'Obsession... formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life'
How does one keep relevant and fresh on such a topic?
It's very easy to think of it on a shallow level. As Rachel suggested, the guy who collects tires, yet after listening to Long Haul Productions, 'The Great God Bird', it's obvious that the best in the industry find a way to explore the issue without expressly stating it.
So what are the options? I need to find stories. I need to collect stories. Then, I need to link these stories to find a common theme. In one sense this makes it a little harder. I already have my theme and need to find stories to adequately present it.
The best spot to start? I'm thinking classifieds. Surely I can find someone seeking love who is obsessed with this pursuit. Or a collector who repeatedly posts in multiple outlets.
Gumtree, eBay, Herald Sun and trading post here I come.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Pensive: Post Workshop Musings
TV or Radio. Two of the most prominent broadcast media outlets. Yet which does one choose when trying to produce a story?
With radio, one can very easily enter the private world of a listener and delve quite deeply into a topic whilst in their head space. With this comes a wealth of opportunities. Being impoverished of vision, the listener must glean from what is broadcast in order to gain a broader context of the story they are being told and create mental images to accompany.
With TV, one is afforded the benefits of visual representation, yet it is much more difficult to keep an audience engaged when it is very easy to be a passive viewer of what is presented. Certainly, the ability to represent place, time etc. through visual stimulus is a huge benefit of TV, yet I would argue that in a world of information overload it is much more difficult to capture an audiences attention on TV than it is on Radio.
To a certain extent, this idea is seconded by Ricketson, M in his piece Writing Feature Stories, on which I will remark very soon.
So it is up to the artist to consider both these mediums and choose one that best manipulates the viewers attention. For example, a story of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh would be best represented through TV as viewers are able to see the works in front of them, whereas a broader study of anxiety and its effects on its sufferers, including Van Gogh, could be better represented through the medium of Radio.
With radio, one can very easily enter the private world of a listener and delve quite deeply into a topic whilst in their head space. With this comes a wealth of opportunities. Being impoverished of vision, the listener must glean from what is broadcast in order to gain a broader context of the story they are being told and create mental images to accompany.
With TV, one is afforded the benefits of visual representation, yet it is much more difficult to keep an audience engaged when it is very easy to be a passive viewer of what is presented. Certainly, the ability to represent place, time etc. through visual stimulus is a huge benefit of TV, yet I would argue that in a world of information overload it is much more difficult to capture an audiences attention on TV than it is on Radio.
To a certain extent, this idea is seconded by Ricketson, M in his piece Writing Feature Stories, on which I will remark very soon.
So it is up to the artist to consider both these mediums and choose one that best manipulates the viewers attention. For example, a story of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh would be best represented through TV as viewers are able to see the works in front of them, whereas a broader study of anxiety and its effects on its sufferers, including Van Gogh, could be better represented through the medium of Radio.
The Great God Bird: A Web Audio Story
Produced by: Dan Collison & Elizabeth Meister for Long Haul Productions.
For this beautifully crafted piece, Collison and Meister interviewed locals from Brinkley, Arkansas, capturing their pike in hope at sightings of the 'Great God Bird' the Ivory Bill Woodpecker, last sighted in Louisiana in 1944.
What makes the piece so touching is the significance of this sighting to the town. Brinkley, once a town of 5200, now exists as a purely farming town of 3800. As one local notes, the economies 'not real good', and their jobs are that of 'minimum wage'. Yet Collison and Meister are able capture the soul of the town that shines through the adversity with which it is faced.
For one, Brinkley is a highly spiritual community. A community of people who care about each other and their children, for they are the future, yet sees these hopes for the future dissapear from a lack of opportunity in the town itself.
Which brings to prominence the importance of the Great God Bird. Last sighted in 1944, the possibility of the sighting suggests that extinction is not so absolute, and perhaps just as this bird has resurfaced, so too the town of Brinkley can reemerge from its current decline to extinction.
Told through a beautiful mix of nuances between anecdotes and scored by Sufjan Steven's musical response to the Brinkley interviews 'The Great Lord Bird', Collison and Meister beautifully paint a portrait of this town and its struggle to overcome hardship.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Reading: Creativity and General Problem Solving. Aronson, L
Aint that the truth.
Throughout his article, Aronson tackles what pushes screenwriters, and indeed any media professional, to create cliched or erratically unusual works. In order to do so, Aronson employs the theories of Edward De Bono. De Bono's theories address that of thinking. On one hand there is vertical thinking - the kind of step by step, logical thinking that results in right or wrong answers. On the other, lateral thinking - a general, associational and personal form of consciousness that generates ideas and answers regardless of their quality.
Aronson advocates that an answer can be found to his topic by considering each facet of these two types of thinking (ironically, this conclusion is achieved through vertical thinking).
The author suggests that cliched works are that of the vertical mind. Whereby one calls upon experience and social and traditional knowledge of events, characters, places etc. in order to create a work, leading to a rehashing of old norms and resulting in a cliched end result.
On the other end of the spectrum, Aronson states that over the top and unguided pieces of artistry only come into existence when one lets their lateral thinking mind on the loose.
Thus, the author champions a combination of the two, for 'great things happen' when they are 'mixed in the right quantity'. Furthermore, Aronson highlights a link between vertical thinking as 'real' and lateral thinking as 'unusual' and that it is only the best films that find the balance between the two.
A bit confusing huh? Well, Aronson makes use of an analogy to better explain his contention.
Script writing is like a car. In order to 'drive a script forward', you use the accelerator (lateral thinking) to give the script originality, and the brake (vertical thinking) to keep the script in check and its credibility in tact. Otherwise, you'll end up over a cliff from over acceleration. Too little and you won't be going anywhere.
What an insightful man..
Reading: You and the Creative Process. Rabiger, M
So we embark on another semester of university for 2011. The subject names have changed and so have the tutors, but it's back to business in the same fashion for us media students.
And that means readings. Lots of readings. A plethora of readings. Oh joy..
Usually I balk at the idea of traipsing through an article and grinding out an extract. Yet, pleasantly, my first article was truly engaging. I found myself ferociously note taking rather than glancing at the page number and for once procrastination was no longer my destination.
The reading that triggered my interest? You and the Creative Process by Rabiger, M.
I don't think I have previously been as engaged with a writer, actor, artist who attempts to explain why we do what we do. Oftentimes, the true meaning gets lost in an exposition of how unique that particular artist is at doing what they do, or how inextricably attached they are to their art form.
Instead, Rabiger simply puts it that we have a desire to tell stories. A desire borne from a need to gain truth and understanding. Rabiger suggests that by creating and broadcasting stories we put forth our perception of circumstances, and this perception is then challenged, by our peers, by viewers, by critics, forcing us to better understand the circumstance that we begun with and in what other ways it can be interpreted.
Yet Rabiger notes that not all are at one with the creative process of story telling. Rather, it is only those who choose not to hide, that choose to dig deep into the core of their life, that are capable of making visible what a mirror cannot, and in turn, better their art form.
All in all, a great, succinct read that provides a breadth of food for thought.
And that means readings. Lots of readings. A plethora of readings. Oh joy..
Usually I balk at the idea of traipsing through an article and grinding out an extract. Yet, pleasantly, my first article was truly engaging. I found myself ferociously note taking rather than glancing at the page number and for once procrastination was no longer my destination.
The reading that triggered my interest? You and the Creative Process by Rabiger, M.
I don't think I have previously been as engaged with a writer, actor, artist who attempts to explain why we do what we do. Oftentimes, the true meaning gets lost in an exposition of how unique that particular artist is at doing what they do, or how inextricably attached they are to their art form.
Instead, Rabiger simply puts it that we have a desire to tell stories. A desire borne from a need to gain truth and understanding. Rabiger suggests that by creating and broadcasting stories we put forth our perception of circumstances, and this perception is then challenged, by our peers, by viewers, by critics, forcing us to better understand the circumstance that we begun with and in what other ways it can be interpreted.
Yet Rabiger notes that not all are at one with the creative process of story telling. Rather, it is only those who choose not to hide, that choose to dig deep into the core of their life, that are capable of making visible what a mirror cannot, and in turn, better their art form.
All in all, a great, succinct read that provides a breadth of food for thought.
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