Sound and Image Assignment 1
- Calvin Chew
- Aug 16, 2019
- 5 min read
The purpose of this assignment is to be assessed on the level and quality of observation, research, engagement, deconstruction, analysis, reflection and overall clarity
Prompt 1# - Reflect and Write
Based on the "writing effectively" document, one point that interest me is the quality of reflective writing that needs to be taken by someone studying in higher education. According to the material given by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), reflective writing will need be 'pitched' according to the purpose for which the task is done. What makes a quality reflective writing is to reflect on the experience you have gain from the assignment and how you dealt with any problems that one would have faced. This challenges us to reflect on the process of dealing with an assignment and making sure that we learn something out of the experience.
The second point would be strategies for enhancing learning from everyday experience. The one that excites me from this point is where they explain on creating a situation for review and reflection. People tend only to 'go onto' therapy and counseling from a state of being down or negative, rather than use such deliberate tactics in order to reconsider and rethink work or home events that are apparently normal. If we go on without reflecting on past actions, how will we learn to evaluate ourselves through those experience? Reconsider and rethink is key when it comes to reflecting one's action.
Prompt 2# - Goals and Desire
After completing my Bachelor in Audio Engineering and Sound Production, I have gain some experience in dealing with clients, managing a studio and working with others in the industry. One of my goal is to be able to produce what the client desires as well as my own personal contents. I was always asked what I can contribute to the team or a client, meaning to say what makes me different from all the other audio engineers and why they would want to work with me. I want to be able to handle both in audio and video editing as well as being able to create content for future clients in order to be a better producer in the future.
What I want to get out from this semester is to get a better understanding in video production and the procedure in making a video in the Sound and Image course. For a person who is never good at writing, I also hope to be better in story writing, which I think that it will help me create better content in the future.
Prompt 3# - Crew Roles
Having a crew is an important aspect when producing a film or a motion picture as one person cannot work on a film alone. An old truism says that "to write a movie takes one person, but to make a movie takes an army". From producers managing the production from start to finish, to the safety officer making sure nobody trips over any cables, each role in a crew plays a part in the production of a film as well as in the pre production and post production stages.
One of those roles that surprised me, which I never knew existed is the key grip. They are the chief of the grip department, who works closely with the Director of Photography (DP) alongside the gaffer. The key grip works with the gaffer in setting cutting lights to creating shadow effects for the set lighting and supervises camera cranes, dollies, platforms, and "wild wall" movements according to the Director of Photography (DP). They are the chief of the grip department. They are known for the safety of some equipments that would need a grip by supervising dollies, cranes and other camera equipments. Their job also comes in maintenance of management of these equipments.
Prompt 4# - Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are an effective way to speed up edits by pressing one or two buttons instead of taking multiple steps to get one action done. It is also a great way to learn more about the many functions offered by Premier Pro or any other video editing softwares. Based on the keyboard shortcut on the Premier Pro website, here are some keyboard shortcuts that I found to be useful:
Shift and +/- --> Increase/Decrease video or audio tracks
Shift + fn + Delete --> Ripple Delete (Joining the clip from the right with the clip on the right side when the clip in between is deleted using ripple delete)
Cmd + G --> Groups multiple clips to be selected or moved as a group.
Shift + Moving clip --> Locks clip in position when moving clips to another track
+ or - --> Increase/Decrease timeline view
Prompt 5# - A Scene
Looking at a scene from Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver, we see a close up shot of the main character, Travis Bickle before he comes out from the taxi, which the camera changes to a wide shot from the side of the taxi. The camera then dolly to the right, following the character and zooming in as he walks towards a building with an election banner above the entrance. The camera changes inside the building with a medium shot, facing Travis as he enters and walk towards the camera. The camera shifts to his point of view, showing that he is walking towards two characters, a man with glasses sitting on the desk of a woman and was having a conversation with each other before turning their heads toward Travis. The camera proceed to move towards the woman, Betsy until a medium close up shot of her sitting on her desk, indicating that Travis is walking towards her and only wishes to focus on speaking with her.
When Travis and Betsy are having a conversation, the cameras are angled following the 180 degrees rule with Travis looking right and Betsy looking left. There are two cameras viewing Betsy in this scene. One is a dirty over the shoulder, closed up shot angled below Travis' arm. This camera focuses on her having a conversation with Travis. Another camera is an over the shoulder medium shot of her showing her reaction towards Travis' proposal. The camera viewing Travis is an over the shoulder, medium shot, showing from head to waist and showing a bit of the background. Both cameras have a shallow focus as the the camera is mainly focusing on them and are positioned at the same height with Betsy's camera positioned a little bellow Travis' shoulder. This is to indicate that they are having a conversation at the same level in terms of status. There is also a medium wide shot of both of them with a deep focus, having other characters and objects in the background clearly visible. The intention of this is to show the man wearing glasses early, constantly looking at them while pretending to be busy with paperworks, probably to peep in their conversation. We can see him walking behind Travis in Travis' camera, constantly looking at them as he walks off.
At the end of the scene, we see Travis walking outside as he pass by another building with the same election banner. The camera follows Travis by dollying to the left with a medium shot of him, indicating that he is leaving the building where Betsy works.
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