INSTITUTIONS:

Term from sociology

• Concern with organising structures of society
• Social, cultural, political, economic reasons
• Principles, values, rules that underly these

Marriage as a social institution

• Expectations, values (monogamy)
• Legal frame work/regulatory
• Institutional frames
• Rituals (Symbolic)
• Widely accepted practise
• Culture ‘rules’
• Values (Monogamy)
• Commercial industry
• Community/social recognition

Media institutions

• ABC
• The news
• Journalsim
• News corp
• Cinema
• Broadcast television
• Community radio
• Public service broadcasting
• RRR
• Are enduring
• Regulate and structure activities
• Are collectivist
• Develop working practises
• Employees and people associated are expected to share vales
• Public is aware of status

ACTIVITY

Brainstorm:Institutional characteristics of the following

• Facebook
• Newscorp.
• Google

Community

• Core values
• Relationship to audience
• What is their status
• How are their activities professionalised
• How are they more than business
• What forms of regulations constrain their activities
• In what sense are they conduits for flows of power
• What other institutions are they related to? Engaged/aligned with?

To understand the complexity of our world today it is important to recognise the various institutions that influence our life. Looking at institutions allows us to see the social constructions that make up particular events in our life such as the ritual of marriage. When we break down the complexities of these institutions we can see the relationship that they have with an audience in terms of projecting different ideas. Analysing institutions enables us to understand how our society is structured and the various social constructs that make up our life.

Story is everything!

A narrative consists of cause and effect, it is the logical progression of events that contribute to a film and make it worth watching. Causality is key to telling a story. Character A eats radioactive material (somehow), then has superpowers, then decides to save the world, then finds evil. Really basic, but you get the point. All narratives have to progress, progression makes the film interesting, if nothing happens to the characters, the plot will come to a fizzle and the audience will lose interest.

There are three aspects that contribute to any story.

1. Character development
2. Plot
3. Resolution

First characters need to be established. The film needs to tell the audience who this character is, what they do, reasons to like them or not. The film needs to make the audience react in a certain way to a character. For instance, at the beginning of Harry Potter, you are intrigued and fascinated by who this small boy is and why he is so important. It makes the audience empathise with Harry, making the audience want to find out more about him throughout the film. Establishing characters is important in order to make the audience feel absorbed into the film, allowing them to follow what is happening.

The plot does not necessarily have to be in chronological sequence, but it has to make sense. Plots don’t have to lay out everything for the audience, but they can’t be so vague that the film loses any meaning as well as the attention of the audience. Similarly, a resolution does not have to be a good end. Ending on a happy ending can be great, but it can be cliche. It’s often more entertaining to push the limits of what the audience can handle, rather than playing it safe.

There was also an interesting concept discussed in this weeks blog that talks about how there is no such thing as an original idea. It got me thinking about this short film that talks about how ‘Everything is a Remix’. It talks about the way that we all take ideas from somewhere else and make it our own, we put our own spin on old tales or implement small ideas that we may pluck out from a larger piece of work. It got me thinking about trying to come up with new ideas. Often we get so caught up, thinking that we have to come up with some original idea that no one has seen or heard of before. But thats the thing, it’s ok to implement another persons ideas as long as you make them your own. You shouldn’t have the mindset that you need to come up with an idea that is completely unheard of, it’s ok to mix and match, put different things together that interest you. It’s this art of ‘remixing’ the allows new ideas to flourish and be turned into fresh concepts or material that hasn’t been seen. To ‘remix’ is to put your own spin on something, to make it your own, you are not simply copying ideas, rather you are being motivated by them.

Although ‘non-narratives’ are seen to contain no story, it is evident that most things have some kind of story or message behind them. For example, in the short film, ‘We have decided not to die’, it may seem like there is a lack of cohesion and therefore, no story can be obtained from such experimental material. However, when you break down all the elements of this film you see that there is a cyclical and thematic similarity between the images and characters, suggesting that there is a connection and journey between all three characters in the film. In the film there is a common theme of ‘escape’, escaping a situation such as jumping away to miss a car crash, or crashing through the window to escape from reality. These situations provide both a literal understanding to the phrase, ‘We have decided not to die’, but also a symbolic one that perhaps suggests liberty and freedom. It proposes that this ‘freedom’ can be found from going against the wishes of others, finding yourself and being free from the constraints that hold us back from the things we love. Perhaps this is me reading to deeply into what may have been simply an experimental film, but you can see that although it may not always be clear at first, most things always present some kind of story.

This discussion reflects the need to focus more on the story rather than equipment or fancy visuals. Amazing visuals cannot always substitute a poorly written storyline. If the story is not there, then the audience will not engage with the film and overall the film will not be able to connect with an audience. Therefore, it is important to remember that when creating films, Story is everything. 

I am currently undertaking politics. Now I from the start I have felt quite out of my depth, unable to comprehend majority of the concepts and topics being discussed, due to my unwillingness and lack of interest into politics. However, as the weeks go by my interest in the subject has intensified as I make further connections to Politics and Media.

In politics we unpack concepts that once had stagnate meanings such as the word politics. However, as we explore these words such as politics, rhetorics and power, the dominate meanings associated to these words diminishes and you can see that there is a much broader idea of what these words mean and the value they hold in todays society.

For instance, traditional words such as Politics are seen to be associated to the government the runs our country, the laws and regulations that take place in order to keep a country civilised. However, when you look at the word from a broader point of view, you see that politics is much more than debates held in parliament house. Instead, politics is seen to be all around us and refers to the arguments and disputes that we encounter everyday. When you look at politics from a broader point of view like this, you realise that there is much more complexity into words that once held dominant traditional meanings.

This exercise in politics has allowed me to adopt a similar mindset in media, where I look at things from a much broader perspective, challenging the traditional ideas that are associated to certain terms in media. For instance when we looked at the idea of silence, I was able to recognise and unpack non-traditional ways of thinking associated towards the term. The universal definition of silence refers to the complete absence of sound. However when you look at John Cages performance 4’33, the idea of silence begins to transform. You begin to comprehend the concept that there is no such thing as true silence. There is always sound or noise in our life, whether it’s the breathing around us or the feeling and sound of our heartbeat as blood rushes through us. It’s this new interpretation of the word that allows us to see things in a different way, allowing us to further develop our understanding, whilst challenging traditional meanings of words.

When you draw upon these different practises exhibited in each subject you can acknowledge how related each course really is. By recognising this connection it enables us to broaden our understanding of each individual subject and the concepts being discussed in each course, whilst enriching our own interpretation of the world around us.

In every media text, semiotics come into play, influencing the way that we as an audience interpret media material. Semiotics refers to how meaning is created through symbols and signs that are used in various aspects of communication forms.

To further our understanding we can break this down into how meaning is associated to certain things.

Denotation and connotation are two key words to consider when breaking down any piece of media article, whether it be a photograph, a film, or book.

Denotation refers to the literal meaning of the text. For example if you look at a photograph of family, what do you see? You see people, perhaps a surrounding background, what are the individuals wearing? How are they standing? This may seem banal, but it’s crucial to recognise the literal elements of any media text before we can associate certain meanings to the image. This leads onto the next word, connotation. Connotations refer to cultural meanings, secondary meanings attached to the literal ideas being presented. Connotations are abstract thoughts, ideas, reactions or feelings that are generated from a media artefact. Considering connotations, allows an audience to break down the hidden intentions and elements that are trying to be conveyed. For instance, when you examine the photo of a family, perhaps it is trying to present an image of an archetypal family, a nuclear family, an image of purity, trust and content.

Every media piece produced is open to interpretation in a different way, although there are dominate values and meanings that are often associated to a text, our individual perception of media content is unique in our own rights, enriching our knowledge of a text by drawing on our memory and what we have encountered before.

The intention of any text will determine how we view, relate and interpret the meaning that is intended to be conveyed. ‘Communication is a gamble’, not everyone is going be influenced to feel or react in the same way. It is hard to generate media material where everyone has the same idea of what is going on, there are always new concepts to consider when interpreting anything. This is what makes media so interesting, it’s ability to be read in so many different ways, there is so much diversity in the world and if everyone had the same ideas and reactions… well, what a boring world we would live in, we would lose all the culture that encompasses our world today.

It is important that we continue to share our interpretations of media, often, I think we get stuck in a mindset believing that there is only one way to look at something. There is no wrong interpretation, of course some understandings may be more absurd or perhaps mis-guided, but at the end of the day, interpretation is subjective to the individual and their experiences.

Self Portrait (Brief 3)

OLIVER (Self Portrait) from Lucas James on Vimeo.

The process of making this 2 minute film provided me with both challenges and great opportunities to explore someone I knew in detail. I decided to chose my younger brother  (Oliver) to create this self portrait. Although I knew a lot about him already, I thought it would be interesting to gain some insight into what he actually feels and thinks towards the world. I decided from the get go, that I wanted to have dialogue running over the top of a series of film clips that captured my brothers life. I worked from this starting point and began filming what my brother literally does in his life, such as listening to music, but also images of him as a person, just simply being himself. I thought that this was one of the strong points of the film, being able to effectively portray my brother in a natural environment being himself.

Throughout this project, one of the main downsides for me was the lack of time management. I failed to manage my time appropriately and consequently the piece may have come across as rushed in some bits. Also, I would have liked to have more footage of my brother to make the film more interesting. If I had managemend my time more effectively, I could have explored more creative opportunities to depict my brother. Another, issue was finding suitable found footage. I found it really hard to find footage that was appropriate for the film and fitted into the storyline in a way that made sense. Again, if I considered time more carefully, I could have explored found footage to a greater extent and perhaps used it in a more interesting way.

When going into future projects there have been some major things that I have learn’t from creating this piece. Time management is key when creating a successful film, especially a portrait of somebody, if you rush it, it will come across that way and important information may have been missed. It is also important to experiment with documentary’s or any genre of film, bend the rules of the typical conventions associated to a genre. Through trial and error, experimenting can yield great results and if it doesn’t work out, you learn from it.

Overall, there are many aspects of the project that I am happy with, such as the music and the editing of the film which makes the story coherent and interesting. However, through the use of more time, more images of my brother and found footage, it would have added greater complexity to the overall story and film.

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.

One of the last things that you might consider when making a film is this thing called Aspect Ratio. Nonetheless, it is still plays an important role in a how a film is communicated and viewed by an audience. The most accurate and simplistic definition of Aspect Ratio that I could find was from Wikipedia that describes ‘the aspect ratio of an image [as] the proportional relationship between its width and its height’ 

It describes the proportions of the image and if these proportions are out of wack, then the image becomes distorted and no longer retains it’s original message. In standard high definition video you may have seen 16:9 before, which is the standard aspect ratio for this type of video and is used in majority of televisions today.  However, films shown in cinemas have even larger ratios so they can be projected onto the big screens, 21:9.

When you watch movies at home, the reason you often see black bars, is because the 21:9 ratio for cinema has been converted into 16:9 so it can both fit on a D.V.D and be screened on a television. This retains the proportions of the screen so that the film is not distorted. So when you become frustrated and expand the screen to get rid of the black bars, you are effectively zooming into the film, losing both quality and the natural proportions of the image.

Aspect ratios exist and are important because they make sure a film is viewed in the correct proportional way, no one wants to be watching a film that is warped or misshaped in any way. If theres one thing about aspect ratios that you must be aware of, is not to film in portrait. Please save me from watching a film that has been filmed in portrait, unless that was your intention, but overall portrait may be great for photography… not for film!

Probably my most literal heading yet, but that is what we talked about in class, the nature of zooms and the influence of colour in film.

I’ll start of with zooms. Basically imagine your a pirate and you whip out a telescope, extend it and look into the distance and see treasure or something like that (not the point). That is basically the same thing as camera lens, when you extend the lens, you start to see that things in the distance gradually become closer, and it is that movement that is classified as a zoom, when you are stationary and zoom into something at a distance. Pretty complicated… (not really) but the techniques that go into using zooms effectively can take some skill. Zooms can affect the mood of a scene, can create suspense, generate excitement or be used for comedic effect. Although zooms often come across as tacky (personally i’m not a big fan of using the technique) they can really add a certain quality to a scene that can enhance certain aspects of film without coming across as dated at all.

Look at Quentin Tarantino’s films such as Django unchained or Kill Bill, Zooms are often used to enhance the intense nature of action scenes whilst also lending to the black comedy elements that most of his films have. Quentin Tarantino Films – Zoom Ins

Zooms can also be utilised in “faux documentary” films like Blair Witch, Cloverfield, and District 9. Zooms enhance the intended mood of scenes whilst often serving as visual motifs to illustrate the relationship a character or object has with its surrounding environment. Zooms in films

Overall zooms are rarely used because they often appear dated and usually add a comedic effect to a film rather than intensifying action or drama in a scene. However, if used effectively they can work well to enhance a scene in a film.

Colour is one of my favourite things in film. Colour makes images pop, it adds depth to a scene and creates atmosphere of both the film and scene. Colour conveys meaning, adding value to characters, often serving as visual motifs to depict a characters thoughts or feelings. Colour is utilised to create coherent meaning to a scene so it makes sense to an audience of the time and place that scene is set in. For instance warmer, yellow and sepia hues are often used to depict the atmosphere of Los Angeles, or places in tropical regions or a desert, it enables the film to establish an atmosphere of a scene and a setting, aiding to the audiences understanding of what is going on. Conversely, dark, blue undertones may be associated to places such as New York or London.

Colour also establishes a genre of a film. A darker pallet intensifies a Drama or a thriller whilst, lighter/warmer tones lift the mood of a comedy.

Colour is very important in a scene and a film, bringing meaning to characters and creating an atmosphere that dictates how the film is responded to by an audience.

Examples of Colour used effectively in film:

• American Beauty
• Blue is the warmest colour
• The Tree of Life
• Requiem of a Dream
• 2001: Space Odyssey
• Drive
• Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind
• Amelie
• The Cook, the Thief, the Wife and her Lover

Colour in films