Reflection on Studio

I am glad to have been a part of Deliberate film. This studio has helped me gain greater consideration for planning and preparing almost any type of media. I had initially anticipated gaining a greater understanding of how to be intentional in film. I looked forward to using those skills to align with my desire to be a Creative Director.

As I reflect on those initial thoughts, I instead gained a greater awareness of crafting a film with shot, sound and edit preparation. Deliberate film has helped me consider the shoes of a director or director of photography, particularly when considering the necessary shot styles to capture a narrative. Crafting a story that you want to adapt to a film needs a level of preparation that covers what it’s going to take to adapt the narrative. From scriptwriting to animatics, these skills of preparation have taught me to take the necessary steps to produce a narrative and craft media with the intent of providing an audience with carefully considered shot types, sound and scriptwriting. There were aspects like animatics and scriptwriting, which I hadn’t worked on before – which has since helped me in my aspirations to produce greater media work.

Reflection on the Final Project

• Scriptwriting

Working on ‘Before Dinner’ was a full effort all around. The process began with the script. The script is what tells the story of Before Dinner. Our group spent time thinking about what story the script was telling – which helped us consider how we wanted to adapt the script to film. The first thing I considered strongly was the dynamic between the original characters. Originally, there was a mother-and-son dynamic that the script illustrated. I felt as though the dialogue is relatable to people. I know that many people out there have been in that type of interaction with their parents – hence why I felt as though the dynamic would be important. Our group did work on marking up the script, where we mainly focused on identifying the action points of our script – which helped us contemplate the type of shots we wanted to use to capture those action points in the script. Our markups helped us capture the expressions and emotions of the two characters, ultimately assisting us in capturing the dynamic that the script had written into it.

• Animatics

Our scripts allowed us to take the next step forward in telling its story. We put together an animatic to help us envision our script with its markups. The animatic made us consider the consistency between the type of shots we wanted to capture. Putting together a rough version of the story through the animatic did make us reconsider certain shots that we had originally marked up in our script.

• Direction & Shot Preparation

‘Before Dinner’ helped me realise what it means to direct something. My career aspiration is to be a well-respected Creative Director. Everyone in the group played a role in making the project come to life. However, I particularly enjoyed the process of helping my group direct this project. Having a hand in directing the project helped me think of creative ways to deliver our narrative through different shot types and angles. Placing the camera from different perspectives was used to help communicate the point of view (POV) of the characters in the film. We decided to use POV angles to help the audience feel as if they’re in the place of the characters – in relation to the relatability of the story being told.

• Editing / Sound / Colour Grade

The Lenny exercises served a great purpose in guiding me through editing the final project. Cutting up different edits of the Lenny clips helped me understand what it means to cut action points – along with cutting one narrative but with different camera angles. Earlier on in the semester, I had an opportunity to colour grade the Lenny clips, which helped me practice colour grading the characters in the Lenny clips. I felt confident heading into the final project with colour grading – I knew I wanted to give before dinner a cinematic look and feel. What worked for me best on colour grading the Lenny clips was darkening the mid-tones and decreasing the highlights. I think it worked well in Before Dinner’s final edit, which has a low mid-tone feel to it, while also making sure the white balance was done.

• Final Piece

In total, editing the film together was a great experience. Given the different camera angles that were captured – our preparation paid off. Given the various film exercises done in the semester, I found new approaches that helped adapt the script to what it is now. These different approaches guided me in breaking down the preparation process of producing a film. What stands out to me the most is the work done on our animatic. Working on an animatic served as a reference to guiding the final project through its shot style, flow and script adaptation.

Collaboration

I think collaboration is a major aspect of producing any film. This semester was another opportunity to improve on working with others and completing a body of work with other people. This time around, collaborating with my group was a good experience. Through collaboration, we were able to organise different meetings where we discussed what we wanted to achieve with our project. From mini writers’ sessions to presenting together – working on an idea with others was a good experience. Although, working with people you haven’t met before or are familiar with does present a bridge to walk over at first. Understanding everyone’s vision can be a challenge. One person can see things one way, and someone else can see something another way. However, finding the middle ground is important. As a group, we were able to find a middle ground to achieve the project we wanted. As a group, we were able to navigate through hurdles and make necessary changes to put together Before Dinner. Overall, collaborating with others does present challenges that you have to work through. The ability to work through challenges through collaborating is something prevalent in the media industry. This semester provided me with the opportunity to prepare myself for what collaboration will look like in my career moving forward.

 

I think, if anything, my approach to converting an idea into a piece of film has shifted upon taking this studio. Through the exercises and class discussions, I’ve been able to make more considerations towards being intentional with the type of media/film I intend to make. Attention to detail is crucial, even if it means identifying action points in a script and creating an animatic video to conceptualise the exact shots that may be used to advance a narrative.

Having the opportunity to tell a story can be a profound place to be in. Being in a position to consider all the important decisions that need to be made in order to convey a story. It literally comes down to the type of shots that you will use. However, every shot counts. Creating a shot that tells the right story is essential. Deciding on a wide shot or a close shot, or the depth of focus on a shot, will instantly shift how a narrative is being told. Intentionally curating different shots in a film can communicate different messages to the audience. In particular, certain shots will shift the audience’s focus to different characters and to different objects. For example, a scene using a wide shot may have a window in focus, but the background is blurry – which can indicate the audience to focus more on the window in the room rather than the background. However, the blurred background can still paint a picture to the audience of what type of world the scene is based in, which can send a message to the audience. These are the type of thoughts that this studio is encouraging me to be aware of when considering filmmaking. The ability to create shots that can tell stories within themselves or rather enhance the main narrative.

COLOUR GRADE

ORIGINAL

FIRST EDIT

In this edit, I wanted to make this shot a lot darker in the tones. I lowered the highlights, increased the contrast, and darkened the mid-tones. I wanted to darken the greens with an increased contrast to enhance the colours. The shadows are also quite low.

SECOND EDIT

In this edit, I lightened up the shadows and adjusted the vibrancy and tint to add a lighter colour to this edit.

THIRD EDIT

I didn’t make too many changes to this edit with the vibrancy and the tint. I kept the contrast fairly high to keep the skin tone and hair quite dark and add life to their skin.

I’ve chosen a scene from ‘Clapping for the Wrong Reasons’ [CFTWR] (2013) by Donald Glover. CFTWR is a short film directed by Hiro Murai and written by Donald Glover. The short film is an adaption of a screenplay written by Donald Glover for his 2013 album Because The Internet (BTI). The screenplay draws on a few characters interacting within an intersection of the internet and the modern world. In short, CFTWR is an adaption of the characters, the world, and the environment that the screenplay draws upon.

The scene I’ve focused on is between two characters (unnamed characters in the film) sitting by the pool on a sunny morning.

The Shot

The shot captures a wide shot with multiple objects and the two characters in the scene. The chosen shot captures their environment so well. The audience can a sunny background in the hills behind the two characters sitting down. The shot captures a big pool that surrounds the sofa their sitting on, which tells the audience about the living standards of the character. The scene helps identify that the characters are well-off, as it also includes a spa in the shot with a hut covering it. The shot perfectly captures the world these two characters are in. The storytelling of this shot is not just the environment and characters but the depth of field. The shot focuses on the edge pool, the spa, and the hills in the background. The characters are almost the least focused objects in this shot.

Characters

As mentioned above, the characters appear to be the less-focused objects in the shot. However, their presence still tells a story about the scene. The two characters are sitting in between the two pillars holding the hut. One character is on his laptop, focused on his screen, while the other character is eating cereal. This shot can be a signifying shot, which could pose a reflection on the two different people in this world who interact with the internet in the digital age – one person who wakes up to the internet and the other who wakes up to reality.

Sound/FX

The background sound for this scene is spot-on for the shot the audience sees. The sound captures the air space, including the different birds chirping and insects in the distance. You can almost hear the air in the scene, almost smelling the warmth of the air. You then hear a plane fly over the location, giving the world a sense of realism. The dialogue is captured well in between all the sounds of the air and birds/insects – including the sounds of one of the characters’ spoon clinking with the bowl.

Overall, an aesthetically beautiful shot that’s captured here, which I believe was filmed on a 35mm film camera – the grain is subtle but adds beautiful tones to the shot. I think it’s a well-directed wide shot – which paints the world that the characters live in while also showing the audience what to focus on with subtle depth of focus.

 

I want to reflect on editing together the ‘next stage’ exercise. Our group did a fantastic job at executing the next stage video. The video aligns with the action pieces we wanted to focus on from the script. In this particular exercise, the opportunity to create different shots was used to capture the essence of our script, which was to make something curious. I had a chance to edit the shots together, where each shot where our main character is searching, there is a sense of curiosity and suspense. I channelled in on using SFX to enhance the narrative of the shots on display in this video. From the door creek to the heartbeat, these SFX are inviting to the audience on the curiosity and determination that the main character has. The heartbeat was a finishing touch that added to the suspense of the narrative – which fell in line with the shot where the main character ultimately looks determined to find what they’re looking for. The shot where the heartbeat begins is a behind the headshot, which keeps both characters in place, while the wardrobe that is under suspicion is in the shot as well. It’s a still shot that keeps the entire narrative involved in just one shot.

The shot behind the door and the low shot under the table were essential shots that added a sense of curiosity – it shows how the character looked when they were looking in those spots. This type of reflection on shot selection has made me realise how important it is to establish these types of shots that complement the script. Moving forward, I look forward to creating different shots that utilise different angles that shift the audience into different angles that follow the character on their journey – in this case, on the journey to finding something hidden.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qkXo4o_LzvSJJ8zsu1yhmbeWg88DaeFy/view?usp=sharing

Exercise One

On Monday, our group focused on the ‘Under the Bed’ script, which allowed us to think about the different types of shots we wanted to use to execute a video for it. Overlooking a script and identifying key shots and points was a great exercise for me and the group to consider. I took into consideration how intentional you have to be when considering shots that contribute to the narrative being told in the script. Our group identified key moments between the two characters in our script, which helped us consider what kind of shot we might’ve used to capture the characters’ eyes searching the room, a character looking under the bed, or even a character feeling betrayed. Since our exercise, I’ve been in thought about how to interpret a script. I’ve previously read screenplays, and I had never considered thinking of shots that capture action moments that can advance the story to an audience. It makes me consider how a director must think when reading over a script and creating shots that tell the important moments/actions from the script. Our exercise on Monday saw us do more than interpret a script. We had the opportunity to recreate these shots as a group and create the encapsulating bits of the script onto the camera. The exercise allowed us to assign each other specific roles to execute the shot. I played a part in being a director. It was my job to instruct the actor on acting out the shots we were looking for as a group. The role allowed me to step in and think about what an actor needs to play a character from a script. It was an opportunity to give instructions on what was needed for our actor to play out the action moments in the script – which helped me envision what it would’ve been like to capture this script as an entire film.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n2RveufQe1RVGHIiq2R2CSyQw8unG27v/view?usp=sharing

 

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/11/20/exercise-one/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/11/20/exercise-two/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/11/20/deconstruction/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/11/20/colour-grade/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/11/20/ways-of-working/

Assignment #1

Why Deliberate Film?

 

As a media maker, I started wanting to create media that I aligned with. Passion projects were something I was struck by. I wanted to make media with the idea of it resonating with people. However, what I realised about my desire to do passion projects, was that there is a true art to making media with passion behind it. I discovered the art of storytelling. When I was given the opportunity to create my first short film, I realised that there is much more to making media. Making media with narrative is important, which aligns much more with my fascination with attention to detail. As time progressed, I realised that telling stories can inspire and speak to people beyond just cool videos or any entertaining concept. When you can inspire people, you receive the chance as a media maker to be intentional. My desire has evolved into developing intentional stories that speak to communities and inspire people to explore the possibilities of telling new stories in new mediums. Deliberate Film is a studio that caught my eye with just the word deliberate alone. Deliberate Film is a studio designed to establish the tools and skills needed to make intentional pieces of Media. So far, the activities have helped me think about what and why when considering the outcome of the media I’ve been working with. I look forward to gaining new skills in developing media that require deliberate techniques and strategies to craft and build a project. I aim to use these skills to develop intentional pieces of media which can inspire many people in Australia –I will use my new skills from Deliberate Film studio to work through any media challenges and objectives to achieve high-level media work.

Activity #1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rjr6VFVOSZGNwk7IChy5fNQdq8TWZSbJ/view?usp=share_link

Reflecting on an editing exercise that gave me the opportunity to edit three different scenes of Lenny’s video work. Two out of the three different scenes contained a variety of different shots and execution. What stood out to me was the different scenes which told slightly different stories. After watching the different scenes, it was my job to collate them together in my own way. My mind began to race, I was thinking of all the different creative ways I could piece these shots together and how I’d be able to tell a different story for each of them. This was a fun, creative exercise to do, I felt satisfied knowing that I had an opportunity to re-tell a story from my own perspective.

One of the strategies that helped me collate these shots together was practising organisation. In all my studying thus far, it was helpful to begin working on this editing exercise by organising all the different clips into specific folders (bins) using Premier Pro. I’ve had an opportunity to edit a short film outside of my studies. When editing that, I did not fully utilise the organisational skills I used when editing Lenny’s clip – my workflow felt efficient. Overall, I found my creative juices flowing when I thought of constructing Lenny’s videos into a different story. I found scene three the most interesting. Based on the different camera angles, I orchestrated how dramatic the scene was based on the different angles and cuts that were made in the edit. Personally, I feel proud and relieved whenever I have the opportunity to think creatively, particularly when contemplating on the narrative I want to tell from my perspective.

Activity #2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jkiBEkDbpHZE00FtMkiPrbjPICabap35/view?usp=share_link

Based on the previous Lenny edit, this next activity presented the opportunity to think further into the narrative I had developed from the different scenes from Lenny’s video. Ultimately, being given a chance to select my favourite edit based on the different rough cuts was interesting. Why? Music.

Building a narrative through scenes is one work of art but incorporating music into that narrative is one way to enhance the level of storytelling. I played around with how dramatic I wanted the rough cut to be in each edit. Instantly adding a dramatic sound landscape to the rough cut added a new dynamic to the Lenny scenes. This made me think about the TV series I often watch and how much music shifts and evolves the narrative. Another consideration I walked away with was the idea of no music. I’ve realised that no music can be just as powerful as having no music. When I was switching between different music, the few moments of having a rough cut without music made it interesting. It made me think of a particular John Wick movie, where there is a specific scene in the John Wick sequel where the main character, John Wick and the antagonist are fighting, and there is no music that plays at all. It’s complete silence except for the SFX. Yet, the scene is engaging, dramatic and captivating even though there is no music.

In contrast, to a recent movie called The Gray Man (2022), which was similar to John Wick, there is a lot of combat scene. In Gray Man, you will hear music playing through the combat scenes. In fact, it adds dramatic tension to the scenes – helping it remain engaging. Overall, the art of selecting no music is just as powerful and adding music to the rough cut of Lenny’s footage made me reflect on such references.

The Initiative Post

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1458748697/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

I want to reflect on my favourite TV piece in the modern era—FX’s Atlanta, created by Donald Glover.

Atlanta is a TV series focusing on Earn and his cousin Alfred in the city of Atlanta. The Series follows Earn and Alfred on a journey through the music industry while dealing with social and economic issues that involve race, relationships, parenthood and status. Atlanta is a series gifted in touching on racial topics and experiences that many films and TV series fail to capture. Atlanta reeks of authenticity and intentional humour. The humour found in Atlanta can be quite dark but honest. While watching Atlanta, it never feels too preachy or over the top, and it’s always just right. I’ve used Atlanta in previous assignments throughout my studies and have found it hard to conceptualise particular race theories from the show with peer-reviewed studies to reference my findings. As frustrating as it was, it continued to reveal to me why Atlanta was as good as I found it to be. Atlanta had proven to conceptualise black culture in a new way, in a relevant and authentic way. What stands out about Atlanta to me is that the show is created by black writers – meaning black people were telling black stories. It might not sound that cool, but a TV series with black stories told by black people in this world is a big deal to me.

As mentioned above, storytelling, to me, is a big deal. However, a show that captures black stories along with black humour is a nail hit right on the head to me. I want to focus on episode 9, titled ‘Juneteenth’. This episode follows Earn and Van, and the dynamic of their relationship ultimately falls and rises. The episode is a rollercoaster of Earns and Van’s emotions while layered in very real and hilarious moments. The story told in this episode reveals to the audience the type of scenarios that black people find themselves in. Earn and Van attends this party for Van to unlock new career opportunities. Both Earn and Van ignore the fact that they are of lower wealth status and push themselves to fit in with the guests of the party. While trying to fit in, their relationship takes some hard turns, as they both don’t impress each other by lying to people and each other about who they are. It seems that where they came from could not be entirely left at the door. What stands out even more in this episode, while Earn and Van are at this party lying to themselves and everyone there about their status, Earn is constantly faced with defending his blackness at this party. Why does it stand out? Because IT IS REAL LIFE. Any black person, including myself, can share first-hand what it means to step foot in every room and almost have to defend our blackness in many conversations. Up until Atlanta, in modern TV, I hadn’t come across a series that could emulate black experiences in such an authentic and relatable way.

Curtain Call by Harrison Neale & Bound to Break by Trevor Chan

After watching Harrison’s ‘Curtain Call’ & Trevor’s ‘Bound to Break’, I felt I had two one-on-one conversations with their interviewees. Upon finishing Real to Reel I saw the opportunity to produce films touching on real subjects and real people. It’s a moving process to produce such kinds of films, and I felt our studio did a great job doing so. Both Trevor and Harrison’s film techniques were done quite well, from music to b-roll footage and just great questions. There was a sense of authenticity captured by both media makers. Both media makers, Trevor and Harrison, got into the locations of their subjects and shot great footage to go along with their subject lines. It is not necessarily easy as a filmmaker to make whatever you want or record whatever you want, so you can see the lengths Trevor and Harrison offer these worlds for the audience to live in with their subjects.

Overall, they both did a great job of utilising what is necessary as media makers to produce good films on authentic stories that reel the audience into their worlds. The editing, colours, and music were sound in both films, which made watching their films a good experience.

Butcher Bird by Dillon Mcguinness

Butcher Bird, produced by Dillon Mcguinness, was an exceptional film essay that I viewed. From the animations to the narration, I thought it was just an excellent method of visual storytelling uniquely. The animations were intriguing and aesthetically fantastic. I thought the way the film started was a bold way musically and visually, but I thought it was brilliant. The film essay is a reflective one that I can appreciate, which also inspires my approach to make media and how I’d choose to make media in different formats.

Notably, the animation was done in such a captivating way that instantly caught my attention. The colours and editing techniques when it came to zooming in and out from the animations, and I thought graphically. The video looked fantastic.

Secondly, the narration itself was done quite well, and I can appreciate the tone and speed of the storytelling that kept it easy for me to follow along. The subtitles were also placed well and readable for me, and the subtitles didn’t distract me from following along with that narrative.

A fantastic job!

TALEZ OF 2 WORLDS

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Edited by Daniel Niva

Cinematographer– Derek Xe & Daniel Niva

Sound recordist – Derek Xe

Colour grade – Derek Xe

Music composed by Daniel Niva

Archive Footage – Professional Cinemas – Drone Shot of The Cityline of Havana Cuba’s – Free to use

Photograph Provided by Antoine Miller

Studio Instructor

Rohan Spong

Created as part of 

Real to Reel

School of Media and Communication

RMIT

2022

Blog One – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/05/27/reflection-on-final-artefact/

Blog Two – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/05/27/reflection-on-representing-real-world-through-media/

Blog Three – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/05/27/reflection-on-collaboration/

Blog four – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/danielniva/2022/05/27/reflection-on-documentary-ethics/