Author Archives: Alec Wilson

How to look at photographs

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Week 5’s reading “looking at photographs” illustrates two major ideas of the relationship between people and photography.
Its obvious that art has always been a produce of human interaction; The painters brush strokes, the sculpture’s chisel marks. Its the same with photography where the camera is the tool and the film a canvas. The relationship of art and humans is strengthened via conceptual possibilities that can be encoded though semiotics.

The theory of semiotics suggests that media texts share codes that are encoded by the sender and the read by the reader. Photographers who work in reality (not purely photoshop) have to manipulate a subject or scene using light to paint the canvas and balance the look or aesthetic to match the meaning of the photo. Its the artists aim to display the meaning in the image (in most cases), but its also the audiences job to actively looking at the photo, decipher cues and signs to form a meaning of what they see.

The meaning of a photo relies on both the artist and the audience.

Selected Listening N°1: Flash and the Pan – First and the Last

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDqHfJ-FDU&list=LLRbgvZkbV127DEFpdPrTLvg&index=12

Australian new wave group initiated during the late 1970s by Harry Vanda and George Young, both former members of The Easybeats.

I first heard this song on a Mixtape (cant rememebr it if was Mixcloud or soundcloud) but i instantly loved it because of the Lyrics poeticness and the slow pace in which they are delivered. I especially love when it gets to the Aye ya, ya ya ya ya. I think i night buy an album of theirs on vinyl

In the middle of the star swarm
An overfill of life There’ll be a blinkered star child
Balanced on a knife
Lost to all the glory
Inward looking eyes
Extroverted hero
Losing paradise

In the wheel of turning circles
In an orbit of the moon
Through a maze of moving pathways
There floats a spinning spoon
In spite of its existence
A test for weary heads
A marker for the new man
The road ahead

B2: My procrastinative life

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I wanted to explore a habit that has followed me right though life. Using lo-fi attributes from brief 1, and the incorporation of synthetic robot voices from the Haiku, I tried to represent my procrastination with a sporadic, anxious and sinister tones (unintentionally then intentionally).

I experienced a number of difficulties (not including major procrastination). I didn’t set out for it to be ‘sinister’ but the constant layering of effects, sound, music and flashes does this. I need to stick to my plans. I was originally going to make a video similar to John Winslow’s ‘How to keep smoking’ (I have studied his editing practices in a previous blog), but found it difficult to contain the video to 1minute. Also doing a voiceover in a similar mannerism to Johns takes practice. I also feel that my video ended too abruptly. Next time im going to plan out and script a beginning middle and end, instead of having a general idea and building from it (but then again I’m comfortable in this workflow)

What my videos actually about:Its about noticing weird ‘things’ in city (then combining them) and the ‘inner struggle’ I have as I avoid doing the brief. I find it always hard to start things, which is why the video starts at a blank word document, followed by still frames of social media to represent me avoiding work. The track underneath is the fast-forwarded audio of me playing gibberish on the melodica (I cant play instruments so I improvise).

Throughout I repeat similar scenes and sounds to tell the audience that I have not progressed or learnt anything as the deadline is approaching. I juxtapose danger tape and a man over the yellow line to say ‘im in danger of crossing the due date’. The vending machine and chess game symbolizes the ‘many choices I have and the hard slow decisions that I make’. Then the last part is the feeling I get when im editing on a closing deadline.

I did enjoy the experimentation of medias. I stretched audio (the robot voice saying ‘I continuously procrastinate’ goes for the entire video), applied effects to audio (reverbs, distortions) etc…

……but from now on (probably) I will use a DSLR because I am bored of the Lo-fi aesthetics in my previous videos.

Sounds of Dawn – Ambience is key to anything

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This weeks in Lectorial, Rachel stressed the importance of sound and how it can make or break any film/video. Ambience is a key component in a layered audio composition. It is the backbone where the ‘figure’ is heard. The ‘ground’ brings both these elements together to form a spacial and directional feeling of a scene.
Films like the Revenant succeed at seducing the audience because of the focus on rich environmental cues. When I watched The Revenant in the cinemas the sound was so spot on i felt like i could have been in the wilderness hiding from a blizzard. Breaking this down more, it was the ambience each location which pulled me in.
Ambience in any media is key. For example a photo of a babies room could evoke an ambience of silence or screeching.
Ambient music can do the same, only it forms an imaginative image as well as emotion. Listening to though many songs and mixes theres nothing ive listened to before thats quite like Sounds of Dawn.
https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/sounds-of-the-dawn-27th-june-2015/
It takes ambience to a new level for me as it puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. Its a concoction of synths and environmental noises which meld together to give rich textures. Two sections which i would recommend are at 0:23minutes and 1:31. Actually listening to the mix instead of hearing is really meditative especially at 1:31. You need to put a big of time aside for it but its worth it.

me riding naked on a naked horse

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Haiku project: I decided to edit the footage loosely to the rhythm of the music with the robotic voice reading the Haiku, complementing both the visuals and audio. I chose the footage from the drive based on its frame placement and its subject matter. In the video i have coupled the footage of tram moving with the phrase in the Haiku “naked i am riding”. On a almost subconscious level these two elements pair. the robotic voice and the deep syths also have a sense of unity. This type of element of complementing ot which is very important to my projects

Noticing Audit @StateLibrary

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As a small group we departed the lectorial for the State Library where we would film the whole trip in the form of a Facebook Live Stream. This video documented our encounters with different forms of media as we journeyed into the libraries may rooms. The 30minute journey has been shortened into a 3minute ‘time-lapse’ thanks to Jackson Barnes (the audio heard is the start of our journey). There were many signs inside the state library, mostly eye level. There were advertisements for the City Of Melbourne which promoted upcoming events such as Moomba. I didn’t used my phone at all inside the building. I did however see many computer screens with Youtube, Facebook wikipedia ect open. Near the end of the video (2:30) i can be seen interacting with a large touch screen. While i know media constantly around us, doing this activity has made me realise how many different forms there are in libraries, not just books.

My Editing Style

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I’ve been making videos for a longtime. Ive progressed from imovie ’09 to After Effects and Premiere. After watching many hours of tutorials on youtube and many hours of films i would like to think i have learnt some valuable lessons.
The recurring style i have in my own videos is the cut to a rhythm or a beat (a few of my videos are on my other Vimeo account). Its an element that has to be used in music videos but also feature films. Commonly in horror movies the orchestral strings will rise, causing the pace of cutting to increase until it can go no further *cue jump scare*. The church scene in Kingsman: The Secret Service is a great example of editing to music as the speed of the footage is ramped up and down to fit to the song. That scene could be a stand alone music video.
Ive always been fascinated towards music videos which are well synced to the song. A simple way to tell if the video is rhythmic is by watching it without sound. It allows you to actually see the rhythm of the song instead of hearing. I’ll end this blog with a quick compilation of films that have been edited into music. Its really interesting how the editor has transitioned from one cut to another, as well as one song to another. Its a good watch.

Hats off

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This week in our workshop we went over peer analysis, the ‘Coloured Hats’ system. While im still pretty confused on what they actually mean i see why using this system can be useful. It directs clear thinking attention in one direction at a time, help avoid jargon as someone backtracks a possible negative criticism. It allows for equal talk all aspects of someones work. Primarily each seperate Hat specialises in management, information, emotion, discernment, optimistic response and creativity.

At one point i had the ‘green hat’ on. The ‘creative hat’ is meant to generate ideas on how the ‘thing’ can be better and solve a solution to the previously said discernments. I ended up critiquing the video and had to backtrack quickly to avoid an argument.

While i see the Hat system has merit i don’t like it. Its just too ‘robotic’ and considerate. I think conversation shouldn’t be formalised.
Cmosffr

A Lofi Looking Self Portrait

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“produce/generate individual and original media components that might contribute to a creative self-portrait.”

“demonstrating poetic, playful and abstracted ways of representing the self and the self in contexts”

Text: With LO-FI in mind i decided to tackle the subject matter in a harsh light to make it look as unprofessional and stupid as possible. Ive structured it so its a self-portrait of a ‘day in the life of’ just so its not a bunch of randomly taken pictures as well to add “poetics” to the assignment.

Id start my day inside my room sleeping:

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then i leave my room and wake up

 

i then brush my teeth with my personal toothbrush

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catch the train and occasionally bump into an old friend

 

during my uni break i like to eat food but its not usually hungryjacks

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and if ive got a long break i might explore the city a bit more (pre-production B&W grading)

https://youtu.be/HIVJYlPJ62o

Sometimes i duck into galleries like the current one at RMIT

Upon finishing at Uni id catch the train home or to somewhere else. On this train ride home someone had left behind their sourdough.

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I might even go to a friends house instead of home.
https://youtu.be/8-UyuUcBa64

but then ill most likely end up going home where ill slide the door lock on
https://youtu.be/tgQdnEbGA_c

Then ill cook dinner if i hadn’t already eaten (this is poppy)

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then maybe id relax with the sounds of Zamfirs panflute on low as the whole house would be sleeping (i cant play the pipes and the organs been broken for a year)
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