I am very happy with the final product of my work. It may seem cocky to say that I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I really don’t. I don’t even think that it’s possible to due to all the time I have put into working on it. 

It was such a learning curve and I personally had to learn so many new skills. I appreciate that side of the assignment that I am able to come out of it with new skills as well as a piece of work that I am proud of. This work is something that Charlie and I originally had intentions of entering into a festival. I am not too sure on where we stand with that right now but it is something that I would love to do, because I am proud with the outcome of the documentary and also because I put in the effort of potentially entering it into a festival.

 I think if I were to still work on this film, I would want to expand on other things that Sylvie has done in her life that she spoke about and mentioned in her our long interview. Looking back at it, there are so many doors we had to shut when it came to Sylvie’s story so I think that one day I would like to release a longer cut of Intoxicated. On the technical side of things, I think Charlie and I got a great foot in the door with mixed media. Charlie and I both noticed that there is a visible difference in some of the mixed media works that she produced, so you can really see the learning process (or at least we can). I think with that in mind, if we were to expand on the Sylvie story and show more of her life, it would be really bizarre and experimental and hopefully perfectly capture the punk life that she lived.

I am very interested in how my specific product represents the real world considering that a majority of it is made up of heavily edited footage. I would say that the mixed media b-roll in my film is not necessarily there to reenact certain scenarios or events that are being talked about in the documentary but rather to represent them more abstractly.

 For example, toward the end of the documentary, we purposefully avoid using the mixed media b-roll that we made. The reason why we used a naturally shot b-roll in this section is that it was our interviewee was talking about a very personal and sensitive topic. We did not want to take away from it with lots of drawing and paper cutouts so instead, we let her tell her story instead of us doing it. 

I think that this highlights the dynamic as well as the type of documentary I had made. I made a film that would be considered a participatory documentary due to the way both me (the filmmaker) and the interviewee take turns in telling the story that is being told (Bill Nichols, 1991). I think that shot that comes right after music from Intoxicated with the pause in black is really impactful and does a great job of representing the real world. I think it shows that even in such a fun and powerful story like Sylvie’s there are still moments of struggle, which I believe that specific show captures well. It is the first blank black shot in the whole film and comes right after Sylvie says “That’s it”. I subvert the expectation of the viewers who think that the documentary is coming to an end once Sylvie explains why she and her band broke up. Yet it gives a new insight into something bad that happened and how someone recovered from it, which I think is a very accurate representation of the real world.

I usually don’t work with people on uni assignments because I think it can be hard to trust other people to do work how you would want it to be done. However, for this assignment, I thought it would be a good idea to work in a group because I wanted to create something more ambitious and be able to be proud of it and show people, but also because in the industry I will have to work with people. 

Something I have learned is that you will never make a film alone, so it is important to have not just good leadership but good teamwork skills as well. I had a good time working on this film in a group and I think that is because I had a really good filmmaker working alongside me. I know this won’t always be the case, but I think that if all members communicate about what they want to achieve you will be able to work it out. We both early on decided that we wanted to take the assignment a step further and create something that could potentially be submitted to festivals. With this in mind, we both knew that we had a big workload coming up. Our work took a very long time to finish but we still made sure that we followed our original agreement of working on it together while together. Although we would have been able to work twice as fast we did not want two weak voices showing throughout the documentary, rather one strong and unified one. This approach definitely has its pros and cons. It requires long working days many hours long together and can be a difficult approach for people who work better alone or when they’re in bed.

 I think in the future I might approach collaboration differently, not necessarily because I don’t think my current method is effective but just to experiment and see if there is something that might work better. I think that when I have a tighter deadline, I would have to divide work and make sure that it is done individually because something I learned in my filmmaking experience is that it took many late hours fo both people to stay in the edit suite. I think that this experience has made me more open to working in groups and collaborating with other people because I know that I would not have been able to create something that I am proud of if it was just me doing all of the work.

I learnt a lot when filming this documentary, that I never would have really even thought to be something to learn about. I knew that it was essential to make sure that the person being interviewed is comfortable and felt safe, but I didn’t really know how to be able to do that. I was surprised that something as simple as accepting tea and coffee when visiting someone’s house can mean a lot to the person offering them (Rohan Spong, 2023). Due to this our interviewee, Sylvie was very open and personable with us while we were there. 

Another thing I learned through my group member Charlie, was the importance of establishing a relationship with the subject prior to the shoot. Due to this pre-established relationship, Charlie and Sylvie had (just through staying in contact with each other and messaging). Something that I struggled with and would like to improve going forward with future projects, is showing the work in progress to the interviewee frequently. I would make sure that Sylvie had verbal updates on how we were going with the interview and that it is still happening and being worked on, however, I don’t think I really showed her videos, cuts or even photos of what was happening. I think that it’s important to show the person you interview your film before it’s published after all they are the reason you could make it. (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2016). There wasn’t a situation where the interviewee was unhappy with something they said or how they were portrayed in my film, but it is definitely something that can happen to me in the future. Moving forward I will make sure to give somewhat frequent updates of how the film is going. Hopefully not just verbal updates but a mix of photos, videos and whole cuts. 

Other than adding, becoming friends with the subject in future ethics charters, there is nothing I would really change about mine, instead, I would make sure to frequently check in with my charter and make sure that I am following what I have written.

This is what my group has agreed needs to be done to complete the documentary…

• Finish creating all mixed-media sequences
• Enact Rohan’s feedback on our piece’s hook (having Sylvie first appear via audio only)
• Shoot record player footage + intersperse throughout film
• Cut ummms and ahhhs
• Add more b-roll to the timeline
• Create larger gaps/pauses
• Create points throughout where the track ‘Intoxicated’ or Sylvie’s bass playing returns, rather than just at the start
• Use keyframes to give an animated effect to our defaced country women’s association stills, and hold on them for longer
• At the very end, focus on the grade and sound mix more closely

week 3 exercise.mp4

I think my editing depicts State Library as a place that is very busy and is always in motion, but it also the moments of calm in between the rush.

1. Turn the camera off at the request of the participant (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2016).
2. Show the participant the finished film before the public (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2016).
3. Love the people that you film. (Rachel Boynton, DOC NYC, 2016).
4. Do not go in with the intent to trick/manipulate the participant.
5. If the participant is unhappy with a certain show re-do it.
6. Use language that the participant can understand (don’t use filmmaking language that they may not understand)
7. …
8. …
9. …
10. …

https://online.fliphtml5.com/dsodv/bjcf/

He was the first person I asked to take a photo of. I missed his name due to the abruptness of him leaving for his train. I felt invasive taking his picture even though I had permission. He was calm and seemed unbothered by me, almost like this was routine for him. “Yeah sure”, was the only answer I ever got from him (not that I am complaining). At the point of adjusting my camera settings, he seemed more confident about the results than I was.

I felt guilty taking this picture, almost as if I had gotten away with stealing something. When I asked them Sam jumped in front, not even letting his partner speak. He was excited to be there and be photographed, to the point where he was overlooking his girlfriend’s clear discomfort and disagreement with the situation. I was happy with the lines in this photo. Verticle and horizontal, it told me that this couple was meant to be here at this time, everything aligned almost too well.

“An Israeli and a Spanish person meeting in Melbourne like this doesn’t make sense.” The happiest people I met to day, surprised by their own company. Migrating from Spain and Israel, meeting in Sydney and losing contact, only to find each other again. Even more, surprises occurred when I asked them if they were a couple and delivered different answers.