August 2014

There were 5 posts published in August 2014.

Film/TV 2 – Analysis/ Reflection 3 #1

Paste the link here from your version of the abstract editing exercise.

Then reflect on the whole process – Consider: the quality and usability of your recordings; the effect of layering and juxtaposition of both the audio and the video and; the things you learnt from working with this kind of audio and video.

It was a shame that we did not record more so not many clips to choose. Each video was collected around the themes of stillness and movement. While editing, I decided to make use of colour and speed to relate all the visual clips. We had footages of hair blowing in the wind, shadows of a tree on the ground, and leaves with glint of sunlight. We also had shot through a rotating water bottle; which is already quite abstract. I had repeatedly used the footage of rotating water bottle as a transition. I hoped to make a rotation effect that was similar to a merry-go-around. I changed the colour and saturation to give a different feeling when the same footages appeared again. It is quite hard to add in the audio files Kimberley and I collected because we did not record in a good quality. I feel like working with the audio files with the video clips make it quite confusing. I found an absence of sound may in fact work well so I put in silence along with the footage of the still leaves. They were more like to create a contrast with all the movements; and the absence of sound may as well bring another space to the overall video. I really enjoyed working on this abstract exercise. It inspires me to look deeper into things from different perspectives; and to compile them with that one particular relationship that do not intend to have meanings for a creative content.
 

Film/ TV 2 – Analysis/ Reflection 3 #2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

Rabiger, M. Directing the documentary. 4th ed. Burlington: Focal Press, 2004.

Rabiger: “Truth is always provisional and to some extent fictionalised.”

There are so many things such as stories of people and cultures that we have not learned about but been touched by films. Rabiger once says that audiences define films of fantasy or reality by the moment they “compare true claims on the screen with what they know viscerally from life”. It may be easy to make the information known to audience by simply presenting the fact; however what really change the audiences is to trigger their emotions. I guess that is why making documentaries is hard. Filmmakers may be criticised as not being objective if he raises certain truths while putting down the rest to present certain idea in his perspective. I used to think documentaries were a record of the flat, tedious truth but honestly there are so many anomalies when presenting and experiencing the reality.  As Rabiger writes, “Like great fiction films, great documentaries tend to play out aspects of the human predicament in order to dramatize and organize what is troubling, unjust, or unanswerable”. 

Interviewing Technique

1. Get comprehensive cover of expository information, from a variety of interviewers for more flexibility during the edit.

2. Give direction to the interview, and ask relevant questions when the opportunity arises. It doesn’t matter about order, this can be fixed in the edit. As I heard this a lot from people, this is very important to keep an ear out in case of the interviewees disclose any clue for a bigger story. We will prepare a list of questions but we will be flexible in asking questions like having a relaxing conversation in order to encourage our subject to build up his stories and elicit the emotions.

3. A subtle way to steer the interview is to outline what you have so far understood, to allow the interviewee to build on this understanding. This could be a way to show our subject that we are fully engaged with his stories as well as for ourselves to remind ourselves what we have collected from the subject at certain stage in order to be aware of what we miss or need.

 

Film/TV 2 – Analysis/ Reflection 2 #2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you. 
Pawel Pawlikowski. In MacDonald, K & Cousins, M. Imagining reality, (p. 389-392). London: Faber & Faber, 1996.
Pawlikowski writes that ‘the point of making films is not to convey objective information about the world, but to show it as I see and to find a form which is relevant’. I guess making documentary can become quite abstract; to present what I believe to be with the materials I am able to access. I used to see documentary as a serious and boring topic; which is supposed to show audience the plain, dull fact. Yet Pawlikowski suggests that documentary films ‘ought to disturb and show really to be surprising, ambiguous, paradoxical, tragic, groesque beautiful…’. It inspires me with the idea that making documentary films lead filmmakers to think and interpret differently; out of the norm. Filmmakers are to show audience the world in another way they see it; not the usual common world in everyone’s point of view. Making documentary is a challenge that requires filmmakers to be creative in an approach to draw audiences attention to the subject which they have seen, in a new way without changing the reality.

Film/TV 2 – Analysis/ Reflection 2 #1

In the lecture we screened a short film called ‘End of the Line’ – the film shot in Broken Hill. 

Please describe in 300 words or less if you think they achieved what they set out to do.

You may not remember much detail, if so, it could be helpful to talk about your first impressions, after all this is what most of us are left with after one viewing. The treatment which we showed in the lecture is available here. 
My first impressions of End of the Line are that it has successsfully portrayed the life in outback. I very much like the red tone of the landscape shots which gives a sense of the place. This red tone makes Broken HIll look strange and frightening; it is wearing down. Yet, I do not feel that filmmakers have captured the ‘beauty and magnificence of the outback’as mentioned in the treatment provided. The film has rather presented a feeling of completely isolation and depressing environment with its selection of participants. Especially the old woman, she says that she moves to live in Broken Hill to die; followed by the shot of desolate, rugged land. This further emphasise the emptiness of Broken Hill as well as the dissociation from civilisation. Her story is best fit in the film. It makes the idea of living in the outback very unsettling to me. Besides, there is no narration along the film. I guess with only the people living in Broken Hill carry the narrative, it becomes more intimating and the story of the people involves close connection with audience. I also remember the three guys being interviewed at night. They look shy and embarrassed so they laugh at each other. They have not said much stuff but they are impressing. They show that the happiness in Broken Hill is so simple which probably based on them not knowing anything.

Film/TV 2 – Analysis/ Reflection 1

In this week’s lecture, scenes from Scott Ruo’s ‘Four Images’, Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ and Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’ were screened. Choose one of these, and consider, in a single paragraph, what might have intrigued, interested, displeased or repelled you.

I found the scenes from Chantal Akerman’s D’Est quite interesting. I felt discomforted at first with the tracking shot of the desolated, snowy street and lines of anonymous people. But then I liked the way in which Akerman makes the scene speaks. It portrays not only the human faces but also the spaces between people; what is showing and what is hiding. There is no dialogue; yet a world of sounds and background noises. The camera records people’s silences, it constructs the abstract emotional qualities such as the endless cold, and the mundane lives, the spiritual emptiness. I have ever come upon this use of camera. Akerman pans the camera in a straight line like a journey. I remembered there is a young boy, at one time he is in the edge of the frame and he keeps walking on the way to across the frame. He appears on screen again when the camera continues to pan; at some point some people who I have seen before show up on the frame again. I have that anticipation to look for them. I guess it is an idea of the film, the hope and the hopelessness.

 

Listen to the first 10 minutes of Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, “The Idea of North”.

The idea of North 10min.wav or Files are here (experimenting with different sizes and file types) If possible, use headphones.  Record your impressions in a paragraph or two.

 It is confusing of the overlapping of male and female’s voices. I am not able to concentrate on either of the voices. I do not understand what the woman is talking about most of the times; she does not speak very clearly and her tone is not interesting. Sometimes the background noise probably is too loud that makes the guy’s voice unclear and is distracting. I just do not find this radio documentary engaging, as it is a piece of unsettling recording.