AICE Media Studies

S hort film description:      When a Chinese-American mother and her children come upon a seemingly abandoned little girl, their attempts to help have unforeseen consequences. Sound:     As common in the drama genre, dialogue is incredibly prevalent throughout this short. The whole story is told through the voice, but what this short does differently is the use of different languages and dialects. When the little girl is found, all she speaks is Chinese. In her repetition of the little girl's words, the mom only becomes more and more confused. The way the mom speaks to the police officers versus towards the mom of the little girl shows the fear and misunderstanding of the situation. Moreover, the way the man talks to the daughter when they're in the car, his condescending tone shows the rude and racist intent in his words. The words themselves hurt as well, with him saying "Ni-Hao" to the daughter, but the tone of voice is what really makes it hurt, to...

  Short film description:      Francis is a troubled teenager who manipulates his family in odd, uncomfortable ways. Sound:     The use of dialogue in this film helps immensely with the story. The main character's inflection changes as he repeats what he's going to say. Hearing these phrases before the viewer sees what they relate to create foreshadowing of future events. When speaking to him, both parents make sure to be very cautious of how they talk to him, showing the power dynamic and just how much control the main character has over the parents. When Frances is talking to and about the dad, he is very condescending and believes himself to be better than him, relating especially when it is revealed that the dad is Frances's soon-to-be stepdad. As soon as Frances doesn't get his way, he starts getting angry and begins yelling very quickly, changing the subject to make things go his way. Otherwise, Francis barely shows any emotion in his voice, unless tr...

  S hort film description:     A sticky, intimate bond between mother and daughter becomes threatened when the mother helps her teenage daughter throw a party to impress new, popular friends. Sound: In the dialogue, there is no difference in how the mother and daughter speak to each other, speaking more like friends than mother and daughter. However, when the party starts, the mom begins interjecting herself into the daughter's conversations, teaching her how to take a jello shot and encouraging her to come into the pool. The added sound contributes to the setting, with dance music that helps bring the idea of it being a party altogether. This is made apparent when there is no dialogue and the daughter is just dancing, where all that can be heard is the music she's dancing to. There is no dialogue that needs to be understood or listened to, more so the viewer can focus on the daughter's awkward movements and how she feels in that moment. Mis-en-scene: The opening scenes w...

  Sound: The sound plays a big role when creating the setting. It helps us to picture the outside environment which is where the film takes place. The dialogue also drives the story forward because it reveals the plot of the story. It helps to explain why the characters are there in the first place and the events that take place between them. They don't use any major editing sounds or techniques. Besides the diegetic and non-diegetic sound taking place in scenes there isn't any other major implications that the sound adds.  Mis-En-Scene: The mis-en-scene for this film was a very well done. Although the actors aren't very well known in America they did play their characters well. They were able to portray the life of a modern family and it helped with the film. The props were also very well done and worked very closely with the costumes. They were dressed for camping in a northern part with slightly heavy winds. The set was very well made with leaves and trees in the area. T...

He y guys, making a short film starts with writing. To have a successful short film you must know how to structure it exactly how you want it. You have to analyze key details in our story figure out what your story is once you do that then it leads to theme and the film will be a piece of cake. Next is gear, while picking out gear think about how you want your audience to feel. If you have very limited resources to filming be precise! Think about animation when making a short film it makes the production much more interesting although it is not needed in most cases. Set the tone for your film and put it into every aspect of your film, that's including the  location, wardrobe characters and every camera angle/movement. Without the tone being in place your film looks all over the place and loses its confidence. Casting also plays a major role in your film. If your actors aren't going into depth as you would like it'll make it really hard for you to sell your theme/ film and a...

  Hey guys, for this blog I'll be comparing these two films, one which was a short and then another which was created as a "homage" to the first. Both these films are focused on a sci-fi post-apocalyptic world. The major differences between these is one is that 12 monkeys is a motion picture, and La Jetee is a series of photographs. The film helps to explain the plot which I had originally had trouble understanding, but it brings up the idea of that twist toward the end. In the movie both scenes in the beginning show a death and in both it is a character that we had been introduced to later in time. When bringing this to my short film, I can see the importance of a single scene and its impact on the story. The most important thing as well is the effect of the plot twist that can change the entire films idea and plot. After watching the video entirely it helped me realize the effect that the setting has on the film and I realized that I need to focus on creating that setti...

Short film In the short film of the movie 9 the characters were all confused in the beginning. The plot to me seemed to be about two characters that arrived on a different planet that they have never seen before. They were searching around in area that looked much like a junk yard. There was also not much dialogue in the short film neither were there any humans. In the short there weren't much special effects. One very unique affect that this film did have is that when the robot came out they used some sort of glitch effect to make his laser/ weapon glow. Also when 9 was captured, they might have used a special effect to make the claw look real. The directorial style is very unique to me. Overall, this film doesn't have much to say about the conventions.  Full length film In the long film of the movie 9 it was clear that it was going to be more than just two characters in the beginning. A human hand was visible. In this film there was dialogue...

   Hey guys! After researching three genres for our short film, my team and I decided on drama. With our pitch in mind, we decided the plot twist we want to add would work best with the drama genre. To add to that, the lighting, sound and camera techniques common in a drama film are the ones we'll be using in our project. We want to create an environment where the audience feels embedded into the film. We truly want to throw our audience into the heightened emotions and feelings in this short film, which we believe will work best with the conventions of the drama genre. Our pitch focuses on a person going through financially rough times and choosing gambling rather than better alternatives to help. Settings and props common in a drama will also help bring this idea to life, more so than with the thriller and action genres we explored. For example, one of our main ideas for the film is to show a pan where the scene gets progressively worse. It starts with a picture of a happy f...

Hey guys, the following is a PowerPoint on our genre research !

  Genre Research: Thriller        Hey guys so for this blog I'll be telling you one of the few genre's I researched to pick for my opening sequence. I decided to start with thriller considering my pitch can work better with a thriller genre. I looked at a lot of examples for thriller and also learned many of its conventions. A thriller movie relies on low-key lighting more than anything else. The small amount of light used on the subject of the camera reels the audience in and has them pay more attention to the screen. It also sets an ominous tone as if something important can happen at any moment. The small amount of light also brings out the feelings that a thriller provides, like anxiety and suspense. In thrillers it's also common for the camera to be at certain angles such as low, high angles and close-ups. These camera angles all go into giving the subject of the camera a kind of power. The low and high angles can give a perspective shot of someone's power ...

  Hi, heres my research on action ! Action:   Common CAMS: Common camera shots in action include establishing shot, master shot, close-up, wide shot, two shot, ariel shot and point of view shot.  Common camera angles include canted angle, and low angle shots. Common Camera Movement include Steadicam, handheld and zoom. Common composition include focus pulls, shallow focus and framing.  Common CLAMPS: Common costumes for action movies often just resemble regular clothing in the modern day world. Some films like superhero films have their own custom clothing such as batman, in this typical film he always has on a black suit with his black cape and bat ears. Common lighting includes high key lighting and lowkey lighting.  Common acting for this film is often very serious or dramatic. This is so the viewer feels the sense of suspense happening. It could also include very scared or frightening acting to get a suspense feel...

  Our main pitch is: A person struggling with bills and family and loses their life to gambling. This is the pitch we plan on working with. Of all the genres, we decided to focus our studies on drama, thriller, and action. All of these felt like they could work really well with our pitch. We mostly choose these three because we were most familiar with them. I have worked with action and drama, while Danniella and I have worked and studied thriller. I'll now go into detail about these genres and our thoughts on them. Choosing action is probably our least likely choice. It would be a lot of work in both getting and properly expressing high-adrenaline shots. Moreover, with only five minutes to work with, the action could end up feeling rushed and unnecessary. Choosing action could only benefit us since I have experience in it and could really act as a back-up. It works well with our pitch because the idea of struggling and drama can show high paced physical scenes where a character ma...

 Hi, my classmates and I have finally decided on our pitches. It wasn't easy coming up with good ones & our original idea wouldn't have worked so the  following are the few we could pull of in order of most likely to be done to least likely. A person struggling with bills and family, loses their life to gambling. We decided on this pitch in class while playing cards discussing ideas. We thought it would be nice to use what's in our life and create a story about it. We currently want to stick with a drama and thought of this. We all agreed on it immediately and decided to go with it. We started planning possible shots that we could use for the opening sequence and came up with plans to show our story in three minutes.  Our second pitch was one that was originally discarded because of how hard it would be to get a location for it so we decided to change the conflict in the story. It goes as following: A man runs from a stranger to find out it's himself. The idea came ...