Serendipity

Editing two filming files into a final one.

I was not a Mac system user although I am using a Macbook Pro. I did scratch my head when this course pushes me to turn into Mac system due to our editing practice. Latter, I noticed that Mac system is different than the windows counterpart but it doesn’t mean it is harder to use. And actually it is true that “there is no shortage of handy keyboard shortcuts to help you move around OS X as fast and efficiently as possible” (Allyson K., 10/04/2014, iMore).

This is my first time to use Adobe Premiere for editing the Lenny project and it is also my first time to do a filming editing work. It is totally new to me which comes with challenges. The utilization of keyboard shortcuts did help me a lot in increasing the speed of editing the project. There are some shortcuts I think are pretty useful in the timeline action:

Ctrl + A: Select all

Ctrl + C: copy

Ctrl + V: Paste

Ctrl + Shift + V: Paste the copied clip fit into other clips

Ctrl + Alt + V: The copy of the clip on a property pasted to other clips

These actions are the most basic actions of our editing work which we may need to repeat for many times in one case. With the using of shortcuts, the time consumption has been reduced a lot.

Film editing is a huge job which really complex and time-consuming. To save more time, I think I need to use the keyboard shortcuts as much as possible and try to get myself really familiar with them.

Bibliography:

Allyson Kazmucha, iMore Blog “Top 10 keyboard shortcuts every new Mac owner needs to know!”, 10/04/2014

http://www.imore.com/top-10-keyboard-shortcuts-new-mac-users-need-know

Question: After you’ve had a chance to look at and cut Lenny, reflect on the three stages of production (use them as subheadings). Analyse your successes and failures.

Answer:

This is not my first time to work in a filming team but it still an impressed one which give me chance to experience the whole procedure of a film-making. I worked as an actress in the other overseas filming program before but I never know that each role of filming crew can be such a hard job until I really experienced it. To analyze the successes and failures of this procedure, I will do the reflective writing in the following 3 parts which are also the 3 stages of the “Lenny” production.

Pre-Production

The pre-production of our team for “Lenny” went pretty good. It was a filming work which had been divided into two days’ shooting and there are seven group members in our team in total. Therefore, the first thing we did was to choose our roles in the crew. There should have director, lighting person, cameraman, voice controller, AD and acting person. In order to let every group member has the chance to experience at least two different roles, we decided to swap the role playing after each shooting day. And I personally chose to do the job of voice controller and AD. Next, we went on the topic of analyzing the script and tried to find out a suitable location for shooting. We finally chose the building with a balcony for our project. After that, we did some shot list and scene analyzing as well. We worked out the pre-production part pretty well and all felt confident on the project. Well, this is only the beginning and the following parts are much harder than what we thought.

The article Actor and the Director indicates the relationship of them and I want to share some points that I gained from the reading. I worked as an actress in a tourism program before and that was a hard job which required the whole filming crew do the job overseas in Sabah, Malaysia. Nobody can image that we finish 8 thirty minutes episodes in only 5 days. The good communication between actors and the director will be the most important thing in finishing the filming job successfully with limited time.

I totally understand that the director is the only audience when a movie actor/actress performing in front of camera. Only the director who needs to consider how the particular scene will combine with other parts of the film takes responsibility for the quality of acting. And also, only the director decides how the film going to present in the screen. So actors/actresses can only get the reflection from the director, just like a mirror.

I think a director, if he is wise, he will know that is necessary to understand a actor and use the understanding of the person to promote his potential. Director should attach great importance to actors/actresses, because they are the tool for expressing the topic of the movie. Also, directors should to maintain a close relationship with actors and actresses, as to understand or knocking on the door of their talent. In this way, the directors can make the actor/actress’s performance in line with their own design, but not restrict him/her to make him/her feel no really devoted to the film.

For the article Sound design, I think the important of sound for a movie is doubtlessly. There few different kinds of sound that would be used in a movie. Hard sound effect can be treated as the essential difference between the silent film and the sound film. It makes a movie another way of presenting. To improve the shape of characters, foley sound design is necessary. Let’s image that without the metal sound of Optimus Prime, and those foley sounds of the transformers, how will the movie be? I believe that would be boring and not vivid anymore. Also, in the action movie, the sound design makes the scene meaningful. Background sound can be found nearly in every movie and it is the way music helps movie to be more beautiful, which can let the audience more engage in the movie and enjoy it.

As is well known to us, Taxi Driver is a successful famous movie of Martin Scorsese. I loop the scene for many times and did found something interesting to discuss.

In the beginning, the camera focus on the actor, and there is a close shot which normally uses for the enhancing the face expressions of the actor. It is true that in this shot, the actor has complex face expression—heavy and lonely.

After that, the scene change to a wide shot and puts the car, the actor and the building in a one shot. The camera movement goes with the actor and zoom shot the action of opening the door. It is interesting that shot structure arranged like this which seems to make his action of opening the door may lead him to the other world.

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We can see a follow shot used when the actor is walking in the building. It is a close shot again which we can clearly see his confidence in his face and behavior. A good POV shot follows so that we can see what the actor sees: the actress and the support character. A zoon shot again with the final close shot at the actress’s face expression. These camera movements and shot structures are commonly used in current movies in the scene of walking or coming in to some new places.

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After that, there comes the conversation of the actor and the actress. In this part, the very close-up shots are well used. This is common to use VCU in the scenes with two genders’ conversation, which can clearly see the face expression of the actor/actress.

One more interesting thing is the shot structure below, which put the support character facing the camera and standing in the middle of the shot, right between the actor and the actress. This must be a purposely highline for the support character, which normally implicitly indicates the story of the supporting character.

In the end, the actor walks in the stress with hands in pockets by using a middle shot. There is no others in the street and the actor looks heavy and lonely again.

I didn’t realize a movie crew can be so big and with so many detailed positions before I read these two articles “crew roles” and developing a crew”. Although I did join in some filming program crew as an actress, I didn’t know that the whole crew can by such a huge one.

However, the most surprising thing to me is not the long list of the “crew roles” but Rabiger’s saying that professional ethics should be more important than skills in developing a crew. I think he is right. A movie crew is actually a big team work which certainly highly required the spirit of cooperation. In this way, the professional ethics are required for developing crew roles in deed.

Filming industry is cruel since the public usually only remembers those actors/actress, even the director has less exposure rate than the “stars”. Cruelly, the most of the crew roles would never be remembered by the audience while at the end of each movie, the name list will be the only thing of them that shows on the screen. However, for producing a movie, every role of the crew is necessary and equally important since they are all contributing to the production. Lighting, compositing, customer etc. are the important departments for making a successful film.

So far, all of us are just media student, so we may not be able to do the crew work really professional. I do believe that in the sooner future, with the course training, we will be more skillful and find out the most suitable role to us.

What I want to gain from this semester, this is a good question. To be honest, I have a big dream in media industry but I know that is impossible to reach only after this semester or even this course.

I am an international student with Asian background and have studied in media and communication in my bachelor in Melbourne for three years. The only thing I really gained from my study was concept, the concept of whole media industry, including marketing, public relations, social communication and even media management. I realized the problem when I had my working experience in media industry, which is I have no idea about media technology at all. I realized that I just engaged in idle theorizing. I have the concept of how to make a movie but I don’t know that actually need to do. That’s the reason I continue my study in RMIT.

To outline my desire and goals for this semester, majorly, I want to have the ability of directing a movie. I know that making a movie will require many different positions of work. I know that I may not be able to be a good camerawoman, but I will still try to get the ability of using and setting up the camera in a filming group. The more important thing I want to lean is about the scene designing and story structure.

Finally, I target in media industry is to be a successful producer and even my own company. I know that is a big dream which may hard to reach but I do believe, with the professional study I will be closer to my dream.

Reflective writing is very common to every academic person, obviously including media professional students. I have written many reflective writings in my bachelor but never think about the meaning of writing them simply because they are assessments for completing the subjects. With the reading these articles, the one named “Strategies for enhancing learning from everyday experiences” excites me by providing me the reason of writing reflection. This is a good article indicates the steps of doing a reflective wring and explains the meaning of doing it. If I have to say two points that entirely new to me, I think that would be “listen to the view of others” and “take a wider view”.

These two points indicate the reasons why we doing reflection—it is finally for having a wider view on the subject. One person is hard to see all the aspects of a subject but few people may reach it easily. After creating a situation for review and reflection, it is important to swap the ideas with the others. If not, the reflective wiring would be just a recoding of what you have done, which may not be helpful to your further study at all. Also, it is a important idea that we should “monitor every so often whether a period continues or if there is a new period”. This idea excites deeply. It is true that as a media person, it is so necessary to have a wide view. This would be so important for not only designing but also filming, even acting, those jobs highly required inspiration.