student number 108401 @azileyam-blog - Tumblr Blog

Grading

Get your visual images first! Once you’ve got a reference to work off, it’s so much easier to do the job you need to do. Sometimes even just put a grade ontop of the image at 50% at that will work best. You can make anyone look anywhere with a pop of colour. when in doubt go back to photoshop! Tracking on Davinci is actually amazing, so blow off after effects, we’re going to be alright. Scopes =how you can see colour placement. whites/blacks etc. Nodes= opt+s. We can edit on these. Work on luminance first and then go to hue and saturation. This class really eradicated my fear of grading. Mostly because it’s just mostly being creative and artistic and you’ll be able to figure out a way to get it. I’m good at that, that’s where I feel one hundred percent safe. That’s how I taught myself to edit and after playing around in Da Vinci for a couple of hours in the class, I could feel myself starting to thoroughly enjoy it. I am glad we had that tutorial, I feel stronger. Now to practise.

After Effects + Da Vinci Grading

I learnt a lot that I didn’t understand and some that I did understand. I used to know after effects, but it’s been so long that the program looked completely foreign to me. The following are the notes I took in the lecture: - match screen resolution to 1920/1080 pixels - works in vectors - sceenshot in order to have background as a reference - don’t do titles in premeire because you can’t do anything else with them. - if you’re working between photoshop/after effects and you rename something you will lose the linked media between them. just don’t rename them. - gradient features - minusing points opt parts of the mask - if you want to paste in place from photo shop to after effects it’s “shift command T” - medium tracker motion not really needed to don’t bother with it - you’ll find better. - null object cannot be redeemed but it does provide a trackable for group objects. - parenting is super importnt - you can decide what it is you want to make/rotate/position/scale etc - make new composition to still and it will automatically apply to the original composition MOCHA AE is a tracking program and can follow the face effectively. Generally do a general grade in an adjustment layer, but more on that now with davinci

in reflection

In reflection, i’ve got mixed feeling about the web series. I’m proud of imbuing a story with subtext, meaning and backstory. that was an uphill battle with my showrunner but he eventually came round and became quite pleased with what i had done and the others in the writing team. I loved the writing meetings. Sure we got into arguments and Adrian and I damn near hated each other for a little while there, but they were so rewarding. Discovering James’ backstory, carrying on the story. Giving him meaning, giving him the doorbell as a trigger etc etc. I’m proud of being a good 1st AD, and knowing I can take that into the real world as a translatable job in the film field is exciting. I want to get more experience of that in the next few months, as much as possible really. I just find it so deflating that finally after 7 weeks, we got the scripts up to a certain level where we were all happy with them (not only that, but excited! to see it happen) but due to lack of pre-production... the vision we had laid out was not seen through. I guess it’s just knowing I’ve spent easily over 100 hours on this production and its not immediately discernible exactly why. perhaps another web series would have done the job, there would have been bigger roles for more people, more consistency and perhaps everyone would have cared a little bit more and we would have had a better result.. who is to say.

We have a workable edit though and I’m excited to see them all together having been colour graded tomorrow. Maybe I have a bad attitude? I don’t know. I guess it’s just that the web series is hardly going to change anyones life who views it and it’s just so painfully student. Perhaps that’s it. Content that looks like student content makes me feel like a cheese getting grated or I’m stuck listening to cats claws on a chalkboard... Let’s just say it’s no-ones favourite. Ah well. I’ve learnt quite a few valuable lessons that I will be taking away from the webseries. I’ve proved to myself I can write well, I can analyse and break down story structure well and adhere to it (this is probably the biggest breakthrough of my 2016 schooling career! I CAN DO IT! The structure anarchist may well be resting their pitchfork against the barn of story and never picking it up again.) I can involve new and exciting techniques, I can problem solve really effectively, I can take responsibility for incidents if i was the person in the role of responsibility, I can provide intelligent feedback and be a resource for those around me (I got the CHECKLIST the actress Alex, the one who is american at the end) I can be an active energising person on set and be helpful to the production in any way possible. But that aside, you know what? I’ve learnt so much from both of my teachers . We’ve had conversations that have sparked my brain up about things that have nothing to do with the web series, such as my final production piece XOXO. Guy’s concern with making sure I’m up-to with how to work cameras (and his suggestion that I read a cinematography book at the same time : genius), Ricky’s constant check ups and conversations and consultations with the both of them; it’s just been so invaluable to me. I feel a little bad about it, I’m pretty well known as being a really pestering annoying student, and I’ve absolutely bombarded them both with questions and taken up so much of both their time. My apologies if this has been frustrating: but I’ve found it rewarding!

the final shoot day

the 8th of sunday was the final shoot day. enthusiasm was low to begin with, but we all mustered together and got the job done. i had spent (as per) about 7 hours rescheduling so we could have staggered arrivals of actors and not have them on set for too long. i, like usual, had printed off spare copies of the script and three copies of the shot list for the director and cinematographer to have alongside me. the day wore on into the night but i’d managed to get a hold of as many pickups as possible as well as my own shots.

Neither Adrian nor Annemaree nor the other AD’s were there, so it really was just me looking after the place. When I locked up, I gave it the once over and thought it looked good. Until the week at school afterwards when Annemaree sat the group down and let everyone know that the owners were unhappy with how we left it. I was absolutely mortified that it happened on my watch. I immediately took responsibility for it and went with Annemaree and Adrian to the location after class and we bought the owners chocolates, flowers and a bottle of wine. It turns out we hadn’t moved one of the bookshelfs back completely and both the owners were quite old and so it was quite a large inconvenience. I apologised profusely and she seemed to accept the apology wholeheartedly. I’ve managed on-set locations before including a 5 day 8 hour nights shoot at The Grace Darling Hotel where I would (pretty much singlehandedly) but the entire pub back together after every shoot in 20 minutes at 7am. I think the inattention must have just been sheer exhaustion, from a sustained lack of sleep. It’s pretty unlike me, and something that I’m going to ensure never happens again.

first look at the rough edit / fighting through

by now, we’ve seen the footage. a lot of it doesn’t make sense. it’s pretty disheartening. jack’s edit is looking good, but episode three and one are not looking great. i feel as though the story has gone and the performances aren’t good. many complained the actors couldn’t act, but i think they were actually just left to their own devices by directors who spent the whole time making sure they had covered the scene so they could move on. it wasn’t about performance at all on-set and it shows. but also it haunts me... did i write something too complex? did i let it all down? is this my fault? it’s pretty disappointing because i guess i came into this trimester riding the wave of self-belief from trimester four, and thought that it’d be so great if i was a part of a project that had a life outside this assessment. however, i feel as though this is just yet another student assessment that i don’t want my name attached too but that’s okay. i personally feel as though i’ve developed a lot this class. i guess it’s not the result you see on screen that always matters, but the one you feel intrinsically. reminds me of this ira glass quote

30th and 31st of July

it’s hard being on the set of something that you spent so long writing, and seeing beats missed, dialogue changed or forgotten and intent left behind. but alas, that’s just the world we live in and heck, my writing wasn’t perfect anyway so we move on. being a 1st ad is exhilarating and terrifying, i felt very alive. constant thoughts run through your head “are we going over?” “whats coming up next?” “have we got everything we need for this next scene?” at the end of it all, i think it went well. i got there at least 15 minutes early every day of shooting, which mostly just meant being cold on the sidewalk for extended periods of time - but that’s okay. i closed everything down and opened it up, the crew was pretty used to working with one-another so they just got straight to the job. the second day i ad’d was the hardest, as brenton had dropped me home at 2.45 am from the night before and i had to get up at 7am to get there in time. everyone including myself was exhausted that day, but we powered through and kept up momentum.

also had limited crew on both days, and so tried to do post-production continuity at the same time as first ADing. the boom gates were a huge issue, as were people walking past the set laughing, we had 3 separate people try and enter the store to peruse it while we were shooting which is actually just so ridiculous to think about haha. kept everyone on time, noticed the director wasn’t talking to the actors much so i would run them through what we had to do that day on set and which scenes we were doing, they were very appreciative. on the sunday, we had the majority of the cast on set. which wasn’t as hectic as i had thought it was going to be. the only problem was we were running behind because our make up chick could no longer come and instead of her annemaree had last minute hustled two 17 year old boys to do it which unfortunately meant that everyone had 20 cm of makeup on their face that didn’t match their skin or any of the previous shoot days. it just meant that i kept ontop of them alot, and we all ended up shooting on time.

web series pitch : Moon Real Estate

Filming - part 1.

So we’ve made it to here! Thanks to Guy and Ricky, we have a location and they’re happy for us to film in it - fantastic! Straight to it and it’s a good experience. I’m really impressed by everyones commitment in their roles when they’re on set. I’m 1st ADing three of the shooting days, starting from Saturday the 27th of July, however I came to set to help out as grip/gaff/2nd AD/whatever in order to get a grasp of the location, how things were running and watch Victor in his 1st AD role before stepping in to it myself. 1st ADing is terrifing. I love it because you are somewhat of a conductor of the on-set experience; you’re the one making sure people are doing the right things at the right time and that’s so very thrilling. It’s terrifying because you have this idea of time looming over you, and even though you’re not making the calls on what is to be shot and how - it’s absolutely your responsibility to ensure that enough coverage is taken for the edit. It’s scary. I’m very aware that I have a hard time not directing when I’m on set, I’m not pushy (or at least I’d like to think I’m not) but I do spend a lot of time biting my tongue and analysing what’s going on; only stepping in when I think it’s of utmost importance - but it must be said that the internal monologue in my head is very loud and continuous haha. Nothing gets past the feeling of being on set though, I feel really proud of myself that I’ve chosen to pursue a career in something that gives me so much thrill and excitement. I can feel the blood rushing through my veins, pumping energy throughout my body. It’s just so exhilarating. I feel like my next post might not be as positive - but I just want to have this post as what it is - a moment of embrace with an art form.

1st AD prep

Well, we’re now at the stage of doing 1st AD prep, and I must say it’s pretty frustrating. No one got the availability of the cast until 2 days before we started shooting which means we only have MR COOPER available for 1 day shoot and 2 night shoots - which doesn’t work with the shooting schedule or the script at all. So managing that will be interesting. Also the directors all handed in their shotlists incredibly late, and half a scene has been cut (from my episode without my consultation) which I feel now doesn’t make any sense. I approached the director of the episode (because I initially thought he had just forgotton to add the half-scene in) and he said that he’d consulted with Adrian and they’d scrapped it. Ah well, and so it goes...

But I’m keeping my 1st AD hat on and rolling with the punches. As I’m looking through the shot-lists of all the directors, I started to notice that Paul and Adrian had done their as though it was a shot list covering the edit. One shot here for that part of the script, then another for this and no sustained coverage. But it’s far too late to draw that to their attention now, so I’m just going to try and make sure that coverage is sustained when I’m 1st ADing on set. Victor, Jack and I looked through the shotlists and started analysing who was in what scene and who would be needed for what shot. We initially were going to try and keep scenes together and directors only covering their own team, but looking at cast and crew availabilities - this is actually impossible. I sent a message out to everyone about it making sure they looked over the shooting schedule and if they were shooting someone elses scene for the DOP’s to talk and the directors to talk because (assumedly) everyone has a great grasp on the meaningful moments in their episode and can pass on beats/setups and technical thoughts.

We’ve scheduled it - and we’re looking pretty tight. I organised with Annemaree to extend shoot hours if possible, as we do have full access to the store when it’s not open. So at least now we can extend times with Mr Cooper - but it’s still going to be quite a struggle. I’m worried about scenes and episodes not matching, but there’s not much I can do now but hope everyone is communicating with each other properly to ensure that doesn’t happen. I would feel more confident about this shoot if we had had more than one production meeting, but that’s definitely something I’m going to be taking away from this - on my productions, we’re having meetings once a week so everyone is fully on-board with the script, concept and planned execution.

KPI reflection

I just wanted to have a brief reflection on the KPI meeting I had with Guy and Ricky - hilarious by the way. Hilarious in that my questionnaire and theirs had had the same results minus two where they had thought I to be masterful. Which is nice. We highlighted the same areas of concern : namely my lack of ability to deliver on time, falling behind in the blogs and having a spot of trouble with some members of the team. However, it was really rewarding to see myself from their eyes and feel their belief in me and their willingness to discuss what I’m doing when I graduate. It’s nice to have that support. I need to work on my organisational skills, but they both thought my ability to discern problems and solve them was masterful. Which is exciting, because I do love solving problems and bringing other things into play. They thought that perhaps I should only contribute after making sure the idea I had was one that I definitely wanted to utilise, because I must admit - i do have a habit of chucking ideas out there until I mentally stumble on gold. I’m not entirely sure how i’m going to go with the rest of the trimester, I haven’t finished writing my script, I’ve never been a 1st AD before so i’m excited and nervous to figure it out. Let’s find out I guess.

writing week 8

I wish I had known I was going to be writing episode two, rather than jamming it together in a few measly hours before it was due the next day. It would have been nice to extend the world, and iron out the flaws and refine the dialogue. Well, you live and learn; you know? Part of me still wishes I had followed through with my thought of jumping ship to The Check List. But the grass is always greener, and sometimes (personally, all the time) you have to pick the harder road in order to push yourself further. I did that. I’ve been pushed and I’ve done pushing and we’re here - about to embark on our project in production. It’s good though, I think I grasp storytelling far more now than I ever did before which was what I wanted to take away from this class. In the end, I brought in the concept of the book characters coming to life and I think that is what makes “Lost in Fiction” different. I’m proud of that idea. I could list of the things that I don’t think particularly work, but I’ll just let lying dogs rest. Time to let go of the writing and move on to my other role. 1st AD here we come.

Audio with Dale Cornelius and Tristan Meredith

We had a lecture on post-production audio with one of Australia’s best sound design/soundtrack team. It was amazing. The follow is what I took away from it: - Understanding the psychology of the brief that you deliver to the audio department is crucial to creating a final product everyone can be proud of. - Explain the crucial beats. What’s happening to the character? What is the beat meaning? - Talk character arcs/themes/key moments where there is no music. - Don’t start off with “We’ve got a lot of problems” music can’t fix problems, but it can shape perception - ideally it adds extra support to your content. - In spotting, watch without music to see what works/what doesn’t work. - Rough time codes and what the mood needs to be. - Watch out for temporary music - don’t fall in love with it. - What other ways can you create musicality outside of music with sound design? - Pacing; a lot of it comes from rhythm. - Brief audio with what the bottom line is. Talk about the meaning behind the scene. - Provide audio clues throughout the film to the reveal - Who is the main character? - A third of any film is audio. - Temp music is a crutch. - Encourage relationship between the sound designer and the composer; get them chatting. - Encourage the brief to happen in real life so you can all meet/greet and start an audio discourse. - Editors are the best people to get you audio work. - Create and be a part of the community. - Ensure everyone is on board with the direction of the piece. - You want to allow people the most amount of time to do the best job possible.

The Acting Class with Mirko Gillini

This class will stay in my heart for some time as one that will continue to inspire and propel me “believe in the dream” and look if I didn’t, would I be at film school? There were amazing points such as - You decide your path and go for it - Create a lifestyle from work, the weekend doesn’t exist - Subtext comes from within the actor, not from the lines - Have a good understanding of the journey of your character - Allocate time to rehearse in pre-production When casting: - Casting is a gut feeling - Listen to your actors and give them time to to work on their character. Make them start thinking about their character outside of the lines, where did they grow up? Whats their story? THAT provides the subtext. - Never be anbgry. - Know their commitment. - Audition pieces should have an arc. - Portray internalised anger through face and eyes - Ask “Have you got any questions about your character?” - Record their face in a close up - Play with them after the initial run-through to see if you can work with them. eg. to see if you can make a dark scene funny or visa versa. - With a silent film : Ask them to be on the phone. We see them have a good phone call and a bad phone call. - Know your levels. Raise it up, lower it a little bit in order to fine tune the performance. - In rehearsal get 50% from actors but not much rehearsal after blocking. - The blocking needs to be locked down after shooting.

Because, really, at the end of the day... you are relying on them to sell your story.

#actors #filmmaking #mirko gillini #acting class #studiosession #student

WEBSERIES

week 5: today we we workshopped a scene from an episode that our show runner wanted to work on as a group, so we did an excerpt from episode 2 where james is reading a book and then the lights turn on romeo from shakespeare “romeo and juliet” and the character comes alive. it’s interesting actually, the many different issues that today presented. i had had one of those nights where you can’t fall asleep until 5 am, woken up at 8.45 am and gotten to school 10 minutes late; where I found out I was to be 1st ADing on set. Look, would love to have known before hand. That’s a cop-out as you’re meant to arrive early on set anyway, but I’m a real person. I have real life things going on. I’m off anti-depressants and it’s harder to fall asleep and it’s so cold these days that it’s hard enough to get out of bed anyway, so if I had known I was 1st ADing I would have absolutely taken a valium in order to sleep properly and get to school on time. So whatever, just something to take away I guess. Irregardless of what you think is happening, get to set early. Like seriously Eliza - just do it. I’m a little bit frustrated with our organisation, but as I was reminded so many times today on-set - you stick to your role. Mine just seems to have slowly started to encompass more than just a writer and a 1st AD, and I think there’s something to really take away from this and into the real world - don’t rely on people that aren’t reliable and don’t put people into positions where they are not suited. I don’t mind that much, because if I’m a part of a project - I’ll do nearly anything for that project in order to further it’s progress. Moving quickly and ever so surely on, I really fucking enjoyed today. SO IMMENSELY. It was rad to have teachers so thoroughly involved in the whole affair; sometimes what happens at SAE is you’ll have a workshop day and your teachers will fuck off and leave you to your devices as if you were in the real world but if you were in the real world you would be (ideally) working with individuals who knew what they needed to do and not do. I am definitely one of those people who needs to get reminded, I just get a little frustrated with lack of activity in crucial moments that I end up doing more than just my role in order to get the job bloody done, you know? But Ricky today pulled me aside and essentially was like ‘Eliza, stop. You have people to do these things - tell them’ and that was the cold water my soul needed in order to just assess the situation and stop spoon-feeding. Yeah, look. I may have been annoying to people at school who were like “oh yeah, we’re just in class lol whatevz used to wag year 10 so at least i’m here lol” but who gives a shit? I’m here to learn dude, I’ve had enough time to figure out what I like doing and I really like learning and I have to admit there’s a part of me that just really strives to excel. Sometimes I can over-step boundaries, but another thing I really enjoyed was Guy telling the class that while this was a workshop for what we’ll be doing on set - contribute to the end result anyway, tell your opinions because it’s only school and we should try and get the best result anyway. So I did, and look I’m not going to lie - it’s cool to say something and for people to go ‘ooooh yeah, actually that’s a good idea’. Lol @ the actually part though, like thats almost an inconceivable thing that I could have an idea. Yeah cool random chick from last tri. Haha. That’s so deprecating and not how I feel the majority feel, but some of them... But who cares. Didn’t ask for your opinion anyway. I definitely at first felt as though there were tensions as I stepped into the 1st AD role - of making sure shit was getting done, the right people were getting heard and visions put in place. Maybe its just me, but sometimes I feel as an unapologetic loud and direct female, that that can be an issue for some people. Also yeah I fucked up, I didn’t realise the 1st AD thing was going to be happening today so I didn’t memorise to heart the 1st AD on-set calls. I quickly googled and wrote some shitty ones on my hand that were from wikipedia and low and behold they turned out to be completely wrong. I was planning to take Guy’s advice and scan that book’s section about the role but as previously stated in another blog - I genuinely didn’t think that was going to be happening for another two weeks. Lesson learnt: buying time is a bad habit and it can bite you in the ass. So anyway, I didn’t know them and Adrian our show runner had to explain them to me and then I got it. If there’s one thing to summarise from today, it’s that I no longer feel apprehensive about being a 1st AD. I can do this. I’m really glad I worked on former student Connor Grahams trimester 6 film “The bar on the other side of town” because I remember how their 1st AD didn’t tick the boxes and took that in as material to work upon (in terms of making sure that wasn’t me). The things I feel that are important as a 1st AD are: -what’s the vision? what do we need from this scene? -who is in charge and how can I, in any capacity, make sure that that vision is realised? - get people doing their roles. If they can’t do their roles, I’m sorry; we’re in trimester 5 of our final year at university, I’m sick of attempting to carry people over the finish line, and at whose expense? Either you can do it or you’re eager to learn it; or you’re of no use. Let’s be realistic here, this is what the real world is like. I’ve left SAE and come back enough times to figure out what I want, and it’s to learn and create pieces that I’m proud of creating. Don’t get in the way of that, please. Back to the teachers involvement, it came about at exactly the right time. I had assessed a few issues during our shoot to do with displaced leadership and lack of direction in the lighting department and I dealt with one of those and Ricky the other which was super cool. I’m glad that Brenton, Shaki and I were able to have a trial run of working together; personally I think it’s going to work smoothly, it’s just the small things. Talk to me about what you need and I’ll do it. I have ideas all the time and I think protocol on set is to drop your personal ideas and ego’s at the door and just be there to realise the vision of the director who, for this episode, is Brenton. I really enjoyed Shaki’s on set manner. I just feel like in order to get the most from working together, we need to spend some one-on-one time so he can feel comfortable telling me exactly what he thinks. Because the more time I spend on sets, the more I realise how invaluable a players insight can be (especially one as crucial as a DOP.) It’s all about making sure that we have trust in peoples capacities, Shaki needs to talk up if he thinks of an idea or if he thinks there is a way certain shots should work. It’s about understanding the essence of the scene and capturing it to the best of our collective abilities. We have some seriously talented people on our team and they need to bloody shine like the diamonds they are. When I’m 1st AD, I plan to ensure that happens. I’m proud of myself at the end of today to be honest, and fuck that’s a good feeling. I had my producer take me aside to tell me I was doing a good job and that was a really cool moment. I’m a little bit frustrated at our team at the moment. I feel like we need to grow momentum and it’s just not being funnelled correctly. I’m not sure how it’s going but something needs to happen. People need to step up. Anyway, the lighting team today were really just appalling. It was a slightly complex idea, but far out - 50 thousand years to get a job done? I literally could lose count over the amount of times I asked for cords to be gaffed correctly - honestly, I feel like it was over 30. How hard is it? Just gaff that shit up and then you don’t need to worry about it again. Simples. Now I’m going to focus on making sure that I get my draft done in time. Luke hit me up and said he felt bad because of his lack of involvement in our shared script so I gave him the task of making sure that he handed me a draft by monday night and I’ll rework that. I also am the only bookworm in the group, so I have inherited (with some involvement on my behalf) the role of making ensuring all dialogue is true to character throughout the entire episode. Haha, sometimes I feel like the biggest self-sabotager in the world, if only I could just do the yards in my court and tick the boxes. That would be the sweet self-centred life. Personally, I’m worried that our show runner is trying to do an Eliza, and take on every role. Also where is Sean? Our slim writing team has dwindled further, and I didn’t sign up to write half the entire series. Like, I’ll try but it’s not going to be amazing. I really want Adrian to be the head Gaffer throughout the entire season, he’s the only one who knows enough to pull it off and also people will respect his authority enough to ensure they do the job correctly and on time. That would be rad. Anyway, I think I killed it today. it’s pretty awesome to leave a class and be proud of yourself the way I left it today. Yeah sure, I’ve taken things I didn’t succeed in today and I’m going to over-think them and plan how they do and don’t work; but I left today with the knowledge that I haven’t bitten too much off to swallow and actually, I’m a good person to have on set. I want to be valuable, I believe in our story and I want to make it a reality. Signing out, sorry this is so long. Eliza

here’s a photo of me putting orange gels on the KINO

WEEK SOMETHING: We had a session today with David. David is an incredible cinematographer, whose eye and understanding are venerated by many including yours truly. We worked on getting the title sequences done. I came to the class with an idea about doing it similar to Blackadder the third which I shall link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCJegFK2Ec It frustrated me a little bit because I really wanted to hear David’s opinion on how things should be shot and engage with his mind and learn but I felt as though sometimes my group can get a bit lad-dy and go ‘nah we’ve got i,t we want it like this’ without really giving other things a try. That’s an attitude that I don’t particularly get behind, I think it’s pretty similar to the structure thing. ‘Oh i’ll just do it in the three act structure like this yep cool.” and relying on easy devices straight away rather than questioning and interrogating them first. What are the other options? What would they go like? Should we try it anyway? Anyway, we did go with a warm feel by putting orange gels on the kino (an inspirational moment of mine, I must say). That aside though, we have got some seriously talented people in our class / on our team. I really admire the work and thoughts of so many engaged students in my class. I am a bit excited to see what everyones doing 10 years from now. If there’s a reunion party, I would actually be keen to go. I’m now writing with Luke Hardy, which is cool. Two writers per episode is a good idea, there is a lot going on to be honest. Also, for the first few weeks I felt a little bit like I was fighting an uphill battle between what I thought would work best for the production and what the original idea entailed. But I’m stoked to say that I really don’t think that’s the case anymore, we’re all on a level playing field were ideas are met with consideration before being thrown away or kept and I think that’s smart and groovy. Also, I went away for a week like I had told everyone I was going to and I don’t know, the communication just seems to be a bit bad. No one called me (there is no history on my phone of anyone calling me on the wednesday) and no one said anything to me about it when I got back but I just went around and apologised to everyone any way, just in case there was someone who felt as though I had let them down. I would hate for anyone to think that, especially as I don’t think it’s true or at least I hope not. A reflection I’ve had about the workshop with David is that there simply are too many students for us all to sufficiently learn in workshops. Now perhaps, restructuring it so those that wrote got to write instead and do a workshop later on in the term and those that edited got to edit later on in the term - that would be cool. you’d be freeing up 12 people each workshop which would mean that there would be less people in the workshop and more one-on-one interaction/less distraction when there are 12 people who are moderately useless on set wandering around doing nothing.

I feel like my group needs to get better at coming in for meetings. The group meeting we had last time literally had 6 people in it. Where is everyone else? It’s their production too, so give me feedback of the script! I don’t understand why you wouldn’t try and analyse scripts now so you can do it well when you go out into the world, it’s a good skill to have. Also it’d make me feel less awkward being one of the only people who ever says anything in feedback sessions. That would be nice. Also we’re students! Let’s help each other with constructive criticism. It’s not going to burn the building down, we’re still going to be able to go get crappy sandwiches together from down the road later, i promise.

I feel like now is a good time to reflect upon what I want to be taking from this class: I wanted to be in a writing team this unit. I really feel as though I’ve let my writing skills go a little bit and I wanted to beef them up again before I went into my major creative project/ out into the real world. As previously stated, I have battled with structure in the past; but I feel I am mature enough now to accept that it’s a necessary thing and do a picasso. Master the technique before truly challenging it. You know? I also want to get better at after effects. It’s been years since I had a real hard look at after effects in trimester 2 (2012, what a long time ago you were). Back when Marc C. Scott was in change (however he left halfway through and someone else came in who wasn’t as memorable. Marc C. Scott actually killed it in after effects.) I’m getting to the point where I really enjoy editing a lot and have been entertaining the idea of doing it a little after I finish university. I think personally I’ve got natural talent for it and it’s something I would love to do more of... However, I don’t understand how to organise my work-flow, RAW confuses the hell out of me and I don’t really get how to synch audio tracks. Those are some pretty crucial things for someone who is flirting with the idea of doing post-production out of school, so I really hope that I can gain understanding in this trimester from the master of post-production G-Star Richards. (I can edit the nickname if you will, I just thought it to be rather humorous.) I want to be able to do cool key frame things, I want to do a whole heap of stuff I don’t even know is possible yet! Let’s nerd out and really get an understanding of it!

But the question I guess is.. What do I want to do when I finish university? Look, if I can “get a saddle on that brain and ride it off into the sunset” a Masters in directing/writing is something I’m considering. I wouldn’t mind floating that idea around the world and seeing if anyone fancied giving me a scholarship. Help me! I’m poor but sometimes brilliant! Also I like the idea of not jumping in to work on commercial sets but rather gaining an understanding within technical academia that relies on me learning through my own ideas and not through implementing those of someone else. Another part of me thinks that the world is going through such a turbulent time of the rise of neo-liberalism and that the structural cracks of capitalism and racial tension; but yet, only one side of the argument is being heard. It’s easy to feel disenfranchised by what you see on television, but that’s exactly why you’re only seeing certain things on television because an apathetic citizen is usually far more harmless to the mainstream than an engaged one. Prominent political ideologies need to change to catch up to our ever-changing landscape and they’re not. It’s fucking 2016. Shit’s happening. People as a whole are no longer being represented because we’re not funding our politicians enough for them to even mask how little they care about us. The environment is crying. Instead of bringing about positive change, mainstream media and politics keeps ostracising minority groups based on the actions of a few individuals and it’s breeding so much hatred in the world. I don’t necessarily think that the EU is an invaluable construct. It’s intrinsically flawed, but England didn’t vote to leave on that; they voted to leave because of the archaic “us and them” immigration scaremongering, Trump is even a real possibility through this as well.

I don’t even have any leads, but I have a vague hunch that there are hard but integral things about to seriously happen in the world... the 99% movement, the black lives matter movement and general civil unrest and I wouldn’t mind grabbing a camera and jet setting off to capture people, ideologies and situations that I feel could bring about hope in a time whether the mere idea of hope often seems foolish. But, there is not really an easy-to-follow laid out yellow brick road to follow if I chose that path. So that’s why I haven’t decided yet. That and I really need to purchase a cool strong laptop in order to edit on the go/get audio gear/ get better at filming.. and get some serious gear... I’m doing an internship at VICE magazine in the film department next trimester so perhaps I’ll suss out any leads with them.

WEB SERIES

Week Three: “Lean on Literature” I’ve been reading Robert McKee’s book “STORY” which has been absolutely invaluable to how I’ve been working this script. Up until probably chapter 3 and now I feel as though I’m a bit stressed out with being behind in schoolwork that I actually can’t focus on what he’s written and it’s all starting to look a bit the same. Ah, well. At least the first three chapters were great. There were these fantastic quotes: “Unlike writers in the past, we can assume nothing. First we must dig deeply into life to uncover new insights, new refinements of value and meaning, then create a story vehicle that expresses our interpretation to an increasingly agnostic world.” “To retreat behind the notion that the audience simply wants to dump its troubles at the door and escape reality is a cowardly abandonment of the artist’s responsibility. Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality, our best effort to make sense out the anarchy of existence.” Ah McKee, you’ve done it y’see! Okay, definitely NOT a good spin on the McCain chippy slogan but I’m working on it. ANYWAY, cool. So I’m going to start with my feedback for The Checklist. Perhaps I’m doing this because this blog is late and I wish to remind my teachers that I am actually engaged in this class despite my lack of internet presence (isn’t that the antithesis of the 21st century student?!) Yep, right, feedback. Ok well: - freeze on action when bringing up an icon, like the introductions for Zoolander, that stuff always works. - Make the coffee people disgruntled. Flesh out your world by creating three dimensional extras. All they need is an expression and you’ve got gold. - Who is Mindy? I want her to be a bigger character. What does she do? In order for it not to fall flatter than any cake i’ll ever bake, shows like the checklist need secondary characters that have a personality. Laura already seems a little bit self-absorbed and plain at times, so we need to know that at least one person in the world actually wants to be her friend or else is it a story about a loser? Yes, but not really. Haha. I love the checklist, it’s a hilarious premise and it has the potential to be such an fantastic in-depth look at a shallow 21st century culture. - My other feedback was just be careful of how you word things. Wording the gym junkie as just “cute” whereas other dudes are just “handsome” can sometimes be that little slip in language that could disengage a large portion of the audience this webseries wants to attract. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LOST IN FICTION: we’ve had a writers meeting and worked out that 1. MR. Cooper is his grandfather - makes the whole thing less creepy. So James’ mum died and that’s why MR. Cooper has him. 2. the princess is gone (didn’t really make sense when only 2 of the crew members had read the book. made heaps of sense to me though, but hey, roundabouts and swingsets you know?) 3. We’re keeping the character i developed, Edith. It’s good to have a regular customer if there are only 2 protagonists because it can be through interactions with her that you can understand James and Mr Coopers development. 4. We’re going to use the idea i had of bringing the characters into the bookstore and contrast against each other showing James’ different ideas about how he wants to “get the one” etc etc 5. this may not be relevant in the text explicitly, but James’ father was an adventurous guy which is why Jane (James’ mother) left to go travelling and later died. So MR. Cooper is holds on to his anger because James looks like his father (aka, Harry Potter and how Harry looked like his father so that’s why Snape hated him so much.) 6. Dropping Plato (unnecessary, I just like the motivating questions he asked about what james desired etc. but eh, it can go. Kill your darlings, right?) 7. Holmes is going to be backed up by Watson. Killer combo, can’t really have one without the other really. We’re creating an entire world from scratch here, so it’s taking us a lot longer than if we were creating something within the 21st century modern world ala the checklist. But look, I think we’re starting to work better as a team. Everyones input is being valued, I have more understanding of my characters and their motivations and because I feel like what I’m saying is being listened to and taken in when appropriate, I feel like I have more agency. Which just means I’m writing more and it’s coming to me more naturally I think.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

student number 108401