Digital Video - Week 8

06/05/2020

I got a start on my video to present in the first exhibition. It hasn't been easy using Premiere on my laptop because it being a smaller screen compared to the SIT computers and the RAM and hard drive on my laptop struggles a lot to process and operate Premiere, which makes it annoyingly slow to edit and preview on my Premiere project.

Stock footage

Through an article on No Film School, I found a website called Pexels, which offers high quality royalty free stock footage that is pretty much under the public domain.

I managed to find quite a few stock footage worth using

Invisiblepower

https://www.pexels.com/video/wind-turbine-on-a-field-at-sunrise-857010/

Tom Fisk

https://www.pexels.com/video/aerial-view-of-a-person-doing-the-lawn-of-a-golf-course-3140211/

https://www.pexels.com/video/aerial-view-of-a-boat-sailing-1820193/

https://www.pexels.com/video/aerial-view-of-people-walking-in-the-streets-2088290/

https://www.pexels.com/video/a-hill-of-waste-materials-3186590/

INNORECORDS PhotoVideos

https://www.pexels.com/video/a-butterfly-on-a-flower-1779440/

Nathan Cowley


https://www.pexels.com/video/blades-of-grass-2480792/

Pressmaster

https://www.pexels.com/video/people-sorting-plastics-3196638/

https://www.pexels.com/video/feet-of-people-wearing-protective-suits-walking-on-debris-3192080/

Md Amir Salmani

https://www.pexels.com/video/two-kids-chasing-the-pigeons-on-a-parking-lot-3845152/

Matthew Lee Moore

https://www.pexels.com/video/beach-aerial-footage-taken-by-a-drone-854218/

Cottonbro

https://www.pexels.com/video/plastic-filled-environment-can-cause-suffocation-3754909/

Kelly Lacy

https://www.pexels.com/video/abandoned-building-in-an-industrial-area-2248637/

Music

I didn't want to rely on Kevin Macleod as I always do, so I looked into other royalty free music providers like Pond5 and Artlist.io, but both of them were costed money that I didn't have. I used Filmmusic.io instead, which is what the level 7 group project used last year. Filmmsuic.io is on the same server and have similar creative commons rules as Kevin Macleod music does.

Inspiring Teaser  by Rafael Krux

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser-

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Online chat

We were informed of the new deadlines for the next BSA731 assessments

First Draft due - 13th May, 5pm

Final Draft due - 27th May, 5pm

Pre-production paper work due - 8th July, 5pm

Presentations today had solid concepts, but I tended to get stuck on questions to ask them as feedback. Luqman's livestream of his presentation was so patchy I had to ask him to go back to the slide that explains his synopsis since I didn't really understand what he was pitching because of the patchy connection.

James also informed us that we will need to do an artist statement, which is contrary to what he told me in our previous one-on-one chat. He suggested that the artist statement should include key practitioners, project development, analytical and critical thinking, and any stuff to do with about your submission.

Feedback on my presentation

Caleb didn't completely understand what I was exactly pitching for the documentary and he thought that I had too many different elements for a short documentary. This feedback I don't agree with because it's a work in progress and it's hard to say what will be ;pinned to the story until post-production like other documentaries.

James gave me constitutive feedback, which was that I should articulate the core of my documentary into the form of a question. That is something that didn't occur to me when developing this presentation, but he suggested for me to think about it and that he will talk about it further in our next one-on-one chat.

I didn't receive any other feedback from the rest of the class, other than Oisin saying that 'it was fine'.

Caleb's feedback made me realise a flaw in my role as a director, which is my inability to clearly communicate my ideas, even when I explained them and even though I understand them, many do not.

07/05/2020

I did some more sound mixing with my Premiere project, but then needed a power nap. I also realise that I needed a bit more stock footage and add some news articles.

I exported the project into an H.264 MP4 video file to give me a better preview of my current progress because Premiere can be really laggy on my laptop, when previewing a sequence.

Release form email

I emailed Danny Stephens again (Hon James Shaw's comms guy) about the release form. 

I made some changes to the release form where Shaw would need to sign to limit him disclosing his personal information, so he just needs to include his email, phone number, and signature. 

I haven't heard back from him or Shaw in nearly two months and I thought that is good enough reason to email Stephens, but I also cc'd James Shaw this time.

I got a reply from Danny this time and he asked for a copy of my footage. They have no issue with the release form

Chat with Duncan

I had an amazing chat to Duncan about what the BSA731 paper requires of me and the progress of my project and what my film project is about. He was very interested and provided me with very useful advice. He suggested focusing my efforts now. The online climate strike is in another week, so I should try and orgainse and record as many Zoom interviews as possible before then. However, I should learn a bit about Zoom and how to use it, including doing a test recording of a Zoom meeting with a friend.

Ask your contact if there is anyone else to talk to that might be interested. I might contact every organiser in the country and come up with new questions, especially do with covid-19. Maybe interview them regularly like a video diary. At the start of every interview, always ask the subject if it's okay to record for my documentary

It would be awesome if I got in contact with Greta Thunberg somehow.



I added images into the end of the video and made it subtly zoom in to look professional and engaging. The images were also from Pexels and of school climate strikes

Markus Spiske

https://www.pexels.com/photo/climate-road-landscape-people-2990642/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/climate-cold-road-landscape-2559747/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/road-landscape-people-woman-2990609/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-street-earth-sign-2990605/

Pixabay

https://www.pexels.com/photo/landscape-photography-of-cooling-tower-162646/

I listened into the Greens webinar about climate action following the pandemic, but I had trouble paying attention, so I only watched the first half of it. It was also live streamed onto YouTube, so I can just watch it properly later.

08/05/2020

I managed to complete my video throughout the day. I changed the subtitle font to a Roboto font and it made it stand out more and look more professional. I also added credits to acknowledge footage from Flickr, music from Filmmusic.io, and general credits for New Zealand Parliament, Flickr, and Pexels. 

I didn't credit the Pexels footage properly because it's almost in the public domain and their licences don't require you to credit the footage and their creators. I also didn't credit exact Pexels footage because it would make it longer than it should.

The final video ended up being two minutes and 10 seconds long and the sound mix was okay as well.


https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/information-for-the-press/parliament-tv-terms-and-conditions/

https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/copyright/

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/parliamentary-rules/standing-orders-2017-by-chapter/appendix-d-rules-for-filming-and-conditions-for-use-of-official-television-coverage/#_Toc490063270

Parliament footage
I took another look at parameters of using Parliament footage, which is a big gray area. In the standing order, it allows you to reuse the footage as long as it is not for commercial or political advertising purposes, or to misrepresent individuals. However, it has no formal process, contact, or license to follow. 

I'm trying not to overthink it.

The footage is my is for the purposes of presenting both sides of the political argument of this social movement. Most of their content is protected under Creative Commons, with the exception of Parliament footage and third-party content.
All their videos are available to download on Vimeo with the option available for every video. I was every conflicted about the copyright aspects because of the gray areas, but I may look more deeper into it if used in the final cut. Things should be fine for the exhibition video.

WeTransfer
I informed Danny Stephens that I would be sending the James Shaw footage to him through We Transfer, which he was fine with. Receiving files through We Transfer are easy compared to Google Drive, which can always play up.

Because of the file sizes (4.1 GB in total), I bought monthly subscription to We Transfer. I managed to send the video files to Danny with no issue tonight. 


Artist statement
I tried spending the day writing the artist statement, but I was incapable of doing so and had mental blocks, so it took all day. I was worried that there was a 5pm deadline because James was giving me mixed messages throughout the week about the artist statement. In the end, I sent my content for the exhibition to James through We Transfer just before 7pm.

I also created an A4 poster of aspect ratios to give people a basic visual idea of what my research is about; aspect ratio. The images in the poster were from camera framing tests that I had done prior to the lockdown.

10/05/2020

I found some documentaries on PS Store that I cannot find anywhere else 

• Won't you be my neighbor
• Roger and Me

I purchased a pro subscription to Zoom last night, but today I will be doing a test meeting with my niece, Makayla to test filming interviews online. I recorded for a few minutes on Zoom and OBS. Recording on OBS at the same time as Zoom allows me to have backup footage to the recorded interview, in the event that Zoom footage doesn't work or somehow gets corrupted.

The recorded test interview came out okay

I watched some video tutorials on Zoom last night to understand how to use Zoom, but there was nothing needed to learn it turns out. It's pretty basic to use. I did try using a virtual background, but it blends right into me because it doesn't suit my environment.

Looking back I could had done it on the desktop version. I downloaded it a while after the test meeting and came up with that realization then. I thought I need do another test meeting because recordings from OBS wasn't compatible to import into Adobe software, but it depends on when my niece is free next and it's not really a priority because OBS is used to record backup footage for online interviews. I have changed the recording format from mkv to mp4.

I have figured out from doing online interviews is that the audio and video quality from each individual is determined by the individual's computer. For example, my PC laptop had SD quality video and wasn't good enough compared to the niece, who was connected through her MacBook.

I could get contact with Ashleigh Putt-Fallows and ask her for footage and potential contacts to also interview later on, but I just need to get my mind together first and need to organised interview questions. I could look into the local climate strikes to get more informed questioning about last year

School Climate 4 Strike has started advertising their online NZ climate strike this weekend. 
I will eventually get in contact with them for footage of climate strikes from last year.

Tonight, I draft some emails to send to School 4 Climate Strike.

12/05/2020

I was meant to send the emails, but I lost confidence in them for now and have been putting it off since then.

Sin Ae, K., Yang Kwon, M., & Young Hwan, J. (Producers), & Joon Ho, B. (Director). (2019). Parasite [Motion picture]. CJ Entertainment.

Themes - class divide, social inequality, poverty, wealth, morality

I managed to get a copy of Parasite to watch from PlayStation Store

Parasite is a brilliant social thriller that starts off as a universal story of poverty and it reminded me of the show, Shameless, only for the film to change its tone to a thriller with many unexpected twists and turns. There seems to be no tangible drama until half way through the film.

I quite like how the cinematography differences between the poor family's house and the rich family's house. It is used to compliment and for them to become hand in hand with production design.

Cinematography used in the Kim's (the poor family) house consists of stationary camera, and cramped and claustrophobic framing, whereas cinematography used in the Park's (the rich family) house consists of wide and open spaces type of framing and dolly camera movement.

What makes the film engaging in the first half is how the Kim family perfectly executes in hustling and coning the Park family into getting employment.

I like to think of the Kim family as more like antiheroes than protagonists.

Cho Yeo-jeong as Mrs Park is a great performance to watch, especially her over-the-top reactions and emotions she expresses, which adds an extra dimension in portraying a wealthy, yet gullible character. Her character in the first half almost gives comedy to the film

I quite how Mrs Park reacts to TB (manipulated by the Kim family) like as thought it's covid-19, which makes the scene more relevant this year than it was last year.

I managed to eventually have enough confidence to send those emails and received replies from School Strike 4 Climate. My main subject is still very keen to be involved and looks like she also replied to the email that I sent to the main email for the school climate strike organisation in New Zealand. 

They have plenty of images and footage that I can use for my documentary and have asked if I wanted any organised outside of Southland to be interviewed for my documentary.