Untold Stories: Essay Film

What makes an essay film different is its lack of constraints on the filmmaker i.e. the filmmaker can use anything existing or not, to express him/herself. Ironically, there is no one definition for it. To me, an essayistic film doesn’t pretend to be objective as well as reflective of anything, but the filmmaker him/herself. It does not seek the truth, yet it is honest in its own special way. The concept of gleaning addressed in the first example shown did not aim to just give an objective explanation of the subject and its history, but rather it played around with pictures and footage of the act and linked it back to the filmmaker herself as she used to do glean too. Also, the film did not limit itself by talking about the subject only, it included some personal thought of the filmmaker about matters personal to her. The film did not seek an end with an objective answer, the journey of the film in its own way is the answer – it is this abstract concept that distinguishes this type of documentary. In terms of how we can use it for assignment #2, that could be challenging due to the nature of our topic – environmental activism. We aim to address the historical significance of the grasslands through the use of expert opinion. The documentary seeks to inform, motivate, and persuade, so I’m not certain that the essayistic technique is the best to go about it.

 

Untold Stories: Video Exercise & Reading

The video exercise aimed to capture the humanity of a place and we picked Melbourne Central, because, one, it is close to RMIT University and, second, Melbourne Central is never lifeless. It is full of life, movement and, henceforth, humanity. Ultimately, I believe, after Fox’s reading, that all documentaries capture humanity in one way or another, regardless of objectivity and truth as these can’t exist in the realm of human exception. Therefore, documentaries are always burdened with the representation of truth and deviate towards creating a gap between the film, maker and the subject.

My video attempted capturing the essence of Melbourne Central through the use of sounds and sights that you hear and see when you’re only there (we discovered that Melbourne Central is 70% made of escalators). Although the video succeeded in capturing Melbourne Central, it was challenged cinematically in the sense that it did not reinterpret or reimagine Melbourne Central, but rather just reflected it. Hopefully, we get to balance the expository elements of our nature documentary with the poetic elements. We would like to directly target the issue, but simultaneously, perhaps show it in a new light..? Expectedly, that would be challenging as the purpose of the documentary is environmental activism, which is usually scientific and objective. But, we’ll try to give it our best!!

Untold Stories: Assignment 1 Reflection

 

There are multiple things that I learned through making these videos. Firstly, I discovered the museum itself and its essence. Secondly, the rich histories uncovered within its walls and boxes. Thirdly, I learned different editing techniques from my amazing groupmates, who were awefully supportive to my limited Premiere Pro experience considering my last two studios didn’t involve editing.

I think our group dynamic worked really well, because of which we were able to come up with the creative ideas that we had. Consequently, the planning that went into the production of the videos helped us use our time as efficiently as possible at the museum. I, particularly, like the general concept of our videos : “Unboxing the West” and how we divided them into three episodes; first episode introduces the museum and the idea, second episode creatively portrays a story, third episode discusses the value of the museum and The Munitions Factory. All our videos had completely different styles, yet we managed to link them somehow.

No matter how much planning went into this assignment, time was still a challenge. We didn’t have time to fully sit and edit together elaboratively, everything was rushed understandbly so. I would have liked to work more on the editing, but I was constrained by time. However, I, personally, feel that no matter how many all-nighters you pull into editing a video, there is always something that is missing or could’ve been improved in some way.

Lastly, I would like to learn more about the production process of documentaries in terms of techniques and practices. I would like more direction too. Considering this is our first assignment, I kind of feel like we were thrown into it and left to figure everything on our own. Granted self-learning is most effective, more tutes about documentary introductory techniques would be helpful.

Untold Stories: Interview Exercise & Reading

The conduct of an interview isn’t a relatively a strange experience to myself. I have been obliged to make interviews multiple times throughout my degree and I have learned that I absolutely love it! Personally, I believe all acts of conversation are some sort of ‘interview’ even though they are not in a professional and a “controlled” environment as most interviews are known to be conducted in. Our exercise, though not masterful, succeeded in capturing random authentic moments of humanity. The question we picked was intentionally provocative – “Do you like yourself better now?” and witnessing people contemplating about how much they like themselves was an enjoyable experience; it’s these moments that made me fall in love with the art of interview.

Naturally, people were not expecting such a personal deep question because, I think, they never thought about it. Most of them didn’t fully understand it and talked about how much better they’re becoming, but no mention of actual self-love or acceptance, which led me to ask them further questions to prompt more genuine answers.

Considering the interview was conducted in the busy street of Melbourne Central and State Library, I would say the quality was good. The camera might have been a bit shaky, but that was due to the ”real-time” nature of the interviews. I, personally, think the shaky and out of focus shots preached the essence of our interview and added to its value – real life isn’t a perfect controlled environment.

When we approached these random strangers on the streets and asked them our deep question, I noticed the mechanics of power between us and them wouldn’t have been the same if placed in a professional environment e.g. radio interview. This is because our presence is not acknowledged as explained by Grindon. Another interesting point from the reading is the fact that most documentary interviews lack the sense of spontaneity and honesty, which I found to be contradictory as documentaries are considered most successful when they capture genuineness and authenticity.

 

Untold Stories: Museum Visit & Research

Melbourne’s living museum of the west was not what I had in mind. I expected a huge museum with fancy architecture and design. However, this museum, though simple, held historic artifacts that other museums could only dream of having because the museum itself is an artifact. An artifact that didn’t present many objects as other museums do, but it carried deep within its walls the untold stories of people. It is the first and only ecomuseum in Australia with historic geology. I understood the term “ecomuseum” better when we were shown around the museum; we saw the river that once disposed of dead sheep as well as the barbeque place that was made of bluestone by the factory workers. I think what stood to me the most is the ‘lipsticks in bullets’ made by women working at the neighbouring ammunition factory. It shows the utter bizarreness of humanity and my group was keen on finding the story behind it.

However, considering the limited time we had, I suggested to my group that we do an unboxing documentary to which they agreed to. while on tour, it was mentioned that workers from nearby factories gave the museum boxes that they believed are too valuable to be thrown away, which piqued my interest. I admit I might have had an ulterior motive for suggesting the unboxing idea, which was mostly to feed my intense curiosity of the items they’re holding. Fortunately, we had time to pick a box and look at its items, and they were items that I’m certain none of us had seen before exciting us even further to commit to this idea.

 

-Anhar Al-Shameri

Untold Stories: Film Exercise and Reading

My group and I came up with the idea by sharing our photos, things we love, and our deepest fears. Turns out, we all feared death in some way or form. Yet, the exercise required the formation of a question and we ended up with How should we face death?”

We figured that asking people about would make for some interesting material. We picked three people sitting outside the class, and asked them if they would like to participate. They agreed, but were still hesitant, so I tried to light the topic as much as I possibly could (we’re talking about death after all). It is very important for the interviewees to feel comfortable as that affects their entire performance on screen. Once they felt comfortable, they were challenged with figuring out their answers as some of them never thought about death to that extent. Another challenge was the lighting and audio quality. To find a place with good lighting meant compromising on good audio and vice versa. We decided to priorities lighting as film is a visual medium predominantly. I still had to use my flashlight to make the shot better, which was a fun experience.

Overall, I learned that a good project could be achieved if you had dedicated people working on it with you regardless of time and quality constraints, which fortunately was the case for my group. We were inexperienced and rushed throughout the whole experience, but we made it work with intensive discussion and planning beforehand.

As a person inexperienced in documentary, this week’s reading was important to understand. I never realised that documentary films are as creative and diverse as the cinematic ones. To me, documentary was confined into one particular form – expository. Furthermore, I’ve always thought documentaries are supposed to mirror our existing world. Instead, it’s the infinite recreation of our existing world.

 

-Anhar Al-Shameri

Untold Stories: week 1

This studio was my first preference and I’m ecstatic to be enrolled in it. My previous studios focused more on TV Production and radio production, so I decided to finally do something different i.e. making documentaries. I wanted to diversify my studios and make the most out of this course. Also, working in a studio that has a greater motive like empowering communities and people sounded idea to me.

I hosted and interviewed multiple times on my last two studios and that taught me a lot about working with people in an interview environment. I know how to make people feel comfortable, which is very important as their performance is negatively affected on the screen.  Hopefully, I get to contribute that skill to my group. Moreover, I did some behind-the-scenes roles like producing and directing, which improved my leadership, organizational, and delegation skills. I had to make runsheets as time is very critical to live broadcasts.

 

Both of my studios were collaboration intensive, more so on my TV production studio than my radio one. I worked in a group of 10 to 20 people in my first studio. Whereas, I only worked with three other classmates on my radio studio. Fortunately, I had good experiences with both collaborations, we had instant communication and a shared dedication to make the projects as good as they can be. I always found connecting with group members helped us work better together, rather than just focusing on the work we have to do.

 

 

This semester I hope to unravel more truth about myself by exploring as many options as I can. I hope to know what I’m good at, what I suck at, and ultimately what I can do with these revelations.

– Anhar Al-Shameri

NIAJ: Final Reflection

To begin with, I was attracted to NIAJ studio, because I loved watching comedy news. I found the manner sad news get changed to a series of jokes that stimulate the viewers’ minds to further think about them to be just amazing. Also, more and more people (around me) stopped watching traditional TV news mainly because it depresses them, but with comedy news…you don’t have to be depressed anymore! So, that was my initial take on satire and comedy news.

Later on, I understood satire with more depth. From the third week, I examined the way satire has changed journalism practices, while mocking them. It stupefied me how comedy news uses ‘satire to interrogate power, parody to critique contemporary news, and dialogue to enact a model of deliberative democracy’ (Geoffrey 2005, p.261). Coming from the middle east, democracy isn’t considered hip to say the least. So, the way comedy news is so opinionated and, consequently, protecting people from being enslaved to what the government wants them to think is inspiring to me. The way it does it is amazing too – by using humor to confront political misinformation and demanding accountability (Geoffrey, 2005).

 

 

Moreover, I got to define comedy news better now. I now realize that satire is simultaneously an old form of comedy and a new kind of journalism (Geoffrey, 2005). Also, I’m privileged to know that satire isn’t soft news that aim to only entertain, nor is it hard news that aim to only inform, but rather it’s a hybrid of the two – by which it enlightens its audience via entertainment (Littau & Stewart, 2015). This was especially helpful by laying the foundation of how to tackle our class project and assignment 4.

Aside from studying about comedy news in theory, this studio gave me the chance to put all that theoretical knowledge into practice. I’ve never been to a television studio before, so it was scary at first, but I’ve come to realize that once you know how to get around it..it can be the most fun experience! Furthermore, I’ve always known that I wanted to work in a studio-like place, but I never really knew how. However, I got to discover what I’m good at within the realms of a TV studio via this class project and assignment 4.

In conclusion, I’ve come to learn of the everlasting effect satire has on populations through the manner it addresses political discourse. Moreover, I got more acquainted with studio equipment and television production by putting research and develop the segments we’ve done. Overall, working with my fellow classmates, Ruth, and Ed made this learning experience a memorable one.

 

Reference:

Baym, Geoffrey. “The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism” Political Communication, vol.22, no.3, 2005, pp.259-276.

Littau, J. & Stewart, D. R. C., 2015. ‘‘Truthiness’’ and Second-Level Agenda Setting: Satire News and Its Influence on Perceptions of Television News Credibility. Electronic News, 9(2), pp. 122-136.

 

 

 

 

 

NIAJ: Assignment 4 reflection

For the purpose of this assignment, I practiced the role of a producer and a presenter (and assistant director and autocue prompter). Fortunately, these were my first two preferences making this assignment all the more enjoyable.

Rehearsal Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taping Day Set

 

I wanted to tackle the role of a producer just because I knew nothing about it. Moreover, we didn’t have producers in the crew of our class project, so I thought it would be interesting to experiment with the role. Ideally, a producer would plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script; coordinating writing, directing, and editing; and arranging financing. However, these tasks weren’t solely handled by myself or the other producers, but rather came about with the help of the rest of the crew – specifically writers, directors and Chloe…? Yet, my personal priority as a producer was to make sure everything goes as planned (with respect to time for example) and if it didn’t then I’ll make sure everyone adapts quickly. For example, when a crew member is absent – I’ll fill in and try do the job as best as I could.

Ryan mentally preparing himself

Unfortunately, that happened on taping day and I had to step in as assistant director – which is a very stressful job might I add, but like I said I adapted and just did it. Furthermore, I had to sometimes be the middleman between the crew members when they couldn’t directly communicate. In other words, I was the general supervisor of the crew. Also, I noticed that producers could “boss” around other crew members like directors, but simultaneously be their equal rather than being their superiors unlike directors. I found that “in between” zone to be interesting. In addition, producers should be in constant contact, so that everyone could be on the same page when it comes to making decisions – which is something that we practiced on this assignment. And, I learned that it’s very important to meet other people halfway when it comes to decision-making. A skill that I happen to have and was able to put to practice on the studio. Overall, I found myself, as a producer, involved in every little part of the production – from carrying props to the set all the way to helping the control room’s crew. In conclusion, being a producer was an enlightening experience that I would love to do again!!

Unfortunately, that happened on taping day and I had to step in as assistant director – which is a very stressful job might I add, but like I said I adapted and just did it. Furthermore, I had to sometimes be the middleman between the crew members when they couldn’t directly communicate. In other words, I was the general supervisor of the crew. Also, I noticed that producers could “boss” around other crew members like directors, but simultaneously be their equal rather than being their superiors unlike directors. I found that “in between” zone to be interesting. In addition, producers should be in constant contact, so that everyone could be on the same page when it comes to making decisions – which is something that we practiced on this assignment. And, I learned that it’s very important to meet other people halfway when it comes to decision-making. A skill that I happen to have and was able to put to practice on the studio. Overall, I found myself, as a producer, involved in every little part of the production – from carrying props to the set all the way to helping the control room’s crew. In conclusion, being a producer was an enlightening experience that I would love to do again!!

 

 

 

With regards to my second role, I thought it would be the easiest of the two – but boy was I wrong!! Apparently, standing in front of a camera and reading from a screen is super stressful and complicated.

I did many shoots for my segment, because of random unanticipated things like for clapping too loud, or my inability of wearing a raincoat like a normal person, or for talking too quickly. In short, I’m very sorry to whoever was part of the crew that day. But, Darcy, the director, shared my level of perfectionism and didn’t mind taking as many takes as it required to get it right – which I’m very grateful for. Also, being on camera gave me a better understanding of hosting and how to work with hosts when I’m off camera. Moreover, I learned that it’s better to keep calm and hydrated before going on camera as it will minimize the chance of unnecessary mistakes.

 

me @ shoot

 

Another struggle was the fact that I couldn’t see myself and the graphics, which limited my presenting somehow. Yet, direct communication with the director and DA (and Chloe…?) made it easier for me to coordinate myself within the frame. One thing I liked, is that I got to present my original idea, which is a very satisfying experience. Maybe because I was initially invested in the political issues presented, my performance was over dramatic and emotional. That’s also thanks to Ryan, the writer of the segment. Overall, I overcame my hatred for being the centre of attention and on camera, just so I can do the task as perfectly as I could. That made me realize how much of a perfectionist I am and that I could never stop trying till I get it right. Lastly, I chose this role to challenge myself, and now that I succeeded in overcoming this challenge – I became able to believe in myself and that I could do anything I set my mind to.

 

In conclusion, for an amateur crew we produced a good show. Obviously, more rehearsals and practice would’ve been better, but I believe our rehearsals were sufficient enough. In addition, unexpected tech issues sort of hurdled the production process, but again we managed to overcome that problem. We had a consistent amount of good communication and collaboration – everyone kept busy. Also, the fact that the crew members were hard workers made the turnout all the more professional! So, I’m quite proud of this segment and the way it came together.