FILMP/MEDP 160
Field Trip / Museum of the Moving Image
Fall 2015 – Nov. 25
Visit and Blogging Assignment:
Your assignment is to go to the museum and, with your group, experience at
least one of those demos, and report on your blog about that participation.
In this blog you
should make an effort to explain what you discovered about a specific aspect of media
production, what you learned that you didn’t know before, in a way that might
communicate to the non-initiated. How have the changes in moving image technology
changed the way moving images are created, how they look, and how we experience them?
This blog is 250 words in length.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Project #3
FILMP/MEDP 160 • FALL 2015 PROJECT 3: CONTINUITY STORYTELLING / MINI-DOCUMENTARY
You have the option of doing either a MINI-DOCUMENTARY or a CONTINUITY STORY for your final project. You will work in groups of two and create one project together. Your film may not be longer than 3 minutes.
This is an assignment that includes video and audio, so if you will have to sync sound (dialogue or interview) you will have to use double system sound (we will go over this in lecture and lab). You may also use ambience recorded at your location, music, sound effects or narration.
Preproduction documents are due in Lab 11!
Final Project due in Lab 14 (or when your lab instructors tell you)
You will shoot during class time, but you should expect to do some editing on this project OUTSIDE of class time.
Narrative Option: Choose A or B
Option A involves one person with a clear task to accomplish. Your character needs to move through space to accomplish this task but obstacles get in the way and they try to overcome these complications. They either succeed or fail. The task, the environment, and the action should reveal character.
Option B involves creating a story, or a mystery, which involves one person chasing (or following) another. The dramatic/ narrative purpose of the chase needs to become clear at some point.
Whichever option you chose, your piece should be a complete dramatic unit with a simple but clear beginning (set up), middle (development) and end (resolution). You will be expected to maintain cinematic continuity. Emphasis is on moving character(s) through space, so you’ll need multiple locations. Take time to create interesting and appropriate frames for the action. You MUST utilize at least ONE looking/ POV/ reaction sequence.
Pre-production deliverables for this option: brief description of your story, a list of locations, a list of characters/actors, and detailed storyboards.
Documentary Option:
Hunter College, with its tens of thousands of students and thousands of staff members, is as big as a small town, and there are myriad activities that go into making it what it is. Pick an individual, group, faculty member, student or staff person who you think has something of interest to offer and create a documentary “portrait” of them. Your piece must involve at least one interview as well as other visual material that helps tell the story.
You should pre-interview, as we did with our audio profiles, and restrict yourself to 5 to 10 minutes of raw interview material. You will be working with our zoom recorders, with limited capabilities, so you will have to get close and pick a quiet location. Remember that visuals are more than just “B-roll,” and they should help tell the story on their own.
While not required, you can add additional info through narration or text cards. (No on-camera hosts please!) You will also need to create a main title, as well as “lower thirds” identifying the people you interview.
Preproduction deliverables for this option: a one-page treatment, a list of interview questions and a shot list of the visuals you hope to film.
You have the option of doing either a MINI-DOCUMENTARY or a CONTINUITY STORY for your final project. You will work in groups of two and create one project together. Your film may not be longer than 3 minutes.
This is an assignment that includes video and audio, so if you will have to sync sound (dialogue or interview) you will have to use double system sound (we will go over this in lecture and lab). You may also use ambience recorded at your location, music, sound effects or narration.
Preproduction documents are due in Lab 11!
Final Project due in Lab 14 (or when your lab instructors tell you)
You will shoot during class time, but you should expect to do some editing on this project OUTSIDE of class time.
Narrative Option: Choose A or B
Option A involves one person with a clear task to accomplish. Your character needs to move through space to accomplish this task but obstacles get in the way and they try to overcome these complications. They either succeed or fail. The task, the environment, and the action should reveal character.
Option B involves creating a story, or a mystery, which involves one person chasing (or following) another. The dramatic/ narrative purpose of the chase needs to become clear at some point.
Whichever option you chose, your piece should be a complete dramatic unit with a simple but clear beginning (set up), middle (development) and end (resolution). You will be expected to maintain cinematic continuity. Emphasis is on moving character(s) through space, so you’ll need multiple locations. Take time to create interesting and appropriate frames for the action. You MUST utilize at least ONE looking/ POV/ reaction sequence.
Pre-production deliverables for this option: brief description of your story, a list of locations, a list of characters/actors, and detailed storyboards.
Documentary Option:
Hunter College, with its tens of thousands of students and thousands of staff members, is as big as a small town, and there are myriad activities that go into making it what it is. Pick an individual, group, faculty member, student or staff person who you think has something of interest to offer and create a documentary “portrait” of them. Your piece must involve at least one interview as well as other visual material that helps tell the story.
You should pre-interview, as we did with our audio profiles, and restrict yourself to 5 to 10 minutes of raw interview material. You will be working with our zoom recorders, with limited capabilities, so you will have to get close and pick a quiet location. Remember that visuals are more than just “B-roll,” and they should help tell the story on their own.
While not required, you can add additional info through narration or text cards. (No on-camera hosts please!) You will also need to create a main title, as well as “lower thirds” identifying the people you interview.
Preproduction deliverables for this option: a one-page treatment, a list of interview questions and a shot list of the visuals you hope to film.
Blog #3
MEDP/FILMP 160 FALL 2015
BLOG POST #3: Relationships Between Shots
For this assignment, you will pick a section of linear media (any genre) and examine the way it is constructed. Pick an example where you think the editing has made a significant contribution to the storytelling and the feel of the piece. What is the relationship of the sounds to the images? Of the images to one another? How are the shots organized in terms of their content, composition, color, movement, etc.? What determines how long the shots are and what order they are placed in? It there a “right” place to cut or not to cut? Are the cuts seamless or obvious? Why?
You should choose a short piece of media (2-3 minutes) you can watch several times, so preferably it will be available online or on DVD. Providing a link within your blog to the media, or embedding a clip (if you are able to – analyzing a piece of media allows you to reproduce it under the Fair Use aspects of Copyright Law) would be great but is not required.
250 Words Due in Lab #10
Monday, November 2, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Assignment 2: Audio Portrait of a Person
Your second assignment for the semester is based on an interview with one of your classmates. First, you will pre-interview a classmate in order to define a theme for your piece. As you listen to your classmate, try to identify something unique about their story that “grabs” you. The following week, you will interview the person using questions you have written up before the interview, recording the interview with the Zoom recorder. Finally, you will create a multi-track audio piece in Premiere Pro based on the interview.
When you do your recording, record ample material, but try not to go overboard. 15 minutes worth should work. The final piece should be 3 to 4 minutes in length. Your audio portrait should mix elements including the voice of the interviewee, your voice (if you choose to include it), ambient background sound, music, and other sound effects as you see fit. When you have a finished piece you will upload it so it can be accessed through your blog site.
Remember to identify a theme that will make your piece say something special about the world, or the “human condition.” A story becomes compelling when it communicates something unique that others can relate to.
DUE: Lab 9
Sunday, October 11, 2015
John Cage on Silence and Sound
Interesting and informative words by influential composer John_Cage. Think about some concepts he discussed in this video when you go out on your soundwalks.
More on Soundwalks...
Blog Assignment #2
FILM/MEDIA 160 FALL 2015
Blog Assignment #2: “What I Hear” This exercise has 2 parts.
Part 1. The Soundwalk
Spend an hour doing a “Soundwalk” around a particular neighborhood in NYC.
“Soundwalk” is a term invented by R. Murray Shafer, a musician and professor at Simon Fraser University. Shafer noticed in working with his music students that most of them couldn't remember even five sounds they had heard earlier that day. He created the soundwalk, a kind of walking meditation, as an “ear cleaning exercise,” a way to increase sonic awareness.
In An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology, Kendall Wrightson writes, “In order to listen we must stop, or at least slow down – physically and psychologically. We need to try to be human beings, instead of
“human doings.” So – during your sound walk, do not answer your phone, text, browse, read or do anything but be, and listen.
The goal of this exercise is to “open your ears.” New York offers a rich sound environment.
Close your eyes and listen.
Part 2: The Blog
What is the texture of the sound? What are the specific instruments in the city symphony? What sounds are clues to a specific neighborhood? A specific time of day? What are sounds that are unique or meaningful to you? Expected or unexpected?
Some of Shafer's terminology might be useful to you in writing about your experience on the soundwalk:
• Keynotes: background sounds
• Sound Signals: foreground sounds intended to attract attention.
• Soundmarks: sounds particularly regarded by a community or its visitors
(analogous to visual “landmarks”)
250 words. Due in Lab 7. Oct. 21st
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