“Yianni.” La-Ra, Diane and Maria.

The Growth

Reflecting on my growth as a filmmaker, presenting “Yianni.” on screen was exciting and fun, and very learnfull, as we got to see how the class had grasped the task of making a documentary. During the last three weeks I have been thinking about what have I learned in this course about filmmaking, from both the production of Yianni, course materials, lectures and tutes. During the progression of creating Yianni, each week of production aimed to implement what was taught about documentary filmmaking. Starting with the documentary statement and the pre-production, here I learned that we could film piece by piece of Yianni as the project went. Compared to last year, we could not do this as we were following a script and needed paperwork and set ups clarified and approved before any filming could take place. This way of filming got the group to collaborate a lot, and stepping sometimes in and out of each others roles. This was great as the camera lens needed to be our eyes, and following and observing Yianni in each movement, reaction and conversation.


The progression: a Micheangelo Antonioni or a Frederico Fellini?

Thinking about Micheangelo Antonioni, a modernist filmmaker, he hit his audience successfully by filming counterculture and artistic freedom, with the use of then current music as the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Antonioni’s contribution to ‘The Devil's Drool’ and ‘Zabriskie Point’ is seen in how Yianni as the filmmaker himself interacts with the audicence. Antonioni was not a part of this two films but a scriptwriter, but I think it was Yianni’s way of acting and being, that scripted our documentary’s narrative. It became ‘a film within a film’.

What I have learned about filmmaking from TV 1 to TV 2, was the way of communicating and build up the relationship with Yianni, which resulted into the truth of the Brunswick filmmaker. Going in depth of Yianni’s comment “We’re gonna be like Antonioni and Fellini”, this made me think about which kind of a filmmaker I am. Filmmaking within the genre of drama has been interesting, challenging and a lot of fun. When looking back to the readings, a comparison to Antonioni and Fellini was drawn into the reality of this semester’s TV2 – how do we direct and construct in filmmaking. The freedom of filming Yianni at any time in any space taught me to be aware of ‘that moment’, ‘that angle’, ‘that view’ and ‘that gesture’ that created the moment of truth in what we were aiming to capture. What was more interesting and also hard to work on, was our character’s behavior in front of the camera. This is a natural human reaction, which requires time to work on, to capture the beeing and not the acting. It was the last tapes we used that gave a lot of the interview material, and that was due to spending time with Yianni and build up a bond. This could be frustrating sometimes but I realized that patience was needed to get ‘that qoute’. This was probably meant to be because in the end of the day, we had a lot of material to work with. When we sat down to establish the construction, it went smoothly for the reasons that we knew Yianni and who he is, we know his relationship to his brother Michael and his friend Nick and therefore the narrative about filmmaking needed to go from there. Like Frederico Fellini is known for his style that blends fantasy and baroque images, so would we have to do this with Yianni, as this is filmmaking of the 21st century. Some of Yianni’s own footage was used and this really made our audience aware of what kind of a filmmaker we aimed to show who Yianni was. I have grown a lot as a filmmaker due to this project, together with the past weeks course materials (reflected on in blogs August to October). I have stepped out of my comfort zone a lot as I am not afraid to put an interviewed object on the spot, interact with him or her and ask unusual questions. I have learned that some questions might be provocative but it is these ones that creates reaction and can give me, both as a radio reporter and a filmmaker, that grab and that strong comment. I am also a lot more confident on the use of software, due to improving editing skills from TV 1, working together on this in a group, crossing into each other’s roles, and also from work experience.

Collaboration
Working together with La-Ra Hinckeldeyn and Diane Vu was the most successful and funniest group project. It was actually the best RMIT group project ever. I believe this is due to previous experience, friendship and selecting the group already in week 1 and 2. La-Ra and I set goals already then and we knew Diane would be one awesome, reliable and edit wise group member–and she was into the group goals as well. This way of operating the group with clear objectives, goals and management lead into no surprises or down turns. The communication skills we had from previous also helped, as we were honest about why I or Diane or La-Ra sometimes would interfere into each other’s roles. Yes it can be wrong but so worth it – three brains are always better than one and this opened up to a wider specter of creativity. And we were all supportive to changes and decision, and happy with the end result. I have also become more confident of sharing ideas and sometimes telling why I would to or suggest a change, no matter what the reaction would be.

Comments
Thinking about how the course is run, I think it has a good structure. The way of introducing theories early is great and Robin’s idea of opening up each tute with a short film helped to engage with the readings. It opened up to interaction within the tute through debating and cooperating, which in this way, makes most students learn of the particularly course. Having a guest lecture in the middle of the course was one great idea – this brought filmmaking onto another level and opened up for a wider class discussion. This is good as we as filmmaking students within drama, get to see how this is not only in practice, but also in reality. The rotating between Paul, Christine and Robin is very helpful as we get to see different opinions and personal comments on film making, it makes the course also more dimensional to engage in. Having a reflective blog is also good and I don’t think the staff should hesitate on giving suggestions to reflections. This is good for those that are special interested and also opens up for other students, things they often would not have thought about. I suggest there could be 3 reflection tasks each week until week 9. The documentary project being ongoing is also good, as one never knows the availability of the object. Other than that I don’t think the course should be changed at all, as this structure follows up the contents from TV1. Happy holidays!

And congratulations all Professional Communication graduates!! Wohoooo!!!

The Screening

The screening was the most funny and interesting moment in this course. It is also one of the most important ones, as we as new filmmakers get the chance to see our work on the cinema screen, which can be quite a nerve wrecking presentation.

“Kaleidoscopic Views” Melissa Toh, Louise Chang, Hui Xiong and Ao Xu.

“Kaleidoscopic Views” opened up with a sentence saying ‘perception is subjective’. This way of thinking in colored letters was quite new for me and the creativity the producers used, managed to put a lot of colorful aspects of the documentary. The construction of enabling the documentary makers together with the characters, was good and it was interesting to see how this all together became a documentary. The choice of being part of the docu worked for this documentary and I think it is quite up to date with the use of technology that we have been taught in this course. Also, thinking about truth, relationship building and the choice of characters, was fascinating as it is representing something very unusual.


“Pip” Tom Farnan, Ryan Tan, Eliza Beveridge and Sher Wong.

This documentary started very strong with the soun disappearing introduction. The trick of making the audience sense the silence aspect of this docu, really persuades the audience into listening more to what is being said by pip. The framing and construction of Philippa was done well, not only because of the shots, but also because it varied with Pip’s own bits of footage. This demonstrates the producers’ narrative they were aiming to create, about Pip’s dream of becoming an actress. What strengthened this documentary was the use of audio and the choice of character. One can see how this group had to really step out of the comfort zone to create this portrait of Pip, through the establishing trust and relationship that is ongoing in the documentary. The last part of the documentary was quite strong, as it forced the audience to listen to what Philippa had to say. This phase of the documentary made it stand out, with its links to “Silent world”. I think the producers did a great job in selecting to do their documentary on ‘Pip’ and it was very interesting and fun to see the result of it after seeing the development of the docu in class.



“Oliver’s Girl” Flavia Browne, Tim Kennedy and Julian Dan.

This teenage mother documentary contained a very strong narrative about young girls pregnancy. The idea of creating a documentary about this shows how this group wanted to make something, and convey information about something that is really an important part of Melbourne’s social culture. It engaged with a broad set of audience (mothers, academics, students and people that has experienced the same) into a real life situation. What I missed in this documentary was more sound effects and more visuals. Having said that, a lot of the footage of Oliver backed it up and there were two camera angles with excellent sound that really stood out. One was when Oliver picked the flower up and I as an audience could clearly hear the young boy’s breathe being half fast, blocked with nose bears. The other angle was when the camera was still on the ground and Oliver stood up – this frame featured Oliver’s lower body but it had it all from an object, to lawn, sky blue, white flowers, and also a great depth of field that shows the neighborhood. This frame can tell more than the narrative of the teenage mum, this silent still neighborhood shot could feature the society and how much it is talked about in reality. It also links a bit to the guest lecture about conveying the truth. Having a kid by the age of 17 is known to be hard in itself, and the footage showed this through its construction. It also opened up the naïve perception amongst this, by relating it to a local Australian girl and the footages of her son.


“The Last Dance” Aloysius Teo, Kapila Selvadurai and Ivan Tay.

A dance documentary about Sean Brandt and rheumatism was a very deep and well-presented documentary. I think, that this docu strongest sides were the various clips of him being interviewed – it became a very dimensional documentary filled with visuals, very good sound and excellent construction. The filmmakers did well on the establishment of Sean Brandt and this is where sound, dance moves and the thought of the American Dream, seduced me as an audience. The selection of him talking about the disease together with dance and passion really incorporated the docu as a whole and it was a wise choice of not using any sound effects here. While watching this docu, when the Ministry of Sound music video of Sean Brandt danced his moonwalk appeared, this was absolutely marvelous inserted. I personally cant think of a better dance documentary – this one was really amazing.



“Game Theory” Ryan Gasparini, Eric Dittloff, Adam Tzinis and Nick Shomburgk

The Electronical Arts documentary featured a fascinating aspect of game theory through history and its industry. Growing up with Grand Theft Auto, Nintendo, Play Station, and now X-Box and Wii, this documentary did the contrary of what earlier filmmakers has done when presenting electronical arts – it showed the truth of it. The interview being based on the gaming theory and knowledge contributed to the truth of video games - its success is seen in how kids and adults uses this as a learning tool for knowledge. The documentary was balanced because of this as it also took the critique of video gaming into consideration. The shots here were great, good framings and good sounds. The one scene where a guy was interviewed and the screen in the background was showing persuasive words was funny! The footages of videogames and the close up of the iPad were interesting and well colorgraded. Further on it discussed the industry and the money involved in this mass medium. When the producers talked about video gaming as a business, the interactive play with the electronical arts creators, owners and players showed what gaming is all about – it is a part of the childhood essence. This play, even though some stakeholders uses this as a tool for marketing and sale, reminded the audience of earlier games (as the ‘back packer game’ and learning geographics, Sims and learning about finance) and developed the linkage of us as a players of this medium, actually contributes to the industry.

The Final Cut

When finalizing Yianni in weeks 13-14, the build up of our relationship with Yianni got expressed through the docu. Having the responsibility as a sound designer, controlling the sound levels, adjusting fad outs and overlays, were after each cut and edit finalized and resulted into a consistent rhythm of audio and footage. After the lecture on the copyright law, I thought the sound and the guitarplay we have captured was captivating enough, to strengthen the character ‘Yianni.Fin’.

The most challenging part of the final edit was how to implement the constructive criticism given, into the narrative we were making of the Brunswick filmmaker. The tasks here were to control and build up the emotion and sympathy for the filmmaker, through sensational events. These contained the true interaction with Yianni and capturing him and not an actor, and his relation ship to Nick and his brother Michael. We asked how we could do this when our tutor Robin remembered us about our audience. To categorize the audience specifically, this is RMIT’s second and third year professional communications and media students aged 19-26. Some perhaps more experienced with life, work and/or university, more than others. After discussing this and sitting together doing the final edits, we knew that the audience wanted to see events they could recognize themselves with, which could also identify the character himself and his real life. We had to remember to not destroy the flow of the audience emotional build up, but strengthen it.

Technical things we faced were handled with group collaboration, questions and help from the FCP soft ware. What we thought looked like a little compression mess up of ‘placement into correct destination’, turned out to be an audio detail, that had been fine all day. Why the audio could not be played after compression was due to that our film had to be burned to the DVD first (this was why one burns the DVD out of the program). Tuesday 5pm, our ‘Yianni.Fin’ was born, 8 minutes and 41 seconds long.