the hills are alive... with the sound of evasionnnnn

Well, I returned the gear this morning and, suffice to say, we did not end up doing any filming this weekend. I imagine this is how it must feel for pregnant women who end up going to the hospital, expecting to go into full labour but find out it is just a false alarm. Bollocks. It's not like it was anything any of us could control, but at the same time I just wish I'd got them to confirm their consent in writing so that we weren't all just stranded like that. Makes me feel unprofessional and amateurish, and no matter how true either adjective may be, they still don't sit any better with me.

Anyway, enough of that. Today's lecture focussed on - ta da! - Sound. Always a winner with me. It was good to get an idea of how to set up the perfect recording environment as far as lighting is concerned. As most of you are no doubt painfully aware, I am Technologically Challenged to a fault - not necessarily with all electronics, but certainly with filming equipment. Part of my being Challenged can be attributed to a deep-seated fear of the apparatus, and what will come of me if I damage it, and the other half is merely plain ignorance. Obviously there is no excuse for that. So you can imagine how beneficial it was to sit in on today's class and just get real pointers on how to achieve nice, clean sound.

As we've had it drummed into our heads over the past 2 months, sound is THE MOST IMPORTANT element within documentary filmmaking. Even if your visuals are shit, your last saving grace will come in the form is crisp, levelled sound. The reason for this? Well, think about it. If you're viewing a documentary about something unfamiliar to you, you could pretty much have any visual thrown at you, but if you're distracted by poor quality or stilted sound, there is no way you (or more specifically, your audience) are going to remain engaged for that entire 3-7 minutes.

There are also many varieties of sound one needs to take into account when crafting one's documentary. Keeping in mind we're working with stereo (thus working wtih both left and right channels) we are going to have to sub-divide all our sounds in order to make sure their effects are being maximised. Meaning we would need to keep all narration, music, atmos, sound effects, dialogue, foley etc separate, or at least in separate tracks. This is pretty much how it was done last semester - if there is one thing that horrific experience with ADR in drama has taught me, it is how to set up the perfect synch sound pallet on Final Cut - even though I'm not a pro with connecting all the gear up.
Besides, that's Anthony's job :P

getting there - getting square

I have to say, I am really a big fan of the way prac sessions are being conducted this semester. I love how we have sprung straight into learning the ropes with the technical side of the equipment - something that has never been my forte, for any part of my academic career.

The Z1Ps truly are sweet little devices. If I could, I would bring one home and marry it. The most taxing aspect to wrap my brain around has been (by far) that of sound... Ironic, really, considering it plays such a major role in the construction and coherence of any good doco. Even this afternoon, it took so long just to plug everything in and make sure we had equipment that was in working order... I swear, filmmakers and film crew must be some of the most patient people on the planet. Thankfully, however, I am slowly learning the ropes - with the help of cheat sheets and dossier guides, not to mention easy-to-remember phrases such as 'line in, mic out'... every little bit counts.

It's also been good having consistent exercises to complete in our groups each week. We interviewed one of Anthony's friends this week (informally, of course) about a life-changing moment... probably more camera time for me than what would have been desirable, but it was a useful means of experimenting with the equipment and finding out the advantages and disadvantages of using both boom and lapel microphones.. clearly each has its separate merits.. but this way we were able to discern for ourselves what worked and what didn't within the various recording settings. We'll definitely be using the radio/lapel mic on our subject for filming, and now we know how to hook it up to the camera and sound box which is an even bigger bonus.

All in all, a satisfying tute. I'll write more later on this week's lecture topic - got a few more parts of the draft final I want to work through before blogging about it.

'take it like a man'

Well, today was an adventure of sorts. I love my tute group. I don't think everyone was there, but still. It's a nice, small class and I'm not with anyone I've ever worked with before. And unlike in my last prac group, there don't seem to be any pretentious types out there to do my head in. Always a welcomed relief, what can I say.

So we were given the proposition to work with: "Melbourne is..." - At first, we thought of '..abuzz with infrastructure', but I think it turned out to be simply '..noisy', in the end. Each group took five shots to illustrate whatever description they had come up with... My personal fave was the random tractor we got coming up on LaTrobe St from the Swanston St intersection. It was a MasterCard moment - Priceless.

I love navigating my way around the PD170s... such a pleasant little electronic device compared to what we were using for drama. Sweet as. I guess the bonus with doco as well is that I'll have much more of a chance to familiarise myself with the equipment - as the roles sound as though they'll be quite fluid and flexible. Thank god for that - I did feel kind of constricted being limited to doing the same thing the entire time last semester.

Introducing myself in class today brought it to my attention just how much of what I love about Cinema and have been involved with can be traced back to documentary... Even just little things, like winning an award in highschool in Year 11 Media for our mini-advertisements for our school. It's stuff like that that you don't really think about unless asked to, but when you do, so much of what's in front of you becomes absolutely transparent. Or, if you're Paul - serendipitous!