ECHO (YouTube Video)

^ here’s the video I made for Anh Tran. I’m submitting this as my YouTube video for uni because I had a lot of fun making it, and it’s different and stylistic, which are qualities I want to show through my work in the future. One of the reasons I don’t see it as a client video is because I’ve been friends with Anh for years, which didn’t really make this project have an authentic client environment. Sure, we had meetings, but those meetings were held at the dog park while we took her dog out of a walk. I’d love to do more projects like this again, and can hopefully help Anh out more as she progresses through her studies. I directed, filmed & edited this one myself, which was a massive challenge for me. I’m glad I threw myself into the deep end & challenged myself, because I feel I pulled it off. I hope you like it (i do)!

– D.

Rule 3 of Michael Moore’s 13 rules for making documentary films

That third rule is The modern documentary has sadly morphed into what looks like a college lecture, the college lecture mode of telling a story.

Unfortunately, this is true.
There is nothing worse than a talking head. A talking head is boring.
We want something we can really look at, something that can convey emotion and can draw attention from the audience. Nobody wants to watch a mouth move on screen. It puts all of us back into those uncomfortable seats, reminding us of late nights and sipping coffee to try and curb the need for sleep, but failing miserably until you find yourself in a puddle of your own drool.
OK, I got a bit carried away there, but long story short. It’s boring.

Documentaries have to keep up with films more than ever now as the new generation of demographic is accustomed to watching short, snappy flicks with excitement and drive. We have short attention spans and will grab our cell phones if we don’t find something interesting enough. Trust me, I am guilty of this.

This then provides us with the ultimate challenge: is it enticing enough?, and what makes it enticing?

Maybe we will never quite know the golden answer.
Anyway, thats all of my thoughts on this topic for now at least.

talk soon,

– Dx

Tri 4 begins!!
I can’t believe this is our last year of Uni. It makes me happy, sad and nervous.

This tri we’re doing documentary, which is a whole new area for me in film. I’ve never done doco before, and I haven’t watched many doco’s either. I moved house and I currently don’t have internet, which means i’m unable to watch any docos. I went and talked to Naomii (our internship supervisor) and she gave me a list of doco’s to watch, which is great. As soon as I get internet i’m gunna be all up in that!

I’m really excited for this project, as i’m teaming up with Holly and we have some good ideas forming around our doco. We’re thinking of doing a doco on animal rights, and hopefully we can team up with Animals Australia, an organisation devoted to the safety and protection of animals, while also exposing factory farms and other farms that exploit and/or harm animals. So hopefully we can get others on board also.

Overall, this trimester should be hopefully easier than last tri in some aspects. I’m grateful I don’t need to slave away on a script (yay!). However, I guess I can’t say anything until after i’ve gone through it.

Oh well,
heres to a good trimester! Talk to you soon,

– Dx

Zombie! (Sharing is Caring Part 5)

Here’s a video I helped film/set up/light for Izzy Olsson for her Open Mic International audition. This is the song I edited, and one of the others is being edited by one of my peers.

She did a cover of the song Zombie by the Cranberries on a whim and it turned out beautifully in black and white and with the backlight. The video is taken from her YouTube channel which i’ve linked below

Her channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbi3Z-7I9AsLdIPKsZqzv-A

Her Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IzzyOlssonMusic?fref=nf

– D x

Sharing is Caring (Part 4)

Behind the Scenes!!

This is a follow up video for the TriCaster exercise we did last week in the void with Bruce. Here’s a behind the scenes video from the day:

[ read more about it here: https://danarosanne.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/music-videos-and-tricaster/ ]

P.s. I’ve had 300+ hits on my blog. So thank you to my Mom, for refreshing my page 300+ times ;). Just kidding, but thanks for people reading my rants and sometimes boring posts!

– D x

Sharing is Caring (Part 3)

LADI ABUNDANCE!

Last night I Myself, Ryan, Jessica and Holly filmed a West End band Ladi Abundance at Depo. It was a great experience and is the third live band I’ve shot freehand, and I can definitely can see improvement. This is the first freehand I’ve shot on the Canon C100 rather than the Sony PMW200, and I can see the image quality is better and it’s really easy to play with the focus without disturbing the camera too much. I can see this as a thing I would like to do in the future as a profession. It’s so much fun! I fell into the directing role and filmed on the C100, and then Jess and I swapped and she did film and I did sound.
Tip for future self: BRING SPARE BATTERIES!! We were running off 2-1 bars of battery all night.

Here’s a video I quickly snapped up today. (This is one of the ones I filmed).
Enjoy!

(You can find Ladi Abundance at: 
https://soundcloud.com/ladi-abundance
http://www.ladiabundanceproject.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LadiAbundanceProject )

Here’s some photos as well:

– Dx

Sharing is Caring (Part 2)

Hey guys,

Now I’m sharing my Narrative exercise with you. This one had it’s own audio problems of it’s own, but it turned out pretty well considering! Here it is:

– D x

Sharing is Caring (Part 1)

Today i’m going to share the finished project of my How To class exercise.

As I mentioned in previous post ( https://danarosanne.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/how-to-failure/ ), I had a lot of issues with this one so it’s not my top notch work. Nevertheless, here it is:

– D x

(Stay tuned for a music video BTS and a Narrative exercise).

update: not sure why this doesn’t have sound here but the original upload does… maybe an issue with wordpress, will investigate soon 

Music Videos and TriCaster

Hello friends;

So this week I was fortunate enough to work with some other students and Bruce, the almighty teacher, and film a music video for a heavy metal band while using the TriCaster, which had it’s own challenges.

I’ll start with the band. They sung like this:

and I was filming the drummer so it was REALLY LOUD. For those of us who had headphones on, we were trying to hear Bruce talk to us through the headphones and it was loud and he was shouting numbers and directions and at first it was really confusing.

(real reaction from me)

But I would do it 100x over. Once I got the hang of Bruce yelling at us through the headset, he let one of the Tri 5 students have a crack at it. It was like finally wearing in some shoes, then having to wear a new pair and walk through the blisters. I’m not saying they were bad at it, it’s just getting used to everyones style, and for most of it they didn’t speak to us or tell us which camera was feeding so I wasn’t sure when they were taking my footage and it through me off a bit. But the Tri 5 guys did a really good job, seeing as they were just thrown into the void of the TriCaster (for SAE students, pun intended).

But the TriCaster was amazing and beautiful and I can’t wait to get my hands on it some day! The TriCaster looks like this:

^ This is Bruce on the first day we got it.

It can do a really solid chroma key and is really good for switching between cameras while recording and it creates a basic edit for you. Even though I didn’t get to use it yesterday, I do have a small understanding of how it works, and I know the buttons to press to switch between the cameras.

Bruce said I did a really excellent job filming the drummer, and seeing as it was freehand i’m taking this compliment with pride. After about 8 or so takes, my bicep started to really hurt and I couldn’t even lift my water bottle afterwards without it hurting a little. So if I plan on doing this in my future, which i definitely will, I better hit the gym more!

I really loved the experience and I can’t wait to do it again!

Some photos from the set:

Disclaimer: I’m not dissing heavy metal in this post, i’m just trying to emphasise how loud it was and how this made it hard for me to hear! 

– D x

Production Design on Afflictions

I worked closely with my production designer to arrange a set for my short film Afflictions, and she really understood the script and idea of the story and this made her create a nice set design and wardrobe and makeup design.

Jessica came to me with drawings of her ideas for the wardrobe and makeup and grasped the design of the three separate characters, while still understanding she was really only dressing one character with different personalities. These are some photos of the drawings:

  

The wardrobe is based on two polar opposites, seen in the left and right images. Pamela, on the left, is inspired by a punk, grunge style, including band t-shirts, leather jackets and denim. Nina, on the right, is bright, colourful with flower crowns and florals. Lucy, in the middle, is a more balanced blend of the two characters. Her wardrobe is neutral and doesn’t draw attention to itself.

The makeup is based in the same sense as the wardrobe. Pamela, on the left, wears a deep coloured lipstick, lined eyes and messy hair. Nina, on the right, has a pink toned lipstick and slightly smokey eye makeup. Lucy wears braids or has her hair down and wears neutral, bland makeup.

Skwirk.com says Costumes and props are very important to the composers of film texts. Good costuming not only looks good but enables viewers to make judgements about characters very quickly.

We paid attention to how the audience will perceive a character when choosing clothes from a literal suitcase and a half full of clothing. In the end, we chose these outfits:

     

Costuming isn’t the only essential part of the film making process to create meaning through semiotics, it also comes down to the set design. The day before the shoot, Jess and I went to Ikea and Bunnings to help find props and set dressings. We were after dead plants and photo frames, and this is what we got:

We paid emphasis on the dead plants and photo frames, and added candles and magazines to make the set look more homey, however tried not to overkill it. I think we did a good job at it and made the set look comfortable and natural.

Overall, I think Jess and I made the costume, makeup and set design work in well together and fit nicely. Feel free to read up more about it on her blog: http://jessicaleewardie.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/reflections-on-reflections-and-afflictions/

Until next time,

– D x