Author Archives: samuelharris

Done well; do differently

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Done well:

  • the reading! Rushkoff has very interesting thoughts on TV’s part in ‘narrative collapse’. Notes were made. +5 points.
  • socialise! I’m glad I’m not the only one on my table still trying to comprehend the studio. Gotta keep an open mind though, early days.

Do differently:

  • the reading! Do the reading, again. Reread. Spend more time writing notes, thinking about notes, processing notes.

That’s a good 2/5 on the checklist (haven’t had the chance to do anything about they others as they concern assignments, practical work, etc).

Ecologies of Noticing tutorial #1

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Learning today regarded the rejection of narrative, an interesting concept that will take time to wrap my head around. A lot of textas, paper and charts – a less familiar approach to my studios so far. I’ve learned that notes on participation are more difficult to write when you are still unsure what kind of work you’ll be doing, and where you’ll be putting most of your effort. Blogs are back in style. 

Exploding Genre Statement of Intent

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Upon completion of this studio I would like to have more refined technical skills; both in the hands on shooting aspect (including the strenuous pre-production aspects, especially relating to time management) and editing aspect (I have a couple of years experience with Premiere Pro but even then I find myself only utilising its basic features – improvements in organisation is definitely a key area). I usually find myself operating cameras on their most basic functions so I hope to learn how to control the manual functions of the equipment to maximise my creative potential. The creation (or explosion!) of a short genre film is the thing I look forward to but dread the most, because it will be by far the most ambitious project given to me so far, but I hope that in the end I at least learn something from my achievements (or mistakes).

Film is something I hold very dear and is something which continually draws my excitement – there isn’t much I find better than watching the credits roll after watching great movie for the first (or second, or third, etc.) time. I am extremely interested in the potential of film and I hope this studio strengthens my understanding of both film and genre theory. I am keen on possessing a broader knowledge on the histories of certain genres and being able to properly identify and analyse their key features and tropes by the conclusion of the studio. Class discussions on thoughts about the weekly films is another thing I am looking forward to and the various opinions and discussions that come out of them will surely act to enrich my interpretations.

Phantom of the Paradise Case Study

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In 1974 Brian De Palma birthed Phantom of the Paradise, an amalgamation of horror, music, fantasy and comedy which finds its interesting aspects in its splicing of a range of genres.

The film’s particular arrangement as a musical (featuring a soundtrack written entirely by Paul Williams) breaks genre conventions; Phantom doesn’t adhere to typical musical conventions where characters break out into song in a sporadic attempt to express their feelings. Rather, as the film posits itself as a take on the music industry, each song exists within the narrative and is predominantly performed in a stage setting to an audience within the film rather than to the viewer.

Making connections to both the horror and comedy genres, De Palma’s references in the film stem from two works, the first being Psycho (1960) where he begins his homages to Hitchcock’s oeuvre. De Palma rebuilds the notorious shower murder scene as horror but repurposes its climax for the sake of comedy; instead of a knife, the ‘killer’ wields a plunger and warms his ‘victim’ of an impending doom. His second citation comes from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), in which a goth band perform a song dressed in the likeness of Cesare the Somnambulist. Here, De Palma again places a horror icon within a new context: as a prop within a musical production. Additionally in the following scene, the titular Phantom strikes down a singer in the middle of his performance and in turn characterises an intertwining and reevaluation of both the musical and the horror film.

De Palma naturally adheres to horror conventions in the film too, often slowing the film down from musical to allow for moments of suspense, but it’s the breakaway from the norms that separates Phantom from the traditional musical.

Reflection

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Here we are at the end of the beginning. Semester one has come and gone. Get your cliche hat on. That’s a wrap, folks. Cut.

It feels only necessary now after all is said and done to come back to my first post, ‘I’m not a blogger’. It took me a week to build up the confidence to ever begin writing, a post that everyone who already was and could possibly be a friend could see. My writing style seems consistent with where I’m at now (at least three bracketed side notes in every post, too much italicised text). I still see myself at the base of the ‘ten-thousand-step tall staircase’ but I like to think that I’ve since grown, or at least flourished a little in the direction I want to go. Even now, week #1 seems stuck between being too close and too far. In my mind it feels like I’m kinda trapped in an odd duration of time, a weird transition period between here and there. Sure, I’ve learned how to animate some text in After Effects but what else have I really learned? I can only really notice this when I return home on the weekend, but I feel like my way of thinking has changed. A new perspective on everything. Maybe that’s because of the texts we’ve explored in Media One, and maybe that’s because I’ve had to buy myself groceries for the past ~13 weeks — and maybe it’s both. Thanks, Melbourne.

Since beginning this course I’ve found a new ease to writing, a new freedom which has opened up no doubt because of the constant need to blog (need in the sense that I wanna pass) that has plagued the weeks of every student in the course. When I decided (subconsciously) that I was going to write a million billion words for every post and not worry so much about the little ones (though towards the later section of my blog they’re definitely there) I fell into a rhythm. I felt confident that what I was writing was at least of some standard, though in retrospect they probably look like a series of half-baked ideas and illegible rants. And there are more than a few posts to prove it: ‘Week #2 Lectorial & Experimental Film: Editing‘ being the first, the one that more or less started it all. It felt good to be able to reflect something that I’m passionate about in the weekly readings/class. Other highlights include: ‘Week #3 Reading – Remaking Media And The ‘Now’‘ (where I recount my time in high-school media), ‘Week #5 Reading: Everything Is A Text‘ (where I learned that embedding things makes your posts look cooler and stand out) and ‘The Zoom: When And Why? Part One‘ (in which I make the case for the zoom and, in turn, Robert Altman). I hope throughout my course my writing continues to grow and my vocabulary expand.

The most challenging aspect of it all is, as always, finding the time and energy to actually do everything. Let’s be honest: when you’re overwhelmed with assignments you just don’t wanna do assignments. You want to take a break, or three breaks, and find every little excuse not to set yourself on task. Now that I live in a box in the middle of the city, my temporal organisation has very much improved (there’s not much else to do). Group work was another aspect I dreaded but after overcoming the initial stages of anxiety I realised that my peers are people too and that collaboration (while sometimes strenuous) can lead to better things, a collective source of inspiration.

Although group work is beneficial in a hundred different ways I find myself working better by myself. Even when my roommate leaves for a few hours it opens up this newfound expressiveness in my writing as if I’m not ashamed of what I write when no one’s watching. In this context less pressure = better outcome; but not in everything. Impending due dates do spar me on when the going gets rough (see PB4).

I definitely put the most effort into maintaining my weekly initiative posts. Taking the form of a diary recounting the film’s I’d watched throughout the week, I forced myself to write at least a few lines about each film. While nothing of particular worth really came out of them (save my best words for Letterboxd) they each had their own glimpses of something special (I don’t really have a favourite, they’re all so varied in quality but if my life depended on it I was offer up this one). Some weeks I was inundated with the task of providing coherent writings on a vast number of films (films which I felt the need to say something about). Overall, I guess this shows my commitment when put to the task of doing something I’m passionate about.

PB3 was something of an eye-opener for me. It allowed me to actually take control of the entire ‘making’ process and create something I was proud of. As I progressed through the semester, my confidence in my own thoughts and ideas strengthened (as can be seen by later posts ‘Media Misrepresentation And Manipulation‘, where I actually explicitly offered some of my views, and ‘Technological Determinism, Digital Amnesia And The Failing Hard Drive In Our Heads‘, where I wrote up something I was even a little proud of). Media One has been an important chapter in my book and I hope that the following semesters amplify this delight.

You can take your cliche hat off now.

Week 12 Practical: Video Essay rough cut

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Again, by rough I mean so rough you could slice your fingers off with a single touch. Our Premiere timeline, while comprehensive, was fragmented and broken into a bunch of random clips of both audio and video. We finally reached a point where our ideas all found a central converging point and the script seems nearing its final stages; everything just rests on the matter of choosing what to split for each essay.

After Effects has been summoned for the video and I’m going to make the effort to learn a few quick little tips and tricks to spice up what Rachel described as a ‘slideshow’. Wish me luck.

Movies I’ve watched this week – 27/05/16

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Week #12. This is the end, finally.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) dir. Werner Herzog
25/05/16
rewatch

aguirre

Self explanatory. ★★★★½

My Best Fiend (1999) dir. Werner Herzog
25/05/16

Beginning to think I like Herzog more as a documentarian than a fiction filmmaker, though his success in documentary would be next to nothing if it wasn’t for the remainder of his oeuvre; more obviously in My Best Fiend, which explores his relationship with megalomaniac actor and friend Klaus Kinsi throughout their collaborative career, and more subtly in Grizzly Man, where the notion of man v nature which more or less plagues the majority of his works throughout the 70s-80s, is exploited in a non-fictional format with Herzog clearly holding the reins. Has a compositional knack for staging interviews (even when they, and mostly do, consist of himself retelling a story) and somehow channels a surrealist mood in such retellings. ★★★★★

Super 8 (2011) dir. J.J. Abrams
26/05/16
rewatch

Written for Letterboxd: 

Abrams wears his Spielbergian influence on his sleeve (obvious considering he produced too) and replicates much of the shell of his early works be it through the child-driven narrative or spectacularly alien finale, even down to his distinctive close-ups, but this characteristic referencing only doubles the impact of Super 8. He infuses the artificiality of it knowingly being a film (a highly self-aware one; known through lens flares and madly pivotal crane shots drawn again from his influences) into a somehow warm family drama which despite its gross explicitness towards the end (a balancing act of feel-good revelations and heavy handed symbolism) feels right. It knows Spielberg and Spielberg knows it.

It’s aware of its ethereality from the get go with the insanity of the initial train crash scene (amongst my favourite scenes probably ever) to the arrival of army forces in almost comic numbers and disposition. On a much smaller scale, Abrams demonstrates this when he has the kids go from filming a cutesy zombie home video to watching in disbelief as one of their teachers seemingly come back to life in the space of ~5 minutes (love it). It’s this symmetry of artificiality and sincerity that he channels through the body of his producer’s work, that he directs with such clarity and perspective that make it the dense masterwork that it is.

Undoubtedly a personal film for Abrams himself, I also find an odd homeliness for myself in the spectacle of the film, something warm and comforting and sweet like a reel of childhood imagery played out on the big screen. There’s something so poignant about the invincibility of youth (which never ceases to put a lump in my throat) that he portrays here, the childlike, authoritative feeling of closure and safety that rings true to me, a period in my life I’ve kinda come to miss. The first time I saw this was only around 18 months ago which doesn’t give it much of a nostalgic bearing to be tapped into on rewatch here, so I’ll attribute that to Abrams’ ability to hone in on raw Spielberg, a man whose films got their fair share of replays in my childhood.

There is truth in the moving image, whether it literally be the reels that reveal the alien’s true nature, or bigger; a compilation of the fleeting, youthful moments of innocence brought to life by Fanning and co. And that’s kinda nice. Aren’t we all a little Abrams at heart? ★★★★★

This is the end. It’s been nice knowing y’all. Now go look for someone who knows more about movies than me.

Media Misrepresentation and Manipulation

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Almost two weeks ago, I got a message from my girlfriend with a link to a Facebook post by one of her former (and much loved and respected) school captains detailing the night he was kicked out of her school’s annual Foundation Day event, held at Bendigo’s (my hometown) cathedral for attending in inappropriate attire. At the time, I thought it was just another post that would sift through the thousands upon thousands of other posts that live on the site.

uh oh spaghetti

But this one stuck. And hard. In under 5 hours, the post had garnered over 800 shares and was well into the thousands of likes and comments, all praising Angus’ bravery and shunning the school’s conservatism (personally, I stand by Angus’ decision to wear the clothes–fairly tame in my opinion). Although I don’t doubt that Angus was well aware the school is extremely traditionalist (anyone who lives in my town has a certain perception of the school and knows their policies), his decision to push their limits was risky, and for that I commend him, but some part of me feels like he was just trying to stir something; I don’t doubt that in one way or another he knowingly violated the dress code (for better or worse; changes to the school’s, and by extension the broader social stigma, or just a hit back at a bump in the road from the past?). But that’s not entirely the point.

At 7:40 the post hit local newspaper Bendigo Advertiser’s website, which makes no explicit reference to the incident being about Angus’ sexuality, with comments from the headmaster (which they took the time out of their day to actually do some hard earned actual journalism) clearly asserting that the occurrence was “an issue of dress code for occasion and institution, not one of sexual discrimination“. Flash forward 24 hours and the post shows up on Cosmopolitan and Buzzfeed, among various other clickbait-y scum sites, with titles posted up on their sites like “You’ll Never Believe the Messed-Up Reason This Gay Man Was Kicked Out of His School Event“, “This Gay Man Was Kicked Out Of An Event For “Dressing Inappropriately”” and my personal favourite “GAY STUDENT EXPELLED: DRESS SENSE ‘DIDN’T SUIT’“, where the title is clearly vague enough to suggest a completely different  story, which flip the whole situation on its dang head. Skewed to the point of no return.

What happened in those 24 hours is the careless media machine at work, churning (and clearly skimming) through the stacks of stories and pulling one out to turn it into the sensationalist piece of web trash where social media users (skimmers) can stop for two seconds, read the misleading headline, like the post, and move on, preaching to their friends and followers about how they ‘read’ an article on something or other when they clearly just had a quick peek at the title. It’s unforgiving and it’s unfortunate, and it pains me to the point of extreme frustration.

How to Make a Good Article, by No-Name Author Who Writes Like a 12 Year Old Who’s Just Discovered Emojis: Step 1: Clickbait headline; Step 2: copy and paste other trustworthy news sites articles and offer no mention or explanation of said clickbait title; Step 3: get paid for being the ignorant, cheap ‘journalist’ that you are.

One of my girlfriend’s teachers happened to be the teacher who allegedly told Angus to leave and has since announced that they didn’t actually ask him to leave but rather disallowed him from sitting in a certain 2-row section at the front of the cathedral, after which Angus supposedly made his exit. Additionally, the night of the Facebook post the teacher’s front yard was vandalised. Mob mentality truly is frightening.

I’m also lowkey furious at the scourge of the earth that is Cosmopolitan for the opening line “Angus McCormick was visiting his hometown of Victoria, Australia…”, like dudes, come on, do some dang research, plus this: “Since the incident, he has not been contacted by the school“, when there is clear-cut evidence to show that he has. Moral of the story: clickbait websites are the scum of the earth, and double check your sources before you fully commit to a story, whether you’re the writer or the reader.

Technological determinism, digital amnesia and the failing hard drive in our heads

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While searching for any excuse to not be blogging (and delaying any lectorial posts) I skimmed through my Following list and saw Ryan’s post about technological determinism posted on his much acclaimed Knock Knock Appreciation Blog and thought it was time to give in. Short and sweet (the opposite to my posts), he touches on Nicolas Carr’s 2008 essay ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?‘, something I took the liberty of reading (at least 80% of). Today, writings on social media’s influence on our brains has been done almost to death, but flashing back to 2008 Carr’s writings seem all the more stimulating. 2008 was hardly long ago yet I can recall next to nothing from the year (I was eleven, grade 5: I think I was excelling at at maths? Still blind and glasses-less, struggling my way through life), and the notion of social media and the internet seems so recent that 2008 somehow feels like decades in the past, and Carr something of a prophet (hyperbole), even though Facebook had been around for almost half a decade the internet itself almost two. This mindset just comes from being born in the 90s, I guess.

2001-A-Space-Odyssey-2

Even trying to write this, I became distracted an uncountable amount of times, engrossed in my phone or struggling to stand by the deal I made (and often make) with myself where I reward my unwavering attention to a task with a YouTube video or something of the like (the video usually comes first, and most of the time stimulates positive work). Even just reading this, I had the tendency to skim sections relating to the history of the theory and take a liking to cute little metaphors that basically summed up arguments like “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski“, and “The process of adapting to new intellectual technologies is reflected in the changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. When the mechanical clock arrived, people began thinking of their brains as operating “like clockwork.” Today, in the age of software, we have come to think of them as operating “like computers.”” You win this time, Carr.

Regardless, Carr’s writings ring as true now as they did then. But since, the phenomenon The Google Effect has been named, and the answer to Carr’s question answered: yeah righto, maybe a little bit, in one way or another. The effect, also known as digital amnesia is defined as the “tendency to forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines” and is definitely something I have fallen victim to (not that it doesn’t have its benefits; thanks, amalgamation of information readily available at our fingertips).

Even in Popular Culture in Everyday Life, one of my chosen electives for first semester, we were taught how to properly skim pieces of writing. There’s no doubt it’s an efficient tool when left in the right hands. But there’s also no doubt that some aspects of the ever-engrossing truthfulness of technological determinism are problematic. I read less books than I used to (something I’ve been trying to change as of late; even though I never really read that many books) and although the enjoyment I draw from skimming articles online is a far cry from that of traditional (often physical; maybe an influence?) books, I do get fidgety and think to reach for my phone. It’s not the healthiest thing, and when I am putting myself in a position where I want or need to read for an extended period, I put my phone at least out of arm’s reach. Moreover, the AMC ‘phones in the cinema’ debacle in April, with CEO’s possibility of a ‘texting section’ or ‘specific auditorium and make them more texting friendly’ (many explicitly explicitly asked that these be clearly labelled so they know which ones to stay as far as possible away from) stemming from a similar strand of thinking.

In the increasingly digitised world of 2016, Carr’s claim that “In Google’s world … The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive” is at least a little prophetic. The problem now is that the hard drive is failing, and at a more rapid rate than expected.

Self-doubt

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It’s week 12 and everything’s coming to a close, so a little reflection is only necessary. The shift from high school to university has proved to be a less daunting task than I had originally perceived it to be; a few mates here and there, a working routine and an engaging curriculum for the most part. I feel like I’m surrounded by people who share similar interests and views and humour, and what more can you ask? Feels like home.

So why is it that at the closing of the semester that I feel the most self-conscious about my course and my learned abilities? Friends make comments in passing about the legitimacy of it (and I won’t doubt that I’ve talked it down in passing too: “in one of my classes we just watch a movie” is a line I’ve used far too many times for my own liking, though thankfully those sounds have begun to fade) and I seem to have seriously overstated my skills in some of my classes (hey I passed that assignment, at least). I’ve never been an overly confident person (labelled in all caps ‘SHY’ by every teacher that’s ever taught me) in anything, from my ideas to my talents to my views, always overshadowed by constant doubt and disapproval that these ideas don’t make sense, aren’t backed by the right authority or don’t represent who I am as a person in the world; and a looming self-consciousness has thrown me on the opposite path many times. But I guess that’s life, c’est la vie, you can’t control everything you do or how people see you, and you can’t mold this perfect shell of a representation. I’ve taken a step back to realise the little hints of light-hearted unseriousness I’ve found I add to everything I say and the fact that I’ve only known these (wonderful) people for such a short time that they have no idea what I was like previous. You’ve just gotta say or do the right thing at the right time among the right people and you’ll get your way. No pressure, kid.

As much as we might wish, we can’t all be Jim Jarmusch cool. jim jarmusch cool

Being stuck in a small room with only a desk and a bed (an artist’s cliche) with a laptop and TV forces me to always be ‘working’ in some way or another (there isn’t much else to do where I’m staying). Whether that be opening and staring the New Post window or scrawling through my Subscriptions list on YouTube, everything kinda  feels like work for this course. The consuming (and ‘noticing’) of all media forms that we have been encouraged to do has for better or worse validated my usual lazy doings as ‘work’ which has blurred the lines between study and play, and I don’t doubt that that’s where my insecurities about my friends’ comments are incubated. I feel in my mind I have played down the seriousness of my course for a little too long and that has seeped out into the realm of actuality in my head. Regardless, I’ll undoubtedly continue to make the most of the short time I have at uni while I still can; next semester’s (and the semester’s after that, etc.) Studios look and sound like they get down to serious business (and specific, less of the less constrained freedom of this semester–not that this is at all a negative, but it’ll help in my responses to questions from relatives such as “what do you actually do in your course?“, y’know) and for those I am truly excited.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
of course you don't“Do what you love” – ancient proverb, small superfluous inspiration from relative or excuse to piss around?