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!!!
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