So here I am, promoting the new side I have. It’s actually not new to me; it’s been ages that I started applying it on hands. Great color, design and talk about fragrance! Ooo lala. Contact me Via my blog or simply PM me on facebook page.
Just for Sydney…
https://www.facebook.com/Rung-De-284541415635400/?modal=admin_todo_tour
BILL NICHOLS- MODES OF DOCUMENTARY
The Observational Mode
At first place, I thought of documentary as to document what you see and believe is the reality. While going through Bill Nichols modes of a documentary, I found out that the observational mode is what I thought is the only way of doing it.
It is said that poetic and other types of documentaries made it look staged and filmmakers were looking at some alternate with which they could capture the reality as they see it. Being neutral and behind the camera, looking and feeling the haphazard movement on location and tracking all that happens next is what this mode is all about.
The best part? Unlike poetic and expository modes, the observational mode doesn’t have to look at staging, composition, and arrangement. In the post-production too, no voiceovers, commentary, music or background score, no intertitles or reenactments are required for this particular mode. It seems and looks interesting as the audience can feel it at the same time a connection is built between the film and viewer as what a person sees on screen is exactly how it had happened.
But, it is important to know if the reality is real and imaginable enough for the viewer to see and believe in it. Unlike fiction, this approach needs to be asked questions like, will this film be giving a fictional look to the viewer? Is the content enough for a person to believe in? Is the content worthy enough to be shaped as an observational mode? At the same time, there are some questions on the safety issue which needs to be addressed. What if the shooting location has safety issues? What happens if an actor gets injured? As in this mode, everything is unpredictable, things need to run smoothly until the end, and however, it’s not the case every time.
The observational documentary is reality-based documentary in which the documentary maker can follow a person using an informal camera setting to observe and record events happening or the way. Observational documentary is getting more common these days as media is getting used to advance digital optical technologies where there is no need for traditional camera setting and lighting. These portable technologies with advance setting have made observational documentary easier than ever. Such documentaries involve long takes and no voice overs so basically person acts as an observer following behind recording the series of events in other person’s life. Although the people who are included in the documentary can chat in between no formal interviews are included in such documentaries. Some famous examples of such documentaries include reality TV shows such as Jersey Shore, Big Brother or National Geographic Documentaries.
Although this mode of documentary making is very loved by the audience there are certain drawbacks when recording. One of the biggest drawbacks can be the change of behavior in human when he/she is constantly being recorded or followed losing the essence of reality. The people that are part of your documentary might hesitate or overact their typical reactions when they know they are being filmed. It gets difficult for people who are part of the documentary to imagine the camera being invisible and keeping it real which is the true purpose of observational documentary. Another drawback can be that to get the exact scenes that would be intriguing to your audience you might have to do really long recordings which can be tiring for both, recorder and people in the documentary.
But the good side of observational documentary includes firstly that since it is reality-based these days this mode is one of the hits especially documentaries of celebrities. The audience who watch such documentaries are growing and get very emotionally involved in it. Also with the help of advanced technology, it is getting way easier to film such documentaries.
As in this mode, you look at real-time events, you never know what is going to come next in front of the camera. At times, characters indulge themselves in a fight and other unfavorable issues may occur which needs to be resolved. Not just this, this mode as it captures what the camera sees, the footage captured is never an issue free and static. The footage that comes out has different angles with movements and poor framing which looks amateur but to me, it gives an impact of reality.
To me, this mode works the best as to me it’s not staged. Though at time filmmakers modify the reality to get good drama for the documentary the treatment of observational mode is different and so is amazing.
NO DIRECTION HOME
Overview
Martin Scorsese with PBS, BBC, and a number of production corporations – spearheaded the foremost elaborate and telling portrait of Bob Dylan by the name of, No Direction Home. It showcases Dylan’s career from 1961 to 1966, the nearly four-hour journey offers a wealth of unseen footage, photos, and rare live performances. Rarer is that the frank and honest interview with Bob himself. It is said that he has incorporated his entire journey and has said it all in his interview that he had never said ever.
Point of view
Capturing young Bob Dylan is like attempting to photograph a ghost: even though you succeed, the result would be too distorted and blurred to prove it ever existed.
Each composition is there to show the artist we all know these days. For Dylan, it absolutely was the space of existence as a middle-class to someone in an exceeding, comparative, cultureless and isolated western mining city to the transformative cultural mill of latest York’s community within the early Sixties.
On the surface, it is a line from obscurity to high status ending with Dylan’s movement from acoustic to electrical, and his audiences’ anger and confusion with the switch. Dylan’s early year’s footage in being heckled on stage in 1966 London for having a backing band, and being suspect of abandoning ethnic music by the audience can be seen. Throughout the film, filmmaker plays with the actual fact that in cinema, documentaries especially, there’s no past or a result, in the film everything happens at the moment.
For every ten seconds, a breakdown was done with the perceived meaning to understand it.
The character is on stage in front of live audience. The character is enjoying and is in full emotion as a band member and singer. He is enjoying the moment. The scene starts with a track out from the back of the character as he is on stage. A zoom into his face making a close-up shot with continuous camera movement is seen. A point to note is that the focus changes as the character moves in this segment.
It felt like I am a part of this concert and the singer is effortless at his work which makes me as a viewer groove on his song.
The character is still on stage and is completing his song. This is the continuation of the first segment and starts from the same frame i.e. close up of his face. The shot changes to a low angle mid-shot as he plays another instrument.
Again, the feel is of a great organized concert. As the camera moves, it feels like you are the one who is recording the show and you have moved the camera. It gives a feel to be in that moment.
Again, the extension of previous shot and activity is seen in this segment. The character is finishing his song and the camera from low angle mid shot handheld tries to track his movement as the character finishes his song with last touchups, like raising his hand and moving his guitar.
The concert is going towards an end. It feels like I am making a video of the concert and in order to record his every action, my camera is moving every second.
The concert has ended. Now, what we see is just snow, the land covered with snow and so as the trees. The shot starts from a close-up and goes to a long shot with fades in between.
It feels cold to me. It gave an idea of cold, lifeless and miserable event that either took place or will take place. With narration at back talking about time, it gives an idea of a time frame the narrator is talking about. Personally, I like snow and I relate it to loneliness. Probably the character is alone and his life has been portrayed in a symbolic manner.
Same as the previous ten seconds, it is an extension of shots showing snow and trees with faders. However, a track starts from this section.
The feel is the same, cold, dry and uncertain of what’s coming next. The track is hollow and rich, it feels like an old vinyl recording that has been played. Probably someone has started playing it as he is sitting in front of the window watching the heavy snow.
Here, the shots have extended and at the end, we see a house. A text is in between of the frame saying many years earlier. It is an establishing shot as it shows the house of occurrence for the first time.
As I saw the text and a house on screen, it gave me an idea of the past of the character. It was cold and dry as the snow symbolizes coldness and darkness. Something was not right in the childhood of character which yet has to come.
The narration starts and we go inside the house. We see a childhood picture of the character and background music is still there with the narration.
It now feels like the character is unfolding and revealing his past. His love for music and how he reached there. But some elements are still missing; the coldness of childhood.
With the childhood picture, the other shot is of a record (which I thought is the source of the track in the beginning). It is an extreme close up of record which is working. The narration and track are still going on as he talks about his findings.
Now, it feels like probably his parents or someone from the family was closely related to music and instruments as he was able to find a guitar and later a record. It feels confined and closed to me, everything in the shot construction feels conjoined, impactful yet emptiness of something is there. Probably it’s the coldness.
Another childhood picture is revealed. This time, the picture gets zoomed in until the time the picture becomes a close up of the character. Now the narration stops but the track is ongoing.
Focusing more on childhood and music rather than focusing on what he now makes me think of some unfavorable, unwanted and painful past. I am still looking for the coldness in the story as the visual depicts.
Now, we see the character in the frame giving an interview. He is talking about his feelings as he found music instruments at his home when he was young. With a close-up shot, the character is placed on the right with warm colors and wearing black, it makes me feel like the story is set up in winter and he knew what he had to do when he grows up as a child.
A long shot of a street market is seen. With the narration and music still going on, it feels like he was into the life as a child.
It feels like he was living his childhood. Just like a marketplace with lots of people coming in every time, his childhood was filled with uncertain movements, coming and going of thoughts.
An unfertile land is seen with a pan shot. Slow music is running at the back and character is narrating his dialogue. The character tells about the lands of that time.
By showing the land, I feel an emptiness and no life. Looks like either he wasn’t happy as a child or now he isn’t happy.
We see the character again. The framing is the same as it was previously when we saw him first in the interview. Music is smoothly playing in the background while he continues to speak.
The coldness I was talking about has roots to the childhood miseries. He discloses here that he had no clothes to wear as they were poor and it was always cold where he lived. Now, I believe this misery ended after some time and he realized that he has something to achieve in the music industry.
An empty chair placed on a crane can be seen. As the chair moves, the camera tracks the movement with narration and background music at the back.
Emptiness is what I feel is here massively. The background is of an unfertile land and in the foreground is a crane with an empty seat.
The shot changes to laborers leaving their workplaces. The narration and track are still going on.
The characters (laborers) are covered with layers of clothes which shows the coldness of that place. As they leave, one may feel a connection to their hard work with coldness as the narrator emphasizes on winters in this sequence as well.
The character is being interviewed again and is seen on the frame in this sequence. After 5 seconds, we see a footage of some shops which later from the long shot becomes a close up of a window with a picture in there.
I can relate to the hard work and laborer I saw in the previous frame. Probably the filmmaker was trying to symbolize hard work with the loaded work and pressure laborers face each day. As the character speaks about his family and his father, it feels like his father was either one of them or was a hard worker himself.
A cutout of newspaper appears on the screen with a picture of character’s father. It is unfolded that his father was a hard worker and he was the one who taught the character value of it.
I feel that this documentary is more about the hard work this character did to be able to reach where he is at the moment. At the same time, it’s about what he has learned so far from it, how did he achieve it and what the struggle was.
FORBIDDEN LIES
Overview
Forbidden lies is a 2007 documentary by Anna Broinowski over the book Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri on honor killing of her friend by her own father. The documentary is about reading between the lines of the novel and to let people know that it’s all a lie. The documentary clip given revolves around marking the lines in the novel and hunting the truth. However, the sound design of this sequence is something to talk about.
About the sound design
Within this dramatization of Norma’s original story as in her book, the story between Norma’s friend and her supposed lover is showing emotion accomplished through the music. The post-dubbed track is that of a girl singing a pretty love song entailing lines adore “hear these words and set her free” then on. This functions to determine a selected atmosphere that’s jarringly crushed once the feminine journalist’s voice suddenly interrupts the music as she assertively comments “this can be not the truth”.
The abrupt cutting of the music functions to jolt the audience out of a complacency while encouraging them to understand that the dramatic re-enactments simply have seen are utterly untrue. From such purpose, the narrative progresses powerfully with this Jordanian woman’s voice concerning her add the investigation of Jordanian women’s deaths. Norma then seems as she reads her book in sections that then jump to ladies proving that Norma’s words are all incorrect and full of lies.
The importance of sound in this section is highlighted inside these abrupt cuts that follow a scientific approach: Norma is detected audibly reading an area from her book, followed by a voice suggesting these statements invalid. As the movie maker follows the journalist discovering the lies within the book to be fast-paced, frisky and investigatory audio recording functions as background music to elevate the exploratory mood has been used.
What’s fascinating in this section concerning the sound is that the distinction between Norma’s words and also the journalists can be seen. As their voices intercut, we are able to still hear a transparent distinction between the recordings of those voices. The somewhat rusty recordings of the journalist operate to emphasize this tense within which she presently speaks, while the upper volume clear recording of Norma’s voice adopts a fictive characteristic. This distinction is elevated through the lower volume level of the journalist’s speech compared to Norma’s. Similarly, the naturalized part sounds gift once the Journalist visits several of the represented places in Norma’s story function a form of comic irony to the fictive sounds of Norma as she reads her book aloud.
These sounds adore the delicate background speeches of random passersby conjointly operate to emphasize the fact of those sequences as opposition to Norma’s ultimately fiction book.
The Breakdown
Breakdowns make it easy for anyone to understand what’s in there. A detailed sound breakdown was done in order to learn the technique and to think of possible recording source.
Birds chirping, bells ringing, sound of surprise to go with video transition, car moving, cloth piece on the ground, walking on sand, wind sound, sound of fading away while the character vanishes from the screen. The soundtrack is on the first layer. Possibly these SFX were outsourced. The track gets interrupted as we hear a narration.
Clicking sound, book as the narrator puts on the table sound, Azaan, and typing on a keyboard. Here, the character is in charge thus the first layer of sound is of her script, recorded on the microphone. Other sound effects apart from Azaan might be outsourced, however, Azaan is easy to record as in Islamic states people can hear it throughout the day.
Bell sound, car horn, and birds chirping. Again, these sounds were probably outsourced. Also, there are now three characters in this sequence. The Journalist, the writer, and a research doctor. As the writer reads her book, the narration from journalist overlaps it making it reach on layer one while the other layer of writer’s dialogue fades away.
Click on a camera, heartbeat, sound of the wind, paper sound and sticking to the paper, book closing and book on the table. The sounds of the book might be taken on location however others are non-diegetic sounds which could be a part of their outsourced sound effect’s list.
People murmuring, hissing sound, paper as the character holds it and puts on the table with a background music that starts at the end of this particular time sequence. People murmuring is something that can be recorded on location with a microphone. Other than that, hissing and paper sounds are critical thus might have outsourced.
Background music, hissing, vanishing sound as part of video transition, trimming hair, traffic sound, people murmuring, note-taking out of a wallet, taking money in hand (paper sound). Trimming hair, traffic, people talking and money sounds are all diegetic so I believe it was taken on the shoot. However, others were outsourced.
Coins sound in hand, coins sound on the table, picture click, sound of a watch, lighter sound, reverse sound, bell ringing, page flip and vanishing sound of construction building. The sequence has an ongoing narration from the journalist and the research doctor, thus the first layer is of their dialogues. A continuous track is played as a second layer which is fun-filled as the journalist and doctor uncover lies. The third layer is of sound effects.
I believe coin sounds were taken at the time of the shoot. Other sounds might be a part of an outsourced sound list.
Click sound, cell phone flip, machines from gym sound, people murmuring and traffic sound.
Almost everything in this sequence is diegetic and is easy to record on location.
My Take on sound
It is fresh, vibrant and gives a feel of a story at the beginning. When I started watching the clip, it gave me a sense of fairytale as it had all the details, listed above. Layering the sounds with narration and tracks is what made it stand out for me. The audio transitions fit perfectly with the video on the screen. You will enjoy listening to it more rather than watching it.
The tracks change every time as the mood of the film changes. From Azaan (Holy call for prayers) to a mystic love song, the moods for the film has good definition thus makes it a great sound package.
REFLECTION ON LIGHTING EXERCISE
Introductory movie research is less bothered with the technical aspects regarding movie lighting than the expressive consequences of creative lighting. The intention at this point is in accordance with start to appreciate the course among which the effect on lighting fixtures choices bears meaning. When thinking about lighting, we need to see that how the director is developing the impact or analyze the effective meaning.
Three-point lighting
This is the most simple lights setup. It consists of a key light, a fill light, and then a backlight. The key light aims directly at the subject –most possibly the major personality or object or is the brightest light supply for the shot. The fill light is a softer light, usually placed opposite the key light. The backlight shines behind the object, keeping apart him, her, from the back –in sordid words, improving the feel of depth in the shot. Backlighting from time to time creates a halo effect around a character’s head, particularly at the side of the hair.
The fill light
In television, film, stage, or photographic lighting, a fill light (often virtually known as a fill) is used in accordance to minimize the contrast in a scene. Fill makes shadows seem lighter and darker than normal, which is a reason that a viewer sees things differently, by inferring both environmental or temper clues about the shadows. Basically, a fill is a light back in conformity with cast off or soften shadows precipitated with the aid of the main source of illumination.
The positioning concerning the fill influences the typical look of the lighting pattern.
The key light
The term key light is the source of twins typically used adjectives: low key then the high key. To call something high key means that it is of great intensity.
The back light
Back light helps to illuminate the background of the subject. It lights foreground factors from behind. This creates a quivered effect concerning the edges on the subject, whilst mean areas are darker.
LIGHTING TECHNIQUES USED
3 point lighting
As discussed earlier, 3 point lighting was achieved by placing a key light, a fill light, and back light. The lights used were LED Panels for this setup. We got motivated by the lighting setup itself as it balances the entire scene and gives a dramatic look. A key and fill were used in it however for back light, we used a reflector. It affected the shot in a dramatic way. As compared to the actual footage, this lighting setup made it look intense, detailed and lit. The shooting procedure in the actual footage was simple as there was no light so we didn’t bother much about the background. However, in 3 points set up, we had to look at the lights and reflector and place the camera in such a way that lights couldn’t be seen.
Key lighting
Key lighting is my favorite as it gives such an intense and dramatic look and I feel it’s actually better than 3 point lighting. So in this particular setup, we tried giving it a horror feel, for which key lighting was used. So we used one key light and a back light. Whereas, no reflector was used in this particular shot. The motivation behind it was to play with key lighting more. We tried placing it in front and finally, after errors, we placed it on the side to give a look at one side lit and other dark.
Back lighting
Back lighting was done as a part of our lighting experiment. Lighting setup just with key or fill is something we tried but never thought of just the back light playing the game. For this particular setup, a fill light as a bounce for an entire scene was used and a back light on Catherine’s back was used to give it a good dimension. Also, I take it as Catherine is near to the camera, her back should be lit more than anyone else. This scene gave her character a great look while Dean’s face was lit just by a reflector. It was to give a sense of some bad dream.
References
Kris, M 2012, Film Lighting: Talks with Hollywood’s Cinematographers and Gaffers, 2nd edn, Touchstone, New York, USA.
Craig, W & Dick, B 2013, Scene design and stage lighting, Wands worth, USA.
COLOR GRADE
The color grading exercise was a learning experience as it helps to get the look and feel of the film right. You can make a footage look like a day while it’s night. It comes with amazing commands and effects that make you wonder what you actually want from the footage. I started off with a basic idea of making my footage look like warm as it was cold outside. Thus version one was created.
Make it warm, as the title suggests it has all the warm colors. I have mainly used RGB curves on it to give warm colors. The white graph was given a height, reds a bit high from middle, green a bit high with blue. Also, I have used hue saturation, contrast and brightness to achieve this look. I really like to get contrasting shadows, as per the script too, where the protagonist dies, I thought of giving it a really dramatic look in terms of shadows. A mood board comparing the actual footage and graded effect was made to understand the color tones more.
The first picture is of the protagonist who has been shot. Red was added to the footage to give that definition. The second footage, however, had a red floor so less red and more blue was added. The third clip had both red and blue as the shadows were required at the same time it had to match the entire sequence.
Not much different than the previous one? A big difference can be seen just on the metal side. How can one forget that there is an elevator in the shot? Making something dramatic needs a lot of colors thus this version was created.
The tools used were the same however the temperature in this version was cool as compared to previous one. I emphasized more on blues in this version as I had to achieve that sheen look on the elevator. Little red was added as more blue would make the entire scene lifeless. It was difficult to deal with the shadows in this version particularly as I didn’t want to make it look like fantasy. This color ideally is used in a fantasy world and movies like Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton. A poster from the film was taken as an inspiration for this look. Silvers and darks are mainly used in it to give that fantasy world look.
For Lenny, just the color tone was adopted. RGB curves, hue saturation, temperature, contrast, and brightness were used to get this metallic look.
Reference for the picture:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR_r39Bu9Uc-uvvA-UKpKcn_vIUcAXV-OI1IgJYF2krW_GTdJrT
Because why not? Honestly, I like making things dramatic and extra on screen. It makes you go like what just happened here. Something that is odd and new to us gets our attention within a blink of an eye. Here, I have focused mainly on red color. But in color grading, it’s not just a single color that you need to tweak and play with to get your desired look.
Here, the issue was to get it red while making sure that the floor doesn’t merge in the color itself. For inspiration, a still from Only God forgives was chosen. I haven’t seen the film yet but it has the mood I was in search of. It looks spectacular because of the background lighting and the color tone but as I didn’t have any background lighting and Lenny was shot on the lights available at that time, I had to work more on grading.
RGB curves were used in it and mostly red was added. With a slight rise in blue and green in the first pic as it had an elevator.
Apart from that, the temperature for this was kept too warm, contrast and brightness sharp, hue saturation more towards the red and warm side.
Reference for the picture:
http://www.dfi-film.dk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/OGF_red_Ryan.jpg
The comparison
In order to get the most of it, another board was made with all of the grades placed side by side.
HAIKU EDIT
My project
The Haiku verse I used for this project is
It’s cold and I wait,
for someone to shelter me,
and take me from here.
As it sounds deep, meaningful and short, I wanted the visual for this to be meaningful as well. I started off with the shots of some lights, hard shadows and different angles.
BETWEEN THE LINES AND FOOTAGE
The quality and usability
The idea of Haiku is new to me as I haven’t heard about it before. Firstly, I loved the idea of how abstract art can still relate to what you say. They have open ends which make you think about the image and sound to see how you take it.
The quality of the footage was amazing as it was shot while keeping in mind all the necessary techniques like white balance, shot construction and lighting etc. the footage we got was not only great to work with but we had other videos too for our consideration (from other fellows). It was amazing to see how we all managed to get the abstract art recorded.
Recording the verses was something I enjoyed doing. We had a paper with verses all no longer than 3 sentences. We rehearsed and recorded a single verse using a microphone. The quality of the recording was good as we recorded in the editing suite.
The layering of audio and video
The technique for doing Haiku is to get the audio edited first and then going for the video editing. It was fun doing this as I always edited video first.
The 1st layer of audio was ambiance sound for which audio tracks 1 and 2 were used. The second layer was of recorded verse. Throughout the video, ambiance was kept constant while other effects where necessary like of water were added as it came on screen.
The videos used had a link with the words said, like on wait, a hard shadow of an object standing still can be seen. I really like to get the meaning out of abstract things which I tried doing for Haiku as well.
The things learned
Fewer words but powerful, abstract images but meaningful; this is what I’ve learned from Haiku. We always think that filmmaking or any other form of art needs everything, great lighting, script and everything fancy, but it’s not the case with Haiku. The exercise we did was simple yet amazing. It gave me a sense of development in terms of content drafting and how to look for meaning in meaningless objects like a waterfall.
Link to Haiku
REFLECTION ON THE COURSE
Honestly, I was expecting much from this course as it is a master’s program. However, I really learned some amazing things like Haiku in it. But, as I did my Bachelors in the same discipline, I was looking for something new and exciting. Some things were new to me like keyboard shortcuts and using light panels however I was familiar with editing sound and video beforehand.
I was expecting to produce some short film by the end of the semester or a TVC but Lenny and Haiku almost did it, so I am quite happy at the end. I was looking for some practical assignments (more of color grading and sound) as I took this subject as a practical coursework. It felt like more writing and less practical work to me. I would love to get more practical exposure and based assignments rather than writing.
Women in comedy
Women in comedy is all about the stand-up comedy field for women. The idea amazed me as it really has potential. The group, however, has a connection with the industry which makes the task easy and up to date. Also, the group has amazingly experienced people (with humor) that goes with the topic itself.
The genre is less talked about, which I believe is a strong point. It’s new to ears and people till the date have the urge to look up to stand-up comedy. However, it is important to get the field response. As they said in their presentation, they were unable to get people on board due to prior commitments which I think was a big issue. To eradicate that, they should have asked people in this industry not confined to where they’ve reached over the years but the struggling artists would be of good too.
Sex talks RMIT
It amazes me to see that how people from Asia react to such word. Where we can’t write sex as sex and have to write it as the ‘s’ word or s*x, it itself is difficult to approach people to talk about it.
Their social media presence is amazing and they said that they didn’t have to pay a single penny on it, probably it worked in their case as the name is catchy (my opinion).
Also, I think the biggest challenge they faced was to talk with people about it and to get their reactions. For this, they could have focused more on their own Asian friends, friends of friends and so on the chain would go.
They mentioned that they have an advertising background and not of film-making so coming up with a video and content that is truly video based might be of issues for them. I didn’t see it as an issue though as they did quite an amazing job with video editing and creation. So far, I believe that their social media worked really well for them.
It’s always an amazing experience filming something that challenges you but is creative enough so you don’t want to leave it. Same happened with me as I was directing the promotional video for Break free. It was storyboarded well and we had enough equipment for it too. But, on the day of shoot, we realized that the railing on staircase doesn’t have enough width to be turned as track.
Previously, it was planned that we would use the railing as a base for our track but it was kind of impossible. However, we did substitute with multiple shots and made it a simple video. The basic issue? Research and location recce.
Talking about aspect ratio and other technicalities while filming, Gino (2017, p. 4) says that ‘it’s seemingly amateur mode of framing raises issues around concepts of authenticity and aesthetic norms’. Also, as we sacrificed the video framing due to content, it is said that because TV is based on salience of images, for content people sacrifice aesthetics and peer knowledge of framing and filmmaking (Gino 2017).
(Roth 2012) connected visuals and what is on paper. He says ‘People who rely primarily on technical images to communicate with one another no longer think in terms of cause and effect, of events moving in one direction towards a goal or conclusion’ Roth (2012, p. 328). (Graber 2006) believes that media personnel are the people who try breaking and molding events to get a story. To which I agree as we modified our visual as it was at ease.
References
Roth, N 2012, Visual consciousness: The impact of new media on literate culture, Handbook of visual culture, London, England.
Gino, C 2017,’ Video goes vertical: Local news videographers discuss the problems and potential of vertical video’, Electronic News,
Graber, A 2006, Mass media and American politics, 7th edn, CQ Press, Washington DC, USA.
Jeremy, L & Michael, H 2012, ‘Local Television Coverage of a Mall Shooting: Separating facts from fiction in breaking news’, Electronic News, vol. 5, 4: pp. 197-214.
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Link to LinkedIn profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramshalakhani/
Handheld shots bring lots of coverage, playing time and reality to any scene. In this shot, the usability of the shot is high as it has pan, track, mid shot, long shot and closes up all under the same shot. However, the quality also shakes up when you feel somebody walking with the camera and not slide it. I think with the proper track the shot would have looked a lot better.
Handheld shots give amazing coverage. Unlike static shots where everything is monitored, blocked and placed in a certain position only, handheld shots give you a lot of leverage and a ground to play on. In this case, I think we covered almost every aspect of the location and character. Long shots were taken to get full coverage of the location. Mid shots and close-ups were taken to give definition to the characters and to make dialogue delivery powerful. Tracks and pans were taken to give vibrancy to the frame and to make it visually appealing.
Technically, when we took the shots, they were a bit jerky and needed to get stabilized in the editing phase, however, it looked more odd and unnatural so we had to drop the plan. In terms of technicality, I think to an extent this shot was a big no as it had some long and unnecessary moments, some long and exaggerating framing as well as in order to get the characters in the frame, the camera movements got sacrificed.
Comparing this example with Lenny, I think that to an extent static shots look good on screen as it is placed timely and correctly. However, handheld shots give you a lot of dimensions and a new perspective to look at achievable angles. From creativity point of view and from getting something new, I think handheld camera movement wins for me.
Dexter (The TV Show) opening credits deconstruction
Traditionally, the opening titles are utilized to give an insight into the TV program, the performing artists’ and the maker’s name. Be that as it may, some use the opening sequence to set a tone for the show while helping people to get information about the type of show they’re about to watch. They make pictures and utilize sound that is proposed to be quickly conspicuous for the crowd and connect with them by drawing them into the program itself. In this way, while they give a ‘brand character’ for the program, these title successions are implied generally to introduce the show and need to be considered free from the specific scene of the demonstration that tails it.
The montage which it appeared as the primary title succession is composed by Digital Kitchen Studios for the show ‘Dexter’, which spins around a character named Dexter, who works for Miami Police and is a hideous serial killer of those killers and hoodlums that have gotten away equity. Utilizing the ‘code’ instructed to him by his dad to abstain from getting captured and get just the general population ‘who merit it’, while keeping up a customary persona, he has a twofold existence – which influences him to address about himself and his connections.
The basics? It is a montage of the morning schedule of the principal character – Dexter. While the routine independent from anyone else can be seen denotative, the decision and the procedure in the routine obviously uncover a great deal about the character. For example, skin surface and eyes delineate the age and sexual orientation. The decision of sustenance – bacon, eggs, juice – give a thought regarding the way of life he has a place with. Indeed, even the nearness of mosquito and radiant brilliance outside roughly demonstrate the land location. The decision of garments, the nearness of hardware, for example, razor, coffee machine, and treadmill focus an era this is set in.
So, while it builds up the character and his space, it likewise presents the tone of the whole show. Moreover, by its auxiliary development, it gives off an impression of being a smaller scale account in its own particular right, introducing the standard as some sorta fastidious monotonous execution in this way paralleling Dexter’s slaughtering customs.
A shot by shot analysis is done to understand more about the title design.
A collage of some amazing close-ups is made to get the idea of this show and title design more.
In the chapter, Mackendrick beautifully deconstructs the complex relationship the director has with his most important collaborator, the actor. The controversial subject that he breaches here discovers the extent a director needs to involve an actor during the film making process. A director must adapt a critical and self-consciously analytical approach to his work. Whereas, an actor’s approach is rooted in intuition, impulse and instinct. Too much thinking on an actor’s part can act as an inhibitor which is quite contradictory to a director’s method of work. Nevertheless, the chapter unravels the amount of information needed on both director’s and actor’s part regarding each other’s role to successfully complete the film making process.
Comparative analysis of theater and cinema performance draw attention to the kind of technique and expertise required on an actor’s part when performing on-screen. Indubitably, the camera play and the close ups perform an essential part in communicating the subtle emotions of a character to the cinema audience. Great actors facilitate the subtle communication process by having a constant internal dialogue to keep the character alive. Though the most important yet understated feature is the internalization of behavioral aspects of the characters. Director must provide relevant props to the actor to play with to subtly convey the detail about each character. This unspoken activity on-screen and absent-minded play of the objects, not only helps an actor release pent up unselfconscious energy but will also draw significance to the more important scenes and reactions when they are interrupted.
In the second part of the chapter the author focuses on the process each director must go through in order successfully internalize and direct the script. A disciplined study of the script is must. It is essential for a director to know about the background of each character in the story. Only when a director is fully prepared, he/she should proceed and introduce the actor in the process. The internalization of the script by a director should act as a facilitator to the imaginative process of an actor rather than merely controlling it. It is the heavy responsibility of a director to help an actor discover the behavioral aspect of his/her character. By communicating the background story of a character and by asking insightful questions, a director will facilitate the imaginative process of an actor while giving them the freedom to perform their role.
Mackendrick believes that patience and appreciation are the vital ingredients for this complex director-actor relationship to succeed.
Have you ever analyzed the sound design? The truth is that it is quite intriguing. When you dig down into the design you will realize the fact that the sound is more of a force. The interesting part is that this force has various forms.
The three main forms to consider are physical, emotional and perceptual. Sound has a massive impact on our psyche and we respond to it with excitement. Do you ponder over why the sound is a force? Well, the sound never gets displaced. In fact one sound can easily add to another sound to create an impact.
The sound has emerged as such a great force that today’s cinematic versatility is incomplete without it. However, the sound equipment has a major role to play in today’s world and helps the listeners perceive the sound as a force. For example, the Microphone can have a great effect on the sound’s tonal quality.
What makes the sound design so exciting is that you can play with sounds and invest your creativity to come up with the perfect sound. It will not be wrong to say that different sound instruments like Microphone are tools to contribute to a superior sound design.
The superior design makes the sound emerge as power. Another reason to consider the sound as a force is that it has can affect your aural perception as well. For example, if you decide to change the acoustics of your room a bit, then the sound you hear may seem more comforting.
A force is something that can adapt to the environment and make an impact everywhere. The same holds true for sound. No wonder the sound design is used as a lethal weapon in films to enhance the intensity of scenes and add power to the dialogues.
What we need to mention here is that perceptual acuity also contributes to the power of the sound. For example, audio production is incomplete without perceptual acuity and it assisting in shaping up the sound. This way you can hear the sound you want.
The current sound design has imposed a responsibility on the sound designers as well. They have to create sound in way that all of us out there continue to perceive the sound as force. They need to have this in-born sensitivity towards sound so that they can articulate the aesthetic and the sonic requirements of the sound.
This way we will all relate to the sound design as a force.
We were a group of five for Lenny project and we all were required to come up with pre-production material so that we could sit down together and do the shot analysis.
It was a smooth phase for us as we all played our roles of coming up with individual pre-production plans. The roles were divided amongst team members depending on the experience, knowledge, and will. As I have a soft corner four sound, I chose Location sound recording as my crew role. For the pre-production, we exchanged our shot list and storyboard with character analysis and design depending on the look and feel.
We visited many places on the campus and got pictures for our shoot. The same day, we decided which location to go for and the entire team visited it and looked for possible issues that may occur. To which we found out that people roaming around would be an issue also, as there were elevators right opposite to the place we choose, the possible sound interruption could occur.
We made our mind for that location and worked on the storyboard and shot construction. I myself tried to eliminate the shots that would require a vast frame so that fewer people could get in the frame. After shot construction, I had worked on the storyboard and used the same script as provided.
A week after pre-production, we stepped into production phase and we had our shoot on schedule. As decided we started by 6 pm and ended the shoot by 9 pm. The location was noisy as people kept coming in at the same time due to the dialogue delivery of our actors, a single shot would take 10 minutes and multiple takes.
As elevators and the produced sound was a problem, we tried working on the shots at that very moment to minimize the risk of getting everything in the frame. The director wanted some long shots at the same time some close shots, the placement of camera was a big torture. We tried shooting handheld for some shots as the tripod length wouldn’t suite the shot required but it would go shaky. We tried to look for possible equipment so that the low angle shots would come perfect.
We used bags and got them stable to use as a base for our camera. At the same time, our running shots needed to record the running sound of character which again was a big challenge. The boom needed to follow the character to record the footsteps which were taken so many time as the following would encounter with people talking somewhere and air.
The best part was when we decided to use the elevator itself. The sound, as well as creative department, sat in the elevator and we were all made to look so down that the camera wouldn’t capture us. It was unplanned as I didn’t mention it in my storyboard but the director and DOP had a vision and they were successful in pulling it off.
After the shooting process, the editing game began and we all were asked to be divided into a group of two. We started sinking the audio and video and after that started the editing exercise. It was quite fun to see how the other group had handled the same footage. I personally like parallel editing where two stories are running one after another and get connected at a point where the audience gets entire focus on.
I started it with Lenny trying to reach her mark at the same time placed Sharon trying to reach her mark too. Once Lenny laid down on her mark, Sharon found her and the dialogues got started. The best thing about it was when the characters were cross edited and it gave the look of a thriller.
Color grading is a process I really look forward to. It is fun and gives a lot of control to an artist. I was thinking to deal with two different temperatures and colors in this film. Cool and warm both colors were added in different sequences. For Lenny, the elevator scene and the entire corridor scene was graded with cool temperature and additional greens and blues were added. The reason behind it was to show her struggle in getting her life back, even to show the difficulty level of her trying to breathe as she had been shot. To differentiate between the two characters, Sharon was placed in a warm temperature setting. Although she is the antagonist of the film as she is alive and not in the condition as of Lenny, warm tones had been used.
Screenshots from editing phase are taken to know more about the feel of the film.
Also, some stills from behind the scenes were taken.
One of my all-time favorites is Jack Nicholson’s horror, thriller film; the shining. This film is about Jack, his wife Wendy and their 5-year-old son who decide to get an opportunity of looking after a hotel at the same time to overlook at his writing. Danny, the five-year-old kid gets the vision of mysterious figures and gets terrified ever since the first incident happened. However, Jack gets possessed by supernatural forces in the hotel and tries to kill his entire family. In the end, Jack dies and the family runs away from the mysterious and terrifying place.
The scene I particularly like the most is of Danny riding his tricycle in the hotel. A continuous steady cam shot that started with a loop and gets in the hallway that is created to show realism. The triple-layered loop starts with realism in layer one. The second one starts from the lobby and ends in the corridor where they are living and the third and final one ends into the other corridor where he sees the twin sisters.
The best part of this is that it is entirely a steady cam rig shot and is tremendously blocked. The shot was taken while being in a wheelchair and had managed to scare the people due to some amazing details.
The first loop is a simple one that takes place on the ground floor, from the kitchen to hallway and ends up in the lobby. The second loop, however, is the tricky one as it kind of makes a key shape in traveling. It’s a metaphor that they have used.
A shot by shot storyboard was made to understand the shot breakdown and movement of the camera.
Link to the video
Link to Youtube channel:
Facebook has left an impact and has shown tremendous patterns of success over the years. In spite of the fact that it just came in its operation amongst people in 2006, Facebook now had one billion month to month clients by the year 2012. Also, 80% of clients are from outside the States and Facebook has given them all a stage to meet and greet. However, Facebook then stepped into the marketing zone by creating and working on Facebook advertisements.
A research was done to see how people perceive Facebook ads, how they consider it, why they join and be a part of it and the associations. It then came to light that people of all ages are so active on Facebook that they believe what they see and tend to act accordingly. To understand this phenomenon, as per Viju and Joshua 2013, Facebook is more about recommendations and friends. Grown-ups, adolescents, youthful grown-ups, grassroots and government organizations are on the whole are using Facebook so when you see and hear from a friend about a product they got from an online store via Facebook and how it worked, you instantly believe it and develop the need of getting the same for yourself. Facebook enables a client to make a profile and produce a rundown of companions by sending a companion demand to the next individual. It is strange that how it works every time!
Also, it is important to look at the placement of your ad and to look at the target audience. Any product that is meant to target sportsperson shouldn’t be considering a fashion freak. Facebook ads and its placement is now a business of its own. People now look for online solutions and get connected to the same solution as a Facebook Ad whenever they log in. Strange but effective. They know what you are looking for!
Ralf, C Tim, F Marijke, C Talia, S Claudia, V & Cind, B 2013, ‘New Media and Society’, Facebook: A literature review, vol. 15, 6: pp. 982-1002.
Emma, J Melissa, A Kathleen, R & David, W 2011, ‘Health Promotion Practice’, A Drive Through Web 2.0: An Exploration of Driving Safety Promotion on FacebookTM, vol. 14, 1: pp. 88-95.
Viju, R & Joshua, F 2013, ‘Journal of Medical Marketing’, Facebook advertisements and purchase of weight-loss products, vol. 13, 4: pp. 201-211.
Wonson, Augustine, and Jung (2015) suggested a series of relationship-cultivation strategies with outcomes such as satisfaction, commitment, trust, and control mutuality. Further studies identified strategies including access, openness, positivity, networking, task sharing, and assurances. Access refers to the extent to which an organization offers its public communication channels to directly reach it. Openness, often referred to as disclosure, refers to the extent to which an organization discloses information about the organization to its public. Positivity refers to the strategy that an organization uses to make the relationship more enjoyable for its public. Networking refers to an organization’s effort to build networks with the groups to which its public belongs, such as unions and community groups. Task sharing refers to the extent to which an organization and its public work together for mutual benefit. Finally, assurances refer to the extent to which an organization assures its public that the public’s concerns are legitimate and the organization is committed to maintaining the relationship
Researchers argued that online media such as the Internet are critical platforms not just for organizations to disseminate information but also for organizations to interact with stakeholders through feedback or dialogic loops. In fact, the interactivity of online media, which allows organization–public interactions, conversations, and user engagement, has been found to be associated with various positive Shin et al. 187 outcomes, including consumers’ increased trust in e-vendors, enhanced product knowledge, and more positive attitude toward online advertising and purchasing, as well as organizations’ increased profits
In a study with university students, found that self-identity and belongingness were variables that significantly helped to explain individual inclination to engage in online social networks. It is said that as many people now tend to believe what they see online, it is important to get yourself recognized online and promote your brand with the best online, as it makes a difference.
Wonsun, S Augustine, P & Hyo Jung, K 2015, ‘Journal of Business and technical communication’, Building Relationships Through Integrated Online Media: Global Organizations’ Use of Brand Web Sites, Facebook, and Twitter, vol. 29, 2: pp. 184-220.
Emma, J Melissa, A Kathleen, R & David, W 2011, ‘Health Promotion Practice’, A Drive Through Web 2.0: An Exploration of Driving Safety Promotion on FacebookTM, vol. 14, 1: pp. 88-95.
We are defined as what our habits are but online habits and offline habits may not be similar. It can be understood by what a person really is in daily routine and what he shows himself on the internet. In the past few years, the internet has gained all the attention and people now fake it all on it to show what they think will make them strong and capable enough to stand out.
The profiles we create, be it on Facebook or twitter, they are tied to a real name and connections which increases as you increase your activities and make them a part of your online profile. Users know and are familiar with the logging technique thus form their own version of it. The best part of it is that it runs like a life span, from past to present, everything is there, mentioned and staring at you. It can be treated as a permanent identity just like one holds in his life. Some users however use different names deliberately and want to keep their real identity and face hidden.
Considering mixed personality as stated in Goffman’s structure, it can be comprehended that the self is only a cover one wears in given circumstance – the veil is worn when a performing artist cooperates with others on the web and is left on for the reasons to look in future physical communication, with the group of onlookers. The other part of veil comes up when it’s time for it to get revealed. In this unique situation, the online condition could be viewed as a phase with the disconnected life as the backstage, and these specific performers unequivocally put resources into their outfit – wishing to incite the coveted response from others. Symbols are then subjected to be changed as a social association. This marvel implies that, with the coming of symbols, clients have possessed the capacity to underline and limit certain parts of self, for example, appearance or conduct. This has turned out to be conceivable on the grounds that clients are currently editors and makers – planning and making their self-portrayals, picking what to convey to the frontal area or cover up out of sight.
Lastly, the fact that social media considers all the data shared on it, commented or liked gets registered for life which raises the question of which media to choose and participate and to what extent? Is it a concern or not? To which scholars and professionals are exploring the horizons and how this identity will work culturally, how marketers are marketing their brand just by receiving the identity successfully and how relationships are coming out and been reshaped.
Hickey & Dona J 2014, Identity and Leadership in Virtual Communities: Establishing Credibility and Influence, IGI Global, United States of America.
Liam & Ana C 2013, ‘Journal of Information Science’, The presentation of self in the online world, Goffman and the study of online identities, vol. 39, 1: pp. 101-112.
Emerge as an optimist as we live only once
Working with reality or non-fiction is always a task. It comes with lots of challenges that need to be solved in such a manner that the viewer takes it as you want to show it. In Break frees’ case, it was really important to get the facts and research right as we were about to get people on board with their stories.
My heart poured out for all those suffering from negativity as I myself was one and that is when wanted Break free to talk about this stigma through a short film series. I was able to relate to the struggles and sufferings of all those who are continuously overpowered by negative feelings. As a writer and director, it is important for one to come up with all the positive aspects and people who believe in you. When documenting the truth behind negative feelings, I found out that research is the key to documenting any reality. Each aspect needs to be searched on and needs the dedication to get things right. Be it cultural factors that make documenting a real-life event difficult or resources that you may have, one needs to be on toes to get each action recorded.
Professionals believe that portraying the present of the past is a big issue and it needs skills and research. Also, they believe that modern-day documentary is needed frequent storytelling as one needs to grab the attention of the audience. I believe that to an extent, the treatment of documentary or related videos is important to deal with. Today’s director should know that frequent transitions are important to be in any kind of the film, however, one should also keep it real. Also, I believe that transitions kept minimal do all the work for you, obviously in favor. It’s a good thing to come up with something that grabs the attention at the same time looks up to the mark of reality.
Learning from past experiences is something which I adore. For next time, a project like this will get more attention in terms of screenplay and frequency of peaks and troughs of events.
Jane, Chapman 2009, Issues in Contemporary documentary, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK
Bill, Nichols 1991, Representing reality: Issues and Concepts in documentary, Indiana University Press, IN, USA
Alan, Rosenthal & John, Corner 2005, New Challenges for Documentary, 2nd edn, Manchester University Press, Palgrave, USA
Link to LinkedIn profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramshalakhani/
Link to Digital Proposal Website
https://yolobreakfree.wixsite.com/proposal
The world inn 
