damien

what Ive learnt in the course so far:

where I’m going from here, both in course and beyond
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
well being

its a turn of phrase that is off the curriculum, particularly at end of semester as the overload peaks and the synapses reach critical mass. The entry above the dotted lines here was, as Rupert stated in his trackback, somewhat minimalist. In a way it acted as a metaphor for the burnout I had reached by the submission date for the Media Contexts blogs.

And though I had plenty I could have said, I really had nothing positive to contribute to the conversation at that point. Which is to say, I needed to stop, find clarity and find my clear perspective.

Media Contexts presented the opportunity for a dialogue to start within the group. In hindsight this did not meet my expectations, giving me reason to consider whether my expectations were unreasonable.

Dawkins pointed out: “The adversarial approach to truth isn’t necessarily always the best one. On the contrary, when two people disagree strongly, a great deal of time may be wasted. It’s been well said that when two opposite points of view are advocated with equal vigor, the truth does not necessarily lie mid-way between them. And in the same way, when two people agree about something, it’s just possible that the reason they agree is that they’re both right. There’s also I suppose the hope that in a dialogue of this sort each speaker may manage to achieve a joint understanding with the other one, better than he would have done on his own.”
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge53.html

Expectations…
I think a Masters course must challenge the participants to ever higher levels of to inquiry. Given the content is centred on Media Production, excellent resources are available with which to stimulate the debate. I believe that the MC seminars would benefit from an inclusion of relevant video/film and audio clips: challenging, topical, insightful. Most media production students have a Visual-Spatial orientation and the opportunity to provide such stimulus should be embraced.

I have decided to persevere with the MMP program is based upon my substantial dislike of giving up on anything. I think the first semester could have been much better, but I know the production phases of semester 2 and 3 will be far more accomodating for my personal goals and challenges.

And Beyond…
Right now I am focusing on making my short films and growing with my daughter and partner . Somewhere in the ether of my future lies a destiny that my actions NOW will lead me toward. So for now its eyes on the track. As Bresson intimated about the role of criticism,

Master precision. Be a precision instrument myself.
(Notes on the Cinematographer, p. 3)

for notes on Notes to a Cinamatographer

The Lev Manovich softCinema model is database dependant. That is, it relies on constructing the narrative from a series of clips(maybe thousands of clips) stored on a server hard disc drive. The obvious downside of this is the cost of bandwidth for both the producer and the audience. Should a new technology arrive that could dramatically reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality, then the Manovich model may have a wider appeal.

When you consider the work of companies such as Art+Com
that look to provide commercial applications of new media concepts, it is easier to consider how the ideas of Manovich might be applied.
For example, Sail Traffic Instructions (2003) worked as an Virtual Reality installation, but the concept could easily have been applied to create an online VR interface. The difference would be that the emergent narrative would be constructed from movements of the wheel. With each directional change a new scenario would emerge.

I’ll link a series of audio bites this in as soon as I can figure how the hell I can upload it the server.
Servers! seems like a poorly chosen word to me…

Still, I know in theory it should work from remote sites, so, given my obstinate determination to resolve the “you cant do that” in all things thinking and feeling, its only a matter of time…

Australian Screen Directors Association mini-conference, June 11, Storey Hall, RMIT.
This was packaged as The Essential Workshop for Directors and this conference delivered beyond its brief.
Shoni has a post that covers the conference content in detail, so I think I’ll focus on the aspects that had most impact on me.
Nina Landis, actor and teacher, began the day by taking us on an inspired journey through the history of acting technique. An accomplished lecturer/performer, Nina brought the material to life. As a friend said to me later,

I went through three years of acting college, spent two years studying media, and finally someone has connected the dots, explained what acting is really all about…

Her dissemination of contemporary theatrical acting technique in relation to acting for the screen was illuminating. Given the disjointed shooting structure actors must endure as a result of shot blocking, Landis emphasised the need for strategies that the director could employ to ensure an unbroken line of action.
To this end, affective memory (aka emotional memory) and how actors draw upon it (”the method”) was reviewed through constant referencing of the pantheon of modern theatre directors: Stanislavski, Strasbourg, Adler, Hagen.

When an actor creates emotion for a role,whose emotion does he or she experience when acting? His own, of course. The only emotional life the actor can create is his own, though granted the actor’s imagination can be added to his own truthful basis. The only imagination the actor has is his or her own, the only life history nesting there, in an actor’s subconscious, is his own. He cannot borrow Einstein’s emotional life, Brando’s, or his friends. The actors’ total being (physical,mental, emotional and spiritual) is his instrument - the only clay with which he has to work.

Thanks to modern psychological discoveries and the dedicated men and women who have explored, taught, directed and used acting techniques which lead to truthful, believable behavior, acting has finally become a craft and an art.
Lorrie Hull, Ph.D.(2005)

A few good sites on Acting
The Method & Affective memory
http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/spd130et/acting.htm

H.264 is a codec that improves the viability of video on the web, and has immediate application advantages for broadcast, cable, and videoconferencing. It’s also known as MPEG 4 path 10.
The implication for new media content is obvious- suddenly our productions have a more affordable distribution and marketing capability.

http://www.shapeofdays.com/2005/05/more_h264_demon.html
this site has a good demonstration of H.264 using action footage from Saving Private Ryan and talking heads in front of static backgrounds from The West Wing. Not my favorite movies but they clearly illustrate the point.
Five different samples for each clip are provided for comparison :
* Encoded at 256 kilobits per second
* Encoded at 512 kilobits per second
* Encoded at 768 kilobits per second
* Encoded at 2,048 kilobits per second
* Encoded at 4,096 kilobits per second
The important aspect here is that codecs are most susceptible to artifacting(breakdown of the pixels) when there is a lot of movement within the frame.
The results show that, even with dynamic action sequences, an encoding bit rate of 2048kbs or higher will look like DVD quality whilst significantly reducing the file size. Static scenes (eg a short interview clip, say, for a vog) could get away with 512 or 768. This is a very good thing!

QuickTime 7 features a state-of-the-art video codec called H.264, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates. Ratified as part of the MPEG-4 standard (MPEG-4 Part 10), this ultra-efficient technology gives you excellent results across a broad range of bandwidths, from 3G for mobile devices to iChat AV for video conferencing to HD for broadcast and DVD

Podato is a dating site which delivers personal adverts direct to your MP3 Player
http://podato.com/