Category Archives: Reflection

Brief 3 Screening

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In Thursday’s Tutorial, we had a mini screening of everyone’s portraits. Once again I was taken aback by how different everyone’s work was even though we were all given the same brief. I think that says a lot about the range of creative people and ideas in our class.

The following are the notes I made on the portraits created by my group-members.

Ali:

  • Yellow: loved the opening and closing titles with the casual conversation and subtitles (looping back tied it all together too), 
  • Red: subtitles a signature for Ali’s work
  • Black: I didn’t always understand the connection to found footage (bright-coloured cartoon towards the end)

Gloria:

  • Yellow: Comedic, interesting connections between animals and subject (creative take on the concept of a portrait), subject’s actions and the filters on the shots matched up well with found footage clips
  • Red: felt a little sci-fi mixed with the wild
  • Green: could lower the opacity to see the shot of the animal and your friend at the same time
  • Black: the planes seemed out of place amongst everything else (have subject mention this in the interview/voiceover to make it clear)

Jack:

  • Yellow: there was a great integration of original and found footage, pacing was good
  • Red: the black and white film created a very personal atmosphere, felt closeness to the subject
  • Black: music volume was a bit too high, so sometimes it was hard to hear the speaking

I’m also really thankful to my group for the feedback I received, both good and bad, because it gave me a clearer look at how my work was received, which I could then compare to my goals for the project.

  • Yellow: found images focused on what the subject was talking about, sled footage was dark (symbolically representative of the traumatic experience), colour balance was good (not too harsh or cold), sound levels edited well, subject looked natural in the shots (not like she was trying hard to avoid looking at the camera), cuts between handheld and tripod cameras worked well
  • Green: show more about subject’s interests and hobbies (mixed opinions: another group member said they liked how everything was cut down and stripped away to something bare – ons story)

On a final note, I also particularly enjoyed Daniel’s portrait of his younger brother. The vibe of the video was very aspirational and the closeness between Daniel and his subject was evident in his brother’s demeanour, which is so important. The content was interesting listening to his brother talking about his dreams of becoming a music producer, and the video was edited together well.

 

Semiotics!

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This week’s lectorial was all about semiotics, which I find fascinating. I think idea that every action or utterance holds a particular significance is so clever, and I have great respect for those who manage to infuse numerous layers of encoded meaning into their work. I can view these works over and over and continue to find new ways to interpret them, which I really appreciate.

Semiotics is a system made up of signs, signifiers and the associated signified. The main purpose is to encourage people to think about how particular elements work together to produce a whole, and this starts even from the smallest of creative decisions. Essentially, semiotics is a method of analysis that delves into the creative decisions encoded in specific works and how these decisions deliver (or fail to deliver) intended meanings (sometimes a number of meanings).

Brian explained in the lectorial that to study semiotics, we need to understand the following terms:

  • Sign: a core element of the text/creation
  • Signifier: a mark of this element (e.g. words, sound, etc.)
  • Signified: (subconscious) reactions and connections to signifier
  • Denotation: first order meaning (objective, simply what is there)
  • Connotation: second order meaning (subjective, connections we make (varies from person to person and may be affected by culture, experience, etc.)

Acclaimed semiotician Roland Barthes was incredibly influential in this field, even developing his own terminologies for breaking down creative works – the studium (that which is constructed with technical skill to generate audiences’ interest) and the punctum (the inexpressible quality that certain media works possess; the element that strikes the viewer immediately and captivates him or her). To me, this concept puts into words something that I had experienced but never understood when I interacted with different media. In particular, I find it a very useful ideological construct for explaining why some advertisements affect me, why certain photographs stay ingrained in my mind and why some media pieces just make me want to pay attention.

Semiotic deconstruction is applicable to all media everywhere we look, at some level. I know that I will be walking around with these ideas in the back of my head for a long time to come.

Note: this lecture’s focus on textual analysis formed part of the basis for my group’s work on Project Brief 4

Backpacking and Other Traumas – Project Brief 3

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I chose my best friend Lucy as my subject for this brief and I knew immediately that I wanted to focus on her sense of humour. After brainstorming ideas, I decided to interview her about our recent backpacking trip because I knew that not only would it provide funny material, but it was an important experience for Lucy (and myself) in becoming independent. I believe the most successful aspect of this portrait is that I was able to capture and produce a snapshot of Lucy as she is now.

I attempted to change the colour balance in each of the clips so that they all matched. I think this is one of the problematic aspects of the work, as there was only so much altering I could do with my limited editing experience. If I could redo the project, I would also film a wider range of shots of Lucy in her surroundings, as this would have given me more to work with as I was editing.

I learnt a lot during both the filming and editing processes, from how to operate a Sony MC50 camera to working with multiple devices simultaneously, asking questions to gain useable responses and incorporating appropriate found footage. The most useful discovery I made in terms of producing a media portrait is that an anecdote can provide deep insight into a subject’s personality, not only through the story they tell but also the way they tell it, their body language and the spin they put on different situations. More importantly, it’s my job to tease that story out. This was how I managed to portray Lucy’s humour, and it was a particularly useful approach for working within the strict time constraints of the brief.

In relation to broader applications of my discoveries, I think I’ve taken steps in the right direction developing my editing skills. With every brief, I discover new tools, such as overlapping two videos and adjusting opacity. Watching other people’s work also gives me inspiration for different skills I could learn and then apply, in a different context, to my own work.

Collaboration

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In our week 6 lectorial, we talked about the characteristics of positive collaborative experiences, reflecting back on good and bad experiences from the past and thinking about the upcoming group project brief.

My experiences:

  • Good – I collaborated with two people whom I knew were hard workers. We were able to bounce ideas off each other, which helped us to think more deeply about the topic and in turn gain a more well-rounded knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.
  • Bad – I recently worked with a group of 3 others, one of whom did not contribute to or communicate with the group. This meant that the rest of the group (myself included) had to complete more than our fair share of the work.

The characteristics identified in the lectorial as making up positive collaborations are:

  • Consistency – making sure work is of a high standard and that as a group member you are reliable
  • Respect – communicate with others, especially if unable to attend a group meeting or complete a task by an agreed deadline, not wasting others’ time
  • Support – looking out for other members of the group and helping them where necessary
  • Responsibility – each person has their own tasks that others trust them to complete well and in a timely manner
  • Equitability – everyone shares the workload

Being upfront with group members is very important so that everyone knows where they stand and what they intend to get out of the assignment; this forms the groundwork for everything. It helps to map out where your group hopes to go with the project and outline practically how you will work towards this, assigning responsibilities to each group member. Key is having resolution procedures so that if anything happens, it is clear how the group will deal with the situation and proceed.

The Things I’ve Yet to Learn

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Playing my self portrait for the class today was very intimidating for me. I love receiving feedback on my work but always get nervous presenting to people, and especially in this instance because the work was very personal. On the other hand, I was proud of my work and it was great to hear what other people thought about it and interpreted it to be. I also loved watching other people’s self portraits because every aspect of the work said a lot about the person and there was so much variation from video to video.

There were a few portraits that really stood out to me and sparked ideas for my future work as well as making me think about new skills that I could work on developing.

Lucas:

  • Filming and editing were thoughtful and seamless
  • Told a story – clips gradually grew shorter and shorter, then snapped back to slower cuts to create a sense of calm after the ‘chaos’
  • Contrast between black & white and colour using split-screen – put a lot into 60 seconds
  • Words jumped around on the screen and changed fonts – almost looked animated

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 1.55.57 pm

Patrick:

  • Editing – I want to learn how to have a black screen that reveals a video behind as words show up on the screen
  • Layered two videos over each other (filters and semi-transparent)

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 1.53.04 pm

Rob:

  • Interesting use of colours, blur, layering
  • Managed the switches in aspect-ratio well
  • Use of repetition tied everything together well (e.g. video > photo > back to different segment of same video)
  • Red hat: dark, mysterious

 

This is Me: An Edited Self Portrait

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The concept behind my self portrait was to demonstrate the different environments, people and experiences that have shaped who I am. I wanted to illuminate numerous aspects of my personality by creating a juxtaposition representative of how people may perceive me on the surface and how I see myself. During the editing stage I realised that a couple of my media creations didn’t portray ‘me’ in an effective way, so the process itself fuelled my creativity.

Each of my images is connected, as they all give me a sense of “home” when I look at them. My sound recordings are quite varied – city noises representing my adjustment to Melbourne culture, me singing an original song both because I love to sing and because the lyrics resonate with where I am in my life now, and nature sounds because being outside and closing your eyes, you can feel at home anywhere in the world.

My first video shows where I have come from (Shanghai) and where I am now (college in Melbourne). The video of my sister sitting in my Grandma’s dining room writing a Chinese character brings together my family and my life experience. In the walking video I am on my way to college so this is symbolic of my new life. The reversed video of me drawing over my scars is supposed to illustrate that I like to be creative and have fun, but that when this is stripped away I am also strong (I think this video in particular is the most successful part of my work).

Editing these elements together gave me a sense of piecing together different parts of ‘me’. I wanted to create an abstract representation completely undefined in terms of time, so I mostly used blur and cross dissolves to build seamless transitions and create a fluid effect throughout the video. I think the least successful part of my work is the opening title, as it doesn’t completely connect with the rest of the elements in my video. For future projects I also want to work on my soundtrack layering skills.

Self Portrait Feedback Session

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In our tutorials this week, we presented our self portraits to a small group of people, who then critiqued our work using four Edward de Bono’s thinking hats from his Six Hat system.

We utilised:

– Yellow hat, characterised by positive and optimistic thoughts (highlighting what worked well)

– Red hat, which relies on gut reaction and telling the creator your initial feelings

– Black hat, pertaining to things that aren’t quite working (presented in a constructive way)

– Green hat, which offers alternatives and creative ideas.

For each person in my group, I offered my thoughts from the yellow hat perspective.

Gloria:

Concept – create a collection of media that portray her personality, through what is seen in images/videos but also the composition of each element.

1. Audio: layering of music and sound effects gave listener a sense of being in the room with her – clear she was studying whilst other things were going on around her

2. Text: published her words so they were set out in the shape of a person – added another dimension to the words as we read them and says that little bit extra

3. Included both abstract and realistic pieces of media to give a fuller picture of her personality and the reality of her life

 Maggie:

Concept – (parody) “I’m not that complex a person. I took the idea of a person making a movie of my life that really wouldn’t be that interesting.” She explored production elements of this film as her self portrait.

1. SO CREATIVE. The vision for the self portrait flowed through every element – the concept said more about her personality than each specific element did and this is hard to do.

2. Text: (cover of a film script) perfect jumping off point tying all other elements together, funny, said more than just what was written on the page – gave context to the work

3. Audio: Maggie winning an Oscar for her work – demonstrated her aspirations, not only what she is like now

 Daniel:

Concept – demonstrate multiple sides of his personality to show as much of himself as possible. In a sense, he portrayed himself as an outsider looking into his life at the same time as the audience.

1. Photograph: one image presented a metaphor for his personality rather than anything directly connected to his life – interesting concept

2. Video: filming his music editing felt like we were finally getting inside his mind and his world – contrasted anonymity running through the rest of the work nicely

3. Audio: even gave the clip a name – “Joke Time With Daniel,” laughed at his own jokes – perfectly demonstrated a sense of humour

Each person in my group had their own unique approach to the task, which I found quite interesting. I also discovered that everyone was willing to share a different level of their personal life and of who they think they are. As we were presenting we often apologised for our work, like we were embarrassed to show what we had done, but then we all presented something that was praised by the other members of our group. I think what I’ll take from this is that the fact that we need to own our ideas and be proud of our own unique interpretations of each Project Brief.

“Blood in the Gutter”

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“All of us perceive the world as a whole through the experience of our senses, yet our senses can only reveal a world that is fragmented and incomplete.”

I found the whole concept behind this reading, as well as its presentation as a comic, incredibly creative and thought-provoking. I had never thought about the associations that form subconsciously in audience’s minds when they view edited media or read comics. I’d simply thought about the stories told and the techniques I could see. I think the most interesting part about “Blood in the Gutter” was the theme that “elements omitted from a work of art are as much a part of that work as those included.” As was explained in the reading, in comics, this was the space between the frames, and in edited media it was in the cuts and in thinking about everything that was happening outside the view of the camera. This is especially important in thinking about what to show in edited media (visible), and what to imply (invisible), because both aspects play a key role in the interpretation of meaning by audiences.

Some other techniques mentioned in the reading – particularly fragmentation and rhythm – made me think about my own editing and how the consideration and incorporation of these techniques into my work could be the factor that draws a project together or gives it a particular charm. Finally, this reading taught me that the “phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole has a name; closure.”

I find the whole idea of gaining meaning from ” the gutter,” or the space between the panels to be such an incredible process. I’m excited to learn more about how specific editing choices produce certain effects, particularly through my own editing successes and failures throughout the course.

“Noticing” – Week 2 Lectorial Task

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Up High
  • Chiming clock

  • Fitness First & Hoyts branding
  • Hanging LED screen rotating still and video advertisements for different brands
  • Lit up screens with digital artwork
  • Signs with train departure times
  • Signs pointing to food outlets, e.g. Hungry Jacks
On the Ground
  • Shop opening hours
  • People texting & carrying branded shopping bags (another form of advertising)
  • Mini screens at the cinema playing trailers and actor interviews for current showing movies
  • Larger screens with short video advertisements
  • Artwork – painting of a woman with wild hair; hand-painted Nike advertisement
  • Banner with brand information and a QR code to scan for more information
  • Warning signs on escalators – required for safety purposes
Mid-Ground
  • Stores: Coconut Revolution, Batsanis, Jolie & Deen, Peter Alexander, Mimco, etc.
  • Posters around large poles advertising different bands’ new albums and tour dates, a comedy show, etc.

  • Branding on people’s handbags and backpacks
Background
  • Directory signs (what’s on this floor)
  • Background music playing in some shops
  • Galaxy Note, Virgin advertisements on screens dotted around Melbourne Central
  • Movie rental machine
Foreground
  • Witchery Man: mid-season sale poster in shop window

  • Personal shopping link (melbournecentral.com.au)
  • ‘Filling the Mould’ installation #fillingthemould

In Your Hand
  • Taking photos and videos of the media I saw – iPhone/iPad
During this exercise, I thought about the obvious and the more subtle ways the media creeps into our daily lives. The more I looked around Melbourne Central, I noticed some form of media in every corner, in a range of different forms. I realised that there were some things I noticed straight away, and others that took a minute to consciously register in my mind. This is a fairly clear and simple demonstration of the three levels of noticing. I usually walk past signs and advertisements without thinking twice, but in this instance I purposely sat down, thought about, discussed with my group and made note of my surroundings.

Our First Media One Tutorial

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I worked on setting up my new blog today in my first tutorial. It’s still very new but I’m looking forward to using all the available features to document my progression through this course.

It was nice to finally be in a more relaxed setting and to talk to others in the Media course about their interests and what areas they hope to work in after finishing their degrees. A lot of people seem very interested in film, which is different from my main interest (written communication) so I hope I can learn from them this semester and beyond. I also think that the diversity in our class will motivate us all to think in new ways and expose us to techniques and functions of media we had not previously considered.

After we were given the first project brief, I started thinking about how I could best represent myself through different forms of media. I am currently brainstorming the most important aspects of my life and how I can creatively depict my personality.

I have also been thinking a lot about the recent changes in my life and how these changes have affected the way I will approach this task. For example, I moved back to Australia from Shanghai – the place I refer to as my “home” – only two weeks ago, so my aim is to portray how my experience living overseas influenced my life. I’d like to have this theme running through a few of the media components in my work as influenced my upbringing, my beliefs and my understanding of the world.