Animal Speak Interview
Objection: To ‘re-enact’ a communication session; Go in depth into ‘treatments’, make comparison of treatment on live dog or dead dog
- What does your client usually do when you first walk in for the session? (Do they tell you the condition of the dog? )
- By talking to the animal, how do you treat them?
- Do all other animal communicators across the world treat animals using the same way - through telepathic? Or is there any other way you can use to communicate with animals?
- You mentioned that animal communication has no distance boundary (live or dead dog), would you be able to provide us a little bit of information on Esther’s dog? *Picture*
- If telepathic can be done within human and animal, then can you read other people’s mind?
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Drama
On Wednesday the 29th September, I received a surprising call when I was in class / editing suite at Building 12 level 2. It was from a guy by the name of Steven (Got his name wrongly at first, thought his name is Steve). Apparently, he is from the School of Media and Communication and he is calling me to ensure my existence and clear up some issues. And the main reason he called was because our dearly significant documentary subject, Caroline, called the School of Media and Communication to express her 'concerns on our professionalism'. Obviously Steve did not know that me and my group mates exist in RMIT because he is from a different faculty so he promised Caroline that he would trace me down and see what he can do.
So I told him what course I am doing, who is my tutor, who is my lecturer et cetera and Steven said he will inform Caroline about it. Initially I thought it was a small matter as it is pretty normal for her to freak out or have doubts on us. But when I think of what we did over the past few weeks, I freaked out because I thought that she might have read our blogs or worse, our mind! (since she's so good in telepathic, who knows what she is capable of doing)
After telling my group mates about the phone call, I immediately went to Robin and told him about this. He told us that this kind of issues often happen but it won't be a huge problem. Robin informed Paul about it so he can liaise with Steven. I gave Paul the number and then he called Steven.
When Paul came back after the phone call, he told us about this 'ultimately interesting' suggestions and comments given by Caroline as he called Caroline after talking to Steven. Caroline said that she is worried about us not being able to go into the media industry professionally because of the location and parking issues; she also mentioned about us not providing her a release form to sign (which we did); and about me texting and emailing her instead of calling. And she calls it generation gap, which is quite true. What she does not know is, I am very nervous about talking to her on the phone and I always can not hear her clearly as her line is always unstable! I hate to ask her to repeat her lines because I know that irritates her a lot (speaking from experience). Thus, instead of irritating her and missing out her lines, I chose to text and email her because that makes things clearer.
The only statement of the entire complain or 'expressing concern' that lifted my mood up a little was that she said she actually quite like all of us.
So I followed what Robin taught me and called Caroline to clear up everything. (and I actually wrote a script, with Esther and Azwin before I made the call!) She sounded alright and she said she will be there on Friday for our shoot.
I certainly have learned my lesson on that day - always check other people's communication preference, especially for someone as different as Caroline.
So I told him what course I am doing, who is my tutor, who is my lecturer et cetera and Steven said he will inform Caroline about it. Initially I thought it was a small matter as it is pretty normal for her to freak out or have doubts on us. But when I think of what we did over the past few weeks, I freaked out because I thought that she might have read our blogs or worse, our mind! (since she's so good in telepathic, who knows what she is capable of doing)
After telling my group mates about the phone call, I immediately went to Robin and told him about this. He told us that this kind of issues often happen but it won't be a huge problem. Robin informed Paul about it so he can liaise with Steven. I gave Paul the number and then he called Steven.
When Paul came back after the phone call, he told us about this 'ultimately interesting' suggestions and comments given by Caroline as he called Caroline after talking to Steven. Caroline said that she is worried about us not being able to go into the media industry professionally because of the location and parking issues; she also mentioned about us not providing her a release form to sign (which we did); and about me texting and emailing her instead of calling. And she calls it generation gap, which is quite true. What she does not know is, I am very nervous about talking to her on the phone and I always can not hear her clearly as her line is always unstable! I hate to ask her to repeat her lines because I know that irritates her a lot (speaking from experience). Thus, instead of irritating her and missing out her lines, I chose to text and email her because that makes things clearer.
The only statement of the entire complain or 'expressing concern' that lifted my mood up a little was that she said she actually quite like all of us.
So I followed what Robin taught me and called Caroline to clear up everything. (and I actually wrote a script, with Esther and Azwin before I made the call!) She sounded alright and she said she will be there on Friday for our shoot.
I certainly have learned my lesson on that day - always check other people's communication preference, especially for someone as different as Caroline.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Voiceover in Documentary
I have never thought that voice over can do such interesting and powerful effects in a documentary. During tutorial 9, Robin showed us a documentary made with only voice over and images about a scientific research and facts. This documentary provides the audiences knowledge on time and space, specifically what we can see if we are at a distance away from the 'starting point'.
Even though it is simple and short, I acquired to know a lot of information of the documentary. Such expository documentary works very well in terms of feeding information and facts into the audiences' mind.
Even though it is simple and short, I acquired to know a lot of information of the documentary. Such expository documentary works very well in terms of feeding information and facts into the audiences' mind.
Monday, September 20, 2010
What's next?
On our Week 8 tutorial, we moved from classrooms to editing suites, which represent we have to start our post-production. Can't believe this semester is ending so soon.
We presented our footages from the interview and realized that there is bunch of great information from the interview. What's best is, our subject's personality. Her answers to the interview questions showed her interesting or rather, distinct personality. I do realized her eccentricity on the rainy day shoot but I did not think too much about it. Robin enlightened us and made us realized that there is so much we can do with her personality.
Instead of mainly focusing on animal communication, we changed our focus onto the animal communicator, our subject herself. But as Robin mentioned, the existing challenge is no longer good visual quality or better sound, it is the way we put them all together so it would not be obvious (to our subject) that it is a documentary on her oddity (I wonder if this has something to do with filmmakers' ethics) but it is trying to 'promote' animal communication. Anyhow, the change reminds me of 'Capturing the Friedmans' (2003), where the filmmaker changed his focus from clown entertainment industry to the Friedmans tragedy. And that is what so attractive about documentary - so unpredictable, so changeable.
Before I do this course, I always think that making documentary is a dreadful job. But as time passed and after all I have learnt and experienced by far, I find myself admiring documentaries, and even think of making more other documentaries in the future! =)
We presented our footages from the interview and realized that there is bunch of great information from the interview. What's best is, our subject's personality. Her answers to the interview questions showed her interesting or rather, distinct personality. I do realized her eccentricity on the rainy day shoot but I did not think too much about it. Robin enlightened us and made us realized that there is so much we can do with her personality.
Instead of mainly focusing on animal communication, we changed our focus onto the animal communicator, our subject herself. But as Robin mentioned, the existing challenge is no longer good visual quality or better sound, it is the way we put them all together so it would not be obvious (to our subject) that it is a documentary on her oddity (I wonder if this has something to do with filmmakers' ethics) but it is trying to 'promote' animal communication. Anyhow, the change reminds me of 'Capturing the Friedmans' (2003), where the filmmaker changed his focus from clown entertainment industry to the Friedmans tragedy. And that is what so attractive about documentary - so unpredictable, so changeable.
Before I do this course, I always think that making documentary is a dreadful job. But as time passed and after all I have learnt and experienced by far, I find myself admiring documentaries, and even think of making more other documentaries in the future! =)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Change of plan
Things aren't going the way we expected it to go.
Documentary production is extremely unpredictable and changeable. I usually become frustrated when things do not go according to plan / our documentary treatment. But come to think of it, this is how a documentary really is.
During our pre-production (when we were writing on the documentary treatment), we wanted to follow Caroline out on a communication session so we know how that works. She has been really helpful and contacted a couple of her clients. However, non willing to go on camera nor let us film in their place so far. Thus we need a Plan B:
We are going to create a communication session ourselves by asking people around who has pets for help. Since Caroline said that she usually does her job through phone calls and since telepathic has no distance boundary, we are going to film the entire phone communication session at the pet owner's place. That way, we will be able to record a REAL over-the-phone session.
Documentary production is extremely unpredictable and changeable. I usually become frustrated when things do not go according to plan / our documentary treatment. But come to think of it, this is how a documentary really is.
During our pre-production (when we were writing on the documentary treatment), we wanted to follow Caroline out on a communication session so we know how that works. She has been really helpful and contacted a couple of her clients. However, non willing to go on camera nor let us film in their place so far. Thus we need a Plan B:
We are going to create a communication session ourselves by asking people around who has pets for help. Since Caroline said that she usually does her job through phone calls and since telepathic has no distance boundary, we are going to film the entire phone communication session at the pet owner's place. That way, we will be able to record a REAL over-the-phone session.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The most challenging filming experience e.v.e.r.
I haven't got much filming experience, but today's is by far the worst one I have ever had.
I always have the assumption that filming a documentary is easy - just bring a light camera to site and film whatever I can get. However, it is so much more than that.
Today I finally learned the risk and real challenges involved in making a documentary, especially when we were filming outdoor (or very far away from where we got the equipments) and when we have to rely on public transport. Cab has been our great mate today.
Weather was not the same though, even my back-up plan did not helped. When I checked the weather report this morning, I realized that shooting outdoor is definitely not going to work. Thus I immediately went down to my apartment (Concept Blue)'s front desk to book the meeting room. After hiring the equipments and moving all of them to my place, the building manager told me that it is impossible for us to film in anywhere of the building. I was quite irritated then because my friend filmed in the same apartment last semester. Plus, our interviewee Caroline said that she is driving a truck, which is 2.5 meters in height but my apartment's height clearance is only 2.1m. But there was nothing we can do.
So we had to go back to our original plan, which is to shoot at Royal Botanic Garden. Esther has acquired a permit for us to shoot at the Central Lawn of the garden but the problem is, we have to carry everything to the location. We planned to take tram initially, without knowing that the equipments are extremely heavy to be carried on hand, hence we hired a cab to get to the location.
When we arrived at the Royal Botanic Garden, it was still drizzling. We headed into a rest house and set up our equipments there. While we were setting up and waiting for Caroline to be there, I realized that we forgot the tapes and the mixer. It was so distressing I felt like canceling the shooting session. There were not much time so Esther and Leo had to go back by cab to take the stuffs. As waiting for them to return, Caroline called and she could not find the right entrance to the car park. The phone line was pretty disturbed which contributed to bad communication. I had troubles hearing her words. She then sounded extremely aggravated and was practically screaming into the phone.
I apologized and things resolved when she finally found the gate. At that point, Esther and Leo returned. So with fear, Leo and I went to meet her at the car park. She turned out to be a nice lady. We then led her and her dogs to our shooting location. We almost got lost (the park is very confusing and our map was all wet) but she was quite patient with it.
Apart from us, there were a bunch of school kids in the garden. Unfortunately, Caroline's dogs cannot tolerate kids. Caroline almost got into an argument with a school teacher because one of the kids provoked her dog. She then shouted something like "You better behave or I'll let her off!". The school teacher was very protective and fought back saying she will report her. The quarrel created a rather stiff atmosphere but we managed to continue with our shoot accordingly.
Weather was not as pleasant throughout the shooting process. That resulted the shoot to be done in the rest house. It was totally out of plan and I just learned how changeable a documentary can be.
Even so, it is still important to do research and know answers to the question you ask. For example, if we don't know that animal communication is about telepathic, we would not prepared what we need to ask for more details on that topic.
Even though today's shoot is said to be the most challenging and wearing filming experience, but it is undoubtedly a meaningful, memorable and enlightening one.
I always have the assumption that filming a documentary is easy - just bring a light camera to site and film whatever I can get. However, it is so much more than that.
Today I finally learned the risk and real challenges involved in making a documentary, especially when we were filming outdoor (or very far away from where we got the equipments) and when we have to rely on public transport. Cab has been our great mate today.
Weather was not the same though, even my back-up plan did not helped. When I checked the weather report this morning, I realized that shooting outdoor is definitely not going to work. Thus I immediately went down to my apartment (Concept Blue)'s front desk to book the meeting room. After hiring the equipments and moving all of them to my place, the building manager told me that it is impossible for us to film in anywhere of the building. I was quite irritated then because my friend filmed in the same apartment last semester. Plus, our interviewee Caroline said that she is driving a truck, which is 2.5 meters in height but my apartment's height clearance is only 2.1m. But there was nothing we can do.
So we had to go back to our original plan, which is to shoot at Royal Botanic Garden. Esther has acquired a permit for us to shoot at the Central Lawn of the garden but the problem is, we have to carry everything to the location. We planned to take tram initially, without knowing that the equipments are extremely heavy to be carried on hand, hence we hired a cab to get to the location.
When we arrived at the Royal Botanic Garden, it was still drizzling. We headed into a rest house and set up our equipments there. While we were setting up and waiting for Caroline to be there, I realized that we forgot the tapes and the mixer. It was so distressing I felt like canceling the shooting session. There were not much time so Esther and Leo had to go back by cab to take the stuffs. As waiting for them to return, Caroline called and she could not find the right entrance to the car park. The phone line was pretty disturbed which contributed to bad communication. I had troubles hearing her words. She then sounded extremely aggravated and was practically screaming into the phone.
I apologized and things resolved when she finally found the gate. At that point, Esther and Leo returned. So with fear, Leo and I went to meet her at the car park. She turned out to be a nice lady. We then led her and her dogs to our shooting location. We almost got lost (the park is very confusing and our map was all wet) but she was quite patient with it.
Apart from us, there were a bunch of school kids in the garden. Unfortunately, Caroline's dogs cannot tolerate kids. Caroline almost got into an argument with a school teacher because one of the kids provoked her dog. She then shouted something like "You better behave or I'll let her off!". The school teacher was very protective and fought back saying she will report her. The quarrel created a rather stiff atmosphere but we managed to continue with our shoot accordingly.
Weather was not as pleasant throughout the shooting process. That resulted the shoot to be done in the rest house. It was totally out of plan and I just learned how changeable a documentary can be.
Even so, it is still important to do research and know answers to the question you ask. For example, if we don't know that animal communication is about telepathic, we would not prepared what we need to ask for more details on that topic.
Even though today's shoot is said to be the most challenging and wearing filming experience, but it is undoubtedly a meaningful, memorable and enlightening one.
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