As per lecture –  in a sequence you’ve called ‘colour’ you will have clips that are indicative of a particular colour or lighting state. To the right of that clip you will have that same clip repeated 2 or more times with different colour grades on it.

Take screen grabs of each clip then upload to your blog the series of stills that show us ‘before and afters’ of your colour grading. Provide a few different examples of at least two different clips – each with a description of what you did to the clip and why.

 

Before/After

I adjusted the color temperature to a slightly warmer level, to give it a more balanced look throughout the documentary. As this was shot with a D-SLR, the color temperature preset was set to 3500k, as to even out the sunlight. With the limited amount of time with the interviewee, and the constant change of exterior color temperatures, I could not afford to stop the shoot and change my color settings every time the sun goes out.

 

 

Before/After

As the colors of our interviewee’s skin looks a bit pale, I gave it a slightly sharper contrast to give him a more natural and lively look. This also brings out the subject even more from the busy background.

 

You were asked this at the beginning of the semester. Now, could you review constructively what you got from this semester –  has the course lived up to your expectations, delivered what you expected, maybe even surpassed it?

After tedious weeks of filming (tedious, but fun, nonetheless), creating a documentary was, as expected, insightful and intuitive, as I learned to assimilate a more personalised approach to filming. We didn’t have as much of a time constraint as compared to Film/TV 1 and I thought this gave us much more room to improvise on our script and structure. I felt that NOT having an initial storyboard made us feel ‘unrestricted’, and unbounded us from the conventional ways of documentary production.

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that interest you, something you could apply to your own documentary.

“They were to be flies on the wall.”

It intrigues me, observational cinema. Watching “A distant gaze” further reassures that statement. It never occurred to me to approach a documentary in an observational way, maybe it is because I am so accustomed to the conventional ways of documentary making. Anything, and everything has to be narrative-driven. Come to think of it, it would be interesting to infuse observational principles our existing documentary format, and for once, allow the stories to tell themselves.

We filmed a segment of our documentary in a warehouse, with large potential of ambient sounds to intrude the voice and space of our interviewee. There were numerous cuts in between a conversation while filming due to planes and helicopters passing through, and constant car honking. We wouldn’t want to strain our viewers too much as to decipher the spoken words of our interviewees, therefore we had to place our sound person as close as possible to them, and to notify us of any substantial noise intrusions.  This is not to compromise the communicative intent of our film.

Ruoff, Jeffrey. Conventions of sound in documentary. In Cinema Journal,  vol. 32, no. 3, 1993.

“From a distant gaze …” (1964) directed by Jean Ravel, picture Pierre Lhomme & Chris Marker, words by Louis Aragon, narrated by Jean Negroni, music by Michel Legrand. Describe a few things that intrigue you – it might be shot construction, camera work, editing, overall structure, thematic concerns etc. Describe the camera work and why you think it has been shot that way.

This film, for me, is an amazing spectacle of observational cinema. It offers a wide spectrum of people with different style, age, and occupation. I like how the frame is constantly filled with an object, be it people or inanimate objects. As suggested by the title, I enjoy how the camera acts as an observer. We have a tendency to look and observe, the behaviour of other people and our surroundings. It really puts me into perspective and it is as if I am really there. The usage of cars passing by as transitions work really well, it is as if you are standing on the opposite side of the street, and the moment you lose sight of the subject, you lose interest.

Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that you use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts). Find the keyboard shortcuts for Premiere (hint, film-tv blog) and note four or more functions that you’ve never used before and why they may be invaluable to your editing. (Different functions to what you wrote last semester)

As we are working on a documentary this semester, there are bound to be interviews. CMD+T (Title) was helpful for me to add titles quickly to each and every interviewee in our documentary.

CMD+A (Select All) allowed me to easily select all the videos in my sequence for easy navigation and moving them around to suit my needs, and without ruining what I already put together.

As we used both a DSLR and EX3 for our documentary, M (Marker) allowed me to add markers to my video clips and significantly eased the process of syncing my audio and video together.

In this clip from Forbidden Lies, Anna Broinowski’s 2007 film: describe in detail all of the audio, how it may have been recorded/sourced and how you think it has been edited / layered in post. (You do not need to describe how the music was recorded)

The audio in this segment is very prioritised because the message it is conveying is fairly crucial in . The clip begins with a music parody that is in accordance to a book that is claimed to be an accurate depiction of life of women in Jordan. It was mostly ‘foley’ sounds like a car driving past, birds chirping, and a scarf in the wind that accompanied the music. About 30 seconds into the music video, the music cuts off as though a tape recorder has stopped and a female voice interrupts, after which it introduces itself as Rana Husseini. The introduction was accompanied with prayer calls, a symbol of the Muslim community in Jordan.

There is a constant use of jingles, chimes, and rattles to further emphasise the ‘lies’ and misrepresentations that is present in the book. Silence underlines the interviews. There were also a few occasions where the voices of both women overlap and it gave me a sense of mockery. When more ‘lies’ were uncovered, the music gradually shifts to a more upbeat tone, giving the clip a light-hearted feel.

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

In documentary storytelling for film and videomakers, Curran Bernard writes on approach. He says that there might be added value in ways of conducting an interview. I find it quite amazing because I recently watched 60 Minutes by Nine Network, on Australia’s most hated couple. The interview gradually became more confronting, and all I noticed was how the wife repeatedly backing his husband, despite constantly being put in a bad light due to his wrongdoings in the past. This eased the amount of tension that surrounded the interview, but to me it somehow looked like an intervention.

“Your approach will evolve as your knowledge of the material increases as you have a better sense of what’s practical…”
I always thought that there was no definite answer to this because what is exactly ‘practical’? What are supposed to be good films/bad films? I mean, I encourage myself to experiment with different ways of approach towards films. So is there really an impractical approach?

 

Curran Bernard, S. Documentary storytelling for film and videomakers, (p. 27-37, 63-73, 75-79, 193-194). Burlington: Focal Press, 2003.

Paste the link here from your version of the abstract editing exercise.

Then reflect on the whole process – Consider: the quality and usability of your recordings; the effect of layering and juxtaposition of both the audio and the video and; the things you learnt from working with this kind of audio and video.

My abstract exercise.
The quality of the videos were not as good as I expected because some of them turned out to be slightly out of focus. When we were recording sound, we had no specific focus as to what we wanted to record. However, on the day we recorded video, we were informed that it was to be themed. Thus, we went for loneliness. Result: The ongoing background music and constant chatter that accompanied the lonely main character depicted isolation. Surprisingly, forming a connection between the audio and video was relatively easy. The beauty of abstract is it does not specifically convey meaning.

 

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you. 

In “Imagining reality”, Pawlikowski reminded any other aspiring film-maker out there to not blatantly record material, but instead place them in a way that you yourselves would see it. He pointed out the “problem” with current society is that film-making is accessible to anyone who owns an electronic device with editing capabilities. Film-makers are prompted to give their documentary form, to which is what that would ultimately define their work.

“The most successful documentaries nowadays seem to be those made by people with a lot of time on their hands, people who can stalk their subjects five or ten years or more…”. I find this to be an erratic issue as some documentaries like Modern Love – Beyond Love can have an idea revolving around a general theme, but it kept me interested through it’s style of execution and narration. If film-making is so accessible, it means that watching films should be effortless. I believe that with the abundance of platforms that allow you to watch videos could also mean that any good film, has the potential to “make it”.

In the lecture we screened a short film called ‘End of the Line’ – the film shot in Broken Hill. 

Please describe in 300 words or less if you think they achieved what they set out to do.

I feel that the producers have succeeded in terms of execution and choice of cast. “We want the footage to make the audience realise how small they are in comparison to nature,” I feel that their approach towards a documentary which has somewhat a mystic undertone has been successfully brought out through the sublime outback, along with the personalities that accompanied it, i.e. the elderly woman who went there just to spend the remainders of her life. I like the seclusion and isolation that is portrayed by the cast because it somehow compliments the entire setting of the documentary. I liked that the producers did not include a narration because the personality brought out by the people justified their intentions. In terms of aesthetics, some of the shots were beautifully constructed, in which, without any verbal explanation, carried meaning. Some shots, however, like the cutaways, were shaky and I think it, in a way, disrupted the calmness of the film.