BVA703 Research - Week 4
06/03/2020
Example of working title: Politics and Worms: A journey into political activism in filmKey terms are words that used a lot in your writing, terms that people you end up reading your paper may not understand, words that have a double meaning, which meaning you are referring to when considering your research?
Personal reasons and/or the importance to the world - aspects of why the research is of interest to you
Methodology the approach you will take in pursuing your research. Practice-based research, Read the resources in the Y drive. Your approach to blogging. Your first paragraph in the body of your writing is on your methodology
Organisation is 1 or 2 sentences on the order of your arguments
You still reference citations even when you paraphrase other people's work
You indent quote in italics is more than 40 words, but just use quotation marks if less. You add a citation at the end of that statement
What role does my blogging play in the bigger picture of my research
In my critique, consider next steps for project?
Be sure that you have a reason for the example being part of your argument
A couple of sentences for restating or summarising your arguments
Reminding the reader of your main points or arguments and overview of the main or most important examples
Analysed and annotated texts shows your understanding of the text and how is it relevant to your research
Listening to class feedback to other students' research questions and arguments helped me come up with ideas and develop my own research questions and arguments
Arguments can be about if it can work in terms of technology of today and can be still relevant
Questions
How can climate change can stand out with this technical aspect?
How can aspect ratio can help express viewpoints made by the school climate strike movement in Invercargill (in a short documentary)?
How can aspect ratio help express viewpoints made in a short documentary
How can aspect ratio help express political activism on climate change in Invercargill?
How can aspect ratio help political activism express climate change in Invercargill?
How can aspect ratio help political activism express climate change awareness in Invercargill?
How can aspect ratio help political activism on film document the school climate strike movement in Invercargill?
How can aspect ratio help political activism on film document the school climate strike movement in Invercargill?
How can the use of aspect ratio can compliment political activism in a short documentary?
Arguments
The choice of aspect ratio can still make itself as part of a film's identity e.g. The Dark Knight
It gives me the option to create documentary like a film
Experimenting and using multiple aspect ratio can work in any genre e.g. The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Lighthouse
The Academy Ratio can make interviews more personal or intimate
Amongst the crowd cinematography in 16:9 can make the audience feel like they're there
Amongst the crowd cinematography in 16:9 can make the event look raw and authentic
Amongst the crowd cinematography in 16:9 can make the footage look raw and authentic
The key is to going forward in developing my research questions and arguments is combining aspect ratio and political activism on film
In my critique, include draft questions and arguments and use it as development work. Include features of a practitioner's work that could influence my project or in my argument examples
When I use influences or practitioners for research, I like to keep it as local (New Zealand) as possible
Rough estimate of proposed intern hours
20 hours - Southern Pro Wrestling
40 hours - MAA Invercargill
40+ hours - Short film by Steve Woller
I must keep documented notes about hours spent and details of my experience
When charging clients, be sure to consider your rent, power, wi-fi, bills, food, software, travel etc into your hourly rate. Do go or under the minimum wage. The minimum wage is currently $17.70, but will increase to $18.90 next month.
Scott, T. (Director). (2004). Reluctant revolutionary [Television documentary]. In D. Mulheron (Producer). Television New Zealand.
I was amazed on how Tom Scott's exploration of David Lange made the former Prime Minster of New Zealand, a flawed and complex subject of the documentary like a very well-written main protagonist in a drama narrative.
With only Scott narrating in voice and person, plus with the interviews and stills, he manages to collate them together to form character development for Lange from his early life to his retirement. Scott could also do really good impressions of Robert Muldoon and David Lange
07/03/2020
Mita, M. (Director & Producer). (1983). Patu [Motion picture]. New Zealand Film Commission; Awatea Films.
I watched this documentary on NZ on Screen. The entirety of the documentary is available for the public to view on here.
Very low budget and quality has not aged well
Protest chant in voice-over
Incidents that anti-tour volunteers have with racist pedestrians - raw way to express pro-tour sentiments. It didn't need to rely on interviews.
Young Tim Shadbolt hosts an auction for the anti-tour movement. In addition to Tame Iti
Lowly lit nighttime protest rally
Among the crowd documentary filmmaking
Limited use of subtitles, possibly due to budgetary restrictions
Far right-wing hate mail
The Muldoon government's boycotting is a prime example of political scaremongering since it's not 'anarchist' like they claimed and the documentary is two-sided, in which it not only expresses viewpoints made by HART (Halt All Racist Tours) or opposition against the Springbok Tour
Because of the large team of talented, independent filmmakers up and down the country at the time, the documentary had the luxury of having multiple angles in the same event, film for longer than just one year, and being filmed nationwide e.g. Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton etc.
Church services related to the anti-tour movement. It shows that the documentary is not just about the protesters, but also events with the same principles
Protagonists - HART, trade unions, students, people affected by apartheid in South Africa, the Maori people, anti-tour protesters and sympathizers,
Antagonists - Conservative and far-right wing New Zealand, the police and armed forces, wealthy New Zealanders, the New Zealand government, Robert Muldoon (the Prime Minster)
The anti-tour perspective is more dominant than the Maori perspective. It's achieved subtly and can be limited by other viewpoints of other demographics and organisations.
There is a part where you only hear Foley SFX, screams, cries. This is where you have shocking drama take place of protesters being beaten by the police. It works effectively to provoke shock and empathy from the audience and to cement its drama
The most shocking parts of the documentary is when the teen protesters are shot down by New Zealand armed forces and the parts where protesters beaten down by the police and focuses on the Foley SFX.
Review
A shocking, influential and hypnotic documentary filled with drama that is still relevant today. It's a reminder to future generations on how division on moral and social issues can bring out the worst, but also bravery in people. Themes in a documentary can be a rare thing, but Patu manages to achieve so. It has definitely stood the test of time.
Some interviews are poorly lit, potentially due to budgetary restrictions
The film almost suits itself as a Dogma95 film
Drama in the documentary
Brutal injuries made to protesters by police and enraged rugby spectators
Distrust amongst the protesters as the rugby tour rages on
Features of this documentary
Consistent use of handheld camera movement
Sounds from protesters fleeing continues to be heard (off-screen) over the epilogue title graphics
Continuous use of instrumental version of the New Zealand national anthem - potentially a way to support the Maori perspective
Themes - racism, oppression, conflict, intolerance, morality
The Maori perspective becomes more clearer late in the documentary where they are realising that New Zealand have concerning racial issues too.
The sad thing is that New Zealand still have concerning racial issues and seem to repeat mistakes of New Zealand's past.
Despite the aspect ratio being the standard of the time and budgetary restrictions (Academy Ratio), it still manages to be cinematic through drama and have an effect on the audience.
The police objecting to the camera operators documenting the events subtly enforces the police as antagonists.
It looks like their title graphics budget all went into the epilogue and ending credits
Gaylene Preston, Geoff Murphy, Roger Donalson, Alun Bollinger were all involved in this documentary
Gaylene Preston - Documentary filmmaker of War Stories our Mothers Never Told Us, Home by Christmas, My Year with Helen
Geoff Murphy - Director of Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu, The Silent Earth
Roger Donaldson - Director of Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace, Dante's Peak, The World's Fastest Indian
Alun Bollinger - Veteran cinematographer and former SIT film tutor
In 2012, the United Nations listed Patu into the UNESCO Memory of the World, under the New Zealand register for Documentary Heritage
08/03/2020
Critique presentation structureTitle
Table of Content
Working title
Research question and arguments
Methodology
Practitioners
- Wes Anderson
- Andrea Arnold
- Merata Mita
Primary and secondary influences
- Patu
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
Texts and media explored
- 2040
- An Inconvenient Truth
James Shaw footage
Content and presentation for my work in exhibition
Next Steps
References
Framing up: A journey into compositing political activism on film
How can the choice of aspect ratio can contribute the effectiveness of depicting political activism on film?
- The choice of aspect ratio will help each element in a documentary stand out and can work in any genre e.g. The Grand Budapest Hotel
- The Academy Ratio can make interviews more personal or intimate e.g. Andrea Arnold
- Amongst the crowd and handheld cinematography in 16:9 can make the audience feel like they're there
- political activism argument
- political activism argument
- methodology argument
The question is still too broad, but I don't see how I can improve it without using a comma and making it too long at this stage
Critique images
Wellywood Woman. (2015). 'Merata Is Always With Us'
https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/10/merata-is-always-with-us.html
IMDb. (n.d.). Wes anderson. Retrieved March, 8 2020, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/
09/03/2020
I tried to work on the presentation today, but I kept getting pressured and stressed out about it. I struggled to get my words together for my methodology. I was doing it from home, so I went to campus to see if I felt any better, but I didn't. I asked for advice from others in my class, but it made more pressure on me.
So I decided to leave it as is for now
11/03/2020
I spoke to Tyler Baikie about my project and he felt my arguments consistently lacked having to do with aspect ratio like is stated in my research question.He suggested to think of my arguments as keywords to make it work, to make my questioning more specific, and that a heuristic methodology could work in my case because I'm exploring different sources as I go.
I will keep his advice in mind, but I think it's fine for now since Kathryn was okay with my questioning recently.
Methodology
Barnes, Naomi. “Blogging as a method of inquiry.” In Recontextualising Educational Research Methodology 2017, 8 (1). Retrieved from https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/rerm/article/view/2236 .
Blogger is like longer versions of tweets and expands on the message you want to spread to the world. It can also be a literacy combination of digital technology and humanity because while it's composed by a human mind, it also takes on it's own life once published online and to the world. It's a format that allows to forever be developing and building on your text, even if it's published already online, which allows you to make room for improvement without your audience knowing
It's a good form or record of your journey like a documentary, which is fitting considering the genre for my individual film project
Advice from others can challenges you face or something you feel lost or disconnected about is a good advantage and opportunity you can receive from this form of active documentation. It allows for constructive criticism.
To use blogging in a traditional sense of writing, you must appreciate and/or optimistically respect the technology that makes this possible in the first place
Time becomes a critical aspect of this type of methodology
Past - Your original words and/or draft
Present - Revising, developing, improving your text, as well as your text published
Future - Further revisions, developments, improvements, comments, and feedback to your published text
Those whom contribute through feedback that have an effect or impact should be acknowledged in your published blog post as it develops and changes.
In allowing others to read and give feedback, you are both learning about each other by challenging your ideas. You acknowledge each other since they would be morally and ethically obliged to do if they were to do their own text or blog, which stemmed from giving feedback to your progress as documented on a blog.
The saying 'write what you know' can be a big part of your blogging since they are your experiences you are documenting. While it might not be academically acceptable in some instances, it does allow you to connect to your audience and communicates to them who you are as a person.
Writing a blog can test your worldview, expectations, and integrity. On the other hand, your understanding of social media (blogging, not just social networks like Facebook or Twitter) happens to grow the more you blog your personal experiences.
Blogging allows academics to democratize their ideas further and gain a new audience that they would not have beforehand
Idea for methodology statement / argument #1; Sharing my thoughts related to the project through blogging will show my creative process as a practitioner
Idea for methodology statement / argument #2; Receiving feedback on my progress or thought will help improvement my final work
I may not be on the right areas or thoughts that Barnes was meaning to communicate, but my thoughts from reading this text are my own and is a result communicated from being influenced or inspiring from the text.
12/03/2020
Eventually I have managed to complete my presentation by doing one bit after another each day. Today, I managed to type something up about my methodology in the critique presentation, which was a great relief for me. I also managed to do APA referencing.Reviewing my presentation, I could see what Tyler was talking about. It was fairly inconsistent and couldn't make complete sense sometimes. I would extensively fix, but I just don't have the brainpower to do so before the deadline tomorrow and I'm just doing to make do with that. I also heard that this presentation is a formal assessment and so it won't be marked.
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