Month: April 2014

Film and TV Reflection Three

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Reasons why we shoot to edit:

The first reason why we shoot to edit is that it is far more practical than shooting from the start to finish of the film. Shots are better done at different times of the day or some scenes will need to shot in the same location, even though they are different stages of the film.

 

Another reason that we shoot to edit is so that we have more control over the elements of filming that are extremely variable. For example lighting. When shooting in long takes the slightest movement of the camera can completely change the lighting and therefore change the whole shot. Shooting to edit allows us to change the lighting as we go for each shot to check that it is appropriate and stable throughout the entire scene and, furthermore, the whole film.

We also shoot to edit is to aid the actors’ performances. By shooting multiple short clips, there is a bigger range to choose from; therefore the actor’s best performance can be chosen and the actors are not forced to deliver long-winded monologues over and over again.

Finally another reason we shoot to edit is so that the set can be rearranged as needed as each shot is taken.

essay

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Integrated Media One – Korsakow Film Essay
Gabrielle McLeod s3436472

The Korsakow film Bright Splinters, created in 2012 by Sunniva Moller, Michael Lincoln, Katrina Varey and Scott Huang uses the interactive documentary genre of filmmaking to portray to the audience certain meanings and ideas. Through the effective use of patterns and interface the content of the film is shown and received in a way in which the viewer can derive multiple meanings. This is the main idea of a Korsakow film and this film in particular engages these elements to great effect.

Bright Splinters allows the viewer to guide themselves through a series of clips of the city of Melbourne in what may appear to be a random pattern, however there is nothing random about this pattern at all. The creators have in fact crafted patterns through finding the relationship between each of the clips. Through connecting clips by there features as well as the meaning or feelings they portray, a complex pattern, with many variations which are created by the viewer yet still controlled by the creators, is formed. The connections between certain clips that stood out to me personally were:

Lights

Shots of the city

Water

And peace

This seemly unrelated ‘list’ (Bogost, 2012) of the clips are in fact somehow related to each other and it is the interface, and control of the viewer or user that allows these various outcomes of the pattern to be formed.

For the pattern of this film to truly be explored, the interface is vital. The interface, or what the film allows you, as a viewer or user, to do, is effective as it is simple for the viewer to use, yet ‘behind the scenes’ there is a complex web of words and relations between each clip causing the clips to appear. The film itself has an even and pleasant layout with the clip being viewed to the left of the screen and seven related thumbnails along the top and down the left hand side of the featured clip.

This layout provides the viewer with seven options to proceed to after the clip being viewed. The thumbnails are in black and white and when the curser is hovered over it, the video will start to play, still in the black and white thumbnail form. When the thumbnail is clicked on the clip appears in the center of attention, in clolour. Each clip has a life of two or three, so as the viewer delves deeper into the patterns and relationship between the clips, the options for you to pick get less and less, until eventually you cause the film to ‘die’, left with a clip playing with no other related clips left.

The use of clever patterns and relationships as well as an effective interface, allow the content, meaning a purpose of the film to be portrayed. Seeing as the film is a hyper textual interactive documentary, (Aston and Gaudenzi) there is scope for viewers to derive their own meaning from the content of the film. The filmmakers do not force their own ideas of what the film is ‘meant’ to say, rather they use their clips to make the audience discover their own meaning from their understanding of the content. Every viewer could find a different meaning from the content due to the fact no two viewers will have the same experience with the footage as there are so many varying patterns to be discovered. The content that I viewed personally portrayed to me the idea of the subtle beauty of Melbourne city that often goes unnoticed due to the busy and rushed nature of the people who live in it. The clips were calming and simple and highlighted areas of the city that have true beauty that I have never noticed before. The presence of an unassuming and peaceful song on loop heightens this sense of serenity and helps to connect the clips together.

The interactive documentary Bright Splinters is effective in its use of genre due to the fact the patterns, interface and content complement each other and allow the audience to engage with information and form meaning and understanding. This meaning and understanding is formed through establishing relationships not only between the clips themselves, but also between the clips and the viewer, therefore the viewers response is a very personal and individual thing. It is truly interesting the way in which the relationships between the clip and the viewer, and therefore the filmmaker and the viewer are formed.

Reference:

Bogost, 2012, Alien Phenomenology, What, or I It’s Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University Press of Minnesota Print

Aston, J and Gaudenzi, S, 2012 “Interactive Documentary: Setting the Field.” Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 p. 125–139

Places

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