· Progress report on annotated bibliography
1. Sandy – a bit behind because He was sick, but will be done by tomorrows class.
2. Kristian – done
3. Ali – done
· Spitballed ideas for brief, including a mockumentory about video games as a medium, looking at GTA and how it incorportates many mediums, as well as looking at Red Dead Redemtion and L.A Noire as games reviving “dead” genres in a new medium.
Our definitions of “Medium”
· Sandy: The different formats that artists can use to convey their message.
· Kristian: A channel of common intercommunication across avenues such as print, visuals and sound
· Ali: Communication tools that can change the perspective of the masses.
· Talked about the general summary of our bibliography
We will further discuss what our artifact will be tomorrow in class with Racheal for advice.
Past monday, I met Kristian and Sandy to discuss on project brief 4. We were given ‘mediums’ as our topic, so we all laid down our ideas on table and made a collaborative contract. We discussed possibilities to present the idea in each artifact present there. Kristian popped up with the idea to present how each medium interacts with the audience and present it on a website. Two different mediums were divided among us for less work load. In mutual consent we agreed to the idea but in regards to artifact we decided to lay it till our workshop day, where we can discuss with Rachel if we are on a right track. Then ‘it’ happened last thursday, Shattered dreams.
No, not quite, Rachel did like our idea but she was of the view that either its too vague or it seems that it will be hectic for us to actually present it in the end. She gave an idea that to focus on a single text rather than all the mediums. So this is a mind map that we made first:
our first idea was to present each medium with multiple tabs on a website, so if we were to showcase cinema as a medium, we would make a small 2-3 minute clip to tell how cinema is different from mediums and so on. But I guess we won’t be doing that anymore.
Now we decided to focus on “GTA V’ and will discuss how cinematic elements along with the sounds and the control systems of a video game provides an immersive experience for a player as medium to communicate. Lets hope it turns out well, I’m excited and nervous at the same time. The group meeting is this Monday, let’s see how it goes.
I choose my cousin’s friend as my subject for brief 3 project. The successful part of my work would be the editing. I used a simple voice over narrative structure and observational style approach in my work. So editing had to be simple cuts and less transitions, By using less transitions the story flows smoothly and doesn’t feel dragged. With the voice over and the overlay of footages that I found from online really gelled in together and gave a clear meaning to what my subject was trying to communicate. The most problematic aspect would be the long interview I had with him. I had a 10 minute footage of him speaking. Sure it is easy to chop down a ten minute footage into two but the information that he was providing was vital to him and my project, so I had to clearly choose what to omit and what to add in the final edit version of my brief.
One of the key discoveries I made was during the editing of my project. When I first planned a story board, I was pretty sure that in the final cut i would be using the same footages but interestingly the footages and narration were not linking with each other and thus my story changed during the editing process and I’m pretty much happy with what I achieved in the end. Second discovery was the use of time-lapse. When Fahad mentioned about his work and his coordination with the staff, I was puzzled what to achieve in order for the audience to understand his hard work, so the time-lapse I reckon justifies the meaning that I wanted to achieve.
As I plan to become a documentary filmmaker, punctuality and trust with your subject is really important. Focusing on what I learned regarding collaboration and ethics of that particular environment; should be kept in mind because as a media practitioner, a strong relationship with your subject is required for a great story and with the respect to audience, you do owe them the absolute truth of your story. If you see my project brief carefully, I avoided using non-diegetic sounds, cause I feel they overshadow the important narration in the story.
I tried to show my experience as an individual being here in Australia. Although I have travelled to many other countries but this is the first time I have moved away from family for my higher education. I was told that I would have a fun experience being a student in a foreign country and would enjoy myself but being the only child also affects my responsibilities to my family.
The materials I gathered for this task were mainly from my previous project brief 1 but I added a new video about my arrival in Australia. I had to keep in my mind about narrative that should revolve around my loneliness and thus I began with a video of my arrival in Australia, then the pictures of my so far experiences and last video depicting how I’m treated even after finding some company. I used Final Cut Pro X software for editing the materials. I first added the title and then all the videos and pictures into the timeline. As the task required 3 sounds to be added, i knew where to put the two sounds but i was having difficulty into finding what to do with the third sound, what should i add? I then called my friend back in Pakistan if he can create this background music for this task, he happily obliged and created one in just few hours. he called it the ‘lesser me’, don’t know what he meant by that but it worked for the video anyways. As for the text, I added subtitles in one part of the video where I have this conversation with my older cousin, the conversation is in my native language Urdu so to make it convenient for the viewers I added the subtitles.
The most successful part of my self portraits were the pictures. I know i did justice to it as being into photography for three years really helped in expressing my self. I knew what had to be done and didn’t took that long to get it right. the least successful part of my self portrait were the sounds, I think this is the area where I’m weak and i feel i didn’t do justice to it. I guess I should practice in making some tunes and maybe watching films and how the sound adds the fascinating element to the whole package of viewing experience. Narration (voiceover) is the other part where i feel i was unsuccessful, I’m no actor but i tried to express to support the story. Sound is the part where i feel i should definitely work and will improve as my journey goes on.
Should I post my work that describes the true (Me) or what I want you to think about ‘Me’
Here are the following Media ‘Texts’:
Photography:
The first image describes about my first experience, it’s a shadow of myself signifying my journey as an independent individual
The second picture is about my spiritual beliefs:
In this picture i tried to convey a sign of loneliness as the picture is overall black and the silhouette is displayed.
The last picture is a long exposure photography, over here i wanted to tell how my life is at this point of time, stress was my focus in this image.
Videos
The first video shows my work station or study station, here I’m just minding my own business, but do you notice anything that tells about me?
The second video shows how I’m treated when i meet one my cousin’s friend, I don’t complain to them, I just keep things to myself to avoid any confrontation.
Sounds:
The first sound portrays my other interests or what I like to do in my spare time and the second one renders my night life.
Texts:
Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the Force!- Elaine Maxwell
تو لکھ بہلا کہ ویکھ ساکوں، اسا یاری فر بھی نیبھاوا گے، تو پانی پی پی کہ تھک ویسے، اسا ھیچکیا بن بن کہ اسون۔
In Roman Urdu:
Tu lakh bhula kae wekh sakoon, Aasan yaree Feer we nibha wan gaen, tu pani pee pee kae thaakh wasain, aasa hickhyian ban ban k aason.
The first quote reflects my responsibility in any work environment that is thrown at me, I know my strengths and weaknesses and thus I’ll do tasks with full commitment.
The second quote is in my mother language ‘Sai-reki’, what it basically means is that no matter how far I’ll go, I’ll keep our bond of friendship and never forget the memories that we shared. I miss my country, my family and so that is why I wanted to put up a text that is connected to my roots.
