adieu - part II

So we've been asked to do a wrap-up post of sorts to conjure up our thoughts on last week's screening. A lot of what was asked for I posted in the previous post anyhow - but there are a couple of points I'll address separately so that all bases are covered.

Seeing my group's documentary up on the big screen was both terrifying and exhiliararating. Everything looks different when you're in a cinema-type setting and not just viewing a timeline on final cut through a TV monitor. It's a completely encapsulating experience. All the flaws of our work were magnified for all and any to see - and all the beauty we marveled at in the beginning radiated tenfold. It really was quite an overwhelming experience, especially considering the depth of my involvement with this project. Hearing Rachel and other members of the audience roar with laughter at Amazon's jokes made me feel completely.. accomplished I guess. Just like the moments of candour when he spoke about getting beaten up in and out of home for choosing to dress in drag. And the way a wave of awe swept over the audience when they saw Amazon as a finished product just blew me away. To be able to elicit those kinds of feelings - to have achieved our aim in terms of creating this project - made everything so incredibly real.

From its inception, to its initial stages of production, to the editing, fine cutting ,fine tuning, peer assessments, etc - I can honestly say that I've made something that I am proud of, in spite of its imperfections. Maybe it was kinda raw, and sorta rough around the edges, but it spoke to people. It brought to the fore a side os society and the human condition that does not get explored everyday. It uncovered the individual story of one person whose charms were both majestic and engaging... and it will not be forgotten.

Of course, we need to go through *once again* and fix up the sound.. this time it was too soft.. God only knows how that keeps going awry...And that little blip od blackness I swear I saw before one of the photo clips. I'd also like to do a proper DVD set for it. Maybe go through and re-do the first cut away. If it were possible it'd be great to have filmed Amazon doing a live show ourselves... Aside from that, everything else I was pretty happy with.

There were a couple of other group's docos that just left me spellbound. "The valley", "Mirrors with Memory" and "A Darker Shade of Night" spring to mind... The former, for its evocative and clever structuring, not to mention completely masterful infusion of archival footage.. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to go through it all and produce such a fine result. "Mirrors with Memory" was just funny and compelling through its richness of character... I loved the absence of English, and the whole 'lost in translation' feel it carried with it. Not to mention the gorgeous, picturesque cinematography. "A Darker Shade of Night" didn't really do it for me at the beginning, but the way it was shot and edited just eked with beauty. It was smooth and sensual, and though it did not conform to strict documentary-style conventions, it was somewhat uplifting. "Asian Beauty Pageant" and "The Gift" deserve honourable mentions.. for their completely candid humour if nothing else. I really liked opening sequence of the former. Was not one bit amateurish and made me both proud of my peers and honoured to have had the chance to work with them a second time 'round. I am going to miss them next year.

And so it seems I've arrived here once more: the bitter-sweet end of a long, trying, draining - yet intrinisically rewarding, and uplifting - road.

TV2: So long, and thanks for all the shoes

Well, last night really capped off what has undoubtedly been one hell of a semester.

As stated in my previous posts, I have had the time of my life putting together this documentary, and I think the quality of the work reflected the deep level of engagement myself and my group memebers had in this process.

It was also heartening to see so much fantastic work, and to have the fruits of a laborious semester amount to something. It is quite astonishing, the far greater levels of skill as filmmakers we have acquired since last semester. So many docos stood out for me last night, far more than the dramas. Yeah, they all had their little flaws (OMG I'm positive I saw a flash of black in ours, and the sound was TOO SOFT - why oh why?!?!?!), but they took me to places that 9/10 dramas could not - i.e., they actually made me think.

Working with this medium has been so richly rewarding, and I'm not sure if that's because I have always had a marked partiality towards it or because my experience in TV1 was so dramatically different (read: negative). I don't think the two semesters could have been any more opposite in my mind... I literally never even saw the final version of 'Potato Cakes' before it was screened, and could not have cared less if someone had blown up the harddrive and erased everything. With Amazon, however, I was only ever more than willing to spend as much time as needed to make it as polished as possible.

To some extent I had no choice in the matter (that is, with my level of responsibility), but the fact is I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it. And that counts for a lot. As imperfect and rough around the edges as our documentary may be, it connected with people, and gave me the opportunity to do something beautiful for a good friend of mine, who has only been too supportive of the project as a whole.

This is quite possibly the end of the road for me as far as production projects go. For a little while, at least. I have Honours to think about now, and at this stage I am looking at doing a thesis instead of a production project. I have to say, though, that it was good to go out with a bang - and even if I'm not working on something of my own next year, I have big plans to hijack as many gigs as possible... as long as I can pluck up the courage to take on more technical roles, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

'I like to be the man'

Though this is a joke I frequently make in reference to bedroom exploits (I have half of my friends convinced I own a deadly, 12 inch strap-on), I can't help but feel that it is an apt call to make in reference to being director.

Being cast in a role where you call all the shots is at once exhiliarating and terrifying. The pressure associated with such an intimate duty of care is enormous, and you know that the failure of anything - on or off the scenes - is likely to be attributed to your own performance. Coming from a project where I had the bar minimum of say in last semester really meant that this was a 360 degree turn for me. At the same time, though, nothing has ever felt so natural.

As fantastic as Deno & Anthony have been over the months with their technical prowess and their willingness to contribute, neither of their interests in film are much concerned with creativity and aesthetics (though Deno does have a very smooth hand for operating a camera). What made this group dynamic work so well was that the visual side of the production was my forte - literally every decision made in post came down to my discretion. Right from the positioning of pictures, footage, transitions, music, etc, to making the end credits. Every cut on action, every smooth progression within the conversation, I oversaw.

And to have had people compliment the work is just the most satisfying experience for me. To literally have seen this idea materialise from a conversation with a friend to a tribute to their career is fairly mind-blowing. Directing is such a personal challenge - and by that I do mean, blood, sweat and tears. But at the end of the day, there's no way more fulfilling to be involved with something.

'i love an audience.....'

With so many things in the midst, the editing of this project has unfortunately gone on the backburner until next week - and it feels strange having such a gaping creative absence in my academic schedule.

The question we have continually posed ourselves in the making of this project, is "why would anyone care?" or "what have they learnt from watching this?". It is something that has been constantly been at the epicenter of our working 'agendas' if you will - it is the core of what it means to create a documentary.

What we really want is to focus upon the character of Jamie/Amazon and his evolution or metamorphosis from masculine to feminine form. Applying the makeup and getting ready for a show seemed to be the perfect backdrop for revealing the subtleties and nuances surrounding his unique dual personality experience that was shaped by his performing career. What started out as a form of artisitc expression resulted in being completely enveloped by a whole other part of his psyche - the feminine - who was the tough, bold, more indepedent of the two. And this is the story element we have tried to convey more than anything.

It is not so much us making a documentary about Amazon, but rather a documentary for him and people like him. Something that can commemorate the years of hard work and effort he has put in to get to where he is, on both a personal and professional level. It offers a brief insight into life as a performer and then delves into the psychodynamics of being a drag queen and reconciling both elements of the male/female.

The overriding intention was never to educate our audience about being a drag queen - alas, how dull. It was to showcase Amazon's talent and to delve into the depths of his mind. Of course, there is quite a degree of risk involved here as we wanted to approach something relatively 'tired out' with fresh eyes. Remember, even though we crafted our questions, we were essentially filming responses which we wielded little control over. It will make you think and question the ways in which you make your judgments. Take or leave it I guess.

w13 - bye bye birdie

So, no more pracs, and no more classes - for that matter. Gotta love week 13.. Lucky for some, unlucky for others.

For those of us seasoned veterans, 'Week 13' has come to be synonymous with 'Self-Assessment'. Good old self-assessment. It really drives me bonkers because if you give yourself a shit mark, no-one's really going to argue with you (unless you truly deserve it), but if you give yourself a good mark, people are going to just think you're full of it (in which case, you wonder if you actually are).

As it happens, I chose the path of awarding myself a good mark. I rightfully deducted a mark for the lecture I didn't attend, and was going to deduct one for the tute I had to come late to, 'til I remembered all those times I returned the filming gear on my own, all the running around I did in aid of making our production run as smoothly as possible, all the money that came out of my pocket (petrol, tapes, props) and realised I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't nominate to receive a HD.

Moreso than last semester, I have gone out of my way in tutes to give as much feedback as possible. I am not that ridiculously competitive that I would dream of inhibiting the creative process of other students' work; if I think something can be improved, they deserve to have that brought to their attention. The other 2 groups had real potential with their projects, and for the most part they did really, really well in driving home exactly what it was those projects were about.

And while being on the receiving end of feedback has never been something I've enjoyed, again I've done my best to take everything that other students (and my tutor) suggested on board, and the changes we made were evident in today's screening. For one, the sound has improved in leaps and bounds, and the cuts make more sense than they did in our rough cut. Our work has evolved from something we were cringing at merely 3 or 4 weeks ago, to something we are proud to show off.

There's nothing I wouldn't have done for this subject. It has consistently been prioritised over everything else, and for good reason. This has been my sole creative outlet for the semester, so I have only been 110% willing to get behind it.

Thankfully we also had the privelege of David & Christine working together with us to hone these concepts and guide us towards success. And after seeing how far each group has come, they have certainly done a fantastic job.

heartened

David described our footage as 'elegaic' in class the other day. He said there was something about the composition, the shots, the tones, etc - that gave the piece a kind of poetic, reflective feel.

His comment made me remember the beginning of the semester and the theoretical grounding of documentary it concerned.

Bill Nichols' ‘genre-categorization’ for documentaries is a particularly useful way to teach students how to understand the sub-genres of documentaries and how they are put together.

His modes can be divided into the following groups:
Expository Documentaries; Observational Documentaries; Interactive Documentaries; Reflexive Documentaries
and the less commonly used (not necessarily his):
Performative Documentaries; Poetic Documentaries


I would have to say that ours is a blend of both expository and poetic. Expository documentaries tend to carry an ethical burden due to its nature to expose people’s lives. As such, they are highly constructed, with a well thought-out storyline that frequently addresses the viewer. They usually propound a strong argument or point of view, via the use of voice-over, narration or titles. From a stylistic perspective, they can be both informative and descriptive (this could apply to the ways in which Amazon describes what he does and how he does it, and recounts his experiences). The narrative itself is then carried forth by a rhetoric that forces an audience to read the images in a certain aesthetic fashion.

Poetic documentaries, on the other hand, are much more abstract in nature, with form taking precedence over content. Paradoxically, this format emerged as a response to the heavily content driven and rhetorical documentaries that were far too reliant upon continuity and the lineal structure of time and space. Coherence was abandoned in favour of more fragmented elements of form, color, and movement, making them far more impressionistic and lyrical in nature than their predecessors.

I think that having a project which corsses and blurs boundaries makes for far more compelling viewing than one that sticks within the limitations of a specific format. Documentary is forumlaic by nature and if it weren't for the innovators and pioneers of the past, it would not be possible for all these different kinds of documentaries to exist. Even with the more recent phenomenon of 'docu-drama' reality TV, this kind of viewing would not be made possible if filmmakers had not taken it upon themselves to appropriate different elements from both genres into the one production. If there is one positive thing to emerge from Big Brother et al, it is the gateway of possibilities that we are now posed with when we go to craft our own works.

w00t!

Well, we had our tutes 2 hours earlier today and one of our groups forgot! Well not totally, but they were only represented by their director. Crazy times. I guess they are though when you think about it.

Christine was particularly excited at finally getting to see Amazon on the screen - from one Kiwi to another, of course. She was especially glad that we had managed to delve beneath the surface of the subject (as our proposal had stated) as a means of uncovering the duplicit side of his personality - which is what really set us apart from any other media featuring your generic 'drag queen'.

We also got favourable feedback about the sound quality after inserting yesterdays recordings. It's amazing how a few bit of decent sound can dramatically alter the whole thing... And David was totally rapt about us getting the 'tour of Amazon' audio synched up perfectly! The closing sequence looks (AND SOUNDS) totally unreal now.. which is what we want, because the opening is so dramatic - we need this to balance it out!

To have the end of the road in sight is pretty exciting. Next week is when everyone else grades our work, so we've got the suites booked for a few nights between now and next week... Students grading other students are notoriously critical, so we have to give it our all as none of us can really afford to lose marks at this stage.

Dinner time.

Progression

Well, this afternoon was officially 'Day Two' of filming for Project Diva - we just hung around outside the State Library, filmed ourselves an intro, before moving off into one of the rooms to do the few bits of voice recording that we needed.

Here is where we thank our lucky stars that we chose a subject with such extensive experience in the realm of performance. We got lucky. Asking him to re-do his audio was something we could not have avoided, but the fact that we were able to synch up parts of it, as one might within a drama, has made an enormous difference. Yes, the majority of it will need to be used as voice over.. but it kind of works in our favour. As it happens, all the majorly bad sound was woven into the clips where Amazon talks about the way in which the feminine side of his persona came to dominate the rest of his life... and to have that now as clear sound, layered with visuals of him doing other things gives it a much more nostalgic feel.

We stayed back late again so we could get all the new stuff slotted in. I'm looking forward to Wednesday and hearing what everyone else has to say.

I had a thought today regarding our documentary which harked back to one of our earlier readings (Paul Arthur - Feel the Pain). The implications of which stemmed back to including myself - the filmmaker - in the documenary itself.

Strictly speaking, in the history of documentary, directors have not played any on-camera role within the fil, and if this was the case it was either inadvertent or there was no way to work around it. More recently pioneered documentaries such as Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, however, offer a much more integrated relationship between the director and the content on screen.

Technological advances, which have entailed the “availability of inexpensive mini-cams and readily accessible video-editing equipment” have enabled emerging filmmakers of the next generation to tell their “literary memoirs”, as it were.

Such documentaries commonly include subjective voiceover narration, a mixture of interviews as well as found material. Whilst ours does not contain the former, there definitely is a marked use of the latter two, and my inolvement is pretty well apparent throughout the piece. And I would definitely class this as an almost 'unavoidable' inclusion because there is probably less chance that Amazon would have been as open and honest had it been anyone else asking the questions.

I have tried to minimalise my involvement on the screen as much as possible, but there are just some points where it cannot be helped. I guess the reality here is is that I wanted my viewers to fall in love with Amazon the way I did, and in order for that to happen I had to have quite an intense level of personal involvement. So far it seems that this has been a success - and it will be interesting to see whether any other groups in the other tutes utilise this mode of reprsentation, too.

'Tis the season

Well, we're on holidays. 10 Weeks into the semester, and we're on holidays. Go figure, haha.

We're spending all of today putting the final touches to the rough cut. We figured this was the best approach to take, as 'stop-start' bursts of editing are far less effective.

I also stayed back last night putting together the intro, it took my FOUR FREAKING HOURS. For just 20 seconds of footage, what does that ratio work out to be?! Although due to the number of effects I applied, I reckon more time was spent rendering than anything else. Got the music happening & all. 'Stand Up' is going to be our intro track - gotta love the use of camp, club/house music. However, the idea is to have people glued to their seats, so we'll see what reaction that gets next week.

The dossier has finished, much to my dismay. As ridiculous as it sounds, I have actually enjoyed relaying my thoughts through the academic proofferings given to us. Will pick up where I left off next post.. for now I have to meet the boys.

Hiccups

Damn, forget about boom in frame - we've got something new happening in this doco.. it's called.. DEDO IN FRAME!

Okay, alright, so the dedo was not switched on, but it's there alright. And it's right in the background of a shot we plan to use with its synched dialogue.

I realise now just how crucial seeing Week 7's lecture was... We were given the chance to visualise just how we would need to set our own lights up to create the desired effect... I mean, it might seem pretty straight forward to outsiders but there is actually a shitload of thought that goes into each and every shot, and even though you can't properly storyboard/map out a documentary from shot to shot, you do wield a great degree of influence over the aesthetic feel. Fortunately, the dedo being in the shot does not affect the overall look of our rough cut too badly... could have been a completely different story if this were drama, though.

I guess the idea is, no matter what genre you're working with, you HAVE to walk onto that set as prepared as you possibly can be - i.e. with the right tools, the right crew, if you want to create the perfect project.

Getting practical

According to Megan Cunningham, there are the three versions of the story that we negotiate in our viewing.

The story that the director is trying to capture
The story that the editor sees in the rushes viewing
The edited version of the story.


These are all going to be laden with slightly different meaning. Our group has so far edited in unison, although I much prefer to work alone, I have appreciated the presence of Deno & Ant - the last thing I want is to turn into some egomaniac director who makes their project 'all about them'. While I'm willing to accept that most things are, indeed, about me, this documentary happens to be about Amazon. And I need to work with people who don't know him on the same level as I do so as to gague their reactions to the aesthetic devices I am implementing.

The first part of yesterday's tute was spent going over some of the techniques that are a useful way of keeping things in order throughout Post. Such as the paper edit, transcripts, summaries etc.. Basically you want to know exactly what is in each clip so you know where to look when you want to include a certain aspect in your story. The last thing you want to be doing is re-watching hours and hours of footage looking for a bit you could easily have denoted at some point beforehand. The more organised one is, the less time one spends in the suites.

We then moved into the suits, and spent more time editing tonight, and most importantly David was pleased with what he saw. The sound is obviously an issue but the actual footage is really quite captivating.. I hate to toot our own horns, it's just that Amazon really looks fantastic on camera. And the set-up of the bathroom ended up working really effectively, and the more we piece this doco together, the more affirming the whole process becomes.

Sound bites

So last night we went through our rushes, and Anthony ended up staying back late and getting all the clips from ALL FOUR TAPES onto Final Cut. Everything is looking superb, but lo and behold, THE SOUND SUCKS ASS! In parts, at least. As my long-term readers may recall, I HAD THIS SHIT SOUND PROBLEM LAST SEMESTER! After everything this has caused me, I wanted to have kittens when viewing the initial takes. How could something so imperative screw up for us? It's almost like everything that could go wrong, has (well that's not entirely true, but we the Market were utter bastards). But it may be possible to work around it in the final cut, it's just gonna take a lot of genius engineering, and time, and effort. At least I've got the last two.

And at least, now, we have something to make a rough cut out of. I have to say, Amazon was brilliant to work with, and kept all of us entertained while being as helpful as he possibly could - i.e., welcoming us into his house. Last Friday was one of the biggest demonstrations of friendship I've ever experienced, and makes being enthusiastic about this project one of the easiest things ever.

It's just so surreal... As well as calling the order of shots, I kept everyone in order and on top of their game while we filmed, but at the same time, I wanted to allow the boys (especially Deno) their own creative licence. It was my main aim to keep us on schedule as much as we possibly could have been (okay, so no-one foresaw we were going to need 4 tapes... it was a good thing Officeworks was only 4 blocks down the road!) One thing I regret was not having the little viewer connected while the boys had their eqiupment - a few shots stuffed up with having the boom in frame, and even though it's fixable, changing the composition still impedes the shot a bit.

Ah well, the worst is over. Or is it? There are going to be countless hours spent holed up in V1 from now on. Can't say it doesn't excite me, though, because it does.

Keep rollin'

Well, at about 4:40pm last Friday we were officially rolling camera... And were so doing for the next 3.5 hours! God, even though setting up was nothing compared to the onerousness of drama, I was still bloody buggered at the end of it all.. and now I am paranoid about the sound because Deno & Ant both reported a buzzing, which in the end wound up coming from THE DEDO LAMP BEING SWICHED TOO CLOSE TO CAMERA. what the?! SINCE WHEN DO DEDOS INTERFERE WITH BOOM MICROPHONES?

Suffice to say, I was not a happy camper! If we, the late mob, have to re-film all our stuff, I am gonna sphincterise someone!

Yes, sphincterise. Watch out.

question sheet | in order of asking

How did you get your name?

At a guesstimate, how much money has Amazon cost you over the last two decades?

They say perfoming on stage is all about sex, drugs, and rock n roll. What percentage of it is sex, what percentage of it is drugs, and how much of it is rock n roll?

How did your family react when you told them you wanted to wear womens clothes and perform for audiences?

Have you ever been banned from the stage for any reason whatsoever?

Have you met any other famous performers?

Not everything about being a diva is glitz and glamour - what was it like the first time you were beaten up?

How did Amazon become such a dominant personality?

How does what you do affect your cultural beliefs?

To have a 'husband', and to settle, is Amazon a part of your identity that you would be prepared to sacrifice?

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If any randoms have any questions you'd like asked of a drag queen, speak now or forever hold your peace!

Well, we're officially the Late Bloomers of the bunch. Alex & Jen's group had feedback to offer on their first day of shooting, which apparently went well. They went down and filmed a dramatised sequence for their piece - which is basically an overview of how modes of communication have evolved, and how the prevalence of web-based mediums (eg: MySpace, Skype, FaceBook) has made it easier for people living away from home to remain out of their country... I'm sure it's well-trodden ground, but I do like the fact that they are adding in little experimental, stylistic extras to jazz the subject matter up, and give it a unique feel.

I think David is officially skeptical of our project, since everything to date has seemed so touch n go... Hopefully by this time, next week, some of that skepticism will be eliminated.

We did, at least, have the concert footage available for him to view and some pictured to peruse. At least everyone knows our subject is real! Unfortunately Anthony left drive #32 at home so we weren't able to transfer any of the stuff, but will get the DVD-tape thing happening at some point before Friday so all that we need to craft the rough cut will be at our fingertips. Don't want to be stuffing 'round at the last minute, considering how 'last minute' the filming process itself is beginning to feel... deep breaths.

Getting into that mode again

Preparing, once more, for Friday. Save one of us losing multiple limbs, it looks like it's going to be the goer.


We only had one reading to do this week. 'Manipulating Time', by Sheila Bernard. A relatively long read, but a pretty useful one, especially cosndiering how our narrative is going to be structured.

Anyone outside of my tutorial class probably isn't aware of the overriding 'plot' I guess that is going to drive Amazon - him applying his makeup, or 'putting on a face' in preparation of going on stage. Of course, he isn't really going on stage, in fact the only gigs he has in the near future are corporate gigs that us rogue filmmakers are not privy to viewing. Thus, the order in which we ask our questions is going to prove elementally crucial in how this thing comes together. Because the beginning of the piece is going to be more observational before moving into exploratory mode, we need to get the timing exactly right. It usually takes Amazon a good 2-3 hours to apply full drag makeup - right from shaving to putting on the wig. If we ask all our questions at the beginning, the audience isn't going to be able to see his transformation.

The challenge for us is going to be compressing 2-3 hours worth of rushes and synthesising a decent 'story' out of it. The other media we plan to use - past shows and photographs - can help to bridge some of these gaps, but it's going to be bleedingly obvious if you weren't on top of your game during filming.

Moral of the Story: Like Sound, the structuring of time is probably far more crucial in documentary than in drama filmmaking... Given that there is somewhat less room for 'trickery', and every move you make serves to reinforce a particular message about your subject...

3 more sleeps.

More of a chance winning Tattslotto, I wonder?

Well, I'm back. A little older, a little wise (ha!) and a whole lot more fearful about the direction my life is taking! YIPPEE.

In short, I think the real reason lecturers throw 'guest lectures' in every now & then is to scare the pants off people. Phlippa was an aweseome presenter - getting to hear about someone who is out there & 'living the (proverbial) dream' is always somewhat grounding... But it just makes you realise how BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE the Howard Government has made it for those of us who care deeply about documentary to make a real crust out of working with it.

I have done some research into this based on the information that was presented today and the reality is really quite bleak for our industry at present. I would like to take a moment to point you towards Lisa French's edited work, which has helped to contextualise exactly what we (as the future of this industry) are going to be dealing with.


French, L. (2001) Patterns of Production: The Australian Film Industry in the 1990s (ed. Craven, I.), Australian Cinema in the 1990s, first edition, Frank Cass, Essex

This piece – compiled by one of our homegrown lecturers – paints a very comprehensive overview of the political factors that have affected Australian film funding over the past two decades. It identified the election of the Howard Liberal government as the cornerstone of this demise, as its election in 1996 was made on the premise to cut spending to almost all areas, including the arts. Unlike its Labour predecessors – most memorably the Whitlam and Keating governments – whose public backing of federal funding towards cinema was at its peak, the Coalition has done precious little to encourage the production of local films. Rather, its strong Capitalist principles have resulted in the encouragement of foreign investment and the production of foreign films in Australia, which, predictably, has had a dramatic impact upon the local screen culture. With the market dominated by mostly American product, it has proven excessively difficult for Australian feature films (and to an even greater extent, documentaries) to replicate the successes they reap, mainly because the processes involved in getting government funding in the first place has become elongated and intensely limited. As French rightfully points out, there is no foreseeable time where films will not be reliant upon government support – thus the more restrictive and dollar driven it is, the less able we are to cultivate our unique cultural aesthetic.

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Having an affinity for the creative? Sometimes, it just bites the big one.

I may be director, but that doesn't mean I don't get to have my moods pampered on occasion, too!

Spent most of today's tutorial once more bouncing ideas off one another as far as our docos were concerned. Josh's group have already got some stuff on tape, sons of bitches. Nah, good on 'em, this isn't a competition, but if it were they would definitely be a few goals ahead of us. We're going to be so behind by the next tutorial, because we decided not to get the gear out this weekend, either.. Yes, folks, it's my birthday in two days' time, and one thing I was NOT entirely enthused with the prospect of having to put on the 'uni face' for my once-every-365-days' respite from reality. My deepest apologies... BUT I had a presentation + 2 things to hand in on my birthday last year (my 21st) and I swore black and blue that uni could go to hell whenever I had a birthday next.. And as much as I love this subject, there's no breaching my credo!

Anyway, the 'Stacey' doco is looking pretty cool... I mean, for the first viewing of the rushes, they seem to have done well. Some cool pans, and for the most part the sound worked out well. It's good to know that lapel mics are pretty powerful devices. We're in two minds about using lapel mics or just relying on the boom in ours.. Now that we aren't using a public space anymore, it may work out better to just use the boom. Amazon's flatmate has agreed to let us use his (fairly decent sized) ensuite (which is also a laundry, which would account for its size). It's relatively enclosed, nothing like the theatrical back-stage feel the last location had.

We've short listed all the photos we'll be using in the doco. Some of them are real pearlers... haha. Gotta get my arse off to Teds and print them before next week. Other than that we haven't got much else to prepare for. All our questions are finalised and we are in a good space as a group for the upcoming filming process. I'm actually really glad to have landed a group of only 3... it's so nice only having to coordinate 2 other schedules besides my own, and the boys are really flexible when it comes to meeting after hours etc.

Time to do my Australian Cinema reading log. Yay :P

sound, glorious sound

Could I have said it any better??
"One of the major stylistic characteristics of documentaries that use sounds recorded on location is the lack of clarity of the sound track. Ambient sounds compete with dialogue in ways commonly deemed unaccpetable to in conventional Hollywood practice. A low signal-to-noise ratio demands greater attention from viewers to decipher spoken words. Slight differences in room tone between shots make smooth sound transitions difficult."-Jeffrey Ruoff

Yes, I am quoting from the Dossier! But only because he is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. Documentary is so contradictory because so much of it depends upon location, location, location, and the nature of the recording environment (where you want to tackle somewhat INTERESTING, INNOVATIVE ground) works completely against the fact that you need shit hot sound in order for it to work! ARGH.

Unless, of course, you're planning to make a documentary about a recording studio. Now there's an idea.