Documentary 101..

Guidelines For Producing a Short Documentary ^.^
*(from the handout Derrick gave us..)

For this term, our EAL/D assignment consists of making a short documentary (8-10 minutes) concerning current issues related to our community. The themes to choose from are:-

>Gender issue, e.g.- gender discrimination
>Poverty issue, e.g.-homelessness, squatter areas
>Ethnicity issue, e.g;-cross cultural conflicts
>Generational issue, e.g.-generation gap.

DEADLINE : 9/3/2009

We are also required to do a blog, which follows the current updates of our documentary-in-the-making. Here's a good example : http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/documentary_film/

Yowza.
Alright people, here goes. Hope to have a great time working with you all~


Before Shooting the Film

The starting point, is, of course to think of an interesting topic that all members of the group are enthusiastic about. ~be patient~

• Ask yourself:-

1. WHY you want to make this film
2. WHAT it is about
3. WHERE the story is going.

• Find some examples that you can draw inspiration from before laying down the aesthetics and method of your film.

> Check these out :

http://www.sixmincin.com/competition/sample_shorts/index.html

http://www.openfilm.com/videos/generation_gap/

• Find a selection of different documentaries-- note the good elements.
• Do thorough research on your topic
• Make some test interviews before starting.

Map the different locations, and thus plan more precisely what you want in the film.

* There are different ways of structuring the material in a documentary-- see Toni de Bromhead's "Looking Two Ways" (1996). --She uses four narrative principles in her documentary.

Slogan: Keep It Short & Simple (K.I.S.S.)
- The more precise your choices are, the more things you have excluded,---the more inspired you can be within the framework you have set yourself.

• The CAMERA plays a vital role. - Camera angles and movements are significant for the degree to which you express respect for/solidarity with/antipathy against, etc..
• Know the camrea before shooting..
• Camera movements shousld be-- calm or swift; on tripod or handheld; whether the person should be filmed from below, above, or at eye-level, etc.

It is a good idea to draw up a set of rules, some guidelines for what you can and cannot do. This will save you many discussions during the shoot and ensure you a fairly coherent style.

INTERVIEWS~

-Experiment with different interview techniques before shooting.

-try out different ways of asking and rephrasing questions. Do not omit any important information. Also, test different interview set-ups (lighting, positions of camera and microphone, etc...)

-Decide whether the film should have a visible inteviewer, or a hidden interviewer. Whether the person is a natural storyteller, or is dependent on the interviewer's response.

-Don't indicate that the interviewee didn't do well (even if this is the case). Instead, find some other excuses for re-shooting the scene; eg- the sound wasn't good enough, the picture was out of focus and so on..

-Let the interviewee finish his/her story. Show respect for what he/she is saying.

INTERVIEWER CHARACTERISTICS:

• Able to handle a 3-4 second pause between questions
• Make clear what he/she is talking about.
• Able to make the interviewee as comfortable as possible.

*Music...*

Deciding your choice of music can be very time-consuming. Your choice of music plays a very important part in the overall impression of the film, and these discussions should not be postponed until the editing phase. It is an important factor in creating a mood in the film.

- If you make a test film on location, try out different types of music with the filmed material.

STORYBOARDS~

- There will be a high degree of control when you make storyboards.

• Ensures the project is realistic within the given time.
• Reduce the risk of lacking important shots in the editing room.

The shooting phase

Make sure the picture pauses for 4-5 seconds every now and again-- this gives you a natural place to cut.

Avoid zooming--it is difficult to edit a shot that contains a zoom. If you need to get closer, it is better to move the camera.

Make the shots a little longer than intended--you never know what you might need in the editing room.

Be ready to switch the camera on if something unexpected happens- it might turn out to be a magical moment..

*Be ready to make changes-maybe even give up the original concept of the film (i.e. throw away the storyboard) if you find out what you had planned doesn't really work. This goes for the shooting phase as well as the editing phase.


The Editing Phase

Consider alternative ways of piecing the material together. Try to maintain a certain sensitivity towards the raw material in order to avoid forcing it in the wrong direction because you are too focused on the story you had planned to tell..


~The end

PS- Let us not pull each other's hair out!! (*__*)

Documentary~ To Ya, Anne,Yana, & Fairuz san.

My dearest group members.. the post about documentaries will be up soon. Do read carefully, so as to get a good idea of what we're aiming for, ok?. Thnku~

PS- I've condensed it only to what is important and WILL be posting it very soon. Hope you all have great ideas because I'm totally clueless.. :D

Happy holidays~~~ (Oh, and "Selamat Pengantin Baru" to Ya. I mean, Ya's sister.. hehe. Sorry i can't come. I'm bad with roads and there's a 100% chance i'll get lost in Kajang. Anyways, have fun guys..!)

Home

It's been three weeks since i've been home. I miss it. I know three weeks doesn't seem long for all of you who come from the East Coast or Sabah and Sarawak, but it's still considerably long for my standards. You can call me a baby and i won't blame you for it. I know i'm such a spoiled brat but i don't care..

Don't get me wrong though, I love being away from home. I enjoy being independent and doing things on my own-- but I'm still human and i can't help but miss the smell of flowers in my garden. It's true what people always (unoriginally) say about home-- home is where the heart is. Definitely. It's a well-worn and cliched quote, but then again some things are cliched because they are true.

Apart from the usual things one would miss--family, friends, cats, smelly pillow...
i really missed my old room. It's purple and full of my old sketchbooks and diaries.
There's always something about home that makes you feel safe, protected, and all warm and fuzzy inside. In my room especially, I feel this. I also dearly missed the old pillow on my old bed-- it's the same pillow that stood by me while i was staying up late studying for SPM, the same pillow which i hugged when i felt alone, the same pillow who listened attentively while i ungratefully complained about life. It's funny how sometimes i miss objects more than living things. Tsk2.

What's interesting is, I watched on 'Oprah' once that you can know what kind of person someone is just by looking at their rooms. I guess when you look at my room, you can tell by the heaps of novels and sketcbooks stacked on the table that i love language and i enjoy daydreaming (to a dangerously addictive extent it's not even funny..).
It's cramped and fully occupied with useless things, so i guess it's saying that i have a messy, unorganised and saturated mind.. hmm? I always leave the curtains down, so i guess i'm shy?
But then again, who knows if all this psychological mumbo jumbo is even valid or not; sometimes you see only what you want to see...
And sometimes you can't see what you should see.

Oh, i forgot to mention that my hometown is Shah Alam, Selangor. It's a peaceful suburb, nothing much to shout about, but i love it for it's ordinary-ness. The malls are lame and there's no cinema here, so really, the least boring thing to do is visit the park. I used to jog there almost every day with my friend, but i guess now i'll just stroll around and watch people, since i'm really lazy when it comes to excercise nowadays. i blame AUSMAT. (because i don't want to blame myself.)

I've been living in Shah Alam for 16 years, and to be honest, nothing much has changed. Apart from a few additional malls here and there, Shah Alam's still the same old suburb i've known since I was three. Eventhough it was awarded the status of "bandaraya" (city) a few years back, i've never really seen it as a "city" . Shah Alam's always been Shah Alam--my modest, boring, peaceful, uninteresting home. And i like it that way.

But then again, even if my hometown hasn't changed, I certainly have. I've grown up to be 18, and i'm grateful to have lived until this age, and learned the things i've learned, and experienced the things i've experienced.
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered --Nelson Mandela
It's true. Living on my own, I've learned a lot, and there are, of course, many more things for me to learn. But the things i have learned has made me more mature, more independent, and infinitely more thankful for what i have. (take note of the word "more". Just because i said i'm "more" mature doesn't mean that i'm "mature". It just means that i'm less immature.. hehe.)

I've been given a week of holidays and i'm gonna use it to the fullest at home. The assignments are piling up, and the abundance of homework given to me by my diabolical lecturers is frightening, but i'm home, and I don't want to think about it too much. For now, i'm gonna sleep in my room, on my old bed, accompanied by my old pillow, in my home sweet home.

I'm content..~

PS- Hope all of you have a great holiday! Also, Happy Chinese New Year to my Chinese friends and lecturers! May prosperity shine on you all~~~Gong Xi Fa Chai..

Morning Classes..

I'd like mornings better if they started later. ~Author Unknown

It's 9.01 a.m, 16th January, 2009.
So there I was in KBU, running wildly with my heavy bag, my light head, my partially bruised ego and my sore legs; laughing myself silly. Can you imagine that? It must've been a horrible sight, whatnot with the awfully disturbing way I run. I've been searching everywhere for my classroom but i just couldn't find it. And I still couldn't stop laughing.

It's 9.03 a.m. and I know I'm three minutes late for Chemistry class. People look at me like I've just escaped from the asylum but i don't care. I'm late! I haven't been late for a week, and my new year's resolutions include NOT being late, but I'm late! Miss Prema would not be pleased..

So why was I laughing hysterically? There's a long and embarrassing answer to that question. You might find it funny, you might find it sad- it depends on how cruel and easily amused you are. haha.

Flashback to the night before, or shall i say early morning. It's 2.30 a.m and my brain is grilled to a crisp due to overuse, after doing a thousand difficult maths questions. I finally slept at 3.00 a.m. after pondering whether or not i'll be able to make it through until the end of the year. Our seniors warned us it would be stressful, but you never really feel it until you've experienced it yourself. The questions never leave me alone.. What if i fail? What if I don't make it? Where will I go after this?? These thoughts can kill you, you know..
Maybe I should start taking sleeping pills.. *ponders*.

It's 6.00 a.m and my ever-faithful and dependable alarm woke me up the next day for morning prayers, and I quickly went back to sleep after that. Then, it woke me up again at 8.15 a.m., and I'm reminded of why i hate morning classes so much. The alarm, called Nana, (also known as my roommate), managed to complete the daunting task of waking me up from my eternal slumber. In all honesty, waking up the next morning was one of the most difficult things i had to do! My eyelids were as heavy as sumo wrestlers and my mind was a daze. I felt like a drunken woman.

I hurriedly got ready for college, and just as I was about to go, I heard the sound of the KBU shuttle van vrooming away. Great. Brilliant. How wonderful. (Find the antonyms for these previous words and you'll know exactly how i felt.) Now i have to trouble Mia again, by tagging along in her car.
Finally, I arrived in KBU, with 2 minutes left to spare. Just in time. Success! (It amazes me how such mediocre achievements leave me feeling so accomplished. I have such low standards. Haha.)

I thought that was the end of my troubles. I thought I could still stick to my new year's resolutions. How wrong I was. So very, very wrong.

I waited for the elevator, and while doing this I realised I forgot to bring the homework i had toiled over the other night. My head was full of wonderful words starting with the letters 's' and 'f'. One privilage of being bilingual is that there are a range of curse words to choose from. I used them all. (in my head). Yes, "crickey" was also used.

It turns out that on Fridays, Architecture 2 had classes in another room. My friend told me that she remembered it to be "class A515 or something like that..." So i dashed to the fifth floor. I knew for certain that there isn't any class called A515, so I assumed my friend mispronounced, and that it was actually my old class, A512. Yes, i'm a bad student for not remembering it myself. Blame short-term memory loss and a night of doing applicable maths. Of course I'm never going to blame myself.

I ran and I opened the door to class A512. I swished in quickly, thinking I was late. Everybody seemed so quiet. I searched for a chair to sit on, and then I saw Wei Kang's face.
Wei Kang is not my classmate. Wei Kang is in the Engineering class. Wei Kang is not in Architecture two. Oh no. Please no.
Wei Kang!!! (to the reader, please pronounce this in a chinese accent, so as to get the full force of the mood I was in. Haha. Apologies to Wei Kang.)

I realised I was in the wrong class!! Yikes! Dangit! Crickey!!
My face must've been so red at the time. All eyes were on me.
Then I produced a muffled laugh and the whole class laughed along with me. I ran straight out of the door without saying anything to the lecturer. I really regretted this afterwards, but my mind was running a thousand miles at that time. I didn't even get a chance to see the lecturer's face, because I was so embarrassed I just had to run away. So I don't know who was teaching the class that morning. I apologise deeply to him or her who was teaching that day.

I dashed out of the class and laughed uncontrollably. I can't help it; the absurdity of the situation. I've had many more embarrassing moments, but this ranks in the top 10. Then, I went to the 7th floor, and jumped off the higest rooftop, and that's how i died. Well, not exactly, but that's how i felt like doing..haha.

So there I was, 9.03 a.m., running like a demented maniac along the corridors of KBU, still searching for my class. How funny and sad and embarrassing at the same time!
Finally, I called my classmate and she told me that the class was actually on the third floor. How tiring..

When i finally reached the classroom, I was out of breath. I was five minutes late, but it turned out that Miss Prema hadn't started teaching yet, so I was lucky. I didn't get scolded, so I was fortunate. But really, I was just grateful that I finally came into the right classroom.

What a morning indeed. I shall never sleep late before morning classes again. Never. Learnt my funny lesson this time.

If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late. ~Henny Youngman

I hear you, Mr Henry Youngman. Very wise indeed..

Australia~

It seems that for the past three days, everybody's been asking me whether or not I've seen 'Australia'. My housemates talk about it, my classmates talk about it, and even my EALD lecturer talks about it! But then again, it probably has to do with the fact that our English assignment involves watching the movie.

However, that still doesn't cancel out the fact that 'Australia' has become the main theme of my life these past three days. .


Australia Australia Australia..


So finally, this evening I decided to part with my precious and beloved RM8 to go see a movie I've been curious about since forever. ('Forever' in my case spans for only three days. Haha.) I didn't have high expectations for the movie, since a lot of my friends said it was long, draggy, and sleep-inducing. Despite the scathing reviews, I was still interested. There's no point of avoiding it when i'll still have to watch it for my assignment later on anyways. Sadly, only two of my classmates said it was a good movie, and to this I responded, "Wait, it's NOT boring?". (Sorry for not being enthusiastic enough. Aih). The abundance of bad reviews for this flick didn't help either. When I came into the cinema, I had no expectations at all.


But then, coming out of the cinema, I'm glad to say I actually liked the movie. A lot. I don't care how many people hated it or found it cliched and predictable. Because it is cliched and predictable. And that's probably what makes me like it. I' m such a sucker for love stories and happy endings.


The line "welcome to Australia" said by Huge Jackman quickly sums up the whole movie. By watching it, you get a glimpse of what the Australian aboriginal culture is like, the beauty of the country itself, and how to use the word "crickey" as a foul language! Very interesting indeed.

'Australia' starts with a narration by Nullah, an Australian aborigine child with mixed parentage. As the movie goes on, Nullah's natural and direct narration seeps in from time to time. I like the fact that a child's point of view was used to tell the story; it makes everything so simple and honest. There's always a wonderful kind of wisdom found in the simple words of a kid.


This movie is set just before the start of World War II. The story goes that an Englishwoman, Lady Sarah Ashley (played by Nicole Kidman), inherits Faraway Downs, a patch of land in Australia, along with a herd of 2000 cattles after the death of her husband. With the help of Drover (Hugh Jackman), she travels through the harsh but beautiful Australian terrain to finish what her husband set out to do- sell the cattles in Darwin.


Along the way, as can be predicted by anybody with an IQ higher than 10, Drover and Lady Sarah fall in love. The two leads have a considerable amount of chemistry, so it's not painful to watch. Lady Sarah also learns to love Nullah, and becomes his foster mother. But, before everybody gets to live happily ever after, they have to dodge a typical cookie-cutter bad guy, cut out in the form of Fletcher. He is what every villain is supposed to be- unsympathetic, vicious, and vindictive. Just totally pure evil. No inner dilemmas and no good side at all. Knowing the well-worn format of this movie, i think everybody knows what will eventually happen to our villain.


This story also sheds light on the unequal treatment of aborigines in Australia. Nullah, for example, was forced to go to a special camp just because he is a "cream", someone who is half white and half aboriginal. Aborigines were also not allowed to enter bars nor hospitals. How unfair..


My favourite part of the movie would be where Lady Sarah tries to sing a song for Nullah after his mother's death. I find it very funny and sweet. I also liked the part where Lady Sarah says that Drover would make a good father. It's simple but rather romantic in my opinion. Nonetheless, there are some parts of the movie that I didn't like as much. The fact that the old man "King George" makes an appearance almost every five minutes in the movie is pretty annoying sometimes. At certain scenes, his appearance became unintentionally funny. Seeing his naked backside at the ending is even more disturbing. Huh.

No matter how much one may hate this movie, one can't deny that the cinematography is just beautiful. The visuals are a feast for the eyes, and eye-candy Hugh Jackman wasn't too bad either. For me, it was worth the RM8 simply to see the beautiful sceneries of Australia.

As a whole, I would say this movie is worth a watch. It has certainly motivated me to work harder in my studies, and pass the TEE so that I can go to Australia and ranch cattles all day long. And probably marry a drover and adopt some aboriginal children. Haha. A girl can dream..

"Just because it is, doesn't mean it should be"

~Lady Sarah Ashley