Reflection on Monaliza’s Portrait

Posted on by under Practicals, RMIT

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.

Media One Lectorial 7: Semiotics of ‘Texts’ and Introduction to Sound

Posted on by under Lectorials, RMIT

21 April

 

In week seven’s lectorial, Brian introduced the topic of ‘texts’ in media. What is a text? One quote that was included in the lectorial presentation was:

‘Material traces that are left of the practice of sense-making, the only empirical evidence we have of how other people make sense of the world’
Robert McKee

This ambiguous description is not entirely easy to determine the actual definition of a ‘text’. Considering my personal opinion of what a ‘text’ in media, I would write the following definition:

A determined constructed idea or artefact through media-related mediums that’s definement as a ‘text’ is imperatively dependent on the analytical possibilities of itself

After a brief but broad introduction into what a ‘text’ is, the lectorial moved onto an interesting topic that is familiar due to previous study of it: the semiotic tradition of analysis. Learning about the semiotics of textual analysis in 2015’s Lectorial 7 allowed me to recall my learnings of it from 2013. It is one of those things that is so distinctive – so intellectually stimulating – that your understanding of it never wanes. I learnt about the semiotics of textual analysis in Senior English Extension, where I was also privileged to be taught modernism and postmodernism, psychoanalytic theory, and structuralism and post-structuralism (which was coincidentally also mentioned in the lectorial). ‘Sign’ is the term that has etched itself onto my mind vis-a-vis semiotic analysis. The relationship between ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ is something that is pervasive across all media ‘texts’. Perhaps I will revisit semiotic analysis theory for Project Brief 4?

Time for Brian to sit down; Jasmine’s turn.

The second half of the seventh Media One lectorial focused on the introduction to sound in media and its ubiquitous nature in everyday society. The first focus on sound and of vital importance regarded the perspective of sound in relation to our ears’ altering of reality, as the ears:

…hierarchise elements of what is represented

This hierarchy of sound can be easily understood through mind-altering substances internal functions on the brain (the legality of which is irrelevant); the ears are at their highest strength in hierarchising sounds.

Christopher O’Rourke: A Portrait of Another

Posted on by under Film, Media, RMIT

23 April

 

Christopher O’Rourke by Zachary Newbegin

For Project Brief 2, I chose to focus on my uncle Christopher O’Rourke. He was my godfather and passed away on the 18 March 1997 – nine months after my birth. Throughout the entirety of my life, I have been told all about him and have felt his presence with me. Reflecting on my finished work, I consider using Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ as the most successful aspect of the piece. ‘Für Elise’ was Christopher’s favourite composition to play on piano and the shots of him at varying ages are complimented by the soft nature of the composition. I included Charlie Chaplin’s ‘A Night in the Show’ as it was also a favourite of Christopher’s. In consideration of how the other used ‘found footage’ works within the work, I chose to incorporate footage that illustrated my uncle’s interest in drag-queen culture and also his personal self-reflection on his journey throughout his illness. I did not want to use many visual transitions as I wanted a rather jagged look, used by a majority of cuts, to insinuate the rapid changing nature of his illness.

The most problematic part of working on this piece was to be tasteful to my deceased uncle however still encapsulate his inappropriately comedic nature and playful essence. This leads to my discussion on my learning discoveries through producing this piece. Working on Project Brief 2, in addition to Project Brief 1, I have garnered knowledge on the different creative possibilities of producing a ‘portrait’ of either myself or somebody else. When somebody thinks of ‘Media’ they automatically draw conclusions of filming and footage. My work, however, was difficult to incorporate footage due to the subject of the portrait I was producing being deceased. I chose to include several old photographs of my uncle however through editing, make it appear as though the photos have been filmed. I found that through editing, I was able to portray visual movement that I would not be able to include of my uncle due to his passing being too long ago to locate genuine footage. In reflection of what I have learnt relevant to my development as a media practitioner, I learnt that I can work around copyright by incorporating public domain videos and audio.

V

Posted on by under Readings

6 April

 

 

Collaboration: a term that keeps popping up in the Media One course. The idea of collaborationism has been studied viciously by many theorists and writers, especially on social media and internet sharing. In the “What is Collaboration Anyway?” reading, it states:

User-generated content and social media create the tendency for confusion between sharing and collaboration. Sharing of content alone does not directly lead to collaboration.

This forms the basis of collaboration study. Where does collaboration begin? Who initiates the collaboration when social media is concerned? The answer, I believe, is the non-human entity linking the relationship of two human collaborators: the Internet. Although the internet does not consciously choose with its brain to assist in collaborationism (or does it?), the Internet’s ubiquitous nature in collaborationism in 2015 is not to be ignored. Probably the most important section of the reading (again my opinion), is the ‘Criteria for Collaboration’ sub-chapter. It details how on assessing the strength of collaboration, particular criteria can be questioned: intention, goals, governance, coordination mechanisms, property, knowledge transfer, identity, scale, network topology, accessibility, and equality. I realise after writing out the specified criteria you are now probably confused by the ‘list-y’ nature; I feel the same way. But there is relevance to it. Whilst collaboration can be an unintentional happening, it generally is a planned and motivated occurrence between multiple parties to achieve a similar or same result. The reading’s deconstruction of Wikipedia’s collaborative nature was vitally interesting. Although the stigma of Wikipedia is DO NOT TRUST WIKIPEDIA, I tend to take this less seriously than I am instructed to. Wikipedia is the world’s most collaborative online database and although sometimes the information may be misconstrued or embellished, it is a perfect example of successful collaboration at work.

Working on Project Brief 3

Posted on by under Uncategorized

17 April

 

Today I drove to Warrandyte and filmed all of the footage from the cemetary and old houses Uncle used to live in. The project is slowly coming together. I have amazing voice-over narrations on Chris and some heavy personal items of his to sift through. I hope I can immortalise him beautifully in my piece and depict his essence.

Media One Lectorial 6: Collaboration (that means you too Reel Friends)

Posted on by under Lectorials, RMIT

14 April

 

Today’s lectorial was tiresome but great. The tumultuous arguments on ‘Reel Friends’ between the left and right sides of the room was stimulating. After a guest speaker gave a presentation on functions of RMIT’s website (including Library search haha), we delved into collaboration in media. What is collaboration? Is collaboration in media the most important aspect? Without a need to go into too much detail, effective and professional collaboration within a group in media-making will obviously result in a more rewarding experience and better-furnished product.

Media One Practical 4: Introduction to Camera Operation

Posted on by under Film, Media, Practicals, RMIT

9 April

 

In this week’s practical Media One class, we screened all of our self-portrait videos. I was pleased to watch everyone else’s as they were all informative, well-made and different. Before I went into the practical, I was asked by a classmate whether or not I was ‘nervous’ to screen my self-portrait. No, I wasn’t. I created my first Media One assessment piece which centred around the idea of my ‘self’; I was content. After the screening of 032015, I talked about the positives and negatives of my portrait and also some underlying themes I pervaded.

After the screening, the focus in the practical was on learning to operate film cameras. We went out in groups of three and were asked to create a ‘handshake’ three-shot scene. My group, naturally, took this as an opportunity to create an intense drug-dealing film. Enjoy.

Media One Lectorial 5: Understanding Academic Writing

Posted on by under Lectorials

31 March

 

Week 5’s readings centred around the notion of ‘collaboration’ and what the term means in the media and social-media industries. Due to this topic being pushed backwards to Week 6, however, I will discuss the readings in next week’s lectorial post.

Week 5’s lectorial focused on academic writing and in particular, comprehension of it through structured reading and writing practices. Something that stood out for me was the following phrase:

Skimming is a necessary/legitimate step of doing it ‘properly’ (not an indication that you can’t!)

To the people who question my reading speed, take that! Skimming an academic chapter/ article is a proper way of reading and understanding academic writing. Comprehending the structure, visual clues and functions of academic writing, the purpose and meaning of the writing can be easily understood.

On a side note, a discussion on Project Brief 3 was generated again and everybody was discussing their ideas and how they have pre-interviewed their selected persons for their portrait over the mid-semester break… I have not yet decided on a subject. Perhaps procrastination could be my subject? Food for thought. I have several ideas in mind and will have to get a move on obviously.

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