Category: Recording Place

【Recording Place】#15 Final Reflection

Recording Place is a studio which is a location-based documentary practice. “Place is absolutely the best framework with which to tell a story. It’s the place you begin, and it’s the place you wind back to.” For this summer, we focus on the place Queen Victora Market. From this studio, i learned a lot. It’s very glad for me to took this studio through this summer. I learned how to find the story through the place with any details. I learned how to use x200 camera. I learned how to editing the documentary. Also, I learned what a good documentary should be. Rohan is a good teacher who taught us a lot about the documentary filming. I enjoy the whole sessions of our studio. When I do the filming, editing, having lectures and even write the blog. It’s a nice experience for me.

Our group ‘s work is focused on the Mr.Huang who is a man with an indomitable spirit. At the age of 76, he can be found with a cigarette on his lip and a pallet of produce in his wiry grasp. Originally from Guangdong, Mr. Huang takes us through a day in the life of one who is beginning to feel the weight of his years.`After we have the brief ideas, we started to do some filming. We went to the market in few days to shoot for different footages. The time before market opening, the time after market opening and also during the work time. We shoot lots of footage in different situations for our film. Also, we did an interview at Mr.Huang’s home. He is a very kind man. We had a great time in this home. After all these shooting things, we split footage up into folders. Becuase Mr.Huang is a Chinese who can’t speak English very well. So the interview is in mandarin, and we need to do the subtitle translation. After translation, all of our group members can understand what he was talking about in the footage. Then all of the members watch all the footage, listing highlights, overall action in the scene, and anything else that you feel is important. Write down what happens and what we think is appropriate. This is a huge job and we need to make sure to break the core into manageable chunks.

Then we go to the rough cut part. We break down interviews and other longer things into manageable segments. This can be done in final cut by marking when someone goes onto a new topic. And then we lay out interviews in order in the timeline. On top of this start putting appropriate shots. Then we do the slash cut. Put all your footage in order on the timeline without doing any editing. We also need to find tempo music for us to edit to. One of our group member Meg let her friend make a background music for our film. So everything seems going well for our group’s work.

From my individual contribution, actually in our group we do the works together. Every group members need to do the shooting. But for the interview, i went with Jenny and Jack. We enjoy the time in Mr.Huang’s apartment and listened his story. It’s amazing and he is so kind man. We discussed a lot about our concept. Like we do the concept about “The difference between the life in Austrlia and China”, and then we try to narrow the concept a bit. Also i did the subtitle translation with Jenny.

I feel very happy with my group work, we learn a lot, we know each other a lot and we do our work pretty good. I think it make me want to have more group work in further, because it learn much more in group than you do the work alone. In the further group work, i will be a person have a lot of communications with my members. It is really helpful in the group, because you can have a lot of creative ideas while in communicating.

Also, Rohan gave us so many advice. It’s so useful not only in this course, but also in our future media careers. That’s really nice for me to take this course. I enjoyed it so much in this summer.

【Recording Place】#13

In this week, we are doing the Rough Cut part, here is the planning of our work:

Cut up. Break down interviews and other longer things into manageable segments. This can be done in final cut by marking when someone goes onto a new topic.

Lay out interviews in order in the timeline. On top of this start putting appropriate shots.

Slash cut. Put all your footage in order on the timeline without doing any editing.

Find tempo music for you to edit to.

Rough cut. Start cutting.

Work out why you are procrastinating:

• If you are not satisfied with the structure, create a beat sheet for your documentary and brainstorm what doesn’t work.
• Analyze the structure of similar documentaries. With editing, it’s easier to get lost in the small details. By analyzing similar documentaries it can make you think creatively about it again. With longer documentaries, unless you have a presenter, it is common to have a parallel narrative.
• Do you find it unpleasant? If so, write down why.
• Do you feel overwhelmed by the task? If so, break it down into more manageable chunks.
• Are you disorganized? If so, write down why.
• Are you a perfectionist? Don’t go for perfect. Instead, go for what is achievable. Rough cuts are only rough, so just do it and don’t try to make it perfect.
• Go for a walk. A gentle stroll helps you to reflect.
• Work under time restrictions.

Grading. Colour correct your documentary to achieve continuity between different cameras and achieve a particular mood.

 

【Recording Place】#12

So we finish our documentary Organize part.

And i will list what step we do in the first part of editing:

• Shoot a lot of footage. It is easiest to edit a documentary that has a lot of coverage.
• Segregate the footage in folders. Split footage up into folders.
• List all the footage in a log. Watch all the footage, listing highlights, overall action in the scene, and anything else that you feel is important. Write down what happens and what you think is appropriate. This is a huge job, so don’t underestimate how long it will take. Make sure to break the core into manageable chunks.
• Index the interviews and subtitles. This is where you capture the gust of what the interviewee says, not the entire dialog. Do this by breaking down the interview into half minute segments. Work out where these should go in the interview at the end. This will be useful when it comes to the paper edit.
• Convert to standard definition. Editing a documentary can put a lot of strain on, especially if you are working in HD. Do an offline edit where you convert to standard definition. When you have locked off (finished) the edit, re-import HD footage.
• Paper edit. Create a two column table in word with one column for video and the other for audio. Each row is a different scene. Put all clips and interviews in order and play around until you are happy with it. You can edit after that. This is helping you create a blueprint for your edit.

 

【Recording Place】#11

Still working on the subtitle translation. We searched a lot about how to do professional subtitles.

For example, CPS is important in subtitle translation.CPS: cps is short for count per second or Characters per Second, If your client wants you to make the subtitles 14 CPS, it means that the reading speed per second should be 14 Characters, this is another limitation when doing subtitle translation, you need to apply your translation due to the time length for each timeline, for example, under 2 second timeline, your translation must be less than 28 characters, in this case, if your translation is too long, you should change your translation, rewrite or transcreation.

It’s important that during translation the timelines and numbers remain exactly the same as they are in the original (but if you have the video source and know how to do with the timeline, you are allowed to modify the timeline and numbers according to your translation). Changing them will lead to some corruptions within the subtitles, which is why we should use QA tool to check if we have destroyed the rules at the end of translation. When running the QA, the translator is going to be notified whether any number was changed or eliminated by accident, this is a very important process in managing subtitle translation project, it shouldn’t be an optional step, it is an essential one.This manner of translating subtitle files is simple, creative, actually, it’s a new step of recreation.

【Recording Place】#10

For our group’s PB3 work, we have one more thing to do than another group is doing the subtitles. Four Chinese group members separated into two groups to do the subtitles. We translate Chinese to English. So other members can do the editing after translation.

Subtitle translation service looks easy, but indeed has something inside which you should pay more attention to. Characters per row: this is extremely important for subtitle translation if there is no limitation for this, your words will be reached out the screen, which will lead to content loss issue. The length per row could not be longer than the timeline.

【Recording Place】#9

As I mentioned before, our group’s interview footage background sound is bad. Mr. Huang had a fan. It wasn’t overbearing, but it was certainly present in the footage, and I thank my lucky skittles that it didn’t oscillate. Getting rid of it was pretty simple, but it limits our choices on editing as we now have to put in some form of atmosphere behind every clip using an interview. Won’t be fun, won’t be quick, probably won’t end up destroying the project. I’m going to reconstruct the market sounds based on some clips we got that are pretty clean, We’ll probably have to treat it like we conducted the interview in the market. And we will try to fix it soon.

 

 

【Recording Place】#8

In this week, firstly, we interviewed with Mr.Huang in his home. The interview is good. All of us were happily at that time. Mr.Huang is a person who talks a lot to us. We feel that’s a good thing for us. After the interview when we back to the studio to edit the footage. We found that the audio of our interview is really bad. Because we do not use the correct microphone. And we can hear the fan’s sound in the background. That’s a very bad mistake. So we need to edit with the background sounds. Luckily, our group member did a good work for our sound editing to solve the problem. 

【Recording Place】#7

We tend to interview with Mr.Huang this Wednesday. However, we have some issues. Mr.Huang thought he is a normal people and refused us to interview him. We feel very nervous and we decided to talk to him today. He is a very kind person just because he thought he is a normal person and we can’t find any story from him. So we talked to him and explain that we just need the normal person in our film. It doesn’t matter. And we will only go to his home with 3 group members. And finally he agrees and we will do the interview at his home in next Monday. That’s a really good news. I’m looking for the interview so much.

【Recording Place】#6

For our group’s PB3 work. We will focus on the Mr.Huang who is a man with an indomitable spirit. At the age of 76, he can be found with a cigarette on his lip and a pallet of produce in his wiry grasp. Originally from Guangdong, Mr. Huang takes us through a day in the life of one who is beginning to feel the weight of his years.

The film opens in the early of Melbourne’s inner-city, capturing the brief calm moments before the chaos. We see the sleeping giant rouse itself as stall after stall opens. A Pre-lab of Mr. Huang proudly introducing us to his wares ease us into the place of the market. He introduces us to his co-workers, one of which offers a commentary on Mr. Huang. We then see him sitting at home, responding to the comments made by a co-worker which have been rephrased as a question.

 

He starts to talk about his past, and how he first arrived in Australia. This is done over b-roll of early photos of him and his family as they grow up. He indicates the people in the picture by name, also pointing out where they currently are.

We segue by way of the aforementioned introductions to another co-worker, this time a younger family member, who explains the issues the family faces. They also begin to talk about Mr. Huang and introduce CONFLICT. CONFLICT is brought up with Mr. Huang, who explains the origin of the CONFLICT as well as how the CONFLICT worked out if it did.

【Recording Place】#5

Besides the PB2 report of the MARCH OF THE PENGUINS.I’ll be discussing the different kinds of shots that I think made impacts to the film. There are many different kinds of film techniques used in the film like close shots, long shots, to extreme long shots, high angle, low angle and so much more. Each shots or angles actually depends on the mood of the scene. There two transition shot type that I think that I’ve found on the film. These transition shots made the film more interesting to watch since these shots made things emotional or gave tension.

Long shots are shots that are used to give a closer look to a certain area. The director use these shots to show the penguins actions in a full view. The examples that are given for long shots in the film:

• Where the penguins look for their monogamous couple
• The deceased eggs and baby penguins
• They exchanging of the egg from the mother to the father
• The mother who lost her baby then she tried to steal someone’s baby back

These made an impact since we get to see it more closer and we get to know things better of what is being focus on that scene making it more understandable more of what is happening.

Close shots are used to let the audience pay attention to that character. The director used close shots to shows the emotions of the penguins when they are faced with a problem. Examples of close shots that are given in the film:The scene where the baby penguin is hungry and he/she keeps looking up and making noises.

• Where the mother penguin is about leave for her journey and she looks to be a bit worried since she was looking down at the egg.
• Scene where the mother lost her baby penguin and she looks sad about it. She keeps turning her head around like she was planning to steal someones egg.
• The baby penguin grew up and was ready to be left alone by the parents. Their parents leave and the baby penguins look at them with a somewhat sad face.

These made an impact to my understanding of how penguins can also feel different kinds of emotions like us humans.  They felt sad when they realize that they lose someone from their lives making it more realistic and somewhat relates to our kind.  Even though it’s a monogamous relationship between the penguins, taking care of their baby until it’s all grown up is all their priority.

Reaction Shots：How the penguins react when they are faced with a situation. You can not see there emotions immediately by just looking at there face, but also with the movements they are doing. These made the film interesting due to the fact that reactions are good things to watch in my opinion. It can be either sad, happy or terrified reactions as long as it’s amusing to the viewers eyes. Example given in the film are:

•  The grown up baby penguins parents are about to left alone. They watched their parents leave with a blinking and uncontrollable movement they are doing like they want to follow them.
• the hawk scene where the baby penguins runs whenever the hawk comes closer to them.
• When the sea lions were coming for the penguins in the underwater sea, the penguins reacted quickly by swimming hastily back to the surface