April 2016 – Page 2 – Reflections Off a Mirror

Month: April 2016 (page 2 of 2)

Portraiture – Week #6

April 17, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

As mentioned in my previous post I recently taken up Photography 101 as a school elective and the following pictures are for a class assignment. They are basically portraitures of my mates at the Carlton Gardens Tennis Club and we were required to take 3 portraitures of any theme or series or not even have to be related. My approach was leaning towards sports photography taking after one of the most well known sports photographer, Clive Brunskill. We all know that I’m a tennis player myself and I my love for the sport began at the age of 6, and my interest in photography has always been a topic that I have not find the time or opportunity to scratch this itch until uni. Therefore, what more combining the 2 things I enjoy into pictures and portraits, and of course, the opportunity of socialising with people at a level of comfort for them to display their potential for the camera lens.

First Time Lapse Video – Week #6

April 14, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

Due to the borrowing of the Sony MC50 for Project Brief 3, it is only necessary to get a tripod as well because, let’s face it, we just can’t stand still enough to prevent any shakiness on camera. Therefore, I decided to use the tripod as well for my own DSLR and decided to play around with its video functions. I recorded a simple time lapse video of the sunset (or whatever’s left of it) from my apartment video. Please excuse the jerky movement midway through, I left the auto focus on and realise it was affecting the image later on.

Hope I’ll have more opportunities using the tripod to take not just time lapse videos, but dive into photography that requires a tripod, as there is so much you can do with a tripod that you can’t achieve if you were just shooting straight off from your hands.

Enjoy.

Editing – Week #6

April 13, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

Editing has been always a keen interest of mine since I started studying about media and film production. It is at the filmmaker’s disposal to arrange the shots and when to cut, fade, dissolve or wipe. The possibilities on how to edit a film is endless and it is based on an individual and how he visions the sequence of the film should be. Like what Boredwell and Thompson mentioned in the reading, it can shape the response of the viewer and the decisions can build film form.

The cut is the most common tool when it comes to joining 2 shots to form a sequence. As mentioned by one of the students from class, editing with the cut is almost like the blinking of an eye. It provides some change from a particular shot to another. Sometimes, a scene might have gone on for some time and it might seem a little too unnatural as there are no cuts in between. We as human have to blink our eyes every now and then, and the cut sort of simulates that in editing to keep the audience interested as well as anchored to the film. The cut also creates emphasis on a particular scene.

In the film that was screened this week, Enemy of the State, where it is a typical Hollywood action packed movie, exhibits many a wide variety of editing. We see, as in many action movies, many fast cutting scenes during the chase sequence between the federal agents and the IT man who happened to have gain possession of a video that shows the assassination of the Congressman Hammersley. Obviously during a foot chase, there is a lot of things going on and it all captures at different angles, locations, with different point of view from both the protagonist and antagonist, not to mention medium to close ups shot of the characters running. Therefore, it is only natural to have fast cutting scenes in order to fit all these into one sequence, with the occasional panoramic view of the setting where the foot chase is taking place.

The film also exhibits crosscutting, where it creates 2 different scenes that may or may not be happening concurrently. In this case, during that same foot chase scene, we see our main character, Robert Clayton Dean, (Will Smith) in a lingerie shop buying a gift for his wife. And eventually the 2 scenes meet when the young IT man meets Robert and plants the tape containing the video of the assassination into one of Robert’s shopping bag. This introduces some spatial discontinuity at the beginning, but resolves when both characters meet each other at the lingerie store. This also pre–empts the viewers of the upcoming death of the IT man shortly after he hands over the tape to Robert, and also resolves the foot chase scene with that character dying in a collision with a truck, as he no longer holds any significance to the main narrative of the film. It also, more importantly, puts Robert in the main spotlight and focus to the federal agents and also to the viewers, since he is now in possession of the tape, unknowingly.

Like most mainstream Hollywood action movies, the editor, Chris Lebenzon, for the movie, employs the continuity editing technique to deliver narrative information in a smooth and clear sequence of shots. It gives a moment-by-moment flow of that reveals more and more information to the viewers to unveil the story. It also keeps the viewers engaged and wanting to find out more to see what happens at the end. Will Robert get his life back to how it was? Will Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight) get away with the murder? All these questions and more, would have been raised while in the midst of watching the film as an audience member.

We also see the use of the 180 degree system throughout the film. The 180 degree system is where the filmmaker creates a space around an “axis of action”. The axis is an imaginary line that connects between 2 subjects. Almost throughout the duration of the movie, when there is a conversation between 2 or more characters, we observe the 180 degree system. It is to prevent the audience from being confused on the position and arrangement of the characters and mise-en-scene. Personally, as technical as it sounds, I thought this system was the logical and self-explanatory. It is to give the viewers a sense of actually being present in the room or venue and watching the subjects engage in a conversation. If a camera were to cross the axis, it would seem as though the we, the viewers, would have suddenly jumped or teleported to the other side of the room and suddenly both our characters have swapped positions. Like with most post-production tools, we want to have it

Narrative Structure Exercise – Week #6

April 13, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

In this week’s workshop, we were given a list of questions that we should be asking ourselves before we actually head out to shoot our interview projects for Project Brief 3, which happens to be the heat of the subject for most of us Media 1 students for the most of this week and the upcoming one too. As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”. Can’t say I fully agree with that, but it definitely holds some strong values.

Here I go…

What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?
Ans: I was thinking of a working title for my Project Brief 3, and so far I’m going for “A Tongue to Speak”, and it is about this unofficial language that we use back home in Singapore, and everyone is so accustom to talking like that till it almost becomes like a dialect or an accent.
How is your portrait film structured?
Ans: I haven’t really thought of a formal structure for it yet, but for now it starts off as Q&A with onscreen texts for the question and I have my subject replying to them. Therefore it does not require the presence of an interviewer, although during the shoot, I took the role of the interviewer, but I found it complicated to have several shots of the interviewer and interviewee, cutting it, and with the constraints of having just 1 camera, it would have taken up a lot of time shooting and less time to edit.
What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee?
Ans: To convey some information and culture to my audience on the tongue that we speak back home, “Singlish”, and how it came about, how do we use it, and even from a cultural context on how it has evolved and came a long way to where it is today.
How is your portrait being narrated?
Ans: I don’t think there’ll be any narration for my portrait, I’ll just let my interviewee do most of the speaking with some visual aid through texts for certain questions that I might have prompted during the interview session with my subject. I opt not having any narration as I thought it would have seemed a little too documentary-like and it would also require having to record voice overs of myself which I am not too comfortable about, hence end up doing many takes which would be too time consuming.
What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?
Ans: I plan to use the element of music as a found footage, just to create the mood and uplift the entire short film. Music definitely aids in creating a scene for the audience even before they are exposed to the visual aspect of the film. I once heard of this saying, “A picture paints a thousand words, but a song paints a thousand pictures”.
Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point?
Ans: Unfortunately, no, given the topic that I am conveying to my audience, I don’t see the need for a dramatic turning point. Probably the most dramatic moment of the film would be my subject moving away from home, but that’s as dramatic as it gets.
When does this turning point in your portrait and why?
Ans: It occurs midway through or maybe towards at the end where my subject reveals her identity and what she’s doing here in Melbourne.
How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
Ans: It starts off with a simple Q&A and then we digress into speaking more about specific topics relating to Singapore food culture and the unofficial language we speak back home, “Singlish”.
Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from?
Ans: Just the tension of speaking a little more refined and articulate a little better when my subject is speaking with the locals here as compared to being back home where we can open the flood gates for “Singlish”.
Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution?
Ans: Yes, I strongly believe there is a resolution, and that comes when my subject reveals more about herself instead of talking about the Singapore culture in general.

MC50 Interview Exercise – #Week 5

April 12, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

So here it is, the final cut of A Survival Guide to Survive The First 6 Weeks of Uni.

Initially I had no clue how am I going to edit this to make it seem like it was an interview, as due to our negligence we overlooked the part where there need to be one of us asking the question and 2 others answering it. However, I there was a clip of one of my group mates, Reza, repeating the question to himself, and I thought that would make a very good shot of somebody asking the question. And hence, I decided on that to be the opening shot for the viewers to understand what’s this video is all about and would not need to repeat the question along the way as all of us are talking about the same thing, therefore this helps to shorten the duration of the video instead of having the question being asked over and over again to different individuals.

I decided to add in some humour as well, by having some shots that were of Reza trying to gather himself before answering the question. As usual, some people might need to take some time to adjust themselves to feel comfortable and confident in front of the camera. I, myself, had problems speaking directly to the camera, and decided to make it seem like I was speaking to someone else behind the camera in stead of speaking to the camera to overcome that sense of nervousness.

After getting started on editing, I realised the shots I wanted, and slowly got a sense of direction of where I want to go with this short video. Despite it being a “serious” topic of how to survive in uni, I thought the element of humour in between shots would help lighten the mood as well as to give the viewer some good laughs. As a group that went out to shoot the raw footages, I thought we had fun too, and would like to convey that as well through the video on top of having such a serious topic.

Overall, I thought it was a good exercise for us to experiment on the Sony MC50 as well as how to use a tripod before we head out to start on our own recording for Project Brief 3. As mentioned in my previous post, there were some challenges we had to face with the technical side of things, but we managed to work our way around it and was soon enlightened on the problems we had when we head back into class. Look forward to working more as a group for future exercises and assignments as well as getting to know the camera more.

A Survival Guide to First 6 Weeks of Uni – Week #5

April 8, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

During this week’s workshop we were given this exercise and were taught how to use the Sony MC50 as well as how to use a tripod. Yes, it may seem quite fundamental, but it is just going through the formality of explaining how everything works so that everyone’s got a good understanding and that we’re all on the same page. Besides, it serves as a good refresher for those who might already have worked on a Sony MC5, or something similar, as well as using a tripod. The exercise requires us to head out to record 2 interviewees and an interviewer, and some wide shots and cutaways. We had a little directional microphone attached to the top of the camera to pick up the audio from whatever the camera is pointing to.

From the picture above as you can see that little red knob is slanted and the 3 of us who were grouped randomly by our tutor had a hard time scratching our heads on how to adjust that red knob to be flat. Despite getting the bubble dead center, the visuals wouldn’t be straight on the screen, or in technical terms, it would have appeared canted. However, despite having that problem, we decided to work our way around that and just adjusted the camera till we got a relatively level image on the screen and didn’t touch the settings on the tripod, except for folding the legs in while we were moving from location to location. Overall we managed to shoot what was required in the exercise brief and most importantly had fun taking up the different roles of being the interviewer, interviewee and the guy who stands behind the camera to press the little red button and gesture to the subject that we’re recording…

Other little minor hiccups we encountered were trying to find the right location around RMIT’s building 80. Since it was raining outside and we didn’t have that much time to run out to other venues, we decided to just find little pockets of the building where it was quiet and were not crowded. Obviously, some were taken up by other Media 1 groups doing the same exercise, but it was all good, there was enough space to go round.

After gathering all our raw footages around building 80, we transferred the files into our computers where we could edit and create a sequence from there. I’ve done a rough cut, but might want to fine tune it a little more before rendering and exporting it out into a final cut.

In a nutshell, I think it was a good exercise for us to get our hands on the little Sony MC50 which served as a good prequel to what’s to come in future assignments and exercises when working in the different studios. Oh and we did raise the issue we had over the tripod to our tutor, and she managed to find the nut that was locked and prevented the red knob from moving, so in future, when it comes to using the tripod, I think I would be more versed in doing so.

The Right Questions – Week #5

April 7, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

I am actually quite excited in getting my hands dirty for Project Brief 3. At this very moment, I have not really started on anything solid, but I have a very good idea on what I’ll be doing for the 1-2 minutes long video. Don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but I am really looking forward to getting down to the actual production and recording process of my subject and the topics that we are going to cover.

In this week’s workshop, we were taught how to ask questions. And not just any ol’questions, questions that actually grab your audience attention and keep them wanting to know more. I try to keep myself in the audience’s shoes while I was brainstorming for questions that I intend to ask my subject. And I realised this phrase kept popping up in my mind, “And then? And then? And then? And then?”. It is just the fear of not asking enough to sieve out the answers and information I need to keep my audience attention in check. In newscasting there is the “grab” where it catches the attention of the viewer, and usually the “grab” only lasts 3 seconds before you loses the viewer’s attention. Therefore, in order to keep my audience’s attention, I would have to come up with good questions and not just a generic yes or no question for my subject. (Am still brainstorming questions).

As mention above, I’m still very much in the pre-production stage where I’m mainly planning and brainstorming ideas for the entire project. And location has been one of the main things to cover. Since it’s an interview, it should take place in somewhere quiet, where I can record the audio on a separate track and mix it into the sequence if I want to. If I were to do the interview in a crowded area or a place out in the open, whatever audible sound that is not my subject’s voice might bleed into the microphone, and I might have a hard time mixing or getting rid of that in post. Would want to have a big reminder on that, because it’s so easy to overlook that when I have my main focus on the visuals.

Speaking of visuals, there is a torrent of possibilities to carry out an interview, there is the person to person interview, the voice over (where you don’t see the interviewee, just a voice over some visuals), or just the interviewee speaking, and more. One tip that I got from this week’s lectorial was to get the subject to repeat the question in their answer. So if I asked what did you have for breakfast. Instead of my subject saying, “I had bacon and eggs…”, I should get them to say, “What I had for breakfast was bacon and eggs.”. And that would help so much in editing the film later. I would then have the option of including me, the interviewer, in the sequence, or just have my interviewee speaking on the topic. I have not really decided whether I should stick to one or have a mix of both, so I’ll need to consider that before I go into post production.

Another thing I was considering was the song choice or whether to even have a backing music throughout the sequence. But I realised, I would discover that along the way during post production, since I don’t have a hard and solid sequence yet. It would be good to have music to lift things and set the mood, but it might be a distraction for the audience. As mentioned during one of the workshops, while doing an interview or documentary, it is always good to have an instrumental track playing in the background while the interviewee is speaking so as to avoid any clashing with the vocals of a song that might have lyrics in it, so I’ll look out for that.

In a nutshell, I think I’m good to go, and now only thing’s stopping me is arranging a suitable time for my subject to be available for a shoot, but that’s being sorted out as I write this post. So I’m having my fingers crossed…

Textual Analysis – Week #5

April 7, 2016 / Sem / 0 Comments

This week’s lectorial talks about Textual Analysis, to be quite honest, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Even now when I think back, it was such a blur being in the lectorial. Having chosen Cinema Studies for my contextual studies, I should have a good understanding on how to analyse texts, be it, audio, video, written or image. But no, I still find it a struggle to unpack and breakdown whatever’s presented in front of me. Some times I might wonder if I’m thinking or trying to hard when what I’m suppose to get is actually right in front of me.

Then again it might be the short Easter break we had that lasted for a week or so that got my brain a little mushy and lazy. Might take a couple more days for it to get fired up and getting its motors running at optimal level again. I was just breaking into a rhythmic pattern and routine for my day to day activities, attending classes, having lunch, heading to the library to finish up on weekly assignments and not forgetting the graded assessments, and then BAM, a short break and a slice of heaven. Back to lazy old habits of waking up in the afternoon, lazing around and getting nothing done, but minimal cooking and the dishes to get me through the day. Having said that, I did, however, spent the mid-semester break traveling around and Melbourne and to the Great Ocean Road, which I’ll leave it for another post.

No, I’m not complaining or going against the idea of having a mid-semester break, in fact, I love it! I just find it hard to have a start-stop, start again, kind of notion. Being thrown back into the bucket of work and daily routines again. Just have to adjust till I find myself comfortable and almost second nature. But by the time that happens, the winter break might just be around the corner. I definitely have to get used to having this start-stop thing otherwise, I’ll have a struggle throughout my duration of the programme.

Anyway, I digress. So far the only thing I took away from the lectorial for Textual Analysis is, there may be more than meets the eye in terms of information and messages that is being conveyed to the audience. For example, we were given a picture from Brooks Brother advertisement of a man in blue shots and what appears to be a boy in mid air almost landing into a pool of water, and we were asked to analyse it to see what kind of message is the ad trying to convey. At first glanced, it seemed like it was almost contradicting to see how happy the older man seemed like he tossed the young boy into the water with smiles on both of their faces. Something just didn’t connect right there in my head, but due to the text available on the side, it states something like, “You can feel the difference”, and that gives more context to the image. From what I gathered, it’s trying to say that you have confidence to jump into the pool with your clothes on because of how comfortable the cotton from Brooks Brothers delivers, therefore you wouldn’t have the barrier of jumping into the pool with your clothes on.

Another point I gathered was the amount of blue used throughout the image. I would assume blue is the corporate colour for Brooks Brothers from their logo and insignia. Not only the subjects in the image were in blue themed clothing, but the awnings and pool umbrellas took on blue and white stripes too. And not forgetting the blue of the swimming pool, which is more of a given than anything else, whether it was edited in post to make it even more blue is a different question.

I realised that I am able to pull all these out from the image, but I’m not sure what to do with it, or make a main conclusion or even write an analysis out of it. I guess I would have to go back to the reading and lectorial notes and just get at it until the light bulb above my head glows bright. But for now, I might have other things on going that might hold a higher priority such as Project Brief 3, and other assignments from other courses.

Reflections Off a Mirror

Just another Media Factory site

Month: April 2016 (page 2 of 2)

Portraiture – Week #6

First Time Lapse Video – Week #6

Editing – Week #6

Narrative Structure Exercise – Week #6

MC50 Interview Exercise – #Week 5

A Survival Guide to First 6 Weeks of Uni – Week #5

The Right Questions – Week #5

Textual Analysis – Week #5

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