Client Project - Talk With Debs

Chase and I went and discussed what exactly we should do about the proposal as we weren't sure what to do as he was going to do most of the directing and i was going to be the producer and editor.

Debs said to us that we should each do a proposal (one for the documentary and one for the music video) and we should take out the live performance section.

I was to do the documentary and chase was going to do the music video.

"Fish Film" - Final Feedback

Today I finally had my final talk with the owner of the Fish Society who told me what the last changes he wanted me to make. They were all cuts and he just gave me the estimated times of the parts he wanted me to cut, which were:

The Fish Society fillets a halibut:

• 2 seconds off the title
• 0.21-0.29
• 0.36-0.42
• 1.15-1.35
• 1.51-1.55
• 3.23-3.43
• 3.57-4.05
• 4.15-4.36
• 5.02-5.13/14
• 5.50-6.02

To change the name of "How to fillet a skate wing" to "The Fish Society trims a skate wing"

PRP - Agreement form second draft

I then changed my Topic form and handed it in the next day:

What is your PRP research question?

Has the attention span of the audience changed the more recent delivery methods and techniques of audiovisual work?

What is your PRP research topic?

I plan to research the history of people’s habits in a sense of a film. I then shall look at whether more recent delivery methods and techniques of audiovisual work have changed from the decrease in the viewer’s attention span. With the supposed decrease of viewer’s attention spans seen at: http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Attention.html there must be some effect on the more recent delivery methods and techniques of audiovisual work. To find out whether this is true I shall look at different techniques used by modern day practitions and compare them to older practitioners, for example Lev Kuleshov’s theory of “relationship” editing and see how the old theory has been adapted and used in more modern practitioners work such as Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the computer HAL and how the different techniques have changed the perception of the viewer. I shall also look for papers that are linked with this problem like Carol A. Bodensteiner’s paper on “Predicting Public and Media Attention Span for Social Issues” found at: http://www.carolbodensteiner.com/Carol_Bodensteiner/Writing%20_files/PRQ-Predicting%20Attention%20Span-1996.pdf.
There are so many different ways of delivering multimedia work now, from DVDs and CDs to the Internet which has probably impacted the delivery methods the most. The increase in the use of the internet and high speed internet connections in households has meant a huge increase of audiovisual work being uploaded onto the internet. From the internet there are then a variety of ways to deliver the work such as downloading films or music videos on to your computer or mobile or from streaming audiovisual work through sites such as YouTube. I shall look at a variety of contexts and different styles of audiences and see how the delivery methods have changed the viewers perception. These will range from work on internet sites where anyone can upload their videos on to, such as YouTube to film festivals and audiovisual exhibitions where the work will be from practitioners. I will find how these different styles of delivery will impact the audience’s perception. I think they will alter as people viewing mainstream based programming such as at film festivals, are more likely to have a greater knowledge in the subject, and understand what a film maker is trying to say when using different techniques. This is compared to someone using social based programming such as watching a video on YouTube who may have not much or no interest in film. To try and find out if the delivery methods have changed the viewers perception I shall collect my own data by carrying out tests on people from the younger “MTV generation” and people from the older generations by showing them very short video clips and show them larger video clips and seeing how their perceptions on the film change, and research more into the subject by reading books and searching for papers on related topics and see if there is a change in attention span.

PRP - Agreement form Feedback

I sent a copy of my Agreement form to Debs who replied with some suggestions for changes to it which were:

What is your PRP research question?

• Perhaps- Has the viewers perception/audiovisual grammar changed or developed over time.? What are the effects of current edit production techniques and programming upon the viewer in terms of the audiovisual communication?

What is your PRP research topic?

• If you are looking at how it has changed where is the information about comparing the two coming from? Are you testing this on young and older people? I suggest that the attention span of youth is shortening and this could be a contributing factor to the development and style of editing. There may be others but here you compare. I think that you could carry out some of your own data gathering methods here.
  You should be more precise about where you are getting your info for research. Perhaps you look at mainstream and social based programming. It may also include more than the edit and look at issues such as frame size, fidelity, resolution and colour.
  i.e.have current delivery methods and techniques changed the perception of the viewer. This wider subject may give you more to discuss than merely the edit only.
  Kuleshov was such a long time ago has there been any advancement since he introduced “relationship” editing as you describe.

Class Feedback

We showed our films and what we had so far in class and i got the following feedback:

• The cuts in the opening sequence didn't completly work
• What is the mum journey
• I asked if they understood what was happening during the scene where the kids were meant to be practicing pickpocketing, and they didn't so i had to try and change this around some how.

Debs Feedback 2

I got feedback from debs again in the seminar this week, which was the following:

• Cut back daves first lines so he almost interupts the mum in the argument.
• Take out the "static" shots during the first scene.
• Overlay sounds during the argument such as a radio (which i still hadnt done but planned to)
• Get more shots for the last shot in scene 1, such as a few differnt shots of when she lights the cigarette.
• When the boys leave the house the shot is too blue so change the colour (more red)
• Take out the first person going to pickpocket the mum
• Leve mum on longer right after the boys pickpocket her
• Does the zoom out at the graveyard from the mum work?