QUESTION #1

Paste the link here from your version of the abstract editing exercise.

Then reflect on the whole process – Consider: the quality and usability of your recordings; the effect of layering and juxtaposition of both the audio and the video and; the things you learnt from working with this kind of audio and video.

In this abstract execrise, Many footages are very useful so I can easily combine them together. I filmed some footages on a tripod due to the shakeness issue. The tripod can scure a good quality and usebility of my pictures.

Most of my footages are close-up shot because my concept is what people get from the text of adversting posters? You can see the extreme close-up on a figure’s eyes, mouth, and hands. I think the symbolic signs represents some specific things. Those signs guide people to think. Therefore, I want to look closely. This is the reason that I decide to use close up shot to emphasize the texts.

According to my idea, I realize my choices of audio should relate to people when I am editing. Therefore, I try the sound about human activities such as the footstep, the crowded, the  tram and the traffic light alarm. The audio and video perfectly fit into each other.

It is very interesting that when you combine two completely different things together, the result is always suprised. How to use the audio is very important. Although the video give most visual information, the use of audio lead to the atmosphere of the video. Perhaps, I use another type of sound like clapping or laugther instead of footsteps, the result is totally another version. This is what I’ve got from this execrise.

QUESTION #2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you. (Please put a full stop when you return so we get a paragraph break. Makes it easier to read.)

I’m very interesting in the readings by Rabiger, Directing the Documentary. In the chapter, Research Leading Up To The Shoot, Rabiger reveals his finding of “The Dramatic Curve”. He claims that how the filmmakers tell their stories with the concept of the dramatic curve. It is originally derived from the Greek drama and represents how most stories first states their problem, develop tension through scenes of increasing complication and intensity, then arrive at an apex or “crisis”. After the climax comes change and resolution.

Rabiger generally summerizes the dramatic curve as five steps in telling a story.

1. The expostiion

To lay out the main character and their siutation is the first step. The story teller has to give enough inforamtion of the time, place and period, etc.

2.The incling moment

To create a conflict, a story needs two different sides people with opposite interets. Therefore, the second step is to reveal the oppostie interets against the main characters. In other words, the filmmaker is able to bring out the problem in the early of his film and solve it out later.

3.Rising action and complication

Producing the complication usually means the conflict being played out as variations having  surprise, suspense and escalating intensity. The filmmaker make two different sides people confront each other to build up the tensions. All these steps are to generate the final climax.

4 The final confrontation

The final climax in a film. This moment is the most intensive situation when two different sides of interests finally come into each other.

5 Change and Resolution

After the climax, the filmmakers gives the answers of the final confrontation. It is always the ending of a story.

Question_1

I’m very impressed by the landscape shot in ‘End of The Line’. The landscape is not only a great establishing shot but also emphasise the major feature of ‘Broken Hill’, the loneliness. In this landscape, we can only see a small town which is surrounded by a desert. I remember the film starts with this landscape shot and it finishes with the same shot at the end of the film. Perhaps, the filmmaker considers that he is a tourist to visit this mysterious small town, therefore, he generates the natural view of the Broken Hill to say “I’m here.”

The second thing is the interviews. The filmmaker prefers the informal interview and he just grab random people to interview in the town, mostly because of the reality. I think the filmmakers wants to illustrate the reality of the Broken Hill people. The formal interview may destroy their innocence. In one scene, the filmmaker interviews three guys at dark night, they seem to be shy and they do not really know what to say in front of the camera. Sometimes they just awkwardly laugh to each other because they don’t expect to be interviewed by someone from outside the Broken Hill. The pursuit of people’s innocence is greatly emphasised in this scene.

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For the following project in the future, I would like to be a DOP, an editor or a sound operator. I’m very interested in cinematography and I like to hold a camera to shoot something. Also, editing is always my favour part in any projects because I can create something in the post. Finally, I’m not familiar with sound, not as good as editing. So it would be a great challenge for me.

Question_2

Select from one of the readings and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

In Bernard’s readings, I found something very useful for me. According to Bernard, the story is always revealing so the filmmaker can receive the new findings when they are documenting the story. In the documentary-making process, the filmmaker cannot just simply record the materials without thinking because the story must have a focal point or a theme. The filmmaker get to explore in the story in whatever way. For example, ‘Daughter From  Danang’ is a successful documentary.  The filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco had a great exploration about the main characters Heidi Bub and the birth mother. However, they didn’t know the story of the film was great until they started to film it in Vietnam. Before reaching in Vietnam, they could only anticipate this story was only a happy reunion of a family. They didn’t know what was going to happen and they only went with their concept.

Another interesting thing for me is the access. Bernard considers filming with the subject needs an access,. The access not only represent a established relationship between you and the subjects but also secure the trust with people who can grant it. When you are exploring your the story, you need to consider “Can you get inside your character’s story?” or “where is the deadline that you cannot step over?” Your shooting has to be granted by the subject in order to they know what will be shown in the film.

Question 1

Milk was my favourite film of the screening night. It was a simple and interesting story in which a man was desperate to get a milk from the store where closed at one. The music was so effective to build up the ambiences. It was funny and exciting when you saw the Indian kid running on the street in a exaggerate way.  I really like the scene that the main character was kicking his scooter. A close shot was revealing that he was desperately kicking on and he seems to be very fast. However, the film was cut to a long shot that he was actually slower than a man who can run pass him. The film was great, I really like the humour.

The Hole was my another favourite one. This film was with black and white effect all the time except for the ending. I was very enjoyed this film because it looks like an old time film. The Hole was another humour that was different from Milk. The main character thought it was funny to see people falling into the hole. The editing was effective so I can understand the story. The shots were answering to each other. For example, the first shot was about different people falling into the hole  and the next shot would be the main character’s reaction. It wouldn’t be very funny the only one shot that people fell. However, it was a lol when we saw the reaction of people falling by someone.

CARL came with a great script. At the beginning, I felt a little bit boring in the scene the hero was talking to his bear. But the story developed very well. The heroine felt very strange that the hero’s best friend was a toy. She wasn’t really sure about the relationship with her boyfriend. They always fight as CARL, a toy, exists between them. In the scene when they are playing monopoly game and they are both speaking for CARL. However, CARL’s existence resulted in a sweet ending. “I think CARL needs a friend.” The heroine brought a girly toy bear to the hero. Aww, the film was so nice.

Question 2

“In 200 words or less please outline your goals, desires – what you want to get out of this semester. You will review this later in the course. Many will rethink this dramatically by the end of the course – this is a good thing.”

No? Go back and have a look.

Now we’d love you to do the same at this end.

Please reflect on how you feel about the course. What surprised you, what excited you, what disappointed you. What we could have done better. What you could have done better.

Feel free to copy and paste what you wrote in week 1 into your response.

Goal and Desires

In the coming semester, I wanna get a ‘Distinction’ grade. Of course, There are a number of things I have to figure out. For film or TV project, the first thing is collaboration. I expect to get well along with my peers to complete our project, to achieve something.  Also, we’ll have a bunch of things to prepare, like Ideas, Scripts, Storyboard, Sound, Video etc. A appropriate plan is very benefit for the quality of a production. Therefore, I look forwards to being capable of scheduling. Last but not the least, I’m very interested in editing stuffs. Hopefully, after this semester, my ability can be level up.

 The SEMESTER REFLECTION

In this semester, I’ve learnt a lot of knowledge in Film/TV one, such as the set up of lighting, camera operation, and the editing. What I expected at the begging of the semester was a good collaboration. Yes, it comes true. I had a very good time with my group mates when we are doing the production.

Another thing was that, I had a rare opportunity to be a cinematographer in my film production. For me, it was an excellent experience. Why is cinematographer so important? I think the reason probably is cinematographer who is only one person know what the images looks like. Cinematographer have consider so many. A good shot will not be easy. Cinematographer have to secure all things are in the right track like lighting, setting, camera etc. ONE of them may perhaps ruin the images. In other words, cinematographer results in the quality of images.

Finally, I was so lucky to get my group mates’ trust when I was doing the editing stuffs in Pranking Frank. They trusted I had a good editing skills. I very appreciate that. Fortunately, my group mates really like the final version of the film. I found the techniques of J-CUT and L-CUT were very useful in our film. The scene flowed after another very well with these techniques. I’m glad my teammates and I have done a good film in this semester.

Consider Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” and describe at least a couple of points that you took away from it (even if you’re not the director).

Sandra’s lecture was really great. Her tips were helpful to me, although I was not a director in my programme.

Sandra first talked about rehearing actors beforehand. In her sense, a director had better talk to actors about the story before shooting day. They can have better comprehension about your story. Also, she advised the mood when directing. An actor can easily sense when the director is unhappy and it affects their confidences. Therefore, how to deal with the issue like this is communication. Director is recommend to be relaxed and honest. A good atmosphere could be better for a good production.

Sandra recommended giving the actors the momentum of the prior scene’s emotion. This tips was impressive. One of the readings in Film/TV categories states that if your scene are playing music, you might let actors listen this music. Even though actors are not really on set, their prior imagination is good for their ability to perform.

In this clip screened in the lecture from the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple‘ describe what is happening in terms of the edits specifically in terms of the audio and video. Also name the different kinds of audio you can hear.

The ambience sound at night.

Characters conversations.

the sound of object. (i.e handing over the folder, sitting down on a chairs)

This sequence mainly consist of a series of reverse shots between two characters. Audio is a medium or a transition within cut by cut. When editor cuts Character A to Character B, the audio must be consistent. It convince us to believe they are happening at the same time in the same space. In other words, audio connects moving images.

A good example is to learn that if we suddenly cut image to black screen as the audio is still going. We believe the video is still rolling because we still can hear. However, if we shut audio down but keep video, as you can imagine, that could be a mistake otherwise you have a good reason.

Question 1

 Lecture 7 Lighting: What was covered? Do you think the content is relevant to your project? And why?

Robin showed us how to manipulate the lighting in different way. He illuminated the differences between hard lighting and soft lighting. The measure of hard lighitng or soft lighitng is depenent on the harsh of shadows. Hard light creates much more shadows on subjects than soft light. We have to consider the shadows and exposure on subject’s face. The manipulate of lighting is how to illuminate the scene or character better. We should correct the lighting while we are filming. Hard light seems more dramatizing than soft light. Thus, we also should think of the atmosphere as well.

Question 2

Select from one of the readings from week 5, 6 or 7 and describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

It is recommended to read all of the readings.

The idea of onside and offside key lighting is very new for me. Ideally, a key light should stay on 45 degree off from the camera axis, but actors in film are not always stationary. Lighting also has to be motivated to match the shots. For example, I start a medium long shot in front of the characters to establish the scene. I change camera position to do a reverse shot on characters revealing their conversation. I shouldn’t change my key light position as match 45 degree off the camera axis. Lighting is conspicuous, it makes audiences confused when they notice the lighting is different.

The notion of soft light is a diffused rather than a soft degree of light. Usually, there are three categories soft light: commercially  lute box-type luminaries, any lamp with diffusion in front of it, or light from any source bounced off a reflective surface. A hard light sources can be softened by a bounce or a diffusion.

Question 3

In this scene, Antonioni uses many dolley tracking shots. The most important thing is how to keep the shots continuous. There were a several of things Antonioni had to consider as he was these shots. Firstly, the movement of actors is important to know. Camera always follows actors’ movement so cinematographer has to assume what is the best way to manipulate the camera. Secondly,  the movement framing is significant. The camera operator should know where is the starting frame and where is the ending frame. Thus, he could be able to manipulate the frame easily in shooting. The third thing is focus. Cinematographer has to adjust the focus while actor or camera moving in the scene. Therefore, cinematographer should know the focus point of starting position and ending position. Finally, lighting is continuous. As actors move around in the scene, the actors should be covered by lighting all the time.

Question 7

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 am very interested in how to adjust the lighting in the set. The measure of soft or hard light depends on the degree of shadows on character’s face. Hard light creates a significant shadow as soft light generates less. Additionally, if we were in a situation that we are only equipped hard lights set, we can use a cutter or a whiteboard to make a soft lighting. The technique is called as bounce lighting. We are able to operate a hard lighting to a whiteboard and the light will be reduced by bouncing on a board to the character.

Question 8

Please insert the link for your Lenny ex2 here. (use insert link tool)

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

Generally, I had a good experience from Lenny ex2. Before shooting in the day, I draw a storyboard and made a shortlist in order to we can process easily. Storyboard and shortlist are not only a brief draft of images but also those are highly dependent on the communication between cinematographer and director moving on the same pages.

“Calling the shot” is excellent knowledge for me to understand how to start filming. In my opinions, this process would be the best way to communicate with different roles of the film producing. To make sure every one have high regard for a shooting, cinematographer, director, sound recorder, First AD and actors have to give a specific signal to each other. I had so much fun in this process and I really learnt something from there.