Alex - Lecture Reviews |
Week 1 – Introduction to module
This was our first lecture and therefore was an introduction to the module and what the tacks for the semester were. Here we were given the brief for us to complete a documentary for U Doc the coming summer. We were then introduced to DLSR filming and how this has become the standard practice for photojournalism and documentary film making of today because of the simplicity and the quality these cameras can produce. This meant that for our production we would be using the same practice capturing our pictures and film with Canon 450d/550d.
Week 2 - Photojournalism and Documentary
We were instructed about how documentaries are categorised into specific modes and by observing documentary’s you can categorise them into one or more of these modes.
The Poetic Mode
The Expository Mode
The Observational Mode
The Participatory Mode
The Reflexive Mode
The Performative Mode
Political reflexivity
We then moved onto how the historic and influential Documentary Photojournalist construct these pieces of work that are segmented into these modes, plus how important magnum is as a company to the development of photojournalism and documentary film making.
Henri-Cartier Bresson a Photojournalist working for the Magnum agency in Pre/post war.
Martin Parr who uses the everyday situation to construct symbolic social comments, interacting with the subject. The reflective mode.
Lewis Hine had ethical ideals of people not products showing capitalism under belly. Announced himself as a Sociological photographer, in opposition to artistic values. Hine observed the child labour and sweatshops of New York’s lower east side. The Expository Mode.
Jacob Riis in New York illustrated the slum lives of the deprived immigrant Populous.
Walker-Evans used his camera as part of an anthropological means to record the construction and system of small town life, architecture and everyday icons. The poetic mode.
Week 3 - Introduction to 450 D canon cameras
The canon 450D is a 12.2-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera that is part of the Canon EOS line of cameras. It is one of their entry level cameras however it is still a respectable and able camera in photojournalism.
We learnt key aspects of the camera like how to use the flash, focus, settings and lenes. Wit the setting we looked at two types of modes to the camera, the basic mode and the creative mode.
Creative mode
P: Program - Camera still in automatic modes, but unlocks features of the creative mode. Camera still sets aperture and exposure time with no user input.
Tv: Shutter priority - Camera selects aperture based on user defined shutter speed/ exposure time.
Av: Aperture priority - Camera selects shutter speed based on user defined aperture size.
M: Manual exposure - User defines both shutter speed and aperture size.
A-Dep: Automatic depth of field - Camera selects both aperture and shutter speed in an attempt to have the greatest depth of field, and have everything in the viewfinder in focus.
Basic Mode
These modes do all the work for you depending on the situation you tell the camera you want. They will auto control things like shutter speed, aperture size, depth of field.
Portrait - Landscape - Close up - Sport - Night portrait - Flash off
Week 4 - Develop Online Site
Spent the morning adding key features to site and start putting first bits of research online.
Week 5 - Advanced FCP training
This week we were on the macs with Corin and did a session on Final Cut Pro. Here we used a selection of videos from SeaWorld to do 3 point editing. We learnt how you mark in clips instead of just dragging whole files and cutting them up in the timeline. We then used this technique to edit the whole selections of video clips into a short film. From this we were taught how to export files professionally from FCP and how you use certain files for certain films.
Week 6 - Advanced Photoshop
This was a session with Karin on using Photoshop as the tool to edit our RAW images. we use Photoshop because it is able to edit RAW images effectively but also because of the other Adobe suits like bridge which is software for viewing files before you go to one of Adobes software. It is very useful as you can see the images and then double click just to open and go to Photoshop editing suit. We went over all the different sections within the software you can use like changing the exposure, saturation and vibrance. The main lesson from the session was that in post-production you can fix a lot of the mistakes you make while out shooting with the SLR cameras.
Week 7 - Advanced FCP training 2
This week was the second session on Final Cut Pro with Corin again. This week was all about multi clip editing and green screen. We were taught how you can edit up to four clips simultaneously to put them into one master track, this meant that you didn’t need to get the bits from all of them separately and add them together instead you could just sync the clips up before and then edit straight onto the timeline in perfect timing. Then we went onto green screen editing and how to do this on FCP using the Chroma key to set it up.
Week 8 - Preparing for group presentation
We had session with Karin going over what was expecting from us with regards to Yola and the presentations that will be done in 12. We then watched AAAA and spent some time going over themes and styles of the documentary.
Week 9 - Technical Excellence
This week we went into more detail on what was expected by us plus recapping it to. We then watched a Nick Broomfield documentary call Biggie & Tupac and spent some time going over its styles and themes and the way Nick Broomfield does his documentaries. We also focused on thing like breathing and signatures of documentaries.
Week 10 – Strike
Week 11 – Tutorials
This week we had our tutorial at 11.30 with Karin to discuss over the group, documentary status and the presentations the follow week. This helped us go over what was required in our presentation and just some general house keeping with our documentary which help a lot.
Week 12 - Presentations
Our presentation at the end of the semester had both positives and negatives when we got our feedback. It was that our pitch overall was very professional and slick with how we presented it to the class however what mistake we made was not talking enough about our actually documentary and its primaries. When looking back I see how important this was because the documentary story and the primaries are a key factor, the reason was we wanted to make sure we had covered all other aspects and got a little carried away with the bureaucracy of the actual project however this was a good learning experience for pitching ideas something that will always be useful both for U Doc next year and in a professional atmosphere too.
