Category Archives: integrated media 1

i’m super, thanks for asking – week 9

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i really hope you know what movie that quote in the title is from. no? ok, i posted the link below just to help you out. but only this once. don’t let this happen again.

we’ve started work on our major k-film now and our theme is superpowers. well. we’ve got like 3 themes. kinda. so this is where i really wanna try and sort through them, sort them out and organise them.

1. superpowers

2. heroes vs. villains

3. real vs. fabrication (with a little bit of magic thrown in there too)

so, here’s our main idea/prompt: Is there a definitive line between authentic reality and fabricated reality?

but so much else comes under that that we want to explore. the main way that we are exploring this prompt/idea is through the use of superpowers and then within that, heroes and villains. so it’s kinda like a 3-fold idea, using two of those as methods to communicate our overarching theme. we want to use varying levels of “superpowers” but show them in ways that will make the audience question whether it is real or we have used effects. primarily we are asking what is real? how can you tell what is real from what is fabricated? some things will be obviously real and some obviously fake but the point  is that the line in the middle will become lost, especially once we bring magic into the mix which is a true blend of reality and fabrication that exists in our world today.

the whole point of our film is to take the viewers through a journey using the unique nature of the k-film where they can explore the different sides of the superpowers and try to decide for themselves what is real and what isn’t. having them put into the korsakow style means that the viewer will create their own story from the clips too, they can interpret it how they want, if they just want to see heroes fighting villains then they will but they can also explore what is behind each clip, how it has been made. because k-films force viewers to think about how the film has been constructed in such a certain manner so this plays on that by asking not only how is the film constructed to give meaning but also how are each of the individual clips constructed.

some ideas of clips that we have:

First person super hero actions (edited in post)

Elements and remnants of powers (a fire, arrow in tree, spiderweb)

Shakycam footage of stuff in crowds (add screams and stuff in post)

Night scenes of criminals or criminal looking areas

Street performers, magicians.

using special effects on videos, after editing

someone watching a superhero film

cape blowing in the wind

reverse shots, like somebody jumping off a high ledge. but reverse so it looks like they’re jumping up

 

return to norm – week 9 lecture

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things are finally getting back into the swing of things. that break kinda threw everybody but it’s starting to seem back to normal. at least for now anyways. who knows what it’ll be like in a week.

this weeks lecture was all about the k-films as people start preparing themselves for the major project. to start with, adrian had a lot to say about cinema being visual, not language based. which makes sense. you think about the first films, they were silent. these could be viewed, understood and enjoyed worldwide because images can be received by everyone. yes, we have sound now, but language was never our first port of call for communication. long before there were ever words and language, their were drawings. even in our k-films, we use the still thumbnails as a port of communication to tell what is coming next. people look and see before they read and hear. another example adrian gave was the idea of grammar. in language, a sentence cannot be out of order. the wrong grammar means it won’t make sense. but you can take any series of film clips and put them in any order and they will still make sense. maybe not the same sense that the creator intended but they can still be understood. again this is where korsakow thrives, because it can exist beyond the realm of linear storytelling.

one topic that has been of a lot of discussion has been lists. and an interesting point in the lecture was whether lists can create infinite possibilities. there were some different answers to this question, about it depending on what kind of list or who is listing. but when you think about it, i guess any list can be infinite. it’s like being given a constraint, like what was discussed last week, the constraint allows you to think not just of what you would normally think of but of what else there is out there. and what else can be infinite. there was also the idea that when a list only presents a sample of what is available, then whatever is left can have infinite possibilities. but the part i thought was most important wasn’t about what is or isn’t on the list being infinite or finite but the relationships between things on or off the list being important. because anyone can write a list. but the relationships take thought and time and can have infinite possibilities depending on the individual who is making it. similar to films and especially with k-films, it’s the relationships between clips that’s important, not the clips themselves.

a collage about collages – week 9

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this week’s reading was interesting and for once, understandable!!! (maybe i’m a little to sceptical about all these readings.  but they’re just so tiresome and continuous.) shields provides us with a series of i guess i’ll call them dot points. all about collage and fiction and stuff. like adrian said on the subject blog, this “Could have been written for this subject”. and if it wasn’t, then i reckon this entire subject might have been written around this reading.

the reading itself, as i mentioned above, is comprised of various dot point like sentences (and sometimes paragraphs), making it thankfully very easy to read. it’s generally about collage vs the normal conventional fiction narrative. and you can tell Shields is a major collage supporter. he loves the idea of the many fractured parts coming together to form one whole. as he says, “collage is the many becoming one”, it “connect bits that don’t seem to belong together” and creates something new with them. remind you of anything? here we go again, korsakow!!! yay!!! i guess if this article didn’t relate in some way to korsakow then it wouldn’t really be here, considering korsakow is this entire subject.

shields describes the collage as representing the mind which he describes as “chaotic and opaque rather than unified and transparent” but likens this also to the journey and experience of life itself, saying that “fiction teaches that life is coherent, can be neatly tied up. but life flies at us in bright splinters”, in other words, a mosaic. “story says everything happens for a reason.” but it does not, and collages and k-films mirror this. and with a lack of reason there can sometimes tend to be a lack of plot. but Shields doesn’t say that that is a bad thing, rather that the “absence of plot leaver the reader room to think about other things”. although, i thought he may have gone a bit overboard when he said “plots are for dead people”. like… what does that even mean? calm down Shields. lets not get too over the top here.

moving on we see where Adrian got his favourite ideals, that of “collage as an evolution beyond narrative”. how many lectures has adrian been telling us that we need to get over narrative? the k-films and nonlinear is the way of the future. Shields knows where its at.

a really good point that i liked from the reading was bringing up the kuleshov effect, which we talked about quite a bit last year too. shields says that” meaning and emotion were created not by the content of the individual images but by the relationship of the images to one another” which is again what adrian tells us. in our k-films, it doesn’t matter what the clips themselves are, meaning only comes from how they are linked into and out from the other clips in the film. “meaning is a matter of adjacent data. everything is collage”. the most relevant point Shields made IMO to korsakow is – “you’ve found some interesting material, how do you go about arranging it?”. because that’s what korsakow is, arranging footage to create different meanings, unique meanings, that could never be achieved using simple linear narrative storytelling.

the only issue with all of this, which is something a lot of us have been asking ourselves have only been newly introduced to this new form of communication and story telling, is “how long will the reader stay engaged?”. because collage and korsakow is not for everyone, and a lot of people may not understand it. but as shield says “art exists to make one feel things” so as long as we can let our audience experience something, give them some form of emotion, then isn’t that all we can really ask for?

 

no constraints, just one big ‘ole film – week 8

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we’re well into the course now and the baby k-films are out of the way. however, this means no more constraints and that was one of my contract thing’s. so instead, i’m going to use this contract spot to discuss our plans and ideas for the major k-film project.

we’ve got a big task coming up. and we have to face it in little groups of three. k-films upon k-films and it’s all interconnecting. 60 clips is a big task. especially if we want them all to look good and mean something. i guess it’ a good thing we had all those previous constraints to prepare us. luckily with this task, we have one overarching idea that we will know from the start, rather than random constraints each week to follow so that should making working on it a whole lot easier and actually allow me (and our group) to properly map out what clips we want, what we want them to mean and most importantly, how we want them to connect. if we don’t plan out our film well, it’ll just be a big mess and all the stuff we’ve done leading up to it, including the mini k-films will have been pointless. i want to create something that will be enjoyable, interesting, but also just a great k-film. i want it to utilise the non-linear fashion of korsakow to provide a unique experience for every viewer.

lets hope this turns out well!

back from the break – week 8 lecture

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this week’s lecture was all about interpretation and being creative when it comes to K-films.

my favourite point that Adrian made was that without constraint, you can’t have creativity. this was really interesting to consider because normally when we are given task with which to work around, we can find (and often complain that) it is limiting our creative ability to create what we want. but this was a different take on things. being given a constraint gives us something to work around and towards. it allows us to think outside the box of what it could simply be and to create something much more interesting. without a constraint to guide us, we are limited to simply what we can think of. but if we are given a limit, suddenly we have to think about what we couldn’t just think of, something new. the constraints allow for interpretation and that’s what makes them so creatively accessible, everyone can interpret them differently.

that brings us to the next major part of the symposium lecture, whether interpretation can transfer onto a k-film when making an essay. while any type of text allows for a huge amount of individual interpretation from any viewer, k-films allow a far greater level of subjectivity than a normal film or essay by allowing the viewer to decide what they will experience and when. interpretation can never be controlled by the creator so k-films and k-film essays use this to their advantage to create for a more in depth of exploring ideas on a multi linear plane. there is so much more effort required to make a liner essay, in a true essay, all thoughts should be connected. this is why multi linear works, it allows all the different ideas to be connected to anything the relate to, not just the next point.

one final great point from the lecture was that multi linear k-films and essays mirror the way we as humans experience, understand and interpret the world. our world is made by association and that is how korsakow functions. as adrian said, “it makes thinking out loud visible”

how many lists can you list in a list? – week 8

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this weeks reading introduces the idea of “lists”. we learn about connections and montages and even Adrian himself gets a mention.

now, when i think of lists, i think of a shopping list. or a list of school books. or a list of names of all the 194 episodes of supernatural. but this is different. this is lists in regards to documentaries. and narratives. and montages. it was a little confusing. below i’ve got some points taken from the reading so i can try and understand it a little better.

“the use of structures that effectively de-form familiar story shapes can provide the means for a poetic approach to documentary to respond to conditions of complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence”

“the list is an approach that permits a sense of cohesion at the same time as it increases the gap between project elements.”

so from these i’m gathering that the list is a kind of anti-narrative. it goes against the formal conventions, stripping a narrative down to it’s components, then using those components by themselves to tell a story by allowing the viewer to form the links that would normally just be presented in a given narrative.

“the list as a structuring device in creative screen based documentary is a formal approach that also speaks of the infinite possibilities in combining and making connections across a networked field of elements. Components are gathered and assembled according to a logic that may be thematic, topical, place based or conceptual (to name just a few possibilities) but the relationship between parts is kept loose.”

“idea of the etcetera of the list whereby the elements included refer outwards to other possible inclusions. It is the incapacity of the list to be definitive that allows it to reference the range of potential elements.”

“Here we see indication that in the spaces between and around list elements there is room (perhaps even a requirement) for the audience to augment what is given.”

hmmmm, these three points seem to remind me of something. something very familiar. something we may or may not have spent 8 weeks discussing. ah yes, that’s it, korsakow! korsakow and the k-films we made are in the process of making again are all about the space in the gaps between the content. we don’t want anything to be set in stone, the audience creates the meanings and connections for themselves. k-films are limitless in this sense, they can never be specifically defined because every person views them differently, both from each other and between different viewings. and so, like k-films, Frankham is discussing the infinite possibilities of lists to portray anything, they are left to the viewer’s imagination, both in creating relationships and meaning between items which are on the list and in forming connections and associations to those which aren’t on the list. pretty nifty.

“There are thematic and structural relations generally established amongst the parts of the list but narrative links tend not to be strongly formed. Nonetheless, the potential may exist for narrative links to be activated or imagined.”

“Often structured around unifying themes or existing categories and classifications, the list can also inspire thought that follows the structure of memory, impulse and flashes of association.”

are we talking about korsakow or lists here? is korsakow just a tool for making awesome, interactive lists? are our k-films lists? reading this i’m beginning to think so. even when a k-film has no distinct theme or pattern (even though most of them tend to), the viewer will still create some form of connections between the content. it’s human nature to do so. we understand by association. with no narrative present, our brains strive to see one. to form connections using the content given. k-films, like lists, generally don’t have a strong narrative presence, and yet links between them still exist.

“connecting together material from disparate places through our use of the internet and in our fragmented daily life.”

why this is all possible (or even discussed at all), the internet. where would we be without it? probably reading some book and learning. but the internet is fragmented. it is made up of infinite links leading in and out of everywhere. just like a, you guessed it, k-film!! so, is the internet a list? i guess you could consider it that. it contains pretty much everything there is, a list of all the information we know. and yet it is infinite, like a list, because it is constantly expanding, not just by gaining new information and items to add to the list, but as each individual contributes their interpretations and connections and associations, it grows, forms more links. perhaps we are all just one big, never-ending list.

beach day – week 8

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i like to try and keep up with what my fellow media makers are up to. this week i checked out ella’s blog which had a really awesome video that she made. this video was to follow the constraint “places that define you” and i think this really works. ella lives in st kilda so filming acland street couldn’t possibly have suited her more. acland street is a very big part of my life so i know how much a strong part it holds in the heart of anyone who lives in st kilda. and i feel ella’s clips really do capture the heart of st kilda, from the terrifying teeth and eyes of the luna park mouth to those goddamn seagulls on the beach to the cars and graffiti, this film is st kilda.

i’m not sure why but my fave clip was the one of the traffic lights. it’s one of the few that show movement but it also has light and an interesting shot composition, it worked that the lights weren’t smack bang in the centre of frame. it makes it different and that’s what makes st kilda so special. it’s different.

good stuff ella 😀

lists and lectures – week 7 lecture

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almost break time and you can feel it in the classroom. everyone is ready for a week off. not there just yet though. still got this lecture notes to get through.

it’s all about lists this week as adrian discussed what the literary value was of lists compared to narrative. lists are quick ways of getting points across. they can reveal thought patterns more tellingly than a narrative. written stories have been thought over for ages, lists are the quick work of the immediate brain. but lists also move us away from the restrictions of narrative. they don’t conform and can allow the brain to go in many different directions which don’t necessarily have to relate to one another. perhaps lists don’t tell stories, but they are told by people can reveal just as much. they can provide a method for answering a problem, the true question is what to do with the content. a list has a far greater means of interpretation. lists allow for the creating of relations.

woo. go lists! i love writing lists. ok, maybe not so much

gone in a flash – week 7

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this weeks reading gave us some nice info about korsakow itself from someone who has worked with the created of the program (and adrian,who is even quoted in it).it brought up points that were discussed in the lecture about interactivity and narrative in regards to how much control the audience has over interpretation. for example, here’s this quote from the article: “the juxtaposition by itself of course does not result in montage, it is up to the filmmaker to construct a logic that determines which images appear together, when they appear and what kind of relationships they enter into with one another”. this discusses the actual style of korsakow itself as a non-linear interface that is not about what is the content but more about how the content is put together to create connections and relations.

one of the smaller points of the article that i found really interesting was the stuff about the difference between older programs such as korsakow compared to new stuff like a done, java and flash. adobe may become obsolete in the future and so any films uploaded online using flash or other adobe software may cease to exist, negating the whole idea of internet films and things being accessible. not even accessible on certain mobile devices such as iPads- backwards thinking. older films from 1900 may have longer lasting rate than more current films produced and distributed using software like adobe. can the older adobe files still be accessible once software is updated?

 

and the k-films roll in – week 7

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last week our k-films were due. i got mine in. it was a lot of stress and confusion and frustration but it’s done and out there, ready for the whole internet to enjoy. and i figured, while i was there, i would take a look at some of the other students’, you know, to see how horrible mine is in comparison. and some were really good!! i mean just so fluid and beautiful really. its crazy to think how much meaning and art can go into something which consists of seemingly randomly ordered 6 second videos about seemingly random things. but they really are great.

one of my personal favourites was becs, who’s video can be found here: http://www.themediastudents.net/im1/2014/rebecca.skilton/rebeccaskilton.html#/?snu=209.

all the elements of her k-film really seem to just work well together. it really feels like she knew right from the beginning where she wanted her films to go and what they were going to look like (which is completely the opposite of mine). they all just seem to flow so eel and are similar in their style and content. one of my favourite elements of the film is that the thumbnails or in black and white while the videos themselves are colour. not only does it give the overall interface a really nice feel but it also shows the effect of colour in the videos once they are selected and played. there is just such a strong difference between the black and white still and the colour videos.

one of my favourite videos in the sequence it the keyboard/typing clip. i love the different angles and the contrast between the empty page and keyboard to the clips of the person typing. and the the end frame having the word “end” just feels very powerful, especially in consideration of the text underneath which says “i am not communicating but i am connected”. it makes for a powerful video that have a lot more meaning than my simple videos of apples. the text itself running throughout the entire film is very powerful in relation to the videos with which they are assigned. they seem to contradict the videos while simultaneously complementing them.

all in all, a beautiful, well rounded and interesting k-film