In this week’s tutorial we focused on the technology of virtual production. I believe the production process of virtual production offers an iterative, parallel approach to production. This makes the entire production process much more collaborative. Also, through the various film examples Cat provided in class, I believe that the value of virtual production technology is evident in the many ways it can be used within the film and television industry, in short, to create a surreal illusion at minimal cost and make filming much more efficient. While the development of virtual production technology may depend on the advancement of film and television projects, many of these technologies have long been used in the “pan-performing arts” sector and have been used with great success. For example, concerts, stage productions, commercials, commercial shows, streaming media, etc. It is reasonable to believe that after a period of theoretical research and practical exploration, virtual production technology will be widely used in more fields and will have more value. I am looking forward to learning more about virtual production and trying to use this skill in my subsequent assignments.

In this week’s tutorial, we briefly introduced ourselves to each other and went over the specifics of the entire course. I was very excited to learn more about the structure of the course, and I can’t wait to get involved in learning and exploring AI and green screen.

One of the assignments was to find 6 products at home that are related to AI. After shopping around at home, I realized that artificial intelligence already exists everywhere in our lives, only these artificial intelligence we can not see the artificial intelligence, but these artificial intelligence does exist around us, such as siri, intelligent sweeping robot, and artificial intelligence is not popular enough for the development, but sooner or later, artificial intelligence will take to the streets and become A very obvious presence.

At the same time, the discussion of AI in the class also made me think about the topic of AT1, what will be the workplace of tomorrow? I guessed that maybe AI makes it possible to have remote robots, meaning machines that are operated remotely by humans. These semi-autonomous robots could be controlled from a distance and could completely reshape the workspace, especially when combined with virtual reality. Remote robots could enable more employees to work from home. For example, a mechanical engineer could operate a robot to fix a leak in an underground pipe without leaving his home office. Taking it a step further, thanks to VR, management could conduct virtual “face-to-face” meetings while everyone is somewhere else in the world. I will further conceptualize this in subsequent courses and assignments to be completed.

The finished artefact:

REAL TO REEL A4 IN THE MOOD FOR PIANO

Blog 1 Reflecting on documentary ethics:

Real to Reel A4 Blog 1: Reflecting on documentary ethics

Blog 2 Reflecting on collaboration:

Real to Reel A4 Blog 2: Reflecting on collaboration

Blog 3  representing the real world as part of a nonfiction media practice:

Real to Reel A4 Blog 3: representing the real world as part of a nonfiction media practice

Blog 4 Considering the final artefact:

Real to Reel A4 Blog 4: Considering the final artefact

If I would go on to work on this production and attend festival screenings next, the core of what I would like to improve and expand on is to dig deeper into the perception between Rachel and her family about the conflict between career and hobby, and Rachel’s own transformation of this perception from not understanding her family’s lack of support for her to pursue a career in piano to later deciding to pursue a career in business on her own. I can provide a detailed account of this process. Not only could I interview Rachel in depth, building on the original questions, such as whether there was a specific event that made her change her mind, how it happened and how it affected her. There could also be supplementary interviews with her family, such as how they communicated with Rachel about her piano career, their views on the matter and how they felt about Rachel’s own handling of it. …… As this is a very relevant issue for Chinese families, it is difficult to discuss and document this issue in depth in 5 minutes. I wanted the audience, especially those people who’ve been facing similar issues, to have a strong sense of empathy. The core of this documentary is to give an insight into the realities faced by people with hobbies and dreams in the current society and how to find a balance in the face of reality. I don’t want to bring in any subjective emotions to persuade everyone to find a so-called “reliable job” to support their hobby, I just want to let the audience think and judge for themselves through this film. So I thought it would be good to document the process in depth to make the viewers think and bring it into their own lives.

Word Count: 299

When making a documentary, I believe it is important to create a ‘rhythm’ in order to achieve ‘non-fiction’. I think it is important to keep the presentation of the video as simple and natural as possible. I used the short documentary Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman) mentioned by Rohan during tutorial as a reference and tried to apply the filming techniques from this short film to my own work. Therefore, I chose to shoot from a distance to a close up, recording the whole environment in a distant shot and then slowly drawing in closer to a close-up, giving the viewer the feeling of slowly approaching the subject. For example, in documenting Rachel completing a class exercise in a home online class (02:39), I first used a distant shot to document her overall learning environment, and then drew in to a medium shot of a frontal shot, as if the viewer were sitting across from Rachel watching her working hard on the computer. As Rachel is not a professional actress, she is not used to the various professional instruments used for filming. As a documentary photographer, I had to use many methods to make her act as natural as possible. I could barely feel Wiseman using any extra light source in Boxing Gym either, so in order to relax her and still get the best possible shot, I only added an extra light source – her own floor lamp – to the right of the frame to illuminate Rachel’s face and make her facial expressions stand out. In addition, I used my phone to record the white noises in her home. These sounds are combined with the images to fully immerse the viewer in what is playing in the moment. I’ve done a version with just background music before, and while it worked well, it was a little unrealistic. It was as if the images were detached from the sound and it didn’t feel like a documentary. I remembered what Rohan had mentioned in class about ‘The sound design also gives the piece some of its rhythm.’ I watched the boxing gym again and realized that one of the things that added to the immersion of the piece was the sound produced by people moving, such as the sound of a sandbag being hit. When I put in the sounds I had recorded in her flat, the immersive experience went up, giving my piece its own rhythm.

Word Count:  403

Reference:

Rohan, S, 2021, Topic 4: Wiseman’s observation and Rhythms, PowerPoint slides, COMM2627, RMIT University, Melbourne.

Frederick,W, 2010, Boxing Gym, course material, COMM2627, RMIT University, Melbourne. 

I believe that as an independent media practitioner, the first and most important thing is to have your own independent believes and values, do your best to record the reality. My perspective is media is not only belongs to us, but more belongs to the whole society. I should be able to do justice, speak for the people, speak for the underprivileged and explain some issues in a factual and realistic manner. A good media practitioner should have his own thoughts and pursuits, otherwise he will not be able to create good works that are thoughtful, deep and insightful.

A great deal of preparation went into making this documentary in order to be able to fully document Rachel’s daily life while conveying exactly what I wanted to convey to the audience. I framed each shot at least at four different angles and distances so that I could subsequently edit them together smoothly. This was a very good way to do it, even if some of the shots in the concentration didn’t make me feel very happy, I could just take the bits that I was happy with and edit them. The next part was the interview, which didn’t go well for the first time due to inexperience and time constraints. So after a meeting with Rohan I decided to do a second interview. Before the second interview I summarized the reasons for the failure of the first interview and outlined what I thought would solve the problem. After talking to the interviewee, the second interview was conducted. I focused on the lighting and camera placement in the environment, as well as the microphone. I tried my best to put every detail that followed the criteria for a good interview that Rohan had mentioned in the class. All in all, I think my second interview was successful in that I guided the interviewee correctly when she was having difficulties and made her express her thoughts fluently. I think another thing I need to be aware of when I am faced with similar creative work in the future is to try not to sit behind the camera. This will give the audience the illusion that she is looking at the camera, which will make them focus on the interviewee’s facial expressions and not on what she is saying. I should place the camera a step or two away from me so that the interviewee’s eyes are slightly off the camera.

Overall I think this is a good start to my career as a media practitioner and I can keep going in this direction gradually improved my weakness.

Word Count: 435

The time spent working with Rachel this time was invaluable. This was my first time doing an interview and the process was actually more difficult than I expected, with various uncertainties affecting the whole process. Firstly, it was important to sequence the questions from shallow to deep, in a progressive manner. And the questions were sent to the interviewees in advance so that they could be communicated and revised in time. And before the formal interview I discussed with her in the form of a chat about her favourite pianists and the repertoire she was practising recently, followed by some basic time and research so that I could communicate with her better during the interview. I think this step is very important and I will add it to my ethical charter later on. At the beginning of the interview, I followed each step carefully as mentioned in the ethics charter, and everything was done carefully. However, when some of the questions were asked, the interviewee encountered some difficulties and did not know how to answer the question. This was the time when I needed to guide her properly. At this point I stop describing my question and instead conduct guided questioning. Get her to say more by side-stepping or suggesting an idea and asking if she agrees with it. Also I think it’s important not to argue if you don’t agree with the other person’s point of view, just listen and in the process some of her points may even change the way I originally saw the issue. For example, when I interviewed her about the collision of career and hobbies, her insights on balance and parental opinions also gave me some new perspectives on the matter, rather than just resisting. Finally, when time is limited and the other person is talking too much or too broadly, or they are not responding to questions, don’t interrupt, but look for opportunities to slowly change the subject. I think all in all the most important thing to emphasise during an interview is that I must love the person that I film (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2018). Although this interview was with a good friend of mine and there wasn’t much to deal with in that regard. However, in the future, when interviewing strangers, you need to do some mental building ahead of time, and you can liven up the atmosphere by having some daily conversations with the interviewee before starting the interview. You need to maintain a loving and sincere heart throughout the interview process. To give them plenty of trust and support, and to face problems calmly together.

Word Count: 436

Reference:

DOC NYC PRO: Casting Case Studies 2016, streaming video, DOC NYC, New York, viewed  08/08/2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bndwq27kkjc>.

Goals:

I intend to document the story of a piano-playing friend of mine. I will focus my quest on how she learned to play the piano, the difficulties she had in learning the piano, what the piano did for her, how she continued to keep her love for the piano while studying and working, etc. I will also include some things that she thinks are worth mentioning, which I will dig into later when I talk to her in depth. 

Respond：

I watched the documentary called ‘boxing gym’, as the film’s title says, it focuses on people working out in a boxing gym. The film begins by capturing the architectural exterior of the view outside the gym, gradually transitioning to the indoor environment and finally focusing on the people who are exercising. There was no background music or coherent dialogue throughout the entire video, and the audience’s attention was mainly focused on the actions of the people being filmed.

This documentary is primarily a non-fictional account, using no particularly unique filming or editing methods.I found that even though I wasn’t always shooting a subject, the director still adhered strictly to the 180 degree rule, which is something I will be focusing on in my own subsequent shoots. I particularly like the interaction between the man and the little baby at the end of the video. It starts with the man hitting the sandbag on the right side of the frame, and as his body moves he slowly turns his back to the camera and naturally leaves the frame from the right side. Then his eyes fall on the baby in the back and he naturally walks back into the frame to crouch down next to the baby. At this point the camera quickly switches to a medium shot (following the 180 degree rule) to capture the interaction between the two from another angle. The whole process is very smooth and the audience is very much in the moment. The J-cut technique of inserting the sound of the next scene into the previous one was also used, and I think this is also a good filming technique that I can use in subsequent productions.

After watching the whole video, the greatest feeling I got was the immersive nature of it. The locations and angles chosen by the director were as if the viewer was watching people work out in the gym itself. Some of the basic filming techniques we learnt in class were used, such as slowing the camera down to create focus. Also I could also have filmed my friend’s piano practice setting at the beginning of the video, as well as her talking to other characters who might appear. These are all points that I can refer to and try out in subsequent planned shoots in the future.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j24UtTF1k1clmUhrltE_wc0pQcDMxFX9