Jun 07
This piece presented a lot more issues than expected. The most disastrous being my actor pulling out and as a result of this, my shooting location falling through. Due to family issues the friend who I had organised to shoot with on my last day with the camera was unavailable. I had intended to shoot in his inner city apartment as it had better spacing for the shots I desired. Specifically his apartment had enough room to film behind/around him as he completed dishes, washing and sat in his room with his air conditioner running.
The result of this was having to film in my house which arguably was not to problematic however my house does not have visible air conditioning units or ones that make enough noise to record.
Nonetheless I utilized the space I had available to me. Overall I was reasonably happy with the video, however it happened a little rushed as I filmed with my housemate quickly before he had to leave. This didn’t affect the overall piece to much however I would have liked to had a few more takes of the final shot as it all happened a bit rushed and I didn’t get to make the slower audio transition from outside ambience to music.
My choice to film free hand was purely for experimentation as I had not yet done this on an assignment. I was happy with the result of this however do regret not taking the shots on a tripod as well as a point of comparison.
Reflecting on this piece I would have allowed myself a little more time for error and I think the takeaway is to fully rely on your actor and have time and plans as a backup.
Jun 07
This piece was based of my 6th observation which focused on a young man smoking outside a large shopping complex. Overall I was very happy with the outcome of this piece. After Robins assistance in our meeting I had a very clear idea of how I wanted it to look and upon completing it it was almost spot on. The concept I has was to begin the shot very close to the subjects face and slowly zoom outwards revealing his location. The idea was to reveal, as described in the observation, the no smoking sign he sat underneath and a police car just down the road from him. The biggest issue I ran into with this shoot was trying to do so when a police vehicle was there. This created issue for two reasons. First of all it is a very common spot for police vehicles to park however of course on the two days I had allowed for shooting, no cop car. I checked the spot continuously as my subject worked close by and had agreed to run out and help me whenever the moment struck. Unfortunately it didn’t and I had to film before needing to return the camera.
The second issue which only occured to me as we began filming the piece was that my subject was smoking under a no smoking sign. Which is not exactly legal. Regardless I think the shot worked even without the police vehicle there. The slow reveal of the sign produced the same intended effect as making the subject appear rebellious or at least very apathetic and the continuous reveal of the surrounding area made the shot interesting enough to watch.
Sound became a bit of an issue as well as the audio recorded both with the shot and after filming suffered from some serious wind noise. I had the camera over a weekend and unfortunately the weather did not permit me to get any wind free sound in the city. This lead to me using an external source ‘Freesound.org.’ From this site I found a recording of melbourne streets and edited the sounds, such as tram bells and footsteps to be placed appropriately in the video.
I think audio is something I still need to develop my skills in as I was unable to deal with wind noise however I think the solution as well as the piece itself were positive results.
Jun 07
For my final reflection of this studio I will be focusing on the advancement of my skills, specifically camera and writing. Whilst this is the first studio I have completed in my degree I did have a little bit of prior knowledge of how to use a camera, however under Robins tutelage i’ve been able to seriously advance my technical skills. This semester was the first chance i’d had to use a camera as advanced as the Sony EX3. All my previous works had been completed using a DSLR or simple video camera so I was severely overwhelmed when it came to my first individual assignment. Whilst I understood most of the concept relating to how to correctly shoot an image I had little experience with gain and exposure which is evident in my first assignment. I think progressing through my assignments an increase i my ability to correctly adjust the camera in order to achieve the right shot has progressed and i hope it will continue to do so through my course. The introduction to a camera with as many variables as the EX3 proved a rather challenging task and there are still areas which I need to improve in as I regularly find myself having to reshoot something due to something being breezed over in the set up.
I think my writing has seen less of an obvious development however focusing on observation was never something I had put into practice before. It felt reminiscent of journal entries however after a few classes I tried to distinguish a difference between these two things. I found it easiest to achieve this through removing myself from the situation where I could in order to create an omniscient view of an event. I did find it hard however to see much filmic potential in a lot of my observations.
Overall i am happy with the progress made though this class, I still have areas I need to put more time in and I am excited to achieve this through continued coursework.
Jun 07
A reflection on the semester and class as a whole is one of positivity. The advancement of my skills in both writing and technical aspects is probably the main take away however I will discuss these in a separate reflection. In this reflection however I intend to focus more on the process of the class and the material presented. Whilst I admittedly regret my low attendance to the class I did find it my most engaging this semester. I think this is heavily due to the ability to be creative and experiment with both film and writing. Whilst other classes feel far more academically structured, in terms of conforming to essay structures, referencing systems, scholarly readings etc. Translating Observation however provided an ability to expand a skill set I find far more valuable than producing essays and presentations and allowed us to lead our assignments where we wanted to take them.
Further I found Robins approach to film making incredibly compelling. His outlook on film itself and very much the focus of the class seems to reflect the incredible importance of all film, regardless of scale or subject. The materials presented in class also provided a wider view of the world of the moving image and its history. This has instilled in me a greater appreciation of my ability to create content. In a world where mobile phones have allowed everyone and anyone to create, edit and upload videos it almost feels like its losing its importance. People’s ability to instantly become their own content creators has lead down a path which negates the thought and specificity which in the past has made film so important. I think Robin reflects a similar opinion as he encouraged us not to think of filming as chore of the modern world but rather a privilege, something we should do not because we have to but because we want to.
Jun 07
After my meeting with Robin regarding the thirds assessment piece I came away feeling a lot more confident in my ideas after he gave me his views on the concepts. Whilst I had a rough image of the pieces I wanted to make I had not got much further than just finding the inspiration for these videos. First we talked about my observation 6 which will become my first video.
The image I had of this piece would have played much more as a reenactment of the observation. With cuts and varied shot lengths for dramatic effect. However after a discussion with Robin and his input on the use of zoom I intended to use the piece turned into something slightly different. Robin suggested slowly zooming out from the subject smoking rather than zooming into him. Whilst this seemed obvious I had originally intended to make the piece focused on the man smoking and his inner world, toying with the idea of a voice over. This idea of revealing the world around him however had a far stronger reflection of the observation written.
We further discussed my second piece which used Darcy’s observation 4. This piece focused far more on sound which was why I selected it as I had not played with sound as much as I would have liked to. Robin had some technical advice for me regarding this piece and gave his approval of the concept. This one far more recreating the sequence following Darcy’s description including cuts and sound editing than the first piece I intended to make.Overall the meeting was of positive outcome, it helped me both alter and solidify my ideas as well as confirm with Robin that I was on the right track.
Jun 07
For this reflection I decided to expand on some notes and ideas I jotted down regarding the potential use of one of my observations as a subject for filming. My fourth observation revolved around the design of a vaporizer which had a metallic rainbow colouring to it. The reason it had originally caught my eye was due to the way in which the colours seemed to shift and change as the man using it moved it around. This lead to a focus far heavier on colour than the idea of ‘vaping’. My notes reflected the idea of filming as many different colours in everyday objects as I could. The piece would mainly consist of extreme close ups potentially of different advertisements, street signs/ lights, vehicles etc. and whilst I never developed this idea to the point of location scouting I intended to take two shots for every colour of the rainbow. The problem I began to ran into with this rather abstract piece was creating ways in which I could keep this an engaging and interesting piece. As I began to brainstorm areas of strong colours I struggled to assess how I could make these aesthetically pleasing. I noted varying my shot types/ angles and trying to vary the subjects I filmed as much as possible could improve it overall. I further struggled with how to edit it. This lead me to play with the idea of the ‘dancing’ of the light reflecting off the metallic colours of the piece. I thought through the idea of filming and editing it so the colours moved into and out of frame. This would have consisted of panning the camera in one direction and editing this together as if the images were rushing past the screen.
Ultimately I decided against this piece as it seemed to vary to far from the original observation and presented some aesthetics issues. Before arriving at this decision i spent some time as went about the day trying to notice colour in different objects. This proved rather fruitless as I struggled to come up with enough subjects which could be shot in an interesting manner. Instead going with one of Darcy’s reflection, with his permission of course.
May 03
For my ‘advanced video piece’ I intend to visually recreate my observation number 9 which described my encounter with a young woman who had fallen asleep whilst doing uni work. I was very determined in this piece not to just have actors recreate the scene as I feel this often comes across a little corny and I don’t know any world class actors. I also wanted to avoid using an actor in the sequence as much as I could following a conversation with Robin. We had discussed how using shots other than those of an actor allowed me to portray what the observation meant to me as well as showing the girls story.
I decided to use a smaller number of shots which would repeat themselves and gradually speed up. The shots consisted of everyday actions, making a coffee, completing uni work, having a cigarette etc. These images repeat until finally there is a cut to black and a young woman waking up dazed and confused after falling asleep. Through this I was attempting to capture the reason for her exhaustion without directly filming her face looking tired.
The sound quickly became very important in this piece as I wanted them to stand out as the shots got shorter the focal sound was repeated, the pouring of coffee, the ashing of a cigarette the sound of an alarm clock. This quicking of both sound and image is intended to recreate the stress of routine, as the shots repeat the sounds become more abrupt and in your face, much as routine wears down someone and becomes harder.
In reflection of the quality of my piece I was happy with everything visually however, can see some room for improvement in sound. I hired out a shotgun mic so I could really get decent sound however was given the one microphone which doesn’t have phantom power. After changing the batteries I still had some strange crackling sounds in the shot of the cigarette being ashed and I could not work out the reason for this. I also failed to get a clear recording of the pen scribbling on paper which was due to some poor preparation and by the time I realised this it was too late. Overall the piece came out how I had expected it to and I am happy with my result.
May 03
‘Passionless moment’ provided an interesting parallel to what we have been doing in class over the last 7 weeks. The short film very much seemed like it could belong to our class, being a collection of observation of everyday life. What was especially inspiring about the piece was the ability of the combination of sound and visuals to draw you into the story and to feel as if you were experiencing whatever drama, confusion, contemplation etc. occurred in the clip.
The example which stuck out the most to me was the non-diegetic sound of the explosion and count down clock used in conjunction with the young boy rushing his string beans home before they explode. This use of sound provides an insight into what the boy is imagining however without this the whole scene would seem rather bland.
The entire short film also provides a strong example of the importance of voice over. As the individual sequences play out their would be next to no understanding from the audience what they are looking at, a woman rolling around on the floor with some meat, a man stretching in a room promoting sex? However, the use of the voice over give an insight to what is arguably very mundane and boring clips of people going about their everyday life and makes them into a spectacle to watch.
I think that within our class a lot can be taken from this. I intend to take a similar approach to developing my observation, with simple images and a strong focus on sound I want to create a story which is not necessarily just re-enacting what happens in my observation but giving its audience images which provoke thought. By this I mean I want my audience to be active in taking the shots in the clip and constructing them for themselves rather than just watching someone acting out having a long day and falling asleep whilst working.
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