The author mentions the actress briefly glancing at the reflection of herself in the mirror, which is one of my favouring shooting techniques, because shooting with someone and their reflections in the mirror, can somehow reflect not only the physical appearance of themselves, but also their emotion changes within themselves. This can be relates to the research essay that I wrote, and a paragraph in that essay was discussing the use of shooting with mirror within camera shots. 

Assignment 4.2 Research essay

Director Wang’s films are the most special ones among Chinese Film industries. The director Wang always wears a pair of sunglasses. He said the reason of always wearing a pair of sunglasses was because he didn’t want people to see his tears because he cries a lot. He didn’t make too many films, but every piece he made was a classic. Every piece of films becomes romantic by the hand of Wang, most of his films are about love and relationship, or in another way, he could relate all genres to the theme of love. 

I’ve asked many friends of mine of their opinions of Wang Kawei’s films, it appears to me that most people all agree that the films Wang JiaWei recently made (as in films he made after 2000s) aren’t as sophisticated as the ones he used to made. In spite of the fact that his workpieces after the 2000s aren’t as attractive or good at capturing appealing lens; his works from before were the classical compilations that recalls the youth memories of a lot of people.

The definition of coverage in my comprehension is: at the very least, what amount of space the scene has covered. And other elements that construct films, the position and angle of cameras, the choices of focal lengths, the movements of camera and even how much lighting are shown upon actors. Below I will be analysing three different films from different genres and different stages of Director Wang in relation to the concept of coverage, which are Chongqing Express (1994), Fallen angels (1995), and The Grandmaster (2013). 

I’ve selected a very classic scene from Chongqing Express, which is when Ho was eating the canned pineapples as a memorial ceremony for his love that was gone. This classic scene started off by having a close-up shot on the can that has the expiry date. The can was the only thing that appears in the first place, then we hear Ho’s voice and his hands opening the can, till this stage, the camera was still focusing on the can with an extreme close-up shot. Then we see his big fish tank, the camera pans to the left and we get to see Ho’s face. Till this stage, half of the scene is showing Ho eating his canned pineapples and the other half is his fish tank, because Ho is watching the fishes in the tank as he was having canned pineapples. It’s worth to mention that, fish tank can be seen as a mirror in this scene. (as Director Wang likes to use mirrors in his films to show the characters’ subtle changes in emotions.) He continues to eat the pineapples, and moves to the kitchen. The camera position remains the same, Ho sits afar in the kitchen and is positioned in the centre of the scene. The purpose of putting Ho in the centre of the scene and showing the rest of his apartment, is to demonstrate the loneliness of Ho as he lives alone, and he had “just” broken up with his girlfriend. In the end of this scene. We hear Ho’s monologue, and the camera moves back to the empty cans, with a close-up shot.

For Fallen Angels, I selected the scene of Jiaxing. (the killer’s assistant and Angel NO.2) This is the scene of Angel NO.2 eating noodles behind of He Zhiwu (a mute, angel NO.3), she doesn’t speak, but her monologue speaks and we hear some of the background chattering. (This is a trick Director Wang usually uses, the characters don’t actually say things, but he will play the dubbed monologue by the actors when editing them).  The whole scene is a wide angle shot on the actress’s face. The camera positions in front of the table with a high angle on the actress’s face. In this scene, Angel No.2 is only in the right half of scene, and the other half is showing the people sitting at the back chatting. This scene, Angel NO.2 is expressing her loneliness, because she has fell in love with the killer, but it appears to the killer that no love can exist between the killer and his assistant. During her monologue and her eating the noodles abstracted, the people sit behind her catch in a fight and left, we see this because half of the scene is showing the back of the restaurant. However, even a bunch of people catch into a fight, she was still eating her noodles and thinking about the killer. This is to show her feelings for the killer isn’t going to fade away easily.

The Grandmaster is the most recent film among these three films. Apart from the lines in this film, the classic shaky camera movements and extreme close-up shots aren’t used as many as the ones Director Wang has made earlier. It is Kungfu themed film, but it also contains the romance between Ye and Gonger. From my perspective, it is a film that tells a story of regret under the name of Kung fu. In this film, Director Wang used a lot of breath sounds to prepare for the actions (fights between Kungfu masters); he also used the environment well, such as the rain (the opening fight scene) and the snow (the final fight scene).  I decided to select the scenes of character Gonger. The first scene I select is the fight scene at brothel between Gonger and Ye. This is the first time Gonger meets Ye.The scene starts off from an overlook angle, the two characters are in the centre of the scene. The camera spins as the positions of the two character changes. Then the camera switches from close-up shots on the hands or the face to mid-shot repeatedly to show the sense of movements during the fight. In the end Gonger sits on the handles of the stairs, the camera shoots from a low angle with a wide shot, Gonger is in the left half of the scene; and on the contrary, Ye stands below Gonger, the camera shoots from a high angle and we can only see his face because the lighting is only focusing on Ye’s face. At this point, the Director Wang is not only trying to show us that Gonger has won Ye in the fight, but he’s also implying the relationship between them two, and plays a supplementary role for the relationship narration afterwards.

It is regret to admit that the shooting technique and coverage style has changed throughout these years in Wang Jiawei’s films. At the very beginning of his film career, his works were showing more of his attitude of casual and the rhythm was slow as well. The storyline was designed for the characters. From my point of view, he is the ‘Quentin’ in China. Later on in his film career, his works became more formal. Because his creative style cannot be acknowledged by the society this decade. Due to the highly pursuit of commercial films, the producers aren’t as willing as before to invest into films like the ones Wang used to make. Another factor for this circumstance is because the theme and content aren’t as inclusive as before.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HizOS0cV4zg 

(Pineapple eating scene – Chongqing Express)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzUPrgoCwF8

(Noodle eating scene – Fallen Angels)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvccp0GEMgM

(The brothel fight – The Grandmaster)

Week 4 is about covid-19 censorship on social media; video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCkO_z5wVKY&feature=youtu.be

Reflection：

Our group decided to make a video about censorship on coronavirus on social media. We decided to make this video was because we realised that during the cov19, not only the virus was spreading, misinformation was all around the internet as well due to the censorship on what’s actually happening in those affected areas. During our group discussions, we discovered that when people post specific posts that are sensitive to words such as “coronavirus”, it get deleted by the app itself or the government. It isn’t the first time that China is doing stuff like this – censoring information from the government to the people. We split our workload then we started to work individually then send all the work to James who will be editing them all up. During the collaboration, I gathered some videos of people whom posts were deleted by the government getting interviewed as evidence. Therefore, with real-life experience, it’d get alerted by people. This time we used Youtube as our social media platform, because we made a video and we want people to see it easily. For the potential improvement, I would say, I’d post the video onto instagram as well as a post and on facebook so that people could view it then repost it so that there’d be more viewers than just posting it onto Youtube alone.

For the modern media industry, both the media types of information transmission and the content of information have greater diversity and uncertainty than the previous media system. 

A/B’s test system has a substantial role in determining the accuracy of information and the real-time performance of common media such as news. For the fact that the information dissemination media such as files, mobile devices, mail, etc., this test analysis method can more effectively and accurately analyse more relevant information for the needs of various media types, which is an efficient Analysis and processing of complex information.

The use of new technologies such as computer technology is of great help to this information testing model, and this testing method can ensure that A/B testing continues to adapt to the information content and system that keeps pace with the times.

However, this information analysis method requires analysis of a large number of emails and information content related to political policies, and the time and processing cost will be greatly reduced compared with traditional methods.

In today’s society, whether it is traditional information media or a new type of information exchange platform such as the Internet, it will be occupied and led by a large number of key opinion leaders. This trend leads to a small number of people’s judgments that will affect and lead the majority of people’s information Judgment and interpretation.

In conclusion, from my perspective, whether it is the collection and analysis of users or the leadership opinions on the judgment of mainstream information, we should not infringe the privacy of the information audience blindly analyze all kinds of information for commercial or other purposes. 

Blogpost video link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HNRhYpREySF8PCsn1CjvMp7uy0xZ8tVg/view?usp=sharing

Reflection:

The reason why our group decided to make this video was because the racism against Chinese people in foreign country are getting more and more obvious and some assaults are becoming harmful to people. Me myself is a Chinese and I’ve been in this situation before where I got yelled on the streets like “Go back to China”. We discovered that as the coronavirus are spreading the world, people would more likely to call it a Chinese-virus as it was first discovered in China even though China cured this coronavirus the quickest in the world. Our target audience is mainly towards westerner people, therefore we’d like to use facebook and instagram as our output platform. We first wanted to use WeChat but then I realised that our target audience is western people so it’d be better if posted on social media platforms like facebook or instagram. When we discussed as a group, we talked about what kinds of racism were shown towards Chinese people; and we shared our experience with racist in Australia. The whole video has a mood of serious and this shows that this problem is important and serious in this society. Our video didn’t use much background music, we used more of our voice-over instead, because we didn’t want to make this a relaxing or chill video, we wanted everyone who sees this video to feel like that this is a serious problem and that they would whether to stand out for Chinese or stop being a racist.