Week_4 Research and Reflection

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Koston

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene, also known as ‘the plastic of the image’, is a filmic technique which includes setting, lighting, costume and makeup, staging and performance, and finally, the framing of the shot that give us its composition. In original French, Mise-en-scene literately means ‘putting into the scene’. This notion briefly explains that filmmaker choose what to be shown in the scene.

According to Andre Bazin, the essence of mise-en-scene is depth of field and long take. These attracted Bazin for two essential reason:

1. It maintained the unity of space and the relationship between the objects within the space.

2. It gave the spectator, according to Bazin, the freedom to direct his/her own control over the viewing process, including what to look at it, in what order, for how long, and to to make their own synthesis of viewing process. Together they maintain ambiguity – the existential ambiguity present all around our life – of that space.

Montage

Montage is the creation of a sense or meaning not objectively contained in the image themselves but derived exclusively from their juxtaposition.

Also, Andre Bazin describes editing as a ‘series of either logical or subjective points of view of an event.’ Dealing with sound films, Bazin lists three motives for cutting:

1. As a purely logical descriptive analysis of the narrative.

2.As a psychological analysis from a character’s point of view

3.As a psychological analysis from audience’s point of view.

Bazin, however, opposes classical and expressive editing on the following counts. His statements refers montage style as ‘Trickery’. Bazin consider the psychological cutting within a scene does not add anything to the intent of the scene. If the scene has only one simple meaning why insult the audience’s intelligence with needless and obvious close-ups? Contrarily, if the scene is complex why presuppose only one meaning?The meaning is not in the image, it is in the shadow of the image projected by montage onto the field of consciousness of the spectator. In Bazin’s point of view, the expressive cutting removes the freedom on the part of the spectator to select for him or herself and removes whatever existential ambiguity may be present in the scene.

Decoupage

The French term, decoupage, has no English equivalent. Its literary definition is “to cut”, but is better described as construct in filmic language.

Noel Burch, in Theory of Film Practice, defines the three terms for which decoupage is interchangeably used for as: 1) The final form of a script replete with the required technical information. 2) The practical breakdown of the film’s construction into separate shots/sequences prior to filming & 3) The underlying structure of the finished film, which has probably deviated from the original “decoupage.”

Week 3_Reflection: What is shown?

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Koston

Onscreen, what is shown?

Our single scene practise was reviewed on this Friday morning. Well, obviously, there were many things that were worth to reflect.

First of all, most of us had a misunderstanding of the use of shot while we were filming the single scene. We like to start our scene with an establishing shot because we thought establishing shot represent a beginning. However, we hadn’t understood the specific function of establishing shot. Establishing shot means Start, the notion of this is absolutely right. But it is dependent on the narrative.

Robin suggested, Single scene is a fragment from a bigger part of a film rather than a whole film. So we really don’t need to start with an establishing shot while doing this scene. More importantly, we should focus on what we really need to show onscreen.

Either a long wide shot or a close-up shot as a starting, the substance is what we want to show. Framing is only a approach in order for illustrating a content. In photography, we can see different photographers who are taking pictures in many different way. For example, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bruce Gilden are both photo-journalists, but their ideas of photo are dissimilar. Bruce Gilden is crazy for taking photo in front of his subject within one or two metres. Cartier-Bresson, on the other hand, like to keep some distance from his subject by using a longer shot. In Gilden’s pictures, we are able to know subjects’ stories from their facial expression. Cartier-Bresson prefers to emphasise the relationship between subject and environment.

(Henri Cartier-Bresson)

(Bruce Gilden)

So what I am trying to say is content is more important than framing. In visual language, content decides frame.

Working the scene: Media 5_Week 2 Reflection

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Koston

When we are about to film, at what kind of point we should start?

How do we work in the scene?

In Wednesday’s class, Robins tells us about the order of shot during operating to shoot. As all we has known, most of filmmakers, professionals or amateurs, would see an establishing as the first thing should be done of a scene. Why? What is the reason for that? There are a number of reasons we got after we have discussed in class.

Warm-Up Performers.

Everything should not be hurried. So does filming and acting. Establishing shot could give them space for a warm-up performing. At the beginning of filming, actors are not in their best shape. So we need to give them some time to get into it. Before they starting to perform one or two meters in front the camera, they could turn themselves to the right channel in an establishing shot.

Coverage, another important thing to notice

The main reason to put establishing shot at the top list is because of the coverage. An establishing is able to cover everything of a scene. At the very beginning of your process, you have gotten the thing you want and you do not have worry about what would happen at the next moment. Once you get it, you won’t lose it. Otherwise, you do not make an establishing shot of a scene, you put everything into unsure. Robin gave a good example that when you have done all the stuffs except for the establishing shot and your actor are dead. How do you establish your scene?

Get Start: Media 5_Week 1 Reflection

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Koston

Woooh! New semester, fresh and exciting!

Well, reflective writing again….

Let me talk about what I have learnt in the first class of Media 5. First day class, we started to shoot with a camera and a tripod to create a short scene. This assessment requires us to use a single shot to cover a fictional story through the lens (Techniques: Panning and Titling Only).

Well, this story is about three people are in trouble with a tension. Henry is the boss of a business company. Maria (maybe this is a wrong name, sorry I’m really bad at names), Henry’s wife, is kind of worried. Steve, an assistance, is being panic for the situation.

When I got this task and read the provided story, the first thing came into my mind was mise-en-scene (putting everything into the scene). Because of the technique requirement, I consider the position of characters is able to reveal the relationship of among them. For example, how do I tell audience that Henry and Maria are a couple on screen? I think a position can easily provide these information. Another good example shown on Friday’s lecture was one of those shots in a film called ‘Margaret (2011)’. As we clearly see here, the relationship of the actor and the actress is built because of their position. A long shot includes the actor on the foreground, and a bus door is kind of a ‘frame in the frame’ to pick out the actress on the background. I think how you compose the shot really affect how audience would think it about.

And the last thing I want to add, which I just realise, is composition. The position of characters actually is composition of the frame, I think. Therefore, in a single shot, a good composition would give a easy way to audience to receive the information onscreen.

Analysis and Reflection #5

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Koston

Question #1

As per lecture – in a sequence you’ve called ‘colour’ you will have clips that are indicative of a particular colour or lighting state. To the right of that clip you will have that same clip repeated 2 or more times with different colour grades on it.

Take screen grabs of each clip then upload to your blog the series of stills that show us ‘before and afters’ of your colour grading. Provide a few different examples of at least two different clips – each with a description of what you did to the clip and why.

This is a learning exercise, not necessarily a qualitative one, don’t stress – it is the act of doing it and the reflection on that, that is important

Example #1

Before

After

In the first example, The sky is a little bit over-exposed so I’ve used the three-way colour correcting to tune the highlight section to blue. The sky looks more natural than before.

Example #2

Before

After

The second example has a good exposition. You can clearly see everything. I just did a little bit adjust in this clip. I think red is the dominant colour in this picture. I’ve added more red colour because I want to emphasise the atmosphere.

Question #2

“In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. You may rethink this dramatically – this is a good thing.”

You were asked this at the beginning of the semester. Now, could you review constructively what you got from this semester – has the course lived up to your expectations, delivered what you expected, maybe even surpassed it?

Throughout the semester, I’ve been learning how to make a documentary production. Obviously, documentary filmmaking is different from a production of fiction film that I did in semester one.

At the beginning of this semester, my initial idea is Australian Born Chinese but we have changed to graffiti at the middle of the semester. The issue is my group mates and I spent too much time in researching about ABC.We didn’t have a signifiant process in our production because we didn’t go out to shoot. Paul suggests us that we should shoot something on street rather than focusing on the research. After we changed the topic, we decide to discover. We went to Union Lane where is famous for graffiti creation and we started to shoot the street art. At the beginning, we cannot find a clear direction for our project until we went a suburb where is filled with massive illegal graffiti painting on some abandoned trains. We found that atmosphere is the concept in our documentary. There are two dissimilar atmospheres between city and suburbs, even though, the graffiti is created in both place. In the Melbourne city, graffiti pairing becomes a popular and legal culture for artists creations. Many tourists come to see their aircrafts and admire their talents. However, on the other hand, we cannot see anyone to visit the painted and abandoned trains. That place is gloomy. Now, our documentary not only talk about graffiti but also the ambience about the space. More importantly, we know what we want to shoot and how to capture the stuffs.

Analysis and Reflection #4

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Koston

Question 01 In this clip from Forbidden Lies, Anna Broinowski’s 2007 film: describe in detail all of the audio, how it may have been recorded/sourced and how you think it has been edited / layered in post. (You do not need to describe how the music was recorded)

The audios in this clip are from three different persons, the author, the Jordan journalist and Dr. Sabbagh. The audio is recorded in different way. Some audio files may have been recorded in another time and place. The filmmaker select one useful audio file from other clips to match a sequence. For example, the audio of the journalist introducing herself is not as same as when she speak in her office.

Interestingly, Broinowski creates an reflexive argument among three person. Her strategy is to make a debates with their audio but they do not debate face to face. She let one person question first and she cut to another person’s audio to answer it. But this is not the only way Broinowski creating the argument. Sometimes, we can hear two individuals speaking the same thing and these audio file are layered together. This device strongly intense the debate because it hear like two person really argue withe each other. In this way, Broinowski not only has to know what interviewers say but also she direct what interviewers say. Otherwise, she cannot achieve the debate and the layered device.

QUESTION 02 Most applications reserve keyboard shortcuts for the functions that you use most often. It is really good to learn all of these as it will speed up your editing and additionally alert you to functions that the software developers and other users find important. (You can learn much about the software by looking at keyboard shortcuts).

Find the keyboard shortcuts for Premiere (hint, film-tv blog) and note four or more functions that you’ve never used before and why they may be invaluable to your editing. (Different functions to what you wrote last semester)

Go to In: Shift+I; Go to out: Shift+O; Match Frame: F;

Make Subclip: Cmd+K; Link Clip: Cmd+L

QUESTION 03 “From a distant gaze …” (1964) directed by Jean Ravel, picture Pierre Lhomme & Chris Marker, words by Louis Aragon, narrated by Jean Negroni, music by Michel Legrand.

Describe a few things that intrigue you – it might be shot construction, camera work, editing, overall structure, thematic concerns etc. Describe the camera work and why you think it has been shot that way.

Throughout this film, Jean Ravel use a long-focal length device all the time. The major reason is the theme of his documentary “From A Distant Gaze…” Apparently, He tried to capture people’s emotions, expressions, and behaviour in a very distant place where people hardly realised him.

To capture people’s naturalness, Ravel had to be reflexive when he was shooting. He was not a observer who simply stood far away people with a camera. Ravel has to find a way of telling a story because audience have no idea what Ravel was doing in a crowded city. In one shot, a police is billing a violating car. When Ravel found the police is ready to make a bill, he turn the camera to license plate immediately.

Ravel cleverly used cars as his cut in the opening shot. When a car is passing through the frame, he cut to another frame. Although audience would realise a cut in the film, this device is not “wired” but is a brilliant editing strategy.

QUESTION 04 Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that interest you, something you could apply to your own documentary.

In a chapter of Curran Bernard’s book, Manipulating Time, he reveals that time is an important element to move forward a story. A documentary never success without developing through time. However, moving a story forward through time does not mean narrative must follow a chronological recitation events in the order they occurred.Bernard suggests you can absolutely tell a story in any order you like. How to tell a story is dependent on a filmmaker’s perspective. Whether your story start at the beginning, in the middle or at the end is all on what do you want to say. Creative manipulating time could lead to a dramatic storytelling.

There are two concept about time in filmmaking, screen time and real time. The screen time is about the duration of a film and the real time refers the duration of an event. Bernard reveals a filmmaker is able to spend 2 minutes in telling 10 years of history meanwhile he also can use 45 minutes to describe an eight months event. The choice of collapsing or expanding time depends on what the concept of a documentary.

Analysis Reflection #3

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Koston

QUESTION #1

Paste the link here from your version of the abstract editing exercise.

Then reflect on the whole process – Consider: the quality and usability of your recordings; the effect of layering and juxtaposition of both the audio and the video and; the things you learnt from working with this kind of audio and video.

In this abstract execrise, Many footages are very useful so I can easily combine them together. I filmed some footages on a tripod due to the shakeness issue. The tripod can scure a good quality and usebility of my pictures.

Most of my footages are close-up shot because my concept is what people get from the text of adversting posters? You can see the extreme close-up on a figure’s eyes, mouth, and hands. I think the symbolic signs represents some specific things. Those signs guide people to think. Therefore, I want to look closely. This is the reason that I decide to use close up shot to emphasize the texts.

According to my idea, I realize my choices of audio should relate to people when I am editing. Therefore, I try the sound about human activities such as the footstep, the crowded, the tram and the traffic light alarm. The audio and video perfectly fit into each other.

It is very interesting that when you combine two completely different things together, the result is always suprised. How to use the audio is very important. Although the video give most visual information, the use of audio lead to the atmosphere of the video. Perhaps, I use another type of sound like clapping or laugther instead of footsteps, the result is totally another version. This is what I’ve got from this execrise.

QUESTION #2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you. (Please put a full stop when you return so we get a paragraph break. Makes it easier to read.)

I’m very interesting in the readings by Rabiger, Directing the Documentary. In the chapter, Research Leading Up To The Shoot, Rabiger reveals his finding of “The Dramatic Curve”. He claims that how the filmmakers tell their stories with the concept of the dramatic curve. It is originally derived from the Greek drama and represents how most stories first states their problem, develop tension through scenes of increasing complication and intensity, then arrive at an apex or “crisis”. After the climax comes change and resolution.

Rabiger generally summerizes the dramatic curve as five steps in telling a story.

1. The expostiion

To lay out the main character and their siutation is the first step. The story teller has to give enough inforamtion of the time, place and period, etc.

2.The incling moment

To create a conflict, a story needs two different sides people with opposite interets. Therefore, the second step is to reveal the oppostie interets against the main characters. In other words, the filmmaker is able to bring out the problem in the early of his film and solve it out later.

3.Rising action and complication

Producing the complication usually means the conflict being played out as variations having surprise, suspense and escalating intensity. The filmmaker make two different sides people confront each other to build up the tensions. All these steps are to generate the final climax.

4 The final confrontation

The final climax in a film. This moment is the most intensive situation when two different sides of interests finally come into each other.

5 Change and Resolution

After the climax, the filmmakers gives the answers of the final confrontation. It is always the ending of a story.

Film/TV_2 Analysis Reflection #2

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Koston

Question_1

I’m very impressed by the landscape shot in ‘End of The Line’. The landscape is not only a great establishing shot but also emphasise the major feature of ‘Broken Hill’, the loneliness. In this landscape, we can only see a small town which is surrounded by a desert. I remember the film starts with this landscape shot and it finishes with the same shot at the end of the film. Perhaps, the filmmaker considers that he is a tourist to visit this mysterious small town, therefore, he generates the natural view of the Broken Hill to say “I’m here.”

The second thing is the interviews. The filmmaker prefers the informal interview and he just grab random people to interview in the town, mostly because of the reality. I think the filmmakers wants to illustrate the reality of the Broken Hill people. The formal interview may destroy their innocence. In one scene, the filmmaker interviews three guys at dark night, they seem to be shy and they do not really know what to say in front of the camera. Sometimes they just awkwardly laugh to each other because they don’t expect to be interviewed by someone from outside the Broken Hill. The pursuit of people’s innocence is greatly emphasised in this scene.

——————————————————————————————————

For the following project in the future, I would like to be a DOP, an editor or a sound operator. I’m very interested in cinematography and I like to hold a camera to shoot something. Also, editing is always my favour part in any projects because I can create something in the post. Finally, I’m not familiar with sound, not as good as editing. So it would be a great challenge for me.

Question_2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

In Bernard’s readings, I found something very useful for me. According to Bernard, the story is always revealing so the filmmaker can receive the new findings when they are documenting the story. In the documentary-making process, the filmmaker cannot just simply record the materials without thinking because the story must have a focal point or a theme. The filmmaker get to explore in the story in whatever way. For example, ‘Daughter From Danang’ is a successful documentary. The filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco had a great exploration about the main characters Heidi Bub and the birth mother. However, they didn’t know the story of the film was great until they started to film it in Vietnam. Before reaching in Vietnam, they could only anticipate this story was only a happy reunion of a family. They didn’t know what was going to happen and they only went with their concept.

Another interesting thing for me is the access. Bernard considers filming with the subject needs an access,. The access not only represent a established relationship between you and the subjects but also secure the trust with people who can grant it. When you are exploring your the story, you need to consider “Can you get inside your character’s story?” or “where is the deadline that you cannot step over?” Your shooting has to be granted by the subject in order to they know what will be shown in the film.

FILM/TV_2 Analysis and Reflection #1

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Koston

QUESTION #2
In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. Many will rethink this dramatically by the end of the course – this is a good thing.

With a good experience in Film/TV 1, I’m heading in Film/TV 2 in the second semester of this year. I’m very interested in documentary making after I had the documentary course “True Lies”. In this semester, I feel great because I have an opportunity to make a documentary. I think documentary is another challenge for me because I don’t have any experience in documentary production. So I’m looking forward to learning everything about documentary making. I consider the hardest thing in filmmaking is telling the story on pictures. Perhaps, you could make a good story on paper. However, it is very hard to tell on images. Personally, I will try my best to make people understand what we are talking about. This is basically my goal in this semester.

QUESTION #3

In this week’s lecture, scenes from Scott Ruo’s ‘Four Images’, Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ and Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’ were screened. Choose one of these, and consider, in a single paragraph, what might have intrigued, interested, displeased or repelled you.

‘Drinking for England’ is an interesting pictures, especially the part of singing. This part illustrates how the English spend time on local pub. I consider Drinking and smoking are not negative for them because those are their culture. They are born and raised in this culture.

QUESTION #4

Listen to the first 10 minutes of Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, “The Idea of North”.

I’m not too sure the concept of ‘The Idea of North’ which consist of different interviews. Different interviews are often dissolving to each other, sometimes overlapped. I guess the documentary maker wanna outline the idea of lost about the North. So Gould investigate ways in which he place two or three interviews in the same time-line to confused people.

QUESTION #5

I heard a number of clips by Arthur. His recordings are mostly ambient sound like cars, birds on tree, crowd sound. I guess one of clip was recorded near the basketball court.

When I operate the sound recording machine I hear completely different sound. I cannot hear this kind of sound by my ears. The impressive moment is standing in the middle of street with the mic, you can hear the people’s voice passing by you.

The End – Film/TV 1

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Koston

Screenshot 2014-06-12 00.07.32

Question 1

Milk was my favourite film of the screening night. It was a simple and interesting story in which a man was desperate to get a milk from the store where closed at one. The music was so effective to build up the ambiences. It was funny and exciting when you saw the Indian kid running on the street in a exaggerate way. I really like the scene that the main character was kicking his scooter. A close shot was revealing that he was desperately kicking on and he seems to be very fast. However, the film was cut to a long shot that he was actually slower than a man who can run pass him. The film was great, I really like the humour.

The Hole was my another favourite one. This film was with black and white effect all the time except for the ending. I was very enjoyed this film because it looks like an old time film. The Hole was another humour that was different from Milk. The main character thought it was funny to see people falling into the hole. The editing was effective so I can understand the story. The shots were answering to each other. For example, the first shot was about different people falling into the hole and the next shot would be the main character’s reaction. It wouldn’t be very funny the only one shot that people fell. However, it was a lol when we saw the reaction of people falling by someone.

CARL came with a great script. At the beginning, I felt a little bit boring in the scene the hero was talking to his bear. But the story developed very well. The heroine felt very strange that the hero’s best friend was a toy. She wasn’t really sure about the relationship with her boyfriend. They always fight as CARL, a toy, exists between them. In the scene when they are playing monopoly game and they are both speaking for CARL. However, CARL’s existence resulted in a sweet ending. “I think CARL needs a friend.” The heroine brought a girly toy bear to the hero. Aww, the film was so nice.

Question 2

“In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. Many will rethink this dramatically by the end of the course – this is a good thing.”

No? Go back and have a look.

Now we’d love you to do the same at this end.

Please reflect on how you feel about the course. What surprised you, what excited you, what disappointed you. What we could have done better. What you could have done better.

Feel free to copy and paste what you wrote in week 1 into your response.

Goal and Desires

In the coming semester, I wanna get a ‘Distinction’ grade. Of course, There are a number of things I have to figure out. For film or TV project, the first thing is collaboration. I expect to get well along with my peers to complete our project, to achieve something. Also, we’ll have a bunch of things to prepare, like Ideas, Scripts, Storyboard, Sound, Video etc. A appropriate plan is very benefit for the quality of a production. Therefore, I look forwards to being capable of scheduling. Last but not the least, I’m very interested in editing stuffs. Hopefully, after this semester, my ability can be level up.

The SEMESTER REFLECTION

In this semester, I’ve learnt a lot of knowledge in Film/TV one, such as the set up of lighting, camera operation, and the editing. What I expected at the begging of the semester was a good collaboration. Yes, it comes true. I had a very good time with my group mates when we are doing the production.

Another thing was that, I had a rare opportunity to be a cinematographer in my film production. For me, it was an excellent experience. Why is cinematographer so important? I think the reason probably is cinematographer who is only one person know what the images looks like. Cinematographer have consider so many. A good shot will not be easy. Cinematographer have to secure all things are in the right track like lighting, setting, camera etc. ONE of them may perhaps ruin the images. In other words, cinematographer results in the quality of images.

Finally, I was so lucky to get my group mates’ trust when I was doing the editing stuffs in Pranking Frank. They trusted I had a good editing skills. I very appreciate that. Fortunately, my group mates really like the final version of the film. I found the techniques of J-CUT and L-CUT were very useful in our film. The scene flowed after another very well with these techniques. I’m glad my teammates and I have done a good film in this semester.

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