GM Pesh

I can see many MMPers have been blogging and some are not happy. This was always going to happen. After getting a little sh*ty my self i must reflect on the course.

Over all the course has been a huge learning curve. I have gotten a huge amount of confidence in my abilities to produce a lot of work under high pressure. I have always wanted to direct but I have always wanted to know whether I had the drive and the intelligence for it. I think I do…sort of.

I am incredibly happy to have gotten the “Hit Game” gig (thanks Rachel) because not only have I gotten invaluable experience but I have also made some contacts that will hopefully get me work (netorking here I come).

Dirty Diner was HUGE. I have said it many times before and I’ve just said it again. But with the help of some very dedicated people I managed to pull it off. I believe that it’s a good indicator of what I’m capable of. Now if only someone would give me a paid job making TV drama.

Trimming Migration was fun to make! I came to this country saying I wanted to make documentaries in Kenya when I’m done. I’d still like to make doco’s but I’d love it if I could do that here.

Thats’s all….i think.

This one’s done too. I seem to have been saying this so many ties but I haven’t had the time to re-edit my work. I got some feedback from Leo and what he’s said is what I have also figured. I’m not happy with the end of Trimming Migration. I always seems to have trouble ending my work. I thought that since I started with a personal narration I must end with it too. But I don’t think it works very well. I’m also aware that the V/O narration does not work very well. I don’t think I have thought through this aspect well enough. I need some way to push the narrative and some way to explain some of the legistlation that is an integral part of the doco. The only thing I could think of was to use V/O narration or titles. I did not want to use title’s because there would be a lot of them. V/O narration was in the end a good way to go because I was able to do it myself and add a personal touch to the documentary.

I’m quite happy with the rest of it although I (as always) feel that there are things that could do with change.
I obviously had a lot of inspiration from working on the “Hit Game”.

Wow! I cannot believe it’s over! This has been the biggest learning curve I’ve had! I remember having extreme panic attacks at the start of this year. Panic attacks, sleepless nights, fits of anger! sheesh!

anyway, it’s done. there are obviously things I’d like to fix but because of a lack of support from some fellow students and an incredibly heavy workload we haven’t had the time to fix these things.

These are thing thing I’d like to fix:
1) Grading – Although I think Juha and Ashley did a great job on lighting there are some areas were the continuity of light don’t match up. There are a few shots that are either too dark, too bright, too yellow or too orange. In some shots one of the characters was lit beautifully but the other was not. In sc12 forexample when Dom and Tracey are talking on the couch behind Mimi, the reverse shot looks a bit odd because Tracey is in darkness. Things like that need to be mucked around with in After Effects. But we just don’t have the time.

2) Music – Brilliant job from Dean. I feel very bad for making him do it in the limited time we gave him considering he had to go see his parents. The only thing I would have liked changed was the scene were Tracey is pouring her heart out to Dom. There are rock guitars in the back ground were as I would have like to go with something softer.

3) Get rid of the 2 segments. They obviously don’t work, or at least they don’t work in the way we’ve set them. I’d like to re-think that one and get back to you.

4) There’s obviously the issue of changing some of the aspects of the way this was directed…but we won’t go there will we?

Obviously these things can be fixed in time. After a short break I will try fix these small things so I am much happier with the project.

Lastly I’d love to get some feedback on it. I know it’s not amazing but I also know that there are some bits that worked. someone tell me what they think please!

all in all I’m very happy to have made the friendships I did and have such an interesting adventure.

Here is a still from “Davo”. The file has been corrupted but is still viewable…the MMP edit suit has been corrupting files throughout this semester…

ok…I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as we thought it would. we had a whole range of problems! After hooking up the xbox, hitting record and trying to playback we realised that good old Microsoft encodes its video signal. So our next step was to find what the techies described as a “Genlock”. Our quest took us to RMITV where an old school box with knobs and buttons on it was presented to us. The advantage of this device was that we were now able to record capture directly into Final Cut. This meant no loss of quality and saved us about an hour. Now our biggest worry was to compress the entire file into less than 100kb and keep the screen size to a mere 128×98 pixels. sound was not an issue as they were just words to match the visuals.
The 15second final cut (we worked out this was as long as it could be) was exported as a quicktime file with the above specifications. Sound was also compressed and reduced to 8KHz sample rate, audible, not the best quality but fine for the intended medium. we were at first confused at what codec we were meant to use but eventually worked it out. The files size stood at 96kb…perfect!

After testing we realised that the file would work on most mobile phone brands but Sony Erricson and NEC had issues reading the format. This was incredibly confusing as we had used the MMP Media phone a year ago to create mobile movies with success. We tried different formats and different files but for some reason the Media phone would not read it. After consulting with Jenny and going through the list of phones (which were mostly Nokia) we made the decision to send the file anyway. This was done by MMS. We didn’t get any calls back saying the video hasn’t opened so were relieved by that. However, of the three feedback blog comments, non mentioned our “Davo”. Sad that yet another masterpiece has not been popularly received

Well it’s not only the end of semester but also the end of the degree! phew!! it’s been one hell of a ride! The end of semester has meant that we put in a few blogs, one of them being a relfection on the course! well…here goes…

This has been a good subject for us to gear up into finding a place in the work force. But being the media industry means that we have to do it very differently to other graduates! I never gotten used to the networking thing. I always feel really self conscious about sounding disingenuous when I know I should be schmoozing. This makes me mumble and clam-up! Blah!

We’ve had interesting guest lecturers and very cool fun class excursions. For a few months now I’ve been rearing to get into the industry! I’m sick of study! I know I’ll regert saying those words in a few years but I’d like to be earning a living by doing what I love! This course has only increased my drive for it!

Ok the only problem I’ve had in this course is the fact that my blogs and my research assessment will be in late! This has just been a misunderstanding on my part! I thought all assessments were due at the same time when the showreel due date was moved! These last two weeks have been very tiring & stressful because I’ve been putting in my permanent residency application and working on a TV show so I haven’t had the time to think about assessments. And now I feel like an idiot trying to explain myself on my blog…

Alright the final paragraph! I’m glad to have had Elisa as our tutor! She has always been very thoughtful and inspiring even after we didn’t turn up for her first class!! I’m glad to have met various industry proffessionals who I will hopefully run into professionally in the future. As always it has been nice to have a course that has prepared us for “the reel world”!

Wow what a place! I have been to DP before 2-3 years ago but it still blows me away!! I loved watching the continuous widening of the eyes and dropping of the jaws of my classmates as they were taken from room to room! It was an honour to be taken around the most respected and successful post production facility in Australia. Jun in particular was most funny as he tried to keep a composed figure on realising that Tsui Hark director of”Seven Swords” had been in the building!

Now everyone wants a job there! Not only because we’re all technophiles but also because DP has an amazingly supportive and fun work environment. Check out the client testimonials on their website for proof! But alas the only way in is to work your way through the ranks starting as a runner. I’m wondering who got the runner job that was advertised there recently. Lucky b*****d!

It was very interesting to note that most of the work going through there were foreign features. The lady (whose name I can’t remeber) who showed us around even had here office clock set to US time. Granted thats where most of the money (besides TVCs & childrens TV) in the Australian industry is coming from. I was also very happy to hear that they are encouraging Australian student and budding films by offering special rates. The Magician is an example of a successful new-comer production that has benefitted from DPs genrosity!

Now, i wonder how much work will need to be done on Dirty Diner for it to be of broadcast standard. I know that we need to do a hell of a lot of colour grading! We got to see some grading done at DP and it looked like something I would be good at. I have an eye for detail. I also know that some or most of the grading demo they gave us can be done on Adobe After Effects…a program I have access to both at uni and at home. Only difference is that with After FX it’s not done on the fly…I hate having to render!

The last 2 weeks has been a huge struggle for me. I have started to put together the mountain-loads of paperwork and go through the roller coaster of emotions that comes with starting my permanent residency (PR) application. I don’t trust my immigration agent. So why don’t I change agents? Well he recently got two people who did photography and advertising courses (and then hairdressing – similar situation to myself) their PR. He is a big talker and always seems to be reminding everyone about how he is the only agent to have gotten someone their PR in one day! But when I speak to the receptionist and his employees they seem to have less confidence in him!

So while I’m filling out the forms I am having to convince myself, mostly in vain: “You’ll get through this! In a few months you will be an Australian permanent resident. Your agent isn’t talking out of his arse. He really does know what he’s doing even if he lied to you about how to get your PR just so he could get a commission!”

I’m getting alittle disheartened at the amount of times I’ve heard how difficult it is to survive in the Australian Film and TV industry. However, it is very nice and inspiring to hear from people such As Ewan Burnett. He told us stories about his adventures as a young man trying to keep a stable career in the industry.

Ewan is obviously the man who EP’d Last Man Standing. Sadly like most TV dramas of late it hasn’t been doing very well. I won’t go into the reasons why I think it didn’t take off because they’ve probably already been put forward by various critics from the media and the public. What I will do is moan about my chances of making drama here in Australia.

Ewan Burnett is obviously a very dedicated, hardworking and clever man. He has had a huge amount of experience in the industry in a number of genres. And most importantly he’s Australian. I’m not. Until my permanent residency (PR) is granted and even possibly after that there will be some hesitance in me being offered work. But I have been offered work. I just finished a week as 2nd unit, 2nd camera operator on “Australian Celebrity Poker Challenge” made for Foxtel. The director on the attachment I just completed is the writer and 2nd unit director on “ACPC”.

What is scaring me most is that all the hard work I’ve done to get to the starting block of my career may end up being useless if my PR falls through.

Franziska’s second module was about helping us write our one liner, one para and one page. She also gave us details about other stuff that should go into a marketting document. It was good to do this stuff in class where someone who hadn’t been involved with any of our work forced us to do it and then read through them with pointers on how to improve.

Of course it wasn’t easy writing the one liner when you are so close to the work. I struggled with it and instead wrote the synopsis’ first as well as the directors’ statement. I’m glad to have had to write the director’s statement because it gave me an opportunity to write put down on paper the things that I thought my work is saying, after I had completed it. I could then read through it and watch my doc to see if what I had written made any sense.

Now that most of the paper work for the marketting plan has been generated I can give myself a break from borth projects and either do the marketting wokr myself or find someone that is willing to do so for me.