Reflection – evidence of your work, thinking and making

Part 1. What I have learned and gained in experience within this studio was being more decisive when cutting and doing it with more of an intention rather than relying on intuition which I was doing before. This intention comes from my thoughts of how I imagine the audience to feel like and what I want to achieve in the edit whether it be conveying a story clearly or to elicit a specific type of emotion. 

Another insight and knowledge I gained personally from this studio was how I think about how this sequence of footage I am cutting is functional and the purpose behind it in order to create a better delivery and impact in the type of work I am making whether it be a narrative piece or a commercial piece. 

Even though I have not completely found my editing style as I set that as a goal at the start of the studio, I have discovered more about myself and the type of sequences and editing structures I see working for myself that I like using. It was in the process driven exercises from homework activities to assignments where I got to see multiple perspectives on edits that I did myself and from others which I was then able to observe and see what I like from and want to try again for myself from it. 

Part 2. For my documentary piece I wanted my audience to feel some sense of comfort and nostalgia as that was my main intention of how I structured the clips of b-roll and interview footage together. I also wanted the audience to see the care and artistic skill Daniel puts into cooking different foods. I think I was able to achieve this in the pacing of each clip and the selection of clips which matched well and suitable with what Daniel was talking about. The colours I was able to get were consistently warm and slightly desaturated and faded throughout which I thought helped contribute to the theme of nostalgia and comfort with Daniel and his experience with cooking. If I were to keep working on this piece, I would want to improve on the pacing on areas where there was empty space between where Daniel was talking as I feel like those areas were a bit too rushed due to time constraints set by the assignment. Next time I would want to have clips of b-roll whether it be Daniel or still life shots of the overall space in his home to stay for longer which would help with the overall calm and peaceful tone. 

As for my narrative piece, emotions I wanted to elicit within were feelings of being disturbed and anxiously scared and to be alert and cautious feeling throughout, similar to the feeling you would get when watching a thriller movie where there is an anticipation but you do not know what is going to happen to the main character. I felt like areas that helped me achieve this in my final edit for this piece was in the sound design combined especially the choice of music and diegetic sounds combined with the series of shots I took which contributed to the overall dark theme. Something I would like to work on if I were to continue developing my narrative edit would be improving the sound design and experimenting with how they transition and change in volume at different areas in the edit to accentuate details which are quite helpful in making videos of the thriller genre. I would also like to further experiment with the pacing of each clip and how long they go for before they cut and then observing how it contributes to the overall dark thriller feeling I want to achieve.  

The commercial edit I made was quite fun to shoot and edit and with that feeling, I wanted to convert and translate it into how I stitched the footage together in a fast pace to create an energetic feeling and also this excitement and coolness people feel towards Nike as a brand as well as the sneakers. My main intention putting all these shots together was prioritising the sneakers first and it being the main focus of the video in their functionality of basketball and dance. I felt like I achieved this in the edit by keeping the shoes around the centre and even made small cut outs that pop out in some of the shots which helped create interesting visuals. What I would add to the video and try to develop more of was how I could vary the shots in visual aesthetic like adding and trying out different template filters which can change the look or even enhancing (like altering how the wide angle fish eye looked and distorting it even more to look stylised) of a particular sho. This is so that a variety of shots that look different to each other can create a more engaging and interesting to watch. 

Part 3. I feel like in this studio there was not too much collaborative work as doing that can be a bit difficult and tedious especially in sharing and working together editing which can take even longer as compared to working by yourself. However, areas in collaborating during the media making process I found to be important was definitely whilst shooting with others whether they be the talent or people acting. One of the challenges I found was communication and  conveying what I had in my mind that could look great in the edit into words where the people I were working with would understand and see what I had in my mind. I think this also comes down to writing a shot list with clear descriptions and even going to the extent of pairing it with a reference video so that I could show the people who I am working with a rough outline of how I want to capture and shoot them in the action of doing a specific action if they get confused. Some benefits with collaboration I found that worked with me throughout this semester was showing my video to others so that I could get a new perspective on how it looks which also tell if my idea that I was going for and wanting to show in the edit was unsuccessful or worked in making the viewers react in a certain way that I wanted to.

Blog Post 1

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/25/1-class-activity-reflection/

Blog Post 2

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/25/2-deconstruction/

Blog Post 3

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/trevorchan/2022/08/25/3-your-way-of-working/

The first thing that comes to mind of how my editing practice has is in numerically organising footage in a specific way being scene-shot-number has helped me out a lot. This especially applies to when following a script or shot list I have made or need to follow as I like to stay organised and have my footage in an order that is logical to me. 

Being in charge of directing, writing and shooting from a shot list for narrative based videos has been quite new to me during the first couple of weeks. In the pre production phase of shooting this has made me think not only about shots that are mandatory to get but also how they can be put together in a way that creates a story. My current work flow I have discovered that currently works best for me was writing out all the shots I can think of (at least one wide, medium and close up for flexibility when editing) for a specific part of the narrative I had in mind and then listing them out in an order for how I see these shots in the edit. Also prioritising capturing a wide or master shot that covers the whole scene is something else that I have been thinking of when shooting as it acts like a safety net in the editing phase if not enough has been shot.

During the editing phase, I have been thinking about emotion more in relation to Walter Murch’s The Rule Of Six guide to editing in thinking about what I want the series of shots to convey and how I can edit them in an effective way to convey those feelings. This also applies to when watching media like films where I try to be more observant and take note of what I find interesting and stands out to me in a scene or series of shots and what it makes me feel in relation to the narrative or overall message or concept told or explored.

Scene from Memento

My chosen scene is from the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. Overall as a whole, the way Memento was very interesting in that it is based around the concept of discontinuity editing which I have not seen a lot of in films. Memento used scenes in colour that have a sequence of events that occur in reverse chronological order whilst inserts of black and white scenes told backstories and information on who the protagonist Leonard is in a chronological order was unique and an interesting way of telling a story to me and well expressed Leonard’s condition of his short term memory. 

One of the scenes that stuck out to me that well expressed Leonard psychology and really brought me into his world and perspective was the scene where Leonard attacks Natalie but cannot remember shortly after what he did. The scene opens with Leonard sitting on Natalie’s couch and is oblivious and confused as to why Natalie is stressed. The pacing of this part in the scene is cut with the camera moving quickly following Natalie circulating the living room and made me feel like I am confused with Leonard as to what is happening. What is interesting to me as well is how the camera follows Natalie taking the pens to prevent Leonard from writing down what happens due to his short term memory loss but that comes to Leonards realisation later on.  

As Natalie gets angrier, the rhythm changes as shot takes become a bit longer especially in the over the shoulder shots of Natalie venting. These shot compositions then nicely transition and match to Natalie circulating Leonard with the camera slowly zooms in on Natalie criticising Leonard helping create and replicate a claustrophobic and more intense atmosphere that Leonard is in. 

The sequence of shots afterwards when Natalie walks outside changes to shot with a shaky camera movement as Leonard tries to find a pen to write down what happened. The change in pacing of the shots not as steady and controlled as before to me symbolised and reflected on the chaos and urgency of Leonard trying his best to not forget what has happened.  

Another part of the scene I found to stand out was the cuts between Lenny looking out the window to Natalie and her looking through the window as if she is breaking the fourth wall. This really to me I found was quite abstract in the scene as there is no really other shot like it but is effective in situating the audience in the perspective of the protagonist watching Natalie being psychologically manipulative in waiting for Leonard to forget then looping back to the narrative convention of Memento of the scene unveiling an answer to a question brought up in what was shown before.