Final Project

My partner is Nyaisha. :)

Blog#4: MOMA field trip

At The Museum of the Moving Image, one of the demonstrations that interest me the most is the ADR interactive experience in Behind the Screen. We can record our voices over dialogue from a film, following the same procedure that actors use when dubbing their lines in post-production. Although I didn’t volunteer to try it, I can tell it’s not an easy job to record our voices over the dialogues in the film by seeing other classmates doing it. First you need to be familiarized with the lines, what is happening in the scene so that when you proceed to the next step for dubbing the lines, it will be a lot easier to control the timing (matching the mouth movements) and also speak with the correct tone of voice as you are watching the screen.

The other thing I would like to include in the field trip experience is the live broadcasting because it is something that I already know is hard to do and it actually looked a lot harder in person when I saw so many TV screens at the same time. There’re about 12 to 14 monitors showing a baseball game as an example of how a live broadcasting looks like. However, the museum tour guide said there’re a lot more when it comes to real live broadcasting. I honestly did not know that until she told me so.  The director’s job is to choose the screen/camera shot he wants the audience to see consistently. 

Nowadays many films don't have to rely on props such as fake animals, due to the help of digital technology. Most of them can be done by computer editing. It makes the work a lot easier for film makers. Through computer editing, we can now even create a scene that isn't existed in real world. Everything looks smoother on screen than when the moving image was done by stop motion. However, sometimes I think that the computer editing makes things look too realistic that i can tell it's fake. And in this case, I personally think that using a prop may be better.

Blog # 3: Relationships between Shots

  Both diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds are used in the scene. The first sound we hear from the scene is the diegetic sounds- people are talking. Then we hear the sound from the main character, Katniss’footsteps, and when she picks up the bow. Also the sounds when the arrow hits the target board. All the sounds we hear from this point are to show us that it is quite a huge room where everybody is staying in the scene. Background music (Non-diegetic sound) begins when Katniss looks at the arrow she shoot for the first time and sees people are ignoring her. The music volume goes up as she’s about to shoot for the second time. The sounds from the arrow flying to the target board and also when it hits the board are louder than the first time because this time she hits on the red target and that’s a significant change. Music plays an important role in the scene because it gives us a certain feeling for the storytelling. In this scene, the music makes us feeling nervous for Katniss and thinking about what she will do next. When I was watching this scene for the first time, I had my earphones on and right after Katniss failed at shooting, I heard some funny music, I then thought this maybe a funny silly scene instead of a serious scene . Later I realized it's the music playing from my brother's computer. Therefore music makes a difference in movies.
  The depth of view in the first shot of the scene makes us focusing on Katniss because she's about doing something. Before she's about to shoot, camera panning over the audience in the scene watching and waiting for her and as soon as she fails, camera focus back on them laughing and continue their talk.   We get a close shot of her facial expression after the failure of the shoot. There are many shot/reverse shots in the scene so we know the objective /subjective point of view from the characters. We can see that Katniss looks at the people back and forth. Even after she hits the red target, nobody seen it and they don't care. So there's another close up shot on her showing her madness. Each shot from her looking at them back and forth doesn't last more than 5 seconds to heighten up the tension. Besides we can also see that the second time she looks at the same direction, she focuses on the apple in the pig's mouth and not the people anymore. A long shot with the pig in the middle, a medium shot and a close shot of the pig at last when the arrow hit through the apple in front of the people. A shot of the apple with arrow on the wall then a close up of the man' s face looking surprised. He's looking at the direction where Katniss is standing.
  The whole scene looks very serious because of the color/lighting. It's dark cool tone. It gives us a mysterious but serious kind of feeling.
  The cuts are seamless because the change from shot to shot is very quick and the continuity editing makes the match on action of Katniss shooting the arrow very smooth.

Project #2: Audio Portrait

"What I Hear?"

It was a Sunday early evening around 6 o'clock when I did my soundwalk exercise at the Atlas Park (an outdoor mall) in Queens after work. I was sitting down at a store with my eyes closed and I listened carefully. I could hear many sounds from different things. The first thing I could hear was the keynotes: room acoustics, sound that behaves in an enclosed room where nobody's talking. There was also the engine sound from the ac back behind me. Next thing immediately I heard was the sound signals: people from outside of the store. Many people were talking in English most of the time. Sometimes I would hear Polish because this mall is located near a Polish neighborhood. The sound of them talking was blurred due to the fact that I heard them from indoor. However, when it came to a child crying, that sharp and high pitch noise actually caught my attention. Besides that, there was a moment i heard a sound of the friction between the wheels of a scooter and the ground. I can tell the person was riding the scooter very fast.

Some expected sounds were the laughter from children, fast footsteps, and the horn sound from vehicles because it's a Sunday night, children came to the mall with parents to have fun, and it usually starts to have traffic around the time when everyone is rushing to leave and go home. One unexpected sound during the excercise was the cheerful crispy crystal clear sound of a cricket. I did not expect there was a cricket around the area. And this sound is very unique to me because it seems like the cricket is responding to whatever sounds it hears. For example, when people talk, it will make a sound. It is funny to me. I couldn't hear any soundmarks during the exercise though. During the summer time, maybe I would hear the music from ice cream truck but sice the weather is getting very cold, I don't hear it anymore.

I think that the specific instruments in the city symphony are the people, the nature sound from wind, and vehicles.

Define a Space

Define a Space_Raven Lui from Raven on Vimeo.

Artist Statement

  I have always had a passion for performing art since a young age. I have learned to dance, to play piano, to draw, to do all kinds of things that allow me to express myself.   

  During my first year at LaGuardia Community College, I took an acting class and I found my passion for acting has significantly increased throughout the semester. I started to audition for different plays both in and outside of school. Less than 2 years later, I was chosen to be the lead character of a short film directed by a graduate student. And that was where I got my interests in filming. The different angles you shoot can give you different feelings or point of views. I like how I can play around with it to show my audience the views I want them to see.

  Over the past years, I’ve always been the “doer”-giving out messages through art works which are created by others, not me. I don’t want to be just the “doer”; I want to be also a creator because I would like to express my thoughts and feelings of things in my own creative ways. Making a film is definitely one of my favorite ways to hopefully make a positive influence on people’s life. Why? Because not only the actors can represent one of us in our daily lives, the music that is used in the film can also help bringing the emotions from the audience. 

  My inspiration for my artwork would most likely be my personal experiences.