AICE Media Studies 2024-25

https://youtu.be/Yrnr-srDo4s?si=V7gi-UaZultjfN4L

 My teacher gave us a new assignment meant as practice for section B of a question that will be on our AICE Media Studies exam. It consists of 2 questions that the examinee must choose between (The highlighted question is the one I chose to answer): " Explain the importance of cross media synergies in the media area you have studied.   OR New technologies have made audiences more complex and unpredictable. How far do you agree with this statement?"   Cross media synergies are pivotal to the promotion and success of movies. Before they even release a movie, companies, such as Sony, have to ensure a certain level of success with their product in order to make profit. Sony was a small company like any other in 1946, when they were known as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Group in Japan. Since then, they acquired Tristar Pictures (a production company) and Columbia Pictures (a distribution company) to form the Sony Pictures Motion Group. Adding such groups allowed them t...

When creating our title sequence, the group wanted to make sure that the aspects of it aligned with the theme/premise of the movie and would fit in well. This is why we chose the simplistic, thin font for the actors names and the title of the movie. It worked well and we believed it added to the clinical and sort of sterileness that could be found inside a therapist's office.  The title itself is colored red as it is meant to demonstrate the possible danger in the protagonist and hints towards the main conflict of the movie, the "gaps" in her memories. This makes her an unreliable source and makes the audience warry of whatever she says/does. The title itself, "Mind the Gaps," is representative of the plot and weird glitches that are demonstrated within the movie. In terms of the production company, we made it up using parts of each others' names and distributor was just a silly nickname that a friend of ours made up for me.  The presentation of the text, ho...

Peer Review #1  " The cinematography was solid—nice framing and smooth camera work that made the scene look professional. The lighting set the right mood, and the background music added to the atmosphere. One thing that could be better is the dialogue delivery; some parts felt a little stiff or rushed. This definitely felt like a movie opener, and it got me interested in what’s coming next. To make it even better, the dialogue could flow more naturally, and a little more intensity in key moments would help build the suspense." This review is basically saying that our technical elements were solid, however we should've worked on dialogue and better delivery. I would say that the dialogue itself is fine, but acting isn't much of a factor within the technical elements that are focused on such as lighting. So I disagree with the critics but appreciate the compliments on the technical aspects. Peer Review #2 "The tilt-to-angle shot of the female protagonist was a stan...

“The Entity After Hours” https://youtu.be/uISgY-24Fkw My favorite thing about this opening sequence is the lighting while they sneak into the classroom. The red from the emergency exit sign created a suspenseful feeling. The Dutch angles made it feel like someone or something was watching them. The dark lighting was great as well, making the red signs pop out more and create a sort of dangerous atmosphere. This was also during the time they started talking about there being a ghost in the school, setting up the premise of the film. I wasn’t the biggest fan on the master shot towards the end though. I will say that the zoom-in they used made it a bit better and the ending itself was very good at making me wonder “well what happened?!” The diegetic sounds at the end really added to the overall sense of looming danger that was already present. I felt like the opening was understandable and wasn’t really confusing. I understood that the overall premise was kids sneaking into their school a...

 

Since the last time we talked about Alexander's issues while editing, there has been much more progress done by him and this time, Angela. As mentioned in the last post we were all supposed to meet up and assist in the editing. However, I got really sick and our other group member couldn't make it either. This left Angela and Alexander alone to work together in editing our opening sequence. They worked for about 2-3 hours.  Angela and Alexander working together After considering multiple different fonts and trying to find the right one for the job. The font they settled on using in the movie is "Monserrat-Light" as it is thin and simplistic. This adds neatness to the film and correlates well with the therapy clinic setting. For colors, we're considering utilizing yellow, red, or dark blue because they're striking and make the scenes pop out more.  In terms of audio, we're going to edit in many sounds such as clicking, scratching, high-pitched noise, and su...

Filmmaking has been a BLAST! Truly it has but the whole filming process also requires editing, the final piece of the filming puzzle. Now we haven't made much progress just yet on editing this week. I say we but truly I just mean Alexander, one of the group members. We plan to meet and discuss our vision to try to develop our "Mona Lisa" of the Media Studies class. Picture of Alexander working on editing Alexander did attempt to make some progress on the editing, but he faced some issues while doing so. For example, we did not name any of the video files which made it very difficult to put the clips in order. So, he had to go through each clip individually, while reviewing the script, to properly put the clips in place. He also renamed the clips so that he wouldn't lose track of them again. Picture of Alexander's screen while editing Lastly, his computer was having a bit of trouble editing. Specifically, the software he was trying to use was running very slow and ...

 Last week, we finally began filming. When I say last week it sounds like such a long time ago, but it was really only 4 days ago or so. It was tough at first, especially because we were trying to get our schedules to finally align with each others'. When we finally did and met up at the filming location, one of our member's house, we went straight to work. The first objective was to prepare an area within the house represent a therapy session. Doing this was relatively easy, the only issue was lighting. We wanted to use natural lighting that could peak through the blinds of the house, but it was too dim to use for the scene. We settled on utilizing a mixture of natural lighting along with overhead lighting. Picture of the group rehearsing before the first take. After the set up, we began to work on our first take of the opening sequence. The room had a bit of an echo and any little noise could be caught in the audio. This made things a bit difficult a there were two dogs that ...

Filming has been a CHALLENGE; fun but definitely more complicated than what we believed it would be. First of all, we originally planned to meet on Thursday, February 6th, but I had a sudden family issue that caused me to reschedule for the next day. When we finally met up, we were able to finally set up the area we were working in and make it how we wanted to look like. However, we were filming in a group member's house who owns 2 dogs. The dogs were rowdy and hard to get to calm down. This was especially an issue because the room was producing slight echoes in the audio, so the sounds of the dogs collars and paws tapping on the floor created difficulties in our recordings! It was very tedious but despite that we were able to get clips without the dogs making loud or noticeable noises.   Also, we were planning to use natural lighting from the sun within the film more to make it feel a bit more authentic. We were not able to effectively do this though, as filming took so long ...

 Today we are continuing to work on aspects of our opening sequence! Our teacher instructed us to describe the costumes that the actors inside the opening scene would wear.  For the therapist (me), we are aiming to do more of a casual yet formal look. So, I may wear a pair of jeans with a belt and tucked in polo shirt. We may also utilize fake glasses to further give a professional look.  For the patient, the costume will also be casual. It will consist of a long-sleeve shirt with a pair of cargo pants. It is meant to make the patient and therapist easily distinguishable by look. The patient has more of a laid-back regular look while the therapist looks much more professional.  The colors for both costumes may differ from the photos however as we are also trying to consider the mood/emotion that we want to convey with them. For example, we are thinking of adding a yellow colored accessory or shirt for the patient as we want to convey a cautious/unwell sort of feeling...

 Today, our teacher told us to prepare for filming and make final decisions on our film. So, we finally decided that Angela and I are going to be acting in the opening scene. My costume will consist of some slacks with a collared button up, belt, and glasses. Angela will be wearing casual clothing such as a jeans and a tank top with a yellow accessory. To add to the therapist role, we will have a clipboard and pen as props for the therapist. As for the location of the filming, it will be taking place inside of Angela's house as she has the least distractions that would get in the way of filming. The filming will be going on during the middle of the day and evening as well. This is because we want to utilize natural lighting along with fluorescent lighting to help set the mood of the opening.  The script is probably one of the toughest parts of our plan. We want to convey as much as possible with a small number of words and mainly the technical aspects of the film. Our opening ...

  Today, we were instructed to create a mood board about our opening sequence and explain our reasoning behind the pictures we chose. So without further ado, let's get started!   In this moodboard, I am trying to capture a bit of a confused, mysterious mood. This is because I wanted to add pictures of things that would be relevant to the opening scene. One example of this are the pills and the black/white picture of the man staring at himself in the mirror. It is meant to create some sort of connection while not outright giving out what the story is about. Another example is the dog bowls, they have no obvious connection with anything in the picture that can be made out by the audience, so it leaves a sense of mystery. Additionally, this mood helps to contribute to the genre of suspense that we're aiming towards with this film. 

Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog! We just got back from 2 weeks of winter break and we took a look at the opening scenes of other students. Today, I'll be reviewing them and discussing them with a partner. 1. "Dare to Thrill" https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=nYpjHCwRO6Q In this video, there are many technical elements to look at. One of the first things we see is a group of young adults walking at night who are walking towards a parking garage. Here, they utilize a master shot which shows the back of all the characters involved. As they walk up the stairs, a tracking shot is utilized to follow them up the stairs. This makes the audience feel as if they're walking with them and also makes the audience feel the excitement of the multiple scenes it is used in. They then find a key and the car the key is for which they take on a joy-ride. Inside the car many quick, close-up shots are included which help to create a chaotic environment and emphasi...

 This week, my team and I have been brainstorming storyboards and decided on separating the opening scene into 4 parts (each about 30 seconds long). Each member was assigned a certain part (the first 30 seconds, the second... and so on). We all went over and reviewed each other's scenes to make sure they were cohesive with one another. We discussed matters such as the shots we wanted to use. We decided to implement technical elements such as the dutch angle, high-angle, low-angle, over-the-shoulder shot, two-shot, close-up shot, etc. We want to really emphasize that there is something off about our main character, so we thought that getting them from different angles would have that affect.In terms of setting, we're going to be filming at one of our group member's house, especially when filming the protagonist's daily routines as they prepare for the day.   The pictures used are meant to be examples and not exactly what we're going to do, but some of the examples do...

 Today, I teamed up with Angela R, Jamil J, and Alexander M to work on an opening scene for AICE Media studies. We brainstormed on many ideas and finally settled on working on a Drama short film. We divided up the roles in between each other for the short film. Roles: Scriptwriter is a collaborative role between everyone. Angela- Actor Alexander- Editor Jamil- Producer Johansen (me)- Actor

Not too long ago, I watched an extract of the show "Agent Carter" in class and was told to make an essay describing the technical elements of the clip and how they developed meaning. This is my final draft after making a few edits: My Thoughts on the Extract  In the extract, "Agent Carter," the producers utilize elements such as shots, mise-en-scene, editing and sound to emphasize societal issues such as sexism during the 1900s as well as the theme of losing a loved one. The producers then utilize a master shot of all the workers, including Peggy, within an office. In the shot, we see that all the workers there are men and Peggy is the only female in the workplace. This is meant to be a subtle hint towards the looming sexism within the office. This can be also reinforced by the previous establishing shot that demonstrates a large city as well as the costumes utilized by the characters in the scene. Peggy is wearing very formal attire that seems to be very similar to...