8 Aug

It is already the end of the third week of Semester 2 and I have been flooded with assessment! All three of my subjects have an assessment piece due at the end of week four: fml. In On the Frame this week, the central idea was the notion of movement within (or outside) the frame. Breaking down movement into its constituent parts is fundamental in understanding the illusion of movement within film. These constituent parts, or ‘frames’, are each screened one-after-the-other which tricks human eyesight in perceiving movement across still frames.

After a class discussion on L’Avventura, we watched The Matrix’s famous first ‘bullet-time’ action sequence, where Trinity KICKS SOME ARSE! After watching this, we viewed a short documentary on The Matrix’s famous bullet-time shots which proved to be very interesting as still cameras are responsible for the illusion. After the ‘learning’ part of the three-hour long class, we were off to each film a less-than-one-minute investigation of movement in the frame. Inspired by Trinity, I chose to film movement within the frame, whilst the camera was itself moving in the space. Edited in post-production, I played around with frame duration and altered the speed of each shot.

I am going to be brutally honest to both tutor Dan and myself: the finished product is shittier than ‘Black and Gold’ products. There is, however, the matter of personal perception that needs to be applied to my short film. Through my eyes, I see: an intentionally-constructed sequence that’s on-the-surface awfulness juxtaposes its pedagogical purpose in investigating the effects of shot duration. In everyone else’s eyes: is Zac twelve years-old and using Windows Media Maker?

Judge for yourself!

P.S. The audio is copyrighted and is now in silence… yay. You must view this alongside Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy playing for the video to work.

23 April

The intial conception of Sasha’s portrait on Carmen-Sibha Keiso is that it is rudimentary. But no, it isn’t; rudimentary is the wrong word. I would describe, in two words, Sasha’s portrait as gorgeously simplistic. With such a charismatic subject, Sasha’s stripped interview with a minimalistic setting worked well. Sasha chose to use as little ‘found footage’ as possible, which also worked with his subject. It is all dependant on context and the human subject. When ‘found footage’ was evident, it was Carmen-Sibha’s own work which I thought was astutely chosen in terms of presenting a portrait of her. I think that the way the piece opens and ends abruptly without any sense of ‘beginning’ or ‘end’ worked well in terms of this portrait as the subject did not need this; I could understand her personality and motivations by the simplistic non-narrative style. Whilst not technically brilliant, Sasha’s construction of his portrait was intentionally simple and I believe it worked very well.

23 April

Watching Monaliza’s portrait on Richard Morrison, I was immediately captured by the simplicity of the opening. I think that beginning with a dressed-down shot of Richard speaking before the opening title was an interesting choice that works beautifully. Richard is a very good choice of subject as he is both interesting and stimulating. The fast-paced editing montage of Richard’s paintings interspersed with the ‘found footage’ of gay women kissing passionately added to the context of Monaliza’s work. She aimed to capture Richard’s purpose of his art; his controversy and his interest in the human form. ‘The Artist’ is filmed at high quality and very steady, probably filmed on a tripod. This was thrown off through the final shaky shot (hand-held camera?), however, I believe that this fitted perfectly as it created a final sense of intimacy and insight into Richard. Overall, Monaliza’s portrait was very well constructed and edited.

5 March

I’m going to oppose my preconceived notions of the acceptable length of a blog post and keep this one nice and short (relatively). There lies something interesting – an attribute of myself so definitive: I epitomise oxymorons.

‘Zact’ 1: I speak in oxymorons

Now onto the Media 1 practical workshop. After discussion on the two different models of cognitive modes, Dan delved into a topic that was not entirely unknown to me, however, I have not given it much thought: self-portraits. What is a self-portrait? Could a daily Selfie can embody the wholeness of a self-portrait? No; and yes. I have come to the conclusion that the dedication and determination of the self-portrait is where this wholeness lies. I have recently come across a Youtube project video by Diana Scheunemann where she undertook a 15-year daily Selfie project beginning in 1999 (the term ‘Selfie’ not turned viral until 2012). This is where the opposition to the Selfie as a model of self-portrait becomes sparse. As seen in Scheunemann’s project, the self-portrait journey she undertook was personal, emotional and unreserved. And now to my point. Yes, there is a point. A self-portrait needs to be an illustration of one’s self – explicit or allusive – whereby the effort exhausted into creating it juxtaposes the minimal exertion of the Media society’s opinion on the famous ‘Selfie’. Scheunemann’s journey, whilst depicted through thousands of Selfies, is clearly an insightful self-portrait on her own growth and change – both physical and emotional.

During the practical workshop, we also set up our personal blogs (of which I am posting on now). This task was the inspiration for the noun ending the post’s title: perplexity. There were elevated stress and confusion during this task, birthing an aura of perplexity that was pervasive throughout the space. I could physically feel this perplexity. This idea that a collective emotion can be physically sensed has inspired several of my ideas for my own self-portrait. I am looking forward to sharing my self-portrait within the coming weeks. Whilst apprehensive of its personal nature, I am excited to share parts of myself otherwise concealed.