AICE Media Studies Blog

  The only thing left to do for our group was to edit the film. This process saw our group split in half. In one group was Alec and me, selecting the footage to use in our film and being the critics of our groups, editing work. In the other group were Jibril and Max. These two had the most experience editing and were trusted with the process. And the project that Alec and I had took a few hours to complete. We decided to sit down and knock all the work out at once. We compiled all the footage from all the days of filming on my computer and got to work. We watched over all the footage, selecting what we thought was the best. Our criteria consisted of, the highest quality visuals, highest quality, sound, and most realistic acting. Some of the films had to be discarded because of the actors who looked at the camera during filming. Some film had to be deleted because the actors smiled while filming. After sorting through all this, we ended up with the best possible footage for the film...

  The final day of filming was a hectic and productive day. We went on a Saturday, giving us more time to film as opposed to after school. In the morning around 11, we all went to Max‘s house. When we got there, we compiled a list of every scene left over from our first day of filming. After reviewing our storyboard and script, we knew what we needed to complete and got to work. We started by filming our daytime outside scenes as the sun was still out. After filming, we went inside to put our equipment away and grab some lunch. We next filmed the scenes that take place indoors, using blinds and curtains to set the mood. Because I was the cameraman for the day, I had to set the appropriate lighting, constantly checking on my camera to make sure that it was realistic. We then filmed our indoor scenes, creating some extras in case we wanted to make adjustments during our editing. At this point, we all sat down and reviewed the film footage that we had taken so far. We used this proces...

Today was a big day for our filming. We started off the day like any other, going to school. At the end of the day, however, we decided to film. after consulting his parents, Max realized that we could not film at his house, so the group decided to film at mine. We all got in Max’s car and drove to my house. When we got to my house, we analyzed what scenes we needed to film and decided where in my building would be best to film. Some scenes were set in a house so we filmed in my apartment. This way, we had access to a couch and a homey environment. We went up to my house and filmed the scene. It took a couple attempts though because we needed to create a dark, creepy environment for the killer. After finding the right height for the curtains to create this lighting, the scene went off without a hitch. We then needed a scene with the main character connecting dots on a evidence board. For this scene, we went to a conference room in my apartment building. We once again had to experiment ...

 In order to make a good film, it is important to understand the basics of cameras and camera techniques. To start, we need to think about what kind of camera we were going to use. There are many options when considering, professional film, cameras are not feasible for us, and all available video cameras were outdated. Because of this, we could not use them as they had poor quality. The only benefit of using a video camera was the microphone. We settled on using our phone cameras because they ended up being the most economical option. Modern phones have exponentially increased in video resolution and microphone quality in recent years. Although not impressive compared to film cameras, phones have become competitive with low-end cameras. Phones are also more readily available because everyone in the group has one. This allows for different angles to be shot at the same time, allowing the group to decide which works the best.  The light weight is also an important factor. To be ...

 Before we start filming, I thought it best to study film trends. Because we want a successful film, I thought that we should understand the industry more. As you well know, films often fall into different trends. Most of the time, these trends dictate a film’s success. To understand this concept, let’s look at some recent films. For our bad example, we will discuss Morbius. For our good example, we will discuss Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Both of these films were based on comic book characters and were produced by two rival companies. And as you may know, Morbius was a massive failure in the box offices and did not perform as well as expected. On the other hand, Black Panther was very successful and was loved by most who saw it. One of the trends I saw was practical effects over CGI. This usually refers to explosions, blowing up physical models as opposed to CGI. Because our film is about a murder with a knife, we cannot use practical effects. We can, however, look at trends o...

Schedule: All filming w ill be done on March 15 th if everything goes to plan   Editing will be done the following Sunday and the weekend after that . Our goal is to have our video completely finished before spring break Location: We will film at Jibril's house with other scenes set outside   Participants: Acting: Jibril, Alec, Max Filming: Denton Editing : Max and Jibril Directing: Max   Health and Safety   The film will be shot with adult supervision. All knives in the film will be props that will be carefully handled. A first-aid kit will be kept nearby at all times   Back up plan: If our dates don’t work out then we will reschedule for the weekend after

  In the past two years of this class, we have talked about filming techniques. This is because there is a large emphasis being put on them. Because of the emphasis that I have been taught, I want to put a lot of thought into how I film this project. The first thing I need to do is make sure that I have the right camera angles. In the classroom, we watched many film examples. I have chosen a handful of filming techniques that I want to use based on these film extracts. They might not be put in the final film, but they are the ones that I felt might be beneficial to add. The first is the eye-level shot. There is nothing fancy about it, but it is very common in films and because of that, I want to add it to ours. It is almost exclusively a close-up or medium close-up shot, meaning that it is taken from a relatively close distance, and leaves most of the emphasis on the actor. Because it is a relatively close shot, I want to use it in our shot focusing on the victim. The next is ...

  For our group project, we decided to use royalty-free music. Because our film is about a killer, there are not many regular songs that we could have used. Our group was considering regular music when the characters were sitting around but ultimately we decided not to. Contacting the artists and getting the rights to their music is difficult to do over social media, especially for those who have millions of followers. Many artists have their direct messages turned off so that they are not bothered by the constant conversations with fans. Even though our intentions were pure and we likely would have gotten their consent, we decided not to spend too much time trying to contact an artist. Instead, we opted to use royalty-free music. This allows us a wider variety of music while not constraining us to a specific song. The music lets us set a tone for the parts of the movie. When the characters are sitting around, we will have an upbeat song playing. When the person is killed, we will ...

  One of the most important things we needed for our project is a location. Because of the nature of our film, we needed somewhere somewhat stereotypical. After watching many movies about killers, we narrowed the location list down to three places. Generally, they take place in a house in a foggy area. Because none of us live in a foggy area, the next logical step was a dark, shady area. The issue with this is that it gets too dark at night and we are not able to see. After we also figured that we wouldn't want to risk safety as well, This leaves us with our final option, someone’s house. We spent a while trying to think of his house to go to. I live on the beach, giving the scene a strange setting. Max's parents were out of town, so we could not film at his house. Also, Alec does not have a good setting that we could film in. We discussed whose house it would be amongst ourselves, and we came to the conclusion of Jibril's house. According to him, he has a good place to rec...

  One of the things we had to consider for our project was the costumes. We had a general idea of what was going to happen in the film, but we weren’t sure who was going to wear what. In one of our original concepts, One of us would have played a killer in the film. This means that one of us would have had to wear a killer costume. We found that it was difficult to dress as a convincing killer, so we decided not to use one. Now that we know what the four of us are doing, we need to decide what to wear. Context clues given in the script can help us with what to wear. The characters have distinct roles. Taking this into consideration, we can narrow down our list of possible costumes. Using this, we will dress as regular people, blending with the real  world that we want to portray. Casual clothing, tennis shoes, and hats will all be present. The costume design is obviously subject to change by each person, so this rule will not be strictly followed. For example, Max decided that...

  Today’s goal for the group assignment was to discuss our sounds. It is what we covered today and was thankfully not dragged out into tomorrow. The first thing we wanted to discuss was our sound. In the film, sound plays a big role. The sound sets, and the location, provide a sense of realism and gives the audience clues as to the course of the film. The first use is the location. Sound helps sent the scene, whether it be the beach or the forest. The usage of background sounds provides context as to where the scene occurs. Secondly, the sound provides some realism. If characters are eating, we need to make sure that the sound of forks and knives hitting against the plate is included. The same can be said for a water class clinking as it is set on the table. Lastly, the sound will be used to give the character clues as to what is about to happen in the film. In this case, it will be to provide context on where the killer is, where the killer will strike, or a misdirect. We can use ...

Today was an underwhelming day for our project. We had planned to meet and film our project, but things got in the way. Because of our inability to film, we spent the day going over our checklist one more time. We decided to split our checklist into a few individual seconds. The first section was props for the antagonist of the film. We had to make sure all the props were accounted for. The most important of these props is the murder weapon. We decided the best option would be a large kitchen knife because it is recognizable to the audience. We then went over whether or not, we wanted the antagonist to have a mask, but because they are not shown in the film, too much, we decided it would not be necessary. We did, however, come back to realize that it would be good to bring it just in case. We then about the props for the protagonist. Because they are the de facto face of our short film, they do not require any special masks. We also considered giving the protagonist a weapon, and just ...