COMM2682 FINAL ASSESSMENT : Analysis / Reflection

  #1 Introduction to Documentary

Comparing to a fictional film production, documentary is a more serious and challenging field for filmmakers. As a non-fictional creative work, this specific type of motion picture requires people has to remain two features at one film work: the reflection of reality and the spirit of exploring.

After reading Bill Nichols’s Six Modes Documentary, I emerged a huge interest in participatory documentary.

Participatory documentary is becoming increasingly prevalent in the contemporary media industry. It is very identifiable when people watch different documentaries or shows. Bill summarised in his book that the participatory documentary is the combination of the compilation of footages and perspectives from interviews.

There are two essentials in a participatory documentary production: the active engagement of the director and using interview as a major approach to explain the idea.

To be specific. I only acknowledged two modes of documentaries before I had a comprehensive understandings of documentary. The first one is the expository mode which use voice-over to illustrate a truth; and the observational documentary, which is normally used to record the real event or social changes at the time. Both of these two modes are pursuing a high-purity subjectivity in the film.

Documentary is always considered as an objective film form that leaving personal stands outside the camera. Especially in the war, documentaries were produced for political uses.

However, expressing is the nature of any art form, no matter they are still art or motional art. As a continuous developing film form, the contemporary documentary also should to satisfy the needs of people when want to represent their own thoughts about their surroundings, and export individual ideology. In that, the raise of participatory documentary broke the pattern of traditional filming habit. Since that, director’s personal opinion started getting involve, filmmakers become more active during the filming, and have more power to control the orbit of the documentary.

Moreover, having interview in the documentary is another reason that I consider participatory documentary is more competitive in the market. Audience may get tried easily when the commentary rattles away for one or two hours. In that, a real face to face interview may be more attractive.

Meanwhile, interviews also can make a stronger statement about the subject(s) and the idea in the film. In the participatory documentaries, subjects have the power to speak for themselves. Comparing to the explaining voice over in any other types of documentaries, the speech from the subject(s) is more persuasive.

Furthermore, interviews which contain a subjective opinion of the interviewees can cultivate a more independent judgment of viewers. Spectators who watch a participatory documentary will be influenced by the conversation in the interview. Therefore, it is natural that audiences may generate their personal thoughts about the subject in the documentary, and review the whole film in a more critically perspective. Additionally, Bill also pointed out that while people watching the film, an interview also can stimulate audience’s curiosity about the film, transform them from a bystander into a witness and increase their senses of engagement.

Last but not least, besides enriching the content in the film, interviews also can contribute to other fields in the society, such as the anthropology and sociology. Bill gave some interesting examples in his book. For instance, from the perspective of medicine and social welfare, the interview can be regarded as a countable case history; when comes to a psychoanalysis context, it can be a decent therapeutic evidence; in terms of the media industry, a documentary-style interview has already become an important section of reality shows.

Personally speaking, participatory documentary gathers the fun part from the television program and the rigorousness of traditional documentary. Thus, I consider this specific mode is a very feasible option for people who tend to seek a way out to represent individual ideology or to reveal the issues of their surroundings.

 

#2 No Direction Home

From the view of my personally opinion, this two minutes’ participatory documentary clip mainly focused on two questions: Who is Bob Dylan? What makes a boy become Bob Dylan?

In the very beginning of the clip, director used several stage performances to introduce the subject in this film. Bob Dylan has considered as a terrific music icon for the past half a century. In that, using his performance as the opening can come straight to the point in the first place. Moreover, due to the popularity of Bob Dylan, his classic performance also can grab audience’s attention effectively.

The answer of the first question is obvious. Bob Dylan is a boy who found music since he was little. After four shots of a pale wood which covered heavily by snow, Bob’s interview came on the screen. Director used many photos to replenish his story, such as the little Bob, old street views and mine field in the 50s of 1990.

The second question is more complicated, but the answer also hid in the film. The succeed of Bob not only relied on his incomparable talent, his creations were also deeply influenced by the external environment.

This two minutes’ clip may be regarded as a quick peek of the full film. As an audience, I received a pretty clear message about this film’s content. In the rest of the film, I think they will keep focusing on the life journey of Bob Dylan, and trying to decode underlying drive forces of his life decisions. Meanwhile, his stage life will be the definite peak in this film. From the perspective of shooting technique, this film may also keep using pictures, previous videos, and corresponding objects’ pictures to visualize and replenish Bob Dylan’s speech in his interview.

Additionally, the atmosphere in the rest of the film may still remain a melancholy vibe. As Bob Dylan said himself, no one can make the time still. Stage stars are always flanked by countless fans, and also enjoy the gratification of wealthy. However, as the pale wood symbolized in the film, life is desolate. Even Bob Dylan, a huge star of the era, he still can’t against the elapse of time and the advent of unexpected accidents.

 

(Due to the cultural disparity between western countries and China, I never heard about Bob Dylan before I watched this clip. I did a quick research about him after my first watch, and got a brief information about his life. If I made any misunderstanding of Bob Dylan, please excuse my mistake and I made that absolutely unintentional.)

#3 Forbidden Lies

The audios in Forbidden Lies included four parts. The speech in the interview, the audio of reading Forbidden Love, the audio during the exterior shooting, and the sound effect in the scene-reappearance. Three of them were synchronization recordings, the interview, the reading, and the exterior shooting recording. The sound effects were post-scoring which recorded in the studio and edited in to the film during the post-production.

Firstly, there are two interviews were recorded in this clip. The first one is the interview of Rana Husseini. Her interview was filmed in her office. She is a journalist in Jordan, and she represents the doubting voice from the public. The second interview invited Dr. Amal A. Sabbagh as the guest. Due to her age, social title and speaking manner, she represented a potent figure of professional in this film.

Another important audio was a lady’s voice who was reading Forbidden Love in a well-equipped studio. It can really help audience who did not read the Forbidden Love can have a better understanding of the ongoing content. Meanwhile, her reading and the speech in two interviews were also the voice-over during the scene-reappearance section.

The exterior shooting was led by Rana Husseini. Rana tended to investigate her doubts by matching the timeline of the brands in Forbidden Love. Therefore, all of her speech and conversation were important evidence. In that, her phone calls and the actual dialog with the brands’ owners were recorded very thoroughly during the filming.

The last type of audio in this clip was the sound effect in the scene reappearance. The scene reappearance was one of the most crucial components in this film. Firstly, it can promote the film became more entertaining; secondly, the purpose of this film is to demonstrate the authenticity of the content in Forbidden Love. The sounds effects in the scene reappearance were recorded in the studio. Director tend to use both visual evidence and sound effect to point out the logical vulnerabilities in the book will be more effective than a lengthy speech. For instance, when talking about the cigarette brand that protagonists used in the book, the sound of pulling the drawer and snapping lighter were very identified.

Additionally, director also turned down the noise from the real environment to ensure the voice over can be continuously played very clearly.

#4 Reflection on the lighting exercise

It has been said that film is an art of light and shadow.

One month ago, I filmed a short film. Therefore, I would like to reflect my own work as the example in this section.

My story was about a young girl who was attacked by a stranger in the midnight. The whole film was shot in the night. In this context, the motivating of applying light was to make everything clear. Meanwhile, as a crime film, lighting also can be used to create a suspense atmosphere and increase the tension in the scene.

I applied two kinds of lights in the film. In the first part of the film, (before she tucked into the blanket), we had a soft, warm-toned light in the bedroom in order to create a sweet, harmless atmosphere. (Screenshot 1) As the story developed, we changed our light into a hard, cold-toned kind to build the tension. (Screenshot 2)

(Screenshot 1)

(Screenshot 2)

Lighting definite is one of the determinant features of an excellent shot or a great film. The Screenshot 3 was a scene when protagonist crouches in the blanket. There was no light under the blanket. We placed the light in front of actress’s face and lowered the angle of the phone to lighten her face. (We used the function of flashlight on the smartphone.) We also adjusted actress’s face many times to find a best angle of her face. It can be seen that we had a hard, cold-toned light in the scene, and 3/4 of her face was in the light, and 1/4 of her face was in the dark. The actress’s face turned pale on the camera, the cold light also made her seem more vulnerable and helpless. This is what we wanted.

(Screenshot 3)

It is undeniable that setting lighting is one of the most time-consuming tasks during filming. However, a splendid lighting can really level up the quality of the whole film. The final outcome makes every seconds worthy.

If I have a second chance to re-filming this story, I will definite rent a professional light. Although I had two different colour-toned lights in the film, due to the backwards of filming equipment, the contract of lights between the first part and the second part was not distinct enough, and the outline around actress’s face was too blurry.

In the future, I will pay more attention to lighting section in the pre-production period. Lighting is the precondition of every filmmaking in the world. A precise light design can promote the film seems more professional, and also can relieve the pressure in the post-production process. Although we can use editing software to make up flaws of footages, there are still many problems that are irreparable, such as the noise. Hence, mastering lighting is the duty for every filmmaker.

#5 Colour Grade

(Original clip)

(First time of colour correcting)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Increased the temperature: turn the picture into a more warm and peaceful tone.
2. Slightly raise the exposure: make actress’s face brighter.

(Final piece)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Raise the contrast: turns the colour on the screen more real and colourful.
2. Reduced the highlights, shadows, and whites: the skin tone of this actress is bright, however, the background in this scene was also in a white tone. Adjusting highlights, shadows and whites down can promote the actress becomes more outstanding in the frame and stop integrating with the background.

2.

(Original clip)

(First time of colour correcting)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Increased the temperature: building a sweet and warm vibe.
2. Adjust the tint into a purple tone: keep building a romantic atmosphere.
3. Increased highlight: brighten the picture.

(Final piece)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Slightly reduced the exposure and raise the level of contrast: make the footage more colourful, and highlight the actress who stands in the middle of the flame become more outstanding. (Emphasis the main subject in the flame.)
2. Increased highlight: make actress’s face seem brighter.
3. Reduced shadows and blacks: emphasis the outline of actress’s face

 

3．

(Original clip)

(First time of colour correcting)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Reduced the number of temperature and adjusted the tint in a green tone: based on the content of the footage, a murdering scene should has a cold colour tone.

(Final piece)

Changes and Reasons:

1. Slightly reduced the exposure and increased the contrast: in order to darken the picture and create a suspenseful atmosphere.
2. Raise the highlight: emphasis the actor in the frame.
3. Reduced shadows and leveled up the whites: use shadow to create a hopeless atmosphere in the room, and also strengthen the spooky figure of the murderer.

 

#6 The Abstract / Haiku edit

The Haiku exercise was fun. Shooting random things in our surroundings, and recording sounds that we thought useful was both challenging and engaging. However, problems emerged when we moved to the editing process.

To be detailed. The overall quality of our recordings was fine. We recorded several different kinds of sounds in the campus, such as the sound of the footstep, and the sound of wind. We also chose three beautiful Haiku poems on the handout, and we decided to read each of them in two speeds that we can have more options when we edit the footages. In the end, we had six recordings of Haiku poems, each of the poems had a normal speed vision, and also a very slow vision.

I was the one who read the poem, and I learned an important thing after I replayed my recordings. It is better to place the microphone has a little distance from the people who is speaking. I was holding the microphone in my first read. After we listened to the recording on the computer, we found that my voice was not clear and also accompanied with a very unpleasant sound of the current. Meanwhile, the noise of my breath was loud. After that, we put the microphone in a relatively distant place on the table, and then we had a much better quality of recordings.

Furthermore, we also confronted the problem of the insufficiency of resources. The usability of our recordings showed an opposite situation comparing to our qualities.

When we recorded our audios and footages in the class, we did not put too much attention on whether there is an underlying connection between them. Therefore, what we had were plenty of footages that totally irrelevant, and also hard to group them in a logical order. In the end, I added some easy effects in the sequence in order to integrate the style of recordings and videos.

The Haiku exercise means to improve our ability of juxtaposing the audio with the video. In that, the underlying logic between different footages and audios is crucial. A single shot cannot become a film (except for the long shot film). Every shot in a good film should interwork with each other. For instance, a close-up which follows after a middle shot can help audiences to get a closer view of the scene.

It is not indicating that there is a rigid rule for editing. Editing can be very various. Same footages which are edited by different person will be created into very diverse results. Nevertheless, the integrality of a film is the basic rule for every finished work.

#7 Reflection on the course

Sound and Image is my first course that requires us to study as a real media worker. Practical experience is crucial in the working field. However, most of my bachelor courses were focused on theories.

This course not only taught me how to use various filming gears and software, most importantly, it helped me to develop the habit of reflecting. It is so important to review what we did, and think how to improve in the future. Besides the actual skills that I learned, I feel more grateful about this new habit.

 

 

 

#COMM2532# 2. Individual peer review blog post

 

1. #Treasure on Trip#

The group of #Treasure on Trip# focused on essential stuffs when people traveling. During this project, they did a relatively comprehensive research about picking different people as interviewees to collect answers, and their questions was quite representative.

Question:

“What”: What is your essential travel stuff?

“Why”: Why is it so important?

 

Advantages:

They chose a very interesting topic that may become a very practical life-hacks-style account on social media. Additionally, the content on their Instagram and Facebook accounts are very colourful and eye-catching, meanwhile, also very informative as well. When people browsing their page, viewers can enjoy two things at once: some sweet travel stories from strangers, and also learns packaging hacks from them.

 

Disadvantage:

Speaking of flaws in their program, I noticed that they barely have videos to illustrate their concept. Video is increasingly significant in nowadays media industry, viewers may don’t have patience and time to read words about one idea or an actual product. In that, video is the best way to introduce one particular value, and shorten the distance between sellers and buyers. The group of Treasure on Trip mainly provided many photos and background stories on their social media page, however, there was no interviewees appealed in the photo. It will lead viewers to doubt the authenticity of their information and also question their expertness.

 

Suggestion:

I totally understand the difficulty of filming an interview. In the meanwhile, what they need to do to become more competitive is to produce more video contents. And it also can prove the authenticity of their cute stories.

I will suggest them just use phone to record their interview. I believe that any kind of videos all can really delight their posts and promote their program achieve a wider influence.

 

2. #Sex talks RMIT2018#

This is one of the most impressive projects in this semester. Topic picking is vital. Picking a sensitive topic normally will stimulate viewers’ interest to explore the content effectively. In the meanwhile, viewers are also become stricter with the sensitive topic. The higher expectation, the higher disappointment.

Personally, I think Sex talks RMIT2018 did a great job.

Sex is not a “thing” that we still keep avoiding to talk and discuss publicly in the contemporary era. People should become more confident to talk about sex. Besides that, woman should become more independent.

This is what I learned from them.

Advantage:

They filmed many fantastic interviews and also posted some female protests in the world on their social media to support their concept, which were very persuasive and powerful.

Firstly, in videos, they encouraged interviewees feel free to talk about sex. Questions in interviews are targeted and straightforward. The vibe during interviews were serious and also in a funny way.

Additionally, the protests and slogans they chose on their posts are very powerful.

Gender equality and healthy sex discussion are unitive existed among their posts. As a viewer, it is a pleasant and also educational experience of viewing their social media posts.

Disadvantage:

Their website looks fabulous to me. After I viewing their posts on social media, I tend to find some professional sex suggestions from an academic professional. However, I didn’t find that part of content in their videos.

Suggestion:

If I have to say anything about their future improvement, it will be better to have someone professional in their videos and provide some knowledges about sex disease prevention, such as STD, HIV, and some practical reproduction health tips in normal life.

#COMM2532# 1. Practice-led research blog post

Besides editing our final digital story video, I also took the charge of analysing the target audience in the early period.

Editing is fine, after filming plan is made and interviewees are decided, I became the host of our interview. In that, editing is not hard due to my fully engagement.

However, dealing with the segment of analysing target audience in the project is completely new to me, and it does widen my perspective of contemporary business running model.

The power of mass media that did to contemporary business marketing is glaringly. There are more than 75% of modern companies tend to leverage on the power of social media to extend their business landscape. (1.) Undoubtedly, traditional commercial marketing relied on sending promotion products or Emails to inform their potential customers in the market, whereas the modern business can collect users’ data, and fashionable social trend easily just via social-media.

We focused on young people in Melbourne city as our target audience at the very initial phase. With the development of our online and offline activities, we found that narrowing down our range of target audience can achieve a better social effect. The more specific, the more effective it is. This is what I learned from this task. We adjusted our attention, from all young generation to students who study in RMIT city campus. From that, we obtained a much more smooth and productive media practice experience and social attention.

Just as mentioned in Top Tip: Using Your Target Audience to Inform Your Choice in Social Media, (Mollett 2017) there is impossible to create a “product” that can win the favour among all groups in the sociality. Therefore, clarify a detailed age or geographical groups as targeted audience may really help a media product gains more attention as it is released.

Additionally, in the present age, a clear straightforward audience positioning not only offers companies effective method to expand commercial influence, in addition, due to the factor of Web 2.0, the interaction between sellers and buyers also provides customers a channel to express how they feel, and what they need. (Mollett 2017.) In that, businesses can save tons of money of marketing research, and produce based on their royalty customers.

Although a narrow audience positioning can benefit the implementation of marketing strategy, what business runners have to conquer is the limitation of public influence. If we have a future opportunity of media practice, we should explore more specific contents which are targeted to one particular audience in the public, and also can relate to other social issues, which may cause a wider social influence. In that, our project will achieve a higher level.

 

Reference:

1. ‘Use of Semantic Co-relation in Target Audience Profiling’, 2013, 2013 Fourth Global Congress on Intelligent Systems, Intelligent Systems (GCIS), 2013 Fourth Global Congress on, Intelligent Systems (GCIS), 2010 Second WRI Global Congress on, p. 234.
2. Mollett, A. 2017, Top tip: using your target audience to inform your choice in social media, SAGE Publications Ltd, London, , [Accessed 30 May 2018], doi: 10.4135/9781526434944.

 

 

• Links to  Digital Story social media accounts:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snacktime2018/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snacktime2018/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Snacktime2018 

• Link to your digital story (website / YouTube Channel / any other platform you may have used)

Website: https://hannieyu98.wixsite.com/snacktime

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHe6mDwr8cQHY_4uLLahVqw/featured

• Link to social media campaign details PDF file:

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/16dq3EiRD_ZG91ct2062xUkEAuNP2OAwf

• Link to LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yan-zhao-84434415b/ 

 

Lecture 9 The Internet of Things

How does it work?

Is it necessary?

These two questions linger on my head after the week 9’s lecture.

The first question is easy to answer. Sensor and actuator give subjects life. Technology taking the responsibility of transmitting, internet is the medium, and the psychical subject is the entity which also is the only visible thing in this process.

However, the second question is pretty tricky.

The convenience level of human life always relevant to the development of technology. Do not want to read? We have audiobook. Do not want to wash dishes? We have dish-washing machine. Name anything you are not willing to do, there is always a solution with digital technology waiting for you. There is no technology in the current market can help you? Congratulation, you just found a potential patent can may worth a huge fortune.

I used to think there is only one field of technology that deserve people to delicate themselves to invent and create. The inventions for disability people. Nevertheless, I just feel the inventions in current society are gradually transforming normal people into disabled. We do not to walk to the switch and turn on the light, we do not stand for two hours to roast a chicken. We basically have to do nothing, because we don’t “have to”. Life always has an alternative, digital way to solve. Is this good? Or bad? I can’t say. I am also a beneficiary in this revolution.

Hoffman and Novak (2018) in their research defined that there are four phenomenons emerged within the “IoT”. Firstly, the prevalent of smart home and other technology enabled more people a different life experience. Consequently, it leads to an agentic individual needs-extension and a communal self-expansion. Thirdly, the development of internet-things technology also become a restriction in human life. The more dependence, the more restrictions. Hence, IoT also cause agentic personal restrictions and ability-reduction on both sides.

Is the IoT necessity in our life? I think the answer is yes. The most significant improvement that IoT do to human life was it leveled up people’s efficiency. They are not replacing, they are assisting. Nevertheless, as mentioned in many literatures that excessively dependent on the sensors also may cause negative influence in human life, due to the loose restriction of deploying, physical security issue is increasing serious within the advance of IoT. (Fu & Wenyuan, 2018, p. 22)

 

Reference:

1. Fu, K, & Wenyuan, X 2018, ‘Risks of Trusting the Physics of Sensors: Protecting the Internet of Things with embedded security’, Communications Of The ACM, 61, 2, pp. 20-23, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 2 May 2018.
2. HOFFMAN, D, & NOVAK, T 2018, ‘Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach’, Journal Of Consumer Research, 44, 6, pp. 1178-1204, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost

 

 

Lecture 7 Media Convergence

There are three main points in the week 7.

Media convergence is the trend of age, the result of digital technology, and the need of contemporary human life.

For me, the transboundary media cooperation is not about genre and medium, but is a serious challenge of understanding the development of society.

As mentioned on lecture, the transmedia is extracting the integral elements of one certain media works and deliver in a different channel. I totally agree with this theory.

Moreover, I also want to add a point that media convergence is a commercial movement that ask producers have a deep insight of current society and make a bold move. Providing people products that they didn’t realize they need but they will definite want.

Marvel probably is a brand that hard to avoid when people started learning media convergence. Film, theme park, comic show, online games. Marvel has everything in online and also reality life. Wills T (2017) in his book said one of reasons of why marvel achieved such succeed is because their characters are international and changing over time. (p. 77)

In media convergence production, the ability of stimulating consumption is the core, and the popularity level of one element is the determinant. (Hackley, C & Hackley, R 2015, p. 474) Therefore, addition to the perspective of art creating, which offer creators more channels to spread their work. In the point of marketing, media convergence is more about covering a wider range of audience that to accept a certain culture. In that, with the advance of digital technology, consumer’s need more engaging and entertaining experience with their favourite icon or character. As mentioned in our lecture, transmedia program is an extension of the original work, meanwhile, audience can have a diverse experience in different mediums.

For instance, films and games. There are numerous video games in the market were adapted by succeed scientific films or horror films, such as

（Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, 2003-）

(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002-)

Meanwhile, in turn, game-based films also had many excellent works, such as

(Silent Hill, 2006)

（Warcraft: The Beginning, 2016）

Media convergence is an inevitable result with the development of digital technology. Integrating a mature storyline with a new technology and producing a fresh experience that make users feel both comfortable and surprised. Above all, the interaction between different media platform offers audience more options to engage with a story or a conceptive world. On the other hand, it requires the media industry to work harder to confront this challenge in the present also the future society.

 

Reference：

1. Hackley, C, & Hackley, R 2015, ‘Marketing and the cultural production of celebrity in the era of media convergence’, JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT -HELENSBURGH-, 5/6, p. 461, British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings, EBSCOhost
2. Wils, T 2017, ‘Marvel and the storytelling industry: Characters in an age of media convergence’, Screen Education, 86, p. 72, Informit Humanities & Social Sciences Collection, EBSCOhost

Lecture 1 online identity

In the first week of the semester, we talked about the significance of online identity in online commerce. One of the concepts do hugely aroused my interest: Online identity is a partial personality that exist in real person, so that internet can use this to track individual interests and display promotions. Nevertheless, in my past studies, I also learned about that online identity is a “fake” characteristic which people actively to pretend in the virtual society.

Accordingly, what if the virtual identity is irrelevant with the real person? Is that  indicating that the whole e-commerce industry is building on a feigned information data base, and earning money based lucky?

I looked up literatures and tried to find answers.

Pinto el at. (2015, p. 406) used gamer as sample demography in their research and claimed that in order to have a better engagement in the virtual community, netizens will consciously extend their online identity and pander to the popular interest. (Belk, 2010, p. 733) Meanwhile, in the past decade, social interaction gradually moved to the cyber world. In Frunzaru and Garbasevschi’s study, (2016) they pointed out that in social media, online-identity is more like a valuable commodity instead of a personal self-illustration. In that, a “standard” outfit or life style is more important than the simple reflection of real life.

Above that, there is one thing shared by these two articles: no matter self-extend or self-promote, online image is an advanced identity which based upon the main identity, and also influenced by the social atmosphere.

Such as there is a type of “Instagram Girls”.

( Stylecaster, 2018)

As shown in our first lecture, there are popular websites that have the function of collection individual browsing patterns. From a higher point of view, in order to save time and cost, social media platforms will lead users to actively shape a “life-style model”, potentially a misleading trend to majority of the internet users. It will lead people to assimilate and also cultivate a more extensive selling targets.

(For instance, the “Instagram girl” driven a huge profit of diet food.)

 

Reference:

1. Belk R. 2010. Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research 5, 36, pp. 715–734
2. FRUNZARU, V, & GARBAŞEVSCHI, D 2016, ‘Students’ Online Identity Management’, Journal Of Media Research, 9, 1, pp. 3-13, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost
3. PINTO, D, REALE, G, SEGABINAZZI, R, & VARGAS ROSSI, C 2015, ‘Online identity construction: How gamers redefine their identity in experiential communities’, Journal Of Consumer Behaviour, 14, 6, pp. 399-409, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost
4. STYLECASTER 2018,‘41 Hottest Women on Instagram Who Aren’t Afraid of Going Nearly Naked”, Viewed 29 April 2018 http://stylecaster.com/hottest-women-on-instagram/slide17

Sound & Image assessment 2 Analysis and Reflection

#1 The Shot Construction / Next Stage exercise

 

There are two things that I found out in our long take practice, which are important in future film making process: the stability of camera and the efficiency in one take.

Firstly, the stability of the camera directly determining the quality of the picture. In our long take work, most of the picture has an accurate focus. However, after the “walking guy” dropped the piece of paper, there was one second that the whole picture was out of focus with an obvious shake.

In the early area, film was also called the motion pictures. As the name implies, recording moving subjects is film’s nature. Therefore, guaranteeing filming subjects stay in the focal points persistently is an essential requirement for a competent cinematographer.

Additionally, the efficiency in a long take is crucial. Generally speaking, our long take achieved  the work of delivering information (a mysterious man gave a mysterious piece of paper to another man), meanwhile, we had a great consistency and did it smoothly.

Every shot should have the necessity of existing. For instance, in some art films, directors will use long take to extend characters’ performance and keep the integrality of the atmosphere. Moreover, long take can also create a gripping moment in horror films. If director keeps focusing on character’s feet and let him or her running in an empty, dark house, it will conduct the feeling of intension and also lead audience to look forward the answer of this scene.

It can be saying that the prevalence of long take is due to its efficiency. Delivering various information in one shot and also have a significant consistency. This is why long take is so difficult but there are millions of directors still engage with it as an opening or an important turning shot in their films.

Comparing with the practice of “Lenny”, one shot exercise had a definite higher difficulty level of operating. Still pictures are relatively manipulable than moving shooting. There were so many unexpected situations happened when filming long takes, such as the safety of photographer and the arrangement of actor’s route. We had to film all scenarios in one take and make sure there was no goofs.

If we have another long-take practice in the future, I think it is crucial to think all things though before shooting, and also put more plots and conflicts in one take. More importantly, we should improve our ability of moving camera to reveal a conversation between characters instead of  just shooting silent moments.

#2 The initiative post

Recently, I am reading a book named Macau is a city, written by Chinese-American female writer, Geling Yan. I emerged a huge interest to transfer this story from words to film.

It is a story around one middle-age woman and her three lovers. what she does for living is earning money from gamblers. She is a middle-lady between casinos and wealthy gamblers, she plays the role of a guarantor to loan chips from casino and provides to her clients. The rule of the game is simple. She offers chips and bonds her fortune with her clients’ luck. Once the gamblers win, she has to pay her clients the same amount as they had win on the gambling table; however, when gamblers lose, her clients also have to pay her the same price as they lose.

All three lovers of hers were met on the gambling table, and they represent three different personalities. It is a sad story but fuse with affectionateness. The love of a single mother to her son, the love of an independent woman scared but also desire to love. She is a combination of soft and tough. I love when characters are realistic and full of multiple-dimensions.

Turning a book into the film is one of the most common media reproducing in the past decades. Media convergence is so in trend in the current media industry. According to the Hackley’s study, in media convergence production, adapted works have many built-in advantages such as easily stimulate public consumption and own a relatively popularity in the market. (2015, p. 474) In that, my ambition of turning Macau is a city into a film is not unpractical, but also can be a feasible idea to become my first move to step into media industry.

Moreover, the “middle-age woman love” is a rare topic in the market, especially in Asia. (This blog mainly discuss the east Asia culture.) Confucianism rooted in most of Asia countries, such as China, South Korea and Japan. Even they have different cultural backgrounds and political regimes. However, there are still plenty of rigid social concepts existing in these countries at present age, such as the lower social status of women, unequal gender treatment and the backward family divisions. (Prieler et al 2015, p.28)

Taking China for example. In Chinese society, a female divorcee has to bear many unequal social discriminations both in their working and private life. As a media practitioner (potentially), I think this book delivers an independent and strong female image that can encourage more woman to strive for a more qualified life. This is my intention of filming this book, and I think it may also is what author wanted to tell her readers as well.

Reference:

1. Hackley, C, & Hackley, R 2015, ‘Marketing and the cultural production of celebrity in the era of media convergence’, JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT -HELENSBURGH-, 5/6, p. 461, British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings, EBSCOhost, viewed 4 May 2018.
2. Prieler, M, Ivanov, A, & Hagiwara, S 2015, ‘Gender representations in East Asian advertising: Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea’, Communication & Society, pp. 27-41, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 4 May 2018.

#3 Prompt – Readings 

In this section, I am going to review Sound Design and Sight and Hearing.

I know these two are the most selected literatures due to their length. Evidently, short and brief. However, the reason I pass Actor and the Director is due to my limited directing experiences; meanwhile, I identify myself as an editor more than a director. In that, reading and reviewing Sound Design and Sight and Hearing have more practical help to me.

• Sound Design

In Sound Design, there are two things in this article that inspired me so much. Being rational, and being bold.

Sound production is decent. It requires editor always keep vigilant of the surroundings in the picture. In the part of “How to Listen and What to Listen For”, (p.8) author used dog barks as example illustrated that different rhythms, loudness and pitch of a dog bark can reveal a completely diverse situation in the context. Listening a gentle bark may lead people generate the feeling of a peace Christmas evening; however, an enraged bark may represent a very intense situation.

Additionally, sound design gave the basis style of the overall audio making, (p.11) any inappropriate sound will directly affect the development of a film. Therefore, every nuanced sound all deserve a serious deliberation. As the author mentioned, the molar-mass of helium and oxygen are different, the pitch of whistle also should be adjusted consequently due to different environments.

Secondly, an excellent sound designer also should be creative and audacious. Sounds is not only simply a job of recording. On the opposite, sound is an essential method of assisting spectators to comprehend the story. (p. 1) A high-quality film production requires sound editor has the capacity of mixing. (p.6) A perfect scene or film not only need a comprehensive coordination in the camera, but also need some “invisible” replenishment to reinforce the atmosphere, which is sound effect. I do appreciate the example that author made: mixing several sound tracks like human groan and the sound of wind to enrich the scene of an informative-prisoner. Human groan represents desperate, wind represents bleak.

Sounds can bring a subtle but productive result of the feeling of immersive, and it indubitably will intensify the engagement of audience. Sounds is cognitive. (p.12) It can link to emotion, memory and other. With the advance of contemporary film technology, sounds became increasing important through the past five decades. Valuing the status of sound definite is a wise move in a film production.

• Sight and Hearing

It is a really interesting reading that I ever read.

I especially admire two sentences in it:

“If the eye is entirely won, give nothing or almost nothing to the ear. One cannot be at the same time all eye and all ear.”

“When a sound can replace an image, cut the image or neutralize it. The ear goes more towards the within, the eye towards the outer.”

To be specific. The two sentences are focusing on the same point when making film, which is the balance in the scene.

Firstly, audience will miss the highlight of the scene. Secondly, audience will be passively distracted and get confuse by the over-loaded information.

Attention is not about what we see, but also related to what we hear. For example, if there are two people lying on the lawn and enjoying the moment. Meanwhile, the background music is extremely loud, it will prompt spectators turn their attention into the music and misinterpret the image. Similarly, in some specific context, sound is more powerful than visually experience. For instance, there is an ending shot which reveal the result of a scam. When actor doing the last performance of saying the most important line, it is better to black out the picture and only play the line to make audience generating a very picture in their own mind.

Generally speaking, people may consider film is an art form that mainly satisfied audiences visually, especially in the early age of film industry. However, with the advance of technology, sound film occupied the whole market immediately since the first day it was born. The combination of sound and image in a film is pursuing an interplay in multiple human senses.

Evidently, image takes the charge of recording and delivering. After applied different montage methods, same shots can tell different stories with diverse music genres. When speaking of sound, one of the most outstanding roles of it is the auditory experience can make up what vision cannot do. For instance, the background music can illustrate the underlying message and create the atmosphere for the present and the incoming circumstance. Moreover, personally speaking, the background music is everything in horror films.

A good film should play all components in harmony. Science and art may be regarded as two different fields in normal social concept. However, when comes to film, it is so important to follow the human viewing nature to produce motion pictures. A qualified film work shouldn’t grab the attention from both eyes and ears of viewers at the same time.

 

#4 Lenny – reflection on

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D-9QQBnObQu6nzlFy5ozqFmxhkqjcERy/preview“>http://

• The pre-production

1. Location

In our pre-production phase, one of the most time-consuming problem was seeking a place to film. Obviously, an appropriate place not only can contain actors’ performance, but can also be very supportive of enhancing the atmosphere of a typical moment. We had plenty options back then, because we can go anywhere. However, it was the root of our problem. It seems that acting and shooting always comes first when people tend to film something. But now, I have a different theory. Location should be one of the important things on shooting schedule as well. We had several classes of “Lenny” practice, and we changed every time when we filmed.

As for me, our final location for “Lenny” was great. Nevertheless, this experience also taught me the importance of planing shooting location in advance.

2. Shooting script.

Another lesson I learned is the significance of shooting script.

Actor may not have a deep thinking before they come to set. As well as other filming members. Directors have to know what he or she want to express, meanwhile, how to use the camera to deliver. Therefore, shooting script is crucial. Time is so important with no doubt in any set in the world. Except due to the cost. Another reason is the light. Natural light is changing. On the other side, the consistency has to be ensured especially for a same light. In that, director need to know what is next and manage all members in order.

During our shooting period, our director had a shooting script made by his own. I do appreciate what he did. I was the actor of another team, and I had a strong feeling of nervous and uncertainness. However, after director pass me the shooting script, I felt much better because I know all my requirements.

3. Filming

Filming is overall interesting. I was the actor and the first AD in different filming practices.

Actor is the carrier of whole story. The thing I realized after filming is that actor should keep producing and also be rational. It is important to communicate with the director before shooting and know the moving route of camera. Beyond that, always leave the acting part in the frame. No matter is the whole body or just a finger.

First AD is crucial on set. It is a job of bridging director and actor. Therefore, having a comprehensive understanding of the whole filming plan is essential.

• The post-production

Comparing with our last assessment, I worked hard to improve my editing skills in Premiere in the past month. Therefore, putting footages in a logical sequence is straightforward. Moreover, with the help of shortcuts, I started to enjoy the editing process. Our “Lenny” script was a story about delivering an envelope. The atmosphere between two characters are relatively intensive. Therefore,I switched different footages in a quick speed, approximately two seconds a time. Meanwhile, I would like to tell a story which is in chronological order, and use wide shot and close up to reveal the tension between characters.

• In the future：

If we have a future filming exercise of “Lenny”, in the pre-production period, inspecting an idea location for filming will be our first consideration before shooting.

Meanwhile, I will also suggest our group members to increase more wide shots that can illustrate the relationship between roles. This time, we mainly focused on taking close shot. However, during my editing period, I found that it will be very suitable to have one or two long shots or wide shots when characters having a silent moment.

(Evidence of Premiere editing)

 

 

#5 TK2 Taxi Driver Deconstruction 

（The analysis will focus on the section from 0:13 to 0:35)

• Shot construction

There are five shots in these twenty seconds, and there are two medium close shots, one full shot to close up, one close-up, and one medium shot respectively.

The first medium close shot was when Travis opened the door and entered to the office. Using medium close shot can keep objectivity and subjectivity coexisting in one take. Specifically, medium shot has a relatively wide perspective that audience can have the opportunity to see what is in Travis’s surrounding. Meanwhile, this is a medium shot which shoot from a lower angle of actor, which revealed that director tend to glamorize character’s brave figure.

The second medium close shot was used in the first conversation in the office, and this conversation was among three people. Director used this shot here was trying to deliver a delicate intension among them. Medium shot can comprise all actors in the frame and close enough to express the tension.

There was a full shot – close up shot, and it was also a long take. This shot was filmed in first-person perspective of Travis. In this shot, Betsy gradually occupied the whole frame within the move of camera. What audience saw in this shot was exactly same as Travis’s sight. This construction shown how Travis felt for Betsy.

There was only close up in these twenty second, which was focused on Betsy’s face. She looked at Travis after glanced at Tom. The performance of her eyes was clearly illustrated her inside thought. Therefore, close up was the best option to record this nuanced movement of eyes.

The last shot was a medium shot filmed on actors’ side. I think the reason of this shot was to film Tom’s left. Tom’s movement was important to the development of plot, they had to use a wide viewing angle to record the complete action. In the meanwhile, Travis and Betsy still positioned in the middle of the frame.

• Camera movement

There was a follow shot, a tracking shot and three still shots in the scene.

The two moving shots were used when character was moving, and made pictures more engaging. The still shots were followed the instruction of Hollywood Three Shot Method to illustrate the conversation among three roles.

#6 You find a Scene 

（The analysis will focus the scene from 0:1:50 to 0:2:50)

• Sound

The sound effects in this section composed by background music and ambience.

Ambience included actors’ line and the noise of surroundings.

During actors said lines, the only sound effect was the sound in the real world. In this section, the ambience is not only simply recorded with the corresponding action, but also was an illustration of what characters did. When Leon drank the milk, the picture was staying on the old man’s face, however, though the sound, viewers knew what was Leon doing in that decision-making moment.

After Leon drank the milk off, the background music faded in to create a ritual sense for a killing action.

• Shot construction

The reason I fall into this scene is due to its shot construction. There are nineteen shots in this very minute, (details are listed below) and they were all extreme-close-up shots. This section is in the very beginning of the film, and this special design of shots did create a very strong suspense which grasped every audience’s attention tightly.

Killer is not a fresh subject in the market, however, only use close-up shots of eyes or hands to introduce the combination of an adult who drinks milk and a serious murder plan, it is new and also can intrigue all viewers effectively.

• Camera movement

There were barely having camera movement in this scene, most of them are still shots. However, when filming the entrance of the old man, camera moved from his hand to his eyes. This action was not a casual take, on the opposite, each of the part in the frame were important. The take started with a hand lit a cigarette and then moved to one eye of an old man. Cigarette symbolized the status of character, and the close up of smoke and a cloudy eye illustrated that this is a business talk between two unusual adults.

• Production design

1. Costume

Costume definite is the highlight in this scene, and in the whole film. Leon’s sunglasses not only was an accessory which made him a cute, cool killer, but also was used in this scene as a reflective item to enrich the picture.

1. Lighting

In this particular excerpt, lighting was so outstanding. Each actor only has one side of face light, and another side of face was in the shadow. It implies that they are not some gentleman with a frank life, some bad scheme is coming up.

In the meanwhile, the overall light tone was warm. Dislike other murder films which always are covered with a cold, blue colour, the warm tone also follow the name of the film, “Leon, The Professional”. It is more like a taunt of other murder films: Does anyone really know about the meaning of professional killer?

• Performance

The performance in this scene was brilliant. The old man was cold and seasoned, Leon was mysterious and distant. The actor of old man used his eyes delivered his reason and his plan of killing. He had several close-up of his left eye, when he was trying to be nice, he had a little smile in his eye, and when he lost patience, he looked up and staring straight into Leon. These delicate acting details composed a ruthless, conspiratorial person.

And Jean Reno, who played Leon, was also terrified in this film. However, in this one-minute acting, except for what costume gave to him, his complexity. Personally speaking, his acting was his limitation comparing with the old man.

 

(CU – close up  ;  O – old man ;  L – Leon )

CU  L: hands – milk

CU  L: sunglasses – reflection of people

CU  O: hand to eyes – cigarette

CU  L: eyes with glasses

CU  O: eyes – smoke

CU  O: hand – an extinguished cigarette – ashtray

CU  O: mouth

CU    a picture of target

CU  L: glasses – the reflection of picture

CU  O: eyes (look up to Leon)

CU    picture

CU  O: eyes (look straight)

CU  L: glasses

CU  L: hands – milk

CU  O: eyes sound-drink milk

CU    glasses drink milk  ( BGM start)

CU  L: hand empty milk glass

CU  L: hand picture is taken

CU  L: glasses look the picture and head up

 

Practice Led Research Blog post

In our “snack time” project, I am the casting director in pre-production process and the journalist during shooting.

It is my first time being a journalist, I was excited. However, when the camera was setting up and actually doing the shoot, there were many unexpected pressures.

We did many relatively comprehensive preparations before shooting, however, I found that journalist is way difficult and important than I thought, which was very unanticipated. Clearly, I was not fully ready for being a qualified journalist.

Journalist should play a guiding role that encourage interviewees to express their ideas and dig more underlying messages. (Tina, 2017, p.294) Therefore, journalist should act or “pretend” a more brave or rational figure that to deliver a professional and trustful atmosphere to interviewees.  (p.295)

According to Guy and James’s research which published in 2016, one of their founds was that the company and firm leader who engage with journalists gained more financial and social income afterwards. (Shani & Westphal, 2016, p. 302) During their experiment, journalists in sample continually contacted with multiple film leaders and reported their stories in social media.

I agree with this theory. But one thing I think they missed was the authenticity of making news.

It is evident that journalists hold the definite power during shooting, they lead and they control. Lewis pointed in his book that journalists have an inextricably relationship with public relations in the present age. (2008) On the other hand, most of literatures in current study field are simply ‘emphasising’ how journalist or media has the power to influence the society, a few of them consider the authenticity is the priority in media industry and it is also the foundation stone of making news.

Unreal reports always cause a wider influence in the society then the truth. (Dunbar. 2004, p.103) However, what was mentioned in Do Journalists Still Matter? do make me resonate, “When media masters the art of camouflage, the people will forget.” ( Tina, 2017 p.294)

In our future project, I should consider myself more than a journalist. I am the representative of our team who should be able to encourage our interviewees express what they think, understand their underlying message and fulfill our content with unexpected ideas in an open attitude. Most importantly, being real and deliver real.

 

 

 

 

REFERENCE:

1. ‘Do Journalists Still Matter?’ 2017, Vital Speeches Of The Day, 83, 10, pp. 293-295, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
2. Dunbar, R. 2004. Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Re- view of General Psychology, 8: 100–110.
3. Lewis, Justin, Andrew Williams and Bob Franklin. 2008. A Compromised Fourth Estate? UK News Journalism, Public Relations and News Sources. Journalism Studies 9 (1): 1-20.
4. Shani, G, & Westphal, J 2016, “Persona non Grata? Determinants and consequences of social distancing from journalists who engage in negative coverage of firm leadership”, Academy Of Management Journal, 59, 1, pp. 302-329, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 April 2018.

 

Link to our proposal website : https://hannieyu98.wixsite.com/snacktime

 

Link to my LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yan-zhao-84434415b/

 

First assessment of SOUND and IMAGE

1. Prompt – Reflect and Write

Reflective thinking is crucial in everyday life, especially in academic study. I was impressed by two points in the book, A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice, which was written by Jennifer Moon in 2004. Firstly, reflective writing is not simply arguing for what is right or wrong, good or bad, on the opposite, respecting the differences between things is one of the principles when people doing reflective writings; and the second one is holding the spirit of self-examination during the whole writing, and this is also the notion of reflective writing.

Identifying a certain “thing” with specific nature is the inertia when I doing essay writings, but what Jennifer pointed out in her book have changed my thinking pattern. She considered label things with “right or wrong” as an unnecessarily action, because things are naturally just different. (p.189) This is new to my study and I couldn’t agree more with this theory. During all kind of styles of writing, personal experiences sometimes may go against academic theories. Comparing with ignoring personal concept, reflective writing encourages writers to gain knowledge from individual experience and consider all knowledges are coexisting and also staying in different.

In addition, auto-criticism is another essential rule during reflective writing. As Jennifer mentioned in her book, reflective writing need a well-marked “pitch” in the beginning in order to highlight the significance of the task. (189) However, beside showing off all the accomplishment that have been made, reflective writing requires writers to make a deep self-examination in the end of work. The second example in Jennifer’s book is very representative, and I do appropriate what the author used to finish the paper: “Take a Wider View”. Everyone has the limit, the experiment would be no exception. “Wider” means admit the shortcomings in the last experience and making a more well-conceived plan in the future. It also could be a reflection of scientific and responsible study attitude.

2. Prompt – Goals and Desires

Before I started this course, I was never expected a course can be this practical. I was very thrills at the beginning, but a short time later, challenges that accompanied with the freshness did bring me pressures. Camera and other filming gears are complicated. Fortunately, practice can solve this problem efficiently. What really bother me is the post-production process. Editing is tricky, when I doing editing work, I have to watch several YouTube videos to accomplish my desire achievement, by watching a video more to figure out the exact step.

Goals:

1. Mastering some editing skills that can satisfy my normal editing needs such as simple after effects;
2. Having the ability to make easy animations such as the opening of a video.

I believe that people who enrol this course all have the desire of making film by their own someday. Therefore, my desire about this course is hoping it can teach me as much as possible that I can transfer into a professional film maker in the further.

“Professional” in this class is not a “adj” to me, it is more like a “noun”. During my past filming experience, I only used SLR cameras to shoot, but all gears that we use in this course are broadcast cameras. These fancy shooting equipments become a driving force that stimulate my desire to become a “professional” that deserve them. Meanwhile, half of my classmates have relative experiences in real filming industry. To be frank, studying with these guys definitely gave me some extra pressures. On the other hand, working with them may be an unexpected opportunity that improve my filming ability and post-production skills. After all, no one wants to fell behind all the time.

Desires:

1. Becoming a useful member in a professional filming group, and have practical experiences and abilities to work in Australia film industry.

( For me, “desire” is more like a goal that I have to accomplish in a long period, and also hard to achieve.)

3. Prompt – Crew Roles

Making a film is not easy, no matter it is a low-budget film or a large investment film. During my college period, I was the director in a student theatre group. We had three departments back there, directing department, production department and administration department. In the production week, people all work together and chasing only one goal which is accomplishing the show in a high standard. That was powerful and also very touching. After I read Developing a Crew and crew roles sheet, I found so much similarities and also surprised by the complexity in the film industry. In the end of paper, I realized that complexity means efficiency and guaranteed.

Firstly, as mentioned in Developing a Crew, leaders have to get know all candidates’ personality and strength before they made any decisions. It is important. A person who always being described as “nice” may not be the perfect one in film production. Meanwhile, people who love to get rid of responsibilities is the last choice in team-building process.

In Developing a Crew, the author pointed out that defining responsibilities before shooting and establishing the commanding chian in the pre-production are two golden roles in a well-functional production team. (387) Due to my personal experience, I was pretty excited when I saw this and firmly go along with this agreement. Self-management is important in any working place, but the discipline from the exterior environment could be more efficient. Moreover, sometimes people make mistake simply due to the misunderstanding of self-responsibility. Hence, underlined every crew’s responsibilities in the first place could avoid some unnecessary mistake on set and maintain the camera keeping rolling. In film industry, time always equal to money. Less time on set, less cost that producer have to pay.

4. Keyboard shortcuts

Editing is a cool job. This final work requires editors with capabilities of summarising and being creative. I used Premiere four years ago and shortcuts helped me a lot back then. This year when I re-use Premiere in this course, I found it went way different.

When I look at the Media Factory website, I found that many new shortcuts that I wasn’t aware but really can conduce to editing process.

Cmd+R, the shortcut of Speed and duration adjustment. Cmd+R definite is one of my favourite Premiere shortcut. Four years ago I was only knew to click my mouse and after several clicks I finished my speed adjustment. But now, things get much more easy.

Cmd+L, the shortcut for Link. When doing editing, there are always millions of tracks laying on the screen. Therefore, linking audio and video or audio and audio together is important. I used to press command to select tracks and click right side of mouse to link all of the tracks, that is complicated and time consuming. With the help shortcut, all things done in one second.

And the unlink function also share the same shortcut.

F (Match Frame). This function is new to me completely and I haven’t handle it all well, but my editing work already got benefit from it. In my past experience, I used to copy the footage twice if I want to cut them into different shots and re-sequence them. But now, I can cut a footage into several shoots after a simple F instead of keep doing copy and delete.

5. Prompt – A scene

• Production design

1. Costume

Travis and Betsy in this scene are both in red, the matched color tune delivered a romantic feeling to audience. Meanwhile, figurants in this scene mostly wore white or grey clothes that made these two characters very standout among the crowd.

Tom wore a red tie helped him still very visible even his major performance area was in the back.

2. The set

The whole set is well-organized and very convictive. This film was filmed in 1976, all props and sets were restored the real life in the society and trying to eliminate the distance between the film and audience.

• Audio

Audio was terrific in this film. The background music was continuances in the scene such as the phone rings and stapler clicks, it not only can enhance the authenticity, but also filled the audio blank when Travis walked to Betsy.

When actor and actress were talking, the background audio still going but turned down the volume in order to clarify the conversation between roles.

But one thing I also notice that some background sounds are different when switched to different characters shot. It is common that director may shoot all shoots of a single character to save time, but the background sound may sometimes disconnect though different time in the day.

• Camera work

What camera did in this scene may be described into two words: coherent and gripping.

The camera followed Travis since he left his taxi, audience can see a complete action of him and followed Travis’s leads to next plot.

Meanwhile, in this scene, the camera was barely held stable in a same angle for a long time. The moving camera can attract audiences’ attention that make them think something will happen in the next second.

Even during people talking, camera still moved very slowly to catch the atmosphere between these two young man and woman.

• Shot

There are mainly two kinds of shots in this scene, long shot and medium shot.

Director used a long shot in the back side to record Travis walking towards Betsy’s office, this shoot makes me feel lonely about Travis.

After he started the conversation with Betsy, director only used medium shot to reveal the dialogue. Clear and effective.

• Performances

Actor and actress in this scene were good, especially Travis, which played by Robert De Niro, one of my favourite actor. He delivered a man who was not that confident with this action but still held the courage to make a confession to the woman he loved, such as avoided eye contact with other people except Betsy when he walked into office, and he keep holding his body with the desk to continue his speech.

Betsy was performance by Cybill Shepherd, I do love the part that she turned down her voice and flirt with Travis that told him he can her friend.

• EdiT

The editing in this scene was fluent. All actions were connected naturally and audience can observe characters’ thoughts via their faces.

What I learned from this scene is a good editing should juxtapose the atmosphere in the scene and the frequency of switching shots. For example, editor should switch shots more frequent when people talk in order to keep up with the development of the story simultaneously.

In the end, nevertheless, as mentioned in the audio section, the background music was slightly different between Travis’s shoot and Betsy’s shoot. This is a problem that should be solve or hide in the post production process.

 

Reference:

Moon, Jennifer, A. A handbook of reflective and experiential learning : theory and practice, (p. 184-189, 204-209, 222-225). New York : RoutledgeFalmer, 2004

Rabiger, M. Directing : film techniques and aesthetics, (p. 385-400). 3rd ed. Boston : Focal Press, 2003.

 

/24 hours in Melbourne/

1. Screenshots on Hootsuite:

• Instagram
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• Twitter:
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• Facebook:
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2. Links:

[ Video Name: A DAY IN MELBOURNE]

• Youtube：

• Vimeo：

 

3. Reflection:

Living in an era like nowadays require people have to master lot of skills in the virtual society, however, internet is always being very tricky to people, for example, me.

“Social” used to be a word which described a person who gathered around with crowd and engaged with other people’s live. After the digital revolution, “social” activities became increasingly causal and virtual. More importantly, social media provided everyone an opportunity to exaggerate identity and advertised personality in an open platform.

Voorveld et al (2018, p. 39) pointed that netzens are “enthusiastically” using social media as a commercial tool to “sell” themselves. Hence, building a distinguishable self-identity is the golden rule in social media market.

One of my most significant obstacles during this project was seeking personal online-identity. The online personality that people shows may directly related to social outcome, such as fans-effect and commercial corporations. In 2018, Anatoli Colicev (p. 52) did an experiment with his colleagues and examined a proportional relationship between company’s profits and their social media image.

The “24 hours in Melbourne” project required students have to create more than three social media accounts and build social images in all of them. I deeply agreed Doctor Colicev’s theory and tried to find the balance between the “real me” and the virtual figure that I tend to be.

Clearly, it is more difficult and complex than my first assumption. Creating a hot topic and making it turns into trend is hard. Social media holds a definite unmeasurable power in the present society. people who grasps the stream of social media is not just “lucky”, on the opposite, they have an insight about current society and transfer themselves into a “product” that fit into the environment.

If there is a further project in the future, I will make more research about the real life society. Social media is not a simple entertaining app on digital devices, social media is a lifestyle that influenced by the real world and also changed our life by its way.

 

Reference:

1. Colicev, A, Malshe, A, Pauwels, K, & O’Connor, P 2018, ‘Improving Consumer Mindset Metrics and Shareholder Value Through Social Media: The Different Roles of Owned and Earned Media’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 37-56.
2. Voorveld, HM, van Noort, G, Muntinga, DG, & Bronner, F 2018, ‘Engagement with Social Media and Social Media Advertising: The Differentiating Role of Platform Type’, Journal of Advertising, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 38-54. Available from: 10.1080/00913367.2017.1405754. [14 March 2018].