Following up from previous entry re: Birmingham book. Some interesting words regarding IDEAS which apply to us as media dudes and dudettes, as follows:
‘They clarify out of thinking, and reading, and watching television and movies, and conversation, and magazines, and ditzing around on the interwebz, but mostly they come from thinking. Not just consuming media passively, but from watching, listening, and reading actively, critically, but most of all imaginatively.’
From: Birmingham, J. (2016); How to Be a Writer Who Smashes Deadlines, Crushes Editors and Lives in a Solid Gold Hovercraft; NewSouth Publishing, Sydney; p.46
Alanis Morissette once famously said that irony is like when a fly lands in your drink, or when you’re late for work and stuck in traffic. I’m pretty sure those things aren’t ironic, they’re just annoying. And I’m also sure I’m not the first pleb in the world to question Alanis’s take on irony. The Oxford dictionary will back me up here, with its definition being ‘The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.’ Let me give you a real example of irony. But first, for context I’ll run you through some side-news from today’s wonderful editing session.
As stated in my previous post, things were going great and the mood was positive and uplifting. But then, after our teacher told me off for the third time in one day in no uncertain terms for separate matters which were either misinterpreted or possibly overreacted to, I came to a three-pronged realisation:
This is now a solid five or six times he’s given me a tongue-lashing despite our minimal student-teacher contact time during the course. The first three or so times were water off a duck’s back, I took the criticism on board and utilised it towards knowledge and self improvement. I fine-tuned my attitude and stifled my words. Then came today’s scathing triple decker. Later on after I’d stopped crying and writing emo poetry about it whilst lying on the train tracks, I thought this guy either has it in for me for no apparent reason, or is just unintentionally negative in his criticism. Animated, perhaps. It also raised the question: why is it just me? But then I got off my cloud and thought ‘f*ck it’. Shit happens.
Last night was a full moon. Don’t get me started on how that affects us as humans, other than saying both we and the earth are predominantly water-based. Rather than making the human race faster and more lubricated, it just makes us more prone to boiling over.
Working with others means you/me/everyone needs to be flexible and adaptive. In some circumstances, you/me/everyone needs to speak up because other people want you to do that at every opportunity. Whereas at other times, amongst certain other people, you/me/everyone needs to S.T.F.U. because speaking up is just too damn risky. When I was young, dumb and full of bubble gum I had the occasional problem with authority. I still have a slight rebellious streak. Some people would say I’ve also got a small tail at the base of my back, but that’s just a vicious rumour. Anyway, with maturity has come the good sense to ascertain that in circumstances such as these, less is more. A little less conversation, a little more lights, camera, action! The wallflowers just gained a partner.
This gets me onto my own example of irony. (Finally, right? About time. Don’t worry, my blogs will also be shrinking in future).
Within minutes of my three-pronged realisation of ‘shit happens’, ‘full moon’ & ‘shut up’, I turned to the very next page in the book I’m reading and found what you see in the photo in this post. There in big bold letters are the words ‘FIND YOUR VOICE’? Really?? Someone’s taking the piss. Psssst… don’t tell Rohan.
Birmingham, John: How to Be a Writer Who Smashes Deadlines, Crushes Editors and Lives in a Solid Gold Hovercraft (2016)
Today’s editing session was a great meeting of minds, we had a good rapport with each other and made a lot of progress. The teacher Rohan’s input was invaluable again and at times virtually lifesaving to our project. I really appreciated this, even though he did make me feel like an arsehole AGAIN, which I will briefly discuss in my next post. But right now I will say what is most important. And that is what we learned today as a group. Rohan guided us to realise and achieve our goals with the structure of the video, the duration and construction of shots (or series and combination thereof) and the all-important options available to us with our freaky overlay section.
We had two rough edits of our video to peruse – one was the combined team effort up to this point; and the other was the solo version I did on the weekend. Both of these contained parts we incorporated into a new improved update of our team edit. We also identified – again, with Rohan’s help – parts of each which simply didn’t visually appeal &/or make sense. It’s ironic that we are aiming to make sense of our video despite the fact it is largely nonsensical (oh, by the way, ‘irony’ is something I will also mention in my next post). The difference between senseless and eccentric, which we are learning to articulate here, is the emphasis on quality representation of the bizarre aspects of our material so it doesn’t just look like plop (yes, I believe that’s the technical term for it).
Our communication was really on point today, as we’ve all experienced and endured the most challenging parts of production involving planning, hiring equipment and shooting. Having three rainy days off undoubtedly also helped. It’s been a rapid ride and steep learning process but I think we’re all stronger for that now and it’s a credit to have stayed on track time-wise. The most encouraging thing about our work is that each time we meet, we are making solid progress and continuing to charge towards the finish line. This level of consistent productivity does not always happen within collaborative processes, so I am grateful. With more editing slated for tomorrow and Friday morning, our goal is to complete the rough cut this week and the final cut by the end of next week. We then have another week up our sleeves before presentation, which will be a sort of ‘contingency plan’ if we need it.
It’s a pleasure to be a part of Team SYNT (a.k.a. ‘C U Next Tuesday’) as we all bring our individual qualities to form a nicely rounded unit. And if we do crack the shits every now and then (i.e. me), it’s no different to any other family or creative group. All in a day’s work.
I think we’d all agree we’re at that point where we never want to hear our chosen song again, which the teacher did predict in week 2. With a combination of repetitious audio, our actor’s occasional eye roll and bendy body language, the technical mood swings of Premiere Pro and our constant talk about loops, we are also on the verge of going loopy. We might all end up in a foetal position on the floor by the due date, but it should be worth it. #studentlife
