Today’s class saw us visiting the Percy Grainger Museum, located right next to Melbourne Uni. It was really interesting to see how someone can literally put themselves into a place. The museum is actually autobiographical. So Percy had actually created the place himself, sending important belongings and things that made up his life over to the museum to be preserved. It got me pondering about the many ways someone can live on. For someone like Percy, a famous composer, his memory would forever live on in the music he created. However this clearly wasn’t enough to satisfy him. My interpretation is that all these other aspects of his life featured in his museum contributed to the way that he was able to create his music, and without them, things might’ve been entirely different for him. Percy thought it important that his memory encompassed everything that he thought made him who he is.
Today we discussed ideas for our first project brief. This brief revolves around the idea of home as a space and how that can be explored through sound, images, and film. With my apartment, I’ll be focusing on flaws and perhaps lack of space and how this contributes to the aesthetic of my home. I think most of my footage will appear in the form of extreme close ups as to to draw attention to what usually may not stand out. As my apartment is not a huge space, this should be an interesting challenge for me to produce something interesting.
This has been a really awesome first semester at uni. I feel like it’s been a perfect mix of introductory based projects and tasks that also challenge us. I’ve made some amazing friends that all have very similar interests to me and I’m so surprised at how quickly it all happened! When i first began this course, I really don’t know what to expect, I’d heard nothing but good things about it and every graduate of the course that I’d spoken to had said how valuable and practical it is. So far, it seems that they’d been right. I actually look forward to going into uni everyday and attending my classes.
My favourite class this semester has been my cinema studies class. Discussing films is something I really enjoy and now I have a class where I can do just that. I’ve managed to sustain consistently high marks in this class which has been a refreshing reminder of my capabilities. I’ve really liked how relaxed our media tutorials have been. we’ve learned about sound, editing transitions, how to operate camcorders and sound recorders and many other things, but it’s all been very well-paced and not too intensive. I still have a long way to go in terms of learning how to properly use technical equipment and even programs like Final Cut And Premier Pro but I feel that I’ll get there with time.
As you can tell, I hardly have anything bad to say, I’ve really enjoyed uni so far. I guess if I had to choose one thing for me that has been a bit dry this semester, it would probably be the lectorials. I’ve felt that they haven’t always related back to what we were doing in the tutorials and that the content is quite often really bland. But really that’s the only thing that I can think of to complain about. I’m not too sure what to expect from the studios next semester but they sound like they’ll be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to creating more films and getting really savvy with cameras.
I’ve definitely enjoyed the solo based projects more than the group tasks. Not that I don’t like working with other people, it’s just that with solo projects, it’s all up to me and there’s no one who can be blamed for slacking off or for doing all the work. It’s also easier to keep on top of things as there is no one external to chase up about the project. However, working in a group has provided good practise for organisation skills and time management.
I’ve quite liked keeping a blog this semester, but I don’t think I’m quite in the habit of posting every day. It’s nice to have a record of media based things that I’ve done and so I think next semester I’d like to make more of an effort to post at least one thing a day regardless of how small or big it is.
Below are my five best blog posts from this semester:
This is the scene that for me, establishes the girl as the vampire and officially introduces the film’s influences as strongly stemming from pop culture and music video. Throughout the duration of this scene, the girl doesn’t say a word but we are let into her world and are able to discover more about her than some of the previous characters that have been introduced with dialogue. After leaving the grocery store, she heads to what we assume is her home slash bedroom. Her room is entirely personalised with music posters, bits and bobs, cds and records, unique furniture pieces and even a disco ball. As she enters her bedroom, the song ‘Dancing Girls’ by Farah begins to play and the girl begins to dance. It needs no explanation and creates a visual that is both immersive and picturesque. In most films, a song or score will be included to enhance what is already occurring in the scene, however in this moment, it is about the song and how this makes the girl feel. Instead of just a snippet of music, the whole track is played out like it would in a music video. And as the viewer, we are able to immerse ourselves in the music with the girl.
Regardless of her immortal nature, which we later find out about when we realise she is a vampire, the girl’s dancing actually gives her a touch of humanity. This is one of the main reasons that I didn’t actually realise that she was the vampire at first. This sense of humanity becomes a theme within the film as she begins to fall in love with the human boy, Arash, ignoring her primal instincts that tell her he is food
The costuming of the girl makes her oddly relatable in an underground hipster, music-scene kind of way. Her short hair, stripy tee, and dark eye-liner speak of a very particular look that is replicated in pop-culture today and is actually, quite similar to Ana Lily own look herself. If you were to find someone on the street that looked like this, and ask them of their music taste, I’m sure they would respond with a myriad of 80’s bands as well as a bunch of unknown indie groups. In doing this, Amirpour has perfectly teamed the film’s soundtrack with the costuming of the girl. They are both modern and hip, with an atmosphere of retromania.
The set of her bedroom tells us a lot about Ana Lily’s interest in popular music and how she has incorporated this into the world of Bad City using props. If you look closely, the posters on the girl’s wall are actually recreations of things such as iconic Madonna portraits, Lionel Richie cover art and even a mock-up of the famous Bee-Gee’s album cover can be spotted. The fact that Amirpour has not used the actual portraits of these iconic artists enhances the idea that Bad City is a sliver of the world we know, almost a parallel universe in a sense. There is much about Bad City that we recognise from our own world yet, some aspects are altered or enhanced. As well as this, it becomes clear that one of the girl’s main interests, is music.
Like the intention behind a music clip, the focus of this scene is very much more about conveying a feeling or atmosphere than about the need for dialogue to translate an idea. When the girl enters the house of the pimp, he puts on techno music in an act to seduce her, which completely contrasts the soundtrack of her own bedroom space. The music signifies a change of location and that this is now his domain that she has entered. The music is robotic and slightly unnerving, much like the pimp himself. At first I was slightly confused as to why she chose to kill him in particular. But then remembered how she watched him mistreat the hooker outside Arash’s car as he shoved her to the ground. It then becomes apparent that the girl is taking out revenge on the pimp and that she has found a sense of duty in being a vampire. With this, a theme of feminism seems to be apparent within the film. Throughout the movie, the girl only kills men who behave in a misogynistic manner. And it is this scene that officially introduces this motif. Feminism is quite often seen as an unconventional point of view. This tells us a lot about the set up of the film and how it is made to support the notion of feminism, as hardly anything within the town of Bad City is conventional. Within the neigbourhood, there is emphasis on death and addiction, yet there appears to be no official authorities. Instead of burials, bodies are simply dumped into a canyon and left to rot and there is nothing in the film to suggest that this is abnormal, it is just the way of life in Bad City. The girl herself is a vampire who completely defies the traditional look of fictitious vampire figures and instead could pass for a plain teenage girl just going about her business.
Omg, I’m legitimately so stressed right now. I have a gazillion assignments due all at once and I don’t even know which one to complete first. I’ve adopted the habit of eating copious amounts of muesli when I’m stressed and i don’t know why, not really sure it helps, it’s really just another way for me to procrastinate but gah, I’ll be so happy when I’ve submitted everything! But at the same time I really hope I get good marks, I feel like I’m stressing so much that nothing I’m producing is actually up to standard so I’m also worried about that. But I’ll stay positive and hope for the best, I mean after this week, I’ll be all good!
Today we finally finished our artefact. I’m so happy that we got it done in time and hopefully it covers what we need it to cover. Working with Haylee and Andrew has been a great experience and I feel that today we were super productive. Today saw us filming more footage and conducting the voice overs for our short doco. The doco is now done and we just have a few more practical documents to upload to the google drive.
Myself and a few of my other Media friends had the opportunity to attend the St Kilda Film Festival for free last week! I wasn’t too sure what to expect, maybe something similar to Tropfest? When we got there we were all astounded at the huge turn out of people! There was hardly enough space to walk. It took us about 45 minutes to actually claim our tickets and luckily it was worth it as the films turned out to be fantastic. My favourite was a ten minute short called ‘Flat Daddy’. This film had quite a few well known actors in it including Kat Stewart (OffSpring). What I liked most about it was the fact that it fit so many emotions and content into such a small time slot. I began watching with zero knowledge of what was going on and when the film ended, ten minutes later, I was close to tears. It opened my eyes a little to what is actually possible when it comes to film making.
My Cinema Studies group have decided to do our final assessment for this semester on ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’. I’m super excited about this because there’s so much within the film that will provide a good discussion for our task which is an oral presentation. As there are three of us in the group, we’ve also noted that there are three main genres the film presents which are: Western, Horror/Vampire and Music Video. So the aspects of Mis-en-scene that I discuss will therefore revolve around the Music Video genre of the film and so on.
I JUST SPENT $30 ON A DVD?! I didn’t even think dvds existed at that price anymore, especially when you can stream online for free. I guess that raises the question of why I bought the film in the first place. I’ve decided I like having hard copies of things, especially when it comes to films and music. The film I bought was one we watched in Cinema Studies recently called ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’. It’s by the director Ana Lily Amirpour and happens to be her first feature film. Usually if I’m going to buy a film, the storyline has to be really solid and interesting, however, the main reason I bought this film was because of the way it is shot. The lighting and the cinematography are absolutely incredible and are made all the better by the film’s western-inspired/indie soundtrack.
I went to see Ex-Machina with a few friends the other night and was pleasantly surprised by the film. I went into the cinema knowing that the film was centred around the idea of Artificial Intelligence but the humorous undertone of a film that was mostly sci-fi and drama really caught me off-guard and was something that I really enjoyed. The film also seemed to centred around the idea of female objectification. Towards the end of the film it becomes apparent that Nathan (Oscar Isaac) is creating these AIs as a means to serve himself sexually. I also love a film that keeps you questioning things even after the film has ended and Ex- Machina did just that. After watching it, I found myself wondering if Ava (the AI robot) was programmed mainly to escape or if she became so intelligent that she used her own free will to decide that escaping was best for her. H
Learnt how to record what is happening on computer screen (a technique we’ll use for our final artefact, we used this technique to record the Dallas Buyers Club trailer and stage the action of illegal downloading)
Wrote out a draft of our script for the film
Decided to hire a camera during class tomorrow for filming parts of our vox pop
Remember ask Rachel about what types of footage we are allowed to use in the film
– Discussed how we went with the annotated bibliographies and what research direction we both went in
– Found that we both looked into piracy and regulation
– Decided we would like to use film as our medium
– Thought about interviewing people around uni, asking them if they illegally download/stream media. Could possibly conduct a mini research project to acquire statistics to include
– Decided to further research the governments response to regulating piracy
– Recent relevant topics in the news: Game of Thrones and Dallas Buyers Club
I’ve always been fascinated with how sound actually affects the viewer when watching a film. As someone who is prone to crying during a movie, I know that the main reason I cry is not so much because of what is happening within the film but because of the way the music manipulates me to feel emotion. I’ve actually tried watching a scene without the music to evoke feelings of sadness and as a result, was not moved to tears at all. Sound is one of the key elements of a moving image that hints at what the director is trying to portray. Bordwell and Thompson state that it is a mixture of the loudness, pitch and timbre (texture of a sound) that create the overall aesthetic of the soundtrack. Myself, and a few others made a silent short film last year, our main intention being to create tension and suspense using just visuals and music. The end result was really effective and proved just how vital music really is to filmmaking.
Sound effects are the other main component of a soundtrack. These usually blend so seamlessly into film that we hardly notice them. A lot of sound linked with action is actually created using foley which is the recreation of sound to make it look like it is happening in sync with an action. It is important to remember the role sound plays in film and to notice how it affects what is happening on screen.
Today we received our first task to complete for Media Brief 4. We are required to collect five academic resources each based on our topics and then provide an annotated bibliography of them. This is the beginning of our collated research for our Institutions project and will help us to gather ideas and facts. We also completed a brainstorm session of avenues we could take within the topics of Institutions. Here are minutes from our meeting today:
MEETING 1 MINUTES 30/04/15
Summary
-Brainstormed ideas about institutions
-Received annotated bibliography
-Decided to each have a separate word document for our bibliographies
-Researched Institutions as a broad subject
Goals For Next Meeting
Have at least 5 annotated bibliographies between us, but aim for more
Have more of an idea about what institutions are and which direction we want to go in
‘NARRATIVE is any kind of retelling of a sequence’
CAUSALITY- Cause and Effect
Causality allows for three key elements of story telling
Character development
Plot
Resolution
STORY MAPPING (group activity)
SHREK
Lives by himself, is content, but lonely.
Life is turned upside down when he has to go on quest to bring back princess Fiona for the Lord
He befriends Donkey and is irritated by him but has an underlying sense of gratefulness for his company
They rescue Fiona and Shrek begins to develop feelings for her and the narrative rises in terms of emotional highs
Shrek then overhears Fiona talking about an ugly ogre and assumes she is talking about him so he angrily leaves her in the hands of Lord Farquaad instead of confessing his feelings for her and the narrative drops to low emotion
Donkey later tells Shrek that Fiona wasn’t talking about him and Shrek then runs in on her wedding ceremony and confesses his love for her and the film ends on a high note as the two get together.
Is there such a thing as ‘non-narrative’
SHORT FILM NARRATIVE DISCUSSION
NARRATIVE
Followed ‘Birth, Between and Rebirth’ sequence
Followed a pattern of weird movements, slow motion and reverse movement
Birth and Rebirth were accompanied by the same music
Camera pans down from sea to pool at beginning and pans up from pool to sea at the end
Always heading to an end point in each sequence
NON-NARRATIVE
Lack of cohesion within story
There’s no point of conflict or emotional highs and lows
No explanation as to why these events are taking place
I came across this article today on the JUNKEE website, a site I rely on for my daily dose of media and the kind of news I want to hear about. The article lists five short films made by Aussies with next to nothing in ways of money and equipment. I was surprised to see that ‘Granny Smith’, a film that recently won Tropfest 2014 was amongst the five. When I first saw ‘Granny Smith’ towards the end of last year I thought it was so well executed that they must have had to raise quite a lot in order to produce the final product. But apparently not. Additionally, the director of the film, Julian Lucas, is also a graduate from the RMIT Media and Communications Bachelor Degree which is a little bit exciting I have to admit.
I missed this week’s screening however the set chapter for this week focused on the concept of editing and how this enhances a film. I often find myself wondering how it was possible to edit a film before computers and modern cinematic technology were invented. Upon reading this chapter, a few of my questions were answered. Prior to the 90’s, in order for a cut to be made (immediate joining of two shots together), someone would have to physically ‘cut’ the film role in the desired position and tape it back together, which I guess is where the term ‘cut’ really comes from.
This chapter also states that there are 4 main dimensions in film editing. They are Graphic, Rhythmic, Spatial and Temporal. A Graphic relation between two shots refers to when the two shots are seemingly disconnected but relate to each other either in composition elements such as lighting, sound, colour etc. Rhythmic usually refers to when shots follow a pattern of sorts, most likely in relation to the musical score of a film. Spatial relations are key in establishing place or setting. This is often done via extreme long shot/long shot followed by a series of close up/ medium shots. Finally, Temporal relation seeks to display different angles and views of the same scene without disrupting the time sequence. I’ll be keeping these elements in mind as I attend the screenings from now on to observe how they aid the narrative of the film.
Today we were assigned groups for our major group assessment. The brief involves us being given a certain media topic of which we have to research and eventually produce an artefact about. Haylee, Andrew and I were given the topic of ‘Institutions’. We spent a long time trying to actually figure out what this topic meant and what would be required of us. We ended up finding this basic definition: ‘A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.’ By the end of the class we had a bit of a clearer view about what we would need to do within the task, however there will need to be a lot of research and commitment from us as a group to pull it off.
Watching everyone’s films in class the other day was actually really inspiring. I realised I’m surrounded by a bunch of hugely talented people and it makes me want to step up my game.
Everyone seemed to enjoy my film and thought that I did a really good job in recreating the atmosphere of the 1930’s. It was a shame that the file I used pixelated my film so the details weren’t as refined but overall it was received well and the content was appreciated.
Below are some of my class mate’s films and snippets of my feedback:
LUCAS “OLIVER”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lucas-worcester/
– Camera skills were really amazing, looked like a feature film
– Portrayed wisdom of brother and reminded audiences that children can be quite wise
– Contrast between first half of portrait to second half was a good stylistic choice. First half was very upbeat and second half was more reflective and mellow which showed diversity within the subject.
PATRICK “THAT’S LIFE”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/patrick-hills/
-Conveyed strong emotion in subject
– Immersed himself in the film (was literally in the shot) which showed his relation to the subject
– Maybe more shots of his Nonna could have intercepted the film for a broader range of footage
-Excellent use of found footage to tell the story, was really moving
ELISE “MY NANA”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/elise-milner/
– Use of narration introduced Nana well at the beginning of the film
– Focus and set-up of shots was clear and well executed
– Maybe needed more diversity in shots
– Found footage was utilised really well to enhance the story
KRISTIAN “PANAYIOTU GRIGORIOU”
– Significant shots of subject’s facial features were really nice and artistic
– The portrait was filmed really well however maybe the colouring was a little too bright for the subject matter
– Found footage enhanced narration
– I really liked the set-up of the family photographs behind Kristian’s grandmother. It shows she’s a family oriented person and tells us more about her without words.
DUSTY “CHARLIE AZAR RESTORING LIFE”
http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dusty-johnston/
– Targeted and successfully altered the audiences point of view on taxidermy
– Imagery captured was really vibrant and exciting
– Music perfectly suited the film and was mysterious and quirky
– Found footage looked like Dusty’s footage at times, was blended seamlessly with the portrait
I actually had a lot of fun creating this portrait. The film had to include a certain amount of found footage which ended up working extremely well with the subject I’d chosen to do my portrait on. This being my best friend and her love of the 1930’s era. I found that there was a lot of silent film material in online archives that I could use without any copyright issues and that actually improved the standard of my portrait. I didn’t actually use any of the footage from the camera I borrowed due to the fact that I lost it via the nebulus ether that is my computer. So I filmed the portrait on my Nikon D3100 which worked quite nicely. However, I did encounter a few problems when it came to editing the sound together and finding the right song for the portrait. Obviously I didn’t use one long track of talking, but cut up little phrases that I’d edited to make sentences. I think I did an ok job of doing this but there are some noticeable glitches in the soundtrack that I wasn’t sure how to deal with. When it came to choosing a song, I had found the perfect track in a Billie Holiday tune called ‘Georgia On My Mind’. But of course I wasn’t able to use this! It literally took me two weeks to find a song that worked just as well and that I was able to use without issues of copyright. If I were to do this task again, I think I’d also double check that my camera was in focus as I’ve had to use footage that I didn’t realise was out of focus until I watched it back on my computer. But overall, I think I’ve replicated my friend’s love of the era quite nicely as well as recreate the atmosphere of it.
Yesterday we were sent out during class to records certain sounds with ZOOM H2N Sound recorders. It took a bit of fiddling around with the device at first to understand how to use it but once we got going it proved to be a valuable tool. Attached are some of the sounds recorded using the device.
Sound is an integral part of creating media and every day life. Today in our media tutorial we discussed sound and put our knowledge into practise using Zoom H2N sound recorders.
Some points discussed in class included:
-Sound comes in the form of waves
-Sound is air pressure changing
-Sound enters our ears and is processed in the brain
-Unlike eyes, there is no physical barrier to stop sound entering our ears
-Silence doesn’t really exist
-We need to think about the aspects of sound in order to have creative control over it
-Difference between sound and noise
-Hearing vs listening
-Always aim for a high signal to noise ratio
-There are 4 types of sound: musical, speech, sounds and noise (unintended sound)
Rachel mentioned that there is a difference between listening and hearing, between sound and noise. Listening occurs when one is actively and willingly partaking in interpreting sound and what they are hearing. Hearing occurs whenever there is sound around us, however this does not mean that we are interpreting the sound. Until we ‘listen’, it is just noise.
Part 1 of this week’s media lectorial focused on effectively using the RMIT library search to get the best resources and results when studying and completing assignments. I already knew a lot of the content, which I was pleased to realise as I’d had to complete my first research assignment last week for my elective class. However, there were also quite a few helpful tips that I hadn’t known about.
Part 2 of the lectorial revolved around the idea of collaboration and group work. Rachel had us brainstorm upon previous experiences of working in a team and the good and bad things that came with it. I’ve done a lot of group work, especially in my diploma class last year and quite often I found I clashed heads with at least one person and practically wanted to give up. But one thing in particular that I’ve found about working in a team, is that it multiplies the sense of achievement once the project is completed. We were told that we’ll be collaborating with each other a lot throughout the degree and so the point of Rachel’s presentation was to ready us for this. I’m honestly looking forward to our first group task which will be coming up in the next few weeks and will also be our major media assessment for this semester.
I really enjoyed the screening of ‘Sunrise’. I had never watched a feature length silent film from start to finish and was fascinated by how much could be said without dialogue. This week’s reading focused on cinematography and framing. I realised how important framing actually is to a narrative. Long shots and extreme long shots can help to establish setting whilst close ups and extreme close ups draw the focus in on the emotion of a character or even an intention. ‘Sunrise’, being a silent film, relied heavily on the particular set-up of these shots as well as music and lighting. Music in the film strongly suggested when a scene was supposed to be foreboding, or romantic, or quirky as did the lighting of each shot. The first half of the film, when the husband is behaving immorally, is of a dark palette highlighting his dark behaviour. The other half when he is trying to redeem himself and begins caring for his wife is of a lighter palette. I thought it was great that a black and white film can still use colour and shading to emphasise aspects of the story.
The other day I wrote a post about being a runner on a film set for a day. I uploaded that post to this blog. OR AT LEAST I THOUGHT I DID until yesterday when I received an email from one of the editors from Semplesize (the music blog I write for) asking me if I was going to finish my review about working on a film set! I realised I’d uploaded the post to the Semplesize blog and not my uni blog which both look VERY SIMILAR and completely embarrassed myself. I mean the editors were really understanding about it, but thinking about it still makes me cringe. Perhaps I need to get more internet savvy? I think so.
In yesterday’s Media lectorial we recieved our task for Brief 3. This assessment requires us to make a 2 minute media portrait of someone we know. This had me pondering about the idea of a ‘portrait’ vs ‘documentary’. I suppose to me, a documentary is usually quite broad and covers a subject rather than a person. A documentary is long and informative. A portrait seems to be more symbolic and focused on a singular person and a singular interest or story of theirs. It seeks to capture the essence of them in a short amount of time.
This task both scares me and excites me. How can I capture someone in 2 minutes? I’m still building up basic editing skills and figuring out my way around a camera. Who will I choose to do my portrait on and will they be happy with what I’ve produced? However, during the lectorial, Rachel also mentioned that some of the best documentaries she’d seen were the most simplistic ones and this gave me hope. Simplicity is something that is underrated and something that I will use in my favour. I’m a creatively oriented person and so the more I brainstorm ideas for this task the more excited I get about it. I think not planning was where I went wrong in Brief 2, which resulted in me submitting something I wasn’t proud of and something that didn’t really represent me.
I’ve decided to to create my portrait around my best friend, Tiggy. She has a wonderful fascination with the 1930’s which is reflected in her clothing taste and the places she goes.
Recently, I had the opportunity to work behind the scenes on a reality TV show. The show hasn’t been aired yet so I can’t actually disclose any specific information but the whole day was so much fun and quite an eye opener.
Everyone always says reality TV really isn’t really reality at all. That it’s all fake. I didn’t realise how mostly true this was until I was working on the set of one. So much is staged and re-done in order to make a task or a person seem more interesting. There’s so much stopping and starting and there are scenes that are completely fictional but are put in to enhance the narrative of the episode.
We began the day at 9am and by the time we had completed filming, packed everything up, said goodbye to everyone and loaded all the equipment into the cars, it was midnight. I met some great people as well. One point during the day saw me running around China Town carrying a gigantic tripod, with the producer from The Block, a camera man, sound guy and two extremely extroverted contestants. It was a great way for me to see how the different roles involved in a television production come together and aid one another.
When I first heard that our task in Media was to create a 1 minute video involving photos and recordings, I was pretty confident that I could come up with something mildly ok. However when I learned that the video had to be a self-portrait, a compilation of things reflecting myself, I freaked out a little. When I started collecting things to actually put in the video I didn’t like anything I chose because I felt like there were too many things to choose from but also not enough to fit into a 1 minute video! So as you can tell I didn’t exactly have the best time in completing this task. What I did come up with isn’t really something I’m proud of, if I’d thought it through more, there’d be more of a story to it and I would’ve have used my camera rather than iphone. I chose to use my iphone because it meant I could capture things wherever I was and not have to worry about carting a big camera with me everywhere just in case I was suddenly inspired to film something, but it meant that the quality of my footage was severely average. I also hadn’t had much experience in editing. I enjoyed playing around in Final Cut and learning a few new tricks though which is definitely something good that came out of this task.
I’ve been writing for a music blog for quite a few months now and have started to realise how much I really enjoy music journalism. I’ve been playing with the idea of eventually making a career out of this as music and writing are two things I’m extremely passion about. AND, a huge plus is that at the moment, writing for Semplesize, I get to go to gigs for free and then write a review on how I thought it went!
Here’s a review I wrote recently about a gig I attended at Shadow Electric in Abbotsford.
Below is a review I wrote for Semplesize after attending Client Liaison’s gig in Melbourne recently.
I can’t even. I know that’s no way to start a sentence but wow. If you happened to catchClient Liaison‘s Pretty Lovers tour then you definitely did yourself a very big favour. I’m still trying to recover from the ridiculous amount of coolness I experienced at 170 Russell the other night.
Supporting the 80’s inspired synth pop band were Retiree. Once again, Sydney has proved itself to be a breeder for talent as these guys emanated a sound full of flowy beats, catchy guitar riffs and cruisey vocals. Making groovy music is not all Retiree do either, they’re also really versatile. On stage, the group broke the cliché of having each band member stick to one specific instrument; they regularly switched and traded places. I’d had a listen to some of their stuff prior to attending the gig and was really impressed with what I heard, but I was really excited when I realised their songs sounded even better live.
Retiree was the perfect lead up to Client Liaison, who I’d been hyped about seeing for a super long time. I was mesmerised from the moment the duo waltzed on stage with pastel coloured suits and Monte Morgan’s iconic mullet billowing in his wake. They mostly played songs from their self-titled EP plus a few tracks that I had never heard before, all of which were enhanced by the pair’s unique dance moves and glittery projections on stage. Back-up dancers even came into the mix more than once!
It says a lot about the growing popularity of Client Liaison that the venue was so packed. I feared for the safety of my head as several enthusiastic elbows came too close to colliding with it way too often. There were moments when I couldn’t even move because I was trapped in between an endless sea of people with radical disco moves. However, I gladly became one of these people too and once the gig had ended, I pretty much boogied all the way home.
The term ‘Mis-en-scene’ as I’ve learned this week means ‘to put in the scene’. It describes all of the elements placed within the scene to create meaning. Whilst watching the screening of ‘Play Time’ this week I found myself looking at particular shots and scenes and trying to find relevance. “Why are all the characters in this scene wearing dark shades of clothing?” “Why is the sound of feet approaching a stand-out sound effect?” Unfortunately I can’t say I found many answers as after a while, I realised I really disliked the film. There were some elements of quirky encounters that I found amusing at times but mostly the film was a struggle to sit through as it’s structure wasn’t something that I was used to. I had to try really hard to focus on what was happening without zoning out and to me, that’s never a sign of a good film. After watching it, I went and read up a little about the film to see if I could gage what had actually occurred within it. It became clear that the set and costumes were very much centred around the idea of a ‘post-modern’ Paris, as well as conformity and rigidity. This then gave more meaning to the repetitiveness of the certain sound effects and situations that occurred. I realised that there was no essential plot to the film as such, it’s really just made up of a series of occurrences that relate to each other in one way or another.
This song is not only super catchy but is also accompanied by a really cool and artistic video clip. As a student, I’m really interested in the musical side of media and how this has developed and expanded, particularly in music video. A discussion about certain types of shots used in modern video clips seems to have come up quite a bit this week in my learnings. My reading for Cinema Studies this week focused on abstract/ experimentalist films. The chapter stated that many avante garde styles and concepts have transgressed into music video, particularly in the late 1970’s. I found this really interesting because when I first watched the “Bugatti” clip, my initial thoughts were that it was almost a recreation of 1970’s stereotypes and that the editing was reminiscent of films created in the era.
On top of this, we watched the “Nights of Cydonia” video clip by Muse recently in my Music In Pop Culture class. Here, I also noticed elements of the 70’s, especially the shots regarding extreme close-up’s after a zoom.
To me the Wizard of Oz has always been a tale of adventure and nothing more. Mostly because the only time I had ever seen the film was when I was very young and not at a stage where I could really analyse the aspects of the movie. After watching it again last week, I realised that The Wizard of Oz is still primarily a tale of adventure but I also noted the present themes of adolescence, appreciation and gratitude, and escape via a fantasy world. These themes according to Bordwell and Thompson’s different forms of meaning, I think would come under explicit and implicit meaning. Explicit refers to the overall themes within a film, whilst implicit refers more to the smaller, key meanings within a film or text.
Dorothy is a relatable character in that she wishes for more and to run away from her troubles. When she arrives in Oz it seems that she has been successful in doing so. However, much like her home, it isn’t soon before Oz begins to reveal a darker side as Dorothy is not always safe there with the witch on her back. This reiterated the idea that you really can’t have the negative without the positive, the light without the dark and that as nice as it would be to escape all of your troubles in a magical land, it still isn’t a realistic option. This is again reinforced literally with the film’s colour scheme. The movie begins in black and white, which confused me last week as I had always remembered The Wizard of Oz as being vividly colourful. This all made much more sense as she stepped through the door and entered Oz, a beautifully vibrant, colourful world. As a result the contrast between the two worlds became much more evident. As this was also the first film to ever introduce colour, the transition between black and white and full colour within the same movie is all the more bedazzling.
A review I wrote for Semplesize on my friend’s band and their support acts.
Ursine, Chase City, Swim Season. Keep these names in your head and don’t forget them. This is indie rock at it’s best. With tunes that make you want to dance your heart out and with the performance energy of recently released tigers, these three emerging bands absolutely smashed it at The Workers Club.
Kicking off the night were the Ursine boys, homegrown from Tasmania and planning to relocate to Melbourne this year. Reminiscent of Two Door Cinema Club and a sunny day at the beach, these guys are a necessity for your iPod. Although the room wasn’t yet full as they began, this situation quickly changed as Ursine’s unique and catchy melodies drifted through the venue. Soon the place was full of heat due to all the dancing bodies. It was insanely obvious that Ursine really know how to set off a gig.
Chase City took to the stage next, another group of talented peeps all the way from Tassie. If any of the vibes in the room were lost after Ursine’s set finished, Chase City brought them right back as soon as they stepped on stage. Their original songs were ridiculously on-point, but the band’s rendition of The Wombat’s Jump Into The Fog sent everyone wild – and for good reason. The cover was flawless and electrifying.
And then along came Swim Season. These guys have been building up a name for themselves over the past few years and have really hit the mark. The Melbourne-based band delivered songs that made me feel like I should already know the words and created an atmosphere that made it impossible to leave. Literally everything you want in a band, Swim Season have it.
Be sure to check out where Ursine, Chase City and Swim Season are headed next and experience them for yourselves.
After reading Bordwell and Thompson’s chapter on experimental film form and watching the screenings, I realised that the avant-garde form is actually quite present in a lot of mainstream cinema today, just diluted. Imagery is the main means of conveying meaning within a film, if it wasn’t we might as well read a book or listen to the radio. The beauty of watching a movie is being able to understand concepts and narrative through pictures and repetitive symbols as well as the use of dialogue and words. However, where mainstream film often has an obvious storyline with relatable characters and a steady plot-line, experimental film is an intensely concentrated avenue of symbolism and ideas where one has to really search for links and patterns in order to make sense of what they are watching. Bordwell and Thompson mentioned that Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham had developed aspects of the avant-garde technique into music videos. Reading this made me think of a modern music video, “Bugatti” by Tiga that I had watched recently and really enjoyed. The video clip showcased a series of different repetitive images that alter in time to the beat and seemingly have no connection to one another, also reminiscent of Ballet Mecanique. After a while I began to detect a representation of the sixties era and upperclass status from the objects within the video clip. Similarly, once studying Ballet Mecanique more thoroughly, it becomes obvious that the film takes the idea of ‘ballet’ and applies it to mundane objects and movements.
Our current assignment in Media 1 is to produce a series of unedited media (recordings, photographs, video footage) that represent a self-portrait. RULE NUMBER ONE: No selfies. I have to create a self-portrait, but no… selfies. Halp meh pls. Anyway, so far I have one recording. It’s a really really bad recording of myself having a jam session in my room. Enjoy. (But like don’t really)
UNI IS VERY DIFFERENT TO HIGH SCHOOL. Luckily I’ve managed to make some cool friends and source free food on more than one occasion, but it still took me an entire week to realise that when people mention ‘blackboard’, they’re not talking about the kind you draw on with chalk. They’re talking about a nebulus ether where all of your curriculum and assignments and livelihood are stored. I literally refferred to it as “Chalkboard” during a tutorial the other day and everyone just looked at me like I had 3 heads. Never again.
I managed to successfully borrow a library book. That was rad.
We read an article today. Wow that was really vague, but I mean today, as in today being my first ever Media class. Anyway, the article discussed the different learning types regarding deep attention people and hyper-attention people. I found the link between psychological learning tendencies and media very interesting as I had never really thought about the connection between the two. It got me thinking about my own attention span and I realised that most of the time I prefer to focus on more than one thing at once. To me this feels productive and keeps things interesting. However, if I am thoroughly interested in a subject or activity, I can focus on the task alone without being distracted too. It had me pondering over the idea that we might actually be moving into a generation more prone to hyper-attention due to the increase of media and technology. I think this is could be a great thing, if education foundations begin to adjust their ways of teaching to suit the needs of the generation.
So I have all of my classes with this guys called Jac and now we’re like actually inseperable. He shall be my Media buddy and I shall call him Media Buddy.
