Yaqian's Blog

Finally, i went through this semester, it is also the last semester of my university life, and also this self-assessment is my last paper work among these 3 years. To be honest, i am holding enough respect to this self reflection, because it means my overseas study voyage  will be ended with this paper. I do not know why i am not too exciting and happy, while i am loan to leave this kind of life here. Well, let me get to the point, I would like to totally againist the listed criteria to judge myself of this semester. Moreover, I would like to give myself specific grade with each points first to make it more clear.

* Successful time management

Yes, it is. Why i put this on the top, because i think it is the worst aspect which works really well for my personal. Well, thanks for clear and concise course guide of PP2 by the way. In comparison with past semesters’ arrangement, this time i finished everything with a stable peace, all individual works were submitted on time, they were not a rush job or into mess before the deadline. I feel i have to do like that, because it is my third year, i need a correct attitude to treat study as seriously. In particular, putting group cooperation stage aside, the early stage for individual work i entirely followed the timetable which was planned at the week 1. UnFortunately, our group shooting was not went smoothly, owing to we have similar personality and life habits, which let us could meet other frequently to fix plan as soon as possible. Basically, we followed the general timeline well, including book gears,draw storyboard, meetings, modify, and final decision. Every step was walked one by one. However, the contact with TSS staff was the most “surprised” step of our whole project, i think we respected their thoughts and suggestion, anyway, the communication between us and them was not successful at the beginning, this costed a lot of time,but experienced a long term and continues conversation, they cooperated with us finally.To sum up, the time management is successful if look the whole semester, at least i sumbited everything( individual)on time, and  i would like to give myself CR.

* Worked successfully as team member

In terms of this point, i also like to give myself D, because i contributed extra efforts to producer and director position as well. When we meet trouble in communication with STT, i kept positive attitude to solve problem, i have never give up. In fact, i worked with Tracy more than 4 times, and also she is one of my best friend in daily life. We have 3 people in our group, it seems like more big than other groups, but it really shows advantages, the more hands, the more efforts, and the more contribution. All of us can speak Chinese, this makes us communicate more easier and understand each other well. Despite the culture gap, the factor of language is a obvious barrier when i cooperated with local students before. Although i can get along with local students well and finish the project at the end, while the process is not easy. Therefore, this time, 3 people who have same background and same language, it is no doubt that we will not waste this chance to cooperate and help each other. More important is we have same goal and purpose, we love fashion and arts, we are passionate about this task, of course, all of us have full energy when we started. In addition, we are in the same camp.

* Excellent problem solving skills

To be honest, i do not think there is any extra problem will happen for this subject, until the last 6 mins doc came, i realised things were not such great as what i imagined before. The main problem for us was the negotiation with the SST. We thought Grace was happy to provide venue and corporation with us, however, the conversation about talking some preparation work was not functional, and the process was so slowly, we want to finalise and settle down everything in a short term, because the long term struggle would destroy energy and passion about this project. Although we understand what they Stuff were concerning about, therefore, we changed our ideas again and again until meet the needs and made it satisfied.After all, this work we need their support and cooperation, really needed. It necessary to have a optimistic attitude to face every times’s refuse and “said no”. Well, i would like to give myself D for this point, for my continuous brainstorm  and ideas contribution.

* Took responsibility for role

As what we distributed each depends on everyone’s talents and willings, my role is camera assistant and production designer. Our initial idea was panic theme, as a production designer, i took responsibility to think what stuffs and props should be included and prepared them, obviously, it was a panic, i recommend we decide a suburb location, a grassland where has woody table and a big tree, we figured our Albert park has such conditions. But changes always walks faster than plan, because we did not get what we imagined from Grace, we have to find and book venue by ourselves , therefore, we changed a lot our original ideas. Therefore, in order to prepare and make my position works well, i have to keep a sensitive mind to follow director and situation’s shifts, what they want, what they want the films looks like, what the location do not have, i would fix up and make it looks similar, i could not make it perfect, but i tried my best to reduce the distance between director’s imagine and realistic looking. However, in comparison with the role of director and camera person my role is a little bit not such crucial as others, so i think myself pass grade is fair.

In conclusion, put aside some objective causes, such as the limits of the film theme, the factors should be included from the studio, our subjective actions have achieved what we expected at the end. For myself, i took an glance of my experience from this semester, it was a ending, but it also equals to a new start for a further life journey. Past things illustrates my weakness and strengthens, advantages and disadvantages, I should have a optimistic heart to remedy my defect about knowledges and skills ( technical aspects) and make use of my talents in creation and the sense of design and music. In a word, i would like to give my self a CR generally.

The final three relevant films are selected for taking an in-depth looking are respectively The September Issue (2009)，Bill Cunningham New York (2010), and Valentino：The Last Emperor (2008). Personally speaking, this kind of non-fiction film is in the middle point between drama and realistic, while a great documentary has to combine and balance the two contrast pole well. Despite some obviously discipline that based on truth, like “no invented characters. No invented names. No drama devices owing more to the writer’s (or director’s) creative imagination than to the impeccable record of what actually happened.”(Alan Rosenthal, 1990) However, there are a series of questions surrounding me during the watching process. How the docudrama can be attractive and successful with creative filmmakers’ hands are tied? How many vital aspects support a film? How a docudrama would practically finish the storytelling by itself? Indeed, I gained benefits and figured out the answers after savoring the details of each film with eyes and heart.

“I think what I often see it that people are frightened about fashion. Because it scares them or make them feel insecure they just put it down. On the whole people that may say, the meanly things about our world I think that’s usually because they feel, in some ways, excluded or, you know, not a part of ‘the cool group’ so as a result they just mock it,” said by Anna Wintour at the begin of the film, The September Issue. In terms of the script and the plot of this film, in comparison The Devil Wears Prada (2006) with The September Issue I believe the latter one it is not splendid, however, the real magazine making process wins totally. It is interesting to know some background information of this comparison; the story of the Devil Wears Prada is loosely based on Anna Wintour. I thought an editor from Vogue equals to a queen from the fashion world. I thought this women is cold, bossing, and unique before, but I realized she is just like normal people, is a mother, is a sister, and is a person who is perusing what she love with full passion. This is the success for the story telling method, it makes audiences understand and think dependently without too many words and persuasive actions, and all the thoughts come from each real recording moment. Moreover, it is necessary to mention that the September issue has some outstanding innovation of its shooting angle and script design, it is not the real design or create something, it is a design for shooting. Specifically, director leads audiences jump into a colorful fashion world, it is not just a story, a lifestyle, and real making process about Vogue or Anna, but also an extraordinary arrangement for people who are working hard and making remarkable contributions besides Anna. Details about photographers, designers, and assistants are really distinctive. This group people have their own talents and ideas, they are genius and they are gold professional people in this field, director shows a competition between publish deadline and agreement from their “boss”. This perspective makes audience becomes nervous and worry about when Anna refused works, asked to overall. Overall, the storytelling and script for this film are my favorite part.

“The best fashion show is on the street,” says Cunningham. I would like to treat it as a personal narrative about dream. When I see he is sleeping on a fold-up bed in his tiny studio, he is cycling New York City, he is taking each street fashion pictures in real earnest. I am totally touched by his persistence for 30 years. As he says, “A lot of people have taste but few dare to be creative,” he says. To cover fashion properly, he claims, you have to do three things. You have to be at the fashion shows, you have to go to society “dos”, and you have to be on the street… The best fashion show there is”. It is an opposite way from the Anna Wintour store, this gay is actually an 83 years old man who wears a crazy style, but it looks really cool. This story is crossed and broken the line and the boundary of fashion, whether you are young and pretty model or you are wears expensive luxury pieces, fashion can be exist anywhere. First of all, one thing is for certain are the director reveals some deep thoughts of Cunningham which answers some questions when I watching. Just like Cunningham comes up with money is the cheapest thing in the world, this answers why he worked in magazines without salary, because he can get freedom that means expensive thing. Many people will think he should be a rich man who has strong economic power so that he can insist this career for such long period, but the director shoot some life details of he, which proves he is just a normal man gradually. I love this arrangement, left some curiousness at the beginning and let audience find out the answers by themselves finally. In conclusion, this is the most inspiring documentary I have seen.

The third one is the last emperor: Valentino, in fact i watched this one in last semester, why i choose this one to repeat again?Because the language. I attempted tasted some special things under the non-english speaking story. It is sure that fashion looks like a isolated world from ordinary people, even some people think it is far away from their daily life, include me. Therefore, the first i watched this film i thought is really strange, because i can not push myself into the language situation to understand the feeling. However, it is worth to watch again because the music of this film adds significant effects. I would like to talk about this aspect for this film. It is start with a relaxed and cheerful, even it is a little witty. In general, it is filled up with the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming, especially when the scene shows models who wears his designs stand by him, and he is concentrate on drawing and creating. Music helps a lot, it follows and walks with the story makes it feel relaxing and enjoyable. I think use witty music in such story about a professional designer is a innovation try, it is different from the traditional ways, using strict and formal music to makes it look professional. On the contrast, witty music for this situation is functional, Valentino’s success and achievements turns to more closer and  amiable. It  shorten the distance between the audience and the film itself.To be frank, it is surely a delectable experience for tasting such great films. As a media person, I gradually realised that I have different attitude when I watched films, despite the beautiful dress, the magnificent scenes, and the stirring music effects, there are more others effects are attracting my attention. It becomes a consideration, I wondering know how to catch and produce films like them, and I am turning to be a sponge, which aims to absorb everything from every corner in the film. All the film were not playing with smooth peace, due to I have to stop it and turn it back for watching it clearly, and more clearly. To sum up, I suggest that fashion documentary is the most dramatic type among various documentaries, owing to the fashion content enrich the film and makes it be slightly. Meanwhile, this type has its advantages to achieve a high level. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why we start documentary production with fashion, because it is the one that is closest to make it looks great. What’s more, some documentaries have stunning, pretty visual effects, but sometimes the character does not drive the story or the editing is distracting. The wonderful images will not make up for a boring story. On the other hand a successful story will still be a good film even if the cinematography is mediocre. It is necessary for a cinematographer who needs make enough compromises and should always make sure his images support the story. In a word, I learned a meaningful discipline is that beautiful images will be the basic element to contribute a film becomes a true visual poet.

Reference

Alan Rosenthal (2007), Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos, Fourth Edition, P287, SIU Press, 2007

<Workshop 1 about Lighting>

This workshop introduces a fundamental landscape of the concept of lighting skills. Ultimately, lighting is about controlling and shaping light and shadows, reflections, refractions, and even color-whether you do it on a computer or on a film set. In fact, it was not my first time to learn lighting knowledges, i remember there were Film’s labs about basic lighting which i saw and knew a series of lighting equipments. At that time, i just thought lighting world is a big family, it has a glossary of terms and variety functional lights. Despite the introduction of lighting equipments, i believe that it is more important to open light world with understand the principle and theory of lights. As what the workshop mentioned that this kind of operate requires an understanding of how light works, the aesthetic art of lighting, and techniques for lighting. This knowledge helps you develop your eye so that you can look with understanding at your image, clearly see it, and know what needs to be done. By looking and learning as much as you can about color and lighting, you can decide which information to use to create your lighting design-be it naturalistic or stylized in a myriad of ways. Moreover, i learned a general conception of basic elements and key effects about lighting, such as the shadow ( moving of shadows, composition, day of time), colour( over exposure, colour supplement, warm/cold colour them),and  different light ( key light, absorb light, reflected light, hard/soft light).  I think i will ultilise such therotical konwledge into further practical tasks. Take example, i like to draw storyboard. When I was given my first storyboard job on a documentary, I had no images on my mind, so I turned on my TV and started drawing the images as they went by. I believe excellent lighting and light design skills lighting can help tell a story a lot. At least, my storyboard will be better.

<Workshop 2 about performance>

It is a impressive sentences talked by the teacher. ” Screen film is not the film, it is the map of the film.” I wondering asking,in that way, who is the real story teller, the director or the charaters? As the tutor said ” go through the script first”, it seems like all things are based on the script, no changes, no uncertain will appear anymore. However, performance has the potential to create surprised things. The happening between charatcers is the incredible exciting.Even, some preparation they did not do is the only thing makes its different from the initial script, which will lead out some shocked effects.  In addition, this realisation is benifit to our script writing and documentary ideas exploration. I am thinking about maybe leave some spaces to actors, or leave some distances between script and rehearsal when we shoot a film. Because i exception some fresh things and ideas will happen suddendly without any preparation. It sounds crazy,hahah, but if there are enough time and energy, i would like to try this method by next time.

I imagined several times about what this studio looks like on the way to Collingwood. Is it mysterious? Is it has delicate fittings? Is it in a mess with a exactly free style? However, i think the real situation of this studio is not the one created by my mind,because it starts from a cafe bar….not with dazzling brand logo, a normal sense of high class fashion, is a bright place which makes me feel amiabe. Anyway, i love it. Especially when i realized the clothing and accessories were made by reused and recycled materials. The designers here frequently use hand dyeing techniques and all materials used are ethically produced using only reclaimed or up-cycled materials and all collections are the result of collaboration between the designers.  As i know, the Social Studio is a great social initiative with the aim of providing education, work experience and employment opportunities for people from refugee backgrounds. It consists of a retail store, a cafe (The Cutting Table) and a fashion school, moreover, it is supported by RMIT, and it takes part in some charity programs. Even better is that they have a café operating on the same social mission, it is different like other normal cafes. The foods there are all Halal and free-range, guilt-free food, too. Really nice Moroccan ‘burger’ vegetarian, and bunless…and guiltless), and special African herbal teas. Thus, the most impressive impression about the studio is it has a strong sense of natural. Take a glance of the window and the production table, all fabrics and jewelleries are laying on the table and box, they are waiting for the magical hands to recreate them into a fresh new look. I think the atmosphere in there is peaceful, no business profits, everything has the original shape. It reminds me the scenes of running in the Arica grassland, the touch of wide animals, the clean wind and air, a bit hug with the natural world. On the other hand, the style of clothing, i mean the style of design, you can find all works are simple, without complicated decroration parts, and also without any sense of pursue or imitate modern or popular tendency.  I guess, the motivation of such clothes is just they are designing what they want, dropped off other desires. I believe there a group people who are interested in this new method studio, and will donate them to support it achieves there purposes. In addition, i enjoyed the time of visiting the social studio, i hope one day, if i have time, money, stuff, i would like to have one, or just join one as a free time career. By the way, the herbal teas are rally really good, i can forget this special taste and smell. Recommend you guys try it.

1. A story about tailors. As we know, despite the fashion designers created amazing clothes, but they still need handmade stuff to make their design draws become to reality. I would like to shoot the process, how the tailors let the papers into physical.

2. The change process of food. I would like to use a week of time to recording food’s every day change, including fruits, milk, vegetables.

3. A story about melbourne street arts, just 2 days, one day for their performance day on the street, another day for their free day, what they do at their normal times.

“I know what women want. They want to be beautiful.” Says Valentino Garavani in Matt Tyrnauer’s swank new documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008)

The Last Emperor is a typical doumantary film on the legendary fashion designer Valentino Garavani, in the wake of his exit in 2008 from the company he founded in Rome more than 45 years ago. Produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, the film is an intimate, engaging and very funny fly-on-the-wall expoloration of the singular worlds of one of Italy’s richest and most famous men. The film documents the colourful and amazing closing act of Valentino’s celebrated career, narritives the story of his magical life and explores the larger themes affecting the fashion business today. As the film information shows, the film production team shoot over 250 hours of montages for 2 years, from June 2005 to July 2007,with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. Personally speaking, a good documentary should be based on enough time recording and a long-term follow process, surprised moments, changes, milestomes always appears without any preparation. Thus, documentaries can be understand be a freestyle communication  between people and time.I love every minute of it. It decries this group of fashionistas perfectly, some collective terms comes out with watch it, flourishes,bustles,ostentations…Indeed, this film start with an attrative  opening, Valentino preparing for his Fall 2006 show, which catches my attentions immediately, a strong sense of fashion, dramatic, luxury booms from the scene. Particularly, this feeling is stressed by the following red dressing scene. He has finished sketching a signature Valentino Red evening dress when a naked model comes into the viewing room.  Moreover, it is not just a simple documentary which aims such luxury scenes,but also tells some moving stories,some beautifully tragic messages of the Valentino documentary. It is constructed by part comedy, part love story The Last Emperor was not the fashion retrospective I feared, but a timeless snapshot into the life of a master of his craft. I believe the love story part is the shining point of this documentary, it reduces the distance between normal people and fashion, like Valentino, his is a famous star, and also he is a normal man, who relays on love, happiness, motions, like all of us.

Picture me is the another documentary i watched, which is a raw and personal model diary. In comparsion with the former one about Valentino, the protagonit is not a very famous person, Sara ziff. The film tells the inner and out world of the model life, the bad aspects with the good, especially, it gives a meaningful inside look into the real world behind modelling, behind shining delicate make up, it is reality, not where the camera’s are set up in a room, and then the focus enters…this was live, where sara had to even ask casting directors if her byofriend could come in and film.

Overall, i both love of them, one for fashion itself, one for models (who express fashion). The former one has wonderful music, and informative interviews, it is a sumptuous dinner of visual effects. The latter one has attractive content, the fascination comes from the story itself of a model, but from a documenatry angle, i dislike the animation sequences during the credits, it requires a strong narrative structure and some clever editing, because of the last 30mins are little bit vapid.