much needed update

I have made significant progress since my last journal entry. I have important the vast array of photos I discovered on FLICKR into final cut professional where I have been assessing the potential of each image in contributing to the documentary. I am being exceptionally careful with the amount of images I introduce, only images which have a particular effect and have adequate connectivity with the messages of my interview subjects are to be included. As a result of such vigilance, I have very few images which meet the requirements, and must continue to search for more photos.

So far, I have determined the use of a series of sunset photos which particularly suit the messages of the final. interview. For the section where Louise is discussing the way many individuals live in a state of ‘reaction’ rather than fulfilment, I have found three complementary images of large crowds which illustrate this state of ‘reaction’ in the crowds of blurred street figures. In Final Cut Professional I discovered the increase in total duration created by the inclusion of images will be relatively limited because an image becomes unengaging to an audience after around three seconds (this is an educated calculation only).

Today the opportunity presented itself to complete another short interview with Simon. This interview differed from the others in the documentary because it dealt with two specific examples of a fulfilled and a unfulfilled individual. I managed to record the interview in a decent light with a simplistic but aesthetic background. This adds around two minutes of footage as well as some much needed variety. This week I plan to find some of the last photos I will require and import the latest interview into the editing program. In addition I will be conceptualizing with more ways in which I can address the research criterion.

Major update

It’s been a significant period of time since I last completed an entry for the project. I have since completed a third interview and imported the footage into Final Cut Professional editing software. Despite my efforts I actually only have around three and a half minutes of interview footage, ideally I would have around four or five minutes. I have thus decided to supplement the interview footage with a variety of symbolic images. In discussion with my interactive media teacher, I discovered a photography web sight called Flickr, images from the site can be copied and independently used, providing the creator of the image is credited. With the inclusion of images I can increase the duration of my project as well as enrich the already strong messages communicated by the interview subjects. I have imported a soundtrack that suits the ideas communicated and visuals. So far the search for appropriate images has been reasonably successful. It’s essential to use only images that directly relate to the ideas being communicated. I have acquired images of busy city crowds to complement the last interview segment where my interview subject is talking about the many individuals who go about life without much thought about what fulfilment really is. The three interview subjects each communicate different ideas with some overlap, David discusses the role of enjoyment and challenge in fulfilment, Simon discusses the need for balance between satisfying our own desires as well as tending the needs of others, and Louise discusses the importance of balance in obtaining fulfilment in her life as well as the way in which many individuals live without much awareness of fulfilment. I have found over a dozen images that would be complementary to each of the interviews. When fulfilment is discussed in terms of joy and fun I will use images of those who appear to be enjoying the feeling of fulfilment, for example a Buddhist monk laughing, a mountain walker standing at the peak of a mountain and boys swimming together at sunrise etc. When Simon discusses the role of helping others in developing fulfilment, I will show an images of a group of aid workers helping others or a crowd raising funds for charity. Obviously it would be unproductive to saturate the project with images when my interview subjects are strong and convincing, I hope to balance the use of images so as to enrich each interview segment but not to dominate screen time.

Second interview complete

On the weekend I recorded the second interview segment with Simon on top of the top of a multilevel car park in town. He talked about his perception of fulfilment for around about a minute and a half. The set for the interview was excellent, with many buildings and streets stretching out into the distance in the backdrop. I set up the interview with what little sunlight we had, coming in from the side, avoiding any glare problems for my interview subject. In terms of audio the production went vary well. Simon spoke reasonably loudly with clear articulation and pronunciation. Simon talked of the need for balance in fulfilment and the elements he thinks are required for that balance. In the two interviews have recorded I can see very little need for much cutting. Even still I need to cumulatively capture interview footage at a quickening rate.

Quick Update

This weekend I will be recording my second interview. I have already investigated the set of the interview (atop the Argyle St. car park. The back drop is superb for the interview and there are four potential spots I can film at, if the lighting or colour is inadequate in one spot I can simply move. I will however require reasonable weather conditions as the location is very exposed to the elements. In the event of excessively loud wind or rainy conditions I will have to postpone the interview. Organizing interviews in locations away from home is proving rather difficult and considering the relative shortage of time, I need to start conducting interviews in more conventional and convenient locations (such as the beach near my residency for example)

watched Outfoxed

As I mentioned in a recent post, I will be watching a few documentaries to gain some insight into documentary film. Today I watched Outfoxed (Robert Greenwald, 2004) The documentary exposes the right wing bias of Rupert Murdoch’s FOX NEWS channel, disproves the FOX NEWS slogan of ‘Fair and Balanced’ and looks at the techniques that Rupert Murdoch's republican news channel use for their manipulative journalism. I could write pages detailing the content of the documentary, however I find it more useful to analyze how this fine documentary was created and the techniques that are applicable with both my project on fulfilment and big budget documentaries

My first observation was that the director featured a range of interviews with credible subjects, former FOX NEWS reporters, producers and others with previous experience in FOX. The director, Robert Greenwald had obviously devoted a significant portion of his resources to conducting interviews, there were numerous segments from these interviews and for the most part these ‘talking heads’ were very informative. Because the Outfoxed team interviewed so many subjects, only the most interesting and informative parts of each interview were included. This is a key learning point for anyone planning on making a documentary like myself, always gather a large amount of interview footage, so in post production you can choose to include the most interesting parts of each interview.

I also observed that the documentary supported the messages of its interviews by providing examples. For example, after an interview segment about FOX NEWS reporters saying “some people say” when their comments are unsupported, the director Robert Greenwald provides us with a number of FOX NEWS segments where we can clearly see this technique being demonstrated. Using credible evidence to support a point of view allows a documentary like Outfoxed to be transformed from a collection of theories, into a strong argument that challenges the audience’s beliefs. Although my documentary is more about exploring a topic than changing beliefs, it’s still invaluable to recognise how much stronger documentary film is when claims are supported or illustrated in some way.

first interview

On Saturday I managed to capture an interview with Dave lasting around forty seconds. Everything he said was intelligent, meaningful and worthy of inclusion to my film. Dave discussed some of his general views on fulfillment in a fairly personal way. It was exactly the kind of footage I am looking for. Even in capturing a short interview I had to really consider the lighting. I positioned the camera and conducted the interview so as the sunlight was hitting Dave’s face from the side. Obviously if the sunlight is coming from behind the camera and directly hitting the subject they will have difficulty looking at the camera because of the glare factor. I am feeling much more motivated now I have actually captured some footage and the project is properly underway. I should have started filming my project months ago so it important to keep up the momentum and capture a substantial amount of footage next weekend.

Got camera

I have now purchased my own camera and tripod. It turned out that the widescreen lens would be an excessively expensive feature and we decided the extra $250 for widescreen would be better spent on the tripod. The camera itself is a SONY DCRHC52, its basically a reasonable quality student camera. It has all the necessary for small budget productions and student films. Selecting a tripod was more difficult than it may have seemed considering the extensive range. The most important feature we looked for in tri pod was how smoothly the head rotated when the camera was attached. We bought a mid range tripod which allows for smooth panning and tilting action, should prove invaluable for my upcoming project. Conveniently, the camera features a built in level and a gage which determines the angle of the camera.

Major change in direction

Over three or four days I have thought very seriously about the skills and recourses required in undertaking a thriller film. The narrative I mentioned earlier could potentially work on screen if it were executed properly. However I now feel like that challenge of creating a thriller would be completely overwhelming, especially after watching the high quality thriller at the Bond University presentation. I realize that its seriously late in the year to change completely change directions however I couldn’t see the project being a success.

My project will now be a short documentary about fulfilment. I discussed the idea with a teacher and he rightly pointed out that a documentary on fulfilment could really be anything. I need a direction, point of view or question that will determine what the documentary will be and how I will approach it. I thought on this and decided that I would focus on the question ‘what is fulfilment’ and ‘what do you find fulfilling’.

I will feature a number of interviews with people of varying ages and varying occupations. The first group of interviews will centre around the question of ‘what is fulfilment’. I have already established that the opening interview on ‘what is fulfilment’ will be held my brother Simon, on top of the Argyle St. car park. There is an impressive view I can have in the background and I believe Simon will have some fairly interesting thoughts to share.

I will then move onto the question of ‘what do you find fulfilling’ This will be relatively simply, I will have a number of segments where an individual will discuss how they find a certain activity fulfilling. I would move on to show a short segment of the subject actually participating in the activity. (it would seem counterproductive to show lots of interviews about fulfilment and not actually show anyone doing anything fulfilling)

Because I have completely altered the direction of the project from a thriller to a more documentary orientated film, the research I do also has to change. The research will be similar to what I was planning to do for the thriller, being involved in documentary forums, watching other documentaries etc. This week I will initiate the research by simply examining a few big budget documentaries then what others thought of the techniques used. Through this process I can expand on my knowledge of documentary film making and employ the new understandings in my own project. First up I will be examining - An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, Al Gore, 2006) and Outfoxed (Robert Greenwald, 2004)

This late change in direction it is paramount that I begin production as soon as possible, this means this week end I will do the shooting with my brother Dave. I have pre arranged to hold a short interview in Sandy Bay addressing the question as to what fulfilment actually means. I hope to include a few of these interviews with a subject discussing what they think fulfilment is. By including a broad range of opinions I will be enriching my documentary, a good documentary or essay for that matter usually offers some variety in its messages. Would the documentary work if I had multiple interviews with subjects communicating the exact same message in different words? To the audience it would feel as if the one concept was being forced on them for the duration of a very repetitive and bias documentary.

Got camera

I have now purchased my own camera and tripod which is really almost essential for documentary film making. It turned out that the widescreen lens would be an excessively expensive feature and we decided the extra $250 for widescreen would be better spent on the tripod. The camera itself is a SONY DCRHC52, its basically a reasonable quality student camera. It has all the necessary for small budget productions and student films. Selecting a tripod was more difficult than it may have seemed considering the extensive range. The most important feature we looked for in tri pod was how smoothly the head rotated when the camera was attached. We bought a mid range tripod which allows for smooth panning and tilting action, should prove invaluable for my upcoming project. Conveniently, the camera features a built in level and a gage which determines the angle of the camera.

my own video camera

To optimise the quality of my work I will be purchasing my own video camera. Hiring cameras from the library can be less than ideal, the cameras and tripods are of varying quality so if other students have hired the high quality equipment you end up with equipment that disadvantages your filming, for example, a flimsy tripod which will not adjust properly. Another issue is the restriction from taking the camera out of the campus for weekends. Considering I have some large blocks of holiday time, it would be of significant benefit to posses my own camera which I can use unconditionally. One feature that would benefit me highly would be a wide screen lens. This feature allows the user to manually choose which ratio they would like to film in. However cameras with wide screen lenses seem to be considerably more expensive. I will also require an optical zoom and decent picture quality. At this stage I’m looking at a price range of around $400 however considering the price of good quality camera technology I may have to compromise.

Thoughts on filming ratio

The next decision is to film in widescreen (16:9) or full screen (4:3). These numbers reflect the ratio of pixels vertically to the number of pixels horizontally. This decision on which ratio to choose is always based on what kind of effect the director wants to create. Today, wide screen is generally accepted as the superior ratio for the majority of media productions, hence why a majority of new televisions are produced to accommodate wide screen film.

Wide screen is commonly seen as the more perceptually realistic format because more often than not, when examining our world we look around horizontally. Having more horizontal screen space is usually considered preferable. For example, if a scene featured a group of characters having a discussion, it would be considerably more important to have the extra horizontal screen space. The extra horizontal screen space provided by wide screen ratio would allow more characters to be included in each frame, thus reducing the need for as many camera edits and movements.

One of reasons it’s so important to consider the ratio is because once footage has been recorded, conversion to a different ratio is ill advised. As the conversion is made, pixels of footage are cut out to fit the dimensions of the new ratio. For example if you converted standard ratio to wide screen dimensions the top parts of the material would be cut and the rest would be stretched out to meet the new dimensions.

Set

Obviously the set in a scene influences the product in numerous ways. The set determines a context for other events to occur in, for example a scene set in a bar provides a context people to have alcohol. When I select the sets for my film it will be essential to consider the atmosphere and context it provides as well as the synergy with the screenplay/narrative. Directors can combine the context provided by the set with the events on screen to create certain effects such as irony and assist with juxtaposition. For example, a director may decide to use the context of a funeral to place an event such as a shoot out to create irony. Ideally I would film part of my project at night in the Hobart rivulet. This set provides ample opportunity to use expressionistic lighting as well as a context for something thrilling, violent or supernatural to occur. The rivulet consists of varying tunnels underpasses and small rivers. It would seem to be an excellent choice of location for my project inhabitants of the area at night it may not be possible.

Some thoughts on lighting

I will attempt to use expressionistic lighting to increase tension and build atmosphere. Expressionistic lighting is simply when the lighting is used more obviously for effect, for example some directors like to use blinds cast jail bar shadows onto a persons face. This represents that the character is somehow imprisoned, as demonstrated in Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). A director could depict a character as being a mix of good and bad by introducing lighting which casts shadows over half of their face. I am limited as to what I can do with expressionistic lighting because of budget however through the acquisition of some outdoor lighting equipment belonging to a family member I may be able to experiment with some expressionistic lighting. The teacher at the Bond from the bond university discussed how it is important to get the appropriate balance between the front and back lighting eg to much back lighting and not enough front lighting makes an actors face difficult to distinguish. Expressionistic lighting could be used for optimal results with the supernatural themes (ghosts).

Story Boarding

I will know work on creating a story board. At first I considered using story boarding software. Story Boarding programs include a variety of features such as shape, zoom, drawing, layering, arrow, figure and organizing tools which all contribute to allow the user to be more precise and time efficient. The problem being that the programs that could really be beneficial all seem to require a decent payment to be used. Some story boarding software is free such as Story Board Tools 1.7. I downloaded the program, however found it had very limited drawing utensils, therefore not really suited to creating expressive story boards. Thus I have made the decision to do the story boards by hand. A hand drawn story board will present better in the upcoming student presentations, where we have to show our progress to an audience.

The basic plot (Short Thriller)

The story in my independent project will be centred around a single character who forgets are decides not to take his medication which stabilizes his mental condition. From then on the character will begin to become depressed and anti social. This is a very simplified explanation of the plot, however this simple narrative gives me room to implement some of the techniques I have discussed in previous journal entries. I can have the character experience some short dream sequence which could be slightly violent or disturbing, I can also use expressionistic lighting to give the film a different vibe. I am going to ask my elder brother if he will be the actor in my film. His performance should be that of an acceptable standard. Being a family member it is also reasonably easy to arrange filming times. I can visualize the project being a challenging yet (not overwhelming) short thriller.

More thoughts

No doubt I will run into problems with decision making. “Should I put the camera here or there” if I am having serious difficulty with making production decisions, I can ask for advice. In this situation it may be useful to utilise the online community. I could join up to a student film maker’s forum and request some advice. I could obviously consult with the various other student film makers around the collage, whom may have encountered similar obstacles or produced similar films.

I am considering introducing a knife to the narrative. The knife would be a conveniently available tool for introducing implied violence. When my audience see the knife they will recognize it as a potentially violent and dangerous tool. I would not actually feature any material where the knife was portrayed as being used graphically, this would be both inappropriate for the project and very artificial considering the recourses available. Recently seeing the high quality thriller at the Bond university lecture has altered the preproduction stages of my film.

Thoughts

An important step in the project is to examine other film products of this genre, observing and taking into consideration what was effective and what wasn’t. Over the next few weeks I will be watching various thrillers, from respectable directors, to gain insight into how other directors use tools to create suspense mystery and fear. Despite not having any where near the recourses of a big budget film I can still work to replicate many of the techniques of higher budget films. For example I may be able to replicate an effective camera angle or try to include similar character, story and screen play elements.

An equally important part of the project will be connecting with other student film makers who may be working on similar products. There are various places where student film makers like my self, communicate ideas, offer advice and discuss student films. I will also be making an effort to view other student films (both in my community and in the online community). Many student directors, like me, have very limited resources, this makes watching other student films particularly useful for me because I gain more of an understanding of student film makers can create.

Consideration into thriller

The project I am wishing to undertake can be categorized as a thriller. I thought it would be important to do some research into the characteristics of a successful thriller and consider techniques for my project. Firstly, many quality thriller films are to a certain extent credible, the audience may believe that a certain amount of the screen play could realistically occur. This has the effect of making the film seem frightening. If I wanted to feature something highly unrealistic I could engineer it within a dream sequence.

A good thriller film is usually fairly subtle in the way it creates suspense and tension. I will be making a considerable effort to ensure the techniques in my project will be reasonably subtle, I will do this by developing the tension slowly and slightly, instead of introducing a disturbed character with a knife in the first shot (this would be a ridiculous attempt at building suspense) Thrillers should have reasonable character development. This is important because it would be difficult to make the audience feel fear for the main character if the audience is not interested in the poorly developed character.

The thriller I will be directing will be reasonably short. I feel much more comfortable creating short films, I can focus on creating the screen play that really will be effective rather than concerning over how to fill time gaps. It is a challenging task to say the least, creating a thriller which fits the limitations of a student film.

Consideration into implied violence

I may also introduce a certain amount of violence to increase the intensity. The problem with this is that I lack the necessary resources to create simulated violence in my film. It would be difficult for me to create scenes with physical violence, without the scenes looking excessively artificial. Fortunately, I can get around this problem by relying on more subtle techniques or ‘implied violence’. I can communicate to the audience that an event is happening without literally showing it by using symbolism, representation, and conventions. For example, if I wished to communicate a man being murdered (In all probability my film will not feature this) I could substitute the physical murder scene with a different scene which represents and symbolises the murder.

So the literal murder scene could be substituted with a different scene, the man could have his back turned as the murderer stalks up behind him with a weapon, giving the impression that the man is doomed, while the murder is occurring the camera would switch to a close up of a candle being extinguished. By doing this I would be communicating to my audience that the man is being murdered without actually having to stage it.

Creative Commons

I thought I would write a quick entry about the Creative Commons presentation by Roger. Creative Commons is an excellent tool for creators of material who may wish to modify the copyright for their material. Although I will not be using Creative Commons anytime soon I found this presentation very relevant to our interactive media class. Many of the students may wish to publish their work on the site, from there they can modify the copyright laws for the individual materials. For example, a student may wish to post their work on the site specifying that the material can be copied into other documents and used for personal gain but not copied and distributed for money.

Glass Biscuit presentation

I am finaly recording my thoughts on the presentation of a group students forming together as ‘The Glass Biscuit Development Team’. They are working together to create a game. I was most impressed with their organizational skills, they have set specific deadlines and assigned jobs to each of member of the group. Naturally, the large group has the capacity to create far more complicated projects than an individual could accomplish, however the question remains as to whether they can continue to work productively as a team. Our teacher, Roger Stack said that the assessors at the TQA would look very favourably upon the presentation. With legal permission the students are creating their game using some of the programming from the professionally made game ‘Half Life 3’. The team has now purchased their own individual web site where they can post updates, trailers, comments etc.

consideration into dream sequences

For my first project I would like to create a film which features the use of dream sequence(s). This will be a challenging task to an inexperienced film maker like myself. I will take the time to contemplate techniques I could use to make the scene as effective as possible. I will also be examining other video productions to see how more experienced directors approach the unique challenge of crafting dreams into film.

There are various ways we can handle the transitions between dreams and ‘reality’ A simple technique is to implement the conventional fade to white transition. One way to end a dream sequence is to have something in the environment occur, that wakes the character. For example, the protagonist’s alarm clock may ring at a crucial moment in the dream. Dream sequences will often end during a very intense moment when something significant or deeply personal is just about to occur.

Dream sequences can be placed at varying stages throughout a film, in Risky Busyness (Paul Brickman, 1984) the beginning of the film is simply a long dream sequence. The sequence allows us to enter the mind of the protagonist and get to know his personality. Once a dream has been established the director can use the scene to give the audience almost any kind of information about the narrative, characters, etc.

Dream sequences do not necessarily have to be abstract scenes which warp reality in some spectacular way, they are often realistic in some aspects and can be difficult to distinguish from reality. They can be exceptionally involving for an audience when it is difficult to distinguish whether what they are seeing is a dream or not.

thoughts on multi layering

Today I viewed a friend’s production which featured the proficient use of multi layering. For his project the technique made a supreme contribution. Multi layering is the technique in which we have multiple layers of material which can be played simultaneously. We can alter the properties of these layers to create certain effects. This complementary effect can help film makers supplement their work with a stylized effect, bringing diversity to their productions.

For example if I wanted to create a product in which a character sees a reflection of past events when he stares into a pond, I would use multiple layers of film. I would first record a close shot of the pond, I would then film the event that is intended to be reflected in the water. These events can be recorded in any order. I would then import the footage into a video editing program. The pond footage would be the top layer and the reflection footage would be the bottom layer. I would have both layers playing simultaneously except the top layer would be partially transparent. In effect this means that the audience will see a combination of the surface of the pond and the reflections of the characters past. I plan on introducing this technique into my project, however consideration has to made as to how much of this multi layering is necessary. Too much multi layering could become confusing for an audience and detract from the narrative flow.

Bond university presentation

It is worth mentioning an extremely useful presentation I attended, held by a teacher from Bond University in Queensland. The presentation was primarily centred around advising the many young film makers in the room. The presenter showed us a few high quality projects from students attending Bond university. One of them was particularly relevant to my project in that it was a short thriller. It was unanimously agreed that the production was of a magnificent quality, the tension it was able to create with the lighting, acting and narrative was impressive to say the least. The film was exactly what I needed to increase my motivation. I would like to replicate some of the lighting the film used, the character was certainly cast by shadows but was still distinguishable in the small dark room.The narrative was excellent, It was handled professionally and had just the right amount of complexity for a film of a short duration. The teacher discussed the difference between soft and hard lighting and gave us many helpful hints as to how to improve the quality of our work.

Examining other internet journals

I recently viewed my first blog (journal) on the internet. A requirement for the course is that we connect with the learning community by viewing other journals and writing comments. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the way it was written. If it were simply a recreational journal about life it would have been acceptable however the journal will eventually be assessed. The best way I can describe the blog is that it was very ‘off the point’ the writer consistently brought in topics which were largely irrelevant to interactive multi media. Such as his work life, sleep patterns etc. For this course I will be trying to create a more disciplined, focused journal in which I do not discuss irrelevant content.

Assisted with a production

Assisted with a production

Today I was involved in the production of a student advertisement, my intentions being to assist with operating the video camera or helping with capturing the audio. The concept for the project was excellent, however the director was very disorganized, thus when the time came to record the material, we lacked a complete cast, proper equipment or sufficient time. Simply put, the production commenced and operated at a third of its potential proficiency. Three or four actors were absent on the day of production, a replacement actor was implemented to ill effect. The director didn’t realize that half of the cast had other commitments to attend to, consequently filming was rushed.

The problems were largely avoidable, had the director had better organizational skills. Proper equipment has to be organized in advance, for my project I will try to gain access to the higher quality camera in the video production lab. The issues the director had with the actors further confirm my desire to operate with a small cast. We had a break from production, once the actors with other commitments had rushed through their scene. We resumed the lengthy production with the remaining actors, not realizing that the outdoor lighting had undergone a significant change. This means when the material is on screen weather conditions in the background will suddenly change half way through the advertisement for no apparent reason. I am appreciative that I leant of this outdoor filming problem because I can now take steps to avoid it in my production.

Report

I just received my report for interactive media, scoring satisfactory results in the aspects of, approach to subject, completion of work and participation in class activities. It would seem fairly obvious to me, how I can improve on these aspects. I need to put more effort into the interactive part of the course, connecting with the class room and online community. This is easier than it sounds and can be remarkably time consuming. I have recently begun posting more updates with a program called ‘Twitter’ Twitter is a program which allows groups of people to post updates on the internet which are only viewable by other uses of twitter. An update on twitter usually consists of a few sentences (totalling under 120 words) detailing what the user is doing at the time. For example “working on my film production”

thoughts about resources

As a student film maker I have limited resources, thus I am very restricted as to how much I can spend on enhancing my product with special costumes, props etc. This could become a serious production problem, how is it possible to create a scene if I simply don’t have the resources to acquire the necessary props and costumes. One thing to keep in mind is that the Hobart Collage drama studio has an extensive selection of costumes and props which may be available. Despite the limitations of my budget, the Hobart collage video room offers high quality video editing soft ware (Final Cut Pro). To manage a low budget, it is essential to seriously consider if a product is achievable with the recourses available, before undertaking it.

thoughts about actors

There are a number of problems which will limit the quality of my work. Firstly, finding enough competent actors is often difficult for student film makers like myself, to manage this obstacle I will be creating films with reasonably small casts. With incompetent actors, even a well crafted screen play/narrative can be reduced to a low quality amateurish production. If possible I will be able to incorporate students with previous acting experience into my projects. The idea of a small manageable, competent cast would appeal to any director. Writing scripts, integrating character development into screen play, and ensuring actors are achieving the right screen presence is very time consuming. With a reasonably small cast, the director is more free to use his/her time on other production elements such as lighting, audio, effects etc.

First lesson

Today is my first lesson in interactive media. I plan to make a small number of high quality digital projects this year, largely in video format. There are very few restrictions as to what students can or cannot attempt in their projects. There are however specific criterion that must be addressed for optimal results. One of these criterion is fulfilled when a student actively learns and connects in their digital environment.

From what I have experienced so far, interactive media is a very unique course. For the most part attendance isn’t necessary because a student is considered to have attended class, providing they have signed into the Hobart Collage Moodle where they can view the presentations and lectures online, instead of coming to the collage to see them. Despite the ridiculous name, Moodle plays a substantial role in the course, it is a website exclusive to students and teachers at Hobart collage providing space for countless links posts and messages all relevant to certain subject groups i.e. Interactive media group, English group etc.