Reflection

Your community of practice and literature (other works and readings)

I didn’t really take any inspiration from any other works, which in the end, I think was a mistake. I used a very generic structure, and I think I should have branched out a little bit. I definitely will for the next assignment. I’m sure elements of my video did take inspiration from works that I have read/viewed in the past, but i’m not aware of what they might be.

What didn’t succeed as you would have liked?

Where do I begin. I’ll just start by saying how grateful I am that this was only assignment two, and not the main final one. I’m probably being way to over the top here, but I’m pretty sure most of what  could have gone wrong, went wrong…

With my final plan for my video, I was playing it pretty safe in my execution, but the topic I chose to research was one that I would have never thought to look into before. My choice to focus on the Migrant Hostel came about after reading an interview with

The problems that I faced, regarding not having the audio interview, that I was under the impression I would have access to is what really threw me off track. Trying to look on the plus side of things, this curve ball taught me another skill, and made me aware that it’s something I need to work on in future assignments. This is about being adaptable. It’s pretty obvious in the media industry as a whole, not just for this particular class, that plans change rapidly, and it’s super important to be adaptable to sudden change. I’ve always been the sort of person that needs order, and I like to know exactly what I need, when I need it, and exactly how/if I am going to get things done. When I have a particular idea/plan in my head, I’m not good at being able to put it aside and make changes if I have to.

When it was 3 days away from the assignment being due, and arguably the main part of my video (that being the audio interview) was unavailable, I went into crisis mode, before putting things into perspective and figuring out a way to work around it.

Going into the next assignment I want to work on this. No doubt, for PB3, I am going to face numerous problems along these lines, and I think it’s important that I relax and think/act rationally.

This one isn’t so much about what didn’t succeed, but more so about what I would like to try next time. I really liked working with the interview material, but I think for me, it will be much more fulfilling to conduct some of my own interviews. I mentioned in one of my blog posts that learning more about audio was a goal for myself in this class, and I think going out there and conducting interviews will be a great way to achieve that. I wish I had done so for this task. In the week four reading, ‘Beyond the Talking Head: A Step-By-Step Guide to Shooting Documentary Interviews’, written by Adam Irving, I learnt that different mics pick up sound differently. Prior, I just assumed that all mics were directional. Irving explains that lav mics are “omnidirectional, they pick up sound evenly from all directions”, where as shotgun mics are “unidirectional”.

What did you discover through making these videos?

I learnt to be adaptable when it comes to working with materials that I don’t have full access to. I think that next time an issue like this arrises, I will be much better at working through it effectively.

I’ve also never made a video using media that I didn’t shoot all myself. Doing this falls under reflexive documentary, which I had never heard of, let alone done myself. In one of our week three readings, Broderick Fox states in his piece, ‘A Brief History of Documentary Movements and Modes’, that reflexive documentary film making is where “rather than shooting their own images, makers appropriate existing media”. I think this is a really interesting concept. I don’t think the video I made really falls under this category, but it does interest me on possibly using this type of style in future works.

I also discovered the ambiguity of open space documentary. In one of our first readings, it states that it does not “function as arguments, artifacts, or objects but produce places to wander in and out of a landscape of histories”. I found this quote particularly interesting, especially on the scope of what this studio is all about, and the making of these videos. Looking back at this quote now, I think I could have made a more “open” documentary myself, but again, that is something I can improve on for the next project.

What did you think worked well?

Looking into the pros, I think that as a group we were very quick in coming up with a set idea, and laying out a plan of almost exactly what we wanted to achieve. Having a set plan meant we could all spend more time executing our ideas, rather than spending too much time questioning different options.

Something that I have wanted to work on this year, was my organisation skills. Throughout the duration of this assignment, I pushed myself to become organised early on, and save myself from doing things last minute.

Another part that I want to reflect on is the audio for in my video. Because I was going to be using the audio interview, I hadn’t really planned anything else. We were encouraged not to use generic music, so I needed to figure something out so that my entire video wasn’t just long silence. I attempted to do some voice overs, but they felt out of place, and sort of ruined the feeling of the video. In the end I just opted for some ambient outside noise. I think it added to the feel of the video. I do think it would have looked, and sounded much better with the interview, and made it much more dynamic, but as a backup, I was pretty happy with the way it brought things together. Next time, I might try and play around with layering audio, and try and make something a little more interesting. When it comes to editing I always focus much more on the visual side of things, I think it would be good to get out of my comfort zone and experiment with sound a little more though.

I think on the group side of things, what worked well was how we linked our videos together, but they were all so different. Early on we chose to focus on the topic of migration, and I think what we produced really reflected our aim. I do think next time it would be great if we worked a little closer together in the actual making of the videos, but we did our best to work together as much as we could in between uni/work etc.

Overall, I think what I put together was extremely average. Not being able to put together exactly what I had wanted to originally do threw me off a little, and I think subconsciously I just put in a lot less effort than I normally would. I’m not trying to use that as an excuse, but more as a note for myself that having a proper backup plan might be beneficial…

References

Fox, Broderick. “A Brief History of Documentary Movements and Modes” in Documentary Media: History, Theory, Practice, Routledge, 2017

Irving, Adam. “Beyond the Talking Head: A Step-By-Step Guide to Shooting Documentary Interviews” International Documentary Association, August 24th 2017

Zimmermann, Patricia and De Michel, Helen. “Documentary as an Open Space.” The Documentary Film Book, 2013

Week Four – Untold Stories: People and Places

On Tuesday this week, we were working on doing interviews, and also using some new cameras (forgive me i’ve forgotten the name of them…). In our group we didn’t really have a specific topic in mind for what our interview would be, but before each one was undertaken, we’d sort of just have a chat. What I mean, is that we’d just have a super general conversation between us, and if something interesting popped up, we decided to base the interview around that topic/story. It probably wasn’t the most professional way to go about things, but it worked for the time limit that we all had.

What I realised when I started to put the video together was that I didn’t get Annie to say the question within her answer. This wouldn’t have mattered had I planned on including my voice in the interview, but that wasn’t the way we had set it up or intended to do it. Next time I either need to make sure the interviewee reiterates the question, or I involve myself. Since this was just an in class task, I didn’t bother to redo the interview, and just stuck with putting the questions screen before each answer. Definitely the most professional setup, but there wasn’t too much else I could do.

Friday we were out at the museum again, getting all the final stuff we needed for our videos. I won’t talk about it too much here, because I go into much more detail in my reflection post for the assignment. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. Kerrie was nice enough to drive me out to the Migrant Hostel so I could get some extra footage of what it looks like now. Hopefully it will make my video look a little more dynamic, but we’ll have to see when it all comes together.

Week Three – Untold Stories: People and Places

Week three! Two weeks until assignment two is due… Unfortunately two of my group members were away on Tuesday, so Ruby and I were left to sort of set the groundwork for the upcoming assignment. Ruby also hadn’t been to any classes this semester, so I tried my best to give her an overview on what the Living Museum was all about, and what stories, and history they were trying to show.

Both of us seemed to be the most interested in telling the stories of people who immigrated to the west, or people in families of immigrants, so we began to think of some ideas revolving around that. We chose this mainly because of how many choices there were on who’s story we could tell, and what stories. We did um and ah for a little while, as it almost seemed like the easy option, since there was so many resources on it. In the end we decided to stick with it anyway, as it’s also going to give us the creative freedom to test out some filming/editing techniques that we wouldn’t usually get to use.

This is what most of the class consisted of, so there isn’t too much to delve into, but I do want to make sure that we have a very set plan before going to the museum on Friday, so we can make the best use of our time there, and the resources.

Friday morning we met out at the museum, which is a trek and a half during peak hour from Port Melbourne! It was sunny though so I can’t really complain. Today we were given a mini tour around the area, which was really interesting to be able to see and hear about the history of the place, whilst standing right in it, instead of just reading all about it on paper. We spend quite a while walking around, and as nice as it was, I do wish we were able to spend more time inside the actual museum. Fast-forward, I spent the rest of my morning going through files of at least 20-30 people who immigrated to the west. There was stories of people mainly from Greece, Vietnam, and Italy. I chose to go with a story of a woman who migrated from Vietnam, as from my very little knowledge, the Vietnamese immigrants were the most common. I feel a lot more confident now on where I want to take my video, and now it’s just a matter of searching through archival video, and finding some interesting shots that might lineup with the story I am trying to share.

I’ve been neglecting to watch a lot of documentary outside of class, but I did rewatch Gimme Shelter last night. When I was watching I found myself linking the sort of style of it, to what we were doing. Obviously it’s not an exact match, but the style of taking found footage that was planned to tell one story, and using it to create a completely different meaning/outcome, is fairy similar to some of the factors of reflexive documentary.

Week Two – Untold Stories: People and Places

This week feels like things are slowly starting to amp up a bit, after a pretty chilled out first week back. On Tuesday we took our first trip out to The Living Museum of the West. As a whole, I did very little research into what the museum was, or what it had to offer, so I was going in knowing almost nothing about it.

When I first walked in, I was a little bit taken aback, because it wasn’t exactly a ‘typical’ museum. It wasn’t full of artefacts and flashy exhibitions. Instead it was just the most organised-chaotic room I think I’ve ever seen. They had tea though so that was a big plus. We didn’t get up to too much since it was only a two hour class, but it was our opportunity to learn about how the museum ran, why it was here, and a lot about the history of the place.

My problem when going to the museum, was that I hadn’t planned a single idea for myself regarding what I wanted any of my assignment topics to be on. The amount of resources there was pretty overwhelming, and I think I would have benefited a lot from at least having a general idea/plan. However, I did find just having a browse through some old books, and files that a lot of ideas/stories that I could tell came to mind.

It’s really interesting to be compiling work that isn’t my own, but will be used in a final piece that is mine. Being at the museum helped to understand all the concepts of open space documentary a little more, in regards to creating many different meanings and stories out of certain works. We also briefly discussed reflexive documentary film making last week, and I think the way we’re going about planning these films takes in a lot of factors from this style. It will be interesting to put it all into practice soon.

Unfortunately I was away for Fridays class, but a couple of my friends kept me updated on where we were at, regarding assignments. Obviously I wasn’t able to partake in the hands on tasks during this class, but Katia did send me through the sheet that was handed around to the class. (I have photos of them but for some reason there’s an error trying to upload them here). I also don’t have that camera at home, unsurprisingly, but I did give the instructions a read over, so at the very least, if we use those cameras again in class, I’ll have a very general idea of how to set one up, and use it.

Before going into next week, like I said, I really want to solidify all my ideas for the upcoming assignments, so that my group and I can really get to work.

Part B: Influences

I found this section quite difficult to come up with an idea for, because I don’t think i’m ever very conscious of where my influences come from, regarding most areas of media. Recently I re-watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Obviously, it’s a fiction film, so it’s very different to what we are doing in this class. However what I did find quite interesting, and i’m sure there’s many films that have done this also, but the ending of the film is shown in the opening scene.

I haven’t been able to come up with a set in stone way that this could influence my final project, but I really like the idea of it. In this film, as an audience, we are unaware of the fact that what is happening, is not being shown in the linear sequence of the film. In that respect, I don’t think I would follow this to a tee. I think with some of the ideas that i’m having on potential topics, it would work to show the outcome, or present moment first, and then delve deeper into the history of my chosen topic.

I really like how this concept can make something that is very simple, into something a little more unique. It’s a technique that I think would keep audiences interested. On the other hand, if the audience does know that the start, is actually the ‘end’, it could have the opposite impact. I’ve never created something using this sort of concept, so I would definitely have to do more research, and look into other films that have been created in a similar fashion.

Part 1: About Me

In my media studies so far, i’ve created projects that have been very individual. Not individual in a sense of working alone, but more so that I have been in full control of what I do.

I hope that this studio will help me learn how to follow more structured guidelines. I like that our main assignment we have the freedom to research and create what we like, but there are more constraints than I am used to. I do enjoy have full control over what I want to make, but I think working like this will be beneficial, especially when it comes to working in the media industry outside of university.

Another element, more on the technical side of things, is the chance to work with audio, and learn more about the editing side of audio production. Most of my experience with the technical side of media is very heavily on camera work, and video editing. I don’t like to admit it, but I feel like I always brush over audio editing/making, and do the very bare minimum possible. I would like to be able to edit and create soundscapes at a more advanced level, and be able to take the skills onto projects I work on in the future, whether it’s at university, or in a job after graduation.

Going to the museum for the first time, I was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of resources they had, but I hope I can learn some more practical skills in working with what you have, and taking said resources and making something even bigger and better out of them. Making creative choices, that are not only interesting, but are able to really tell a story that may have otherwise gone unheard is really important for me to achieve at the end of this studio.

Ready, Camera, Done!

I would just like to begin by saying the past five weeks in particular were a whirlwind. Personally, I had so many ups and down trying to help get everything organised. I mentioned in a post earlier this year, that I wanted to test my skills in producing. I felt as though I was a pretty organised person, but sometimes managing a lot of other people, I found it quite difficult. I wasn’t wrong. I’ll start off my briefly talking about pre-production ****each section will be talking about my different experiences for BOTH episodes

PRE-PRODUCTION

So first week, I was one of the producers, alongside Matt. I did briefly talk about the first meeting in this blog post, so I wont go into too much detail, but instead i’ll talk about the weeks following this. Firstly, the positives. For the first couple weeks I felt personally, and as a whole crew we were all extremely enthusiastic, replying to messages, and just generally eager to get everything planned and rolling. Matt and I took it upon ourselves to set up a number of group chats on Facebook. I do usually hate (emphasis on the hate) group chats, however we had a system that worked. Instead of one large group chat, we broke it all up into different areas. We had a chat with the writers, graphics, social media team etc. This ended up working well as Matt and I could survey what was going on in regards to work flow, and we could also directly contact individual crew teams, instead of bombarding the entire class. However as the weeks progressed, I did notice people became slower to reply, or just not reply to messages at all, which put a strain on moving the planning forward. It was expected as the semester gets closer and closer to the end, but it did put some very unwanted pressure on myself, and I’m assuming Matt also.                                                              Another element of pre-production as a producer, was giving the final check on things like graphics, and scripts. For me, this was a part where I think everything ended up going really well. All the scripts flowed fairly nicely, and the graphics fit the visual aesthetic of our show perfectly. However during this creative process, I felt like I dropped off a little bit. I do not have any creative writing experience at all, so unintentionally I drew back. Without realising it, when it came to scripts, I left a lot of the final decisions up to Matt. This wasn’t because I didn’t want to, but I didn’t think my opinion or input was valid enough to make any major changes or suggestions. Next time, if I am ever given the opportunity to be in a producing role or a production again, I would like to make myself more involved. Even if it isn’t for any major changes, but just to offer suggestion, and maybe some guidance on where we can take the monologues/skits.

Pre-Production for week two as a director for studio C, was much less strenuous, as most of my job involved me on the actual day of shooting. The most important thing for me at this stage, was to make sure I was familiar with the scripts, and have at least a general idea of how I wanted things to be framed, and what cameras should be used, at certain points in the script. We had a very simple camera set up, so I found the role pretty easy to navigate. Obviously, it was in rehearsals that I was really able to fine tune what shots I wanted, and how things should look visually, but the pre-production stage allowed me to go into shooting day with a very general idea of what I wanted to show on screen, and how. The one thing I was quite worried about was understanding camera angles, and what ones I should use. Because I was doing this role in week two, I found I didn’t have as much time to learn the ropes, however I stuck to what I knew would work, such as some comedic closeups, and just went with that. Overall I think it worked, but I would have liked to be a little more adventurous with it, if i’m ever able to do it again.

PRODUCTION

So when it came to the actual day of the first liveshow I was SUPER nervous. During the tech rehearsal the week before, it was extremely messy, but still not as messy as I had expected. My nerves didn’t really ease up though. On the day, I don’t think I was as prepared as I could have been. I found that most of the day, leading up to show time, I was just sort of surveying what everyone was doing, and making sure things were getting done. I’m pretty sure that was most of my job, but afterwards I felt like I could have been of more assistance to everyone.      Some things that went really well with the show was the transitions between studios. It felt smooth, and give or take a couple of seconds, there was no awkward open air time where nobody was saying anything. Our vision switchers did a really great job of communicating with directors and making sure everything ticked over perfectly. Another element of the show that I think went really well was the visuals. So everything from the graphics, to the set, and even how the hosts looked on camera was really well presented. For a first time student liveshow, it looked quite professional. Ultimately my favourite part of the show, was the band performance. The sound was great, everything looked amazing on camera, and most of all no technical problems! This was the most successful part I believe, because we really utilised the cameras. For a majority of our segments we had still camera shots, and just switched between them, which worked fine for the news segments and such, but it was cool to do something different for such a unique performance. As a whole, it wasn’t anything super technical, but the closeups, and midshots of the individual band members, and them interchanging looked really great on screen. The directing from studio A was extremely successful, as it looked like they switched between the cameras in perfect time to the beat. This was something we had spoken about in class, how every shot change in a musical performance is planned to fit the speed, and beat of the song. I don’t think we had an exact plan of when to switch between cameras, but generally, we did stick to the rule of changing with the beat of the song.

Week twos production day, I felt a lot more involved, but I was also a little more chaotic. Like I said regarding pre-production, I felt a lot less prepared for my week two role, compared to my week one role, but that could also be because I didn’t have as much control. I found this week really interesting though, as I got the chance to work in studio C, and also properly work in the control room. The pros of this weeks production as a whole were similar to last week. The stage setup looked just as good, camera work went well, and communication was pretty solid. The standout point for me this week however, was how the segments flowed. I don’t mean this in regard to transitioning between studios/segments, but the actual structure of the writing. In week one, certain parts felt scripted. They were scripted, but an important element of live tv is that it isn’t supposed to feel as though you’re watching someone read a script. In particular the Midnight Snack Segment (The bean boozled challenge) was a hit. I think this was because we scripted prompts for our team in front of the camera, but the script allowed for their honest and genuine reactions. The segment felt super natural, and in the end, for me personally (although I think most people will agree) it was one of the most successful segments across both shows.

As an overall general roundup, I think both shows went extremely well, seeing as most of us had never done anything like this before. Some personal things I would like to be able to improve on for next time would be my confidence in leading a group. I am always hesitant to say what I think, if I think a lot of people won’t agree, but especially when producing, if you want something to be made the way you invision it, speaking up is the most important thing. Hopefully next time however if I get the chance to work on a liveshow again, I will be able to take on a role completely different to being a director or a producer. I would like to learn lighting, and improve my camera skills after watching other people.

I think I always knew, but what i’ve taken away from this studio, and doing these shows especially, is that communication and organisation really are the two most important things when it comes to pulling off a successful liveshow. I found myself throughout the final couple of weeks, thinking back to one of the earlier classes where we all wrote about the relationship different roles have with each other, for example, the producers role with the graphics operator. At the time, I couldn’t really figure it out, but now I understand that every role, with one another has an important place in creating a liveshow that is successful.

Overall, i’ve had a successful semester, and I feel like I have taken away a lot from this class. Not only in my understanding of live tv, but also in team work in all areas of media, which is a skill I will be able to take on with me into many different areas of my degree.

*** quick note, I did take photos throughout the past couple weeks of the liveshow, but I upgraded my phone and icloud is not good to me and I lost EVERYTHING. (please just imagine there are photos of the control room, and Jaie and Nicole looking very suave in front of the camera, scattered through this post)

 

Midnight Planning

Here we are again, at the beginning stages of the assessment. This one however, is going to be MUCH bigger than what we’ve done before.

This week in class we got together and began to flesh out some general ideas for our show. It was great, everyone was super enthusiastic about what we could do, but that also meant that there was a lot of conflicting ideas.

Some of us wanted to follow a typical ‘Morning Show’ structure, whilst others wanted to follow the ‘Late Night’ structure. It was in that moment I realised, I was the producer, I essentially had the power to make the final call. But I don’t want people to be disappointed…

WE WILL DO BOTH!

It seemed like the perfect idea. It was different, it was innovative, it had never been done before… Maybe.

I was wrong. It was a great idea in hindsight, I will stand by it. But surprisingly, there is a reason it hasn’t been done before. It’s just very messy. Trying to mesh typical late night segments, with some morning show banter was just going to sound awkward, and uncomfortable, and even worse, make it seem like we just had no idea what we were doing. It was back to the drawing board.

After many discussions, and attempts to get around our weird structure problem, we settled on doing a late show. Seeing as it was being aired at night, it unfortunately made a lot of sense. When it comes to live shows, I think one of the most important elements is that everything flows, and that it doesn’t seem staged, heavily scripted, or staged. This is our main goal. It is difficult to tell at this stage since we haven’t really seen anything in action.

So far planning has been kind of difficult, but nothing that I didn’t really expect. Everyone is excited to get going though, so that’s good. I hope by next week we have a more solid idea of what we are doing, and we can actually have some full scripts written, and a set idea for how we want the show to look visually.

We are planning on communicating completely via facebook, which I guess is the only real viable option, but I have such a love hate (mostly hate) relationship with facebook group chats. They’re messy, people don’t reply, and there is just an endless chain of unread messages. Yay.

Until next time!

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