Just some rambling nonsense

Today my group (Sandy, Tim) and I filmed our news report style artefact for Project Brief 4. We had booked 3 cameras and 3 tripods to create a more professional look, editing the different angles to make the show run smoothly as though in one take. This technique of different angles had a few issues; fire extinguisher in view of one shot, blurring when the camera is too close to the subject, etc. However, with three people it was easy to figure out solutions.

The space we chose was good (lighting, props) except it was not a private space and people were regularly walking past (out of shot). They did not come into view of the shot, and hopefully the sound interruptions will not be heard, or another piece of film can be used.

We did all of our filming today and plan on editing and working on the dossier in the next two weeks.

§86 · May 25, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


Institutions

  • – terms from sociology
  • – concern with organizing structures of society
  • – social, cultural, political, economic relations
  • – principles, values, rules that underlie these
  • e.g. ‘marriage’ is an institution: why??
  • Historical continuities
  • industry
  • Expectations –> values (monogamy)
  • Rituals, symbolic
  • Legal framework/regulatory
  • Reproduces social relations/expectations
  • Meta-institutional frame
  • Romantic love- cultural narratives
  • Widely accepted/practice
  • Cultural ‘rules’
  • Community/social recognition

I found this whole discussion very interesting, with everyone having a different upbringing, morals, opinions, thoughts, experiences, etc., also the concept of marriage being an institution; this is not something you may immediately link with the generally romance drenched word ‘marry’. Giving it the connotation of being an institution creates an ugly, industrial feel to a wedding, as though you are joining a club, a cult, a foundation. This is likely how a lot of people already feel about marriage, not a new concept or thought at all, maybe the reason I am the child of an unmarried once-couple.

§84 · May 12, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


IMG_6104

Today we did another little group activity involving a big piece of paper and lots coloured pens (still my favourite kind). The discussion was about the characteristics of Facebook , what makes it a business, how it communicates, the role of it in society and lots of much better worded questions that i cannot remember because I decided to take a picture of the cat instead of the brainstorming.

§82 · May 12, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


PB3

§79 · April 23, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) · Tags:


In last weeks tutorial we were given a loaned audio recorder, the Zoom H2/N recorder, and were sent off in pairs with a sheet of paper and a mission to awkwardly record sounds in public. My pairing and I had some good ideas; we captured a strangers phone call, birds in a tree, a lot of silence from the library. However, we failed to set the MIC gain and instead adjusted the recording level, meaning almost all of our sound was inaudible. Should we have read the instructions more carefully? Listened more absorbedly to Rachael? One thing we should have done is to have listened back to the sounds after the first couple of recordings, instead of after an hours worth of red button pressing. So you could say this was a successful activity, successful in teaching us a lesson and giving us something to reflect on. This did help me when I used the recorder for my project brief, as I was aware of how much of a failure my audio would be if I didn’t set the MIC gain to something that wasn’t 0. So, thank you unsuccessful activity for helping me.

§76 · April 23, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


I think this project brief was quite different to the one I did for my self-portrait. I used a documentary style, ‘day-in-the-life-of’ technique to create a visualization of what it is like for the person. The documentary style I chose to portray meant I did not want to use a tripod with my filming and preferred a more casual effect using a hand held camera (iPhone) created. It also meant more versatility in angles and capturing ‘in-the-moment’ shots.

On the other hand, I did want the quality of the audio recording to be clear so the story could be heard and became the main focus of the project brief.

The archival footage I incorporated generally related to what was being spoken about, this was done in order to create a wider and more general sense of the story; that it could be experienced from different perspectives and in different forms.

The biggest problem I encountered would be the inability to film the subject whilst she was at work, due to not only university commitments (why are all my classes in the morning?) but also to my poor time management in regards to hiring equipment, not planning ahead.

I believe, because I and the subject are close, it was easier to conduct an interview as we were both comfortable with each other and this made it easier for Kaity to answer and expand on the questions asked. I discovered from this that the voice is a powerful tool in storytelling; the tone and rising in volume can tell a lot about what the person is saying. Because of this, I understand it is important to have quality sound to accompany quality visual.

I feel that my successful interviewing process will help me with any future similar endeavors, as I now know what a successful interview should incorporate. This is of course important in more than just filming, and will be helpful for me as a media practitioner.

§73 · April 23, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) · Tags:


Consciously listening to one particular sound (including music, speech and sounds) is something usually done in two instances. In public nowadays you see numerous people walking around with headphones plugged into their ears, and 3 out of 5 people sitting on the train will be listening to something on their devices (80% chance this information is inaccurate). These people are actively choosing to block out the outside noises of people talking, cars driving past, the train as it thuds along the tracks; noises in general which most people will not pay specific attention to, and would prefer to listen to something of their choice; music, audio books, radio etc..

But when you actively listen to these sounds that our ears are subjected to everyday, it can be overwhelming. Right now, in my room, I can hear the cars driving past outside, my room mate’s TV show, the train boom gate’s warning sound, a bird outside my window, the keyboard as I type. It seems like too much noise to be able to concentrate in, too many types of sound to process and reject as my brain decides what to write. However, I m choosing to inactively listen to these sounds while I type, and to not concentrate on them and instead concentrate on my blog post.

§71 · April 17, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


When asked to recall past group projects and how they had worked and not worked and whatever else, the first thing that came to mind was a renewable energy project I did in primary school where we created some kind of hydroelectricity. One person in the group, however, decided that bringing some Barbies as the test dummies was enough of a contribution. Maybe this can be used as some kind of analogy; contribution does not include merely turning up on the day with something you already had, with no extra effort whatsoever. Of course, there is not always going to be that one ‘Barbie bringer’ in the group, and the pros of group work outweighs the cons.

Good

  • diverse ideas
  • inspiration
  • rigour
  • support
  • speed
  • sharing the workload
  • ability to tackle bigger projects

Bad

  • inability to listen to others
  • imbalance of work and credit
  • let down by people
  • discomfort of opinion
  • no compromise
§68 · April 15, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) ·


§64 · March 30, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) · Tags:


The pieces of media I chose to incorporate into my self-portrait were selected from a diverse range of filming I had taken over the past couple of weeks. These pieces of film were taken as an after thought when I was doing something or walking somewhere, or just ‘noticing’; so as to portray myself through a natural light, rather than only filming a selective piece of my life so as to convey a particular version of myself. However I do believe there are many parts of myself that are still not shown through the media, and it would be a near impossible task to do so.

The sounds I chose are sounds I hear everyday; birds in my courtyard, the train and the audible ‘tapping on’ of the Myki machine. During the week, that is what I hear; birds when I wake up, and the various sounds that go along with catching the train.

Feeding off my first self-portrait (project brief 1), every morning I go outside to look at the sky, which is why I chose the two images of the sun rising. Two completely different sunrises, one with rippled warm clouds smeared across the blue sky, and the other a creamy blend of pinks and purples. The other photo I couldn’t resist including is of my bookshelf; my books are my pride and joy and are what I stare up at when I’m procrastinating (an action taken several times during the curating of this project); comfort in the form of paperbacks.

I incorporated a lot of film, to get a moving idea of how my day flows, from inside my house to my time spent outside. I used a lot of cross dissolve transitions to create a smooth transition between time and place without creating a quick cut, jarring effect. Fading the sound files in and out through each other also supported this smooth effect of carrying the audience along my journey.

The beginning of my self-portrait was a lot smoother, peaceful and more flexible with what could be read into it in regards to the portrayal of myself. The use of images among the film interrupted the effect of my self-portrait as a journey, however this was unavoidable and allowed the audience to understand what I felt was most important to me.

§61 · March 30, 2015 · Uncategorized · (No comments) · Tags:


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