http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/photographer-candace-karch-and-her-97-year-old-muse-marie-ulmer/

A news title have really attracted my attention — ‘Whatever, I’m only 97!’, it was a group of photos taken by photographer Candace Karch.  “I photograph people in moments. These people are characters in a fictitious book that if I sat down and wrote words, they would all be my heroes.” Candace met a 97 years old artist, Ms. Ulmer and they quickly developed friendship over their collaboration of arts. Marie Ulmer is a 97 years old artist and she is represented by Photographer Candace Karch at her Bambi Gallery in 2007.

Ms. Ulmer is described as Candace’s muse and she continues to make one piece of artwork for the last 90 years. What has attracted me to read all her news and reports was her positive attitude to face everything in her life, Ms. Ulmer says that: “The universe is very large, and yet you find the smallest things like grains of sand and moonbeams round. It is so wonderful to know God put them there for us to find.”  She is turning 98 in August, but she is already planning for her 100 celebration party with her friends, I like how she face her surroundings and how she stays positive with all the things.

By reading through the first reading piece for week 6, I was thinking how is the COMMedia introduced to the students in the first few weeks and how did the tutors design the program. The reading is basically emphasizing the important to learn through experience and as media workers in the future we need to be aware to everything around us intentionally. It is quite interesting that I can gradually find out why we are asked to write four pieces of blog per week. As media learners or the media worker of the next generation, it is our job and our responsibility to be aware of everything around us. ‘Noticing as used here is a collection of practices bother for living in, and hence learning from, experience, and for informing future practice’. I guess, the program is designed in this way because the progress is more important than the final piece. Through experience, observing, listening and recording our surroundings, we might get inspired and collect experience/ information which will inform our future practice. In this media course, I believe tutors want more of how our brain is processing from the beginning to the middle we might get stuck and then how do we get through the whole thing at last. The process will teach us more when we look back.

1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?

The most interested thing that attracted me was he is a dancer, but he dance is because dance has helped him to find his self-value, so he continued on. I think the most important/ interesting thing I wanted to highlight or indicate about my interviewee is the two sides of his personality, Jim told me: ‘because the existence of the ‘black’, the white seems more dazzling’, his words really inspired me on how to arrange the sequence and which direction am I going to. I wanted to highlight how Jim overcame all the depression and struggle, so I wanted to emphasize the turning point has an extremely important impact on him until now.

2. How is your portrait film structured?

The structure/sequence of my portrait film was inspired by my interviewee, from the list of interview questions, I have asked him: ‘If you need to produce a self-portrait film for yourself, what are the shots you might include or highlight which really tells who you are?’ Jim answered that, I think I will start with myself in a dark dance studio doing athletic, I can only see my face and I am sweating. Story will go back from this moment like a call back to the black memories of mine and then gradually move to the light part to indicate the white of myself. As the result, how I structured was the black part which is a brief summary of his pass in the beginning; Turning point is in the dance studio and it is dark and gloomy at the start than gradually brightening; The end of this film will be how he survived by dancing and how he finds who he really is through dance.

3. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee?

As a dancer myself, I find confidence and self-value through dance, and so does for my interviewee, dance taught him who he really is, where he should be and he finds his self-value through dance. I want to tell my audience through this film is: if there is fog in front of you, then there must be rainbow behind you.

4. How is our portrait being narrated? Why? How does it affect the structure?

It is narrated and structured through a time sequence from his pass where he is very lost to the turning point, which is the highlight of the film that he have started to dance. The last part of the film will be what his status is now.

5. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?

Comparison, I guess is the largest part of my portrait film. As I am highlighting how dance has changed and helped Jim, so I used comparison of his dark part and light part to emphasize how he is different.

6. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point?

I do, the turning point I represent was manipulate by the lighting, at first there is only a spot light on his face and gradually the light bright up the whole space.

7. When does this turning point in your portrait and why?

I have designed this turning point at the one-third through, as I have briefly summarized my interviewee’s pass in a dark tone and the turning point is gradually introduced in the one-third part of the film which gives me more time to highlight the difference between the pass and now.

8. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?

In my perspection, I found very interested in chatting with different people and listen to their little stories. Doesn’t matter what kind of person they are, chatty or not, there must be stories behind everyone which caused their personality. Through the whole progression, I kept in touch with my interviewee which made him feel easier to talk with me so he can tell me more. And I really think my interviewee is the best, he has so many stories to ‘dig out’ and they are so dramatic! Every time I found something new that I may like to add to the footage, I felt I have another step forward to the finish piece.

9. Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from?

I think the tension might create by the tone I used through the whole film, I manipulate the lighting which I think is an important tool in order to appeal tension to the audience. Through the beginning the tone of lighting was chilly, dark and dusky. I have carefully manipulated the lighting in turning point, there is a spot light right on my interviewee’s face and then the environment light gradually spread out and brighten up the whole space.

10. Does the portrait have a climax and/ or resolution?

• Climax: When he is extremely down and trapped by his situation, when he was struggling, he has started dance training. Through day and night, none stop for a whole year.
• Resolution: Dance appeared as his mental guide and pulled him out to the lightness, showed him who he is and what kind of person he can be. ‘I am free and I am satisfied’.

*Questions are written based on my first impression to Jim

1. How long have you been to Australia?
2. Do you feel satisfy to yourself?
3. What do you think your friends might describe you?
4. What is your first impression in your friends’ eyes?
5. What will you start off when you first meet someone?
6. What are the factors that made you ‘you’?
7. Can you describe yourself with two colours? And WHY is that?
8. How did you change from black to white?
9. If you are asked to draw yourself a portrait, what kind of picture first appeared in your mind?
10. If you need to produce a short film to introduce yourself, what kinds of shots you what to include?
11. Can you give me one/two examples that most describes yourself?
12. How do you see dance as? Friend/mentor/teacher/family/tool?
13. What did dance bring you?
14. When you think back to your ‘black/darked’ period, how do you feel?

I found extremely interesting in week 6’s lectorial, I was late for the lecture and the screen was playing ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ told by Arlo Morris. This is used as an example to show how story telling actually work, we talked about there is a formula that stories usually follow, in particularly the superhero movies are seemed to be arranged in a same direction. To be honest, personally I do not enjoy so much the superhero movies like ‘Batman vs Superman’ or ‘Captain America’ etc. There are usually in the same direction like ‘Ulterman’ which is filmed in Japan, Ulterman is a superhero for most of the kids in my generation. They always start in an ordinary world; problems appeared so they need to start the adventure; when they first try to fight with the evils they lose; inspire by a mentor and at last they finally win. When too many films are set in this sequence, I started to wait for the turning point from the opening of the film. ‘Narrative is a sense of a sequence of events in some kinds of temporal order’, in my memories, I knew I saw movies from Japan that has broken the formula but unfortunately I can’t remember the name.

When I was watching ‘Batman vs Superman’, there was no surprised that it is going to be massive CGI used explicitly and dramatically. But the story plot was not too surprised and it was totally in my expectation. However, there are no doubt lots of films are very successful even they have stayed in this unchanged formula. The reason might be because of the filming technique; setting; costume; cinematography has kept updating, I guessed.

I believe my Project Brief 3 will be quite different to rest of the class, I noticed this from casting, I would rather choose someone I never know than someone I know very well. In my perspective, I think someone I don’t know will have a lot to discover though chatting and interview, someone I know is very hard list questions for interview.

When I was planning and preparing for this shooting, I can feel how the theories we have mentioned and learnt from lectorial or workshop was applied to use in the practce. For example, we have briefly discussed about editing of film. The editor should place themselves as an audience, so the cutting and pasting will really be done from the audiences’ perspective. Lighting is a brilliant tool to help the filmmaker in order to indicate his intention.

I have chosen a dancer who teaches Poppin in a dance studio, I have been to the studio for three years, usually I will notice when someone joined in. However, I have never looked at him and he never talks to anybody else, we were in different space even we are in the same room. The reason I said my PB3 will be different is because, our pb3 must be interview based with the character actually talking while the recording, it can be either audio or video. Initially, I did not want to have him talking neither audio or video, because I believe this is more presenting who he is. After I discussed with Rachel, if I don’t let him speak in the video I will not meet the criteria, so I have changed to another way to present my intention. Instead of having him talking towards the camera, he will talk in Chinese like a narrator for himself and subtitle will be typed while the video going.

My intention is to represent the depression/dark side of Jim was caused by his pass and dance appeared like a mentor of him which led him to the light. Jim sees dance as an important teacher or friend which appeared timely. The video started by representing the darkness of Jim, how depress he was when he was so lost so he had to choose to hide himself under the dark. In the middle part, which is to represent his turning point – dance. I have considered a lot in what way should I present this. Last part which is showing his situation and mental condition now and Jim has described himself in colour white, which is totally different to the first part. The last shot was suggested by Jim, he told me that when he think back to the pass he is not afraid anymore so he can tell me how he experienced the darkness.

As this project is an introduction of a person, so I found myself difficult to not add my personal thinking to the video. It is the filmmaker’s responsibility to represent my character’s life brief to the audience, how I understood pb3 was a short summary of my character’s life experience.

Facebook; Instagram; twitter, social media is becoming a requisite part of our daily life, we like to use this platform to share our everyday lives. People from different background, with social construct can use social media to express their own thoughts; feelings; opinions and mental states. This is also a useful tool as a communication bridge in between each other, many pop starts from different area would like to use social media to communicate with their followers.

There is a Korean idol singer called Sulli, she used to be in an idol dance group called f(x). Last year, a shocking news has forced her to quit from the idol group and work by herself. The news was she declared that she has started a relationship with a male singer who 13 years older than her, her followers and fans were very disappointed and angry with her behavior.

 (Sulli’s recent post in SNS)

Recently, the media has found that she has no longer posting anything about her boyfriend, so lots of people were guessing problem has appeared between them or they might have broken up. The public opinions were very offensive and unpleasant, Sulli was only 21 years old these year, she felt herself so difficult to stand up against the public opinions. After that news was announced, she has posted 20 more photos of her and her boyfriend’s. Half of people said that she was using her Instagram as a weapon to counter the public opinion, yet another half of people said because Sulli hasn’t been active in as a celebrity, updating her status is a way to let the public know that she is still active and avoid herself being forget by people. Moreover, Sulli’s image in the public was known as cute, fresh and pure, some people have comment that she is slowly changing people’s thinking, so she uses Instagram to post photos that looked extremely different to her image was.  (Sulli’s old photos in 2011)

In my perspective, Sulli is very smart in the way she uses the social media platform to manipulate the public’s thinking, when we look at the episode from the surface, we may ask ‘why is Sulli doing something that she is being offense at’? Actually, she uses the social media strategically well to convey her thoughts, feelings and mental states.

“Looking at Photographs”- Victor Burgin

I had a huge interest in photographs, I think it is very powerful tool in order to let people communicate, inform, record and entertain. I have been waiting for the chance to learn about photography for a long term so this reading we had to do has really attract my interest. In this reading the writer has emphasized to viewer to look at photographs. Photographs, usually when we think about how and where do we usually see photographs or pictures, we may notice how photographs permeate to our everyday life. Advertising; snapshots; Instagram; signs etc. We use them everywhere: to sell, inform, record, delight.

However, for majority people think paintings and films are only seen as the production that entails an expenditure of time or money to complete. Many people may have the notion of arts is hard, complicate to be interpret. However, the ‘intelligibility of the photography is no simple thing’, if we take a closer look to the exhibition or collection of photographs we rarely see an included photograph which does not have a caption or a title, they usually appeared with long texts or explanation. I am very addicted to Instagram, sometimes when I see photographs posted without explanation by user, we usually use our own experienced or feelings to interpret it. This part of the reading has link me back to the idea in textual analysis where people take their own interpretations of the images, interpretations can depend on viewer/audience’s own social construct.

I do not have any experience with photography but when I am taking a photo and I really want my viewer to understand what I mean by it. I think it is the tough part of photography. People may have their own interpretation for arts, films and photographs but well structured, planned and thought picture should communicate your intention to your viewers more directly, explicitly and deliberately.

IDEAS for PB3

Interview with Jim:

Me: If I ask you to draw a self-portrait, what is the picture that first appears in your mind?

Jim: About myself…?

Me: yes, when you think of yourself, what do you see first?

Jim: Myself in a dance studio doing push ups, I stared at the mirror and I am sweating.

Me: If you need to describe yourself with one or two colours, which colours will you choose?

Jim: Black and White I guess… White is bigger than black

Me: What is black symbolize for?

Jim: the negative side of me, the pass that I do not want to remember and think about…umm…because of the existence of black(darkness), white is more dazzling

……

In Jim’s mind, when he thinks of a dance studio, it is bright; huge and free. He told me dance is a turning point of his life, it has changed almost every single thing in his everyday life, from his attitude to his characteristic. Dance can describe as a mentor that leaded him out to the brightness.

What I planned for my PB3:

First part:

The dark and negative side of Jim

Middle part:

• Inside the studio with no lights
• Lights on, reflection in the mirror become clear

End:

Brightness, positive and aggressive part of Jim