Film Screening Overview & Feeback

THE LIST

1.Un-Profane Profanity

Feedback: The topic itself was definitely interesting and I loved how the producers themselves were involved in the film. The cute animations and graphics of words and profanity was also very nice and pleasing to for sight. For some reason I also wished they got random people of all ages to test out the same “ice” challenge experiment as it would have been a sight and I feel like more cutaways of daily swearings and profanity could be included, overlaying the interview parts where the expert from RMIT was explaining abut profanity and the F word. He got a little boring to see after a tad bit but was nonetheless interesting:) Over all I enjoyed myself and it was definitely one awesome crusade for my ears. The colours were really amazing for the time lapse cutaways of Flinders and the city btw!

2. EDDIE

Feedback: This was a character piece that definitely intrigued me because Jess’s grandfather, Eddie had a pit of a pull and push effect in this film. He reveals bit by bit, pulling you in and out of this film and you’ll want to know more after each small story. I loved the shots of the location where you could see the beach and the kitchen scenes were all really nicely shot. I would have loved to see Eddie being interviewed in more places where he’d frequent instead of just at his house on the white couch though. Another thing which I think could change was the choice of fonts during the language subtitle overlays as it was a little hard to read and it got a bit tedious with the slightly darker background footage. Good choice of character definitely and I liked the vintage photos of Jess with Eddie:)

3. four_images

Feedback: I loved the idea of having 4 short films in one documentary and how it explored different topics. I liked the Typography one but I felt that since the rest had to do with the body or mind in one way or another, it should have been changed to another idea of the body or whatsoever. The eye was just sick and such a catalyst for appeals. It definitely caught my attention and the details and colours of the animation and stop motion clay blew my mind. It must have taken alot of efforts to cut each frame and ensure the smooth continuity. Likewise for the tattoo clip, great pace of sound. The soundscape in that particular film got so catchy and unknowingly I was sucked into it. Interesting concept guys.

4. AWAY

Feedback: I liked the choice of shots in some parts of the film where they shot the main talent from outside the windows, in the car and at the pool (but the colour grading at the pool seemed a bit out of place in my opinion). I think the structure could have been better as initially the talent said: ” In Thailand people are all very nice to me, but in Melbourne people are not…” Something along this line. However in the later part of the film, he mentions how much he desired to stay in Melbourne. So it got a little contradicting for me and I think they needed more cutaways to showcase his life, as I was so interested to know more but there was too little information to capture my attention throughout.

5. Tram55

Feedback: The topic was just sweet. Imagine what it must have been like going through that experience and wanting to acknowledge your hero. I did catch on a little late in the middle with regards to what exactly happened. I knew it was a gunshot at first, and i knew Lily was one of the victims on the tram but I still could not picture the whole accident in my mind until the mid sections of the film. The colours wer great and the cutaways were very complementary in this film. I loved how they manage to interview people from the incident and how both interviewer and interviewee are in the wide interview shots. It was very nicely framed and executed:) I’ve not taken tram 55 before but now im intrigued to check out the route on williams st!

6. After The Fall

Feedback: I manage to catch a glimpse of this film before the screening and I was already in love with the lighting and sounds used. Colour grading was also really smooth and aesthetically pleasing. I heard that they shot on a boat for some of the water rowing shots as well? My gosh the shots were so well litted and great. The structure was also stable and had good pace to revealing the small story of Guz and his accident of sleepwalking. The cutaways were also good as I got to see his life and his adorable personality. The shots in the dark with a dedo  at the back (i’m assuming), was simply beautiful. It created the mood to see the bond and friendship. I loved it. Soundscape was pretty cool as well with a loud piercing alarm right at the start, and then cut! This made my heart stop and beat on according to the rest of the documentary soundscape.

7. Beneath The Lyrics

Feedback: This documentary was one of my initial ideas so I was anticipating for it. They definitely had strong interviewees in this film as they were interesting to watch throughout and their voices were obviously amazing. The location set was also very beautiful with the colour grading and lights used. However, I still felt like it lacked this focus in character element. I wasn’t satisfied with the amounts of information of the cancer patient’s amazing story (the guy, sorry I’m so bad with names and can’t remember!) I wanted more more more! And forgive me if I’m wrong but I wanted to see specific theraphy sessions in shot with other patients as well, it would have been a good cut. Great topic!

8. Campaign Auslan

Feedback: I loved this mainly because I’m bias, and I loved the realistic shots of the sign languages. The credits were also memorable for me! The talents used in this film were excellent as they had their own roles and bits of narratives and insight to Tafe and Auslan, all very good. The story of the woman and her daughter was also touching and a great piece in this film. Similar to mine, they had rally shots and I think the flow of the film made it great as they explained from start to end of Auslan, defined it, contextualise it in our modern Melbourne and gave enough bits and pieces of information to keep the audience informed and enticed:)

9. Anywhere But Here

Feedback: Well technical playbacks, hmmmmmm i’m disappointed. HAHA. I think everyone definitely saw the weird jitters on screen but nonetheless hearing from the feedback I got. They enjoyed and loved the film so HOORAY! I must say it felt more real viewing this issue of public housing in a lecture hall, with more peers and adults. Watching the sunrise, the mid-days, the evening and the night throughout this film made me, really really warm somehow. I know I’m suppose to be humble but heck we really put our heart and soul into this documentary! HAHA. I guess what a few things to feedback on would be the timing of the political satires on screen? Somehow in the suites it looked alright but on screen the timing was one sec off somehow. And i still wished we had an actual cutaway of more groups of housing tenants in place of the cartoons. I loved Dante, our little tough-fie and I think the kids played a huge role in bringing this piece to life. ANother feedback i got was of the scene when Pamela was crying? It was really complementary to the end but more scenes of these emotional realities were desired for. So yeah note taken down:) Thank you everyone for your useful feedback!

10. Intermission

Feedback: Intermission was kickass.

11. Black Magic

Feedback: So happy to see this film finally evolve to this awesome book chapter of the three different cafes and their baristas. The story was catchy definitely because all the characters were so spontaneous and adorable. Especially with the cutie little old barista, he was just heartwarming to watch. The cutaways used for the last cafe with 3 baristas was also really well executed and the stories of the coffee, their jobs as baristas, different types of coffee etc – All was enticing and I loved the soundscape that complemented the colours and sequences:) It was great seeing the fine cut growing into this end product. Excellent job guys. Only critic: Sound levels at one or two parts in one of the cafes(I can’t remember which one) got a bit peakish or too jumpy. Other than that all was great!

12. Cubbies

Feedback: I loved this as well because the colours were so great and I guess it’s because i could strongly relate to how the group must have felt shooting with kids in a totally exposed and real environment. The cuts of the kid rapping, the kids playing and enjoying Cubbies was really touching and captivating to watch. The cutaways of the graffiti and the different racial groups of kids mixing was also an eye-opener to see. I think there’s was ample information given about Cubbies as well and overall I’ve got nothing to say except that I loved it:) Only feedback I had was I wished it was longer because I wanted to know someone’s specific story more in-depth:) The colours and soundscape were great!

13. KRAFFITI

Feedback: This was also interesting as I never knew who were the brains behind the whole idea of colourful knits around Melbourne. I liked how they followed the group of Kraffiti women around, even at the Royal Melbourne Show and explored the process of Kraffiti having a bigger presence in Melbourne. The comparisons with street art was both good and bad in my opinion as well because to me it seemed like street art was slightly undermined despite having its own taste and context in the form of art. Kraffiti on the other hand is definitely a much newer form of art so I think more information and other narratives with regard to kraffiti could be in place. Then again! I also like how they incuded street art to balance out the opinions so I guess it worked out well as well. Interesting topic and colours were great except for the shot at the Royal Melbourne Show, it seemed a little dark.

14. A Comedy Sale

Feedback: They went to Sydney?! That’s all I’m saying first! HAHA. Talk about passion for FilmTV. I was really excited for this as I glanced pass in the suites and caught the opera house in shot. It was a good character piece and correct me if i’m wrong again, some parts of the interview were scripted as well? The comedian seemed  little unnatural in some shots but his character and gusto made up for it. The colour grading was also very well done. However I wished more cuts from the audience would have been captured and I think more cuts showcasing the comedian’s interaction and humor could have been in place of the used cuts during his show. The voice seemed to peak during his yelling as well and I guess it could or could not work because it showcased his zeal and passion but when they played his scream the second time, it got a little loud. Excellent character choice and cuts were overall great:)

15. Spliced

Feedback: I loved the cuts in this film because of the choice of location and props shot in each scene. However, i was a little lost with the topic and focus of this film after awhile. Some parts were also slightly darker. I think character pieces are tough to execute especially if your character isn’t someone loud and extroverted. Again forgive me I might be wrong but the character was charming, had passion and his house and job was amazing. However, I could not find a strong character element to entice me throughout despite the nice cuts and sounds.

16. An Actor Named Jack

Feedback: The starting was the bomb. It caught my attention definitely and I was amazed at his eccentric ego. HAHA. Great character piece and I loved the cuts used to portray Jack’s life on and off screen. I may not know Jack personally but it was pretty warm being able to see his slight vulnerability when he mentions that he’s not good enough for his friends to see and how he wants to be even better. I loved the small cuts of his livelihood in the small dungeon room and his practice sessions. Overall nothing much to say except I liked it and the colours were really great as well:)

17. Listen

Feedback: The editing for this film kept me on the balls because the cuts were really aligned with the soundscape and I loved it. The colour was also a strong element especially in the set-up of newspapers and the girl hearing voices, simply fantastic. She’s definitely a good reenactment of the topic and great job for location design! The only critic I had was the start because I loved how it was shot but after watching the entire film, I felt that it was a tad out of place because i hear Jenny, the director speaking and explaining why she wanted to explore this topic. But after watching the interviews they did with Initially (the woman), I wanted to see more of her story and explore even deeper into her experience. But overall the documentary was excellent so like I said its individual preferences I guess, I loved it, great job guys!

18. Insomnia

Feedback: I saw the fine cut for this documentary and It was a little weird for me because the main character was one of my actresses for FilmTV1. HAHA. Fez is awesome and she’s honestly such a great character. I think this film had great story structure but maybe due to time constraints or resources, I wished I could have seen more of the darker sides of Fez’s insomnia because of her husband. The timelapses and cuts in this film was really gorgeous and I think the bits and pieces of information in the film about Fez was ample and progressively enticing. The parts of information from the specialist was also good but at some parts the camera moved a little and the cuts at the office seemed a little out of place. The cuts at Fez’s house were complementary and overall I liked it:) Wished it was longer so I could really get to understand Fez better!

Overall Learning Points:

I think after watching such amazing and different types of documentaries, i’m just so proud and in awe of everyone’s efforts and those tedious long nights in the edit suites are totally worth it. One learning point towards the end was learning how to critic as well? Not just other people’s films but learning how to evaluate and critic your own film has so much importance as well. I think after editing my documentary for months, it got a little stagnant and no refreshing ideas for editing could come up. But what changed this mindset was the constant different critics I got from many peers and our mentors, Robin and Paul. In the eyes of the producers and editiors I guess we each have our own styles of editing and perceiving shots and some sequences turned out to feel and look better/worse than we expect. But in the eyes of others it’s brilliant/thrash. But nonetheless all these critics helped to create a stronger structure of the documentary and I think that as editors, we have to be more open minded and open our minds to various angles of the documentaries. Do not be bounded by the initial film objective which you had planned, but do not divert from it either. Enjoy the process!

Thank you everyone in FilmTV2 for the wonderful experience and amazing sight of films:) I’ve learnt infinite heaps of stuffs!

Thanks Paul for setting my film foundations and skills and Thanks Robin for your humorous and down to earth feedback, everything was AWESOME.

Documentary Comic Satires OR Movie CutawaysMovie Inserts as Cutaways or Comic Satires?

Editing Feedback:

Okay so we wanted to include a titanic scene cutaway in our public housing documentary. (LOOK AT THE CHOSEN TITANIC BTS VIDEO)

Reasons being: 1) to cover up a slight dissolve cut due to stutters and a small camera shake. 2) Our talent was a credible and authoritative figure of the Victoria Public Housing Tenants Association and his interview was really informative and relevant; however it got a little lengthy to see his expressions as it was really neutral and did not add any aesthetic or emotional appeal to his chunk of information.

Therefore, we wanted to overlay a part of his quote “it’s like who gets on the life boats of the titanic. Some people get on and some people get off.”

It was a pretty great quote to symbolise the revolving effect of how the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer; where public housing tenants who are already poor and are and will be poorer if privatisation happens. The scene in titanic where people were struggling to get onto the boats ,but in the end the rich could bribe their way through for their lives whereas the poor had no choice or way out.

This was a literal cutaway that had great sounds of people screaming and struggling as well.

Paul: He didn’t like the titanic cutaway mainly due to copyright issues and how it was pretty much crap quality. HAHA. Which was true.

Robin: It may or may not work because it could be too literal, but yet it could work because it was interesting to relate to alongside with the screaming/wave sounds as well. However our topic in this case was public housing, one of high social impact and of politics (a social debate). Therefore, the titanic scene could backfire and create more doubt and mislead the audience from interpreting our main message.

Hence, we scrapped it and inserted political satires and cartoon images like these (below). I think it did work better in the end because of the mood and setting of the documentary. I guess it did make the documentary more focused on the idea of public housing as compared to the titanic scene which would bring about a different feel and mood.

I guess to illustrate our idea this is an example inspirational video we could adapt to:

At 1:35 the cutaway of a political satire starts to come in about public housing as well and it added a new element of understanding on top of the interviewee’s script. This was ideally similar to our documentary and i guess it’s up to an audience now with regards to perceptions and interpretation. The only fallback is the colours, and perhaps the pace and timing of the satire (if the satire has words, ample time would need to be considered to absorb the satire).

 

Fingers crossed, screening is in less than a week!

 

Types of Cutaways

Three basic types of Cutaways: credits to dvworkshops.

1. Story Telling Shots– Images of “Welcome to ” signs, exterior shots of houses where interviews were filmed, Images of your character entering and leaving a building, Wide shots of Cities or towns from on top of a hill or large building. These will allow you to tell your story with out always having to use a narrator ..That’s why I call them story telling Cutaways.

For our documentary: This would mean shooting cutaways of kids, houses, interior of tenant’s houses, the estates, the public housing pathway documents, kids playing, building signs etc.
2. Emotional Cutaways– Since film has the unique ability to make people feel…the way to construct emotional sequences is to first film shots that have emotional content built into them. For example a solitary man sitting on a park bench…two people walking hand in hand…A close up of a hand while they are praying…shot of a candle ….incense burning…people hugging…

For our documentary: This would mean shooting close-ups of all emotions with the striking balance of kids vs adults. Kids tend to be more colourful and innocent with their feelings so we’ll definitely watch out in this aspect and try to capture as close to real-life as possible. We are targeting laughter and crying shots of kids in public housing!:)

3. General Coverage– These are very important..if you are filming a race car contest…you had better get shots of people watching the race…cheering…the hot dog stand…people lined up to get in…Ushers tearing ticket stubs at the entrance (close-ups)…people cooking out in the middle of the raceway…a close op of flags, loudspeakers and race track signage. You will need all of these….get lot’s of general coverage shots or you will be sorry.

For our documentary: This would be our interviewee’s houses and general shots of items and props in the area. 

Last but not least!

GET CLOSE UPS. 

The theory of film editing includes the definition of what makes a good edit (Visual not content). Theory is that you can not edit together two wide shots filmed from the same angle, same for medium shots…you need to insert a couple of Close-ups between these shots in order not to make the edit appear as a “Jump Cut”…of course people break this rule ( French filmmaker Goodard), but I highly recommend covering yourself by filming lots of Close ups.

I definitely agree with this because  some of our interviewees have very vivid and strong expressions, hence it could have been perfect to capture some extreme close-up shots of their anger, their worries and their fears. The variety of shots would also avoid any boring cuts in the film:)

Pamela Curr Interview: A Reflection

Pamela was another public housing tenant who stayed at Port Melbourne. She was an interesting subject because of her age, and she relies heavily on medication due to her depression and she hardly leaves the house. Therefore, we felt that she would be ideal in expressing the heartfelt fears and worries if public housing was privatised.

We had a small mishap namely, we forgot to bring the batteries as we were charging it overnight and did not put it back so note to self! Please check equipment at home as well! In the end Raymond (Vanessa’s Boyfriend) cabbed down and in the mean time we talked to Pamela and did a bit of planning in terms of choosing cutaways and location design.

Initially we set up outside with the wooden bench and we wanted to interview her with the nice sunlight and props in the garden. The sound was also awesome and you could hear birds and slight winds as well. PERFECTION.

However! Halfway through the interview we had to make the decision to cut because the rain got heavier and although Pamela seemed fine with the rain, it would have been more ideal and respectful as well to shift the interview indoors. SOund would have been a hassle as well as the rain got heavier and the levels were peaking.

After going indoors, we continued on with the interview and we had  another problem with sound as the cables were a little faulty and this buzzing sound could be picked up. We made Lupita stand nearer to Pamela and the sound got clearer as well. However one thing to note was in post production we needed to adjust the reverb indoors as the sounds were echo-ing a little due to the small kitchen space we were in.

Pamela made a great interviewee because of her age and she was really frank about her opinions and thoughts. She also cried and got emotional during the interviewee and we captured several close-ups of her tears. This was really touching for all of us on set as well but we had more questions so we kept the pace and mood, and continued on with the interview. I guess in times like this, your interviewer must be prepared and not be affected by these circumstances.

Next for cutaways, we got cutaways of photos and her house. We also took cutaways outside of her house as we thought it would be a great contrast to the public housing estates in Northcote. Her house was significantly bigger and the garden outside was really pretty visually.

Learning Points:

Come prepared on set especially in terms of your equipment! CHECK CHECK CHECK.

Be prepared to handle emotional interviewees and do not be afraid to probe more even when they’re crying. It’ll affect the pace and continuity of the shots.

Knowing Your Team & Another Filming Escada

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success. (Henry Ford)

Okay so i decided to blog about our roles in the team. Mainly because as the documentary progressed, it got a bit fussy as to what our roles were and I was also sort of role-less in a sense I think everyone pretty much helped out with everything from equipment, producing, contacting interviewees, building rapport, camera shooting, boom pole assistant etc. WHat made this documentary a success was our flexibility and adaptations on set amongst one another. We definitely needed to consider one another’s weaknesses and strengths as well because it definitely made filming much more time-effective and everything went really smooth.

So these were the main roles in CUTxPACE:

Vanessa: Director (far right)

Manal: Our producer (beside Vanessa)

Lupita: Sound Guru (far left)

Charmaine: Director of Photography (beside Lupita)

Okay so some problems during the documentary in this aspect was that depending on the situation and context we did have to alternate roles when the need arise. For instance, Manal felt like she wasn’t strong in interviewing kids and did not know how to evoke emotional questions out of some of our interviewees. Therefore, Lupita and I would step in and assist with that. These were the sort of situations where communication and teamwork has to be ideal for an effective and productive shoot. We also discussed and met up before each interview and talked about what we want, and how we are going to achieve it. This is something very important because without planning, the interviews tend to get very draggy and it was hard to churn out results in the end.

Another instance would be during cutaways, two of us (at times) just stood around. Alternatively, the other two would handle the release forms, the other would build rapport with the kids and talents nearby. I guess it’s important to rotate roles and I’m glad I got to have a go at almost all the roles.

“I think of filmmaking as a collaborative art form. Cinematographers play first violin in a symphony orchestra with the director conducting, but it has always been a very interpretative role. I experimented with using contrast to affect the look on my first film, Les Creatures, and before that I experimented on short films. I learned that when I was working in that research lab which was experimenting with creating color by combining three strips of black and white film. I learned how to read and manipulate a gamma curve. It’s like a painter understanding how to use your brush. You don’t have to be obsessed by technique, but you have to understand what sensitometry is and how to use that knowledge to get the colors and contrast you want.” 

credits to Dreamsteep