Blog Post Spectacle and Technology

Has technology destroyed the art of film? In my opinion I think it has just moved into the next era of cinema, there’s no point staying with same things. The audience always wants something different when they go to watch a new movie. Will it have a different plot, will they have a different style or a different way of expressing the story? These questions are always running through an audience’s head before they watch a new film. With the newly developed technology filmmakers are able to be more creative and innovative with the way they can tell their stories. So yes the new technology can give the filmmaker the ability to make something unique.

As a filmmaker I am also looking for new ways to tell my stories, and the new technology plays a major part in that. If I wanted to show an establishing shot that wasn’t just a static wide shot of something. I would either shot with a newly developed drone and show the entire landscape with an aesthetic slow movement just add that perfect amount of engagement. I could even do a whole continues shot, following a subject through different environments that establishes the setting I want to show. The only way this could be done is by a stabilized handheld rig, which wasn’t around during the early days of filmmaking. All of this of course comes down to the story and the directorial vision.

Blog post Audiences

This blog post will be about my experience as an audience member and how the elements of cinema engages and makes me think or feel a certain way.

I watch film as an escapism from the stresses of reality, and the way I do this is typically with other people commonly my close friends. As a filmmaker I like to analyse films as I watch them and no better way to talk about that is with friends who may think the same thing or something completely different, which starts the debating side of the experience. If I’m watching a movie with friends I prefer the cinema, because it’s the ultimate movie experience. However if I want to be more social I’d have a movie night at my house with snacks and drinks. I also like the occasional solo movie night this is when I want to escape from everything including people, this usually involves binging a TV series or a whole heap of movies.

The story is probably the most engaging element of film for me. I love a good story that involves a special individual, mystery and romance. The reason these are so engaging for me is I can relate to them on another level.

Sound score is another element of film that’s really engaging for me, because it is meant to make the audience feel a certain way and that to me is really interesting. How the composers are able to shape the audience’s emotions just by using certain keys and sounds.

The cinematography is one of the most engaging elements for me, especially the techniques they use in the modern cinema. Being able to move the camera in such a way that it represents either the mood of the scene or the way the character is feeling is just extraordinary. I also love the techniques they use in action films, were the camera tracks the subject so smoothly and or spines with a subject as it falls, it is extremely engaging.

Blog – Film Language

In this blog post I will be giving a small analysis of a scene in ‘Punch Drunk Love’. I will be talking about the following elements and meanings the scene has.

• Lighting
• Colour
• Set Design

The meaning behind the use of;

• Location
• Setting
• Character

The low lighting in this scene represents Barry Egan’s (Adam Sandler) loneliness. This is done by highlighting only him and everything else is darkened.  The colour blue is used pretty clearly in this scene, on the walls and Egan’s suit, even the colour grad is slightly tinted blue. This is a sub-textual choice that the set designer Jay R. Hart made, to support the chrematistics of Egan, that being a lowly man with a slow moving business. Blue is a colour that typically represents loneliness, this comes from a saying ‘he’s feeling blue’ – feeling down and or lonely. Another choice Hart made as the set designer was the emptiness of Egan’s warehouse/ office. It is just an empty room with Egan behind a messy desk positioned in the corner. This is another clear representation of the character’s loneliness and how he doesn’t fit in to the normal world. His messy desk shows that he is a hard working business man who has just started out. Another visual element that Hart uses is the line of focus, that being a power pipe and where the white and blue paint meet, creating a line that meets where Egan is positioned. This is used to draw the audiences focus straight the character without any distractions.

What I get from the location is a businessman who is either just starting out or is lonely maybe both, the setting of the scene helps give off that sense. The character seems doll and lonely but focused. This is done by the way the character speaks with a doll but focused voice.

 

Major Project Blog Post

This trimester my class and I have been given the task to produce three major client base projects during our time in Studio 3, which gave us a little taste of what it is like in the legitimate film industry. These projects that we had to produce were an experimental film, a product shot and TVC. During the making of these projects, our lecture acted as our client, which we were then given a brief about the project and what we had to achieve in a certain time frame. We then had to produce it according to the preference of the lecturer/client. During pre-production, production and post-production there would be work in progress sessions (WIPs) to get feedback on the project from the lecturer/client. The most recent WIP the session was on an Old Spice commercial we produced and let me tell you, our lecture was not impressed by the quality of the content we showed. If we showed this commercial to a legitimate client they would have been extremely unimpressed or they would’ve just sacked us on the spot. The experience I gained in this studio 3 class, is that the client based projects we did during this trimester were a little different than client-based projects in the industry. Industry clients wouldn’t allow as much freedom with the amount of creativity we had in our studio class. Clients tend to have a personal preference you have to stick to, otherwise, they’re not going to like what you produce. The most difficult thing with clients is they don’t understand the process of filmmaking, which can cause conflict between you and the client.

The negative event started during pre-production which was with the overly scoped budget the script would have needed. We then struggled to find a location until the last minute and when we did, the producer booked it without having the knowledge of the time we were allowed into the premises, that time being 2 o’clock in the afternoon… This was extremely inconvenient scheduling whys because it left us hardly any time to set up and shoot before the sun went down. We didn’t end up shooting until 5pm, at that’s point the energy and the morale of the crew went out the window because time was not on our side. On top of that, I found it difficult to work with the unmotivated actor, who just kept to himself which just made it hard for me to direct him. As a director you need energy from your actors, without it, the performance can be dull. However, a director must do the same for the actor’s sake, but in this case, I was trying to give off good energy for the actor to respond to but it just didn’t work, which made it a dull and unpleasant experience. In saying that, I learnt to focus on hiring actors who have positive energy and a willingness to learn and adapt. This is extremely important when it comes to directing actors.

Despite the problems, we faced the crew and I didn’t stop pushing through. I think this is the only reason the film wasn’t a complete disaster, each time we faced a problem we’d work together to either fix it or come up with an alternative. There were some cases when it would take a couple of hours to get our heads around a problem and to be able to solve it, which wasn’t ideal. This is definitely someone that needs to be improved because it shouldn’t take hours to figure out the next shot, so the lesson learnt is; stick to the shot list and schedule better in pre-production.

For each project, we were given a brief of the certain expectations we had to meet in order to pass, or if it was in the legitimate industry world we would have simply needed to get the client’s approval. We were unsuccessful in meeting the brief’s criteria, of making a TVC that has high production values. This was because of the lack of work we put into the preparation of the shoot, i.e. the lack of set design. We waiting to solve problems on the day of shooting rather than solving them prior. For me as the director, this was extremely disappointing because the previous work we did, set the bar pretty high, because of the amount of effort we put into planning and preparing before the shoot. The biggest lesson for me was to remember to allocate minor roles to people because the role of set design was not filled, which was the cause of the biggest problem in the production. We quickly realised that the (Air BnB) apartment did not look like it did in the display photos, it was plain with hardly anything we could work with, besides a display plant and a photo frame mounted on the wall.

The reason I liked the apartment was it looked over the city, but what I didn’t realise is that sunlight already started going down when we were given to keys after 2pm. So we had to close the blinde to make it look like it wasn’t night time, but I should have adapted to it and just changed the setting to night time and opened the blinds to show city lights.

Being the director I could have improved on the preparation for the project. I didn’t sit down with the crew and talked about the day step-by-step, instead, we just went into the production thinking everything would sort itself out. I could have also run rehearsals with the actor prior the shoot to ensure both of us were on the same page. If I spent more time preparing, I think things would have been less stressful and would have run smoothly like they did in our previous productions. So for my future projects, I will definitely hold rehearsals and have directorial preparation notes for the actors. Despite the many challenges we faced in this product, there is a major positive factor I can focus on, which the number of lessons I learnt as a filmmaker, therefore can help me avoid making those mistakes again in my future endeavours as a filmmaker.

 

Product shot Blog Post

A product shot is when a certain product is placed strategically in a constructed environment to showcase the product and its brand identity. Ultimately this is to attract its targeted demographic and hopefully hook them into buying the product.
During a masterclass, the class and I learnt how to professionally film a product shot and gain a better understanding of the process and the overall importance of this specialised aspect of filmmaking. The class and I were lucky to have two industry professionals, Nick Patton and Scott Hamilton to assist us in this excise, but there were some problems with their teaching that my group and I didn’t agree with. The main issue our group faced in the entire excise was with these two lectures, they consistently talked amongst themselves and not to us, which made it hard learn and understand the process, all we could do is stand back and watch Nick do all the for us. My group and I learn best by doing, not by watching two lectures doing all the work and problem solving without us. They also favourited the other group which negatively impacted my confidence. However, I learnt a great deal about the long process of lighting and how each tool is used to successfully light a product for a commercial.

Prior to this masterclass I had minimal experience with lighting a product, but I did have the knowledge of the process of lighting a set, therefore helped me in this masterclass. I also had knowledge of the importance of framing and composition, but I didn’t have the experience and knowledge of the time required to shoot a product shot in a TVC environment, which I then learnt about its importance’s during the masterclass. This was a very valid experience for us when we’re filmed our product ‘Corona Ligera’.
The process of setting up lighting consumed most our time in our masterclass session
The time we were given to shoot this product shot was 6 hours and we just fished on time. This is when I learnt how long the process of setting up the equipment, the designed of the product, and solving the lighting problems such as the reflections from the bottle and such.

The choices for our product shot were all made by the group and I. During the pre-production stage my group and I researched previous Corona advertisements and we noticed that most of the advertisements were targeted at a male demographic, so decided to target women with this new light beer ‘Corona Ligera’. We then came up with a backdrop of a beach sunset, which is the iconic style of the brand’s identity and it also looked appealing.
During the production stage, I was the director which I had individual ideas, such as making the product looking more appealing by adding condensation droplets on the bottle and a sliced lime which I placed beside the bottle in a strategical matter.

These choices were influenced by previous Corona advertisements-

The technical aspects of the D.O.P and I considered were, different lens sizes and when to use depth-of-field. We discussed with each other about what lens sizes would suit best for certain shots and when we should use depth-of-field to increase the focus of the label and the contents inside. Our product filled up the entire frame in the master shot, this was to add focus on the main aspects of the product i.e. the label and the golden beer inside the bottle. In order to highlight this, the D.O.P used a deep depth-of-field with a low aperture, which effectively showed the product and the backdrop. However, in other shots I wanted close-ups of the contents inside, so the D.O.P used a Macro lens to get nice and close shots of the bubbles dispersing when a slice of lime was dropped into the beer. With the shots of the label, a long lens was used to create a shallow depth-of-field in order to add focus for the targeted audience.

In this masterclass, I learnt how this may help in my future projects with setting up the mood i.e. the colour tempter and the theme, which is the overall thing we’re trying to convey. I knew the importance of a good D.O.P to be able to successfully capture the shot. This masterclass helped significantly with a project I did afterwards with a design student, which I had to shoot stack and chips the design student prepared. I was able to successfully setup lighting that was able to support the rustic theme and boost the mood and vibe. I did this by adding jells to the key lights which changed the colour temperature to a warm colour to match the rustic theme.

Overall this project was a great learning experience of the technical aspects of TVC production. I also learnt for myself TVC filmmaking isn’t my strong suit, but I would like to explore it further to gain more experience to become better. Things we could have improved on in the project were; more coverage would have been ideal, we did film a lot of shots but there were all quite similar in shots size and angles, and being more prepared for the shoot, because we had to send someone during the masterclass to go pick up things we forgot, which is not ideal when you have some much to do in a confined time frame. I hope I get another opportunity to film another product shot in the future.

 

REFERENCES

corona ligera – Google Search. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=corona+ligera&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU722AU722&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicnvyeg_jcAhWa-mEKHZCjACQQ_AUICigB&biw=1540&bih=680#imgdii=cfPTZuWQdF4yWM:&imgrc=ypKuJR96q93REM:

corona ligera – Google Search. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=corona+ligera&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU722AU722&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicnvyeg_jcAhWa-mEKHZCjACQQ_AUICigB&biw=1540&bih=680#imgrc=7m34ZcoZg4RelM:

corona ligera – Google Search. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=corona+ligera&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU722AU722&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwicnvyeg_jcAhWa-mEKHZCjACQQ_AUICigB&biw=1540&bih=680#imgdii=cfPTZuWQdF4yWM:&imgrc=ypKuJR96q93REM:

 

 

Greenscreen Blog post

I attended yet another masterclass this trimester, this one being about filming a green screen and compositing. This was the most challenging masterclass of them all, due to the significant amount of problems I faced during the post-production stage, but I’ll get to that later. During this masterclass, we had the pleasure of getting taught by an industry professional Steve Cooper owner of The Post Lounge. In this masterclass, we learnt how to properly film a green screen and effectively move into post-production, which we then learnt how to composite and motion track the marker points we placed during the production stage.

For the filming of the green screen, I was the director for that process, which I had the responsibility to achieve the objective of shooting a dolly tracking shot towards a window with the imagination of the set looking over the Brisbane river. This shot took 13 takes…. I don’t know why but the 3 separate D.O.P’s just couldn’t do it without shacking the camera. All I wanted was a nice smooth dolly tracking shot towards the window on a slight angle. In the end, after 13 takes I just said that’s good enough and moved on to shoot the back-plate of the Brisbane city.

Before and after

During the production stage, we had to set up tracking markers on the green screen so we could have points to key from during the post-production stage. On a plain green screen there’s nothing for a compositing software such as After Effects to track to, which is why marker points are placed in specific grid form areas, this is called ‘match moving. Without these marker points, the back-plate would not ‘match move’ with the four ground and wouldn’t look realistic. Steve got us to place these markers on the green screen in the frame of the window, he also got us to place some to the right out of the frame of the window. So when the camera was pushed in on an angle to the left, the marker points would be shown, this is for the ‘match moving’ stage in post. A little more insight into the many aspects to consider when placing tracking points, such as the easiest colour for After Effects to register is black because it has the best contrast, but the downside to that is during compositing, the markers have to be painted out which is done individually by hand. This may take a while, therefore more money spent on a compositor which is not ideal when you’re dealing with a small budget, the less time spent fixing things in post rather than on set the better.
There are other ways to counteract this problem, such as changing the colour of the marker points to a different shade of green to the green screen, as long as they’re about a ‘half stop’ difference After Effects should be able to see them.
During the production stage of the masterclass I asked Steve how many tracking points is ideal, he responded with as many as you need to cover the space you’re shooting so the software can recognize them, the more the better. After the markers were set we when into setting up the other technical elements, such as camera and lighting.

Lighting and Camera

The two main technical considerations that were taken into account to ensure the plate shot would integrate with the set footage. The set lighting of the green screen has to match the back-plate lighting, if it doesn’t match then there is an issue of unnecessary time wasted in post. When setting up a green screen for a scene it is extremely important to have some sort of knowledge and understanding of how to efficiently light a green screen, any faults no matter the size could have a result of the entire scene becoming a failure. I cannot stress this enough to look closely if there’s any shades or ripples in the greenscreen making the lighting uneven.
Another technical consideration is the camera, after the shot, it set up the dimensions are then noted. The dimensions being; the levelling of the camera from the ground to the centre of the lends and the distance from the camera to the green screen. The reason for this is when it comes to filming the back-plate the dimensions are the same as they were on the set, without these dimensions it wouldn’t match or look realistic.

The most challenging thing for me was being able to spot as many issues as Steve did, but I think after I have more experience like Steve I would be able effectively spot those faults because I would know what I am looking for.  Another then that the production process went pretty smoothly. However, during the editing process, I face numerous challenges manly with faulty computers and software. I followed along with the lecture quiet well until those things started playing up. At the point of learning how to track the markers, which is one of the most important things to know how to do, the program decides not to comply. I would wait at least 5 minutes for it to track the points, but it did nothing. I repeated this numerous times but nothing. This then made me fall behind, as the lecture would move forward onto something else. I then moved to a different computer but the same thing would happen, I soon found out it was an issue with my HDD. At that point, I was extremely far behind, so I decided there’s nothing I could do but listen and take down notes and hope I could make it work on another computer. The next post class the lecture helped me solve the problems before starting the class so we could all move forward together. I ended up splitting the edit into two different programs then I merged them together once I completed the task.

Davinci and After effects

Davinci was the first program we used, which was to transcode the footage. Transcoding is when the data is converted to a smaller form of its self, like twins but one twin is half the size as the other. It doesn’t lessen the quality of the footage it just makes it smaller so it can be easier to work with. We didn’t use Premiere Pro because the footage didn’t need to be cut. We then went into Adobe After Effects to start composting, the first thing you should do is start the organisation of your assets, which is putting everything into folders so you know where everything is, and nothing can be potentially lost. You would then start by keying out the green screen, then putting in the back-plate footage. After that, you would use the 3D tracking camera to track the footage. Then a long process of individually masking out the markers by hand begins. Once all that is done you should doublecheck your footage because 9/10 times you would have missed something like one of your markers is slightly appearing in the bottom left-hand corner.

 

REFERENCES

Matthew Merkovich Says to Stop With the Crazy Tracking Markers – Lesterbanks. (2018). Retrieved from https://lesterbanks.com/2016/10/stop-crazy-tracking-markers/

The Basic Fundamentals of Lighting a Green Screen. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/lighting-green-screen/

 

Acting masterclass Blog post 4

During my study of Studio 3 at SAE Creative Media Institute, I have attended some great masterclasses that have benefited me in many areas of improving my skills as a filmmaker, one masterclass, in particular I enjoyed the most and gained awesome tips and tricks was the ‘directing actors masterclass’. I enjoyed this particular masterclass because I have had a passion for directing since the start of my interest in filmmaking.

Our class was benefitted with two industry professional actors which we had to direct after we adopted our own concept from a two-page script provided by our lecture. The preconceived notions I had with actors and directing actors was limited, due to my minimal experience. However, I did know some great aspects about directing actors, like the importance of communication. I often talk with my actors prior the shoot just about how they’re day is going and what experience they have had with past project in order to get them more relaxed and settled, so they can perform to the best of their ability. From this, I believe that communication can really assist you in order to get a better performance because you have a basic knowledge of how they work as a ‘person’.
The past experiences I had were two small projects and another masterclass workshop, the first project I directed was a small production at the start of my course. During that time I had a basic knowledge of directing actors, but since then I gathered further knowledge of the art of directing leading up to my next project. During this project I state down with all my actors and talked to them about they’re past acting experiences and how they can use that to benefit the film, then I, of course, went into the discussion of the script. The next project I had the pleasure of directing and writing was an experimental film called “Battling Rainbow”. Again I state with my actor and got to know them on a personal level to ease their stress before the shoot. However, with this particular project, the actor was quite experienced, which resulted in me learning from the actor, after discussing the script. After that project, I definitely gained a great deal of experience and knowledge that certainly helped me in the ‘directing actors masterclass’.

Prior to the workshop, I believed that I had a good knowledge of the importance of beats and how the director should know then like the back of his/hers hand, as well as the objectives and the character motivations. The night before I prepped for the day by coming up with an original idea which was adapted from the provided script. I then jolted down directorial notes to assist me on the day, however, I found myself doing too much result directing. Resulting directing is a term I found out about during the masterclass, it means specifically telling the actors what to do, this mainly occurs when dealing with actors with minor roles like extras for example.
I had a strategic knowledge of the importance of ‘beats’ prior the masterclass, but after the ‘directing actors masterclass’ I definitely understood more so of the importance that beats have when directing an actor. However, my past knowledge of beats was at a strategic level, because we had a number of lectures that touched on the subject and a masterclass that was solely about the organisation of beats and character motivations.

For the character motivation/ objective, I knew of the importance it has for the actors and how it drives the scene from my past projects, but I didn’t know how difficult it would be to come up with a solid motivation after adopting a new concept from a script with such a small quantity of content. So during the masterclass, before it was my turn to directed I struggled a little with getting my head around an exact objective after knowing its importance when the lecturer told the class. However, my prepping helped me come up with a solid backstory I wrote which then assisted me with knowing the character’s motivation. I think the reason why I was struggling a lot with this was, I might have thought too deeply into it and forgot the option of simplifying the motivation, which ended up being the case, it was ultimately more effective than thinking over-scoped. The objective and the character links together in a scene which is important to understand these two elements and how they work together when directing a scene. Without this knowledge, the actors have no ground to base their interpretation of their character on, which is something I learned from the masterclass.

Going to the masterclass I was quite nervous but excited at the same time because I knew I was going to learn a lot. Before we started directing our lecture briefed the class about the backstories and motivations we had prepared, which was the point when understood the importance of the characters motivation. After the briefing, the class sat with the two actors who discussed their past experiences with acting in the film industry and how they respond to direction. During the discussion, I learnt about result directing and the importance of how it can throw off the actors. Sometimes less direction can be more effective, it gives the actors an opportunity to express themselves through their characters, which is why talking to the actors prior the take and listening to their opinions of the scene. This can sometimes cover some of your direction before you’ve given it.
Whilst waiting for my turn to direct the concept I had prepared, I watched closely what my other peers did and how the actors responded, I watched their mistakes and used that to assist me for my session. The concept I prepared ‘was about two best friends, one being a Robotic-science grad-student and a stoner entrepreneur who both blazed it up on some new weed, then rustling with them coming up with an algorithm that could solve nation wide’s waist problems’.
When my turn arrived I stat with the actor and subtly talked to them about their day in order to get to know them a little in such a short time frame. I then talked to them about the script and what they thought about it. The actors loved the concept because it was completely different compared to the other students. From this, I then directed them with a not so quiet crowd of laughter coming from the other students watching. The second take I did was defiantly my favourite because let myself go and decided to make the scene as silly as possible, which is something I enjoy as a director, being able to let the actors take the stage and give them the control of the scene in order to get real emotion. After the take, the entire class including the lecture broke out in laughter, which was a massive confidence booster for me as the director.

The only thing I found difficult was talking with the actors due to me being nervous, but after doing the first take my confidence grew and I was able to give it my all.
What I would do differently the next time I direct actors is I would hold a rehearsal time to go over the scene and tweak anything needed.

 

REFERENCES

Steven Spielberg directing – Google Search. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Steven+Spielberg+directing&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU722AU722&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiR9syF1-bcAhUBEbwKHXJwAiIQ_AUICigB&biw=1224&bih=680#imgrc=7kWgwiiRzI-rmM:

 

Experimental film Blog post #1

Experimental cinema also is known as avant-garde, is a film genre, where the filmmaker has the ability to manipulate light, motion, space, and time, which is mostly expressed through the filmmakers’ personal vision (“Research Guides: Film Genres: Experimental films”, 2018). Experimental filmmaking is where the true art of cinema comes from. It’s a place where the filmmaker can truly express him/her self and test his/her limits of creativity. Experimental films can be non-linear, or linear and it doesn’t follow any guidelines of narrative or documentary, its utter freedom. The only guideline it may follow is abstractionism, which is the practice of abstract art.
The main purposes of experimental filmmaking are to allow the audience to take in what they watched and to make their own meaning based on the films context and their own personal experiences. Experimental films are also to inspire the audience through the hidden message that the filmmaker is trying to convey, which in some cases usually focuses on social issues that can relate to the filmmaker’s targeted demographic.

Today in this blog post, I will go into depth about my filmmaking experience of an experimental film I wrote and directed, called Battling Rainbow, which is about a young teenage boy battling his inner demons of being a homosexual, and the results of the pressures and the negativity from unrealistic expectations of our generation.

Studio 2 Blog Post 6

Todays blog post will be about the format of an Australian broadcast television show called Australian Story broad casted on ABC iView. I will go through the format of the show, whilst explaining the attributes that make this broadcast TV, as opposed to documentary production. I will also touch on how  Australian Story’s interviewing process goes,  and how its topics are compelling and or effective.

Australian Story is a video on demand TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Australian Story is a series of intriguing true Australian stories told in the format of Documentary. The TV series is known for its unscripted story telling style. It allows their subjects to drive the documentary by retelling their story in their own words. The TV series is more like a retelling of a retelling of a personal event opposed to documentary, it has its slight differences. The attributes of this TV series gives off a news feel to it opposed to a documentary. The reason for this, is the structure of each episode in the Australian TV series has a somewhat,  the same kind of structure a news episode has, which is a collection of events showing something about the local community or someone in that community.

Nevertheless the TV series does have a few other aspects that follow the documentary modalities. An episode in-particular ‘Dear Emma’ follows the documentary modality of an Observational style.

Over the time of my research for this blog post I have watched numerous episodes of the Australian Story. But one episode  recently broad casted, caught my eye by its touching true story called ‘Dear Emma’. Dear Emma is about a young happy women, the age of 21 with her whole life ahead of her, when a stranger suggested to have her mole on her shoulder checked. Which then started a brutal battle of a deadly diagnosis. Which she then started her own campaign against the biggest cancer killer of her generation, so she could give others a better chance then she had. Emma’s story was able to influence so many people after first being broad casted by a close friend who hosts the Australian Story TV series and by her touching blog posts. Which she got the help from a new friend she made on her journey. After Emma was diagnosed she wasn’t the type of person who’d sit around and mope about her situation, she went out and did things. One of those things was baby siting- which when she told Bec the  mother about her terminal cancer, a friendship suddenly started. Bec who’s a writer thought she’s could use some of her time to put some of her thoughts down on paper. Bec suggested – “however you do it, whether it’s in a journal or online, I want you to start writing about your experience”,(Story & Emma, 2018).

From this Emma started a blog called ‘Dear Melanoma’.  Within it she wrote about her highs and lows and her experience of living with stage 4 melanoma. After a few touching blog post her page blow up with over 3 million follows, because of how openly real and vulnerable she was when she wrote, which became a huge passion of hers. The shows format was effective in its story telling process, which it broad casted this beautiful story of the main characters journey.

(Story & Emma, 2018)

The interview process was breaking down the story with the talent and by researching the statistics about melanoma patients  . How the filmmakers gained access to the talent and was that the host of the show actually knew the main character and thought her story should be broad casted, which was lucky. However, other people weren’t this lucky, but the ABC has its tricks of getting those Australian stories broad casted so the community can hear about them and maybe be influenced by the heart-warming true stories.

Reference:

Story, A., & Emma, D. (2018). Australian Story – Dear Emma : ABC iview. Retrieved from https://iview.abc.net.au/programs/australian-story/NC1802Q010S00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio 2 blog post 7

Film Review
‘Cartel Land’

Cartel land is a feature-length expository documentary directed by Matthew Heineman, who embeds himself and his crew with both sides of the Mexican drug war, the ‘Autodefensas’, against the ‘Knights Templar Cartel.’ He also follows a team of vigilantes called Arizona Border Recon. The film mainly follows two protagonists, Dr. José Manuel Mireles the leader of the Autodefensas and Tim Foley also know as “Nailer” leader of Arizona Border Recon. This documentary is like a real-life version of Breaking Bad, but with more breaking bad…

The film opens with real-time footage of a cartel gang cooking meth in the outbacks of Michoacan. The Templar’s discuss their business of cooking meth as if it is an everyday thing to them, with no worry of the authorities, “F**k the system” (anonymous Templar).

The Autodefensas lead by Dr. José Manuel Mireles is a small army/ counsel, which united the townspeople to fight back and get rid of any cartel Templar otherwise know as Knights Templar Cartel at all cost. A quote from Dr. José Manuel Mireles “Article 39 in the constitution states that the power comes from the people if you are not united an idiot can govern you, so it is important that we come together”. And that’s exactly what the Autodefensas are doing. They are doing better work then the Mexican government.

The government notice this and sent the military stop the vigilante group and take away their illegal weaponry, without knowing that they were just trying to defend themselves from the cartels because the government was lacking in that. But the unity of the townspeople was so strong they started protesting to give the weapons back, which they succeeded in doing so. The military gave the weapons back and left immediately. The people cheered at their success.

Heineman mainly follows the Autodefensa as it is the most thought-provoking part of the story, which means that Heineman and his crew would have to go extremely close to the line of fire. One scene, in particular, a camera operator had to dodge behind a vehicle because the Autodefensas were getting shot at by the Knights Templar Cartel.

Knights Templar Cartel are drug lords that run any drug system in the state of Michoacan. They are people that think they are above the law and can do whatever they want, and they are constantly at war with the Autodefensas.

On the other side of the story, the crew followed the Arizona Border Recon soldiers – which was brought together by Tim Foley, because he was fed up with people doing illegal work “doing work under the table, not paying taxes”. Foley also is known as “Nailer” is a rugged middle age man who had a drug abused past, which he fought through after losing his job to those people going worker under the law. So he started the Arizona Border Recon to stop them from doing the same thing to other people.

Throughout the documentary, there were numerous of interviews and voice overs of the innocent victims that got caught between the drug wars. Each interview brought an aspect of emotion to the film, which worked effectively in engaging the audience emotionally.

After following both sides of the war it becomes harder to recognise the differences between the two opposing sides. After the Autodefensas took Los Reyes, one of the largest cities in Michoacán they started to develop an ‘ego’ of power. With this ego they started to raid innocent civilian’s homes, abusing and accusing them of being apart of the cartel. They would also trash their houses and take what they wanted. The consequence of this was a loss of unity from the town.

Overall Heineman’s carried out his directorial vision through the use of his unique filmmaking techniques extremely effectively.  he was able to bring a lot of great content to screen- his interviewees were fantastic story drivers, he brought the audience so close to the fight it was felt almost as if it was a narrative, which worked extremely well since  Heineman’s was actually able to capture it in real-life instead of using a made-up scene and set.

 

REFERENCE:

Cartel Land. (2018). Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 30 April 2018, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cartel_land/

Macnab, G. (2018). Cartel Land, film review. The Independent. Retrieved 30 April 2018, from https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/cartel-land-film-review-10485413.html

Cartel Land. (2018). Time Out London. Retrieved 30 April 2018, from https://www.timeout.com/london/film/cartel-land

Felperin, L. (2018). Cartel Land review – audacious journey into the illegal drugs trade. the Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/03/cartel-land-review-mexico-illegal-drugs-trade

Stan. (2018). Play.stan.com.au. Retrieved 30 April 2018, from https://play.stan.com.au/programs/1180649