I hope my final work engages my audience by making them look deeper into my thematic concepts; I worried when making the film without prior context/ scenes to set up the narrative, it wouldn’t make sense or be as fulfilling. For example, I don’t think Mariah’s supernatural ability or motives were explored as effectively as I’d have liked, but I believe the essence of her being predatory/ the ‘villain’ was portrayed, even if the specificity of being supernatural wasn’t.

I also hope that the small performances I depicted (in comparison to larger ones, such as Mariah’s exaggerated “What did he do babe?”) added a sense of contrast within the film, and highlighted the difference in personality of these two characters. For example, I wanted Dorothy to act as ‘the voice of reason’ almost in the film, and be very rooted in reality. One way I wanted to express this is her reaction to Mariah’s forwardness, and questioning of her motives despite their relationship as strangers. In comparison, I wanted Mariah to act (literally) otherworldly, and heavily exaggerated/ strange in her mimicry of human behaviour.

I believe the most successful component of my work was the filming; I’m happy with how the shot composition and actor placement/action turned out, and though the narrative context was simple I was satisfied with the amount of physical movement in the scene, feeling it engaged the audience without seeming unnatural.

In comparison, I feel the audio is the most damaging aspect of my work. Though I tried multiple ideas and solutions both before and after filming, unfortunately the audio is what I’m most disappointed with in my work, and something I will pay far more attention to in future practices.

To begin with the obvious, with more time on my hands I would completely redo the audio; whether that be from rebooking the actors and dubbing the content with them, dubbing the content myself, or even reshooting the entire scene, I would make certain this time that I did the audio correctly. I would also utilise more close up shots/ shot variety based on feedback from those who watched my film; it became evident that other people couldn’t tell who the main character was at times, and felt some emotional beats were lacking due to shot choice. I would also utilise more light sources; while I’m still satisfied with how the film ended up looking visually in the final product, in an ideal scenario, I’d play around a bit more with lighting set ups and possibilities to examine how these add or detract from emotional moments, key character arcs, the horror genre and more.

One key thing I’ve learnt from my studio experience this semester that I will take into my future practice, is the value of research. I attempted to do research on my film equipment before using it, and found that this helped exponentially in making the filming process quicker; I followed a tutorial to set up my camera, and I liked how everything turned out besides from the difficulty I experienced transferring files I filmed in 4K. I found that by researching prior to filming, I was able to set up the camera in a way I (mostly) liked and save a lot of time in setting up quickly as I knew I had limited time with my actors/ as a courtesy to my actors. I was also able to save time and confusion by having knowledge about how I wanted my film to look visually through things such as mood boards and reference images, as well as communicating frequently with my actors on components of their characters such as costuming.

One key takeaway I’ve found while working collaboratively is the importance of explanation; though I wrote descriptions of actions and character traits in the information I gave actors prior to filming, some things still weren’t clear and took a little explaining and elaborating for all of us to be on the same page about my artistic vision. For example one of the lines in my film, the simple “He what?” reaction by Mariah about Dorothy’s partner’s unfaithfulness, was shot multiple times. The actor and I kept exploring different ways we could portray Mariah’s character, such as outraged versus surprised, disgusted versus threatening and the differences between these tonalities/performances in accomplishing a shared vision of what we wanted the film to be.

I also found that sharing ideas among collaborators was helpful and inspiring in completing production. I appreciated the actor’s input and ideas on line delivery or movement, and even fellow crew members had moments of shared knowledge and useful advice. For example, even outside of the hypothetical or alternative ways to showcase performance or shoot a scene, just having a crew member to listen to the audio and let me know if there was something noticeable in the background the microphone picked up on I may have missed, or noticing a technical error such as a character sitting on the left in one shot then the right in another, was immensely valuable.

References

– Wake Up, Matt. (2024, May 30). Sony FX3 – How to get the BEST video settings 2024 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GCrxfLeHVto?si=FL9S6pO2pTdAZyhm

– Olufemii. (2019, April 25). How to Make Proxy Files in Premiere Pro – 4 Minute Tutorial [Video]. YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1brgwMfb4&t=19s

– Fstoppers. (2023, September 21). Rode Wireless Pro Beginners Guide/Tutorial [Video].

Workshop Reflections

Mock Audition exercise

Clip0002

Throughout the process of the audition activity we did in class, I noticed initial feelings of anxiety and hesitance. It was a strange juxtaposition to me, I was excited and eager to have a go at directing mock auditions using everything I’d learnt in the course, but I also refused to go first, or second, or third; I felt the need to study what everyone else did first, to make sure my idea of direction was “correct”.

In such an earnestly creative field like film and performance, it was confusing, to worry so much about conformity or ‘being like everyone else’. I’ve always been of the opinion that art is the act of nonconformity and outrage and expression, so I didn’t understand why I was so hesitant to go first; it wasn’t like me exploring how to direct an actor was controversial in any way like some art is, it was by all means a safe environment of exploration.

There were of course benefits to allowing others to go first, observing others directorial processes inspired me to add or negate qualities in my own, such as witnessing someone introducing themselves and using utmost manners when speaking with the actors, encouraging me to remember to act socially appropriate and not be too indulgent in my excitement at the risk of forgetting formalities and greetings.

However, I do wonder what would’ve happened, had I simply “jumped in”. I felt far more comfortable observing and then chamelioning my behaviour based on the expectations set by others, rather than simply exploring and seeing what happened. I wouldn’t say I necessarily restricted myself to safety or conformity, just that I was more aware of it (as well as other factors such as time constraints) during my directing. I wonder how I would’ve approached the situation, had I simply gone with my instincts and not witnessed any sort of prior example. It’s possible my instincts would’ve been an utter failure, with difficulty experienced for myself as a directing person and for the actors trying to understand my instructions. Likewise however, it’s also possible something unique and unascertained would have occurred, something potentially inspiring and new.

As I said, I don’t feel watching others complete their directorial process first was necessarily a bad thing, but I do think I should play more and see what happens with more earnest and disregard for social judgement through my studies in this course.

Character Descriptions Exercise #1

While completing this activity, I found an unusual reaction within myself. I consider myself someone who greatly values understanding and empathy towards my characters, and I take pride in trying to understand their motives, personalities and situations.

Yet, when I was given the task to simply write these down in list format, I initially believed it would be an interesting exercise, but I found it somewhat dulling.

It was certainly helpful in specific areas of understanding (I found visually listing flaws, perceptions and values out of characters led me to notice patterns and potential inconsistencies to play with), however I found it more tedious than I expected.

I discovered that perhaps I enjoy a more organic sense of understanding. For example, when I write scripts using my own personal creative process, what usually happens is I have an idea, I plan out basic story events and I write. I don’t necessarily plan the details of characters and their motives, their relationships to one another, or anything like that, I simply write and let the characters guide me. I’ve even been known to rewrite story events purely based off of the creative flow of writing and letting these characters come to life naturally. I often feel like my characters guide my story and I’m simply a vessel of physically writing it.  I theorise this might be why arbitrarily listing out each detail and motive of characters in a script I found unenjoyable.

I prefer to let my characters act in the moment, and pray my pen can keep up with them, rather than analysing them before they’ve had a chance to play in my mind. It felt what I later realised was restricting, and dampening on creativity and art; again, I don’t think it was a negative experience by any means and I do appreciate that there is value in analysing your characters before you write or direct, but I also feel that for me personally, my creative process thrives on playfulness and organic exploration in the moment, with clarifying details and analysis added later.

Deconstruction of a scene

https://youtu.be/jMTPp-QGWfo?si=kp_R3t10mUBU8-43

In the essence of time, I decided to focus my analytical efforts on the character of Regina George (Rachel McAdams) in this scene. This particular scene has always fascinated me in its essence of performance; it’s always intrigued me, how Regina George‘s dialogue may be proclaiming one thing (and particularly, specific values /social etiquette for her character) yet Rachel McAdams particular use of tonal intonation and body language, in conjunction with the film’s set design, mise-en-scene and costuming, portray another motive/different social dynamic.

One example of this, is McAdams use of vocal intonation. During one of her first instances of dialogue in the scene, we see a poignant midshot of McAdams face as she very bluntly asks if Cady (Lindsey Lohan) wants to have sex with the character Jason (actor). Her particular vocality while she says it is more hushed, yet equally firm and aggressive. This in turn with the feigned smile on her face gives off an intense notion of passive aggressiveness and irony.

Notably, McAdams performance size is quite small; the minute body language such as her subtle eye widens, tense shoulder placement, and her ingenuine smile, emphasise her sense of authority and power over the characters in the scene, and highlight a key (and narratively important) aspect of Regina’s character; her intense use of passive aggression to assert control.

Another example of McAdams portrayal of subliminal psychosocial power includes when Regina asks Cady to sit down. The diegetic, high pitched and feminine line “sit down!” being preceded by a blunt insult to Jason, already sets up whatever dialogue to follow as one of intensity and purpose, and confusion to Cady who is unversed in social etiquette due to Regina’s sudden switch of character after insulting a man.

However, McAdams noticeable switch to overt passive aggression through her overly light and feminine tone, and feigned politeness asking Cady to sit, ultimately emphasises her authority when she then reasserts “no seriously, sit.”

This particular dialogue showcases key components of Regina’s character and relationship with others, primarily, the feigning of friendship in the resolve for authority and power. Regina clearly expects everyone to listen to her, and when she sees someone who she feels isn’t doing this, her vocal intonation changes to a deeper, more masculine and blunt tonality, with a demanding; “no seriously, sit.”

Finally, the use of camera and mise-en-scene portray Regina’s specific dynamic with the other characters via elements of the production and costume design. 

In this shot, we see the groups dynamics clearly; Regina, the one with the most power, sits straight and eloquent in the middle of the table, the set directs the audience’s attention solely on her; even Cady the protagonist, blends into the blue of the cafeteria chairs, as Getchen and Karen’s posture hides inside themselves and betrays their insecurity, making Regina the focus of the scene even more so.  Noticeably, she is the only one wearing pink, and a predominant colour is the very powerful and aggressive colour black. She is noticeable, her black costume greatly makes her standout due to the contrast of her light complexion and hair, yet she is feigning femininity and social politeness through her soft pink shirt; the pastel colour is intended to portray her as girly and simply a “teenage girl”, in order to distract from her bullying and authoritative tactics of control.

My way of working

Throughout this semester, I feel my practice in directing has shifted slightly. While I wish I could say I felt my practice has evolutionarily changed and I experienced a once in a lifetime epiphany, I think what’s closer to the truth is that through observing and learning more about how others work, I’ve slowly gained more confidence in my own creative practices.

At the beginning of this course, I noted that I was acutely afraid of directing actors; I had visions I wanted to produce, but I didn’t feel like I possessed the language, and certainly not the confidence, to appropriately lead my actors. I frequently worried my ideas weren’t worthy of being taken seriously by myself or classmates let alone professionals, and this barrier often stopped me from sharing my thoughts and ideas about topics, even characters I was directly working on with actors. While this fear of incompetency still exists, I’m glad to say I feel more confident through every lesson that I’m gaining valuable knowledge, skills, and experience I can use in my future creative endeavours.

I’ve found that activities in class that I feel “throw me in the deep end” are most useful in developing my skillset. For example, being shown an example then told to have a go at directing real professional actors on the spot, was terrifying but ultimately an inspiring and useful experience. I felt that by being forced into it, I didn’t have too much time to think, and hence I could focus more on exploration and play, something I very much value in film and art.

I ultimately believe that while I’m not yet at a confidence level I wish I was, with every new experience and observation of work and performance, I’m steadily increasing my confidence within my own work and abilities to succeed in my filmic endeavours.

Write about what you want from this studio? What you think this studio is.

When I initially chose this studio as an elective, I predominantly wanted to improve my ability to work with people and present my creative visions to them accurately. I had found that previously, I often struggled to find the language to tell my actors what it was I wanted from them, such as to “say it more like this” or “do it more like that”. I found that the words were never right. While I certainly still want to practice this skill, what I’ve found more upon taking this class is that I want to overcome my fears over directing people. I know in theory I’m the director, and my actors are working “for” me and there’s hence an expectation of authority or leadership, but I always struggle to take the reigns. I fear my work isn’t good enough to be worth acting for, or that these actors who are more experienced than me know more and that I should be following them. I doubt myself and my abilities, and I want to develop the confidence to say “no, do it again more like this” without fear of judgement or discord. Of course this isn’t related to any cruelty, respect and admiration for my actors will always be there, I just want to develop my ability to be assertive and clear in my vision, and especially to believe in my work’s worth. I suppose in essence then that my ultimate goal and desire through taking this class is to create confidence in myself, and develop an attitude of pride in my work, and the ability to stop fearing judgement from others and embrace my work’s personal ties to myself, humanness, vulnerabilities, and even at times ‘cringiness’; I want to be able to accept and showcase my work no matter what, rather than sticking to the creation of ‘safe’ content I dont think will be judged harshly, but that I’m equally unpassionate about.

Workshop activity reflections

Private moment exercise

While partaking in the ‘Private Moment’ exercise, I was surprised to find I felt vastly uncomfortable watching people. It felt greatly embarrassing and even invasive, to watch people mimicking their private moments. The vulnerability was striking, even with the knowledge that it was all fake and specifically chosen by each individual to be viewed.

Throughout the activity, I came upon the blatant realisation that I had difficulty connecting with others; I felt like I was violating each person, and that I didn’t have the right to watch their moments, that I had difficulty experiencing that intimacy and vulnerability even though it was staged and purposeful. I was hence interested in the relation between audience, vulnerability, and the performer. Within my research, I came across the artist Michel Melamed who staged a fascinating performance art piece.

Melamed attached himself to electrical wires on a stage in front of a live audience, and made it clear that any noise the audience made would send shocks (and therefore pain) to him (Diana T. 2016). A quote from the essay that elaborates on the social intricacies of performance, really resonated with my feelings from this task; “Maybe, this piece suggests, there is no such thing as a “solo” or one-person performance”. (2016).

I found that upon further reflection, I agreed immensely with this notion. My traditional ideas of performance, acting and media in general used to be rather simple; the actor performs, the movie plays, and the audience observes. There was no real sense of interactivity, no high stakes, nor any responsibility. The audience was there to almost act as a voyeur, witnessing an actor pretending to be vulnerable, obtuse, reprehensible, etc. and silently making judgments from the comfort of a dark seat. However, performances like Melamed’s, and even other artists more intertwined within the fine arts rather than theatre such as artist Marina Abramović and her infamous performance art piece Rhythm 0 (Hessel K. 2023), have caused me to reconsider the power of the audience within performance. I wonder how much the presence of an audience, influences it. In performance art, the element of interactivity of course is different to standard performance such as those of theatre or film, however, it’s interesting to notice the patterns of behaviour when an audience is given power, versus when they’re expected to silently observe.

My research all ultimately ties in to my own specific goals for the semester. My goals such as to be assertive when directing people, stem from both a fear of vulnerability, and a lack of research and understanding of performance and even human psychology, both of which are knowledge I’d like to continue developing and learning more about throughout the semester.

References

• Hessel K. (25/09/2023) ‘Marina Abramović’s shocking Rhythm 0 performance shows why we still cannot trust people in power’, The Guardian, accessed 2/08/2024. https://amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/25/marina-abramovics-shocking-rhythm-0-performance-shows-why-we-still-cannot-trust-people-in-power
• Diana T. (2016) Performance, Duke University Press, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822375128-005

Great Screen Performances homework

I found it somewhat difficult to complete the seemingly easy homework of ‘finding a great performance’ to show the class. When I initially read it, I presumed it’d be extraordinarily simple; there are plenty of great actors, scenes, and writers out there, how hard could it be? What I found, however, was that I struggled to find a performance that both felt ‘worthy’ and ‘dramatic’ enough. There was a subliminal expectation within myself, that the word ‘performance’ denotes dramatism and highly emotional vulnerability, usually related to more painful emotions. In the end, I chose to submit a scene that correlated with that internal bias, but upon reflecting on the homework, I wonder what it even means to be or act in ‘a great performance’. I noticed many others seemed to follow suit in posting dramatic, crying, screaming, miserable, pained performances for their homework submissions too, and I wondered; why? Why doesn’t a performance of intense joy and wonder such as Will Farrell in ‘Elf’ come to mind when the average person thinks of great performance? Why was only live action film included? These questions and more confused me, and I wanted to explore why only pain seemed to constitute as good acting/performance.

“In every performance, we seek validation and social support for our identity.” is a quote from (source). Though its claims are relatively simple, I find it appropriate within my own understanding and research of how performance is perceived. Validation and social support are certainly more traditionally associated with painful emotions, such as the expectation of comfort when someone cries. This might be part of why those particular performances stick with people, but I would argue that performances of joy, rage, humiliation and more, are just as worthy of praise and awe. I admittedly found it difficult to academically research emotion; it felt like a trick of disparity, trying to pit performance and art and emotion and creativity, against rigorous academia, analysing, and cold logic. It didn’t really make sense so much as I tried to connect them for this assessment. I hence am still continuing my journey on understanding the juxtaposition of emotion and performance, and why some emotions are seemingly more valid as an expression of art within performance, at least in terms of memorability.

References

•  Favreau J. (2003) Elf [motion picture], New Line Cinema, New York, USA.
• Lambert B. (4/04/2017) ‘Everything is a Performance: The World’s a Stage’, How Communication Works, accessed 1/08/2024. https://www.howcommunicationworks.com/blog/2017/4/23/the-world-is-a-stage-and-everything-is-a-performance?format=amp

The initiative post

I noticed throughout my pondering about what to do with this assessment, that my father has a curious human habit and behaviour. I was never initially aware of it, but upon noticing it, I began to see it consistently. I found that my father has a strange habit of breathing in and gritting his teeth when saying something passive aggressive. It’s a weird habit to take note of, but one that was consistent all the same.

I consider my father the parent I’m closest to, and I’m very appreciative of him and his efforts taking care of me throughout my life. Despite this, people have described my Dad as any number of things, “strange”, “funny”, “absolute asshole” and the like (various personal communications, 2024).

In relation, my father is not a particularly outgoing man. Amiss to details, he doesn’t appreciate conflict, and often avoids it through passive aggression. I’ve noted many a time in previous years where he would make a snide comment about someone’s appearance, their relationship to him or their character. Each time would never be an overt “you’ve offended me” but an inconspicuous, vague yet easily defendable remark should he be called up on it. His manipulative tactics are nothing new, but neither is human disdain at another. While I disagree with aspects of my Dad’s character, I understand his views, as I’m sure most everyone does to an extent. We’ve all dealt with undesirable people in undesirable situations and social contexts, and though many of us offer restraint, there are some like my father who make their disdain known; I consider it a part of human life, to experience conflict in each person’s unique way.

However, my father’s attitude to conflict is not what interested me when researching for this paper. What enthralled me, was his physical facial manoeuvre, when he was expressing as such. A typical example of this would be someone states something my father doesn’t approve of, he responds with some snide remark, however, then curiously without fail, he will always grit his teeth, and suck a small breath in. His teeth will only bear a little, just ever so slightly from his bottom lip, and he’ll breathe in, no louder than his grit is obvious. The curious expression looks similar to Figure 1 sourced below, but of course featuring my father’s specific face instead.

Figure 1

Admittedly, I struggled to research why exactly my father has this seemingly unique quirk. I researched all I could think of, from physical symptoms of passive aggression to psychology to dentistry. Nothing notable really appeared in terms of a clear, distinctive, explanation. Unfortunately all I’m left with is an usual habit my father possesses, with no logical reasoning apparent from my studies. Despite this, within the context of performance, I find the epiphany I found about this behaviour incredibly valuable. There may be no evidence pertaining to why my father has this habit when disgruntled, but being aware of it helps me tremendously in my own, and the direction of other, performances and acting. It’s a subtle, yet noticeable to a keen eye, quirk that I feel really encapsulates a human experience; sometimes humans exhibit behaviour that is unreasonable, non-sensical and unexplainable by logic or science, but the behaviour is still relevant and still an excellent way to incorporate a sense of reality within art and performance.

References

• drkoos2 (2024) N/A [photograph], Ora website, accessed 28/07/2024. https://www.orasurgery.com/clenching-teeth-am-i-still-a-candidate-for-dental-implants/
• Epstein S. (28/09/2021) ’18 Signs That You’re Dealing with a Passive-Aggressive Person’, Psychology Today, accessed 1/08/2024. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/between-the-generations/202109/18-signs-youre-dealing-passive-aggressive-person?amp

I hope that my group’s work engaged our audience through subliminality and a sensation that comedy doesn’t need to be overt. A key component within our film I feel, is our different approach to the concept of ‘comedy’ as a mode and genre. My group and I wanted to contend that a modern understanding of comedy, and what ascertains something as ‘funny’, is not always obvious, and that entertainment and comedy do not need to be necessarily intentionally sought after in storytelling for it to be there, and for it to be a valid interpretation of genre application. While it was originally a contentious topic within even our group as the producers ourselves, ultimately, we wanted to put forward a contemporary view of comedy, one in which hearty laughter and overt reactions of amusement, are not necessary or innate in our contemporary understanding; while we were of course, mindful in needing to meet assessment criteria in making a product of the comedy genre, we wanted to analyse, deconstruct, and rebuild the concept of the comic within our film.

This hence inspired me to consider that If I were to continue developing our work for a wider audience such as in a film festival, I’d likely begin by extending our product’s screen time. Whether this was through a second ‘episode’ with our product acting as a pilot, or by extending the runtime as a short film, I feel our story needs more in order to truly take advantage of our audience and thematic reasoning presented in our narrative. I feel our touching upon the deconstruction of the comic genre through subliminal comedy wasn’t overly complex, and I’d like to develop this further. I feel one way I could strengthen our film through change would be the addition of narrative elements and by extension screen time; I fear our audience needed more time than was given to truly recognise and interpret how we deconstructed comedy, and what makes our film part of the comedic genre despite initial appearances. I would like to strengthen what I feel was a weakness of our film, that being narrative structure and character writing. I feel we ‘had the right idea’ with our application of comedy theory, but ultimately, I worry our film falls flat in certain areas due to an uncertain storyline that lacks a climax in my opinion. Our engagement of the audience may have faltered or may not have been as successful as it could’ve because of such unclear narrative structure, as well as surface level characters. If I were to personally continue development of the film, I’d like to explore more of the drama, coming of age genre in our film, and take more screen time to identify, differentiate and represent our characters, with particular emphasis on their flaws and struggles as humans (and in line with conventions of the coming of age genre).

Through watching both Rogue (Minh Thanh Nguyen) and Situation Tragedy (Nia Arora) respectively, I found the interpretation of the comic genre by each group fascinating. Through my own interpretation, Rogue contended with a more visually amusing / visual gag, silent comedy approach, and Situation Tragedy with more overt dialogue centred humour.

In Rogue, a more centralised idea of comedy was explored, with impressive cinematography and spy-film conventions emphasising this facet. For example, in the montage where Agent White explores Melbourne, the quick cutting and use of close up shots showcasing her absurd expressions within the mise-en-scene elaborates on the already comedic concept, and is amusing to the viewer. I appreciated how the film explored visual gags and silent comedy, and felt their expression of facial features, prop and actor placement, and generalised mise-en-scene, greatly enhanced their product’s comic value, and was a great strength in their production.

In contrast, I found that Situation Tragedy cleverly utilised media genre conventions of the sitcom genre, cleverly mixed in with elements of the murder mystery trope, and mockumentary genre. I found the film’s exploration of dialogue centric comedy interesting, particularly in contrast to Rogue’s use of visual gags in comparison. I felt the use of clever dialogue and both diegetic and non-diegetic sound enhanced the application of comedic elements within the film. For example, in the scene where the caterer is talking to the actor about how he is overtly putting a condom into the sandwich, dialogue of “chewing brother” can be heard; this links back to a prior gag, and emphasises it’s creative humour due to repetition and the original joke’s incongruity. The creative choice of framing each character’s interview section as a close up shot, similarly enhances humour as it adds an additional element of visual comedy, similar to Rogue.

Finally, I viewed Boxed Sizzle (Ruth Richards) from the Ready Camera One studio. I found the short form content method of presentation the group chose successful in portraying a modern sense of comedy. It reminded me of contemporary short form content like Vine and Tik-Tok, but with a more historical, free-to-air T.V. show twist. I appreciated this combination of past and present, and found the incongruity of putting a live baby in a box with the charismatic presenter noting that he “wasn’t meant to be a father” a good example of dark and subversive humour. I enjoyed how the group deconstructed modern and historical practices of comedy as a genre, and found it impressive they were able to do so with such a short runtime.

Milk Run 

Interstate student Max moves to Melbourne to study, where he lives with zany Melburnian Charlie who asks him to go get more milk. Max’s trip isn’t straightforward, and goes on a journey where he discovers what it’s like living in Melbourne, and all the unique quirks it has.

Credits

Director Harper Tabb

Head Writers Harper Tabb, Amy Maher (in consultation with Samuel Rodgers, Daniel Moore, Matylda O’Sullivan, Thuy Trang Nguyen)

Executive Producer Daniel Moore

Producer Matylda O’Sullivan

Cinematography Samuel Rodgers

Camera Operator Samuel Rodgers

Lighting Daniel Moore

Sound Amy Maher

Assistant Sound Matylda O’Sullivan

Production Design Daniel Moore

Prop Runner Daniel Moore, Thuy Trang Nguyen

Continuity Advisor Thuy Trang Nguyen (in consultation with crew)

Editor Daniel Moore

Sound Mixer Amy Maher, Daniel Moore

Colour Grade Harper Tabb, Daniel Moore

Cast

Max: Harper Tabb

Charlie: Matthew Robertson

Car Driver: Kevin Zhu

Cashier: Daniel Moore

Convenience Store Extra: Georgia Blythe

Barista: Samuel Rodgers

Café Extra 1: Jackson Ramage

Café Extra 2: Joshua Burt

Passerby: Amy Maher

Flutist: Juan Karlos (@juank503latino)

Friend 1: Matylda O’Sullivan

Friend 2: Thuy Trang Nguyen

Petitioner: Amy Maher

Gallery 

Reflective essay

Upon taking this studio, my ideas about comedy as a mode and genre have shifted dramatically. In the beginning, I viewed comedy as something quite one-dimensional; I believed comedy as a genre was lesser than others, and innately difficult to create ‘art’ with (Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P [2015]). However, I now feel differently. I feel comedy is an immensely multifaceted and extremely underrated genre, and that art can easily arise from its usage. The following quote by Michael Arell (2012) very much connected with my prior ideas of comedy; “In Cicero’s De Oratore, one of the interlocutors in the discussion of the comic notes that everyone “who tried to teach anything like a theory or art of this matter proved themselves so conspicuously silly that their very silliness is the only laughable thing about them” (Leggatt 3).”

I noticed that as soon as I began to learn the inner workings of comedy, theories of comedy, hypotheticals and steps laid out, it all fascinated me and made me really appreciate this genre and mode of media for what it is; art.

Through research of comedy and its conventions, my group and I decided to shift our focus away from straight comedy in our final product. We wanted to include elements of comedy, however our goal was not to create a comedy that “may evoke…explosive laughter” (Sabato G. 2019), but rather, a more subtle and reflective use of comedy. As I explored in my reflective blog posts, my group wanted to accentuate our thematic reasoning, rather than an innate emphasis on laugh out loud comedic elements and scenes just because it was required by the assessment. Our group wanted to communicate a genre of ‘coming of age’ and thematic consequence of personality, connection, and community. We wanted to represent aspects of each of our unique “student life” experiences, and as our research supports, “participatory modes of community filmmaking make an important contribution to cultural diversity.” our collaboration hence enhanced these aspects.(Malik, S., Chapain, C., & Comunian, R. [2017]).

Though our film’s themes were heavily considered and researched, in real life production, at times collaboration proved challenging. For example, after our initial read out, there was debate about if the comedy should be more overt, and cause more vivacious obvious reactions like some other groups had, however, ultimately, we decided to stick to our subliminal comedy, and accept and embrace that our film was not the type for raucous laughter, but rather internal amusement, and that this was still a valid form of comedy and entertainment.

Though I acknowledge this facet as a unique component of our filmmaking and final product, if I were to personally continue production on the film, I would refine the elements of dialogue, and mis-en-scene. I personally feel the film is lacking a little in creative liberty and uniquity. I’d prefer a more striking visual aesthetic and artistic use of prop, costuming and set design. For example, in this book I read ‘Cinema and the Visual Arts’ (Sprengler C. 2019), I really empathised and connected with the quote “ (The relationship between cinema and the visual arts) involves the creative efforts of practitioners from both domains and experimental gestures that pitted one against the other, thought one through the other, and often blurred the distinctions between them.” (Sprengler C. 2019) . I believe that the traditional visual arts and film are one in the same and as mentioned above, are stronger when used in tandem. I feel that if we more consistently incorporated art and artistic movements/ history within our film, we could both cement a more iconographic image or brand as media makers, but also connect our story’s thematic exploration of community, and connection through historical and parallel events in modern history. For example, the image of rebellion against standard depictions of American student life and community I feel is encapsulated with the Dadaism movement (Benjamin E. 2016). The Dada movement is associated with “…not only…philosophical content, but…also…constructively as both a commentary on, and a positive, productive analysis of, the human condition.” philosophically, and I personally feel the bright colours, surrealist and personal avant-garde use of subject matter could push our films visuals, as well as thematic meaning and symbolism to the next level.

Another thing I’d personally choose to continue developing would be the story. I appreciate the thematic and narrative touch points our film was addressing, however, I personally feel the film doesn’t emotionally emancipate the audience as much as it could. I feel the coming of age genre and comedy are very interconnected (Shobini Iyer 2021), however our film struggles at times to connect properly to either; I think that our film struggles to communicate our central genres, essentially. I appreciated the uniquity of our comedy usage in terms of focusing on subliminal comedy more than overtness, but I feel our film isn’t emotionally engaging, and as (Justus T. 2022) contends “…emotions…are thought to be understood universally as one aspect of film language.”, hence can the audience be expected to connect with and enjoy our film if this pivotal aspect is missing. To fix these issues I personally perceive, I would add more screen time, and more dramatic events in the narrative. I feel that there’s not really a climax or singular struggle for the protagonist, so I’d like to set up his internal struggles more clearly at the start, and have a more obvious pivotal event from which the story reaches its peak in vulnerability and audiences can empathise with more strongly.

Though due to personal artistic differences I would change and develop the film a little more visually and extend its runtime, ultimately, my experiences of collaboration this semester were invaluable. Previously on projects I’ve worked on, I’ve struggled to gather a team together due to conflicting schedules, a lack of communication as well as a variety of other issues, so, for every other film I’ve made, I’ve done it alone. While I appreciate this means I have more control over my vision, I’ve found through collaborating this semester with many different people, that I prefer this essence of community and teamwork in art. Unlike in my previous work, I found that delegating tasks to individuals proved invaluable in both the quality, and time efficiency of production. In the past I’d be scrambling to write scripts, do storyboards, film, record audio, edit, colour grade etc. all within a minimal time frame, however, the freedom of being given over a month and five fantastic teammates made the process exponentially less stressful, and allowed us all to hone in and perfect our individual tasks, improving the quality of the film overall in my opinion.

Ultimately, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this course this semester, and I learned quite a lot. From my initial understanding of comedy as an inherently non-artistic or emotionally riveting and thought-provoking genre, I’m happy to say has shifted dramatically. I now view comedy as the complex and intriguing genre and mode it is, and I’m grateful for this class, all the collaboration, and most importantly, opportunities for creation, that were offered as proof of this.

References

1. Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P. (2015), “Benign Violation Theory” in Attardo, S. (ed), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference.
2. Arell M. (2012)Why are Comedy Films so Critically Underrated? [Honors thesis], University of Maine, accessed 23/05/2024. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=honors
3. Sabato G. (26 June 2019) ‘What’s So Funny? The Science of Why We Laugh’, Scientific American, accessed 26/05/2024. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-so-funny-the-science-of-why-we-laugh/
4. Malik, S., Chapain, C., & Comunian, R. (2017) ‘Rethinking cultural diversity in the UK film sector: Practices in community filmmaking.’, Organization, 24(3):308-329, https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508416689094.
5. Sprengler C. (30 October 2019) ‘Cinema and the Visual Arts’, Oxford Bibliographies, accessed 22/05/2024. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0122.xml
6. Benjamin E. (2016) Dada and Existentialism, Springer Nature, 10.1057/978-1-137-56368-2.
7. Shobini Iyer (20 September 2021) ‘The evolution of the coming-of-age genre in film’, The Spartan Shield, accessed 28/05/2024. https://spartanshield.org/29522/arts-entertainment/the-evolution-of-the-coming-of-age-genre-in-film/
8. Justus T. (2022) ‘Constructing Film Emotions: The Theory of Constructed Emotion as a Biocultural Framework for Cognitive Film Theory’, Projections, 16(2):74-101, 10.3167/proj.2022.160204.

Blog Posts

Reflective Blog Post #1

Reflective Blog Post #2

Reflective Blog Post #3

Reflective Blog Post #4

Reflective Blog Post #5

Throughout this week, my group cemented our script and ideas and officially began production. On Monday’s class we began to film. We started by filming the most complicated scene; the scene where Max is almost hit by a car (this took many takes), the filming location of which is shown below.

we followed general conventions for filmmaking, as well as Gillian McIver’s (who attributed research to Angela Dalle Vacche) (2021) concept of mis-en-scene within filmmaking as a medium. In accordance with McIver’s quote;

“In addressing the relationship between visual art and cinema I am following Angela Dalle Vacches method in Cinema and Painting (1996) which she describes as an ‘intertextual’ approach, ‘a broad category of analysis with overtones that range from narrative to stylistic detail’ enabling ‘thematic contrasts iconographic similarities and historiographic commentaries’ (Dalle Vacche 1996: 3).”

We paid particular attention towards artistic and meaningful framing and continuity in reference to this research, even so far as memorising what hand Harper was holding his phone in throughout different shots. We wanted to accentuate our narrative and thematic meaning via careful consideration of framing, camera field of depth and as mentioned, mis-en-scene. On Wednesday’s filming session I worked on audio; I learnt a lot about the value of a boom mic in comparison to a regular smaller microphone, and had both a lot of fun and difficulty trying to record the sounds of a car hitting Harper without getting my footsteps in or the levels being too loud. In accordance with research by Hilary Wyatt and Tim Amyes (2024), I considered the importance of timing when partaking in audio production. As Amyes quotes “…few audio workstations cannot currently import video – here a separate video machine has to be synchronized to the system. The format is not too significant: all that is important is that it can support timecode and be successfully interfaced”.

Through Amyes’ note of the importance of synchronising both visual and audio due to current technical limitations, I found that timing my recording with the immediate acknowledgment of “Action!” helped editors to synchronise sound and video footage recorded separately. I believe sound is a very underrated component within film(2021), and hence it was important to me to do as many takes as necessary in order to gain consistent audio levels for everything recorded (as a fun behind the scenes tidbit, this entailed even hiding behind Harper’s fence in the wet grass at one point).

I ultimately found it a very valuable experience and look forward to showcasing our finished product in the coming weeks.

References

– McIver G. (2021) Scenography and Art History : Performance Design and Visual Culture, Bloomsbury Publishing, USA

– Wyatt H., Amyes T. (2024) Audio Post Production for Television and Film : An Introduction to Technology and Techniques, edition number 3, Taylor & Francis Group, UK.

– Hadida, A. L., Lampel J. D., Walls W. J. A. (2021) ‘Hollywood studio filmmaking in the age of Netflix: a tale of two institutional logics’, Journal Of Cultural Economics, 45(2):213-238,DOI:10.1007/s10824-020-09379-z.

This week a large component of our mediamaking and production entailed presenting our WIP presentation (attached below) to our studio guests Hannah Camilleri and Stayci Taylor. We received a lot of valuable feedback, primarily related to centering our story and updating our dialogue.

Some feedback mentioned by Camilleri suggested that our ending lacked a clear message, and that it should come ‘full circle’. We took on this feedback and discussed our themes and messages in detail so we were all on the same page. Now, we are working towards changing the ending to emphasise Max and Charlie’s comfort and support in each other, which wasn’t as clearly presented before, through a shared activity like looking for the missing cadaver, Charlie buying groceries for Max etc. as Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore (2011) states, “Instead, what we see, and no doubt what the audiences of the time expected and demanded, is variation within a set of conventions that embraced not only the story lines developed but also the characters involved and the technical aspects of production” characters are also of note especially when they relate to story; it’s of my opinion that a ‘good’ comedy is made through ‘good’ characters.

We also found that our script read didn’t illicit as many laughs as some other groups, and our group had a contended discussion about whether this was a desired effect or a facet of not enough comedic elements. We argued about our core genre being a ‘coming-of-age’ first, and a comedy second or vice versa, and if we needed more obviously comedic elements. Upon some further research, I found the quote “… the sitcom, it “invites the viewer to feel at one with the few dozen people s/he can hear laughing, and by extension with millions of others across the country”(45).” (Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore 2011) encapsulates the sense of relatability and community our group is trying to portray; while the original quote refers to the sit-com genre, of which ours is coming of age, the notion of inviting the viewer to “feel at one” with the audience and content is reminiscent of a key message of community and empathy in our film.

After our discussion, we decided to update the script and focus on our traditionally non-comedic coming-of-age genre, and becoming more comfortable not implementing overtly ‘laugh out loud’ comedic elements as some other groups have. Though we believe excessive comedy is not necessary in our project, I remain conscious of the following quote by Shobini Iyer(2021); “Using comedy as a crutch, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” ultimately left audiences hard-pressed to extract a deeper meaning (in the film’s coming of age genre).” My group will need to be careful in ensuring the comedy does not outweigh the primary genre, or lessens the realism of which our film is based on.

John Morreall (1989) defines comedy as “a genre of repetition“. This, along with my knowledge of the incongruity theory, inspired our group to repeat our arguably most “successful” joke in our script read. The Perth accent joke is an example of incongruity, as realistically the average person can’t tell you’re from Perth by how you speak, so the juxtaposition of this dramatised fictitious element in combination with a realistic scenario of buying groceries, creates incongruous humour. Likeuse, if we repeat the notion of Charlie having a Perth accent throughout the film, the repetition becomes a staple in the comedy, and can enhance the joke’s effect.

WIP Presentation: Tiny Chairs

References

-Ireland S. (2010) ‘Brill’s Companion to the Study of Greek Comedy’, Brill, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004188846_010

– Inger-Lise Kalviknes B. (2011) ‘Laughing Together? TV Comedy Audiences and the Laugh Track’, The Velvet Light Trap, 68(1): 24-34

– Shobini I. (20 September 2021) ‘The evolution of the coming-of-age genre in film’, The Spartan Shield, accessed 10/05/2024.  https://spartanshield.org/29522/arts-entertainment/the-evolution-of-the-coming-of-age-genre-in-film/

-Moder, G. (2019) ‘Comedy as Performance’, Palgrave Macmillan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27742-0_13

-Morreall J. (1989) ‘Enjoying incongruity’, Walter de Gruyter, 2(1):1-18