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Week 6
Far From Practically Perfect
On Filming
There was much trepidation in the days leading up to the shoot day up until the moment I rang Hannah’s doorbell. I made sure I was as prepared and as professional as I could be – double checked all the tips from the media interview lecture AND dressed like how I thought a professional, hip filmmaker would look like (black turtleneck and pleated plaid skirt, fyi). There were some images I had planned like the make up and dress shots but everything else was a free for all. Luckily Hannah is very accommodating and we developed a good rapport throughout the shoot. I had some sort of loose vision, a feel and tone I was aiming for but it was still quite raw. We ended up shooting a couple hours worth of footage. Some were just us talking casually with the camera hanging loosely to develop a more comfortable and friendly environment. I filmed a lot of nooks and details in her house that I thought appropriate and just blindly shot and shot things.
The sit down interview was quite easy and relaxed but the show and tells proved to be most difficult filming wise. It was hard to be still – that was personally my biggest challenge. Next time I will have to just not hold the darn camera because I get too excitable, unpredictable, or (WORST OF ALL) indecisive. Watching things back, there were so many shots that just gave up half way because I must have gotten bored with it or lost hope in it. I need more stillness and calm in my camera/directing manner. I also need much more discipline when it comes to talking to friends. It’s great that Hannah was so comfortable but there were also times when our interjections did ruin what could have been some good footage.
On Editing
Editing is the thing I love so much but still dread doing. I’ve made myself a playground of footage to play with but with a playground comes great responsibility. I ended up with over 50 clips in total and had to title/categorise each one for easier organisation. The main interviews were in three long videos and I ultimately managed that by recording time marks and topics. I created my own sticky note timeline on the dining table, constantly rearranging them into some sort of logical, narrative order (some straying a little from its original contexts). Editing got very confusing and time consuming because I’ve filmed a lot of footage without knowing exactly what I wanted – it’s like trying to make a good story out of words floating around you and you have to somehow catch them in the right order!
The amount of power in editing also mildly frightened me a little. The interview shown in the final piece has been quite scattered and reordered to create new meaning and that much narrative control freaked me out a little bit. I am now really appreciating editing as another form of creative story telling because editing truly does takes vision, flexibility, and intuition. Seeing my own visions and ideas form, fray, and develop is always an interesting process. Using music as a simultaneous dialogue break/narrative progression as well as soundtrack for the “montage” like fantasies portraying Hannah’s wonderful mind was something that happened organically (and thankfully). Half the time I think I just pray to the editing gods to bestow upon me spontaneous ideas that will save my butt. I need to plan more and not depend on magic film deities, methinks.
Timing was also something I found a nice challenge – by which I mean subtly inserting clips in places that don’t slap you in the face with literal meaning or comically appear when the subject or key word is broached. I didn’t fully succeed in this and some clips still felt awkwardly placed and/or stilted to me.
Paying At-TEN-tion to the PB3 narrative
- What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait? In other words, what is the most interesting thing about your participant/interviewee that you want to communicate?
There’s the idea of escape, charm, and optimism. In many ways, Hannah feels some displacement in the world and prefers to live in a bubble. The way she dresses, spends her days, spends her time and money – all to feed her passion is so exciting and inspiring.
2. How is your portrait film structured? (Remember there might be multiple forms of structure employed) E.g. Discussion and depiction of an event or process? A Journey? Use of voiceover narration? Other?
The film is structured with a lot of narration – she tells her own story. The sit down interview is the thread that holds the whole thing together but there is also a sense of a different world, one that is in her mind, that runs concurrent to the outside world. There is so much colour and vibrance in her life so I also used that to break up the sit down interview which can easily turn monotonous.
3. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? (e.g. What are you saying through them and/or human nature, human folly, or noble human inspiration?)
Her obsession and dedication to this life is fascinating – these days there’s so much emphasis on being “cool” that people don’t crack the surface any more. Hannah is out there, extremely enthusiastic about life, and not afraid to show it.
4. How is your portrait being narrated? Why? How does it affect the structure?
All of it is Hannah’s voice and the viewer is welcomed into her mind. It really focuses on her from her point of view which is what we’re emphasising – she has faced her fair share of criticism from society and has the right to say what she likes about herself however she wants to. I wanted her to own it and I needed that ownership for authentication’s sake. She can already be so outrageous to outside viewers and the film needed to commit to that.
5. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait? For example, reinforcement? Ironic counterpoint? Contrast? Comparison? Other?
It will add nostalgia to it, further enhance the old world atmosphere and charm. There is more reinforcement than contrast/irony, however, and I struggled with this.
6. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point?
There is pure delight in the world and she lives in it but there is a very human worry and self consciousness there too. We see her fight society a little which portrays the heartwarming strength of character under all the daintiness.
7. When does this turning point in your portrait and why? At the beginning? At the end? Two-thirds through?
There’s some deeper confessions towards the middle/end which serves as a contrast to the lighter stuff we had seen so far. The first part is introducing her and her world, then comes the slightly more dramatic confessions about the pressures she feels from society – but it ends on a note that shows she will remain the way she is and is perfectly content to be so.
8. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
I have split the film’s theme song into three parts that act as a contrast/breather from the heavy dialogue. We progress through the song and, in some ways, also reflects the progression and even non progression of the story. There is also a lot of very short clips in the film which hopefully keeps it upbeat, energetic, and not lively. There is always something new to see and hopefully that keeps the audience engaged.
9. Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from? The gradual exposition of an overall situation? A volcanic, climactic moment? An impending change or crisis? The contrast between what the interviewee talks about and the found footage?
Because it starts to lightheartedly and charmingly, the viewers get a quick glimpse into what seems to be the impenetrable wonderland of Hannah Poppins – so when her admittance comes about social pressure to conform, we are totally caught off guard by the contrast in feeling. There’s a lot about society’s expectation versus what she wants and the joy she gets from that. I think a lot of the film’s appeal still lies in the fascination with her obsession but in saying that, I don’t know either if that is enough to keep people engaged.
10. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution? Outline them.
I don’t think it has a climax so theoretically there can’t be a resolution…but there’s a sense of resolution in Hannah’s contentedness towards the end. There is something inspiring in her urging of the viewers to embrace oddity and live the best life today.
heY, OVER HerE!
One of this week’s readings was the Art of Noticing by John Mason (2002). He spoke of the levels of noticing and the differing amounts of mental and physical energy it requires to succeed at those levels. In the end it’s about being present and mindful of your environment – the people in it, the things all around you, and your own presence within the environment.
The levels of noticing and its energetic equivalents:
- Ordinary noticing – seeing the chocolate bar
- Marking – picking up the chocolate bar
- Recording – walking to the counter, taking out your wallet and paying for the chocolate bar
Noticing is odd because active noticing is basically seeing a bunch of things, comprehending them, and remembering them. Then there is the questions of interpretation, the subconscious mind, and the conscious. What we “naturally” notice has been conditioned all our lives. Imagine that our world has a canvas and each person has their own individual one. Things are new to us until they aren’t and they become just another part of our familiar landscapes. If we go to an unfamiliar city, our minds become busy looking, absorbing, and marvelling. Our own city has probably, to some extent, faded into the background while we prefer to occupy our minds with more thrilling things.
As story tellers, however, we must be present. Noticing can bring realism to depicting life on screen. It will enhance your awareness of the mundane and how to then best employ that awareness to create accuracy in story telling. The world is filled with detail – rich details of odd, random, boring, fascinating things that can only enrich life and our understanding of it.
‘Dear old world‘, she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.‘– Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Here are some things I was reminded of during the reading which made my understanding more concrete:
1. Sherlock’s Mind Palace
This genius man’s level of awareness is insane. Nothing is above or below his notice and treats everything as a possibility. Some of my favourite sequences is when he rapidly recalls and visualises the hundreds of things he has noticed to find answers. The screen tracks his fast thoughts, focusing on the smallest details and moving swiftly between observations.
2. Virginia Woolf and the stream of consciousness
“In the course of your daily life this past week you have had far stranger and more interesting experiences than the one I have tried to describe…In one day thousands of ideas have coursed through your brains; thousands of emotions have met, collided, and disappeared in astonishing disorder.” (Mr Bennet and Mr Brown essay, 1923)
No matter how hard we creators try, life is a vivid, changing thing that cannot fully be caught. We can only observe and study the world – and depict it as much as we are able.
3. Espionage and spy training
I have always been so fascinated by spies and spy things so of course when I visited the Spy Museum in D.C., I had to do all the spy training simulations. Unfortunately, I’d be a crap spy because noticing everything is HARD and also exhausting. You were trained to notice suspicious things – and they would be as subtle as a mark on a tree trunk. Then of course you have to notice everything and blend into that environment so you don’t get caught and die.
4. Audio description training for the visually impaired
I once took a workshop on describing gallery exhibitions to the visually impaired.
It was basically noticing everything, judging what can enhance their experience, then describing it accurately. I realised just how much we depend on sight to form our outlook (pun always intended) of the world and it was interesting to be so extremely present and to notice everything about the work.
Video Killed The Radio Star? – Listening to BBC Radio dramas and LOVIN IT
It was such a joyful coincidence for BBC to have released a 3 hour radio drama featuring one of my favourite actors (Hayley Atwell, queen of my soul) at the same time as our studying sound and sound media. It enriched the experience and really forced me to pay attention to how sound and voice are manipulated to tell the story clearly in that special medium.
The work was called The Magus, adapted as a radio play from John Fowles’ postmodern 1965 novel of the same name. Narrated in first person, it was a psychological mystery set in a remote Greek island, the city of Athens, and London – vastly different locations each requiring its own distinct atmospheres.
Here is a link to the play but it expires in a couple of weeks – I’m sure the other available plays are equally well done though! Here is a link to one of Hayley Atwell’s short audio interviews discussing her love for radio/voice artistry and its difference to her more visual Marvel shows. Her voice is so rich and luscious ugh #perfection
This isn’t the first radio play I’ve listened to, I used to love the Lux Radio programs from the 30s and 40s where they would recreate popular films into one hour radio adaptations. The sound in those were a little more contrived especially to the contemporary listener more used to realism in media. Also, technology has come a long, long way, and microphones and editing have become a lot more sophisticated which allows for more freedom and, of course, more challenges. The subtlety of the incidental background tracks were excellent as with the sound mixing to create the distance characters had between each other. That was perhaps the coolest part of it – the creation of distance in sound. The distance and mood was clear when characters were getting to know each other walking along the beach – and the complete change of scene when they were getting intimate in that evening.
The sound editing as the dialogue zoned in/out of narration and scene was also interesting to observe. When we were in the narrator’s consciousness, it was only the voice by itself. But we would weave in and out of the scene – atmosphere/outside world would fade in and out mirroring the character’s stream of consciousness. Other sounds would trickle back in ensuring smooth transitions between narration and world.
In relation to that was also pace and changeover between scenes. Sometimes there is silence just long enough to be noticeable without losing dynamics, sometimes it is just a breath and change of energy. On a story telling level, the swift creation of contrast was impressive. They really mastered the manipulation of rhythm so that the show never got too boring or confusing (at least in regards to location and time. The plot is a whole other thing…).
I definitely want to create something like this at some point. It’s a different mode of story telling that I think is really worth exploring and might even make a trendy return what with the rise of podcasting.
RMIT Interviews with Vicki and Tash!
It was really interesting doing the interview – recording similar answers with different close ups and recording separate interviewer reactions – then slicing and putting them together to make a hopefully coherent video. It’s a good peek at what is we will be doing for the short documentary assessment as well as the general format of an edited interview segment.
I especially like the panning shot that ends on Vicki and I talking – I then increased the speed to make it match the casual, urban feel I was going for. I feel some of the close ups were a bit awkward and I did not know how to fix/edit it to make it feel less stilted.
Personally, I found the tone fairly bland despite my meagre editing efforts to avoid that. I still feel some discomfort and awkwardness about operating the camera with other people around – something I will just have to reflect on and overcome.