I don’t know which take to use. I’ve probably watched them both (at least) 20 times, and thought by now I would have a clear preference. It’s time to show other people.

Sound is something that I still haven’t quite worked out. I toyed with the idea of making it a silent film, though I’m not sure if it truly works and it feels a bit pretentious.

Paul suggested creating some kind of ‘soundscape’. I will use my library of samples (voice memos from my phone, mainly) and try and make something out of them on Logic. Here’s my thinking:

After shooting over the weekend, and becoming increasingly concerned with my cinematography ability, I decided to return to familiar territory for some practice; Darebin Parklands.

I thought about panning and zooms, and thought that shooting ducks, with their unpredictable movement and nature on the water, was the best way to develop my skillset.

I don’t like shooting in front people who are not involved in whatever I’m producing, so I arrived at 5:45AM, just as the sun began to rise, to avoid the everyday human.

The footage is presented in chronological order, and from the beginning you may see one limitation that I had to endure; my tripod, specifically the plate, was broken. It was hell but each shot was easier than the last.

This was not only a huge help in developing my cinematography, it was also a very therapeutic experience. I will likely do this again, albeit at a different location.

Recently, two things have been occupying my mind; slow zooms, whether that be in or out, and the act of walking.

Slow zooms have always been something I’ve enjoyed observing, though only recently have I realised how much I respond to them.

This is a shot from Blaise Pascal, a film by Roberto Rossellini, which is full of slow zooms. This shot in particular has been in my head for weeks, and I’m not totally sure why. I am leaning towards shooting a series of shots that involve slow zooms as a way of answering this question, but more broadly, figuring out what can slow zooms do to a shot, a character, a location, and so on, and what information it reveals. As for what the content of these shots are, I am still undecided.

This is another shot from Blaise Pascal, this time of two characters walking. It starts as a long shot of the two walking. The characters stop and continue to talk, meanwhile the camera shuffles towards them to become a mid shot before they resume their walking. I found this shot very intriguing, and couldn’t help but compare it to other ways of shooting walking in film.

These are shots of characters walking in films by Philippe Garrel. In all of Garrel’s films, there are shots of characters walking. I like how film can make an everyday action so much more, and would like to use this idea as the basis of an investigation. The question I’m trying to answer is, how do you shoot walking? There is obviously not one way, but some ways are better than others. Also, I don’t necessarily want to re-create the shots I’ve shown, but I am using them as a starting point to inform my process.

I’m not totally sure these two things are something I want to dedicate the rest of the semester towards, but it is certainly something that I want to investigate for now, and perhaps these experiments will lead me towards focussing on something else.

The concept for The Other was to explore the way we interact with the world around us and the delusions we create in order to feel secure and survive in our own versions of reality.

The form of the film was to be an anthology film of around 5-6 minutes containing 5 moments or vignettes and would follow the style of Jane Campion’s Passionless Moments, a film showing the strange, eclectic nature of suburban life, with third person voice over.

Well, all good things must come to an end. If only I was a contestant on The Voice, I could have had some kind of sentimental video detailing my journey of hardship and defiance. But to be honest, Media 1 wasn’t like that at all. It was pretty much everything I expected. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Week 1 – Reading: Cal Newport’s Advice That I Will Inevitably Forget
This was pretty much my first blog post. And I’ve decided to write about because I think it’s a good example of my naivety. I’m a cynical person; a pessimist, a nihilist, I can’t help but question absolutely everything I see. It’s my way of understanding how things are. Coming into this course, I brought this attitude with me. While I agree with what I wrote in this post, I think I missed the point of why we were shown this video. It wasn’t about motivation; it was about changing preconceptions. Sometimes my suspicious approach to learning helps me discover things I wouldn’t ordinarily see. Other times it completely blinds me, just like it did here.

Week 5 – Workshop: The Aspirational Figure
One thing I loved about the workshops was our class discussions. We truly had a diverse set of opinions, and as a result, conversation would flourish. In Week 5, Louise introduced to the idea of ‘The Aspirational Figure’. We used faux hotshot Gina Liano as a case study, someone that is seen as an aspiration. This provided myself with a realisation. Nearly all mainstream content (and yes, a reality television star is now a piece of content) is a constructed image disguised as identity. This ‘light-bulb moment’ allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of textual analysis; looking below the surface level.

Week 6 – Readings/Lecture: The Empathetic Character
Robert McKhee’s ‘Substance Of Story’ was probably my favourite piece of reading this semester. Whenever the course work was more focused on film, my enjoyment rapidly increased. The idea of “the protagonist must be empathetic; he may or may not be sympathetic” is something in the past I’ve noticed but never really considered. Applying this theory to film, and also my group’s Project Brief 4 provided a basis for a deeper understanding in narrative.

Week 9 – Readings: The Consequences Of ‘The People Formerly Known As The Audience’
Jay Rosen’s ‘The People Formerly Known As The Audience’ was something I read whilst doing a Journalism course two years ago. There was a lot to like about it, and a lot consider. Reading it two years later, in a media context, rather than a journalistic one, allowed me to look at it from a different perspective. Thanks to social media, the media landscape has drastically changed in the last two years. What this article really made me consider was how important audience is when creating content.

Week 12 – Workshop: Victim Culture
Another blog about a class discussion. There’s a theme here! The workshop discussions were my favourite moments of the semester. This discussion didn’t change my opinion about victim culture; however, it did provide me with a sense of relief. Our class discussion was very open and honest, and the majority of my class believed that victim culture was primarily about narcissism. This was very refreshing to hear. I feel this blog post is quite an honest representation of my crippling cynicism.

The most valuable learning experience has definitely been developing my editing skills on Premiere. As someone who edits a lot of audio, I naively thought editing a video would be quite similar. I was wrong.

One thing I found challenging in this course was my laptop’s inability to function. As a result, I had to find other ways to edit videos and audio. Also, I struggled badly with motivation when it came to blogging. I get the whole blogging thing. It’s a smart way of retaining information and keeping a body of work. But it’s also a hassle. Every time I wrote a blog I felt dread, and after re-reading my blog posts, I think it’s quite evident in my choice of language.

What I discovered about my own creative practice was how much I like working by myself. And this is something that I’m going to have to change, quickly. I struggled to adapt during group exercises, mainly because I hate when things are out of my control. But the film industry is all about collaboration, and I’ll need to get used to the idea of working within a team if I want to get there.

Overall, I’m happy with my contribution to this semester. I could have done better, but then again, we all could have. I’m proud of the content I created, and I’m really looking forward to Media 2.

Hell Yeah