Untold Stories | Week 12 Blog 

I learned a lot of new things throughout the studio, for instance, the techniques of interview, different documentary genres and their characteristics, the shooting and editing techniques, the importance of sound in documentary and how editing can help the filmmaker to shape the fact and make his own opinion stand out. In the final project of the audio tour, I incorporate new techniques of interview and sounds in it. I interviewed Peter and also people who passing by the Park. During the interviewing of women shelter, we meet a group of tourists, and we let them sit in the shelter, give them see the introduction video and let them reflect it. I think the process is quite interesting although it does not use in the final audio tour. It is also quite difficult to interview people just passing by the shelter, we have been refused a few times due to the time restriction. Therefore, I develop the skill of interview in this project. Further, I also understand the power of sound and how it can create a space and imagination in audiences’ head, brings them to the actual place when they heard the sound of water flows around their ear, allows them to enjoy and appreciate the environment. In this project, I practice the skill of recording sounds with H2N, discovering the possible sound that can be added in the background of the project. We recorded a lot of sounds that can be found in the museum, including the sound of the wind, water, bird, stepping, the old machine and so on. Moreover, I learned to make our project more engaging by adding reflective questions in each destination, I also develop the skill of researching and data organization. I think I did pretty well with the above skills and the participation of the project. However, I could have improved the technique of using audition to edit audio work. I also think I spend a lot of time on the project to do the researching and writing the script but I could think more about the other ideas that can improve the audio tour, including making audio, flyers and website.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 8 Blog 

Why are collaborative and collective documentaries necessary? 

According to the reading, “collaborative documentaries engage not only communities but collaborative teams, displacing the role of the auteur”, this allows people with different background, skills and life experiences come together and work as a team. I think it’s pretty important because having different skilled and experienced group members can contribute their own skills and give advice to the final project, which will definitely better than you work in your own direction. Differently, in Auteurist production, usually the filmmaker takes control of the documentary project, there is less possibility of trying a different angle and ways of presenting the documentary, thus, there are more restrictions. The reading also mentioned that collaborative documentaries have been marginalized in programming and exhibition, it is been showed that in the exhibition we usually only see the work of a single artist with a personal touch. This might because a single individual could maintain the focus of art pieces. However, through the term work experience at RMIT University, I think collaborative is necessary for media production. It is important to get everyone to involve in the project, to communicate and make a contribution. Collaborative can help to expend more ideas, help yourself develop technical skills from learning from each other and make the final project more perfect. Therefore, Collaborative is necessary for the project process.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 11 Blog 

This is already week 11, and we only got one more week to go before the due date of the last assignment. We have already finished most of the script and did a bit of recording in the recording studio this week.

Although we didn’t have any rough cut to show in week 11, we get feedback in week 9, in the presentation of the audio of Diphone’s return. We are told that the introduction of the place is a bit too long, and suggested to cut down a bit of the interview sections, thus, to create a more streamlined project. Further, in order to let the listener get involved in the project, we are asked to add a few reflective questions in the audio tour, which allows the listeners have personal reflections after hearing the community members reflect on the community spaces, add a sense of engaging to the experience. We have already added some reflective questions in our scripts and we also trying to reduce the interview sections to make the audio shorter and streamlined.

As a group, we planned to finish the recording of the script by next Monday and use the rest of the time to do the editing, collate production materials, do the website and flyer.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 10 Blog 

In the reading, it introduced the basic function of editing, simply a matter of “cutting out the bad parts”. For the normal film, it means to choose the footage that is technically strong and the better performance of the actors. However, in regard to the editing of the documentary, it’s more complex due to its high shooting ratios and huge raw material base. For instance, the shooting rate of the observational documentary Hospital (1970) is about 64:1, “Frederick Wiseman indicates that he shot at least ninety hours of footage on 16mmfilm stock, with a final running time of eighty-four minutes”. Therefore, an essential part of the editing process is to organize and assess materials, building an editing log is also a smart idea for the postproduction. The reading also talks about the responsibilities and relationship between editor and director. Director needs to be familiar with all the footage and collected materials for a project and the editor need to understand the director’s sensibility, approach and aims and to manifest these as well as possible, while also offering a fresh perspective and a second opinion. The director and editor should be on the same page and with a sense of the editing style for the project. The selected footages mainly depend on the story or the central question that the project wants to present.

In regard to our project, audio tour, we list all the destination we will introduce to the audience beforehand and in order to avoid making the audio tour too long, we also listed the estimated amount of time of each section of the script, thus, when we do research for interviews and archival footages, we can shorten content effectively, preparing for the postproduction. In terms of the collaboration, we are responsible for different parts of the destination, so we discussed what will include in each part of the script to make sure that each part will come together as one piece of work at final. Sammy does all the editing and the rest of us give opinions to the audio piece, thus, the editing style will be consistent.

Fox, B 2018, ‘Chapter 7: shaping reality: the post production process’, in Documentary Media: History, Theory, Practice, 2^nd edn, Routledge, pp. 213-250.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 9 Blog 

Recently, I have visited the Terracotta warriors & Cai Guo Qing exhibition at the NGV. The exhibition begins with porcelain birds hanging from the ceiling, which leads and accompany us throughout the viewing of the exhibition. I think the idea of using birds that be coloured grey and black by explosion take us through the exhibition is very engaging, it not only enhances the audience’s experience, makes the exhibition playful but also gives an idea of the gunpowder paintings that you gonna see later. The audio tour that can be borrowed before the exhibition allows me to have a deeper understanding about the idea behind the artwork, hear the explanation in your preferred language, which brings the audience closer to the artist and their artwork. The most impressed artwork to me is the explosion painting of flowers and a monumental installation of 10,000 suspended porcelain birds. The peony flower’s explosion painting uses a surrounding wall to reveal the colourful colour and painting of the peony in 360 degrees. The installation bird is very spectacular. It uses different lengths of the line to let the birds hang at different heights to create a continuous and endless stream of Chinese mountains pictures. When you stand in the middle of the birds, you will feel a strong visual impact. On the way you went out, there is still a short video showing the making processes of Cai Guo Qing making these artworks, drawing the shape and putting gunpowder on the paper, using paper covering it and then ignite it. Just like what Cai says at the seconds you ignite it, all you can do is pray, you will never know what the outcome is and that’s the charm of gunpowder painting. By showing the producing process, the audience may feel more appreciate about the artworks.

In the reading, I understand the importance of getting people engaging in the exhibition. For instance, in the example of Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed ‘uses a performative practice that builds through dialogue and speculative questions. Each project engages dialogue about contentious issues. It’s a way of getting people to think，respond and discussion to the project rather than only receiving information from the artist. In our final project audio tour, in order to encourage the audience to participate in the exchange, we will bring up some questions in the audio tour and get them to respond and bring up more questions. When they get back to the visitor centre, we can discuss these questions together and their feelings and experience of this tour.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 7 Blog 

Michelle Latimer’s documentary short Nuuca brings me into the peaceful nature of North Dakota straight away at the beginning of the film. You can hear the sound of birds, wind and the gently shaking sound of the grass, these sounds create a sense of place and create a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. I think this is the power of sound, it brings a richer sensory experience to the audience and makes them feel they are actually in the place, just like what Wayne Derrick says, “Images without sound- they end up with a feeling of being remote, because you don’t feel that you are there. The sense of being somewhere that is in the sound.” Latimer uses nature sounds, the peaceful background music and the voiceover of a girl that describing the beautiful nature emphasis the most primitive and beautiful nature of North Dakota. I’m quite impressed by the soundscape of the scene when an ant come out from the rock gap because the moving sound of the ant makes the image become vivid and really makes my eye focus on such small movement on the screen. After the train passing sound fade-in, the visual image turned a bit dark and the image starts has a lot of modern buildings and cars shown on the screen. At the same time, background sound becomes harsh, many factories, machine sounds are to be used. Through the comparison between nature sounds and industrial sound, Latimer identifying the local peaceful environment has been replaced by countless huge machines. The voiceover that describing her uncomfortable life experience also evokes a regret feeling towards the destroyed nature from the audience.

Click below to listen to the audio

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YeVvzLZiyuJrxHx15eujK2gY74WDsp0O/view?usp=sharing

In the audio exercise, I aim to restore the scene of a woman waiting for the train at the train station. In order to make the audio more trustworthy, I went to the Melbourne central station and use H2N to record the sound of women’s step, a train coming sound, the advertising in the train station and the train’s announcement. I also create a storyline that a woman arrives at the train station and while she waiting for the train, she makes a phone call, heard the announcement and the announcement, then the train came and the audio ends up when she gets on the train. I layered these sounds together and add the white noise of the train station, thus, create a noisy and busy atmosphere and make the audience feel they are actually in the train station.

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories: Assignment 2

Untold Stories | Week 4 Blog : 

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jenna/2019/08/19/untold-stories-blog-4/ 

Untold Stories | Week 5 Blog :

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jenna/2019/08/28/untold-stories-blog-post-6/

Untold Stories | Week 6 Blog 1: 

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jenna/2019/08/30/untold-stories-week-6-blog-1/

Untold Stories | Week 6 Blog 2 : 

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/jenna/2019/08/30/untold-stories-week-6-blog-2/

Assignment 2 google drive folder: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tvRpU0fYlffOLy1s3kbb17-x0Y1QLalB?usp=sharing

Thank you very much !

Untold Stories | Week 6 Blog 2

From the reading, it says the filmmakers should have the obligation to use the persuasive techniques in the right way, not mislead or distort established facts, manipulate chronology or causality. The reading outlines the difficulties of following the concrete code of ethics for documentary film-making, and also emphasis the responsibility of filmmaker. I like the definition that, ‘Documentary film is a rhetorical art… the documentarian’s concern is to win an audience’s assent, not serve as an “information transfer” device (p.155) ‘, I found it’s very similar with the essay film, documentary filmmakers should have their own perspective of the subject matter and make the audience to rethink deeply, retelling the true stories is useless. A documentary ethics need to protect the well-being of both film subjects and audience member, in the documentary, filmmakers need to build an trustable relationship between interviewees. However, most of time the filmmaker have more power than the subject matter, as a “dictator”, he just observes and records the fact and tell his own perspective in his own approach. In the documentary, Hoop Dream, the director Steve James took years to build trust with his subject matter, he was facing the ethic problem when he want to film the dark house of Arthur Agee’s family when they lost their electricity. Arthur’s mother wasn’t agree the embarrassing situation to be filmed and shown on screen, however, Steve persuaded the mother, and after the filming, he helped the family to pay the bill and get electricity back.  I think Steve shows the right way of building relationship with subject matter with respect and caring. It’s important to start question whether the documentary is authentic because there are too much information and opinions around us, we need to think and find the truth by ourselves instead of following others. In my projects, the ethical issue I might encounter is did not present others’ idea in the right way, distorted their meaning through editing, sometimes by mistake. In that way, I will say to be more careful and do more research before making film around the specific subject matter. 

Thank you very much!

Untold Stories | Week 6 Blog 1

CLICK BELOW TO SEE THE INTERVIEW:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5SFXc9-l-SmK8vnQlcd2k-PL5uENFOR/view?usp=sharing

In the class, I learnt a few basic interview techniques. Firstly, fully prepared before the interview, you need to get to know about your subject matter, prepare questions beforehand and avoid similar ones. Secondly, it’s important to make the interviewees feel comfortable while interviewing, which gives more real responses in result. To achieve this, you can select a familiar place of interviewee, such as the bedroom, you can ask them to do something while interviewing or change the shooting angle, for example, in Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, when the interviewee refuses to be shown in public, she focuses only on the interviewee’s hand to give the audience some detailed information about the interviewee’s emotion. When you interviewing people, it’s important to really listen well to the interviewee to respond with deeper question, similar questions need to be avoided. I think it’s the hardest part of the interview because it’s a challenge to quick thinking and reaction, it’s also the aspect I’m lacking. In this week’s interview exercise, we find a quiet space and set up the best frame position. In the edited 3 minutes interview, I want to discover the different visual images’ impact on the experiencing of audiences under the same voiceover. I adopts medium shots, close up shots and extremely close up shots slowly get closer to the face expression of the interviewee, thus, the audiences can feel closer to the interviewee and have a strong sense of substitution to the story she told. Later, I also use the shot of her legs, clothes, lights, leaves, in this way, audiences may get more focus on the words she telling and observe the emotional states of the interviewee through the details shots and the environment. 

Thank you very much !

Untold Stories | Week 5 Blog 

The essay film is a personal or critical reflection on a problem, instead of traditional factual report, it offers an objective personal reflective and perspective through author’s life experience, it may also response to a subject matter in different perspectives. There is no bounders in space and time to restrict the filmmaker in the production of essay film, filmmakers can use multi documentary techniques and moving between fiction and non-fiction. As Arthur declared in the article, “a quality shared by all film essays is the inscription of a blatant, self-searching authorial presence. ” It help me understand the importance of having a critical reflection towards subject matter in documentary film, not only for Essay film but for the documentary industry. The documentary image is never objective, a lot of documentary films seems like is telling the truth on the surface, but actually contains the perspective of filmmaker, like The Thin Blue Line, it state the factual events, revealing the social problem, and making people rethink. 

In the first essay film, The Gleaners and I, the filmmaker Agnes Varda start with stating the definition of gleaners, she participates in the film by putting herself in the camera of an actor, and as the voiceover to tell the story with multi perspective, which is quiet different with traditional documentary film. In the second one, I thought it’s quite interesting that the filmmaker replay the same visual imagery three time with different voiceover, showing the audience’s viewpoint and understanding towards subject matter can easily shaped by different narrative and description.  I think it’s very important that in our final assignment of the audio tour, we are not only retold the historical fact of each places but also give an personal reflection, for example, we can talk about the difference of living situation between past and present, the impact of the past events to recent society and how the society changes during years and so on. I think it can definitely enrich the audience’s experience of the audio tour of the Living Museum of the West. 

Thank you very much !