Media Objects Final Reflection: The Gambler

A semester of learning, condensed into 1 minute. I am really proud of my project I titled “The Gambler.” At first I had no idea how I would combine my first 3 projects into one coherent video but I quickly realised I was at an advantage to some of my classmates since I had used my boyfriend in each project and had an unplanned theme of using playing cards. With my tutor’s help, I came up with the idea of portraying my subject as a gambler loses all his money and ends up on the street. Even though I had the idea, putting it all together was still a struggle until I researched some found footage on archive.org. I simply typed in “gambling” and luckily found 2 short films that I was able to use without violating copyright. I viewed the videos a couple times each and noted which scenes I particularly liked and thought I could incorporate into my video.

I really liked the music in one of the videos and used it as the inspiration for the ending/beginning. I thought the music was really powerful and created dramatics which was something I lacked in my previous projects. I made the opening dramatic with the music and the shifting of still photos and found footage. I used all 4 audio clips in the middle of the video combined with the found footage and they seemed to match up well. At the end of the video, I used audio from one of the found footage videos. The video was an American anti-gambling advert from the late 50’s. I really liked the sound of the man’s voice and the ambient sounds.

I feel like I was able to make the story dramatic and have meaning, something my previous stories lacked. I was able to incorporate skills learned in other courses to make the video. Once I got going, I was able to knock out the editing in a couple of hours. I felt much more confident in my abilities to tell a story using digital media.

When editing the video, I tried to incorporate these ideas about creating a narrative purpose,  (taken from the editing lecture)

-Creating a sense of drama or tension (using the music from the Gambling USA film)
– Pace, rhythm, flow (all the audio clips flow together and there is good rhythm in the music)
– ‘Gear changes’, momentum shifts (changes from really dramatic to more relaxed and then back to dramatic)
– Telling a story (Man gambles, loses money, ends up on the street)
– Cutting out the ‘bad’ or ‘boring’ bits (I cut out the boring parts from my audio clips)

I feel like I achieved all of the above, maybe not perfectly but definitely my best effort and to the best of my technical ability. Overall, I am really pleased with my final project.

Found footage from here and here.

Media Objects Audio Assignment

For this assignment, we had to record 4 sounds to make up a soundscape around the idea of success. As stated in previous reflections, the theme of success is hard to conceptualise and even harder to make visual and in this case auditory.

I struggled to come up with a concept and eventually decided to incorporate the theme of card playing like I did for my photography project. Since we couldn’t edit our sounds, all sounds you hear all diegetic.

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The first sound-

Ground: The ground sound in this clip was the shuffling of the deck of cards.
Figure: There was no distinct figure sound in this clip.
Field: The field sound was the T.V. in the background.

This sounds sets up the environment for the story. The ambience tells you that the story is taking place inside since you can hear the T.V. And since there isn’t any really loud noises the story is probably not taking place in a public area. The sound of the cards shuffling should be recognisable to most and create a good visualisation of what is going on in the story.

The second sound-

Ground: The ground sound in this clip was the handing out of cards, the sounds associated with drinking something and coughing
Figure: There was no distinct figure sound in this clip.
Field: The field sound was the T.V. in the background.

This sound is similar to the first sound but with some added noise like the coughing and gulping of the water. I think it creates a relaxed environment and visualises the idea of two people just sitting around playing cards.

The third sound- 

Ground: The ground sound in this clip rustling of the poker chips and sliding them across the table.
Figure: The figure sound was the man saying “All in.”
Field: The field sound was the T.V. in the background.

I think the sound of the poker chips is quite similar to the sound of the cards in the first sound, but I think combined with the figure sound it is easy to tell what is going on.

The fourth sound-

Ground: The ground sound in this clip was the laying down of the cards
Figure: The figure sound was the man saying “Royal Flush.”
Field: The field sound was the T.V. in the background.

I’m not sure if it’s too obvious what is happening in this clip if the figure sound hadn’t been included. I’m sure given some time, I could come up with a foley sound that would be more obvious but overall, I think the story is pretty clear.

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Overall, this project was really challenging. Figuring out how to show success using sound proved very difficult. I had a lot of good ideas for sounds, but nothing I could imagine turning into a story with no visual effects. I think it may be due to the fact that I am really not a auditory person. I much prefer to watch or read something, rather than listen to it (except for music). I am not one to listen to talk radio or podcasts. I think it’s something I definitely need to work on in order to work in the media industry. After doing this assignment, I am certainly more aware and knowledgeable about all the different types of sound it will certainly effect how I watch video in the future as I will try to determine diegetic/non-diegetic sounds as well as foley sounds.

I look forward to the next assignment when I can put all of my assignments together.

Media Objects Photography Assignment

For this assignment, we had to submit 5 photographs with the theme success. I found this assignment difficult because I couldn’t think of a way to photograph success. Nearly all my ideas seemed more practical for a video assignment and therefore really struggled on coming up with a concept that I could photograph nicely. I eventually came up with the idea of building a house of cards. I thought I could utilise the lines of the cards to get some interesting shots and incorporate the ideas we discussed in class.

I think I did a good job incorporating the techniques used in class specifically using depth of field, rules of 3rds, change in shutter speed and angles. I used my own digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix. I  hadn’t used the camera for over a year and would have rather used a DSLR camera I think. I have experience with both and I think I would have been happier with the DSLR quality. The Coolpix was easy to use and had all the settings I needed so that wasn’t an issue. I think that since I had never used the Coolpix for more artistic shots, I felt a little funny.

During the shoot, I struggled with lighting and the glare of the table we used. Luckily we ended up putting a small carpet down on the table for card-building purposes so that took care of the glare problem. I wanted to get a shot with my subject behind the cards and looking through. I thought it would create a nice frame within a frame shot. I attempted several times but couldn’t get the shot that I wanted. Although that was disappointing, I was able to get many other useable shots.

When looking at my shots, I referred to the photo essay article we discussed in the tute. I think I successfully captured 5 of the 7 shots talked about.

My first shot was the Hook shot that grabs the viewer’s attention, my second shot was Establishing shot that laid the visual context for the story. My third shot was a Detail shots that creates intimacy with the viewer. My fourth shot was the Portrait shot. I quite like this photo because I think it really captures the intensity of the situation. My last shot was the Closure shot, its the end of the story and shows the success of his finished project.

My photos clearly tell a story, but I struggled with the idea of “Why doe this story matter?” I think the story is more than just a guy struggles to build a house of cards and finally does. It can be a metaphor for the struggles that come along with success. I can envision it as some sort of motivational poster about not giving up, or also in use with an article about someone’s struggle with something. My boyfriend, the subject is currently looking for full-time work and it’s a really difficult task but he isn’t giving up. I can see his struggle for looking for work in these photos. So even an article about the struggles that come with looking for work could use these photos as it would be more interesting than someone sitting at the computer editing CVs.

Overall I am pleased with my work for this assignment.