Studio Exhibition Reflection

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Watch The Alchemist

A young woman plans a dinner for the person she’s in love with. She researches herbal potions and spells and decides to make a love potion for him. She forages for flowers and is convinced she is doing everything right. All of the sudden, it starts to go wrong.

Though I wasn’t able to personally visit the studio exhibition due to the extremely unfortunate timing of illness, I hope my group’s final work communicated the high class element of “prestige” as outlined in the studio.

Prestige is defined as “respect and admiration given to someone or something, usually because of a reputation for high quality, success, or social influence” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2025). It’s attribution to our studio denotes a high air of professionalism and quality within our filmmaking, which was exactly what my group tried to do. It’s of my utmost hope that our film effectively communicates an element of professionalism and quality in the content we produced, and in particular, I hope that the audience viewing our film especially took note of what I believe the most successful element of our film was; our visual shot compositions.

I feel our film’s strongest elements as well as thematic ties to the studio concerns lie in our mise-en-scene and composition. Within the research for our film we heavily referenced (Horton A., 1992) elements of effective and satisfying composition such as the golden ratio, the rule of thirds and symmetry (DeGuzman K., 2022). We felt it was incredibly important to the production of a prestigious film that to the best of our ability, our visual film looked professional and consistently framed. We took a lot of care in setting up and planning each shot with a storyboard, shotlist and knowing our shooting locations. We wanted to plan as much as viable before shooting in order to ensure the visual composition was as consistent and clean looking as possible.

However in comparison, I fear that our film’s narrative may have suffered as a result. While we planned our narrative out effectively including various pre-production elements like scripts and summaries, due to the external context of filming (that being, it was one of many assessments we couldn’t dedicate all of our time to perfecting) we were technically and time-wise limited. We attempted to work around these factors by writing a story that had no dialogue, however it was difficult to adequately portray the depth and nuance of what was occurring thematically in the film without it.

If I were to continue working on this film further, I’d ensure far more time to work on its refinement. I don’t think there was anything wrong with our planning per say, but I believe having the time to reshoot scenes and having multiple rounds of feedback would’ve made it more successful and understandable thematically. As I spoke of before, the visual composition was effective in our film, however without a clear narrative (or a clear lack of narrative, for example in a psychological horror, Arthouse or abstracted film in which it may be purposeful), the shots almost don’t matter to a certain extent; there’s no point in beautiful shots just for beautiful shots sake in a narrative film. There was a narrative to follow for those paying attention, but I think we could’ve made it clearer with a few easy fixes, such as lengthening certain shots and utilising more props as symbolism and blatant foreshadowing tools.

Despite the improvements I would ideally make, I’m very proud of the film me and my group produced. In particular, I found it very valuable partaking in this studio and group project as it allowed me to succinctly develop very important soft skills concerning collaboration and control. For example, I don’t think I could’ve made something as high quality as our group did by myself. Throughout the studio, I had worked almost exclusively alone, and while this had some benefits such as total creative freedom and responsibility, it was also quite difficult. I often found time management a struggle and never felt satisfied with my end product as I wasn’t able to put in the extensive effort that I wanted to.

I found, however, through my working with my group that I was able to accomplish far more with a team than alone. I always find it nerve wracking to work with others on art, as it’s difficult for me to voice my opinions and visions, however this group was so supportive and engaged it wasn’t an issue. Instead of working totally alone to maintain my control on an artistic idea, leading to an often unfulfilling let alone stressful production and final product, I was able to delegate the workload equally with everyone, leading to much better work overall as there was far less stress concerning time, and we each picked personally what role we wanted in accordance with our strengths and weaknesses.

Having a group taught me the true value of collaboration; I had always envisioned other people’s ideas as useful, however this was usually only in relation to myself; other ideas and livelihoods were useful and interesting to use for my own work, to inspire me. It wasn’t about the value of the whole, it always came back to asserting my own work. I’m glad to say now that is no longer the case. This project’s group work showed me how beneficial it is to stand back sometimes and let others shine in their ideas and methods, even if they differ to my own. It was a uniquely challenging experience but certainly a rewarding one I’ll take into my future career and interpersonal relationships.

References

  • Cambridge Dictionary (2025). Prestige English Definition. Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/prestige
  • Horton, A. (1992). The “How to Write the Best Ever Screenplay” Book Biz. Cinéaste, Volume 19(2), 12-14.
  • DeGuzman, K. (2022, December 25). What is the Golden Ratio — Composition Technique Explained. Studio Binder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-golden-ratio-definition/

Golden Age Cinema Assessment #4

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REFLECTION (1 BLOG POST) – evidence of your work, thinking and making (60%)

  • Write an individual written reflection of up to 1800 words (this should be in sentences/paragraphs and include the questions in dot points)
  • This 1800 word reflection is to be compiled AS a narrative, in the one post:
  • A) Firstly, write 500 words (approx) describing what you gained from the studio and answer these two questions:
  • In what ways do you hope your final work (whether individual or group produced) engages its audience and communicated a key concern of the studio?  300
  • Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece (e.g. to screen it somewhere else like a festival, or develop it into a different kind of work, and so on) – what would be the core things you want to improve and extend and why? 200

I worked with my group to create The Alchemist for multiple weeks in order to bring the film to fruition. I’m very proud of all of our efforts and found the experience greatly helpful in developing my relationship with my peers, as well as general collaborative skills.

Now that our project is finished, I hope our film details a twist in the narrative, subverts audience expectations, and ultimately portrays complex themes of feminism and identity.

When we initially began our planning amd pre-production process, we found that we all connected over a shared interest in the genres of psychological horror and thriller films, and were similarly inspired by similar media that encompassed these themes such as Midsommar (Aster, A., 2019) and the painting Ophelia (Everett, M., J., 1852), as well as the inspiration found in real life events.

We found that the use of mise-en-scene and visual composition really drove our inspirational process, and was the predominating factor we explored in regards to prestigious filmmaking.

It was in this facet of our production and thematic intentions that I found collaboration to be so intrinsic to our success as a group. In the past, including numerous times throughout this semester, I’ve struggled to articulate my larger ideas in a satisfying way; I always found it immensely difficult to achieve what I wanted to in terms of purposeful and detailed framing, optimal camera work and even most aspects of pre-production quickly became overwhelming.

I found that collaboration was a very welcome addition to this final assessment, and made it all go far smoother than previous projects I did alone. It was immensely helpful, as my group and I were happy to communicate with each other frequently, and all of us were more than willing to take on numerous tasks so nobody got overwhelmed or thought that the workload was unequal. This was a huge relief, and I feel that because everyone was working together, we were all able to contribute a lot more thought and time to how we wanted our film to look, feel and be interpreted.

As one example, while three of us planned the logistics of our filming day, I drew up numerous pages of storyboards (an example/page as shown below), while another member did the shotlist. Not having to worry about doing all of these tasks alone took a load off my shoulders, and allowed me to spend far more time on my tasks to ensure they were done to the best of my ability.

The Alchemist storyboard, Matylda O’Sullivan, 2025

Though I’m proud of what we produced and believe we worked together very well, if I were to continue working on the film, I think I would spend more time planning out every detail of the production, particularly giving more time to perfect our visual composition and narrative storytelling.

I’m generally quite pleased with the mise-en-scene of our film, I believe certain shot compositions we created are prestigious by definition (e.g. symmetrical, utilising effective lighting, using the rule of thirds and golden ratio etc.) however, I still believe there is room for improvement. For example, some shots in the kitchen/dining scene are well composed, but others, such as when the girl opens the door I feel are lacking in adequate and effective lighting. If I were to work on this film further, I’d take more time to develop a strategy in lighting and research effective set ups such as the three point lighting set up (MasterClass, 2021) and rent out lighting specific equipment rather than just a camera and tripod.

I would also take more time to flesh out the narrative if I were to work on this film longer. Some components of a vague narrative are impactful and work well, particularly within the horror genre, however I feel our narrative needed to be clearer in order for the full emotional impact of our work to be realised.

  • B) Then, write 800 words (minimum) of the following:
  • You will present all that you’ve worked on since Week 8 – your pre-production, experiments, images, clips, scenes, tests
  • This could include the draft edits, sound mixes and colour grades – and of course, the reflection associated with it
  • More scene deconstructions and analysis most welcome.

The pre-production process for our film was a long one. Though I discussed the tangible logistics of our production above, the planning and pre-production phase was relatively thought out. From the beginning we had a clear idea on what we wanted to do; we wanted to create a short film that detailed a subversive narrative, and focused on the aesthetic value component of prestigious filmmaking within the concept of golden cinema.

We planned out our story quite well, and developed numerous preproduction experiments and references including a mood board, a script, storyboards, shotlists and prop lists. These all made the process of organising filming a lot smoother. While in some areas of the film there were a few moments of guerilla filming (Applegate, M., 2016), ultimately, the storyboards and shot list were followed quite closely, leading to a more cohesive and consistent mise-en-scene and visual composition throughout our film.

We also paid quite close attention to the continuity and details of our film. For example, in the shot where the candle blows out as the man is poisoned, it took around six separate takes to shoot correctly, yet we persisted until it was a success in order to increase the tension and sense of dread in accordance with our thematic intentions of the film. We also focused on our prop design as a means of immersing our audience into the narrative we presented. For example, the shot of the girl picking off the flower petals is a reference to the classic adolescent rhyme/ritual of determining someone’s feelings for you; “he loves me he loves me not”(The Simple Things, 2018). We included this reference within our prop usage to signify the girl’s naivety and represent how she is out of touch with reality. The girl is clearly an adult, and referencing a childish nursery rhyme before concocting a dangerous potion (that later turns out to be poison) emphasises these pivotal traits of her character.

Another detail we included in our film was the candelabra prop. The usage of the candles situated on the table in front of the girl once she lets the other person inside of the house, subtly implies to the audience that she is on a date with them, or otherwise romantically involved due to the cultural connotations associated with a “candlelight dinner” (Alison, 2019). This prop is further utilised thematically later in the shot when one of the two flames blows out. The two flames are representative of the girl and the love interest’s livelihood; once she mistakenly kills this other character, their romantic flame metaphorically and literally goes out due to his passing.

Sound design was another component of prestigious filmmaking we heavily took into consideration when producing The Alchemist. In accordance with warnings and feedback from our professor, we made sure to include minimal dialogue in our initial planning of the film; we realised that an expectation of prestigious filmmaking is very high sound quality, and because we weren’t confident we’d be able to achieve this, we kept our sound design plans to predominantly sound effects and music that we could ensure were recorded in a high quality over our own handmade diegetic dialogue that may not be as strong and difficult to re-record.

In our original draft, we did have one line of dialogue, that being the rhyme “He loves me, loves me not”, however in the final edit, we decided to cut it as we felt a singular line of dialogue near the start of the film, and then complete silence for the rest of the duration was both awkward in terms of timing and not impactful enough to keep. We also were aware of the expectation of consistency within prestigious filmmaking; we worried that a singular line of dialogue, especially one that simple, would set up audience expectations of further dialogue, and hence our film would fail to remain as impactful in its narrative and design once audiences realised there was no more speaking to occur.

We focused on the sound design more heavily instead. By the end of our editing, we had over fifteen sound effects credited within our film, not including music. In our second editing session, we observed each shot closely to fit each individual sound effect in at the perfect timing, taking several hours of laborious watching of the footage over and over again. We knew the expectations of a golden age film included high quality sound, so we found each sound effect manually and recorded in high quality across various sound effect sites. In our original draft, we were also going to use a microphone to manually dub over the shot of the girl picking flowers saying the rhyme, as a further emphasis on how important we knew clean and crisp sound was for prestigious filmmaking and audience expectations of such.

Finally, we had a large effort placed on consistency and continuity within our film. Throughout the film it may be noticeable that props are placed in the same position across the numerous shots. This was actually difficult to do. When we were all editing together as a group, we realised a lot of our footage had inconsistent prop placement due to the nature of filming scenes out of order, redoing shots etc. It took quite a few hours of editing and all of us pouring over each detail in each shot to order a consistent prop placement as best we could with the footage we had.

Film link: The Alchemist

Pre-Production folder: Pre-Production Documents – The Alchemist

A mediafactory Vimeo link (see here) of your edit of the film is to be embedded in that post that we will put on the website. This writing must be done regularly, not in the days before it’s due.

LASTLY:

  1. C) Write one reflection on, or response to, the content of the Presentation in Week 9 by student work other than your own (minimum 500 words). The link to student presentations to review is here: (LINK IS HERE: Assignment 3 Powerpoint Pitch Presentation Group Folder – Week 9)

All the things I never said intrigued me immensely when I first saw the presentation by Patrick, Cheuk and Lachie.

The idea of a story about motherhood and the feminine connection between maternal ties and child sounded very touching and beautiful.

I was also interested in their presentation due to slide 4 (Prestige Cinema Research) of their PowerPoint and how they detailed a key emphasis on emotional and character driven storytelling. I appreciated how their story was deceptively simple, being about the relationship between a mother and daughter during a hardship, however equally had the potential for immense emotional qualities. Seeing this presentation made me wonder about my own film, for example, thinking about how emotions dictated my own film’s narrative, or whether we relied too heavily on the physical action of potionmaking.

I also appreciated the method and means through which the group planned to tell their story. The idea of a letter being used as a means of narration over the shots shown, is one not commonly done in media. While of course there are outliers, most of the time the audience’s expectations of a prestigious film correlate with a three act narrative (Horton, A., 1992), conversations happening directly between characters, and the film detailing a relatively linear timeframe. I respected and was interested in how the group went against the expectations, but not enough to completely go outside of the requirements of making a prestigious film; I thought it was unique and inspiring.

I also thought it was clever from a logistical standpoint. By creating the film within the explicit premise of memories, there was a lot of room to play and experiment.

The shots could be filmed in a far easier, straight on view if they wished, to mimic a stagnant POV shot, rather than mimicking the often complicated tracking and panning shots used in prestigious cinema to showcase multiple characters at once. Dialogue would also have been much easier to input, as none of it would necessarily need to have been recorded live. It would’ve been entirely possible for the entire letter to be dubbed from one of the group member’s homes if they needed to and had access to a microphone. This would also add the benefit of re-recording if needed. Presuming the actors live further away, in a worst case scenario in which all group members and the actors couldn’t meet up again to film or record lines in an editing suite at RMIT, a last case scenario could allow the voice lines to be recorded online. Ultimately, the premise is extremely flexible if anything went wrong, which I appreciated and admired.

I also appreciated the twist on many student films of the drama genre. From my own experiences at least, I often see student drama films that focus on failing romantic relationships or friendships, very rarely do I see any about family. I thought it was a unique and welcome touch, to create a story about the bonds of family within external strife and how this manifests into conflict.

References

Assignment #2

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Link to film: MatyldaO’Sullivan_ s4003371_Assignment2_GoldenAgeCinema_2025.mp4


What you were trying to achieve in terms of critically communicating about Framing in Film and explain the method in which the editing process was used to attempt this?

Within my film, I mainly wanted to communicate a concept of mundanity; in the wider context of this hypothetical film, I’d like the protagonist to go on a journey from finding his life tedious and boring towards self-fulfilment. I was inspired by Irshad Ahead’s notes on Satyajit Ray, and his filmic themes of human experiences (Ahemad, 2024) as well as by Jason Mittell’s notes on prestigious cinema. He quotes, “…In the twenty-first century, much of (filmmaking’s) cultural legitimacy was earned by distancing itself from traditional feminized genres such as melodramatic soap operas and embracing the cinematic and literary cachet of “serious drama”(Mittell, 2020); upon reading this, I wanted to increase my film’s aesthetic as a prestigious one by avoiding traditionally looked down upon genres such as comedy, and why I instead chose a melodramatic drama.

This scene would take place early in the film, in the aftermath of a key event. I wanted to showcase the concept of “in media res” in a way that was outside of my first thought about what that phrase might mean.

When I personally think “in media res”, I immediately think of what’s being shown on camera as being in “the middle of a scene”. The easiest way, I believed, to portray this in my assessment could be a literal showcase of a smaller section of a scene, such as a 2 minute car chase that in a hypothetical film would actually be 7 minutes long. Likewise I considered filming a conversation, or a robbery or some other obvious event. I felt like I had to depict something clearcut and definable. Upon brainstorming for my assessment however, I found that that wasn’t the case. My film is edited more akin to a montage than an obvious event taking place. I utilised long, drawn out shots, as well as the repetition of shots in my editing, to really highlight the monotony of the protagonist’s life, and how miserable and tedious it feels to him. The montage takes place in a few days evenings, and showcases the action of a transitionary period in the protagonist’s life; though he isn’t in the middle of a daring fight or rain-filled romantic confession, it’s still “in the middle of” the action in his (boring) life.


How did your preproduction/production/post production process go and what would you do differently/improve next time? 

Admittedly throughout this assessment in particular, I struggled a bit with completing it. In the early stages of my preproduction, I had difficultly coming up with adequate ideas; I felt that all of my ideas were too big to explore or weren’t feasible to make within the time frame I was given. I also struggled time wise as I had another assessment due the same day initially, and as I had been sick I was struggling to complete them both.

In the production stage however, is where I encountered the most difficulty. I was originally editing my film on my laptop, as I prefer the portability of it, however I encountered a lot of issues. From running out of storage space that didn’t seem to clear no matter how many items I deleted (or how many hours I waited for it to unfreeze) to turning itself on and off again, I had to remake my entire film on my computer at home. I was granted a week extension which I was grateful for, however it was still a challenge recreating all my work from scratch. To make matters worse my actor was suddenly called to work a lot when I was trying to film with him, meaning I had to push filming back way later than I’d like to in order to complete the assessment requirements.

If I were to repeat this assessment again, I would do a lot more planning in the pre-production stage. I think if I had settled on an idea very strongly in the beginning, even if it wasn’t an idea I was thrilled about but was one I was confident I could produce into a film by the due date, I would’ve had an easier time planning and utilising the cinematic techniques and exploration that I truly wanted to. It also would’ve helped me film more and better footage with my actor in the time that I had, as well as recreate my film faster.

 

Your reflection should also include commentary on what you thought the most and least successful parts of your In Media Res sequence were, and why so?

I personally feel that the most successful part of my film was the implementation of my thematic intentions. I feel that my use of editing, such as the repetitive shots, long takes and grungy, sickly yellow colour grading, contributed greatly to the feeling of monotony I was aiming for. I also feel the mise-en-scene and shot composition was effective. In inspiration to Chris Cable (“Finally, the last shot visually doubles the love triangle theme by framing Fran between the two men, a framing that is repeated throughout the film.” (Cable, 2007), in the long shot of the protagonist at the bench, you can see a myriad of dishes in the background; this contributes not only to a general sense of relatable monotony in chores, but a specifically stressful and overwhelming tediousness. I personally feel like washing dishes is a never-ending sport, so I wanted to represent some of that emotional subtlety in the physical composition of my scene. I’m also quite happy with some of my other uses of composition in my work, such as my use of line and shape. In the hallway shot, the door is heavily contrasted against the light of the walls, and because of the perspective, the eyes are naturally drawn to it. This long stretch of mostly open space further emphasises the semblance of monotony and isolation the main character feels; there are no family portraits on the walls, no interesting furniture or knick-knacks, not even an accented rug decorating the floor, it’s only a plain expanse, highlighting the boredom and misery of this man’s life.

In comparison, I felt that the least successful parts of my film were the sense of story and character. Though I was happy with how my theme of isolation was depicted, I worry that this emotional interpretation wasn’t especially clear to an audience, who might simply think it’s a montage or series of shots leading up to something such as a jump scare in a horror film, only to be disappointed. As I didn’t get too much time with my actor, I wasn’t able to fully develop the emotional response I wanted to in my film (though I do think there is a certain power in looking in on the actor from far away present in a lot of the film’s longer shots). I feel if I had had more time with my actor, I could’ve developed a more impactful sense of emotive storytelling, so it’s a shame I ran out of time for this.

References

– Ahead, Irshad (2024). Shadows and Light: Exploring the Legacy of Golden Age Cinema, The Seybold Report, 19 (1): 854-862

– Mittell, Jason (2020). Better Call Saul-The Prestige Spinoff, How to Watch Television (Second Edition), 1:13-21. New York University Press, New York, USA.

– Cable, Chris (2007). Two Modes of Prestige Film, Screen, 48(3): 291–311

 

Week 4 Blog Post: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/04/01/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w4/

Week 5 Blog Post: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/04/06/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w5/

Week 6 Blog Post: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/04/12/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w6/

Timeline screenshot:

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W6

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This week I continued production on my assessment 2 from home, however encountered some technical issues. I had another assessment due so I did university work from home this week to have more time to work, however I struggled to work on this class’s assessment. Because of this I was granted an extension until next week, giving me more time to work out my technical issues and finish off.

In terms of production, this week I’ve predominantly been editing my film. I encountered a lot of issues with storage space, lag and my computer turning itself on and off, so I’ve decided to try to edit it on my PC instead. I usually don’t do this because I prefer the portability of my laptop to do university work specifically (e.g. being able to work on it in class or show the teacher any work at that moment rather than waiting to email) but unfortunately to get this assessment finished I think I’m going to have to deal with it.

The main issue I’ve encountered has been trying to portray a story with minimal footage. My actor fell through last minute and was called in to work earlier than usual, so I wasn’t able to film as much footage as I would usually. I’ve been exploring a lot with how to portray a story with unrelated clips because of this, and it’s been an interesting learning experience!

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W5

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This week I continued to develop my ideas regarding my assessment 2 project. I found the class discussion on colour grading especially inspiring in my decision-making.

I noticed in my last assessment I didn’t really consider the impact of colour in mise-en-scene, or even the effects of colour grading too deeply. I’m not sure if I’ll have the resources to adequately express what I want to in my film, but I’d at least like to think about it more this time around and play.

In reference to my ‘lonely coffee break’ idea from last week’s post, I was looking into art for inspiration. I consider myself far more of an artist than a filmmaker (I predominantly partook in this degree to learn about different art forms as they pertain to a modern media landscape, rather than a passion for filmmaking) so I really appreciated the video Cat showed us in class encouraging us to use art as inspiration. Below are some possible inspirational pieces I’m considering replicating or taking visual inspiration from within my film.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. At night

At night, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1912, 95×87 cm

Female Artist - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - 1910

Female Artist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910

I also found upon studying the work of other cinematographers that I vastly prefer style over naturalism. I feel the whimsy of a Wes Anderson film is far more effective in emotive storytelling than an obsession with naturalism. This also comes back to my identity as an artist first, filmmaker second; film is an art form, and a method of storytelling, why waste the dullness of reality on an infinitely explorable medium?

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W4

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Though I was sick this week so I wasn’t physically in class, I began work on my assessment 2. My primary goal this week was to cement an idea for the assessment, and to get the majority of pre-production done.

I looked into the concept of ‘in media res’, and wanted to really hone into the idea that my scene is taking place in the middle of a hypothetical film. What this entails in terms of my thinking, is that it can be lacking in as much context as needed, and that in order for it to make sense, audiences shouldn’t fully understand what’s going on (with the idea being they would watch the rest of the movie to gather the context in its application).

I’ve explored a few ideas, of which I’ve elaborated on below;

  1. An artist painting a portrait, ending in an emotional climax. The audience doesn’t know who the subject is, and why the actor is so emotive about them.
  2. An action chase sequence; upon watching some of the class’s assessment 1 videos, I was inspired to think about the possibility of something outside my comfort zone, and how I could utilize colour and shots to more effectively create an aesthetic.
  3. An argument phone call: I wondered if this could be more realistically filmed without much hassle, and as it’s such a simple concept I could focus more on emotional depth and shot composition.
  4. A lonely coffee break: I liked this idea as no dialogue is required, and because it’s an intimate and emotional concept, I could focus a lot more on shot composition and especially, colour grading and mise-en-scene.

 

I think number 4 would be the most effective to implement; I feel that an essence of loneliness could both be emphasized using colour and particular prop placements, as well as still work with naturalistic lighting as a plan B if I can’t use lighting how I wish to. while I would prefer to allow my creativity to be pursued, unfortunately realistically I need to consider where and how I can film with what materials I have available. Loneliness is often associated with blues and dull colours, I think this is the easiest to do with the lights I have and cellophane as an exploration of colour and visual stimuli within my films to ‘level up’ my filmmaking so to speak.

Assignment #1

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Onedrive link: s4003371_Matylda_O’Sullivan

What were you trying to achieve in terms of critically communicating about Framing in Film and explain the method in which the editing process was used to attempt this?

Throughout my film, I was primarily trying to communicate a semblance of insanity and overall thematic meaning of overconsumption. Upon reading Irshad Ahead’s ‘Shadows and Light: Exploring the Legacy of Golden Age Cinema’ (2024), I was heavily inspired to research modern internet sociocultural occurrences in the digital space, such as the phenomenon of ‘elsagate’ (Ishikawa, 2019) and the concept of ‘brainrot’ (Eberle, 2024). Irshad states, “The socio-cultural context within which these films were created significantly influenced their narratives and themes, reflecting the prevailing ideologies and historical events of their times.” (2024), in a similar notion, the exploration of a modern social issue to myself greatly inspired me. This inspiration was similarly emphasised by another author, Ishita Babba’s  ‘Evolution of Cinema’ whose explanation and timeline of the ‘Golden Age of Cinema’ reminisced with my own directive intentions.

Prior to filming in the early stages of my pre-production, I found frequent evidence of a deterioration in attention span and artistic analysis within the modern consumer, with comments on popular social media such as ‘X’ frequently denoting how a modern audience doesn’t want to “read all that” (@SciAdvSeries, 2025) or insisting that critical analysis of events, behaviour and media “isn’t that deep” (@BloodborneKartX ). I was fascinated by the shifting cultural attitudes towards analysis, academia and art, and I wanted to reflect a sense of insanity and deterioration in both attention span and psychological fulfilment within my film. As Kelly Lawler acutely states, “There’s just too much TV” (2019), hence I wanted to explore the effects of such a paralysing amount of media on the human psyche.

Throughout my film, I utilised editing in particular to achieve this. The long, drawn out shots are a purposeful juxtaposition to the protagonist’s vacant and emotionless, almost exhausted stare towards the camera. I input multiple instances of a static sound effect used in traditional television that generally indicates a swapped channel, but is also relevant in modern digital media such as in vine compilations (macetama, 2018). I intentionally used this sound to relate to my audience of Gen Z, or current 20-25 year olds; this group of people are a fascinating audience, as they both experienced a time in which the internet and its prosumer content (Nanjundaiah, 2025) was in its infancy, hence the popularity of television, as well as the digital boom of the 2000s and explosion of media content. I used this sound as I wanted to encourage reflection in my audience, and attempt to steer them away from the fast-paced consumerist culture of the modern media landscape. By using a sound both reminiscent of my audience’s childhood, and its modern utilisation in internet culture, I encourage them subliminally to contemplate their past selves, and modern behaviour/ attitudes towards hyper-consumerism and content creation.

I also utilised other editing techniques such as fast-cuts, time manipulation, colour grading and music to encapsulate these themes. Throughout my film, there are both long cuts as I mentioned prior, as well as rapid cuts towards the climax of the film. This choice to include quick-paced cutting was purposeful in emulating my thematic intentions. The physical fast cutting of the shots and rapid switching between scenes and content confuses the viewer and represents the man’s descent into consumerist insanity; the clip choices were also purposeful, for example, cutting between a vibrant party scene to flashing coloured lights, a slime video and the eye motif makes it unclear if this is something the man is watching or thinking about, or if this is reality he’s experiencing or remembering. I wanted to emphasise a notion of the loss of touch with reality that comes with consumerism in the modern digital landscape, and the blurring of worlds. The man is losing his ability to differentiate between a memory or a fabricated absurd reality, and this notion is explicated by the panic rising as he fervently swaps between each clip or memory; reality is unclear, all he knows is to consume.

How did your preproduction/production/post production process go and what would you do differently/improve next time? Your reflection should also include commentary on what you thought the most and least successful parts of your Prestige Cinema Opening Scene were, and why so?

My pre-production admittedly wasn’t as thorough as I would’ve preferred it to be, however due to my late start in the class I didn’t have as much time to catch up. Regardless, my pre-production consisted of a few key events; first, I began to brainstorm ideas. I looked towards inspiration and media I enjoyed, and basically analysed them in terms of similarities such as genre consistency, character tropes, editing effects and more. I ultimately settled on three key films as my primary inspiration, those being Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ (2018), Jane Schoenbrun’s ‘I Saw the T.V. Glow’ (2024), and Gaspar Noè’s ‘Climax’ (2018). Though none of these films were overtly referenced in terms of narrative, their themes of psychological horror, community, and use of powerful and purposeful editing inspired me. For example, in ‘Climax’ there is a club scene where there is incredibly fast-paced editing. The camera shifts and cuts between the cameras within the flashing lights, emulating a sense of chaos. I used a similar technique in my own editing as an homage.

 


An exert from my notes in the pre-production stage.

The next part of my pre-production entailed a more detailed analysis of what I wanted to achieve within my film. My films are almost always guided by a goal or guiding principle, whether this be narratively or thematically, there always must be a purpose. In ‘AMALGA’, this purpose was of course to portray the theme of consumption in the modern media landscape. I utilised various techniques such as brainstorming, storyboard sketches and physically writing questions I thought important to consider, in order to settle on a purpose for my film that asserted a value of mine and that I was intrigued by.

Once I had explored ideas, I began to film using my phone and a tripod. I found filming a little difficult at times, particularly when it came to close-up and extreme close-up shots. Filming my actor from afar was no issue; my phone would comfortably be supported on the tripod, however when I tried to film extreme close-ups, I found it hard to find somewhere to balance the tripod, hence it was mainly filmed handheld and therefore shaky in some sections and a little difficult to edit at times. If I were to film again, I believe I would be more prepared to film with the equipment I had and the shots I envisioned. For example, implementing even something as simple as finding some boxes to rest the tripod on or making some strange mechanism to attach the tripod to my body so I could hold it steadier would be considered.

Personally, I feel the film’s thematic vision was the most successful part of its production. The strange and off-putting aesthetic, and general sense of uncanniness present was intentional and successfully implemented I feel. In comparison, I consider the colour grading the weakest part of the film. I feel the colour grading was subpar, and if I had planned more efficiently, I could have greatly utilised light and colour to my thematic advantage. I find that the film looks slightly dull and empty, and while this was in part intentional to showcase the protagonist’s immense disconnect from reality, perpetually living in a state of disillusionment and nonchalance, I think more details in the mise-en-scene such as an obsessive amount of objects, showcasing implicit character traits like hoarding as a method of consumption, or alternatively, an eerily vacant space representing how consumerism has taken over the man so much he no longer pursues anything else, would increase its effectiveness.

Sources

 

Screenshot of completed timeline:

Signed release form

Pre-production storyboards

Week 1 Reflection: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/03/17/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w1/

Week 2 Reflection: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/03/19/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w2/

Week 3 Reflection: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/matylda-osullivan/2025/03/19/golden-age-cinema-reflection-w3/

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W2

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What key learning did you do in this week’s workshop? Reflect and describe the main conceptual elements of this studio that you learnt. Reflect and describe the main media making elements you experienced and completed. 

Throughout this week in class, we discussed different auteurs and film director’s personal styles, and how that contributes to their visual work. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s meticulous use of framing, or Kubrick’s use of colour in his films. I found these references inspiring to my own developing ideas for the upcoming assessment. In particular, I was interested in exploring colour/cinematography. As a visual artist, I’ve always been heavily fascinated by colours, hues, saturation and values, and how these communicate ideas to an audience visually. My artistic background I feel is a strength in this regard, as it can translate quite readily to film. I find tonality is intrinsic to colour theory, and I take great interest in how directors utilize it.

In my own film, I’d like to at least note and basically manipulate colour using Lumetri Scope in Premiere Pro, even if the editing isn’t largely noticeable or especially important. At the moment, I’m currently thinking of creating a psychological horror film, so I doubt much vibrant colour exploration such as in a Wes Anderson film will be present, but a more grayscale or muted colour scheme may be used.

 

We also learnt about how to use Sony Fx3 cameras. I’d previously used these cameras before in previous seminars, however I found it valuable to quickly relearn the ropes as I had forgotten a lot of information on how to use them. I’m not sure if I’ll use these cameras for my assessment, as they’re quite difficult to transport to and from the city as I live an hour away, but I haven’t yet decided.

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W3

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What key learning did you do in this week’s workshop? Reflect and describe the main conceptual elements of this studio that you learnt. Reflect and describe the main media making elements you experienced and completed. 

This week, I primarily learnt more about the logistics and intricacies of framing, particularly in regards to the golden ratio.

I’d previously heard of the golden ratio, and admittedly, I struggle to understand its applicability in framing. I understand that the golden curve is supposed to be an intuitive ‘ideal’ of framing and design placement, however, I struggle to differentiate how one can tell if the golden ratio is in the correct place. For example, below I’ve attached where I think the golden ratio would go in this scene, but I struggle to understand if I’ve put it in the right place, as all three characters are narratively important, and the one on the left is left out of the ratio completely, therefore is this scene correctly attributed to the golden ratio? Or is this scene not an example of the golden ratio at all? It confuses me admittedly, but I am interested in the concept and hope to understand it better by the end of semester.

Parker, O. (Director). (2018). Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again [Film]. Universal Pictures.

In terms of production, this week I’m cementing my final assessment due Friday, with my current progress being to finish my final. I’ve successfully completed my rough cut, and the feedback I received was very valuable. Initially I was worried that my film didn’t look prestigious or film-like enough as I  filmed it on my phone, but Cat assured me it looked ‘filmic’ and that she was happy with the clear vision I presented. The main feedback I received was to fix the sound, as the soundtrack was too loud and other sound effects were inconsistent.

 

References

  • Parker, O. (Director). (2018). Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again [Film]. Universal Pictures.
  • N/A (N/A). Golden Ratio Generator. Golden Ratio Club. https://golden-ratio.club/ 

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA REFLECTION: W1

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What key learning did you do in this week’s workshop? Reflect and describe the main conceptual elements of this studio that you learnt.

Due to this being the first week of semester 1, I primarily learnt about the class goals and overviews of future assessments. I also learnt some key course definitions such as the basics about what framing is, and how to define the golden age of cinema as a continual concept being explored within the class.

I found that framing primarily refers to how all elements of a frame are positioned in the camera’s view, such as props, actors, and VFX. I’m not yet sure what the difference is between framing and mise-en-scene, but I look forward to learning more about it.

Likewise I also discovered that the class’s titular reference to a ‘Golden age of cinema’ predominantly refers to a few key time periods in which filmic uniquity and revolution occurred within the cinema space.

According to Ishita Babbar (2024) in his journal article “Evolution of Cinema”, this was especially prominent in 1927 when technological advancements such as the invention of ‘talkie’s’, and the implementation of technicolor technology “…revolutionized the film industry, dramatically changing the movie experience for audiences around the world.” (Babbar, 2024).

References

Babbar, I. (2024). Evolution of Cinema. International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, Volume 6(Issue 2), 1-4. https://doi.org/xxxxx