peachybeancinema

[peachybeancinema]

Pre-Production

After our last pitch to the panel for the last trimester, we had that time and the quick break before a new trimester to collect props, ensure we had the air bnb and try to find a new production designer. I had originally wanted colourful paediatric scrubs made by a designer friend but that fell through at the last minute, but the saving grace was the new production designer.

While the editor asked me for some more inspiration, he also had to figure out what computer/system he would bring to set for data wrangling on the shoot. Meanwhile the assistant editor was pretty excited for some colour grading ideas- as that was the original plan for colour grading- this job was later handed to our DOP.

Our first production designer very much fell through- with only a small handful of props to dress the ENTIRE set- but also came into contact with positive covid cases and quarantined. The role ended up falling onto Darryl and myself- Darryl got our scrubs sorted and took custody of the old set dressing, while I planned to take down half of my own home decorations for the set.

We ran a few makeup and camera tests which obviously helped the makeup artist understand what I was looking for and got to explain that the makeup should be done in layers to show time passing, while our DOP and camera assistant got to work on using the dolly and trialled green screen and special effects to wrinkle out any kinks that could’ve come with the time sped up sequence- this camera/editing practice also meant that when on the actual set without a green screen, a solution was found instantly.

Reflecting back, some things I would like to have done differently (whether stunted by covid OR human error) would have been more one on one sessions with the actors throughout the weeks. In past films I have met up multiple times and got to know them, how they work, they hear my vision or we develop a vision together for scenes, but that unfortunately did not take place and I feel like for time reasons on the shoot days, we suffered for that. I would have also liked to have been able to give Alexis’ character that bit more personality and colour by having her scrubs handmade like originally planned, however as the friend who also had other commissions and a breakup afoot, we missed that opportunity but I would have really liked to see how that changed the overall tone.

Production

The shoot went over two days, an entire day left to pack up and put the house back to how we found it. The first day after setting up felt it ran a little rough as we all tried to fall into our roles, environment and establish our safety rules, and I felt like my anxiety and self doubt was betraying me those first hours. We had to set up fairy lights, had an Arsenal or blankets going, a smoke machine to set up and glass bottles laying all over the table. Darryl was incredible with setting up fast and listening to where I wanted props and decorations, which was a relief after the failed production designer.

Eventually a rhythm was found and things began to run a lot smoother, the first AD would tell us there was plenty of time but I know myself and my producer didn’t want to get too comfortable with the ‘plenty of time’.

I felt like despite not getting nearly any time to get to know my actors before the shoot, I managed to build a comfortable setting to where we could all laugh and joke, and I had repeated check in conversations with our actress about her comfortability in scenes where our actor would make contact with her. We breaked for food (made and brought in by our wonderful producer’s even more lovely mother), found out the air bnb had birdseed for the fancy birds begging on the porch during our takes, resumed and wrapped for the day.

Here comes the regrets… staying up watching Final Destination and Bo Burnham’s new special as a crew, and allowing me to dance around a crowded floor at night. I ended up falling backwards and spraining my wrist in the process- a little fall that landed me in the ER nearby set at 6am- BUT that did not stop me, and the show went on. No sleep that whole night after the first day of shooting was torture, and the pain was the only thing keeping my eyes wide open. I was back to set before most were even awake and then we continued.

The second day had more hiccups than the first, and there was vital information about a scene that was missing a vital piece of equipment, and wasn’t told until right before the take. It threw me off, I felt undermined and stupid because without that information I couldn’t tell my actors what was happening for the scene, so it ended with a slightly warm conversation outside among the head of departments. It was sorted, the first AD directed one scene as I collected my pathetic self together and then the rest of the shoot went ahead.

While the makeup artist did take longer than she and we had anticipated for every makeup touch up, I was ultimately so chuffed with how the makeup appeared on screen.

Post-Production

The post production for this film has been the most challenging and irritable I have ever experienced- from covid restrictions stopping director/editor sessions, to the mental health issues nearly everyone on the crew suffered from at one point or another. I feel like the film's final result could have been far sleeker and chilling had our time been used in the ways we wanted to. However, despite the challenges and all the ‘boo-hoo regrets’, I’m incredibly proud of my crew and the result regardless. I think it’s impossible for me to not be cruel about my own film that I wrote and directed, but it is definitely not a reflection on how my team worked or what they produced- only on my own inward cruelty.

I am mainly dissatisfied with the lack of that cgi fly that I kept in the script till the end. I wish covid and travelling hadn’t stopped editing suit sessions, and while I appreciate every pixelated and muffled zoom session to get those edits done, they lacked what we really needed. Considering covid will probably be around for a very very long time to come, learning how to communicate articulately and concisely in online edits would be a great value to me.

I felt like communication with the sound department was really great and fluid at the start and in production, but towards the end of our post-production communication really started to slide. I had been dealing with a hard family issue and know that I lost communication from peers, teachers and friends for just over a week, and when I returned I found my messages going unread by the head of my sound department. These times have been really dark and debilitating for so many, and I find with this trimester and the last, it’s nearly impossible to hold people to blame for a falter in a task.

This film was my baby- my last hoorah from uni, and I do really love it, but I think had the sun been shining on the world a little kinder of late, then maybe it could have been- or will be- the film I’ve dreamed.

Reflecting back as well, I wish that I had reached out more to those crew members suffering from mental health issues to help redistribute some of the work way earlier on, rather than having faith that it was getting done but they just couldn’t summon messaging back to update.

In the near future, I’d like to see this in festivals- or even just have a festival plan, which means I would like to work on it further in the future. I think more cgi and colour grading is needed- a new title screen and intro credits, a darker tone to the overall sound- VIDEO GAMES HAVE MUSIC- it’s essentially his perspective as soon as she walks down the stairs, there would be a low deep rumble from menu and background music while in player, and I know I had said that before- referencing Ari Asters work with sound. This film feels like it’s on the brink of being what I dreamed it- it just needed more time and a stronger hand. I plan on taking a break before commencing my last elective for uni, and I am hoping that while I take this time to focus on myself, I can finally be calm and with no time restraints to make a plan for all the tiny pieces to add to this film before reaching out to old classmates, new friends, etc.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 1

Exercise

1 film that’s stayed with me and remembered. The Secret Garden, 1993, dir. Agnieszka Holland.

Cinematography wide shots and beautiful establishing shots, opening shot is a lone girl that can’t clothe herself, left in dead centre with lots of space around her, the closeups of hands feels very innocent and intricate- they feel like a soft, innocent female gaze.

Lighting contrast between the stale dark inside and the light garden

Editing not noticed so much

The script, partly cheesy cause it’s about children trying/forced to grow up too fast, and a period like flick

Production design, old timey and frilly, but oh boy their green set designer went OFF 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Tone, lonely and hollow to a slow burn hope

Theme….

theme? Did it speak to me? Yes, the absence of parents- chosen to or not, running around finding wonder, kindness and strength in a garden

How did I feel? Loved and seen- a lost and lonely child that internally begs for love but has an inability to regulate her emotions- Collin too!

What kind of film would I like to be a part of HORROR or like something that can incite hope and make all types of children feel seen

EXERCISE 2

Director that inspires me: Gia Coppola

Resource on their process: ‘everything was trying to reach out to as many people as I could.’ Many of them stayed at Coppola’s mother’s house during filming. “I would drive them home after work and we’d all have dinner,” Coppola says, “It was like camp. I loved it.”

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/05/09/gia-coppola-talks-directing-james-francos-palo-alto-and-the-pressures-of-her-last-name-qa/%3foutputType=amp

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.vogue.com/article/gia-coppola-palo-alto-personal-style-and-james-franco/amp

Notes on script:

Does the camera show that she’s dead?

When do we learn that she’s dead- same time as him or before?

Rewrite in program with proper formatting

Week 3…

I was able to get together with a crew member and get the new draft of the script done. I have a bit of trouble understanding sometimes how to properly structure a script after coming from a book writing background, so I was really thankful that she was able to help me understand even better. The feedback from previous classes has centred around its general ‘look’ as a script and whether the viewer is in on knowing that Alexis is dead, and from the strat I’ve wanted the audience to know to further their distaste towards Ross, otherwise the audience could say ‘well hey I missed it, I get why he did’. Her choking will take place on camera, close up, so we can watch her leave us.

Week 4…

Getting ready for the pitch has been a huge mental struggle for me, but I keep holding onto the idea of actually making this film and that definitely gets me into our team meetings on the days it feels impossible. I’m already so happy with the crew and their thoughts and contributions, but it doesn’t kill my anxiety of presenting. I feel like the script is at a good point based on feedback, so when we presented and the main concern was finding a production designer, I felt immediate relief… okay we can tackle that. There is a pressure I’ve found quite uncomfortable so far in my journey in this class, and it’s even after filling the crew roles, a certain student not even in this class has become quite intense in getting involved as camera operator despite that role being VERY explicitly filled. I plan on keeping polite but firm, but god why should I have to?

Week 5…

So… despite the previous week's tiny rant of someone trying to vulture a filled role, our original DOP is now the 1st AD and someone else within our crew has taken on DOP, a choice we were actually all really content with. A search for a production designer continues, but we have to focus on scouting our potential Ross and Alexis. Unfortunately none from the team- including myself, could make it to crewing night, however, another student pitched on our behalf. The main goal is to obviously fill the production designer role, so fingers are crossed in the meantime. There was no class this week so I definitely spent the week taking care of myself and finishing off my slides for the pitch for next week, and I’m pretty happy with my slides and that most in the crew have stuck to the same aesthetic through the slides (minus points for memes).

Week 6…

Pitch week, so I’m ill with anxiety for it, but nonetheless, meds taken, train caught and standing before the panel. After the comments from the panel on how it very obviously pulls away from the serious nature of content, I was pretty bummed I didn’t just quickly delete people’s memes before the pitch. Overall I felt pretty good about how it went, but that’s only because that’s how my crew told me to feel about it. My anxiety was so bad while presenting, that I blacked out. In moments of intense anxiety I will disassociate entirely, I know I spoke, but I know nothing that I said or that was said to me. This is an incredibly frustrating process for me, especially because I have had to rely on my crews memories on the pitch, which definitely doesn’t feel fair. They assure me we are on the right path, and just that we should get a move on with casting. Still no production designer.

Week 7…

Mental health and substance abuse are taking a bad turn this week and it is affecting how easily it is for me to communicate effectively with my crew. I won’t be able to open messages or even show I’m online out of fear of disappointing and giving wrong/no answers. I feel entirely overwhelmed and I can feel myself falling behind. There’s still no production designer and at this point I’m willing to do it because I fear it’ll turn into a shit show anyway. I have been experiencing the worst internet from home and it’s been making getting anything done when I’m finally mentally available, impossible. I’m tired and as much as I love this script, I just want this trimester over.

Week 8…

This week for The Silent Treatment, we’ve been taking a look at Producer Sina’s Starnow casting calls for both roles, as well as looking at AirBnB’s for possible locations, which has lead to playful but extenuating bickering on the dop and producers part over ‘apartment or house’, which honestly, it’s quite easy reigning them in when they get a little too passionate. But I’ve actually found their bickering and passionate opinions on options for the film and helping restore my own fight for this film too. We have a few meetings coming up over our discord and we’ve been polishing up our previous presentation slowly.

Week 9…

We’re cutting down through our pickings for actors as well as getting excited over the possibility of taking James Lewis on as production designer. He actually appears to listen and understand quite well and he’s always writing notes in his book for props and decor. I’ve shared my ideas and I’m hoping he can fulfil my needs. This week was a really difficult one for me mentally (big shock and huge surprise) so I’ve actually been trying to make a plan to stay well and that’s by putting together a rehab stay, a huge and terrifying step I’m still not sure I’m going to actually take.

Week 10…

I’ve lost all of myself and my motivation this week. A rehab stay is officially scheduled and I’m afraid and trying so hard to reignite my passion for film and my own words and stories, but I don’t think it is worth it. I know I’ll look back in a week to a few weeks and struggle to understand why I hated my work so much, but I think when you hate you, everything you touch looks disgusting. I’ve been incredibly fortunate for my friends- some on my crew- and I’m INCREDIBLY fortunate for the crew members that don’t really know me from a bar of soap being exceptionally soft and kind with me during my low period. Knowing my team are such lovely people is actually a much better reason to get off my ass and do this- for them- not for me and my silly story…

Week 11…

We finally have short listed actors AND location and now we have those last auditions to wade through. Internally I definitely have decided on my location and actress, but for the male actor I’m not so sure yet. One guy auditioned and while he played it quite well, it was his in between chats that had me slightly off, as he kept feeling the need to drill in that he isn’t ‘this guy’, which of you arent, you don’t feel the need to tell everyone, which is why I’m keen to give another actor a whirl and see where to go from there. My fashion designer friend is still keen to make the scrubs and we’ve all worked out a decent pay for her services- I love bringing friends from other art disciplines into my films, eg placing crazy art from my painter friend, decorating the sets with my friends published books and even my nursing friend belinda wants to give me a bunch of medical supplies to set dress!

Week 12...

Big pitch next week and I’m terrified- how can I actually feel so prepared but terrified. The last male actor to audition BLEW me away and I felt a real chemistry when talking to him between the breaks which means I’m really looking forward to directions BOTH actors, as they’re super lovely and open and very relaxed to speak with! Location is LOCKED and I couldn’t be happier with the pick made! We just keep polishing away at the presentation, and yes, the memes are still coming out of the woodworks...

Week 13…

I'm not angry over the pitch, but I wouldn’t say I left happy… some of the ‘criticisms’ felt so empty and UTTERLY devoid of actual meaning. I mean, and I’m sorry, but this script was the same script written 1 year ago. No changes were made because I didn’t receive criticism through these weeks to do so- sure structure of the actual script itself changed but the scene where he imposes himself in her space was ALWAYS there, and I know the lecturers can have a lot to remember, but DO NOT ever say ‘this part wasn’t always here’ and ‘no I think we would’ve noticed’ had me boiling. It’s important to not talk with so much confidence in these kinds of times, as we all can forget things, but to stand and tell someone what they wrote and didn’t write in front of a crowd of people in higher positions than them, that’s insulting. I’m happy to take the criticisms about that ‘rape implication’ exert VERY easily, but it could have been addressed in week 1. I also do believe that younger lecturers NEED to be in these pitches, as it is a crowd of older people and senses of humour and film are changing and that should be fairly judged by a RANGE of ages.

APA REFERENCING

Gia Coppola talks directing James Franco’s “Palo Alto” and the pressures of her last name (Q&A). (n.d.). Washington Post. Retrieved June 25, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/05/09/gia-coppola-talks-directing-james-francos-palo-alto-and-the-pressures-of-her-last-name-qa/

Nast, C. (2014, April 4). Gia Coppola On Palo Alto, Personal Style, and James Franco. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/gia-coppola-palo-alto-personal-style-and-james-franco--

[peachybeancinema]

Week 11 reflection:

Not just this project, but the entire semester has been so draining and confusing. Recently going through the process of being diagnosed with ADHD, now having no physical school to jog my brain to start work, making friends in the class to talk to about projects was near impossible for me and having ZERO and I mean ZERO ability to actually understand what all the words in the module guide, campus online and the cim212 website, my brain has been reduced to hot goo.

The only easy element for me in this project was writing the dialogue (once I was actually able to get started), but it also made me realise I’ve had some weirdly nasty friends in my life and I still refer to them as ‘friends’.

Everything else felt so tiresome to do, but I still enjoyed learning more and more about horror, as it is slowly becoming a favourite genre of mine. I know in the future that I can do better if I can just START, and I know I need to start asking for more help with that.

What did I learn about myself and cultural identity?:

1. Very slow to get started I am- it’s like someone immediately shut off my brain as soon as this class began. I just need to ask for more help and more explanation.

2. I am very white and contain a lot of privileg and a lineage built on stealing aspects of others cultures while still oppressing them. This one I been known since I stepped in the class, but sorry, watching a bunch of other white people debate the worth of something very obviously made in poor taste or ignorance- like it has none, let’s move on.

3. Big old gay here, and finally researching horror and the absolute bullshit with television coding against queers, how my favourite villains are actually just a poor representation of my culture.

What did I learn about my cultural/subcultural capital? Did my understanding change over the course of the project?:

- This kind of is answered in my last points, but while I am a queer woman who has had slurs used against me, my identity disregarded by parents, and watched my partners parents vote ‘no’ for gay marriage, I’m glad I can grasp an understanding of how these events are fueled by poor representation and making ‘other’ scary. But I’m white bread, and while thinking you’re in a cultural inquiry class with multiple nationalites, where only white people talk about ‘what they think’ and minorities watch their class mates normalise saying they went soul searching in Africa- like the whole ass continent? Yeah okay... and then stating and debating about ‘appreciation’ vs ‘appropriation’, like they’re actually in a position to give that out. It’s the self importance of white people for me.

In my engagement with the concept of ‘otherness’, which position did you occupy - that of the dominant or that of the ‘other’?:- I found myself occupying both! Previously stated, white girl with a privilege, and a little gay girl who never even considered ‘coming out’ till uni.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 10 reflection:

Our group didn’t feel comfortable enough with how little plot and actual story points we had, to actually share with the guest lecturers, so we took that time in our breakout room to brainstorm.

We knew our roles, but not where to really start so we went back and forth until we came up with the idea of a ‘sleepover’ situation. There are two characters of the script, one a cis-het female who makes nasty comments with a smile and finishes it off with a backhanded compliment. The other is non-binary, and displays kind and attentive and curious.

We broke it down into:

opens to their night/casual nasties/dinner/friends parents need something/explores their friends room/girl goes to sleep and they explore the house/stoic expression returning back to bed

[peachybeancinema]

Week 9 reflection:

We’re going to be writing a script, and have divided it up so I will be taking care of writing the dialogue and Liz and josh can convert it and add elements to make it a functional script.

The Hahs code restricted the ‘perverse’, but didn’t restrict content containing gore, violence, sexual assault etc. it’s purpose was to uphold the ‘correct’ standard of life.

This code resulted in queer-coding, where creators now made monsters exuding queer culture and make it bad and scary enough to not actually break any rules. But this has only lead to assisting a worldwide wide fear of queer people, and that queer people are predators.

Seed of Chucky and Curse of Chucky, as well as Jennifer’s Body are some better examples of good representation, but they do still fall a little into the gay hate trope.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 8 reflection:

Personal stuff in all members of the groups lives meant we didn’t get to chat much on the project. However, doing individual searching, we found ourselves not as fond on the idea of Norway horror vs Australian horror.

Instead we’ve decided to still stick with horror, but as queer people, also get some just desserts and create a horror script that doesn’t rely on making queer = monster.

We’re going to look at films like Rocky Horror Show, Interview with a Vampire, Jennifer’s Body, Silence of the lambs and even The Little Mermaid.

We will also be looking into the Hays code.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 7 reflection:

For the cultural fusion assignment, I formed a group with Liz and Josh, friends from past trimester studying film. We’ve worked closely together on creative projects before, and I have fun and always end up with a really cool end product.

We’re considering horror and trying to stay away from potentially appropriating cultures that we don’t have the grounds to borrow from. This means we’ll be looking into white lineage and culture, which would include Norwegian, Scottish, Danish etc.

This means we need to look into old lore and myth embedded in these cultures and compare them to what we have in Australia.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 6 reflection:

Due to many seriously annoying but also genuinely depressing events, I was unable to complete and present in class, however, I got to watch people’s presentations and, while not having finished mine and even my own conclusion, I felt so inspired.

Joshua Nelson and Patty Pasipanodya had some of the most memorable presentations, for many reasons- including my need for information to reach me in a fun and fast approach, but also the main points.

I feel way more confident with where I’m ending up and know my main conclusion I’m reaching is: foreign countries dumb shit down for westerners, and honestly... can we blame them?

[peachybeancinema]

Week 5 Reflection:

I’m the Cultural inquiry project, I have chosen two pieces of media,

Ju-on, Dir. Takashi Shimizu (2002), a film about a curse holding spirits in a house where the horrific murder of a woman and child took place, where those who enter don’t step out alive- or at least not for long.

The Grudge, Dir. Takashi Shimizu (2004), a film that is a near identical copy in English, where a curse is in a house is taking place, the scene of a horrific murder of a woman and child took place. This movie has the same origin characters name and motive of the original, with one ‘ spicy’ difference... THE WHOLE MAIN CAST IS WHITE AND THERE’S A RANDOM AND UNNECESSARY LOVE STORY

Keep in mind, BOTH films take place in Japan... one with a surprisingly white-bread cast for no real reason. This is harmful for representation reasons, but now I consider WHY Japanese director Takashi Shimizu made these creative choices in the adaption of his own film.

[peachybeancinema]

Week 4 reflection:

Throughout the briefing for the project Cultural Inquiry and class discussions, I gravitated towards something horror, as not only am I currently becoming obsessed with the horror scene- especially female directed or foreign films of the genre.

I remembered being young, having a mother obsessed with true crime, ghosts and horror at probably way too early of an age, and ‘The Grudge’ came to mind. I remember seeing the original Japanese, subbed as a child cause I liked to read and my mum liked ghosts. I then saw the remake many years later, maybe 12 years old because my sister started getting ‘spooky’ and she made me watch scary films with her.

The two films felt odd knowing it felt like the same story but something off. So I’m going to look into this little memory nugget

[peachybeancinema]

Aesthetics

Week 3: Aesthetics

A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty

Many problems with this however, as who has the authority to establish the beauty standards of everything?

Who is saying that it’s beautiful or ugly? And aren’t there multiple standards of beauty due to culture? Is anything actually pretty or ugly, or is it just existing and we need to categorise it on bias?

Aesthetics is equal to immense bias

[peachybeancinema]

Poststructuralism

Week 2: Poststructuralism

A response to structuralism

Argues that the study of underlying structure is reason of bias and misinterpretation

Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida

Language and abstract concepts stand in the way of ever gaining knowledge of ‘the real world’

[peachybeancinema]

Week 1: Postmodernism

Postmodernism is the idea that reality is not mirrored in human understanding but rather constructed, as individuals find their own reality

Realities are subject to change and ‘apparent’ realities are just social constructs

[peachybeancinema]

Sound is more important than pictures in documentary

My encounters with documentary film- besides David Attenborough at 3am definitely sleep deprived- has been brief before my time in this course. I would love to say that after this course and during its duration I have spent a lot of my time broadening my documentary film index, but managed to lose all interest I ever really had in them. This is not to say that my horizons haven’t been broadened, but in fact, my lack of passion for documentary filmmaking has made viewing documentaries easier. In my time of ignorance and even throughout this trimester exploring documentaries and their modes, I’ve always found imagery to be the most hard hitting factor in any film experienced. That isn’t to say I didn’t appreciate or notice the audio mixing, and can say I wouldn’t cry for the Barnacle Gosling chicks that fling themselves off cliffs in Attenborough’s 2014, ‘Life Story’ without the tragic music and perfectly placed silence as wind swallows the on set mic and the viewers speakers. The pauses in calming instrumental soundtrack into the animals habitats moments before tragedy, grant me a moment to get my emotions ready and to hold my breath. I have found genuine physical effects from audio on film- documentary or not- whether it be a queue to hold my breath or dig my toes into the ground when the beat kicks in. But, I have also had viewing clouded, as a broke kid with a broken tv remote, subtitles were a forced norm, which lead me to notice the way sound is described for the hearing impaired from a young age. This connection to subtitles and slowly viewing films on mute in my later years as a form of background entertainment, lead me- someone who suffers from sensory overload- to not view sound design as something that was important to my viewing experience.

This initial, mainly ignorant opinion doesn’t discredit the emotional aspect sound brings to a documentary. In documentary films there’s imagery and evidence to lead us on the path of understanding subject matter and evidence, but sound tells viewers how to feel about the knowledge just gained. Sound helps immerse viewers in their environment, so poor sound design leads to jarring viewing and audiences lose the story once they have to start forcing themselves into the story because the audio is pulling them out. 2015, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief contained a score and sound design so chilling that it was impossible to leave the stories told without feeling extra uncomfortable by the audio. As certain haunting secrets are revealed about the church and its practices, pitched audio cuts in and out, building intensity as more and more gets revealed, and they even overwhelm the viewer by cutting together a collection of haunting notes, pitch changed, accompanied by equally haunting flashing imagery between interview and archive footage. 2005 documentary ‘Michael Palin & the Mystery of Hammershøi’ is an emotive soundtrack leading their audiences to view art and a journey of discovery as light and beautiful, just as the soundtrack hints at. In fact, for vision impaired audiences, sound design is incredibly important to their experience. Whilst listening to the scene descriptions and imagining the story, they also now have sound queues to tell them when to feel when they cannot share the onscreen trauma with other viewers.

However, despite and incredibly fun and beautiful soundtrack with high popularity on Spotify, Dinesh D’ Souza’s America: Imagine The World Without Her, it still fails to overcome poor filmmaking. Viewers couldn’t connect or empathise despite dramatic audio emotional queues, because the storytelling was so poor on its inception. Getting carried away with this blog post and the concept of sound and how much it adds to a story, I did a short read of David Mamet’s ‘On Directing’, just over 100 pages of filmmaking knowledge gained over time. In this book Mamet highlights Eisenstein's juxtaposition theories, where imagery is what drives the story forward. He also warns about “infliction”, essentially a belief he has that dialogue and sound design have place of low use and get used too often for the sake of adding it in. In fact, in ‘Walter Murch and the art of film editing', Murch also reveals how his first few edits he finds the films beats and rhythm through visuals, not sound- even cutting sound out all together as he goes through the first portion of his creative process.

Despite all the documentaries with raving reviews accompanied by just as incredible scores, like any film, some form of a story and narrative tells all standing alone as imagery and dialogue, soundtrack and design merely has the ability to assist their audience into tapping into their emotions on queue. As filmmakers, our job is to relay stories to the public for them to relate, hate, laugh or cry to, and we do this by combining as many elements of human senses possible in order to help the audience do this, which includes sound as much as it does imagery. However, it has to be acknowledged not every consumer is the ‘average’ viewer, and whether it be sensory issues, hearing impairments or other, that’s a huge portion of the general public who have their viewing hindered by overly sensational audio, or have to miss components of the story because it’s ‘hidden in the sound design’. When making documentaries- a platform used to inform and persuade on important topics- to hide essential story or emotional driving points in the sound design and give only a portion of the public the ability to understand an informative piece edges over into ableist values. Whether thinking certain people are worthy of understanding your story or simply not putting them into the picture to begin with, is an injustice to the art form of film.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- Author: M. Ondaatje (2002) ‘Walter Murch and The Art of Film Editing’.

- Dir. Various (2014-2015) ‘Life Story’ [series]

- Dir. A. Gibney (2015) ‘Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief’

- Dir. M. Palin (2005) ‘Michael Palin & the Mystery of Hammershøi’

- Dir. D. D’Souza (2014) ‘America: Imagine The World Without Her’

- Author: D. Mamet (1991) ‘On Directing’. Publication: Penguin Books

[peachybeancinema]

FLM225 REFLECTION BLOG

During in my short life I have encountered family abuse, an editing disorder, sexual assault, the suicides of two close friends and the death of my support animal, but in that time I have never failed a class, a work task or let down my friends. After this trimester under the lecturing guidance of Sean Cousins, I have finally ‘failed’ an entire course in his eyes. This decision was never and could never be final, as despite the manipulation and mental abuse inflicted by my lecturer

Despite the pushback from the start, I feel as though this is a trimester I’ve put the most energy into. I went and visited the store I wanted to document, interviewed staff, took recce photos on my way home from uni, did pre-production phone interviews in order to formulate the questions to be asked in the interview process. I sat with our producer at the time and made available crew days, shooting dates and even specified days I knew the shop was busy and quiet to capture all the footage I wanted. The first day of shooting I coordinated with my DOP throughout the entire shoot for layover footage and made plans for future interview spaces for coming shoots.

On the shoots themself I pushed my comfort zone by having to approach strange customer after customer and receive constant rejection or confessions they shared off camera- rendering their information useless to me and my editor. I felt my confidence and my ability to handle being rejected by the public boost dramatically through my many days on set, which was refreshing from only pushing my confidence with fellow film crew members in the past.

During my time on set I kept a casual yet professional relationship with my subject in order to not only allow her to believe I was competent enough to carry her personal stories, but to also establish comfort with her so she never felt judged while sharing stories potentially once painful to her. I found such a different story in my time on the ‘Civic Video’ set, and wish I could have gone down the path of my subject and her relationship to her family while working in a business, but took on my lecturers criticism and cut all family talk and took this documentary in his vision. In the future I would like to stand up for myself more- especially on a project with my name and the creative director on it, to ensure a film with my name on it is my film before it’s the general public’s film.

During this trimester I found myself mother and caring for a particular group member in particular, who placed himself as the producer but only a few weeks in approached me about how challenging this role was for him, so being the only one in the group with this knowledge I addressed my fellow group members and asked them to help me work out a plan to help our friend along in this course. A solution to switch our editor at the time to the role of producer and for him to take the editor position. With this set up we chugged along, but the now new editor stopped seeing it as his duty to be on set and to ‘practice editing more’- a decision, under the premise he did editing exercises was fine with me and my crew. As post production rolled around our editor confided to me alone again that this new role was also too much, so I organised a group meeting and roles were switched again. This put our DOP in a difficult position mentally, as she now had to pick up weeks of work that had been left incomplete by the past editor and then also struggled her own battle with our lecturers abuse.

One of the shoot days I also acknowledge that my health issues got in the way of me making it to a shoot, and as a result the new producer communicated over phone with me and after problem solving, he received an email from myself with a list of questions covering any possible ground for our subject of the day, and then took over as director for that shoot. This particular day has started so rocky professionally and privately, but the teamwork between my producer and I meant problems were solved before call time and ran smoothly all day.

This film would never have happened without the final editor and producer Elizabeth Rose and Joshua Nelson, who dedicated sleepless nights and studio sessions to putting this film together while the lecturer fought against us. The original producer, not only did not contribute enough to this project to have actually passed in the first place, but after my help through this trimester he said to our lecturer that this project had suffered from its directors leadership and direction, despite failing to show up to most shoots or fill a role longer than two weeks. I am purely upset by my own actions and failure to stand up for myself or the other members in my group, and have learnt a valuable lesson from the entire experience, which is to be professional and not a caregiver.

After a trimester that had been formulated in the pits of hell, I have decided for health reasons to take the next trimester off. In this time I would like to get back into regular therapy to correct the gaslighting and abuse endured by a ‘professional’ educator and fall back in love with film again, as this is something I feel was taken away from me. I hope to take every bit of feedback ever given to me by Sean Cousins and then make multiple short films in my break defying all that same advice. I plan to make promo videos for non-profit organisations and take all the mistakes I make out of a non-academic environment and learn from them before I enter capstone in the following trimester.

[peachybeancinema]

“Each Mode of Documentary has its own relationship to truth”

When we talk about documentaries we think about the truth- or at least someone or somethings truth being told or explained to us. However 6 different modes of documentary making are designed to tell those truths in different ways in order to enlighten their audiences in a way they believe they can easily ‘portray the truth’.

The Expository mode of documentary sees interviews, archive footage and voice overs retelling events or someone’s reasoning, etc. Though with this mode of documentary a keyword branded into my brain with this mode is ‘guiding’, as the Director is trying to create a correlation between an authorial voice over and archive footage to guide audiences into understanding this portion of the truth being told. American documentary theorist Bill Nichols suggested that audiences are “expected” to accept that the images and voice over have a “direct relationship”. Collecting visual evidence of an event or topic and slapping an authoritative voice over the top, audiences are able to pick up the directors truth, than potentially other modes of documentary. Though a great example of an expository documentary’s Director having their ‘propaganda’- for lack of a better word- being perceived differently is Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 documentary ‘High School’. A conservative member on the Boston School Committee viewed the film and declared the high school “wonderful”, as despite the exposure of scared, subservient teens, that conservative woman and Wiseman held different moral values. There is going to be some difficulty showing the ‘truth’ in working with expository as a mode, as it can often be one sided and multiple interviews and voice overs reinforce the same ‘truth’. It comes to a point as viewer where you wonder if a stories being told, or if I’m just being made to palate a truth within a story.

The Poetic mode of documentary has the filmmaker create patterns with imagery and uses juxtaposition to evoke emotion from their audience members in order to tell the truth of something with no authoritative voice over or one sided interviews. In Standish Lawnder’s 1971 documentary ‘Necrology’ shows an endless crowd on an escalator, full of middle class white people, all riding the escalator backwards, fading into darkness to reveal new faces on for them to slip away too. With the time period in mind, it’s a clear showing of the basic ‘American’ conforming mindlessly, despite moving backwards and into the dark. Through my own understanding of poetic documentaries, I believe it’s relationship with truth is by not explicitly telling your audience what your meaning or ‘truth’ is, we’re allowing them to apply their own individual past experiences or emotions to the imagery the documentary is showing them. Audiences apply their own ‘truth’ in association to the directors sequence of imagery. While the directors meaning in the documentary may be unbiased and show real events, the viewers are not. Like most art the authors meaning is open to interpretation, however in terms of documentary modes, poetic is a lot more open to interpretation without an authoritative voice telling them exactly what to feel in relation to the truth shown on screen.

The Observational mode of documentary had me the most puzzled, as over time what makes an observational documentary has changed over time. The whole idea of ‘fly on the wall’ documenting, and being unobtrusive on the subjects life or situation, full of diegetic sound only, accompanied by cameras growing smaller and smaller over time, allowing filmmakers to capture the subject without affecting the ‘reality’ of it made sense to me. But over time the mode has shifted slightly in what it allows for the filmmaker to do. A lot of observational documentaries now take the time to pull their subjects aside and interview them on their thoughts in that moment, or explain to the audience what it is they may be about to do. An example of this change in observation mode structures is Isn Palmer’s 2011 ‘Knuckle’, following a secretive world of bare-knuckle knuckle fighting in Ireland, filmed over the course of 12 years. This documentary, while not having a clear propaganda, or revealing too much of the inner thoughts of his subjects, Ian Palmer’s ‘Knuckles’ still contains moments of reflection or a walk through by his subjects. With this entire modes idea being ‘leave the ‘reality’ portrayed unaffected to portray it most accurately’, we can gather that it is the highest chance to gain a true, unbiased understanding of a situation. Eder Belberg earned criticism over her ethics in her 2001 documentary ‘Children Underground’, which saw the lives of runaway Romanian orphans living in the street as it’s subject. People were concerned with her desire to capture rather than help these children suffering in that moment, to which she has responded to by saying “what is shown in the film is only a fraction of what actually takes place... I felt that it was my responsibility to show the reality of the situation and to really focus on long term goals rather than short term solutions.” The mode of observation documentaries sees real life events, no voice over telling audience what to focus on, and allowing subjects to run free and give them a chance to express why they’re doing what they do, allowing our best chance at viewing the ‘truth’.

The Participatory mode of Documentary sees the filmmaker interact with their subjects and “participate in shaping what happens” in front of the audience. It can be seen as one of the most honest and truthful modes of documentary, as we’re allowing for the subjects to be giving constant reasoning as to why they’re about to do what they’re about to do. This mode gives the communities of these stories an opportunity to express the truth by sharing their own voices and point of views. However, through my own research and viewing I can also find it all as distraction from the truth. With someone hovering around me, knowing they’re about to ask me what it is I’m doing or why am I about to do it, as a subject I would alter myself or my words. My reasoning behind what I’m doing could mean nothing, and we then reach a point where we wonder if we’re capturing a true situation, or if our subject is manipulating the filmmaker and viewers into believing a false motive. However, done in moderation and timed correctly to catch the subject off guard and giving them no time to create and attractive ‘truth’, the filmmaker has the opportunity to elicit a genuine, knee jerk reaction, allowing for the ultimate truth in the scenario to be shown. A 2013 documentary ‘A Journal of Insomnia’ saw sufferers of insomnia take part and explain their experiences with insomnia, in order to gain a clearer understanding of the condition and how it affects a wide communicate of people, and not one persons journey.

References

http://sites.stedwards.edu/comm4399fa2013-jhender4/2013/11/06/participatory-and-reflexive-modes-of-documentary-response-4/

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.indiewire.com/2001/09/interview-edet-belzbergs-children-underground-brings-the-lives-of-romanian-street-children-to-li-80752/amp/

https://epowdocumentary.wordpress.com/documentary-modes/observational-mode/

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0064429/

https://epowdocumentary.wordpress.com/documentary-modes/expository-mode/

https://www.sothetheorygoes.com/documentary-poetic-mode/

[peachybeancinema]

Reflection

1. Do you feel you have come a long way since the beginning of the trimester? Do you feel you challenged yourself enough?

In the beginning of the trimester I wanted to prove to myself that I could direct, prove certain people wrong- but not only prove I could direct, but do it well! However on the 25th of June I lost my Emotional Support Animal and have been diagnosed with PTSD in relation to the event. Suddenly this film stopped becoming about proving myself, but about keeping myself busy and alive, and using that energy to create something in her memory. This film’s meaning changed for me- instead of making the best of your situation, it became about letting something go and realising that though they aren’t with you as your buddy anymore, they’re safe and happy and you know that. I challenged myself everyday by getting out of bed, but I pushed myself to the limit with this film and making it as best as I could.

2. What challenges arose from your production/ tasks/ role etc.? How did you overcome this issues?

I felt extraordinarily confident and comfortable in my role as a director, and found I rarely doubted myself. Sometimes I had trouble during pre-production not slapping my name on the next hard task- like hinting I would make the hazmat suit, as well as hand stitching all of Lloyd and buying each element of the costume. I had to learn to let go of wanting to be in control and perfect everything, because in reality I only set myself up for failure.

3. What was your role within the film and did you undertake this role and duties to the best of your ability?

As director of They Came From Above! I had all large requirements like directors treatment, visual references, logline, synopsis etc uploaded the same week of my crew pitch, where I was given the job of director. I had a lot of personal and mental health issues to hold me back and make me stumble, but I honestly believe that I have handled the worst year of my life with grace and perseverance.

4. What soft/ technical skills could you have improved upon, and how will you implement these changes in future?

I believe I could improve on my assertiveness sometimes, as while most of the time I’m quite good at saying what I want, I can sometimes become a bit submissive and entertain ideas longer than they need to be, as I know half way through the suggestion that it isn’t hitting the mark.

5. Did you work cohesively with your team? If not, how did you overcome these conflicts?

Not only did I get on with every single member of the cast, crew and cross collaborations, but people who I walked in there knowing nothing about became my friends and people I look forward to working with on set. I found two particular crew members I had trouble with- one a minor role who showed me no respect and took my requests as VFX suggestions and then got frustrated when I wanted the note I already asked them for to be added. On set I asked 1st AD Tanmay to keep a particular crew member on task and away from me, as this person made me uncomfortable, dodged doing their work to pass judgment on how I was about to direct a scene and left me to do a lot of the pack up on that last day. I feel like despite my frustration, I stayed professional the entire time and handled each negative situation professionally and without confrontation.

6. Is your film finished? If not, what do you still need to complete?

With James at the wheel of post-production, our final touches to the film and tying that ribbon on that lock cut, I feel so confident in how great the film is looking. Audio levels need to be fixed and two more moments in the film need a quiet score, which I know the audio guys are working on closely with James.

7. What feedback have you received regarding your final film?

I have received nothing but positive and happy reviews from friends, family and students. My high school literature teacher and mentor adored it and said it really made him feel quite special with a ‘hint of sad’. My own family did not attend exhibition nor have they seen the film properly, and that’s a point of view I’m both sad and relieved that I don’t have, but my partners family, who did come gushed over the film and his 16 year old sister said ‘that was magical’ as we walked out. I was even told that people sitting off to the side said ‘that was so good’ when our end credits finished.