Analysis/Reflection 2 – QUESTION 4

In the tute we screened a short film called Rolling – a film made in Film-TV1 a few years ago.

In 300 words or less describe what you thought worked or didn’t. At this stage we don’t expect you to have a great deal of film knowledge or language. Don’t be afraid to use your own words. Things you could talk about – script, casting, timing, camera movement, location. You may not remember much detail, if so, it could be helpful to talk about your first impressions, after all this is what most of us are left with after one viewing.

Rolling is a great , simple,straight forward short film that satisfies every requirements of a 5 minute film project. I love the fact that the movie is in a reverse order, when they showed the room full of toilet papers at first , making us the audience keep wondering guessing this odd event. Then through out the film, they smartly answer the question in a real simple but solid way. In another word, the script was executed perfectly, hands down to the script writer by successfully delivered a well done 5 mins short film.

As the director of photography and the technical person of our group, Rolling is a great example that I bring up every time we have group meeting , to remind others that we only have 5 minutes to deliver our story , straight forward just like Rolling did.

The location was really smartly picked. 2 easy locations, the grocery store and a small cozy apartment were good enough for a 5 minutes film.

On the other hand, the casts were really interesting. The star , the main character of the film, was amazing. He successfully portrait the image of an insecure, shy and awkward guy when it comes with girl, just like the director wanted. His facial expressions changes following up the atmosphere of the conversation , both funny and awkward at the same time. Unfortunately , I find the girl’s character was bringing the whole level of casting and expressing down when she sort of acted really unnaturally and can’t be compared with the amazing performance of the guy.

Another dislike was the camera movement. Some of the shots were not based on the rules of third and some were out of focus ( the scene when he opens his doors for the girl ) .
But overall, Rolling is a perfectly directed short movie that almost every viewer have good first impression watching it.

Analysis/Reflection 2 – QUESTION 2

Select from one of the readings, up to but not including Week 5, and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

Week 3 Reading – Sound Recording

According to Week 3 Reading – Sound Recording, I find 2 sound recording elements/technique that are completely new to me.

Indoor Recording is one hard process , according to the reading. Not only the barren walls and floors can affect the quality of our audio but also other really small things in a room that a microphone can recorded. Having no experience in sound recording, I find the solutions really helpful by hanging blankets on the walls , potion box or soft furnishing to break up the path of the sound waves; keeping the mic cables well away from electrical cables to prevent the picking up of a 50Hz hum from cables.

Microphone placement was another key point that I learned out of Week 3 Reading. Doing a site check and check the type of connection points before shooting is needed. This process struck me , as a director of photography I find this small process really important cause I didnt know such small work decides the good or bad slow flow of the shooting day. And a camera mount is not recommended to place your microphone because it will record the camera person’s voice, breaths and so on.

Analysis/Reflection 2 – QUESTION 1

In the film Clown Train how does sound contribute to the atmosphere of this film? Describe what you heard? Can you make reference to another genre film and how they utilise sound to create tension and a unique filmic space?

The sound plays the most important part in Clown Train, in my opinion, creating the whole intense and horrifying atmosphere of the film. The 30 seconds introduction sound itself helps building up the idea for viewers to start wondering and are really curious and attracted. Along the film, the perfectly recorded and put-in sounds of the flicking lights, the ambiance sound of the train itself, the air-condition, the drums and of course the scary background music contributed a really significant role creating unique tension and building up the 2 characters, the guy and the clown.
Referring to Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004) . As Harry is on his way toward Hogwarts, their train got intercepted by grim reaper. As soon as the train got stopped, the atmosphere transforms from a safe and cosy mood into an intense and scary atmosphere as the grim reaper slowly walks on the wooden floor of Harry’s carriage, with “total” silence, the sound of the train, of Harry’s breath and the background music. They are all so pure and perfectly recorded and overlaid, create an amazing tension for viewers.

HP 2004

Slow & Fast

Light, Non Light and Shadow

6 Second Videos

https://vimeo.com/88718071

https://vimeo.com/88718070

KINGBACH

Here’s my favourite “viner”, Mr. KingBach

KINGBACH THE VINE KING

He makes funniest videos in 6 seconds, and I love his jokes on Jordan Shoes.

and this one about The Hunger Game is also hilarious

with Vine, embedding videos in blog post is easy because you can clearly see an embed link right below the video to copy and insert in your blog post. And the videos will keep repeating till you pause, because it’s only 6 seconds and people usually watch it more than once.

IPHONEOGRAPHY TIPS AND TRICKS

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CAPTURED-BY-IPHONE PHOTOS LOOK GREAT?

Here are some tricks and tips for you guys to have a nice, artistic online presentation 🙂

First, the APPS ! Here are the name of some must-have apps on your iPhone / Android : After Light, VSCO CAM, Picsart, Mirrorgram, InstacollageFree, Instagram, etc.
Don’t just use 1 app at a time, use multiple ! Always try different apps for one photo! For example this photo I made just with my iphone :
I used After Light for retouching color such as applying Black&White filter, add more sharpness and shadow. Then I chuck it to Mirrorgram, which creates a reflection to makes it look kinda abtract. Then with Picsart, I layer another photo onto my current photo, as you can see in the photo above.
After Light’s filter “Russ” is the key. Always use that. Your photos will eventually turn out good whenever you click to that filter. If you like faded film color for you photos, use VSCO CAM, my second favourite photography app !
There are certain modes that affects greatly on a photo such as Brightness, Contrast, Sharpen, Saturation, Crop, Rotate, Temperature. Make sure you understand and play out with them with your photos.

Looking back at how you capture a photo with an iPhone. Its not hard, but no easy either. Switch to HDR to get the finest quality photo. Hold still when you click capture cause it takes up to 1 or 2 seconds to render the photo you just took in the best resolution. If you wants to focus something, touch that object, or hold your finger there and the focus length will locked, which also helps you to have nice bokeh photos,just like on a DSLR camera. Then, use crop smartly to get the good composition out of every photo.

With food photography, try capture your meal/dish up above, 90 degree from it. Make sure you clean out all other unnecessary items on the table.
With landscape photography, always use HDR. Then throw them into After Light and increase the Clarity section.
With street-life photography, always try Black & White filter. It will look more abstract and soulful.
With fashion/outfit photo, remember a good composition is a full body one, don’t take away the feet or some of the hair. Make sure your whole body is fully in the imag

here’s some useful few techniques how to shoot with an iPhone.

Olinda

The previous long weekend ( Australian Day ) was great.
Me and my girlfriend went on a 2 days trip to Olinda, Dandenong.

It was 1 hour by train to Croydon, then another bus up to the mountains to Olinda. The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed it.

The best part of it was our accommodation. We stayed at a beautiful cottage on the hills , surrounded by tress and flowers and the sun shining through the leaves to our bedroom window.

I brought a tripod with me so we improvised cause the landscape there was beautiful and myself as a photographer can’t just look. Dressed up with a couple outfit, we really enjoyed what we captured there. So here are some photos of us in Olinda.

People there were nice and friendly. We had dinner at a bar/restaurant and breakfast at a lovely cafe shop the next morning. Everything was so nice and peacefully.

Such a good getaway trip !

More photos are on my page LinhLuu Photography .

THE LONG TAIL

Chris Anderson outlines that the Internet affects heaps on business these days.

In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

Websites such as Amazon, eBay, and iTunes clearly are the most popular online sales site, but what are their gains? True, they do have strong demand but their supply don’t satisfy the needs of customers, but the rest of the market goes on for a long, long way – thus Anderson speaks of it as ‘The Long Tail’.

More than half of Amazon’s book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles.

What Anderson’s research has shown is when the demand for niche products is served, there is actually less interest in the hits and the customer is more likely to be satisfied with their product purchasing outside of the big sites. With Music, Spotify is a good example. They have a wide range of music genres, and its free.

Anderson shares a 3 point guide to how online entities are seeking to gain the most out of the Long Tail:

1. Make Everything Available

2. Cut the price in half. Now lower it.

3. Help me find it

The example of Spotify above successfully achived the 3 points.Therefore they are now growing bigger and bigger.

LinhLuu's.

El blog de Linh.un fotógrafo ocasional