Category Archives: week 5

Surviving uni

Posted on by

Working with a group was so much fun but now its time for the lonely post production. I found that organising the clips first was helpful. I did folders of locations and subjects. We had one long clip of Isobelle asking all the questions (which we shot last) , so I went through that and took out parts without laughing and errors. I used those clips for signposting the rest of the raw footage.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 1.28.34 PM

 

Watching myself talk from an editing point of view was difficult as I rarely pause long enough to make a clean cut. I really didn’t want to have a whole clip of me rambling. My solution to this is to overlap some of the clips with Nicci so it would flow better and seem natural. It turns out we made some similar comments, so cutting our responses together was easier than I thought.

We shot our interviews in rmit connect to get a lively background. I think there could have been more light on the subject though.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 1.30.49 PM

I’m a real fan of crane shots.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 1.21.55 PM

So here is a test clip of the crosscutting-answer interview style.

highschool from vanessa wong on Vimeo.

The Life Aquatic

Posted on by

This was the first Wes Anderson film I’d seen before but I was familiar with his strikingly distinctive use of colour in Fantastic Mr.Fox. “The Life Aquatic with Zissou (2004)” has been my favourite so far out of all the screenings. The deadpan acting (“you’re supposed to be my son, right?”) and elevator music made me grin. On the topic of music; the use of Seu Jorge’s stripped down performances of David Bowie’s songs were so nostalgic and liberating, an excellent choice for the scenic voyages. I stayed until the end of the credits to hear it.

The colour, particularly its role in costume, really stood out to me. Team Zissou’s ridiculous garb of red beanies and baby blue overalls made them seem so united, like a family, so when Ned adopted the attire it was clear that he had become a member of the crew permanently. Team Zissou’s outrageous uniform contrasted with the more formal crew of Allistair Hennessey who wore plain whites. The staging choice of having them always stand so formally side by side made them seem like the refined nemesis. In the same way I noticed “the interns” were always standing side by side or huddled together so they became like a single character of the fumbling new guy.

The most memorable shot for me was the long tracking through the physical set of the ship. I was gaping through the whole thing because I couldn’t believe that they had built a whole cross section of the struture. I would like some albino dolphins in my basement now.

Usually I’m not a fan of the disunity of hybrid animation/live actions such as the lego movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Space Jam because my brain can’t comprehend combining the two worlds. But this film combined the stop motion animation so smoothly and not excessively with the actors. The sea horse in the glass caught me by suprise. I think the pops of colours such as in costume allowed the vibrant sea creatures to settle well in the frame.