Category Archives: Week 7

Feedback: Project 3

Posted on by under Week 7

During today’s tutorial we viewed everyone else’s portraits (project 3). Like the previous projects, it was quite nerve-wracking showing my work to everyone else but also very interesting to see everyone else’s work. We were put into smaller groups and were to give feedback on our group members projects.

In my group was Kelsey McGowan and Amalina Youssoff who both did great jobs at their project brief 3. Below is Kelsey’s portrait which was quite unique. It was a portrait of a friend of hers who was talking about her dream. It is hard to tell but her friend is German and in the background was dialogue of her friend telling her dream but in German. I thought this was an interesting touch, however was quite subtle which worked really well, as you wouldn’t pick up on it unless you were told about it. Kelsey is quite good at using Adobe After Effects so she was able to include her found footage on her friends face. I really really liked this element of the video and was very unique as no one else did anything like it in their films, which shows the skill she possesses. Go on, have a watch:

(video source: https://vimeo.com/125744479)

SITG pt2

Posted on by under Week 7

After the hustle and bustle of SITG 2015, I have gained tickets!!! As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I did not think I would be able to make it! However, after getting some savings together I have acquired a ticket as have all of my friends… Last year there was a huge group of us, over 30 people, all camping together and it was honestly a few of the best days of my life. The vibes of all being together and celebrating some amazing music is quite unique. Although I believe the line up isn’t as good as last years, there are still some killer acts that will blow us all away. Florence and the Machine, The Wombats, Peking Duk, FLIGHT FACILITIES!!!!!, Thundamentals, MS MR, SAFIA and Japanese Wallpaper are just a few acts that I cannot wait to see. The whole experience of a festival, especially one that stretches over a number of days is just mind-blowing. The way each and everyone one of these performers connect with their audiences cannot be found at many other places as Splendour in the Grass is one of the most unique festivals I’ve heard is out there and I am also lucky enough to have been to (not that I have been to every festival) and am lucky enough to go again!! I honestly cannot express how much I am looking forward to the experience of Splendour all over again.

Project 3

Posted on by under Assessment, Week 7

Working on this project has been very positive and I feel has turned out to be very successful. The flow of the piece works well, even with the found footage in there, which is what I initially thought would be the most difficult thing to add in. However, after deciding which parts of the interview to  include, it made scanning the web a lot easier and I found some very fitting clips. I put the footage together in a way to create background information on Sophy. It was all fast paced which set quite a difference from the original footage. Although the contrast of the two, they were nicely blended together. This was achieved by gradually slowing the found footage to normal speed as the original footage begun. I also wanted to make a distinction between the two by making the found footage all black and white, hence, showing that it was from her childhood as the recording equipment would have been of much lesser quality.

I feel that this portrait of Sophy Blake (whom is also my amazing mother) is a very accurate portrayal, depicted in a cute, quirky, non-traditional kind of way. The whole process of creating a portrait of someone else rather than yourself is very different. You have to then worry about what they want to be included and how you can depict them in a certain way. Because Sophy is so talented and creative herself, it made it easy to find things to include. She is also very well spoken and instinctively knows what to say, helping considerably as not much pre planning was needed. I ended up with significantly more media to work with, so in reality I could have made a 5 minute self portrait on her. This made it difficult as I had to cut down to the really good parts and to what I thought would tell the best story on Sophy.

Although the project turned out to be quite successful there is always going to be a few little mess ups. The interview was conducted outdoors on Sophy’s balcony, picking up a lot of background noise. It isn’t so obvious because of the music playing over the top, but there are still hints of birds chirping and other things in the background. In future I now know that interviews need to happen somewhere where no background noise will be picked up.

 

The dreaded first post of the week

Posted on by under Week 7

In the lectorial today, there were some very interesting points which were covered. One being that media is not so much a thing but is something all around us. It surrounds our everyday lives and is something that is just a part of each and everyone of us whether we like it or not. It has been believed in the past that media has such a direct effect on people that what they see, how they react to or how they connect with media can make them do these things in reality. One of the examples of this discussed was that if someone had a room full of murder films or TV shows and watched them all the time, that this would trigger them to become a serial killer. Or if a child plays violent video games that they will grow up to become a violent person. But, there is no evidence to support this theory, and really, how can you actually test this theory or prove it, because it is a topic with such broad perspectives.

We then went on to discuss other matters, but the one that interested me most was the semiotic tradition of analysis. We began discussing this topic around sign, signifier and signified. The signifier was described as being something that is not really anything; something as simple as letters put together to make a word. For example the word ‘DOG’ and only this word can be described as a signifier. Signified is all of the things you think of when you see this word; you may think of what a dog looks like, how it sounds, how it feels, etc. In other words the signifier is the bigger picture and what the word ‘DOG’ makes your brain think about. These were just some of the many things discussed in today’s lectorial, but some I found quite interesting and some that made me really think.

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