Today was the first meeting of Project Brief #4. Jack and I decided to jot down the minutes of our meetings on our blogs in order to record what was discussed and also to reiterate our main ideas… And thus this post was created!

In our set meeting time, we decided that for our topic, ‘Institutions’ we would focus the Classification Board of Australia, in particular the Classification Board in relation to cinema. We have decided to explore the function and structure of the board, but also some arguments surrounding the extent of its supposed ‘usefulness’ in contemporary society.

Another task we got on to was the collaborative contract. Here are some group goals we came up with:

• We would like to utilise our skills on the Sony MC50 and the Zoom H2N sound recorder to produce our work.
• We want to develop a clear understanding of the Classification Board and its interaction with contemporary society
• We would like to try and interview people on the street (Vox Pops)
• We will attempt to meet up 2-3 times a week to combine and collaborate ideas. This may include particular locations such as cafes, the state library as well as on-site office locations to further our knowledge of media institutions.
• We will be consistent in our blog posts to record the minutes of our meetings, and also re-iterate what was discussed.

As well as some dispute resolution methods:

1. We will always give honest, constructive feedback to each others work (De Bono’s “coloured hats” method)
2. If we have contrasting ideas or opinions, we will try to resolve the dispute through compromise, to avoid the issue quickly escalating.
3. If compromise cannot be reached, we have agreed to draw straws, and leave it up to chance. This provides fairness to both sides.
4. If things cannot be revolved, we will seek independent advice from Rachel.

I’m super excited for this brief and can’t wait to start filming, editing and piecing all our work together ☺ 

Narrative Vs. Non-Narrative

A narrative is a chain of events, linked by cause and effect, that tells some sort of story. Wikipedia (trustful resource, I know) defines cause and effect as ‘the relation between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the first event is understood to be responsible for the second’. In film, can there even be such a thing as a non-narrative? In watching Daniel Askill’s, ‘We Have Decided Not To Die’ in the week 8 lectorial, the media students deliberated this question.

Most, if not all films can embody some form of meaning, a story or idea to be told even without cause and effect. Though we are able to utilise our own experiences in order to fill the gaps and decide what the film may be about (aka, “non-sequiter closure” from Scott McLeod’s ‘Blood in the Gutter’), a lack of causality typically leaves the audience to see the actions unfold, but struggle to find the connection in between. Therefore, ‘We Have Decided Not To Die’ probably suits a title such as experimental, abstract of avant grade film rather than narrative. We can understand that it is not a narrative, by looking at certain elements that are present in conventional narrative films. Our experiences are what tells us it is different. There is no explicit correlation between the three people in the film, and the shots do not seem to be done in any form of chronology (except for the text: birth, between and re-birth) but instead jump around a lot. Shots are also played backwards, forwards and repetitively which jolt the viewer. There also seems to be no point of conflict or emotional development or progression of characters.

When I’m procrastinating, I always go off on massive YouTube binges, clicking linked side videos like there’s no tomorrow. One particular topic to find me in this absolute video oblivion was, ‘Neil Hilborn- “OCD” (Rustbelt 2013)’. I used to like watching Slam Poetry, but had forgot all about it, Youtube hadn’t. In reminding me of what I used to love, I got to thinking what it is I finding interesting about these performances. I think our contemporary world is often infatuated with things of a instantaneous and visual nature and these videos (of performances) are a nice, little contrast to that obsession (how ironic that I am watching on YouTube). I know the dramatic, staged nature of these stand up poets can be viewed as “tacky” and often made fun of in films but there is something I love about it. With a lack of screens/images and merely only one (or few) passionate voice(s) to listen to, words spoken can truly resonate. To me its like watching a one-person play, but the actor has made up the words, deliberately attempting to incite some form of emotion. I would really love to go and listen to one of these events in Melbourne as I am quite interested in language use. I believe the more avenues that people can utilise language-play and listen to creatively-crafted poetry, the better.

I love watching everyone’s films. They are fantastic. Today, I was captivated by Maggie’s portrait of her friend Xavier. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I think it has a lot to do with her intriguing method of story-telling. Whilst most people (including myself) chose to interview their subject, Maggie used narration as a key aspect in her work. The sound flowed, and it permitted the audience to focus on the visuals.

A picture story book was used to set the scene, but also was the background to  polaroid-esque clips of footage. The result that this scattering of film had was of a collage.I believed it was very effective and added heaps of personality.

I would love to learn how she “superimposed” the footage on to the still background. I am sure it is a feature on Adobe Premiere, so as a future media practitioner, it may be time for me to start learning the software. 

I believe the successful aspect of my work to be my incorporation of found footage. I discovered relevant, eclectic material that illustrated the idea of my portrait. I needed more of it than first thought, bringing me to the least successful part of my work, my equipment usage complications.

My mistakes began from equipment hire. I didn’t book a camera with enough notice, so I could only use the Zoom H2N and a personal camera. When I conducted the interview, I recorded simultaneously on the sound recorder and camera. I was unaware that 8G would not be enough memory for footage and I neglected a second memory card. Therefore I ran out of room for coverage footage not long after the first interview. During this interview, I also only had the recorder on single microphone, so the result was not fantastic. I decided to record again. The second time was better, however I made three major mistakes that cost me the audio. Firstly, I pressed, “start/stop” recording in between each question rather than letting the whole thing roll, to give feedback to my nana. I forgot that I could edit my questions out. Secondly, I was watching so closely to ensure the sound didn’t clip that I got into an incorrect rhythm of “stopping” and “starting” and therefore recorded the incorrect pieces of information. Finally, I did not check every audio file to make sure it had worked. I checked 3 and they sounded fine, but if I had listened to every single one I would have realised that I did not in fact record correctly. I only discovered this audio issue when I went to edit and my subject was not free to record again. These issues resulted in a lack of coverage and decent audio recordings. I struggled to fit mediocre, mismatching pieces together. I am disappointed and believe my work turned out unprofessional and messy.

This entire brief has been a learning curve for me. Whilst I did learn how to detach audio and relay it over other footage to create continuity, the fundamental lesson I learnt of broader media development was that editing will not fix bad audio or footage like I once believed. Recording is a vital step, and therefore I need to be more conscientiousness in the filmmaking process. I am going to take my time and write lists so that exhaustion cannot get the better of me.

PEER FEEDBACK→ My group consisted of: Pat, Lucas, Dusty, Kristian and Elle. The feedback I received from this brief was quite positive. Hearing, “You really did save the lack of coverage with the footage you found” was music to my ears as it was my biggest fear all along, that I wouldn’t. It was also nice to hear that people liked my beginning and my ending. The ending got a couple of laughs (possibly due to appropriate-ness) but I think it fit perfectly with the humorous aspect of my subject that I was trying to convey.

Sometimes when I’m watching Rage I like to try and guess the budgets for the film clips to the songs. For up and coming artists (much like media students completing their briefs) video funding will probably not be at its highest…..but that may not in fact be a bad thing. I find it incredibly interesting to see the creative possibilities one may have with minute funding when creating music videos. I tend to think that it actually stretches the imagination; creating interest in every day objects, locations or people themselves. The thing I liked about this clip for Fishing’s “Nineteen/Boy Wunder” was the use of an inexpensive projector and lights in combination with fast cuts to evoke emotion. It makes me want to get creative and utilise every-day objects at my house for my work etc….

This brief is quickly turning into a dog’s breakfast and I honestly cannot wait for it to be over. Following on from my previous blog post, I have now not only struggled to find quality sound from my interview, in the absolute zombie-bubble of tiredness that I still exist in, I accidentally deleted much of said sound. On the train to my Cinema screening on Monday I was trying to delete all of my recordings from the Zoom recorder to hand back to RMIT, but I forgot about sounds from other folders on the memory card that I was yet to retrieve……. And voilà, the sound is gone!

Still, I’m trying to remain positive and pretend the jigsaw of sound and footage as a challenge to fit together, like a mix-matching puzzle. I’m also trying to pretend I’ve worked with a shocking camera and sound team, and now have to fit all their mess together in the best way I know how. However, I cannot pretend that awful team is not in fact ME “^) :^D !!!!! Much of today I have taken a different approach to my assignment, gathering more found footage and crafting myself as a narrative voice instead of more coverage of my nana.

I am just disappointed because I don’t think my original idea to portray different “teacher” aspects of my nana will shine through…. And if they do, it will be a very unnatural, forced depicted I think. History is repeating itself from my first assignment… Again, my idea may not be coherent enough. I also don’t want to show my nana as I don’t believe I have done her as a person, justice.

I write this in absolute rage, but I can’t BELIEVE I’ve been so stupid! After recording an interview with my Nana and not being happy with the sound quality, I sorted out the issues and recorded again. The second time was 100% better HOWEVER, I stupidly watched the device so closely to make sure it didn’t clip, that I failed to realise that most of the second time wasn’t filming. I made the mistake of stopping and starting the recording after each question and got into the wrong rhythm of when to press ‘record’ resulting in NOTHING ACTUALLY RECORDING!!!!! I played back 2 of the questions, and assumed the rest must be okay as well, and have no only realised (2 days later) that they are not in fact there. So frustrated with myself. The second interview I did, also went off track from my original questions and was I actually really happy with the information I was getting about my Nana’s life. As I don’t have enough time to go down to Mornington to re-record this week and my nana is busy next week, I am now stuck trying to “normalise” and fix up the first interview, and also go without the awesome sound bites from the second interview.

Secondly, I forgot to take a spare memory card with me and therefore was very, very restricted in the amount of things I could film. I kept having to delete footage I may have liked to use as there was no space on the memory card. I should have used RMIT’s camera in the first place but I left it too late to book a camera and therefore decided to use a sound recorder instead. If I stuck to the best-suited camera, I wouldn’t have had this memory card issue.

Things to be learnt today:

1. I’m an idiot I’m only human, but I must be more conscientious when filmmaking to avoid making silly mistakes

2. Book a camera in advance, so you can use your preferred equipment

3. Bring spare memory cards (when using a camera other than RMIT)

4. In interviews, let the whole thing roll on the sound recorder. Don’t stop start as you run the risk of not recording anything (like I).

5. Check to see if said sound recorder is actually recording during the interview

6. Listen to EVERY file after recording

I think Mitch Gobel is an incredible artist. Today I went to check out his “Voices” exhibition today and was blown away. He grew up down near Mornington and thus most of the contrasts in the works are of the ocean (nature) and pollution. On Instagram, Mitch states that the artwork saved his own life. Personally I also think it has assisted in conserving the life of those around him that he is most passionate about, our wildlife. 2 months ago he donated 25,000, aka half of his wage, to the #wildlifewarriors.

Much of his following on Instagram has boomed the past 9 months and I think it demonstrates how through the medium of social media, art can help to raise awareness of social issues.

The detail, and layers that can be seen on his famed resin art cannot be fully appreciated anywhere but with one’s face mere millimetres away. Yes, that’s right, I spent majority of my 2 hours in Mossgreen Gallery with my face absolutely glued to these 11 humungous pieces. My friend and I studied so closely that we actually found a hair and some bugs in the art. We did decide to let Mitch know, so he could obviously re-do the $10,000 works, but he simply laughed it off and told us to keep it a secret.

Today Elle and I practiced recording sound on the Zoom H2N from RMIT. It took us a while to get into the swing of thing, especially in relation to clipping but we did manage to get a few clear sounds in the end. Here are a couple of examples: