Author Archives: Alec Wilson

TACA – My new media Acronym

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In the search for creating more relevant posts i looked back at the Assessment 1 feedback rubric.
The project 2 brief asked for a video with

1) Awareness of editing practices (creative and meaning-making)

2) Texture (diversity of media materials)

3) Creativity (demonstrated poetic/playful/ abstract representation of self)

4) Ability to notice, reflect and learn from the creative process

While i scored pretty well in this section i feel like there could be a more systematic way of demonstrating why the project could be considered in the ‘excellent’ rating (while not sounding cocky or egotistical)

I have framed the acronym TACA,  Texture, Awareness, Creativity and Ability to notice.
In future posts i will use ‘TACA’ in the heading, place it in the category of ‘Digression’, and link it to the original brief submission.

Studio Lighting – Learning from Mistakes – Learning from the Interweb

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For the past 5 weeks i’ve been working for a friends Dads who owns a wine equipment business. Every Tuesday i’ve been slowly photographing his stock which will then be put into the new online store. Ive never taken photos in a ‘studio’ environment so i did some research before the first shoot.

Youtube was the first place i looked followed by a few blogs here and there. A few days before i checked out the photography equipment that the business had bought from China. I did a mock setup and tested the lights as well as the settings on my Camera (Canon 6D). It was quite a DIY set up. I taped white flute-board to table against the wall. I then and curved another  one so it ran from the base of the flute-board to the wall, showing no corner. By doing this, the items photographed would appear to be on an infinite white plane.

For consistency i set the camera to manual and placed it on a sturdy tripod. I also followed these guidelines i made from previous tests

  • The white balance was set to fluorescent lighting mode
    • To balance the colour temperature
  • The relative aperture to was kept within f/4 to f/11
    • To hide the detail of the fluteboard
  • Exposure time was kept within 1″ and 1/5 (of a second)
    • To balance the light levels  when adjusting the f-stop for larger items
  • The focus was set to manual
    • Autofocus cant be trusted in studio setting
  • I used a remote to take the photos
    • if i pressed the button on the camera to take the photo it would have come out blurry due to the fast shutter speed
  • ISO set to 100
    • No need for high ISOIMG_0875

I would systematically tick off each product as i took a photo, changing the settings depending on how white the object was in comparison to its background.

After the photo shoot i would then go home and edit the photos on Photoshop. This was a tedious process. I would have to applying colour correction to each individual photo (i created shortcuts), then have to tinker with the levels to get the blueness out of the whites. Before exporting i had to change the name of the photo to match the products name in the system.

On reflection I feel like this project was a stepping stone and a good learning process. This would be an easy way of making money form small businesses that need semi-professional photos taken of their product.

 

The importance of Equipment

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Does good equipment matter? i think it does.

This week and last week we tested the Sony MC50 and the Zoom H2N. I remember i always wanted to own a camera like the MC50 but it was until a few years ago that i realised how horrible these camcorders actually were. These were some reasons why i didnt like it.
1.  The picture quality isn’t great especially when you take into account the file size per second (24mb)
2. It saves the video in a AVCHD format which is annoying to export onto the computer.
3. The one board shotgun mic is very bad quality and has lots of noise in the background
4. Interlaced video and not progressive
5. Its REALLY hard to find things in the settings menus

Compared to a DSLR like the Canon 6D (while i use), the picture quality doesn’t compare at all. Yes the 6D is a more expensive camera (by about $700), but the quality is superior (the shallow focus and tonal depth). You can change the lens on a DSLR where as camcorders have fixed lenses. I will not be using the MC50 for future projects

I have worked with an H4n before which made working with the H2n very easy. For others it might seem like a hard piece of hardware but I found that the simplicity of its design very user friendly . Its audio quality is pretty much the same as the H4n although it does have less inputs. I will probably borrow a H2n for the approaching Brief 3.

One thing that kind of bugs me is when people say the ‘equipment doesn’t matter its the plot/narrative that does’. I understand that plot is one of the most important elements in a production, but there needs to be some level of professionalism to accompany.

There are films which are solely filmed on iPhones but the only thing they have going for them is the message that anyone can make a feature length film.I think its an inspirational gimmick. If its an experimental film, sure thats fine. With student projects it does matter because the plot/narrative ideas are usually under developed which is why we need to overcompensate with good technology and practice. I’ve been filming my previous projects and exercises on my iPhone because the quality didn’t matter. It was more about the subject matter and the meaning.

The point i’m trying to make is that for student films, we ‘need’ the quality equipment because otherwise our videos quickly fall flat.

(I do acknowledge that as first years we deserve to get the lower end equipment and work our way up slowly. I also acknowledge that the equipment RMIT loans us costs a lot)

Workshop interview exercise using MC50

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What problems did you encounter?
When i was editing I found that the audio quality was subpar even when using the lapel on the SONY MC50. We also forgot to record an ambient track.

What did you try to do to get past or mitigate these?
To get past this i fine tuned the audio track using compressors and noise reductors. I also placed music into the sequence to slightly mask the chatter in the background.

What did you discover about camera technique (e.g. composition, framing?)
Its important to position the interviewee to the right of the frame, and the interviewer behind the camera to the left (or versa). This means the interviewee is less likely to stare into the lens, and also gives the composition a visual gap where they can talk through.

Suggested Listening N°3: Cake – Friend is a Four Letter Word

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I can safely confirm that friend is not a four letter word

To me, coming from you,
Friend is a four letter word.
End is the only part of the word
That I heard.
Call me morbid or absurd.
But to me, coming from you,
Friend is a four letter word.
To me, coming from you,
Friend is a four letter word.
End is the only part of the word
That I heard.
Call me morbid or absurd.
But to me, coming from you,
Friend is a four letter word.

The flow of a story

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Australian story is successful because it engages audiences by “seek[ing] out unique stories that feature fascinating characters and original storylines with unexpected ‘twists and turns’ and compelling visuals”.

How do they convey these stories so its entertaining?

In the reading this week ‘Directing the Documentary’, multiple techniques are discussed on how to create an engaging documentary. Each story needs change and development to avoid “non-event” narrative . Comparing past to present is important to assert that growth and change is possible.

The term ‘beat’ is a moment of incontrovertible change that forces a protagonist or character to take a different course of action. The complication raises the stakes and a strategy must be developed. It either works or doesn’t, making the beat a success or failure. Beats are endless even after a success.

beats hike dramatic tensions which in traditional forms of documentary, leads to a final climax and resolution.

The directors and producers of  Australian story succeed in documentary production because they understand the importance of beats and character development and reflection. Even the a story classified as a non-event, can be improved and re-imagined through the editing process

Sound recording Exercise – out and about at RMIT

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What problems did you encounter? What did you try to do to get past or mitigate these?
Occasional popping would occur when speaking too close to the mic. To get past this we would give notice to the operator with the headphones on before shouting into the recorder (courtesy), or we would just speak further away from teh mic.

What were your most successful recordings?
The well planned and tested ones. We recorded in the space as a test and then we would make actual recordings as heard in the Soundcloud.

 

Did you have difficulty getting ‘clean’ sound – ie good ‘signal to noise ratio’?
At some times background noise was impossible to avoid. There was a high pitched frequency in the toilet interview. It couldnt be avoided but could be fixed in post production. Especially filming outside near the basketball courts, is was nearly impossible to get clear audio with teh basket balls bouncing in the background.

This was the final mixdown in Audition
Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 9.57.05 PMAS you can see, the larger areas in red are where there is the most noise in the audio (near the end when we were outside), and the audio with gaps is where there is least noise(the middle)