The shields reading is quite interesting in that it is a chrnonological and logical book, but it is presented in a manner that resembles the bible almost. They have no real connection, but i found that by writing it that way shields opens us up to different ways of thinking. I feel like the gaps act as commas and help us take in what we just have read and expand on the idea presented. There is nothign really wierd or strange about the writing itself, all the pieces put together make sense. Many people got confused between collage and montage from the other responses i read regarding this and felt that this is definitely not a montage. A montage is used to transcend or evade time. A collage is a collection of differing things put together to display meaning which is exactly what this piece of text is. All of the splits make sense on their own, but together they are more?
how is this related to K-film, well i guess our films are really just collages. They are a bunch of clips held together by the glue of logic and reasoning. K films in general to me anyway make no sense. They are entertaining though, no doubt. They all look nice as well, the clips can be beautiful, masteruflly designed ui and what not, but i still dont see the point. Is the point to discover the meaning of the author or is it to put your own meaning. Its almost a game, yet its a film. I wouldn’t call it a film, but a game. K film is a puzzle you work through the clips to find the meaing and that is what i think Adrian does. During his analysis of our films he searches for paths on why these things happen, but maybe by doing so he is creating a story? or narrative?

In this weeks reading, it brought up the notion of using lists as a way of expressing or creating meaning in a doco. After using korsakow this idea of using spacial elements in order to create different forms of connections between whether it be clips or texts is quite intriguing. The ui or the interface which we create will play a large role in how the audience will be able to interpret or how well we can get our ideas across. AFter meeting with Adrian to discuss my sketch film, it is quite easy to say that my work was a complete dud. I didnt spend enough time on it, but i did meet all the requirements in the criteria sheet which was the main focus of the xercise. With the upcoming group k film, i feel like these readings and lectures will help me provide helpful insight for my groups needsa as i do not want to be dead weight and want to provide meaningful insight and work. The argument of whethere a story or narrative can be formed from a list has been argued and question both in the tutorial and lectures. I feel that it all depends on the lists and how you view the list. Even a list of ingredients for a recipe can tell a story, in that it tells you the chronological order of where and when the ingredients will be placed within it. I dont know everytime this idea of a list or narrative comes up in the course i feel like no matter what you can apply a story or narrative to everything you see and do as every minor detail will aid our brain in forming those bridges and connections we require to create meaning.

Please outline some points that you took away from the Lighting Lecture. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you, perplexes you or even one you take issue with.

I found that the hard and soft light was interesting in that we see it all the time but we never learn how to replicate it.
i did no expect the amount of preparation needed for lighting in that we need to test the location and lighting in the actual place in order to compensate for lack or too much light.
Im just really excited to learn the equipment, i feel like technical skills are just as important as theorectical maybe even more and that getting hands on experiece will benefit me greatly.

I did not feel there was a lot of important info but rather general notes that wwe should think of. I found the tutorial about lightning much more useful in that it provided alot of technical skills and showed real example with students sitting in to be lit. being upclose wiht the shots and angles made the whole experience alot more coherent and allowed me to apply myself fully to the understandning of lighting.

List the things that you learnt from this experience – this could be things that went well or not so well.

I learnt that time management in key in having a nice shoot. Being rushed and delayed just makes the shoot more strenuous for the actors as well as the cast.
I feel acccounting for the weather was the biggest flaw with our group in that we didnt compensate by going indoors and adjusting. However our lenny turned out great accoridn to paul and that seems to be all good
THe first ad was suprisingly useful in keeping the shoot and shots clean and crisp. The oral cues really help in establishing a professional environment for operating and it made the cast feel comfortable working with us as well.
What i felt we did really well was editting. It seems our group had a shared vision in how the lenny should be seen and combined with the technical skills and creative skills of all the members we operated in a cohesive and efficient manner allowing us to edit this clip in no time. I feel that editting is my strong point and i happily enjoy this task.
what we could improve on is propably audio checkin and shot listing. we managed to scathe through this time but maybe next time being a bitn more organised and familiar with the equipment mainly me on sound will allow the shoot to be even more efficient.

http://www.themediastudents.net/im1/2014/tony.mai/

I added the file on time, but i completely forgot about the google.doc form…

Unrelated topic. I have been watching a lot of Mr Bean recently, i remembered him to be a funny and often stupid person, but my memory seemed to be clouded and forgot to remember how much of a jackass he is. Don’t get me wrong he still is funny, just some of his actions are quite questionable and frowned upon now that i understand it a bit better. He cheats during the exam, stole a cripples ticket and consistently screws over the blue car. Another thing i noticed was how from episode one he had not alot of dialogue but some. Fully worded and functional sentences, then next episode all of a sudden for the rest of the season he loses all ability to speak normally. I wonder what the idea behind that was. Oh he will be much funnier if he just mutters and makes random noises. In a way Mr bean is stuck in his own utopia, he joins a dog talent show with his teddy and wins yet noone brings up any complaints. This reminds me of those alternate theories such as Grease where the main chick actually drowned that day, thats why she ends up driving into the sky with the car in the end>_> I could see that explanation being applied to Mr Bean somewhere along the shows lifespan.

Kitchen Stories
http://vogmae.net.au/classworks/2012/KitchenStories.html

As soon as the film begins, a soundtrack consisting of a reciting of various recipes plays first in English then in Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. This recital was accompanied by a mellow soundtrack creating a relaxing mood for the audience. In a way, the exotic languages beckoned the audience onwards to explore the various dishes available. Even though it is relaxing, the voice itself seemed robotic. Perhaps, it is due to my inability to understand the other languages that my focus is on the English voice, but the voices themselves tell a different story altogether as the recipes listed are not in the images at all whether it is chicken, steak or even mapo tofu. The soundtrack does not match the events accompanying on screen which at times detracted from the experience. The utilisation of popcorn as the beginning is intriguing in that popcorn is often bland and repetitive. However, popcorn is also the food of entertainment and was a clever way of inducing nostalgia as it is tradition to have popcorn during films.

The interface is separated into a main window of focus of your chosen pathway on the left and on the right, 4 windows of different association with the main focus whether it is taste, sight or colour. The main window would play the scene which the viewer has chosen for its full duration and even will be repeated upon completion. The other scenes remained as stills unless clicked. Every video clip consisted of more than 1 shot of the same dish and always transitioned through the use of a fade away. By presenting each meal in such a way, the format was personified in the form of food. The one active window is the main meal as we as an audience garnish ourselves with condiments and options which are the 4 windows. The pathways or choices did not seem to have any discernable pattern, the pathways were merely enticing and the imagery beckons the audience into continuing on their food journey.

The red coloured foods often were basic in nature often being natural ingredients such as chilies, meats and other vegetables. Yellow represented more comfort foods which were ubiquitous and often formed the basis of a dish. Meals such as rice, chips and pastas were often the key thematic idea behind this colourisation. Orange being the mixture of both yellow and red consisted of completed dish’s, this is only logical as combining basic ingredients with a fundamental staple such as bread, rice or pasta will result in a refined dish. Together these colours provided an ironic idea that the colours itself created a recipe as well. The colour, sounds and film together provide an almost utopian outlook into the world of food which can be seen as an optimistic view on race and culture in the world. The way the scenes are filmed, it is presented in a dreamlike state with your memory “fading”. Both the sounds and the colours are warm in nature both complementing each other well. An interesting note was the ability to understand some recipes from keywords which are utilised even in the English language such as Mapo Tofu. Food in this sense transcends the racial barriers which normally occur when trying to communicate, in areas where aural information fails, visual sensors aid in filling in the gaps which we yearn to understand.

The film attempts to explore the nature of food. Food is addictive, it’s exotic, it’s comforting, food may change its appearance, but the meaning is the same to everyone. The use of the continual changing soundtrack along with the various footage and images of colour coordinated food accentuates the idea of food being a continuous cycle. The same scene or image could be clicked on more than once during the watch through, yet the results or future pathways were never the same. Food does not stop after a main and desert, the cycle begins all over with the ingredients, the cooking process and the enjoyment afterwards. I believe these key underlying factors is why the film is shot in such a positive thematic manner and achieves to explore the broader ideals of race, culture and acceptance through the metaphor of food.

What are experimental films without interpretation? can they exist without an audience? I would say kind of they do exist without an audience, just they mean less. Unlike normal linear films experimental films is beyond the confines of what we assume is the norm and therefore require us to apply a contextual meaning to it. What Hannah said about experiemental films make sense upon association i guess is also applied to normal films.The difference i feel is that experimental films will always have a different meaning and interpretation for everyone, whereas linear structural films will always have the same underlying principal.
What about Korsakow interactive documentaries? DO they need an audience? Korsakow is unique in that its different to film. SO the constraints we face are broken. Korsakow feels more like a game a than a film. Everything feels very disjointed. Since i have not fully experienced it, i’ll reevaluate my thoughts later.

Another key point was how can footage of the same theme create different stories. If we take the same footage we are using for Korsakow and show ti to different people everyone will have different links that they share or associate with the specific imagery. So each outcome is differnet for each person. Korsakow, is it even film to begin with? I think Korsakow is too different for it to have the same confides as a film so therefore should not apply the same rules towards it.

20140331 231716 from Tony Mai on Vimeo.

20140331 221734 from Tony Mai on Vimeo.

20140331 231948 from Tony Mai on Vimeo.

Is our life a narrative? As Adrian said, life isn’t a narrative yet. The 2 cones analogy provided a great way to understand the 2 different methods of storytelling. An open cone represents open ended stories and possibilities <, even though we can apply that to our lives i do believe once again it is how you define the end. We could say a life will always end in the same ending of death. However even though death would mean a closed cone >, because of the different paths could there be a fusion between the 2 cones or do we have to separate them entirely for the specific natures and outcomes. The notion of taxonomy can be seen to apply here as well. I’m not sure how relevant or intertwined they are but they seem to have some form of connection. It is interesting to note that our lives aren’t narratives in that events need to have passed in order for us to narrate them or someone else will. OUr lives are both stories and narratives. While we are in the present life is a story unfolding, but when we die our lives become a narrative. This reminds me of the movie Strange than Fiction, in which Will Ferrells life is being narrated in the present, so his life takes the form of a > cone as his fate is decided at every whim.

In cinema studies we had to do this reading and watch the films mentioned in it. I wouldn’t say they were bad films, but i will say i did not enjoy them. I understand what the reading talks about how there are 2 types of experimental films one being association, abstract and the other rhythmic. I find that experimental films work much in the same way how a song can display a narrative through the way it is put together rather than the images being shown. Some of the films were quite creepy and ominous in a The Ring sort of way where its just creepy because it’s wierd. This reading also explained the difference between plot, story and narrative which i thought were all the same, but the minor differences such as diegetic and non diegetic sounds and visuals add onto each other in turn distinguishing them from each other. I find that this is a prime example of an example of what Adrian was talking about taxonomies and how we should create new terms for each new thing on what they do. First starts off with plot then as we add on more and more we get the story and the narrative. In the case of experimental films though i find taht these 3 terms are blurred as story would be the authors original intent, but then narrative could be completely different due the range of sounds and imagery actually used.