Brief 4 and Reflection

Here is our Final Project Brief 4 Link. Do share your views guys.

 

 

When I first heard of last project being a group one, I was excited as I’m a team player and my confidence boosts up as many tasks are divided amongst us. I was hoping to either get ‘mediums’ or ‘audiences’ as a topic for the final project brief. Fingers crossed and bang here comes ‘mediums’. Now other question came into my mind who would be my crew for this project, obviously i didn’t wanted lazy ones cause then all the burden would have been over my shoulders. Luckily Sandy and Kristien were my partners for this brief. Each one of us really had put a lot of effort into making this a successful project, although, our original idea was different, we were working on website  and talk about different mediums all together then changed to produce it in a documentary style but later on with the advise from Rachel, we focused on Video Games as a medium and how other different mediums incorporate into it. It all went smooth and easy, we narrowed down to one thing and it was easy for us to showcase our final presentation being inspired from ABC’s ‘Good Game’. According to me, the successful aspects for our project were firstly the script, Kristien worked immensely on script, putting up all the educational quotes together and to present it as a script is what I consider a tough job but for him it was easy as he is into story writing so I reckon that might have been the reason. Secondly the setup for the project, I took the responsibility to setting up for our shoot, at first we decided to book a study room at building 80 of RMIT, but Rachel suggested to check out the basement of building 9 where the editing rooms are. We all loved that area, it was exactly of what we were looking for, the lcd, the sofas and the ambience, it was quite so no unwanted noise could be captured in the sound for our video. By using three different cameras, the broadcast style angles and some extra lighting, it looked almost like a tv show setup. Apart form these, everything we collected for our production dossier (sounds, bibliography, pictures, Logos and drafts) is what made the our final outcome as a success.

 

In terms of problematic aspects, I think being my greatest strength becomes a problem for me sometimes. Editing is where i excel but its the sound part the troubles me. During the editing stage I discovered that by using different cameras, the sounds that were recorded were in different different frames per second, one source of sound was a bit speedier than the other one. So I had to make sure that proper lip syncing is present in the video and most importantly to normalize the sounds together so that it is clear for listening. I knew that with Sandy and Kristien on board, they would help me out with finding the background score and other its and bits of it. Overall, I think for me that would only be the problematic aspect. I’m not sure if this counts as a problem or not, I have some reservations on the acting part, although Sandy and I did well as per our consensus, but I think some elements were missing that could have really made it to the next level, other then that, I think we all are like minded which maintained a good outcome of our project. 

what I learnt in the making process about collaboration that might be relevant to my broader development as a media practitioner is the understanding of your team mates as it is the team work that reflects onto your projects. Listening is an another aspect to it as everyone puts their thoughts and ideas to the table. It is not about whether I like it or not, it is about whether the idea works or not? With Sandy and Kristian we made sure in our contract that we would listen to our ideas and would discuss will it work or not, and in this process i learned that you have to put your ego aside even though you want something to be added into it cause in the end, it is not about your work, it is about our work. Other than that, I believe that one must only take responsibility of certain areas where they are good at utilizing their key skills, Kristian took responsibility of writing and the direction, Sandy took responsibility of maintaining production dossier and inputting his expertise of gaming into it and I took the responsibility of post production stage. Each one of us were good at these areas and in our project it reflects that how well we did.

To comprehend, my experience has been amazing working with these guys and I’m sure that by going through this collaboration process, it would benefit me as media practitioner.

Final Reflection

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The following posts demonstrates best my engagement with the course and its key ideas and objectives:
1. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/ali-bucha/2015/03/10/media-lectoria…noticing-audit/ ‎
2. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/ali-bucha/2015/03/19/video-editing-practice/
3. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/ali-bucha/2015/04/18/the-sound-drama/ ‎
4. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/ali-bucha/2015/04/22/signs-everywhere/
5. http://www.mediafactory.org.au/ali-bucha/2015/04/29/mind-mapping-key-to-success/ ‎

In this course, we were introduced to different elements that covers in media making. we started off with making our accounts for blog posts and we had to regularly updating it with what we encounter in media making. I’ve learned that I enter into deep attention of thinking as i discovered I work best when i focus on a particular thing at one time. I also learned the Kuleshov effect in editing to create more meanings rather than using a single shot for a single meaning. I got to know that there are heaps of media texts around us, the noticing exercise helped me in connecting different texts of media and I began to question my self of why certain media is present and why we consume such mediums in our lives. Other then that I also came across the copyright issues and that as long as you have permission of the original maker and cite them correctly in your work, its all good then.

 

 

In this course, I learned how to use different stock footages and incorporate them into media making to create a valuable meaning out of it. I found it really precious as there are certain footages that you are not able to get but there are lots of free footages that can be used in your creative content. Secondly I got to have hands on experience with a sound recording equipment (zoom), I always wanted to know how these shows and film have such crisp quality sound and I’m glad I had the opportunity to gain that knowledge.

 

 

One of the most challenging aspects in this course were sounds. I struggled at the beginning to get high quality sound for my projects, but after experiencing Zoom recorders and other mic inputs, it has helped me in improving of what I wanted for my outcomes of projects including the final one but there are still loop holes that I need to cover up before I can be sure that I have fully learned the aesthetics in sound recording. Other than that, the blog writing has been a challenge. Not sounding delusional but at first I didn’t felt that I should be writing all the things that I go in between media texts and give my reflection on it as I wasn’t used to writing much in my previous education but later on I realized that its a part of a learning process and you self assess with the juxtaposition of before learning certain aspect and after learning that aspect. Now I feel confident when I write about what I believe in and what I think about certain details.

 

 

In the creative practice I discovered that I have a realist approach towards my content making process. I find really intimidating that how real can be real and what does make it real. Sounds quite confusing but it has its perks. In my projects of what I have created, I can see that I’m following the rules of realist approach in content making which is a style of Cinéma Vérité in filmmaking as I believe this is close to representing the truth of the narration.

Reading Log- Vertov as Theorist

Citation: # Petric, Vlada. “Dziga Vertov as Theorist.” Cinema Journal 18:1 Fall 1978, pp29-44

Log entry

1. Key/significant points or ideas:

-The reading outlines Vertov as a theorist.

-Vertov’s ‘Film-Eye’ emphasized that this method implied depicting ‘Life-As-It-Is’ by the direct recording of facts found in real life; he also insisted that the ‘Film- Eye’ had act not through the medium of theater or literature, since he considered them ‘surrogates of life’

-Vertov’s interest is not in the relationship ‘art and reality’, but rather in ‘reality and organization of reality’

-Vertov outlines the main duty of the cameraman of observing events and objects in life which are observation of the place, observation of moving characters or objects, observation of the theme.

-The author reviews Vertov’s ‘Film-Eye’ method; it is Hegelian in essence and Marxist in form; it functions on a  dialectical principle; and it is always aware of political momentum.

2. Comments:

– This reading provides an in-depth guide of Vertov’s theory and an extensive concept of the documentary cinema in both the silent and sound era.

Reading log- Performative Mode

Citation: # Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary Film. Bloomington & Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2010, pp. 199-211

Log entry (200 words maximum):

1. Key/significant points or ideas:

-The reading is about the final mode in documentary filmmaking which is the performative mode

-It sets out to demonstrate how embodied knowledge provides entry into an understanding of the more general processes of work in society.

-Performative documentary underscores the complexity and affective dimensions

-This mode adds emphasis to the subjective qualities of experience and memory from the perspective of the filmmaker himself and bears similarity to an essayistic model for participatory filmmakers.   

-The free combination of the actual and the imagines occurrences is a common feature of the performative documentary.

-This mode brings the emotional intensities of the embodied experience and knowledge to the force rather than attempt to do something tangible so that audience can experience the world in a particular way as vividly as possible.

2. Ideas that help me to understand documentary: 

– This mode tries and gets us to experience an event and what it would have been like, it tries to make us create perspective of something we may have not experienced before.

3. Comments

Performative mode can be poetic at times as it draws up peoples feelings and emotions when being watched.

Reading Log- Observational Mode

Citation:

# Hall, Jeanne. “Don’t You Ever Just Watch?”: American Cinema Verite and Don’t Look Back.” Documenting the Documentary. Ed. Barry Keith Grant & Jeannette Sloniowski. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 1998, 223-237.

Log entry (200 words maximum):

1. Key/significant points or ideas:

-In 1960’s, a documentary movement ‘Cinema Vertite’ became known. Halls tells us the documentary ‘Primary’ is considered as a landmark film in the aesthetic development of Cinema Verite.

-The key elements for cinema Verite are wandering movements of hand held cameras, blurred and grainy images of monochrome film; synchronous sounds and the performance of seemingly involved actors.

-The reading outlines how ‘Don’t Look Back’ critiques the dominant media informed by liberal views of the role of the press in contemporary democracy.

-Hall mentions four different strategies of how the director critique media in ‘Don’t Look Back’, let Dylan critique directly, Let Dylan critique indirectly, showing opposite of what Dylan says and edit potentially productive interview,

2. Ideas that help me to understand documentary: 

– From this reading I understand that being in a save boundary of observational mood, one can promote own intentions in a creative way.

3. Comment/questions:

– In an observational mode, is it necessary for the director to ask permission from the secondary subjects in the documentary of their consent to be displayed as they might be portrayed in a certain way that may affect them either way?