Assignment 3 - Major Practical Project

More than meets the eye
The power of the mind’s eye journeys beyond the sense of sight.

I have gone with the imaginary world option with this project, which is going to be an animated surrealist fantasy. I'm going for a moving painting look to the whole video, and I've included a few snaps of what I've got so far in my storyboard.

I have rarely used AE in the past, as I grew up on Pinnacle Studio Pro, Hollywood FX and the Avid Liquid offspring. During those earlier days it was a mix and match affair, no suites like what Adobe has today so it's a tad bit different for me now. I am still surprised by how many features and integrated options there are within CS3 and CS4, especially what a godsend Mocha is.

I am happy to report that my practice runs have been successful so far. I will probably play with the ending a little.

For a smoother segue from dreamscape to waking hours, I was thinking of incorporating the distant sound of an alarm clock during the underwater scene which wakes the girl up. I will have to think it over this week and hopefully come up with some other ideas.


Synopsis

Contrasting everyday life for the visually impaired with their dreams, this tribute to Helen Keller is an animated story of a young blind woman’s dreams which reveal her ability to see, as she journeys through a world of magic and mystical beings as guided by narration.

The dreamscape is a representation of escapism from the trappings of a visual impairment, by producing a sense of freedom that comes from the essence of imagination that Keller’s work portrays.


Motivations & Future plans

This project idea came together on a hot summer day while floating in the pool. It was inspired by my dog, Daria, who developed Diabetes mellitus last year (genetic not dietary). Since Daria became diabetic, her eyesight has waned considerably, and now she is almost blind.

My father is also deaf, and I thought it would be good for me to create a 2 versions of the video, one with captions and one without.

Then I thought, well what about the blind? So I've decided that I will write a short story on this video as a hobby, and distribute it to the visually impaired internet community by the end of the year.

Assignment 2 - A Primer on the Documentary

By Maria Tan

Open, print or download this publication

Screen Australia's definition of ‘documentary’ follows that used by ACMA,
specifically ‘a program that is a creative treatment of actuality other than a
news, current affairs, sports coverage, magazine, infotainment or light
entertainment program, and corporate and/or training programs’ (Screen Australia 2009, p. 2).

The elusive definition of the documentary genre is imbued in discussions of the principles of truth and reality. For documentary academic, Bill Nichols (2001, p. 1), “every film is a documentary,” as “even the most whimsical of fictions gives evidence of the culture that produced it and reproduces the likenesses of the people who perform within it”. To serve as a functional way of analysing the genre, Nichols isolates the dualities of fact and fiction, to establish that the documentary deals primarily within non-fiction.

Coined in 1802 as a derivative of the word ‘document’ (L'Etang 2004, p. 33) it was ‘The Moviegoer” and New York Sun film critic, John Grierson, who originally applied the word ‘documentary’ to cinema in 1926 (Jack, 2007). As Grierson (1932) noted in The First Principles of Documentary:

“Documentary is a clumsy description, but let it stand”.

Within the genre there are six narrative styles which categorise a documentary’s ‘modes’ as: Expository, Participatory, Reflexive, Performative Observational, and Poetic (Nichols 2001, p. 99). However there is also another category, the ‘docu-drama’ or ‘docu-soap’, commonly utilized on television (TV), but not considered a valid form of documentary as it blends fact with fiction. Other forms which exploit the documentary style are the ‘docu-fiction’ or ‘mockumentary’ films which rely upon the devices of documentary to provide the appearance of authenticity to support an otherwise fictional story.

The most commonly used style is the ‘expository’ mode of documentary, where the narrative unfolds as dictated to the audience by the spoken word in terms of a commentary laid on a voice over track, referred to in the genre as ‘the voice of God’. As author Stella Bruzzi (2000) explains:

“The ostensible purpose of the ‘voice of God’ model is to absent personality and any notion of the internal monologue, to generalize, to offer an omniscient and detached judgement, to guide the spectator through events whilst remaining aloof of them.”

An example of this ‘voice of God’ commentary can be seen in many nature films such as The March of the Penguins (2005), with Morgan Freeman as the narrator, or in the BBC’s nature series collections starring Sir David Attenborough, such as the 2008 release of Life in Cold Blood. Although there is narration present within Attenborough’s nature documentaries, they are also participatory in nature. This is because Attenborough does not simply narrate the story, but appears within it by directly addressing the audience through brief interludes in ‘piece to cameras’ (PTC) on location.

For example, in his series, ‘The Private Life of Plants’ (1995), Attenborough makes a point of appearing on camera when discussing the carnivorous ‘Trumpet Pitcher Plant’ (Sarracenia flava), to point out to the audience how the plant attracts and traps it prey. “The reward itself is under here,” says Attenborough, as he runs his finger along the plant’s secretory structure and tastes it, describing the plant’s bait as “sweet nectar”.

This participatory mode of documentary is however not to be confused with the ‘performative’ and ‘reflexive’ modes, which Nichols revised from what was originally the ‘interactive’ and ‘self-reflexive’ modes during his first work in documentary classification (Nichols, 1988).

An illustration of how the participatory mode differs from the performative and reflexive modes can be seen in the role of the ‘documentarian’, and how they portray themselves in the documentary. In the participatory mode, the documentarian is seen as detached - engaging with the world only to describe it to the audience in the third person, and interacting within the documentary on behalf of the viewer in terms of interviews, or as seen in Attenborough’s case, with the environment.

In the reflexive and performative modes, the use of pronoun language is employed to address the audience as though in direct conversation, as the audience follows the documentarian on a ‘journey’. In both modes, the audience is made aware of the documentarian’s presence and the fact that they are embarking upon a process – a viewing of the documentarian’s journey.

These two modes differ in how that ‘journey’ is presented to the audience. The performative makes use of subjective information and personal perspective to creatively represent ‘reality’ in a process that requires the documentarian’s direct first person involvement, while the reflexive does not personally indulge in the abstract to communicate its message but instead follows a strategic agenda of self exploration to examine and present information, remaining as the presenter.
One such reflexive mode of documentary is the Root of all Evil? (2006), written and presented by secular scientist Richard Dawkins, which originally aired on UK TV station Channel 4. Within the first two minutes, Dawkins makes his position clear to the audience in a PTC:

“As a scientist I’m increasingly worried about how faith is undermining science. It’s something that we must resist because irrational faith is feeding murderous intolerance throughout the world. In this program, I want to examine two further problems with religion. I believe it can lead to a warped and inflexible morality, and I’m very concerned about the religious indoctrination of children.”

Anthropology Professor, Jay Ruby, notes the nature of reflexivity when posed in film (Ruby, 1980):

“…being reflexive means that the producer deliberately, intentionally reveals to his audience the underlying epistemological assumptions which caused him to formulate a set of questions in a particular way, to seek answers to those questions in a particular way, and finally to present his findings in a particular way.”

To differentiate between the reflexive and performative modes, consider Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me (2004) documentary in contrast. When Spurlock embarks upon his own journey to exploit fast food chains, he places himself (and his health) as the central subject of the documentary by embarking on a 30 day ‘McDonald’s only’ diet and conditioned lifestyle. Prior to beginning his self experimentation, Spurlock introduces the audience to this notion:

“What would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days straight? Would I suddenly be on the fast track to become an obese American? Would it be unreasonably dangerous? Let’s find out.”

As similar as the style of the two introductions might be for both Dawkins and Spurlock, the reflexive Root of all Evil? presenter continues to present the documentary, arguing his case along the way, yet Dawkins does not become religious in the process. Spurlock on the other hand, is immersed in the process, as the subject of an experiment. To further illustrate the contrast, in the Muslims and America (2005) episode of Spurlock’s reality TV series 30 Days, Spurlock immerses himself in religion as he experiments with life as a Muslim-American citizen.

The performative mode of documentary is a relatively new addition to Nichol’s documentary classification, in which he has strictly kept separate from Reality TV and instead directs others towards Paget’s (1998) work in “the specific case of docudrama as a form or genre” (Nichols 2001, p. 182). In docudrama, the lines are blurred between fiction and non-fiction, as seen in the re-enactment of the Peter Falconio murder mystery in Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback (2007), based on a real life investigation fraught with controversy, many inconsistencies and much speculation. Newcomb (2004, p. 738) further clarifies the docudrama’s stance in blending documentary with dramatic performance:

“The docudrama should be distinguished from fictional dramas that make use of reality as historical context but do not claim that the primary plotline is representing events that have actually occurred.”

In this sense, dramatic representation is juxtaposed with actuality, differing from the observational style of documentaries which survey events, and, as seen in the previous modes, also seek to interact within them to represent actuality, as opposed to creating events entirely from fiction.

The observational mode is present even in the early origins of cinema, such as in the first films of the Lumière Brothers and the travelogues of Burton Holmes in the late 19th Century. However, in Robert Flaherty’s work Nanook of the North (1922), what was hailed during that time as the first film to ever illustrate “better than anyone the first principles of documentary,” Grierson (1932), was actually a re-enactment due to the original footage being destroyed by fire (Flaherty, 1922).

From these beginnings the observational mode of documentary developed into ‘Direct Cinema’, which is distinct from the participatory mode of ‘Cinema Verité’, arising from the late 1950’s through the development of lighter and more portable recording equipment (Ellis & McLane, 2005). Often referred to as the “fly on the wall” approach, the observational mode does not seek direct involvement within the documentary, but steadfastly remains a method of surveillance, with the resulting footage cropped to speed up the portrayal of the narrative.

An example of the observational mode can be seen in any of Fred Wiseman’s films, and the differences between Direct Cinema and Cinema Verité become apparent when Wiseman’s films are compared to the participatory mode of the War Room (1993), a documentary on Bill Clinton’s presidential election campaign, which, although observational in many respects, becomes participatory through interviews engaging the subjects being filmed.
While the observational mode strictly adheres to presenting footage filmed in actuality, and the docu-drama administers forms of creative licence in its narrative, it is the poetic mode of documentary that bridges the gap by presenting footage in its actuality, yet editing in such a way that creative licence is achieved through the displacement of the narrative by removing the linear form of the three act paradigm.

The poetic mode is demonstrated in the films Baraka (1992) and the Quatsi trilogy of films by Godfrey Reggio (1982, 1988, 2002), where scenes of actuality in nature and the built environment are spliced together in a visual montage to the rhythms of a musical score. As Corner (2005) notes on the typology of documentary aesthetics, “It is the interplay of artefactual design and subjectivity that generates the aesthetic experience”.

Observational in its filming, absent of explanatory commentary, and literally instrumental in the assembly of an artistic visual soundtrack, the essence of the poetic mode of documentary is captured by Baraka’s premise, branding the DVD as: “A world beyond words”.

As varied as the modes of the documentary genre may be, through applying Nichol’s (2001) method of separating fiction from non-fiction, a functional analysis can be achieved. Further reductionism of categorising aspects of the documentary genre into modes also assists in the critical analysis of distinguishing the aspects which typify the vast amount of documentaries that have been produced since the early origins of cinema.

However this is not to say that all documentaries follow a specific format, or fall into a specific category. With documentary, as in all genres of cinema, there are overlapping genres, which Hawkins (2000, p. 27) refers to as “slippage”, as “not only is there slippage between genres, but there is slippage between evaluative classifications, as well”.
In the documentary genre this ‘slippage’ can be seen in many films, such as the Endless Summer series by Director Bruce Brown (1966 & 1994), the films of Michael Moore, and even in the earliest of works by pioneers such as Dziga Vertov and Robert Flaherty, “who quite clearly mix documentary and fictional elements” (Langford 2005, p.261).

Therein lies the debate between the documentary as fact over fiction, the depiction of truth, and the neutrality of documentaries as windows to reality. Filmmaker Jill Godmilow avoids this issue by substituting the term ‘films of edification,’ “because I think the best way to describe this group of films is by their stance. All non-fiction films claim to edify. (Whether they do or not is another matter.)” (Godmilow as cited in Horne & Kahana 1998, p. 2).

Therefore in this light, the nature of documentaries, their purpose and their classification, whether a blend of genres falling into mixed-modes, or specifically crafted to mould itself into a category, still remains ever elusive, as “every documentary is different because it is individually crafted” (Chapman 2007, p. 3).

A full list of references are available here

Module 4 - Activity 2: Media websites for review

In an effort to recapture market share from the web, broadcast (and print) media have tried their hand at competing with the likes of social networking sites that have streaming video capabilities such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and the numerous CJ websites now proliferating the internet.

Media organisations have traditionally relied on advertising to function, and the perceived quantitative audience numbers (i.e. ratings or distribution) to draw in advertisers. As Hartley (1992, p.105) argues:

"...audiences are not just constructs, they are invisible fictions that are produced institutionally in order for the various institutions to take charge of the mechanisms of their own survival."

The amount of interactivity afforded to users of the internet opens the public sphere for civic discourse. Civility and participation are key elements of a democratic society, and they are also terms with political connotations within a sociological context. It also generates a new awareness for the Fourth Estate to be ever mindful of their work. However, there is certainly a difference between 'freedom of speech' and 'journalism'.

As Journalism Professor and CJ supporter Jay Rosen notes in his blog post entitled, 'The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism':

"...editors of such local citizen-journalism sites need to guide community members into making quality submissions -- to educate them about what's worth sharing with their fellow citizens".

There are very few CJ success stories in comparison to the quantity of non-newsworthy, un-journalistic content and practices on these CJ (and sometimes PR driven) websites.

---

References:

Hartley, J 1992, The Politics of Pictures: The Creation of the Public in the Age of Popular Media, Routledge, London & New York, DOI:240 pp.

Citizen Journalism

View more presentations from Seth Lewis.

Module 4 - Activity 1: Media Storm & Current TV

Media Storm

Welcoming submissions from contributors, providing paid internships, as well as the opportunity to join projects and other competitions on their blog, Media Storm offer many avenues for budding and talented producers to participate.

The Emmy Award winning company and its team have a strong background. Media Storm's work has been picked up by other media outlets such as PBS, Reuters and MSNBC among others, which would be an opportunity to not only work with a renowned organisation sponsored by the Washington Post, but to network and make your own contacts as well.

From a distribution context their website alone allows access to previews and feedback of their work in many spaces by citizens and organisations, through the provision of interactive elements such as backlinks, comment postings, social networking functions, podcasting, a YouTube channel, and good SEO tactics. Merchandising through their online store is also provided while the 'preview' aspect of the flash videos and YouTube clips further encourage the audience towards consumerism as opposed to piracy.


Current TV

In a much more open and transparent public sphere for contribution and participation, Current TV has taken the user generated, 'you decide' approach for appealing to the budding shorts VJ/film-maker. The site provides opportunities for soft news, ads and docos to be broadcast on the air in the US, UK, Ireland and Italian cable channels through their Make TV initiative, with the added incentive of cash prizes (anywhere from US$1000 to £25,000) for VC2 and VCAM Leaderboard winners. There are also other ways to gain exposure on the website such as being featured on the site's index page (e.g. Editor's Picks, Current video, Current stories and other categories).

As with Media Storm, Current TV makes full use of social networking capabilities, with the added features of rating videos, news articles and posting links as well as a fully fledged online community where access is granted upon registration.

A critical analysis of The Protean Journalist

The Protean Journalist mini-documentary produced entirely by Maria Tan in February, 2009 provides a fresh angle to a popular ‘Chicken Little’ subject currently plaguing the media industry.

While the topic itself is not new, there are still yet to be any Australian videos on this theme reporting on the changing role of journalists from the ‘new breed’s’ perspective apart from the occasional spot on SBS’ Dateline. However, this video is also found lacking in many aspects relating to structure and form.

Understandably, Maria Tan’s journalism background had a major influence in this piece which feels more like a soft news story than a ‘documentary’ which was her original intention.

Although the narrative holds together, the story fails to captivate as a true documentary would, because it lacks style. While the montage is relatively well shot with a few stylistic camera and ‘match on action’ editing techniques thrown in for good measure, there is nothing terribly creative about the video apart from the overstretched ‘picture in picture’ opening/title sequence which does not set the ‘documentary’ up with a dynamic, new sort of feel. The absence of music and some space for the information to sink in was also another ‘journo’ blunder, as it doesn’t do the video any justice or provide the added impact that a piece like this should warrant.

Verdict: Good for a first try but could be better. I give it 3 stars.

Snowed under!

I am starting to really feel the pressure right about now so I'm posting up a bit of a schedule on what is due and when to get my head around it all:

Overdue Blog Entries
Module 3: Run Lola Run, Man with movie camera <--mandatory?
Critical Analysis of 'The Protean Journalist'
Module 4: Activity 1, Activity 2

March 12
Concept Brief and Storyboard for Assignment 3 (Major Practical Project)

March 16
eCulture and Audiences LJA5

March 18
eCulture and Audiences Discussion Form Activity

March 19
Assignment 2 - Digital Video Genres essay

March 20
Internet Communications Assignment 1

Cathie's Settings: Assignment 1

I created a version with a new bitrate of 1150kbps which has improved the picture quality (e.g. 0:12-0:16 in this version has better clarity than the last version). However the filesize increased from ~30mb to ~378mb without PAL to Streaming so I continued to play around with the settings until I had something smaller to output.

I re-edited the audio by increasing the gain on NATSOT for some clips, fixed up some volume problems and tried to de-esser Shannon a little bit manually as the filter in Premiere Pro and Soundbooth was degrading the overall sound quality of her grabs.

This version worked best in 1024 but instead of square pixels I used DV 1.067 as the square pixels kept adding black bars to the picture.

Final video, tweaking Cathie's Settings:


PAL to Streaming 1024 preset

File Path: E:\DV assignment 1\CathiesSettingsv5.mov
Type: QuickTime Movie
File Size: 30.5 MB
Image Size: 720 x 576
Pixel Depth: 720
Frame Rate: 25.00
Source Audio Format: 32000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:01:57:24
Average Data Rate: 264 KB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.067

QuickTime Details:
Movie contains 1 video track(s), 1 audio track(s) and 0 timecode track(s).

Video:
There are 2949 frames with a duration of 1/25th.

Video track 1:
Duration is 0:01:57:24
Average frame rate is 25.00 fps

Video track 1 contains 1 type(s) of video data:

Video data block #1:
Frame Size = 720 x 576
Compressor = H.264
Quality = Most (5.00)
Temporal = Most (5.00)

Audio:
Audio track 1 contains 1 type(s) of audio data:

Audio data block #1:
Format = 16 bit - Stereo
Rate = 32,000.0000 Hz
Compressor = 16-bit Big Endian (uncompressed)

Re-encoded Assignment 1

• Removed some black areas from original broadcast footage (but left timecode in place)
  
• Fixed aspect ratio to 4:3
• Used higher compression (PAL to Streaming 512kbps), hence reducing quality