Final Video Vimeo Link

https://vimeo.com/mediafactoryrmit/review/467965542/7ef52e605f

Observational Writings

Man & Machine – 8th September

• The strongest muscle in the human body, working in tandem with a machine crafted with the assistance of the most powerful muscle in the human body, the mind. As I ride around the velodrome in a state of peace and happiness, as the rhythmical loops of the circuit settle in and put my mind at ease. I can’t help but notice and admire the rider in front of me and the phenomena that is the human powered bike. As we continue to travel round the velodrome reaching speeds of 45kmh it seems more and more amazing to me that the human body is capable of moving at such speeds, with all power simply being generated from the body itself. 100s of years of human evolution, thinking and design has allowed the human being to complete tasks such as this and it truely makes me think what the human body may be capable of in 100 years time again.

Sun Searching – 12th September

• It’s early on a sunny Spring morning and the sun is out to be seen today, yet the sun hasn’t truely made its way into our backyard. Long streaks of shadows are cast across the back lawn as the evenings mist lifts from the grasses surface. Despite the seemingly endless shadow across the garden a spot of warm sun creeps its way through the trees and into the backyard as the sun rises further into the mornings sky. It’s not too long until my cat scuttles out into the backyard and finds this sole patch of sun before settling in for the day. I continue to go about my day before checking the backyard in the early afternoon where my cat continues her daily slumber. However, she has made her way across the back yard along the same path as the sun as it follows across the backyard, being sure to stay in the warmest spot. I find it so very interesting to watch the animals instinct to always be to find the warmth where possible.

Fly under house arrest – 14th September

• Nothing interrupts the lunchtime chirp from the birds outside as I sit and eat my lunch. There is a distinct & beautiful stillness around today perhaps from the winds long awaited absence. However, this peace and quiet is abruptly interrupted by a droning buzz coming from the far left corner of the room. Initially I’m unable to make out the source of this persistent noise but upon closer inspection I discover a fly frantically searching for a way out through the closed window. Reaching out the window to let the poor fella out the fly jumps and zips across to the other side of the room. I continue to leave the window open hoping the fly will eventually find its way out into the fresh air where it so badly wants to be. But the flies frantic actions only intensify its struggle as it rebounds off the walls like a ball in a pinball machine fighting for survival. I leave the room only to return 15 minutes later where the fly has disappeared by some miracle and is never to be seen again.

New Seasons Growth – 18th September

• As COVID ridden Melbourne wakes from it’s winter slumber a symbol of hope and a fresh start spreads right across the beautiful city. Where ever I travel I see the springs blossom making its self known on all street corners. It’s an incredible sight, it appears as if there has been a blanketing of snow across Melbourne on a 20 degree day, something you would only be able to see in Hollywood. However, typically the smell of blossom is something that I can’t stand the smell of and I tend to move a far away from it as I possibly can, however, this year is different and I’m not quite sure why. It seems as if even though man kind has altered the way we live life so dramatically mother nature will always continue to complete her seasonal cycles and in this case bring great hope to the city. The change of colour across the streets, the sign of new life growing rapidly and ultimately the suns warmer presence all fill myself with a great sense of optimism for Summer and the New Year.

Evening Roads – 22nd September

• It’s 8:30pm on a Monday night and I’m driving home from picking up a late dinner. The curfew is enforced in 30 minutes and I’m sure to scuttle home quick smart as a result of it. Sitting waiting at a set of lights I can’t help but notice the deep darkness down the road as shops close their doors unable to open due to the pandemic. Streets that would be busy with people still coming home from work picking up food out with friends and family, are now simply ghost towns. No one pulls up near me at the lights just as no cars proceed the other way across the intersection showing green. I feel truely alone as the lights turn green and the noise from my cars engine echoes

The Ticking Clock – 24th September

• It completes the same movement 24 hours a day 7 days a week with no respite all, or until it’s one power source is finally depleted. You go about your day with out noticing the gentle sound this movement makes in its rhythmical fashion over and over again. Every single second second of the day is counted without one more or less unnecessarily added. Our days are dictated entirely by the clock on the wall that effortlessly keeps our days on track for years and years without a problem. It’s not till you sit still in complete silence that you can take note of the clock and its truely remarkable movements with its gentle tick once each second passes being a gentle reminder of its marvel. It may seem so basic but yet without the invention of the clock our world would be in a truely different place.

Reflection Writing – Sufeeya Week 9

• In our week 9 tutorial each member of our class delivered a 5-10 minute presentation based on their initial findings and trials from their assignment 4 video task. I was incredibly impressed with how diverse all of my classmates video projects were, especially considering the fact that we are all dealing with the similar creative restrictions of lockdown. Despite this, there was one presentation and video that really stood out to me, and that was Sufeeya’s. Initially the video played with not too much being said beforehand leaving the viewer open to their own interpretation and thus an aura of mystery was born. The video plays as one continuous shot with no cuts or seperate camera angles, and to be honest throughout the screening I was rather unsure where the film was going or what its true meaning was. However, all this mystery and confusion was so abruptly brought to an end as Sufeeya began to explain her observation and thus her artistic choices for the video. It began with her framing, ensuring she kept the stairs in the middle of her frame to enhance the cold dark tones of the window and the opposite warm tones from inside the house. The more I looked at the framing of the video the more impressed I truly was, it had so seemingly separated the cool and warm tones of the image to perfectly communicate the story outlined in her observation. Further to this Sufeeya had manipulated the audio to further accentuate the immersiveness of the frame, moving the sounds of a scary storm to the left ear and thus left side of the frame and vice verser with the family dinner conversation for the right side of the frame. Admittedly I didn’t have headphones at the time so wasn’t able to enjoy the full immersive audio experience, but nonetheless can appreciate the effect it has on the videos final goal. Ultimately, a video that initially seems to lack context and a story line but with further context provided the clips intricacies come to fruition proving its genius.

General Reflections

General Reflection 1 – The Observation Journey

– 18 Observations and almost 10 weeks later my observational writing journey has concluded. It has been incredibly eye opening with true enjoyment and equal frustration being prevalent across the process. Initially I enrolled in this studio not having a great idea of what it entailed and furthermore what would be ask of me and the ultimate learning direction. Looking back on it now that seemed like a pretty naive and irresponsible thing to do as I should have had a closer look at each studios brief before enrolling, but nonetheless looking back on the course I am happy with my decision. In our first class I was met with a rude awakening of sorts, as the details of the course were outlined. The concept of writing two observational pieces a week came up and I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn’t help but think what have I enrolled into, I thought I was doing a ‘media’ course not a literature course. However, I embraced the new challenge and to be honest really began to enjoy it, it wasn’t easy at first to find the time and will to sit down and write the two observations a week, but that generally changed as the weeks progressed. I started to find a real rhythm in my observational writing during assignment 2 and was starting to truely enjoy the process of observing and then noting such observations. On a broader scale I begun to notice a lot more in my day to day life and thus this translated into my observational writing with a greater range of subject matter being used as inspiration. Despite this growing variation in subject matter one element continued to show up in my observations and that was natural occurrences and the atmosphere that was generated at the hands of nature. As a result of this I decided to pursue an atmospheric experience observation to utilise for my final video project.

General Reflection 2 – Deciding on film

• With the final video practical task now on the horizon I was met with the task of choosing an observation of mine to translate into a video piece. I truely wasn’t sure where to begin as I had 15 observations to chose from at the time and I was forming strong creative ideas for each. I wanted to make sure the observation I picked was able to be recreated under such lockdown restrictions, as well as being able to incorporate an audio element to the visual, ensuring I take full advantage of the video, audio medium. From this 3 or 4 observations were truely standing out for me and a one on one conversation with Robin helped confirm my decision. Ultimately, I decided to go with my observation ‘Evening Stillness’. I chose to translate this observation as it met my criteria perfectly and I was able to see a clear vision of how I wanted the final piece to look. Further to this, I believed this observation would allow me to explore elements of film I hadn’t properly explored before, that being audio. Subsequently, due to the nature of the observation and my want to experiment further with the audio form I had come to the conclusion that this video piece of mine would have a strong audio focus with the visual aspect simply being an accompanying element to the final piece. Further to the thinking around this decision I knew that the observation originally being set at night would help push my technical skillset yet again. Removing the element of natural light would ensure I would have to get creative with my shooting and think outside the box to capture the best frame possible while simultaneously communicating my observation to an audience. Overall I’m happy with my decision and am looking forward to the challenges and new learning that this video piece will bring.

General Reflection 3 – Research In Observations

• In one of our classes post the mid semester break the idea of research in observation was brought forward. Robin introduced the concept through a series of video clips, and initially I was fairly lost and skeptical about incorporating research into an observation, especially with our house bound subject matter. However, upon further discussion the element of research in an observation made so much sense and almost seemed weird to think you could make an observation without it. At this point in time in the observation process I was struggling to find fun, new interesting things to write about and as a result my inspiration was impacted heavily, struggling to reach my two observations a week. Learning about the ability to incorporate research into my observations almost seemed like a lifesaver at the time as it truely opened my eyes up to things around me that I could observe and thus write about. I remember sitting in the class and staring across the room towards the fire place and genuinely thinking ‘hey I could write about that, and learn how fireplaces were invented through research. Up until that point I would have never even looked at my fireplace for inspiration let alone consider it be the subject matter for my writing. However, Interestingly my further observations didn’t take this form of research based material, moving forward I simply became more aware of my surroundings and not so closed off to the possibilities of what I can and can’t write about. From this I believe the learning of research based observations didn’t directly influence my writing but instead allowed me to write across a broader range of topics, with the ‘fireplace moment’ truely sparking my interest and further inspiration for my final few observations. Nevertheless I will look to incorporate a research element into my final video piece and see how it works.

General Reflection 4 – The Shooting Process

• With my planning for my video well and truely complete, it was time to shoot. I knew I had to shoot multiple train station scenes at night which in all honesty didn’t excite me a whole lot. However, what truely began to excite me was the opportunity I had to go out to a location with just the camera and I and enjoy full creative freedoms. Although it may sound strange, this excitement stemmed from the fact that I hadn’t had the chance to shoot with my own creative inspiration for well over 12 months. Largely due to being tied into work jobs which ultimately came with their own artistic and aesthetic obligations which needed to be met. As exciting as it was, once I found myself at a dark quiet train station on a Saturday night with just my camera for company, I felt incredibly out of place. A fish out of water perhaps. Whatever the feeling was to be described as, it felt strange. The camera for so many years had been what I was most comfortable with in any situation, but without the support of crew or a guiding script, it felt as if all those years no longer happened. Nevertheless, as I begun shooting I found myself getting back into a ‘groove’, finding great angles and framing for my shots. All in all I believe the shooting experience for me was the biggest surprise thus far throughout this last assignment. The element of the assignment I thought would be the most straight forward and enjoyable ended up being anything but straight forward yet still enjoyable. However, I believe as a result of my experiences in shooting this project my shots have a greater personal meaning to them and subsequently improve the quality of my final work in my opinion.

General Reflection 5 – The Editing Process (final week)
– I began my editing process 2 weeks out from the final submission date after I had shot my first clips at the train station. As I sat at my computer staring at the folders of footage I wasn’t entirely sure how it was all going to come together to ultimately form a final story that reflected my observation effectively. I had attempted a few combinations and different methods of portraying my story but to avail, it seemed as if everything I tried wasn’t working. As a result, I decided to take a few days away from the editing suite and take time to think and reflect about what my observation truely was about at its core and thus how I could reflect such meaning in a video. My lightbulb moment came when I decided to book end the video with the same shot at different moments with me opening and closing the window. In my mind this helped clarify the story line I was looking to create knowing that what content I decided to use in the middle of the timeline it would come back to make sense for the viewer with the final shot being where they also started. Working with this method my video really started to take shape and was finally heading in the right direction, the next creative hurdle being the structure of my audio and its layers. Separating the video and audio into two seperate components I began to focus on the layering of my audio clips as that was the main element to my observation. Difficulty arose in successfully layering the audio clips while maintaining clarity of each layer but yet still creating one immersive audio sound scape. Working with the equalisation and reverb values of my audio clips I was able to replicate the effect of the audio experience I wrote on in my observation, and as my video clips went on over the top my video piece was finally starting to take it’s final shape. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the editing experience with the challenges it provided giving me a sense of accomplishment once finding solutions for a strong final product.

Video Piece Reflections

Practical Video Reflection – 1

• As discussed I decided to complete one large video project over the course of the two assessment periods. At the conclusion of the first assessment period I have lots to reflect on in my progression and equally as many things to work on moving forward to the final assessment. Firstly the ability to screen my initial progress to the class was a great opportunity to get a diverse amount of feedback and suggestions from my peers, which I will undoubtedly look to utilise and implement in my final product. With my video piece being set during the evening I began experimenting with shooting in low light and trying many different shots to try and discover which was going to be the most effective way in communicating my observation. It was this initial experimentation that I showed to my class for them to critique and provide feedback on. I noted my struggle in lighting the scene correctly with no natural light and minimal external lighting, which was evident in my initial shots, what was a great help to me was a suggestion from a classmate of mine to shoot the scene at dusk. This would enable me to brighten my scene up just enough with the suns last light but yet still be able to encapsulate the evening mood I am looking to create. Further to this, discussions begun about me incorporating a form of double exposure to bring the two scenes of train station and my bedroom together, a concept I really liked the sound of and will look to elaborate on in my final video. Overall, I initially was feeling slightly defeated with my progress and outlook of my video project moving forward, however, after having the opportunity to discuss with my class mates and utilise their creative ideas I now believe I am on the right track and will produce a high quality final product.

Practical Video Reflection – 2 (Final Video)

• Over the last 12 weeks there has been lots spoken and discussed surrounding the world of film all in the buildup to this final video piece. As I sit at the end of week 12 and reflect not only my finished video piece but the course as a whole I can’t help but think how wrong my assumptions of the course were when I started in comparison to what I know now after completing it. From my last 4 weeks of planning and contemplation I believe I have created a strong final video piece that I can be somewhat happy with, although certainly far from perfect. Looking at my final product with a wider lens I am content with what’s in it and its general structure, and subsequently how the final product looks. It meets what I wrote in my observation, the train station is accurate, my recreation out my window is accurate, all the correct building blocks are there. However, when I look at my final product on a granular level there are multiple elements that I would look to change and alter slightly if given a second opportunity. Firstly, I don’t believe the video piece effectively communicates a ‘story’ as well as I first envisioned. It appears throughout the sequence of train shots the visuals fail to tie an element of story together rather just acting as a somewhat confusing visual representation. I believe this is because my lack of a ‘plan’ when approaching my shooting of the train station at night. I simply arrived at the station in a bit of hurry one evening (as no one likes spending hours at a train station at night) and amidst my hurry the sequence of shots I took really lacked a pattern or progression from one shot to the next. Similarly I encountered the issue with my audio recordings, I had tried to record as broad of a selection of different sounds while on location to ensure I had plenty to work with in post to take the audio in many different directions I wished. However, this turned out to be more of an issue than a solution that I planned for as once I begun to work with the audio files in creating a immersive soundscape, it quickly became a case of ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’. As a result my audio layering process got messy very quickly and looking at the final product perhaps wasn’t as clean and immersive as I hoped it to be initially. Despite these issues, I’m happy with my final product overall and the general aesthetic I was able to achieve.