AICE Media Studies Blog

  How do your products represent social groups or issues?   My product is a demonstration and representation of many broad social dilemmas. These broad dilemmas can be narrowed down into smaller, more specific topics. My short film, “Wrongdoings” broadly represents those who believe in upper powers , karma, and good Samaritans . I will get into more detail about each of these as I continue to express how my product applies to each of these categories. Being a good person has always been a morale that everyone believes everyone else should follow. But it is not as easy as it sounds to follow the “golden rule.” My product reinforces the fact that you should treat others how you would want to be treated. While this may sound even childish, it is in fact something that if followed by everyone, would make society a lot more productive. This is a great social issue, especially in my country, the United States. Mass amounts of violent hate crimes have been on the uprising, and...

Website Link:  https://seannehme.wixsite.com/wrongdoingsshortfilm Postcard Link: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFemZFnP7I/P2VLgjRVxeBXuLLrr5FWxA/view?utm_content=DAFemZFnP7I&utm_campaign=share_your_design&utm_medium=link&utm_source=shareyourdesignpanel Short Film Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWvRkLLm968

 Now that I have gotten feedback on my film, I have more work to do. As I said in my previous blog, my psychology teacher watched my film. She gave me some critiques that I could change. So I thanked her and decided that I would meet with my group today. And that is where I am right now. I am with my group and ready to fix any critiques given to me by my teacher. One of the critiques that I was given was our titles. They came onto the screen in a chunky way, and the design could be improved. In order to fix this, my group tested out some new designs. The designs were already looking much better. They fit in and contrasted with the background very nicely. But the problem is that they were flowing incorrectly. So I looked at my AS-Level final task and took some inspiration from there. It easily allowed my group to see how the titles should flow in. And now it was looking better than ever. There was another critique that my first viewer gave me, and that was the transitions. This is a...

Today was exciting for me. Today is the first time someone else is going to lay eyes on my short film. Honestly, I am more nervous than excited. I asked my psychology teacher to watch my short film. I feel as if I chose the right person to be my first viewer. My psychology teacher is a special person. She is very smart and understanding. But what is most important is that she is honest. I went up to her and inquired about her watching my film. But she warned me that she would be honest. This is exactly what I want from someone giving me advice. I sat down next to her while my film played. I told her to not answer any questions while it played. I also did not say anything. This is because I will not be able to answer everyone's questions when they watch it. The film should make sense without any further explanation. That is the entire point of having someone else watch my film. After she watched it, she did indeed have some questions and areas where we could improve. She said that t...

 Putting audio into the movie. That was my group's goal today. I suggested that I and my groupmates meet up in study hall to work on inserting audio into my film. My group already knows what songs are going to be inserted into the film. I must make sure that these songs fit each scene, based on context. The music needs to make sense essentially. I and my group's previous planning really helped here. Since I already researched multiple songs, it is more than likely that they will make sense in my film. So once I got situated, my group huddled around Sofia's computer. Scene by scene she went and added music. While she was doing this, Beckett and I were giving suggestions and listening along. It was all sounding amazing. Study hall had ended and my group got through about almost half of the process. But this was not to worry. Me, Sofia, and Beckett had the same 4th period that day. And ever so conveniently, in that period there was free time to work on my final task. So my gro...

 My group is only a few steps away from finishing. Today, I need to add titles to my film. In order to do this, my group set up a meeting date. It was decided that my group meet Friday after school. So I got home and printed out the order of needed titles. Once I got with my group it was decided that each title had to have a name. So my group went one by one, deciding what to put for each title. After this, my group needed to see which title design will be used. In order to do this, each one of my groupmates created their own design. After every one of my groupmates made their design, each one was compared. My group decided that Sofia made the best design. So Sofia used her design to test it out on my Final Task, and it looked great. But before anything was done, I recommend that my group look at www.watchthetitles.com. This website gave me some insight into what my titles should look like. It helped me know where the titles should be on the screen. I also did something that nobody...

Welcome back to another day. This day is more editing. Last class, I cut up all the clips that are needed for my short film. This was a very tedious process. But today I need to insert all these clips into the editing software. This is so that my group can start to edit it all. I can see my film coming together right before my eyes. The first step was to put all of the clips into the editing software. It took about 10 minutes to load them all into the software. Now I am ready. Ready for what you may ask. I am ready to sit down and put them all in the right order. This may not sound like much, but there is another step that I must do. That is to add transitions. I needed to make sure that these clips flowed together correctly. To do this I used the help of technology. Technology being my editing software. It easily gave me so many options to have the clips flow together. I sat and experimented with many of the options and I thought that it turned out great. I had Beckett watch the film ...

Today is a new day. This means it is another day to work. I sat at my desk, on my phone most of the period. This sounds like an unproductive day doesn't it? Well, it very much was not. I had been reviewing each and every clip that my group had filmed. I sorted them all into a folder on my phone. Once I had all the clips I wanted to insert into my film in that folder, I was almost ready to transfer them into my editing software. But before that, I had to cut them up. I went through each and every clip for about an hour. During this hour I shortened every clip by trimming a few seconds at the beginning or the end. This was for a few reasons. First of all, I needed to cut out my group's film slate. My group's film slate word was "GO". So I cut out the film slate from every clip, which was Sofia saying "go". Then at the end of every clip, there were about a few seconds where the film kept rolling after the scene was completed. This also had to be cut out. I ...

Today I and my group are looking to find what music we will insert into our film. I am all done with filming. Everyone in my group has separate goals in class. My goal for this period is to find music to go into the background of my film. In order to remove any hassles with copyright, I searched for royalty-free music. This allows me to use music without worrying about any "heat' about copyright. So I went on google and Youtube and did some searching. I am looking for conspicuous music. This would help with adding suspense to my film. This allows it to fall under the mystery genre. My goal is to leave my audience on the edge of their seats. I want them to wonder what is going to happen next. Music is a great way to achieve this goal. Music and sound are so powerful in a film. Sometimes it is often overlooked. But I will not make that mistake. In my searches, I found a couple of great contenders that could fit into my film. I made sure that they were royalty-free. I saved them ...

Now it is time to film one last time. Well at least hopefully. Today I am at Sofia's house to finish the last part of my filming. Barring any mistakes found in editing, this should be the last time my group films. This filming session may be one of the most important ones yet. The most action and and essential part of my short film occur here. I and Beckett need to throw toilet paper at Sofia's house. While that may sound crazy, it lines up with our story. So, my group got started. Just as previously done before I planned out everything before starting to film. Again a list was made of what will be done in what order. Along with specific details needed for each scene. A costume change was needed for me and Beckett. Both of us wore dark, conspicuous clothing. Also, I decided to film at a later time, so it would be dark enough to fit the genre of my film, mystery. There were not too many scenes to film at Sofia's house so I and my group got it done quickly. I was finally fini...

Now I and my group need to do another round of filming. Today my group is at my house. All the scenes that involve the setting being my house will be shot here. My group once again started with a "game plan" for the day. A list was made of what we will do. This list involved the order we are shooting the scenes. It also included specific details about each shot that I had to get just right. Then I and my group started to review our lines again. My group went over them for about 20 minutes. Everything was looking good and I was about to go outside to prep for the first scene. Then it hit. It started to pour down rain. This was not looking good for my group. So it was decided that we do all the indoor scenes first. This way so when the indoor scenes are done, hopefully, the rain would clear up. The indoor scenes were done almost flawlessly. My group got them done in less than 3 takes every time. The rain started to ease off a bit, which was looking good. But I still had to wait...

Today, Beckett, Sofia, and I had our first filming session. My group and I decided 1 pm was a good time to film. This is because of the lighting at this time. We would film all the scenes inside first. This would take a couple hours and by then it would be dark enough outside to film the other scenes in a bit darker lighting. So, it would be perfect conditions outside by the time we finished the scenes inside the house. I went over to Beckett's house before our scheduled filming time. When I got there I finished setting up some more props. Then I printed out all of our scripts, and any other papers we need to be successful. Once Sofia got here my group got together and started working. The opening scene went great. My group improvised a birds-eye-view shot with Beckett's ceiling fan. We thought it was great until we realized that part of the camera was blocked by the fan blade. So I repositioned my phone and re-shot it. This time our opening scene came out great. We had to impr...

 In order for my film to be successful, good props are needed. That is the case for any film that wants to be at least respectable. So I took it into my own hands to make a variety of props for my short film. I sat down at my desk and started to list what I needed to make. I kept referring to my Storyboard and Script to see every prop that was needed. I came up with a list of about 10 items. The first thing I did was look around my house to see if I had any of these items. If I did not, I asked my groupmates. And lastly, if all else failed, I would go out and spend a few dollars on some items I needed. One thing I needed to buy was envelopes. This was so I could construct my letter. Another activity I did was wash my car. This was so that it would look clean for the camera. This means that it is not attracting the attention of my audience. I want my audience to be focused on the plot itself, but a poor prop could hinder that. I asked my groupmates if they had any of the items neede...

I and my group still have not come up with a concrete name for the Final Task short film. In order to resolve this, I called our group together and brought up the idea. After some discussion, my group came up with a shortlist of what the name of the film could be. One name that I brought was "Wrongdoings". My idea for this was to keep it short and conspicuous. This was in order to keep my Film in line with the mystery genre. A short name that would make the audience wonder could connotate a mystery. That is at least what I believed. My groupmates did not agree. They believed that my idea was not the best. So in response, I asked a question of my one. I asked them what they thought the name of the Film should be. They gave me some ideas. In my honest opinion, I did not quite see their suggestions as fit. I brought up the idea that we can use the internet to our advantage. The internet gave me some good advice that I was able to share with my group. A list of guidelines such as...

This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office . This is our storyboard for Bad Fortune. Each square covers about 5 seconds of the film. So in total, we have exactly 5 minutes planned out. we have included what angles and shots in the images, and descriptions of each segment. This is felt to be our best storyboard as we have now had plenty of practice and this went ever so smoothly. Here Below shows the content of each 50 second page. Page 1: We start in Beckett’s house where Sean and Beckett are playing cards. After getting bored and angry Sean storms out where we follow him down the street. Beckett speed walks and catches up to him where they start talking about what to do to end their boredom.   Page 2: They both come to a stop and see this one house. They look at each other and both come to the conclusion that a great way to end their boredom is to prank the house in front of them. In order to prank it they walk out of the frame and come back with thei...