*Questions are written based on my first impression to Jim

1. How long have you been to Australia?
2. Do you feel satisfy to yourself?
3. What do you think your friends might describe you?
4. What is your first impression in your friends’ eyes?
5. What will you start off when you first meet someone?
6. What are the factors that made you ‘you’?
7. Can you describe yourself with two colours? And WHY is that?
8. How did you change from black to white?
9. If you are asked to draw yourself a portrait, what kind of picture first appeared in your mind?
10. If you need to produce a short film to introduce yourself, what kinds of shots you what to include?
11. Can you give me one/two examples that most describes yourself?
12. How do you see dance as? Friend/mentor/teacher/family/tool?
13. What did dance bring you?
14. When you think back to your ‘black/darked’ period, how do you feel?

I found extremely interesting in week 6’s lectorial, I was late for the lecture and the screen was playing ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ told by Arlo Morris. This is used as an example to show how story telling actually work, we talked about there is a formula that stories usually follow, in particularly the superhero movies are seemed to be arranged in a same direction. To be honest, personally I do not enjoy so much the superhero movies like ‘Batman vs Superman’ or ‘Captain America’ etc. There are usually in the same direction like ‘Ulterman’ which is filmed in Japan, Ulterman is a superhero for most of the kids in my generation. They always start in an ordinary world; problems appeared so they need to start the adventure; when they first try to fight with the evils they lose; inspire by a mentor and at last they finally win. When too many films are set in this sequence, I started to wait for the turning point from the opening of the film. ‘Narrative is a sense of a sequence of events in some kinds of temporal order’, in my memories, I knew I saw movies from Japan that has broken the formula but unfortunately I can’t remember the name.

When I was watching ‘Batman vs Superman’, there was no surprised that it is going to be massive CGI used explicitly and dramatically. But the story plot was not too surprised and it was totally in my expectation. However, there are no doubt lots of films are very successful even they have stayed in this unchanged formula. The reason might be because of the filming technique; setting; costume; cinematography has kept updating, I guessed.

I believe my Project Brief 3 will be quite different to rest of the class, I noticed this from casting, I would rather choose someone I never know than someone I know very well. In my perspective, I think someone I don’t know will have a lot to discover though chatting and interview, someone I know is very hard list questions for interview.

When I was planning and preparing for this shooting, I can feel how the theories we have mentioned and learnt from lectorial or workshop was applied to use in the practce. For example, we have briefly discussed about editing of film. The editor should place themselves as an audience, so the cutting and pasting will really be done from the audiences’ perspective. Lighting is a brilliant tool to help the filmmaker in order to indicate his intention.

I have chosen a dancer who teaches Poppin in a dance studio, I have been to the studio for three years, usually I will notice when someone joined in. However, I have never looked at him and he never talks to anybody else, we were in different space even we are in the same room. The reason I said my PB3 will be different is because, our pb3 must be interview based with the character actually talking while the recording, it can be either audio or video. Initially, I did not want to have him talking neither audio or video, because I believe this is more presenting who he is. After I discussed with Rachel, if I don’t let him speak in the video I will not meet the criteria, so I have changed to another way to present my intention. Instead of having him talking towards the camera, he will talk in Chinese like a narrator for himself and subtitle will be typed while the video going.

My intention is to represent the depression/dark side of Jim was caused by his pass and dance appeared like a mentor of him which led him to the light. Jim sees dance as an important teacher or friend which appeared timely. The video started by representing the darkness of Jim, how depress he was when he was so lost so he had to choose to hide himself under the dark. In the middle part, which is to represent his turning point – dance. I have considered a lot in what way should I present this. Last part which is showing his situation and mental condition now and Jim has described himself in colour white, which is totally different to the first part. The last shot was suggested by Jim, he told me that when he think back to the pass he is not afraid anymore so he can tell me how he experienced the darkness.

As this project is an introduction of a person, so I found myself difficult to not add my personal thinking to the video. It is the filmmaker’s responsibility to represent my character’s life brief to the audience, how I understood pb3 was a short summary of my character’s life experience.

Facebook; Instagram; twitter, social media is becoming a requisite part of our daily life, we like to use this platform to share our everyday lives. People from different background, with social construct can use social media to express their own thoughts; feelings; opinions and mental states. This is also a useful tool as a communication bridge in between each other, many pop starts from different area would like to use social media to communicate with their followers.

There is a Korean idol singer called Sulli, she used to be in an idol dance group called f(x). Last year, a shocking news has forced her to quit from the idol group and work by herself. The news was she declared that she has started a relationship with a male singer who 13 years older than her, her followers and fans were very disappointed and angry with her behavior.

 (Sulli’s recent post in SNS)

Recently, the media has found that she has no longer posting anything about her boyfriend, so lots of people were guessing problem has appeared between them or they might have broken up. The public opinions were very offensive and unpleasant, Sulli was only 21 years old these year, she felt herself so difficult to stand up against the public opinions. After that news was announced, she has posted 20 more photos of her and her boyfriend’s. Half of people said that she was using her Instagram as a weapon to counter the public opinion, yet another half of people said because Sulli hasn’t been active in as a celebrity, updating her status is a way to let the public know that she is still active and avoid herself being forget by people. Moreover, Sulli’s image in the public was known as cute, fresh and pure, some people have comment that she is slowly changing people’s thinking, so she uses Instagram to post photos that looked extremely different to her image was.  (Sulli’s old photos in 2011)

In my perspective, Sulli is very smart in the way she uses the social media platform to manipulate the public’s thinking, when we look at the episode from the surface, we may ask ‘why is Sulli doing something that she is being offense at’? Actually, she uses the social media strategically well to convey her thoughts, feelings and mental states.

“Looking at Photographs”- Victor Burgin

I had a huge interest in photographs, I think it is very powerful tool in order to let people communicate, inform, record and entertain. I have been waiting for the chance to learn about photography for a long term so this reading we had to do has really attract my interest. In this reading the writer has emphasized to viewer to look at photographs. Photographs, usually when we think about how and where do we usually see photographs or pictures, we may notice how photographs permeate to our everyday life. Advertising; snapshots; Instagram; signs etc. We use them everywhere: to sell, inform, record, delight.

However, for majority people think paintings and films are only seen as the production that entails an expenditure of time or money to complete. Many people may have the notion of arts is hard, complicate to be interpret. However, the ‘intelligibility of the photography is no simple thing’, if we take a closer look to the exhibition or collection of photographs we rarely see an included photograph which does not have a caption or a title, they usually appeared with long texts or explanation. I am very addicted to Instagram, sometimes when I see photographs posted without explanation by user, we usually use our own experienced or feelings to interpret it. This part of the reading has link me back to the idea in textual analysis where people take their own interpretations of the images, interpretations can depend on viewer/audience’s own social construct.

I do not have any experience with photography but when I am taking a photo and I really want my viewer to understand what I mean by it. I think it is the tough part of photography. People may have their own interpretation for arts, films and photographs but well structured, planned and thought picture should communicate your intention to your viewers more directly, explicitly and deliberately.

IDEAS for PB3

Interview with Jim:

Me: If I ask you to draw a self-portrait, what is the picture that first appears in your mind?

Jim: About myself…?

Me: yes, when you think of yourself, what do you see first?

Jim: Myself in a dance studio doing push ups, I stared at the mirror and I am sweating.

Me: If you need to describe yourself with one or two colours, which colours will you choose?

Jim: Black and White I guess… White is bigger than black

Me: What is black symbolize for?

Jim: the negative side of me, the pass that I do not want to remember and think about…umm…because of the existence of black(darkness), white is more dazzling

……

In Jim’s mind, when he thinks of a dance studio, it is bright; huge and free. He told me dance is a turning point of his life, it has changed almost every single thing in his everyday life, from his attitude to his characteristic. Dance can describe as a mentor that leaded him out to the brightness.

What I planned for my PB3:

First part:

The dark and negative side of Jim

Middle part:

• Inside the studio with no lights
• Lights on, reflection in the mirror become clear

End:

Brightness, positive and aggressive part of Jim

• He arrived, a place where no one knows him
• He was desperate, so he hides in the dark and shut himself behind the invisible walls
• For a whole year, he was struggled to survive
• Dance
• dance, became a light which leaded him through the darkness
• He changed

There is an image in my imagination of what I want for my PB3, but I don’t know in what ways could I present it. I was looking for someone that can match the image I had in my brain. I was totally blank when I try to think who I want to use for my PB3 and how will I do it. So I started to talk to people around me, I believe that to use people around me will be a lot easier and each of them will have something I don’t know, so I am looking forward to discover it. I am working in a dance studio and I met most of my friends there, I stayed in the studio for a whole day chatting with different people, people from different countries with different personal background and experience. Finally, I had decided to use Jim for my Project brief 3 – a personal profile for him.

As most of you might not know him, the first time I noticed him was because he spent most of his time in the dance studio. Jim always dance over eight hours per day, he does not usually talk much or he does not even talk to the others when I first saw him. My first impression to Jim was, he is extremely quiet, depressing and doesn’t seem to have any facial expressions. Even though we are in the same space he will always seems to shut himself in a little world. I didn’t have any expectation when I first invited him for filming, but he agreed. As the only fact we know about each other is dance, so we spent lots of time to exchange about ourselves. Opposite to my expectations, Jim is independent; inspiring and aggressive. He doesn’t know how to make new friends but he is very expressive and friendly. Jim loves to dance, it appeared like a precious present for him and it has brought him a massive turning point for his life.

Jim arrived to Australia when he was year 7, language was the biggest barrier that brought him back to meet local students. The school he stays didn’t have any student that speaks the same language as him, I knew that feeling when we first arrive to another country, if there is someone who speaks the same language to help me will be super helpful. In his 13 years old, he did not have the ability to break through the barrier, so he became quiet ‘Sometimes I don’t speak for the whole day and my mouth was dry when I got home’. Time passed by, gradually Jim was depressive and sensitive, he described himself as being in the prison and hiding under the dark.

In his holiday Jim went back to China and met his first dance teacher ‘Bamboo’, he didn’t know dance will open up a new world for him.

In this week’s lecture, we are taught to be able to analyse a variation of text. Texts are everywhere in our life, magazines; photographs; films and newspaper are all different types of text. Learn to analyse them will be very helpful in for the next three years of our media journey. In the first part of the class, I found is hard to understand how to use the semiotic tradition for analysis. Denotation is what you see literally; most obviously in the text and connotation is another layer of meaning of the text, its something that associated or connected to the text. Connotation could be influence by the viewer (audience)’s social construct.

I understood this by the example given during the lecture: colour red. It could be described as one of the primary colours, or depends on the viewer’s social construct or personal background, it may mean passion; anger; emergency; lucky etc.

To have a recall back to the lecture, it is pretty interesting to think about the fact that people always connect their interpretation to the text with things we experienced; our thoughts and feelings from our everyday life.

week 4 – The beat I was born without.

The Beat I Was born Without follows the life of Lenny which records the Journey of a Deaf Raver, a deaf who is on her way to Holland to find the best beat. The documentary has record her journey to a deaf clubbing event which uses human being’s different senses to create the experience of a white a night club is for the deaf people. Lenny has told us the reason which causes her to this journey was she wanted to belong to the world that is constructed mostly by sounds. So she extremely hopes to find ‘a place where it doesn’t matter whether you are hearing or deaf’. Lenny has also discussed her relationship with beats, music and vibration (all she can hear from music), she said when she stands near the vibration she feels really good and she doesn’t need the lyrics and notes, she believes vibration is more complex and different as music is to the people who can hear.

I was really surprised when Lenny said she has noticed that hearing people sometimes do not communicate as well as the deaf people because they did not seem to be very friendly and expressive to strangers. This made me pondered for a long time, as one of the hearing people we are not appreciating for the ability of hearing that we own. In comparison, Lenny thought sign language is more direct which communicate what they feel. Hokin, a sign dancer who brings signing and dance together in order to bring deaf and hearing people all together. He uses body movements to interpret the music and communicate music to the deaf audience. As a dancer myself, I cannot imagine how to dance without music. Hokin said he has changed his way to dance which depends on his audience whether they are hearing people or not. For the audience are hearing people, Hokin dances by following the beats and timing. Yet when he is showing to the signing audience his movements is more fluency and he uses his gestures; facial expression and body language to interpret what the music lyrics is communicating to the audience.

To me, dancing is a really good tool which bring people together. However, I have never imagined how can signing people understand music and be a part in the dance community. Hokin has really opened a new world to me, he said as a dancer, he respects music. So he finds out a way that can bring deaf people and hearing people all together to enjoy music and dance.