COFA1002

COFA Stuff

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Final Piece - Epic Mundanity is the "uncreative" result of both divergent and convergent thinking, also allowing me the opportunity to explore alien methods in the making of this film. It depicts an overdramatic representation of the mundanity that is writing in a book. The Epic factor is emphasised through the music which is a reversal of the tone of reality therefore explicating the use of divergent thinking. Convergent thinking comes into play in the development of ideas in terms of both filmic techniques and choices for actor and setting which all build on each other allowing for further well thought out ideas. Uncreativity is quite a prominent theme in this film as I have cut and pasted a track with the same tone  as the Death Note Epic Writing Scene, sinister yet epic. It also is an appropriation of the scene in question showing a serious side yet also contrasting it with an awkward reality as seen in the ending. Regarding alien methods, my brother, Edmund Luo gave me an understanding of the process involved in preparing a production so I adopted it partially and created a storyboard to establish a sense of direction even though my usual process was always mostly improvised as seen in Dramatic Walk Home.

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Documentation Piece #10 - Before recruiting my actor (Matt Zammit), I took a range of photos, unintentionally planning and scoping out my setting for the Dramatic Walk Home. This provided me with a semi well prepared foundation on which I used to decide on the route home we'd take so that there would be more opportunities to capture the radiant artificial beauty of the city. These here are only a few of the photos taken. As the conceptual process here was material prepared for me through sheer coincidence, I feel that it could possibly be classified as Alien Convergent Thinking. Maybe.

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Documentation Piece #9 - Blooper Reel of Dramatic Walk Home is a compilation of footage put together from the outtakes. By adding music, the bloopers actually have more life and direction than when it goes without. The intention of blooper reels is to reveal the mistakes of a production often in a humorous fashion, and without music, the film usually feels deflated and uninteresting (Uncreativity, Divergent Thinking)

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Documentation Piece #8 - Having been an anime fan in the past, when I decided on setting and character, the rather hilariously serious scene from the show Death Note in which the main character writes overdramatically in his "deathnote" book sprang to mind. In a way, by doing a parody I am approaching the idea of uncreativity yet confirming the divergent thinking that death note has implemented themselves. Therefore this may possibly be classified as an alien method seeing as this scene was the root of my divergent thinking process. Interestingly at the same time, it is also convergent thinking as this video contains divergent ideas that have merged yet they build upon the foundation of my own video that I am planning out (Uncreativity, Alien Methods, Convergent Thinking).

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Documentation Piece #7 - Storyboard of Final Piece Epic Mundanity details from left to right the plan for shooting at least. As mentioned ahead of this piece, the epic writing scene from Death Note inspired and helped fuel my creative approach to uncreativity. As this was an alien method to me (thanks to my brother), creating this particular film took longer than I usually have the patience for in my own process yet it did pay off in my opinion (convergent thinking, uncreativity, alien methods).

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Documentation Piece #6 - Turn Up Your Speakers is a satirical and sarcastic attempt at shocking the viewer with really annoying sound. It's an exaggerated portrayal of the bad movies in cinema history that seek to subvert what is good and enjoyable about cinema. Ironically, I've used one of the most famous scenes from the Titanic and copied and pasted a heavily mutated version of its audio track as a way to represent and emphasise the hilarity of its cheesiness, a big factor driving bad films these days, yet something tolerated and surprisingly preferred in the past. (Divergent thinking, Uncreativity, Thinking through Media)

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Documentation Piece #5 - Dramatic Walk Home was my first attempt at merging the "Epic" with the "Mundane". It was an improvised film that we decided to shoot on our way back home from the city. Though an unorganised film with no kind of actual preparation, the premise was to do an everyday thing and place a music track on top that gave the film an entire new layer of meaning. It encompasses many filmic techniques of which emphasise immersion as seen in professionally made movies. Obviously the quality is not up there with the level of Hollywood blockbusters but I feel that it is effective in its own way. In my opinion, the film is open to interpretation, like "a blank canvas". (Divergent Thinking and Uncreativity)  

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Documentation Piece #4 - This piece allowed me to explore the conceptual process, Uncreativity in which I grabbed a famous scene from the movie Titanic (1997) directed by James Cameron and then mutated the audio track in audacity into an ugly piece of garbage that exaggerated bass, pitch and volume. What was thought to be one of the most iconic and beautiful albeit cheesy scenes of all time in cinema history ruined by chipmunk voices and off-putting waves. (Uncreativity, Divergent Thinking)

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Documentation Piece #3 - Using Sony Vegas Pro 11 as editing software, I was able to add a variety of authentic cinematic elements to accompany the footage. If you look closely, I have muted the sound for the original videos and replaced the dominant sounds with music tracks. This in turn allows the viewers to focus more on the music as the driver of the narrative. As dull as the actual narratives are, the music and footage work interdependently to allow for a more open interpretation of the short films. (Divergent Thinking and Uncreativity)

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Documentation Piece #2 - When trying to think of a narrative for the film, I stumbled upon a friend who was sitting in a dark room of another friend's house. If you can see his face plus the lighting, evidently he looks quite creepy. By finding a character and a setting, a story for the final piece was inspired. A rather ordinary bedroom with a rather unusual looking individual created the contrast I needed to progress with the assignment. Fortunately he was happy to act for the film, (if you know him, don't tell him I said he looked creepy). The idea: Make writing in an exercise book seem Epic and Sinister, contrasting it with the reality where the music would not be present (Convergent Thinking & Divergent Thinking).

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Documentation Piece #1 - Concept Map: Using this as a platform to expand and extrapolate into new ideas (Convergent Thinking)

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COFA 1002 - Black Books Parody (by Edwin Luo)

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Interior

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Mapping Assessment Research

Negative Aspects of Contemporary Culture

·         Social Media – This aspect can be divided into four categories starting with:

·         Cyber Bullying – A common theme amongst the youth that has been campaigned against repeatedly yet still happens quite regularly often unbeknownst to the perpetrators that they are actually committing this type of foul. As more people become increasingly image conscious, the issue becomes more urgent partly due to the rise of social media over the last decade which ties into the next aspect.

·         Social Media Life vs Real Life – Cyber Bullying is like a disease that destroys lives on the internet and because in our society today, many people seem to live in the virtual world of facebook, twitter, or myspace more than they do in real life it effectively amplifies the dilemma. Social interactions are all predominantly done over the internet nowadays through written text rather than even phone calls let alone real life conversation. Your image online also becomes your real life persona and begins to take over your “real self” and in effect promotes being “fake.”

·         Lack of Productivity – The most common entity to plague and distract youth nowadays would definitely without question be social media. Though it isn’t limited purely to the youth, the tendencies of following generations will inevitably become more prevalent and possibly quite soon, a dip in productivity will occur and our future would get dimmer.

·         Privacy – Finally this is an issue that people seem to be okay with in general yet it always holds the potential of more harm than good. Social Networks such as facebook seemingly promote openness yet claim to value your privacy at the same time. Both can affect you negatively for example if your employer finds photos of you “having fun” at a party, he/she may view it harshly and in effect view your place at work harshly. Often the case is that even with the promised protective measures that you have, they can be dysfunctional and not as secure as advertised.

·         Global Inequality

·         Political Imbalance – Governments are aligned with Transnational Corporations and often the case is they don’t let the people’s opinions get in the way.

·         Economic Imbalance – causes poverty where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

·         Corrupt governments

·        Inspirations: Kevin Carter’s Vulture and the Child, Newspaper political cartoons (not a specific one), Maybe by Roy Lichtenstein