Food on Film – Portfolio of small experiments
Outside Class exercise
In Class exercises
Personal note:
Ouside class exercise
Poetic Mode – Sushi Sushi Montage
- This is Split-screen montage of Sushi Sushi, it works through the relationship between videos, I want audiences to create their own meaning of understanding authentic Japanese food. In Sushi Sushi, there is one customer eats a sushi box, what does he eat, does he eat authentic Japanese sushi? Split screen allows viewers to create their own logical or unusual relationships of each small scale clips. I am inspired by the documentary we watched in the class named Symmetry. Poetic mode creates a sense of experimental and expressionistic over realistic, I don’t think I will use this mode in my final documentary this time, but the exercise of editing soundtrack is important.
Observational Activity – Shinmai Tasty
- I will use this clip in my final project. Tong and I went to Shinmai Tasty to interview our main character and we filmed chefs were making the authentic Japenese food. We were using a tripod to film those movements. Tripod provides a stable angle of filming something. Those actions are observed at a distance which helps audiences to see what they are doing and how they make the sushi. It reminds me of the documentary Our daily bread, but there is no argument in this clip. This is the footage that we don’t normally see in our daily life, the observational mode will edit it to the final project when Tah talks about her restaurant food and their chefs.
Expository Mode – Tah’s interview
- This will be the voiceover of our final project, we will edit some relevant clips when she talks about their food and environment. The wireless microphone works really well, we can hear her voice very clearly. And we use a tripod to film the whole interview, so it is very stable.
In class exercise
Interview from an unknown person – Authentic food in Melbourne
- This is an in-class exercise, I need to find someone that I don’t know and ask her what does she think authenticity food in Melbourne. I feel some time be a media person, I always need to communicate with someone that I never know before and I will also always find something that surprises me as well during the process. I remember my last semester studio goal is to use my own words to explain a complex idea, our group decided to explain “What if a giant asteroid hadn’t wiped out the dinosaurs“. I think this in class exercise helps me to push myself to be open to others. I hand held the camera and film this clip, I think it is a pretty good exercise before I do my final project because there are several things don’t work well. First of all, the focuses are the main problem in this clip. Because of the light, the focus doesn’t work when I filmed the character, so when I edited it, I need to use images to cover a few second. It reminds me I need to check the focus when we do the final project. Secondly, I think we need to borrow a tripod for our final project, the handheld camera doesn’t work well to make a good quality of a sit-down interview.
Observational Activity – Poke Bowl
- We use two Sony X70 to film the whole process. One is for the overview of what Joanna is doing, the other one is to filming the close-ups of food. When I edit those footages, it is really interesting. I got enough footages, so I can edit any way I want. I can edit from the panorama scene that Joanna explains how to make the poke blow switch to the close up of the food. It was my first time to use two cameras film one thing. And we also need to use the light and the “click microphone”. Tong and I will borrow this microphone for our final project. The light works a lot in the film, but I don’t think the footages are aesthetic enough, next time we can choose a better angle and background to film the process of making a poke bowl.
Reference
Dudow, Slatan, and Kanopy. Our Daily Bread (Unser Taglich Brot). San Francisco, California, USA]: Kanopy Streaming, 2016. Web.
Nichols, B 2017, Introduction to Documentary, Third Edition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.