In week 6, we were given the task in shooting and interpret the scene that provided by Robin. By choosing a SINGLE perspective from which view (and potentially, capture) that scene.

The second task is to choose between 3 and 6 perspectives from which to capture the scene

Overall, I think our group did well although our acting are pretty bad. But who cares? Most importantly we get to learn how to capture actors face expression and body language so that audiences can understand what is going on in the scene. I really enjoyed working shot exercise in class.

Exercise 2A

In this task, as i recall, it was a really fun experience for me. We were in group of 5 to shoot a self contained action and the content can be a ‘description’ in a single 50 seconds take. We discuss a few locations and end up decided to do a lift scene. Due to the location have many students passing by and we have to get into an empty lift, we have to catch the right timing to shoot. I think our group did fairly well, our story are quite straight forward and the audience can understand what message we are trying to reach.

Exercise 2B

In this task, I find it very challenging to edit a good and smooth scene because we shoot in building9 alleyway. The hardest section because there are too many people walking around in the university, when I come to editing, the backgrounds appears different people and I can clearly see in 0.15 seconds there are some random man trying to ‘join’ into our video. There is too many people, some are rushing to class or some walking very slowing. Different type of scene mixing together will make me thinks that our audience cannot focus on what we trying to present. I learnt to find somewhere peace and quiet place to shoot next time.

Exercise 3A

My experiment for abstract video was a little clueless in the beginning . Ali, Farina and I were in a group. Each of us decide to shoot two scene and see what storyline we can come out with when connect the clips together when we do our own editing. So, for my story is about a new fresh student observing the surrounding environment. He can see there’s a young man waiting aimlessly outside the building while playing his phone. The weather was very cloudy, when we look through to his eyes, we can understand that he’s excited but yet nervous. Seems like there’s a brand new adventures awaits him ahead to go through this semester. For example like learning new stuff, gain knowledge and meeting new people.

In this task, I will be briefly explain the visual style and treatment that I have in my mind. I think I will be mostly filming at apartment house. Due to this video having a limited narrative, I will need to keep audience to understand the story better through the location, camera work, editing and sounds effect.

Camera style

These shot on the video are the typical shots that I inspiration and taken from Malaysia Ministry of Health – Anti Smoking Campaign commercial. These shots will be as listed as below,

1. Full shot – The subject takes up the full frame

2. Mid shot and Medium close up (Similar) – Shows some part of the subject in detail

3. Close up – Certain subject takes the full frame

4. Two shot – A shot of two people

5. Noddy shot – A shot that refer actor listening and reacting to the subject

6. Weather shot – The subject of weather. For example, sun rise.

Then, my editing style will be adjusting the brightness/contrast, hue/saturation and shadow to make this video to be more effective to the audience. Then, in order to make the video seems to fit naturally with the song, the music needs to be in time with every single screen.

As I want the background to be simple and clear so I decided the first location will be at house backyard garden. The surrounding environment will also create a similar lighting effect seen in Malaysia Ministry of Health – Anti Smoking Campaign commercial. The dark tunnel which is brightly lit by natural light in the end. Besides, the weather conditions are also a important requirement during the shooting, for example, raining day may affect the light effect and filming effect. I think I still need to have improve for my visual style but that’s the idea I have for now so I will end my short briefing here.

Today as I was watching ‘Maiden Voyage’ by Denton Welch,is about a young teenager that finds himself in a stable that decides to explore the countryside even though he is advised not to do so. The opening lines of this passage establish the typical rebellious nature of an adolescent.  The character mentions ‘I hated to be dependent on other people. They would never want to do what I wanted to do’. This type of characteristic is mainly present in a teenager who doesn’t get enough attention. I realised how the director of the show used the “framing contexts” technique to help tell a story, which I found very interesting, as this was what we had just learnt in the class exercise. Everyone can be a storyteller — they tell narratives about their experiences and the meanings that these experiences have for their lives. According to Schirota and Yell (2000), I learn that a story or a narrative combines either real or imagined events that connect in such a way to provide a chain of events that are recounted to others.

The psychologist and narrative scholar Dan McAdams notes that people expect a story to have a number of features. All stories or narratives have a setting, which is usually made clear early on. When the setting is unclear, the listener or reader of the story may feel confused or bored.

The second element is characters — the players in the action. As the story proceeds, we learn certain basic information about the characters in the story — what they look like, how old they are, their dreams, wishes and so on.

Thirdly, we expect a story to have at least one plot — actions which have consequences and reactions to these consequences by and for the characters. Within this basic story structure, there are numerous variations that can enhance a story’s tension. As tension builds across episodes, we desire an eventual resolution of the problem faced by one or more of the characters.

Plot Point I :

• The Main Character
  Exactly who is your main character? What are his/her strengths? What are his/her weaknesses? What are his/her wishes and dreams? Whatever sense of normality your main character has is about to be torn apart.

• Location and Mood 
  Where does your character reside and how are the conditions?

• Genre
  It should be clear if the film whether is an action flick, a romantic comedy or horror film.

Plot Point II :

• Focus the main character to take action in attempt to solve the problem created by the inciting incident.

• Focus the main character on their ultimate goal.

Plot Point III :

• The climax is the biggest scene in the movie, the final battle between right and wrong, good and evil. Main character will save the day and resolve their problems in a miracle dramatic way.

In sum, I realised in order to create a masterpiece and impressive film; it will need to make an equally impressive start a writing project. I also understand that we must begin with a main character whose life is about to be turned upside down.

Reference:

May 15, 2009 – Schirato, T. and Yell, S. “Signs and Meaning.” Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2000, 18-33. Viewed on 10 August 2015.

Hilary Harris is an experimental and documentary filmmaker. I really enjoyed watching his short film ‘Highway’ in class. The sounds gave me a feeling of happiness and it is a fun and relaxing journey throughout the journey in highway. First of all and what I think is the most important component is the film score. The film score is the soundtrack and theme music which is non diagectic, these are important so the film can be recognised instantly and also that the music reflects of how the character is feeling or thinking or the music can help us think what is going to happen e.g. something jumping out suddenly. Sound now takes a significant place alongside language and visual images in the sounds distant in our environment, and will be a crucial part of sounds that I will learn to critically understand and use.

This week in class exercise, we were arranged in three peoples per group to record as many sounds as we can and have to make sure we do at least one from each section. With camera and tripod to collect 6 of ‘abstract’ film, each of them must be at least 3o seconds. My partners and me went Bowen street, which located right in front of building 9 to do the recording. We’ve agree it is the easiest choice for both of us. It’s was really great to have such a teammate, we did not really plan or rehearse, we just shoot whatever we have n mind and each of us get to chose 2 ‘abstract’ scene. We used different angels to achieve our scene. for example, shooting in low angel show walking speed and some random man waiting aimlessly outside the building. I think Ali suggestion was really good, because we only decide to focus the eyes.

It’s was really great to have such a teammate, we discuss together and I can’t wait to see the outcome and hopefully the record outcome wont be as bad as I thought it will be.

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A simple and quick story line idea for today’s class exercise.

Old lady sitting aside at the garden, handing holding a photo frame. Old lady are missing her son, she is looking forward to see her son. She is one of the old folk house members. The photo frames on the wall, show the memories between the old lady and her son. Kelvin, her son is a businessman, after he come back from work, face look tired and frustrated. Clothes are untidy. Due to the next day have a important meeting, the son fall asleep at 11pm. He never bother to give a call to the old lady, the old lady tried to call him many times but no respond. The old lady are disappointed and sad.

In group, film someone performing an action, then film someone else again, without the skill/experience performing the same action. In this task, we were required to use the Sony EX3, Zoom H4 and the clapper board. My group members and I came across many problems with the staging of our video because we had different ideas we wanted to shoot. Firstly we wanted to create the idea of a person singing, however there were more cons than pros and although this helped create a exciting feelings, in the end we decided to film the action of ‘dance’. This meant we had to show our video through symbolic movement. My group member Ali would dance and Mona will do the same action.

Ali did Korea pop song ‘Gangnam Style’ dance step, the signature movement like riding a horse and Mona did not know quite how to do it. On this task, there will be not linear due to the changes in location, we will be mostly filming at alleyway behind building 9. Due to this video having a limited narrative, we will need to keep audience to understand the story better through the camera work, sounds and body movement.

On the other hand, the challenge part was to record the sounds and movement separately, Ali suggested we should create our own sounds instead of playing song in our smart phone due to copy right issue, what he said was right so we decide to record my footstep and surrounding sounds like the wind and contractions going on lately in the city. I think this is a challenge yet interesting video shooting practise for us.

The first and second week of class activities are more likely the same. The first task that we were given is to do shooting with a camera and tripod, document a place, event and/or activity in a single 50 using Sony EX3’s. In groups of two, we were approximately given 15 minutes to think and how to present with a creative way to catch audience attention, as well as we were required to consider the objects, background, lighting and the camera movement.

Then, me and my group member decided to shoot in front of building 9, where they were group of people dancing. First, we filmed from behind of them dancing but unfortunately the whole objects seem like very messy then we do our second take, which is shooting right in front of them dancing, surprisedly the outcome were very good and the camera position is more wide. Shooting same object from different angel does make a big different.

The second task we were given is to record sounds by using H2. My partner and me decided to do recording in Building 9, level 2 study corner, as it is the first place that appear on our mind, is it because is big and silent. We can hear inside the study corner is people keyboard-typing sound and some of them are sitting down quietly to study; the surrounding sounds were very peaceful. Then we moved to second location, which is bathroom. All we can hear inside the bathroom is the water dropping out very slowly, the sound can consider ‘silent’ as there are no any sounds to distracts us away on focusing recorded the water dropping sound.

Afterwards, we also recorded the vehicles section. This section is the only section we have successfully recorded all in the mind list list. However, this section may seem is like the easiest to record but in fact, there are too many unnecessary noise behind the object when we recording, such as motorbike or even got people screaming around.

During the process of recording, I’ve discovered incorrect mic level can cause horrible humming. The most common mistake is holding the microphone too close or too far from the object. This results in in my record file sounding muffled and distorted, too distant or not the object actual sound at all. After several times of practice to use the recorder, I’ve learnt to set the volume controls so that the backing track is lower than my object sound.

According to Megan (2011), the author had given a survey and the results shows that more than 80% of media website are more likely to use online video to promote news. One of the reason of the media website decided to use video as their propaganda tool is because they believes people like things that have a human face. (Wanjie, n.d) Humankind are born with innate sense of curiosity, therefore, it is normal for people to trust in face to face encounters. Video should be professionally done as it provides into marketing campaign a face and it shows the identity to the company business website. Then, voice are also likely better in convincing people as compared to text. Video provide an alternative path for business people to advertise their website by having human voice and a real human face. Most people prefer listening as compared to reading because they want to listen to the content rather than just read, because sometimes they may find something that they do not understand. Therefore, it’s a good way to convince customer by telling the target audiences the story rather than letting them to read.

Then, some audiences may find the content that are portrays on the website might not be understandable. Most potential customer would understand the company better when it only talk about selling product or service. Instead, with the video it needs no effort for customer to read as reading might need time to assimilate the content. Then again, if professional videos are created that attracts customer through the easily understandable content, only then the company internet marketing will be more effective and profitable. Besides, the statement also supported by Drieier (2011), the author suggested that promote news through media is a ‘Smart Social Media Strategy’. Talking provide the information to emphasis on the product more effectively as through talking. With that, customer can feel the sense of emotional and passion towards the product. Most importantly, an understandable, clear, passionate and emotional voice can boost up the confidence of a customer towards your product.

In sum, having a video to promote news is the best creation in the media industry because media people understand that what is the public interest. With video business people can bring their business marketing to a whole new level by reaching potential customers on a more personal level than traditional advertising. And since it can be video is a powerful tool that it may also boost up customers confidence towards the company product.

References :

1. Megan O’Neil, 2011, 85% of Media Wedsites Now Use Online Video To Cover New, Social Times, viewed on 13 November 2011, <http://socialtimes.com/85-of-media-websites-now-use-online-video-to-cover-news_b60505>

2. Steve Wanjie, n.d, Top 5 benefits of using video testimonials to promote your business, viewed on 13 November 2011, <http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-5-Benefits-Of-Using-Video-Testimonials-To-Promote-Your-Business&id=6551896>

3. Troy Dreier, 2011, Promote Your Online Videos with a Smart Social Media Strategy, viewed on 13 November 2011, <http://www.onlinevideo.net/2011/04/promote-your-online-videos-with-a-smart-social-media-strategy/>