Not only is the shortest of the Film/TV readings so far, it’s also the most confusing; this excerpt from Notes on the Cinematographer uses random quips to explore the relationship between sight and hearing within a filmmaker’s practice.

The biggest point that I took from it was the idea that one should not attempt to give sight and hearing equal footing: it seems to me that this reading emphasises that any one composed shot should try to emphasise either one or the other. In my limited experience in media, I’ve been consistently told to get the best audio and video possible at all times, and I guess in terms of filming this still holds true. Post-production, however, there seems to be a trade-off that occurs between the two, in which one is chosen as the more significant sense in the given situation.

It was also important that the eye and the ear should work together to create the finished product, and I guess that ties into the prior point as well. That’s probably the entire message of the reading: they must be considered in relation to one another, as well as in relation to the film as a whole.

I love horror. With all honesty I can say that it is the genre that has influenced me the most. Rosemary’s Baby, The Haunting, Aliens, 28 Days Later, these films have defined my taste in media.

Clown Train was impressive. Horror is a genre that lends itself well to a low budget, and the filmmakers here constructed something that does build suspense effectively and enjoyable. Sure, there isn’t a real payoff, but it was otherwise well-constructed.

It is pretty easy to pinpoint audio as the strongpoint of the production. The music is atmospheric and subdued, but nonetheless powerful.

Bringing up the discordant sounds before vision comes on is a common practice that builds suspense. The clearly heard light flickering is mysterious, and helps to build this somewhat surreal atmosphere that is off-putting and menacing.

You can hear the confined space of the train car, and the sound helps to make the action almost completely isolated; there’s a sense that help of any kind is nowhere near.

It was so many long weeks ago, but I’m trying my hardest to recall what happened in Rolling.

I remember enjoying it, but finding the characters a bit dull, the plot a bit predictable, the cinematography uninspired. That’d be according to my high standards of American Horror Story or Game of Thrones-style budget and effort. So, in terms of a short, university-based film, I liked it and thought it was very well done.

That said, I guess my main issues with it were plot-based – something I’ve often lamented about short films is their inability to provide real character development – which is in an entirely different league to budget, mostly. Anyway, that doesn’t mean it was a bad script; the dialogue was fantastic, and it was probably the best aspect of ‘Rolling’.

I seem to remember – and this might just be a fault in my memory – that the colour correction was pretty bad. I think it was too green, but that’d be because a lot of it was filmed in a fluorescent-lit supermarket.

On that note, the acquisition of a supermarket as a location for much of the film was fairly impressive. I wouldn’t want to have to organise that, but there didn’t seem to be a rushed sense to the scenes set there, they seemed relaxed.

Casting-wise, I thought that the main character was fantastic at comic-timing, but the main female role was forgettable. This may have been a writing problem, but to me the actress didn’t impress me.

I have none.

This isn’t a case of time management problems, it’s a case of ‘I have priorities and Integrated Media isn’t really one of them. I have university all day Monday and Thursday, I have work on Wednesday and a meeting for my TV show that I’m producing that night, which also sometimes happens on Friday night. On Tuesday nights I work on In Pit Lane, on Thursday nights I work on 31 Questions. Tuesday day, Fridays and Saturdays I vary between working and not working, but when I’m not working I’m writing scripts, arranging meetings with location scouts, art department people, production managers and the like, or maybe I’m babysitting my niece and nephew, writing or helping to write a script or travelling to and from important places (you have no idea how much of my life is on public transport).

Seriously, I wanna do well, but my show, my family, my friends and yes, my couple of hours a week of freetime are way more important than any of this shit. We need freetime, and I’m gonna drop out before I let university take away every second of it.

One exception: Film/TV 1. It seems relevant, and it seems enjoyable and my group is awesome.