Collaboration partners; Margret Tanjutco and Liwan Li. “A survival guide to your first six weeks of university”
What problems did you encounter? Making sure the tripod was set up evenly and that the location of the interviewees eyes was not directly at the camera but rather in the spot where the interviewer would be sitting (as they were on camera at the same time as asking the questions so it did not look as natural). I also found the answers were slightly different which made connecting them harder as the interviewee didn’t always remember what they were talking about in the first take. Also the close ups were off in terms of where the eye-line was directed at.
What were your most successful shots? The two shot was set up quite nicely, and the establishing shots were quite candid and really gave an indication towards the setting. I think there was quite a contrast between the back light for the interviewer shot compared to the interviewee shot which didn’t make it run as smoothly but that was due to the background for the two shot being quite colorful an toned.
What did you discover about the camera techniques (eg. Composition, framing)? It was hard given the time to really set up alright shots that at least hit what the brief was looking for in terms of practice. The close up of ‘Margret Tanjutco’ was quite aesthetically well framed in terms of rule of thirds this made the shot more interesting compared to the close up/mid shot of ‘Liwan Li’ which was must more symmetrical.
Diversity, It’s almost a compulsory thing now days- we see period dramas with not enough people of ethnicity and we start to get angry. I do however think this was a great idea, any children’s Television show that adds diversity is teaching our younger generation from small ages to respect and acknowledge cultural diversity, especially within out media industry and visual programs. As a child myself I was glad there were many programs with cultural diverse characters (Hey Arnold, The Powerpuff Girls), but then there was an era within Disney (especially aimed at Pre-teens) where characters were predominantly white and attractive but this was also due to the change within childrens’ cartoon shows and children’s shows with real life actors. It will be nice to see more diversity in the real life action shoots for children especially within Disney, hopefully more come along soon.
This weeks tutorial was Brian teaching us examples of how to use Adobe Audition, we talked about increasing gain which can cause distortion and it’s one of the principle things with digital recorders were trying to avoid. Slightly less gain is always better than more because you can amplify but you can not take away distorted audio.
An equalizer is very important as frequency is one of the key qualities of sound. The equalizer works by suppressing or taking out frequency’s as well as enhancing some frequency to give more vocal brightness. It also helps get rid of lower signals that weren’t originally meant to be there (lower gain) for example background noises of a coffee machine or people talking.
Below is a sample image of what Adobe Audition looks like once it’s open and you are working on a project.
Textual analysis was the main focus for Week 5’s lecture, for me a little of the content reflected on my year twelve VCE media class with the terminology; Denotation (the literal of first order meaning and it’s partner) Connotation(cultural or second order meaning).
Both Morris’s and Alan Mckee’s ‘guides’ (2001) were an interesting read- they focused on interpretation and judgement. Both the readings focused on the idea of labeling and how we should not label a text ‘inaccurate/biased’ but instead analysis the assumptions within the text, weather a piece is subjective (which is impossible not to be) or how it can be interpreted in various ways. The activity completed in class focused on a clothing advertisement the denotation would have been a man throwing a boy into a pool but with the knowledge of ‘connotation’ we could see the advertisement was aimed at the clothes the two were wearing and the idea linked to it about comfort and freedom.
It was nice to have the repetition of the terminology replenished into my mind as it had been a while since I had talked about textual analysis especially after studying the practical Diploma last year.
Textual analysis including connotation and denotation obviously helps in the presentation of mise-en-scene especially for ‘Project Brief 3’, which is creating a short interview or portfolio on someone else within our lives.
Last year I shot a semi-professional interview as apart of my Diploma and it will be interesting to see how this independent more freedom shoot will look like aesthetically, metaphorically (especially with the layout) and technically as the equipment will be completely different (No LED kits or three point lighting, no mixer and boom mics). Below is last years completed edited and audio mixed interview.
I think my skills have been building and i’m quite looking forward to this challenge or brief so below are a few of my ideas. I want to focus this project on a subject who has the ability to travel on limited budget by using the resources he has to their ultimate potential having traveled in Europe for six months on two thousands dollars and recently working in Japan for another six months, I think it would be an interesting project to watch and alongside some nice images the subject has taken it would be aesthetically pleasing as well. The backdrop will be the subject home but in an area where the mise-en-scene can be surrounded with souvenirs from the subjects adventurous. I’ll get back to you soon.
Mixing this sound was interesting; in the brief given we were informed to use external sound effects and add them into the narrative of the interviewee, I thought I’d take a Jazzy podcast-ed sort of take to the project. I’ve used Adobe Audition before whilst working at SYN (90.7fm) so it wasn’t too hard, I do like adding a backing track over interviewees weather that takes away from the actual content i’m not sure but it’s my personal artistic style at the moment but it will be interesting to see how this style develops in the coming weeks, I’ve recently bought a RodVideo Mic and I can’t wait to use it and mix more audio together.
Dear all, please listen to thisif you haven’t- it will definitely change the way you think about sound, headphones are needed and yes it really is an experience. I first heard this ‘Virtual 3D’ use of sound around five years ago and haven’t gotten over how amazing it is.
The way the artists uses the microphone as a form of stimulation is amazing but what is more entertaining is how our perceptions and brain functioning do the rest. The use of two microphones to represent left and right create this three dimensional effect partly why this simulation only works with headphones.
They way we can tell the proximity he is to the microphone is because our brain forms cues or rather calculations in the difference of sound intensity. This is called the ‘cetera algorithm’ There’s a lot more complexity in this process and the functions our brain does to process this sound so I suggest you have a look into what the cetera algorithm is, until next time.
“The Cetera technology applies the lessons of virtual audio to advance the state-of-the-art in hearing aids. The sound difference can be as significant as comparing a one-dimensional visual image to 3-D,” – Jerry Ruzicka, president, Starkey Labs.
This week’s tutorial focused on the showcase of the classes self-portrait films, secondly a discussion was held on a ‘source’ (documentary sound) ‘Affairs of the Mind’ which focused on a women hiring a private detective. Our lecturer said to take not on five important characteristics.
Perspective
Social Distance
Figure, Ground, Field
Intimacy
Immersion
Notes for when recording: Best signal -12, -6Db ‘gain’ *in regards to microphone levels (L & R)
(Collaborative partner; Grace Thomas) Our Informal Interview was recorded in the hub of building 8. The atmos contained a lot of conversations, movement and other central sounds which can be easily heard in the background. The gain was brought down slightly to peak around -12 so that we could cut out slightly more of the atmos although it was informal and allowed to be included. We played around with the proximity of the sound source and distance of the microphone to see which distance worked best (aka best signal to noise ratio).
Our Formal Interview was recorded in a lecture room in building 80 (level) 1, It was a challenge to find a quiet room where we could record something formal without eliminating all atmos but we tried our best and it ended up sounding more professional than we imagined.
To mix my sound I’ll be using Adobe Audition I’ve used the program before working with the Student Youth Network (90.7fm) but haven’t mixed as much audio as I’d like to so this will be fun and definitely a task for which I can learn more about the program especially for future use. In my next ‘activity’ post which I’ll be uploading soon I’ll be writing about the trials I went through when mixing as well as uploading the mixed audio/finished product from this weeks activity. Attached to this post is the raw audio recorded from the condenser microphone.
Today I went into university only to realize It was not on, stares into a hollow classroom*sigh*. Not to worry I have a good initiate post coming up, to be continued.
Since this week’s lecture focused on aspects of ‘Sound’ I’d like to link that to a current TV series I’ve been watching that takes careful consideration into what the audience hears, that’s right Daredevil (Season 2).
If you don’t know the main character in this TV series is blind which causes his senses to evolve using sound as a tool for being able to locate and observe his surroundings. This means an increase in diegetic sound effects especially when there are closeup’s of the protagonist’s face (as this is how we know what his thinking as we don’t always see what he sees when it comes to point of view as he sees nothing at all).
This series was created by Netflix using a well known and loved marvel character, and we know that in recent history Marvel seems to do no wrong when creating projects that seem to sell (take into account their most recent flick ‘Deadpool’ which grossed $340,941,383 US) but I find compared to the blockbuster movies we see on our big screen the netflix TV series brings something different into the comic book adaptions, It’s dark, edgy and the acting is well done but not only that I feel like it isn’t afraid to step out into the deep end whilst the big screen adaptions stay in shallow water.
I really admire the colour pallet used in this series; very dark, earthy tones- mostly blues and reds to be exact- these represent the overall mood of the show. Blue representing ‘good’ and the characters morals and red accentuating the violence. The image attached to this post is a good indication of these colours and the beautiful contrast they create esepcially since Matt’s Murdock’s (Daredevil) suit is red when he fights representing again the blood he spills whilst fighting.
I’m also glad the story line isn’t completely rushed and muddled- for example if we reflect on other comic book adaptions such as ‘The Amazing Spider man’ they try to squeeze as much action into the plot as possible- aiming probably towards a Hyper attentive audience although for many it’s just a puddle of jumbled mess. Overall I look forward to watching more of this program and taking into account how they use sound to describe their character as well as the cinematography and colors to represent mood. Until next time (check out the Daredevil Season 2 trailer below for more information on the show).
The self-portrait I created demonstrates particular aspects of my personality and lifestyle that I believe represent me the most accurately. The piece starts off quite simply with opening titles, I do enjoy a simple minimalist title as it keeps the piece clean and neat and adds to the overall artistic approach.
Firstly, I chose to add a short video and selected images of tickets, memories, photographs and trinkets that I keep on my bedroom wall. They are a reflection of my travels and experiences I chose to edit this in the way of a camera ‘clicking’ as it again represents the part of me that loves media and photography.
The piece then changes pace to a sound effect of static before I’ve added in a song that I recently wrote. The overlay for this song is jump cut footage of my synthesizer and music equipment- I believe it represents another aspect people know me well for; ‘music’.
I chose to complete this artistically, changing the video to black and white to represent a focus on the song and its lyrics. Further along in the video I chose to add in footage of myself lip syncing to the lyrics to make the words stand out.
I chose to add in/ record a segment of a song that I composed because I think it portrays my mind stuck in romanticism and always writing about love, life and things that make me feel alive.
Overall I really liked the start of my self-portrait but then worried as I created it the rest of it that It would be too artist and some people wouldn’t understand how it relates back to me, I’ve a very artist person I love colour and life hence why I wanted to portray a lot of floral into my piece as I’m always out and about collecting flowers whenever I can.
I really like the flow of movement and interpretation peoples body language which is why I used shadow to create a layer of artist movement towards the end of my piece, this paired with a calming sound of wind added an abstract element I really enjoyed editing together.
Also within my video I’ve added the last four lines to one of my favourite poems, Henry’s Sic Vita. It’s about the inevitability of death and man’s mortality I really like this poem and think it fits well with the flowers and the fading mirror/hand as to me it represents reflection something I do very often.
To make this piece better I would have loved to spend more time I think setting up shots and to add more angles in although there are still quite a few.
