AICE Media Studies

  Hello and welcome back to my blog! Me and my group have finished the filming process for our short film. The film had all the shots it needed and was sent over for me to place the titles in the film. But before I could do this, I needed to fix some things. Mainly, I had an issue with the length of introduction. As I watched it over, I realized it took too long to get to the main action. So, I decided to look for some scenes I could cut.  The first part I cut from was the beginning. I cut off a few seconds so that the car would enter the driveway much quicker. While it was only a few seconds, it took out some unnecessary filler. I also shortened how long the side of the car was showing. However, I did make sure to leave enough time for a title.  The next part I cut out was of Marvin putting the apron around his neck. I realized that by just showing him grabbing it and then tying the back, I could get the same point across in less time. All of these small cuts added up to over 10 secon

  Hello and welcome back to my blog. It was now time for me to film my final scenes. In the last few scenes where Marvin wakes up in a hospital, I would be playing the nurse. Originally I thought Andres should play the nurse, but then I realized it would be much more interesting if I played the role. That way, it would seem like the reason why the male lead imagined me as his wife was because I was the likely the last person he saw before entering into a coma.  With this in mind, I went to change into my scrubs. In filming the first “hospital” scene, I couldn’t help but laugh at my friends acting. The contrast of the nasal tubes with the teenaged nature of Andres’ room was too funny for me to stay serious. After a while I was able to keep a straight face so that we could finish the scene. However, just as we were about to get the perfect shot, the phone we filmed on died! I didn’t want to have anymore delay, so I offered up my phone to be used while the other one charged. This worked o

Hello and welcome back to my blog. With the first scenes done, it was now time for the middle scenes. The scenes where I questioned the male leads sanity after he confused a banana for a phone was one the easiest to film. I imagined the wild confusion I would feel if I saw someone act like a banana was their ringing phone. Once I pictured this, my facial expression came naturally.  Unfortunately, the next scene didn’t come as naturally. It was supposed be simple, as I would just be walking over to take a seat on the couch. However, for some reason I found myself walking extremely fast to go sit down. It was so fast, that I actually scared Marvin! I wasn’t sure if I was nervous, or if I was tried and wanted to get through the scene. Whichever one it was, I knew I needed to slow it down.  When I tried again, I thankfully made my way over in a timely manner. The next few scenes went pretty smoothly. It was easy for me to act confused during the TV scene, as  we actually turned the T.V off

Hello and welcome back to my blog ! Thankfully Andres was feeling better. This meant it was time to start filming. Since it was a school day, I asked my mom if she could pick all of my group up from school and bring us to the film location. Luckily, she was able to do so.  When I got to the set, the first thing I needed to was change my outfit. The jeans and crop top I had on didn’t really match the character I was playing. Since I was portraying an older woman, I decided to pack a white sweater to wear instead. I also wanted to change into a skirt, but I decided to stick with my jeans instead. This felt much more mature and comfortable!  For the first few scenes, the only person present was Marvin, who was playing the lead role. About an hour into our filming session, it was finally my turn to shine. The first scene I had to film was me hugging Marvin as he was cooking. Despite all my research into natural looking acting, I really struggled with this scene. Since we were friends, it w

Hello and welcome back to my blog!  Just when everything seemed to be falling into place for our film project, a curveball was thrown our way. Andres, one of our group members and the persons whose house we are planned to use became sick. With his health as the top priority, we had to postpone filming at his house. With this unexpected setback, I didn’t want it to ruin our plans entirely. Instead, I saw it as an opportunity to regroup and replan. The first thing I wanted to do was make some changes to the storyboard. Instead of started off in the kitchen, I thought it would be better to start with some establishing shots of the house. This way, our viewers would be better eased into the plot. I also realized that our warped lamp and mis-colored plant scene were not going to be effective. I decided to test out editing it in my house, and found out that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. When I tried to color the plant, parts of the background also became colored and it looked very bad. The

Hello and welcome back to my blog!  When it comes to bringing a film to life, finding the perfect actors is crucial. My initial plan was to ask my friend and her boyfriend to play the roles in our upcoming film. Excitedly, they agreed, happy to get into acting. Since my film follows a couple, I knew they would be the perfect choice. They would be more comfortable around each other, meaning the scenes wouldn’t look stiff and awkward. Most importantly, in our original plan, the male lead and the female lead have a kissing scene. My friend and her boyfriend would be able to do with this with no issues.  However, as we looked deeper into the logistics, it became clear that the filming location was too far for them to drive to. Unfortunately, they had to pull out of the project, leaving me without the main actors in my film. With this setback, I had to brainstorm some solutions. I wanted to start filming soon, so it would be difficult to find actors last minute. Finally it hit me, why not s

Hello and welcome back to my blog! With the music out of the way it was now time to find our filming location. My initial plan was to film at my uncle's cozy Airbnb. I wanted to check the place out more, so I asked if I could stop by. My Uncle said yes, so I stopped by. The relaxed atmosphere was the perfect backdrop for our story. When I went into the living room, I was met with a spacious and clean place. The kitchen was filled with clean knifes and plates that we could use for filming. The guest bedroom also had white walls that would be perfect to use in case we couldn’t get a mock hospital room. However, fate had other plans for my film. When I checked back to confirm our film date, the Airbnb was booked solid for the next few weeks. I was devastated that we couldn’t use the location.  With this, I now needed to scout for alternative locations. After brainstorming with my team, we stumbled upon the idea of using a group member's house. It seemed like a feasible option, wit

Hello and welcome back to my blog! To start off my production process, I knew I needed to message a few artist about using their music in my film. I decided to start off with this to give myself enough time to plan just in case nobody answered. Here is my journey to finding the right tunes! Since my final film would be a mystery, I really wanted to create a false sense of normalcy with music in the opening shots of the film. After much searching and consideration, I decided "Confidence" by Ocean Valley would be a good fit. I was very excited about using the song, so I decided to direct message both the band and their managers account. I expressed my admiration for their music and the fact that I wanted to feature "Confidence" in my film. Within a few hours, I went to check on my messages and realized that the band’s manager’s account wasn’t showing up. He had blocked me! I was super disappointed but kept my hopes up that the office account would answer. However, day