(Above: blog preview image / thumbnail for BCM289 video)
University's over for another year, but this is my first blog post of this kind! This post is acting as a signpost for future me about what stuff I made for uni in the past (in regards to editing and other video work).
BCM217 (Documentary)
You can find the video I made with my group for BCM217 below:
If it's no longer there because it's been taken down for whatever reason, trust me: it's not worth finding it. The audio is of really poor quality and the visuals suffered a bit from rushed editing and colour correction on my part. I'm mainly posting about it here for posterity. Interestingly though, this is the only blog post I've written about BCM217 so it'll likely be the only blog post to ever refer to it. Weird.
You can find a copy of my critical reflection below:
Name: Timothy Cuff
Title of project: Community Beer At Five Barrel Brewing
Project URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9oyymOulw8 (EDIT: Original link, but Ethan (our project lead/director) removed it for some reason) / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsqeWAl3iWk
Role in project: Lead Director of Photography, mainly focusing on attaining visual clarity; in addition to assisting with parts of the editing process e.g. colour correction
Critical reflection: As a whole, I’m largely satisfied with how I contributed to the group project as well as the group’s ability to collaborate effectively. The visual aspect of the production, particularly in the interview segments, was achieved to a decent degree of effectiveness with enhancements in post-production to give more of a golden “beer-like” glow to the scenes. This basic visual stylisation helped to not only improve the original colour grading, but also assisted in generating a genial, warm and friendly environment that mirrored the ‘comfiness’ of small local bars and breweries. Though some shots were washed out and/or over-exposed, I think that, for a student film, the visuals were mostly strong in how they were executed. However, despite the cohesiveness of both the group and of these visual elements, other parts of the production weren’t as successful. One of the key criticisms that could be made about the final video is the extremely poor audio quality. Unfortunately, due to difficulties on the day of recording the interview with our subject, the sound was very tinny and muffled, even when compared to the onboard DSLR camera audio. Attempts to salvage the audio in the post-production phase proved fruitless. With sound being one of the key aspects of an audiovisual work (that is rather noticeable if it goes wrong), this would be one of the main things to absolutely get right next time, by recording test audio and listening to it separately. This issue is compounded by a lack of sound effects, leaving some scenes without any background audio of any kind. In certain circumstances, this could have worked to create a specific style. But having that sound (people laughing, the clinking of glasses etc.) would have made parts of the film less ‘empty’ and help to prop up the light and happy atmosphere we were striving for. A final criticism I could give is that a lot of the project came together at the last minute, editing and finalising right up until the time it was due. Taking all of this in stride for future projects, I’ll strive to be more attentive to the audio and editing processes that will make for better films and better filmmaking.
BCM289 (Transnational Media And Culture Industries)
You can find the video I made for BCM289 below:
This came before 'Crunchy Bytes: The Final Cut...?', a BCM215 (Game Media) project but ended up being uploaded way after it for...reasons (I showed my BCM289 film in-class from my USB so had no reason to upload it until today).
You can find a copy of the description below:
(ORIGINALLY COMPLETED IN LATE OCTOBER)
Chronologically speaking, it should have been uploaded before 'Crunchy Bytes: The Final Cut...?' But hey ho, what can you do?
Anyway, this is a student film/trailer about a potential eSports documentary series that would comprehensively explore every aspect of the scene. Enjoy!
#Spectacle #eSports #DocumentaryTrailer
You can find a copy of the expanded Director's Statement, plus the reflection below:
Games. We all love to play them to the point where it’s pretty much impossible to find someone who truly doesn’t enjoy games on any level. Games can be anything from something sophisticated and classically strategic like Chess to something as basic and straightforward as Tic-Tac-Toe. Video games are, as their name implies, just another form of play. But then again, Tic-Tac-Toe isn’t exactly raking in millions of dollars of revenue every year and drawing enormous crowds to watch the latest matches. eSports are among the most popular forms of entertainment today where thousands in an arena or online watch gameplay of their favourite teams with a compelling mixture of awe and excitement. To give an example of just how enormous the eSports scene is and has been in recent years, there was a recent tournament for the popular game DotA 2 called ‘The International’. One of the most prestigious annual eSports events in the world, 2019’s ‘International’ had over thirty four million dollars (USD) as the prize pool (Liquipedia, 2019) - one of the largest in the history of the game and, indeed, in all of eSports.
The main inspiration for this short trailer comes from this. I mean, what more needs to be said about how eSports, like any other physical, more traditional sport, has its regular viewers and fanatic devotees as well as all the exorbitant earnings, prestige and clout that comes along with it? Not to mention room for gossip and rumour, much to the chagrin and distaste of many players and fans. Because of course, games of the electronic variety, so to speak, can be easier to cheat in some circumstances than the traditional and conventional sports that dominate the current television landscape. But, despite the scandalisation, eSports still remains a young but burgeoning form of entertainment that pushes gaming forward and further into the public eye.
You could even compare it to something as outwardly bizarre, eccentric and even political as Eurovision, where countries are united behind a single competition and partaking in the joy of music and performance. This is what you will see a glimpse of in this trailer: players brought together through some of their favourite games whilst also improving their “competiti[ve] skills…social interaction [and] a sense of belonging to a special type of community that gathers those who play and that differ from each other…” (Baltezarević & Baltezarević, 2019). That it brings people to be a part of one cohesive and unified group that enjoy and revel in the excitement of video games together as friends and prospective colleagues. As any industry however, despite its many strengths, eSports are, as mentioned previously, also rife with controversy and navigating this space would be a part of the realised expanded-upon documentary series’ which would explore and contemplate these issues.
However, this concept of belonging and unity is only one of the weekly themes from the subject that my project ties into, but it is not necessarily the main one. Another is the nature of Hallyu, otherwise known as ‘the Korean Wave’. The spread of South Korean culture into other parts of the world is “considered a major export of South Korea [that] prompted the South Korean government to give it support, by providing funding and subsidies for creative industry start-ups…” (Racoma, 2018) These avenues of cultural development include such icons of Korea as K-Pop and, as you might expect, talented video game players who earn a tremendous amount of money and popularity when participating in global tournaments. Considering the spread of Korean culture and the continued expansion of the Internet, it is no wonder that the gap between Eastern and Western cultures has decreased and the increase in cultural proximity has emerged, leading to a form of soft power in favour of South Korea with “the circulation and consumption of cultural and symbolic products [leading to] recognition and visibility outside the nation…” (Marinescu, 2014)
This is demonstrated quite distinctly in the eSports community by how often it is joked about that much of the competition is dominated by Korean players. There’s much to be said for how countries like South Korea actually give a damn about these tournaments, with the establishment of organisations like the Korean eSports Association which have their roots in more quote-unquote “legitimate” sporting ventures. In fact, seeing which way the wind was blowing so to speak, one of the South Korean government’s “first moves was to establish the Korean Esports Association (KeSPA) in 2000…as a branch under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism…” (Ozkurt, 2019), which shows just how seriously South Korea takes the eSports scene. And while I don’t delve directly into this awareness and seriousness here in this film, it would certainly be a major piece of the puzzle if I were to make this trailer into a comprehensive series.
Now before I start this trailer for you, I would finally like to touch on some of the technical aspects of its production and where the transnational appeal resides. When it came time to record this film on my phone, with the help of some friends in and outside this class, I managed to find this small group of local Smash players who were willing to help me out. But for recording interviews and b-roll footage with these people, I decided not to record them in a separate room, instead allowing for the full raucous ambience and energy of the room to envelop the sound. To do otherwise, I think would be against the spirit of what video games are all about, what I’ve been trying to get at throughout this speech: a jam-packed room filled with friends, laughter (and, optionally, alcohol). And in most countries around the world like Korea, it's the same. As I told you at the beginning, we all love to play games. It helps to distract us from what we consider the tedious and the humdrum. The pure universality of games can not be understated and this is what lies at the heart of Spectacle. Enjoy.
References:
Baltezarević, B & Baltezarević, V 2019, ‘eSports As A New Playground’, Physical Education and Sport, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 23-30.
Liquipedia 2019, ‘The International 2019’, Liquipedia, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2019>.
Marinescu, V (ed.) 2014, The global impact of South Korean popular culture: Hallyu unbound, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.
Ozkurt, E 2019, ‘Esports in South Korea – a short overview of the legal ecosystem’, Law in Sport, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://www.lawinsport.com/content/articles/item/esports-in-south-korea-a-short-overview-of-the-legal-ecosystem>.
Racoma, B 2018, ‘Hallyu or Korean Wave Continues to Take the World by Storm’, Day Translations, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/korean-takes-world/>
In many ways, looking back on the production of Spectacle, I think it was largely successful. However, in the same breath, I would say that, like with any production, there are things that can be improved and some are more drastically important to fix than others. Now, near the end of my director’s statement, I briefly discussed a few of the technical aspects of the production. Here, in this reflective piece, I will go further in-depth in breaking down how I went about making the film, what worked about it and also what made it not as strongly put together as it could have been.
Firstly, in choosing a subject, I turned towards a hobby of mine that I was very passionate about: video games. Being such a multifaceted topic for discussion, there was substantial room for exploring what I could make, especially within specific restraints (e.g. the subject-imposed short length of the video, quality of the camera etc.) as well as the limited time span to make it in. With some guidance however, I turned towards making a trailer for a potential series of short documentaries called Spectacle which, as you might expect from the title, is about the extravagance of eSports tournaments. At the same time though, I wanted to also take, even if just for a brief moment, a look at the local side of things. This local eSports angle was what ended up becoming the focus of the trailer which was, once again, paying heed to budget and time constraints. Thankfully, a local fighting game tournament was happening at the University of Wollongong as it did every Friday evening. This gave me a good opportunity to film and interview players in the Wollongong area. Before heading down there, I brought along my phone to record the footage I needed. I would have preferred bringing my Canon DSLR camera of course, but due to the assessment necessitating the use of my phone as the main filming device, I obviously decided not to take it along with me.
When I got to the venue, I became frustrated with myself for not having the courage to talk to many of the people there in the first twenty to thirty minutes or so. Generally, I would say I’m a decently confident person and I’m able to strike up friendships and conversations with relative ease. But in this situation, I found it hard to start talking to people, knowing no-one in the room at that point and never being there before in my life - thus making it a wholly new experience for me. Luckily, for myself and for the assessment, the people there were very friendly for the most part. I already had an inkling this would be the case, having posted a message on the fighting game club’s Facebook page, asking if anyone who would be there on the Friday would be willing to help me make a student film by doing an interview. All those that replied back to me were welcoming in their responses, which I tried to reassure myself of when I was there. Another reason for my hesitation came down to the presence of my phone's camera and I didn’t want to feel like I was ‘spying’ on anyone or making them feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, the night, much to my relief, passed by without incident.
At the start of the recording process, I first filmed only B-roll for several minutes to capture extra shots in case I needed them in the final edit. Most of this footage consisted of behind-the-head, over-the-shoulder shots of individuals playing games against each other as well as a couple of panning shots and some establishing footage for the opening of the video as well. It must be noted however that, for me at this point in time, most videos come together in the edit with new ideas or even the structure of a video coming to me in the moment when I’m sitting at my computer using Premiere Pro. While I usually have a vivid idea of what I want for my final project in my head, I haven’t planned out everything completely and explicitly on paper. Arguably, this is to the detriment of my work as, typically, having a plan of what you are going to be making is supremely fundamental to have before setting out. And with that point, I can’t honestly argue with. But I could potentially argue that my method allows for less rigidity in the creation of different works. Whether or not it’s a better form of creating things? That’s a question for another day and its one that likely isn’t in my favour.
In any case, having collected all the footage I needed (both A-roll for the interviews and B-roll for everything else), it was time for the editing phase. And in this phase, one of the major flaws of the video comes to the forefront: the audio. It wasn’t particularly poor in terms of its quality but made the interviews difficult to understand, thanks to what I called the “raucous” energy of the room, the same word I used to hopefully portray the audio in a more positive light in my Director’s Statement. Nonetheless, despite my best efforts to frame it better contextually, it’s true that it’s hard to focus on what people are saying when you can barely hear them. That, it goes without saying, is self-evidently true. I think what could have worked better would have been pairing these interviews and juxtaposing them with other segments in quieter rooms and environments, as a means of giving the audience a break from the noise.
Having completed the video, showed it in class and now writing about it as the last assessment for not only this subject but for the year, I recognise that there were some serious flaws that would have been resolved had I had a bit more time to complete it. The audio being the distinctive frontrunner in this regard followed closely by my shyness which, if I’m going to continue to do film and documentary work, will need to be overcome soon. Perhaps sooner than I would like, but that’s the way it goes. I’m sure that, with more time, Spectacle or at least its base idea can be fashioned into something useful and accessible that will communicate with clarity just how important and incredible video games are and also what they can be. And hopefully, with this short student film, I’ve come just a bit closer to achieving that. But maybe it was more or less successful than I think. After all, I only have my own perspective and reflection to think back on.
You can find the video I made for BCM289 below:
This came before 'Crunchy Bytes: The Final Cut...?', a BCM215 (Game Media) project but ended up being uploaded way after it for...reasons (I showed my BCM289 film in-class from my USB so had no reason to upload it until today).
You can find a copy of the description below:
(ORIGINALLY COMPLETED IN LATE OCTOBER)
Chronologically speaking, it should have been uploaded before 'Crunchy Bytes: The Final Cut...?' But hey ho, what can you do?
Anyway, this is a student film/trailer about a potential eSports documentary series that would comprehensively explore every aspect of the scene. Enjoy!
#Spectacle #eSports #DocumentaryTrailer
You can find a copy of the expanded Director's Statement, plus the reflection below:
Spectacle: Director’s Statement (EXPANDED VERSION)
by Timothy Cuff
Games. We all love to play them to the point where it’s pretty much impossible to find someone who truly doesn’t enjoy games on any level. Games can be anything from something sophisticated and classically strategic like Chess to something as basic and straightforward as Tic-Tac-Toe. Video games are, as their name implies, just another form of play. But then again, Tic-Tac-Toe isn’t exactly raking in millions of dollars of revenue every year and drawing enormous crowds to watch the latest matches. eSports are among the most popular forms of entertainment today where thousands in an arena or online watch gameplay of their favourite teams with a compelling mixture of awe and excitement. To give an example of just how enormous the eSports scene is and has been in recent years, there was a recent tournament for the popular game DotA 2 called ‘The International’. One of the most prestigious annual eSports events in the world, 2019’s ‘International’ had over thirty four million dollars (USD) as the prize pool (Liquipedia, 2019) - one of the largest in the history of the game and, indeed, in all of eSports.
The main inspiration for this short trailer comes from this. I mean, what more needs to be said about how eSports, like any other physical, more traditional sport, has its regular viewers and fanatic devotees as well as all the exorbitant earnings, prestige and clout that comes along with it? Not to mention room for gossip and rumour, much to the chagrin and distaste of many players and fans. Because of course, games of the electronic variety, so to speak, can be easier to cheat in some circumstances than the traditional and conventional sports that dominate the current television landscape. But, despite the scandalisation, eSports still remains a young but burgeoning form of entertainment that pushes gaming forward and further into the public eye.
You could even compare it to something as outwardly bizarre, eccentric and even political as Eurovision, where countries are united behind a single competition and partaking in the joy of music and performance. This is what you will see a glimpse of in this trailer: players brought together through some of their favourite games whilst also improving their “competiti[ve] skills…social interaction [and] a sense of belonging to a special type of community that gathers those who play and that differ from each other…” (Baltezarević & Baltezarević, 2019). That it brings people to be a part of one cohesive and unified group that enjoy and revel in the excitement of video games together as friends and prospective colleagues. As any industry however, despite its many strengths, eSports are, as mentioned previously, also rife with controversy and navigating this space would be a part of the realised expanded-upon documentary series’ which would explore and contemplate these issues.
However, this concept of belonging and unity is only one of the weekly themes from the subject that my project ties into, but it is not necessarily the main one. Another is the nature of Hallyu, otherwise known as ‘the Korean Wave’. The spread of South Korean culture into other parts of the world is “considered a major export of South Korea [that] prompted the South Korean government to give it support, by providing funding and subsidies for creative industry start-ups…” (Racoma, 2018) These avenues of cultural development include such icons of Korea as K-Pop and, as you might expect, talented video game players who earn a tremendous amount of money and popularity when participating in global tournaments. Considering the spread of Korean culture and the continued expansion of the Internet, it is no wonder that the gap between Eastern and Western cultures has decreased and the increase in cultural proximity has emerged, leading to a form of soft power in favour of South Korea with “the circulation and consumption of cultural and symbolic products [leading to] recognition and visibility outside the nation…” (Marinescu, 2014)
This is demonstrated quite distinctly in the eSports community by how often it is joked about that much of the competition is dominated by Korean players. There’s much to be said for how countries like South Korea actually give a damn about these tournaments, with the establishment of organisations like the Korean eSports Association which have their roots in more quote-unquote “legitimate” sporting ventures. In fact, seeing which way the wind was blowing so to speak, one of the South Korean government’s “first moves was to establish the Korean Esports Association (KeSPA) in 2000…as a branch under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism…” (Ozkurt, 2019), which shows just how seriously South Korea takes the eSports scene. And while I don’t delve directly into this awareness and seriousness here in this film, it would certainly be a major piece of the puzzle if I were to make this trailer into a comprehensive series.
Now before I start this trailer for you, I would finally like to touch on some of the technical aspects of its production and where the transnational appeal resides. When it came time to record this film on my phone, with the help of some friends in and outside this class, I managed to find this small group of local Smash players who were willing to help me out. But for recording interviews and b-roll footage with these people, I decided not to record them in a separate room, instead allowing for the full raucous ambience and energy of the room to envelop the sound. To do otherwise, I think would be against the spirit of what video games are all about, what I’ve been trying to get at throughout this speech: a jam-packed room filled with friends, laughter (and, optionally, alcohol). And in most countries around the world like Korea, it's the same. As I told you at the beginning, we all love to play games. It helps to distract us from what we consider the tedious and the humdrum. The pure universality of games can not be understated and this is what lies at the heart of Spectacle. Enjoy.
References:
Baltezarević, B & Baltezarević, V 2019, ‘eSports As A New Playground’, Physical Education and Sport, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 23-30.
Liquipedia 2019, ‘The International 2019’, Liquipedia, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2019>.
Marinescu, V (ed.) 2014, The global impact of South Korean popular culture: Hallyu unbound, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.
Ozkurt, E 2019, ‘Esports in South Korea – a short overview of the legal ecosystem’, Law in Sport, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://www.lawinsport.com/content/articles/item/esports-in-south-korea-a-short-overview-of-the-legal-ecosystem>.
Racoma, B 2018, ‘Hallyu or Korean Wave Continues to Take the World by Storm’, Day Translations, viewed 10th November 2019, <https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/korean-takes-world/>
Spectacle: The Reflection
by Timothy Cuff
In many ways, looking back on the production of Spectacle, I think it was largely successful. However, in the same breath, I would say that, like with any production, there are things that can be improved and some are more drastically important to fix than others. Now, near the end of my director’s statement, I briefly discussed a few of the technical aspects of the production. Here, in this reflective piece, I will go further in-depth in breaking down how I went about making the film, what worked about it and also what made it not as strongly put together as it could have been.
Firstly, in choosing a subject, I turned towards a hobby of mine that I was very passionate about: video games. Being such a multifaceted topic for discussion, there was substantial room for exploring what I could make, especially within specific restraints (e.g. the subject-imposed short length of the video, quality of the camera etc.) as well as the limited time span to make it in. With some guidance however, I turned towards making a trailer for a potential series of short documentaries called Spectacle which, as you might expect from the title, is about the extravagance of eSports tournaments. At the same time though, I wanted to also take, even if just for a brief moment, a look at the local side of things. This local eSports angle was what ended up becoming the focus of the trailer which was, once again, paying heed to budget and time constraints. Thankfully, a local fighting game tournament was happening at the University of Wollongong as it did every Friday evening. This gave me a good opportunity to film and interview players in the Wollongong area. Before heading down there, I brought along my phone to record the footage I needed. I would have preferred bringing my Canon DSLR camera of course, but due to the assessment necessitating the use of my phone as the main filming device, I obviously decided not to take it along with me.
When I got to the venue, I became frustrated with myself for not having the courage to talk to many of the people there in the first twenty to thirty minutes or so. Generally, I would say I’m a decently confident person and I’m able to strike up friendships and conversations with relative ease. But in this situation, I found it hard to start talking to people, knowing no-one in the room at that point and never being there before in my life - thus making it a wholly new experience for me. Luckily, for myself and for the assessment, the people there were very friendly for the most part. I already had an inkling this would be the case, having posted a message on the fighting game club’s Facebook page, asking if anyone who would be there on the Friday would be willing to help me make a student film by doing an interview. All those that replied back to me were welcoming in their responses, which I tried to reassure myself of when I was there. Another reason for my hesitation came down to the presence of my phone's camera and I didn’t want to feel like I was ‘spying’ on anyone or making them feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, the night, much to my relief, passed by without incident.
At the start of the recording process, I first filmed only B-roll for several minutes to capture extra shots in case I needed them in the final edit. Most of this footage consisted of behind-the-head, over-the-shoulder shots of individuals playing games against each other as well as a couple of panning shots and some establishing footage for the opening of the video as well. It must be noted however that, for me at this point in time, most videos come together in the edit with new ideas or even the structure of a video coming to me in the moment when I’m sitting at my computer using Premiere Pro. While I usually have a vivid idea of what I want for my final project in my head, I haven’t planned out everything completely and explicitly on paper. Arguably, this is to the detriment of my work as, typically, having a plan of what you are going to be making is supremely fundamental to have before setting out. And with that point, I can’t honestly argue with. But I could potentially argue that my method allows for less rigidity in the creation of different works. Whether or not it’s a better form of creating things? That’s a question for another day and its one that likely isn’t in my favour.
In any case, having collected all the footage I needed (both A-roll for the interviews and B-roll for everything else), it was time for the editing phase. And in this phase, one of the major flaws of the video comes to the forefront: the audio. It wasn’t particularly poor in terms of its quality but made the interviews difficult to understand, thanks to what I called the “raucous” energy of the room, the same word I used to hopefully portray the audio in a more positive light in my Director’s Statement. Nonetheless, despite my best efforts to frame it better contextually, it’s true that it’s hard to focus on what people are saying when you can barely hear them. That, it goes without saying, is self-evidently true. I think what could have worked better would have been pairing these interviews and juxtaposing them with other segments in quieter rooms and environments, as a means of giving the audience a break from the noise.
Having completed the video, showed it in class and now writing about it as the last assessment for not only this subject but for the year, I recognise that there were some serious flaws that would have been resolved had I had a bit more time to complete it. The audio being the distinctive frontrunner in this regard followed closely by my shyness which, if I’m going to continue to do film and documentary work, will need to be overcome soon. Perhaps sooner than I would like, but that’s the way it goes. I’m sure that, with more time, Spectacle or at least its base idea can be fashioned into something useful and accessible that will communicate with clarity just how important and incredible video games are and also what they can be. And hopefully, with this short student film, I’ve come just a bit closer to achieving that. But maybe it was more or less successful than I think. After all, I only have my own perspective and reflection to think back on.
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