AICE Media Studies

How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups of issues? How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as real media text? How did your production skills develop throughout this project? How did you integrate - software, hardware and online - in this project?

 After many hours, I have finally completed my final project for AICE Media Studies AS Level. Overall, I am relatively satisfied with my work, considering my indecisiveness during production. My hope for future projects is that I can gather a group of friends to create a more complex plot with more dialogue.

 Finally, I had everything I needed to finish the project. I tried to use the storyboard to navigate what should go where chronologically, but that was limited. I started filling in the clear introductions, such as myself walking through the door, and followed that with me sitting down and starting work. Then, worked backwards. I put the final shots of me waling up to the strange green glow, and touching it as the final shot before it all faded to black. I added the sound effects and the music to the empty audio tracks to make them visible with the video overlay. I managed to trim the song to the desired parts. I noticed that playing it at a constant volume would drown out everything and make everything bland. So I sectioned it to change the volume at certain parts. In the shot with the paper being thrown in the trash, I cut out the music altogether to dramatize the trash, which I think worked great. I roughly used the first minute in the beginning. Right before the distorted vocal...

 I will continue to use FilmoraX to edit to edit my projects. After a few months of inactivity, I noticed I had to update the software. It took a while, but after the updates, I noticed they had added some new features. They also simplified more complex functions in the program. I then loaded my media into the media section. I was able to find a free sound effect to satisfy the effect for non-diegetic sound. After dragging the raw clips in, I had to trim the clips to remove the parts of me starting and stopping the recording. Even after this I noticed that the clips took over three and a half minutes. So, I had to think of a way to maintain all of the required shots. I noticed that cutting the clips shorter would not serve as a complete, "long term" solution. This would be because the shots would be so short, they would become incomprehensible. For example, a shot could only be on the screen for a mere second and you would not be able to tell what kind of angle or movement wa...

 After review from my mother, I had some ideas on how to improve my opening sequence. I remember that she stressed about two critical factors, the lighting and stability of the camera. As previously mentioned, I had set up my the tripod, using it to its entire functionality. This included the spherical gimbal, built-in level, and the flexible legs. I then switched from using the open blinds and the nightlights, to a large floodlight and the overhead. This way, I could simulate daytime and nighttime regardless of the actual time during filming. This came in especially handy on days I would be up late working or times when I would be at school. After her criticism I scrapped all of the footage I had. To be fair, I did not have much progress and its poor quality would affect it in the near future. For example, having to consistently cut, fade, and dissolve would make the video appear even grainier. The effects were overlooked in my prior productions. Next, I decided to ditch my previo...

 Today, I began to carefully take shots that I will use in my final opening. I made sure to take full advantage of my available production equipment. This includes an adjustable tripod with a spherical gimbal to provide full stability from any angle. As I was looking for a quick solution to my lighting problem, I managed to find a large battery floodlight. This produces a bright light with detachable parts that I can move anywhere within my room. After doing some shots, I was pleasantly surprised. I kept looking through and sending the best ones to my laptop for editing. Even on the digital camera, it retained much better quality and was significantly more stable thanks to all of my preparation in the room for months prior. However, as I was filming from the storyboard, I remembered my script and the rubric. I nearly forgot about these two critical components. I noticed that the storyboard had enough shots to make up three minutes of film, but the sequence is supposed to take just ...

 After careful consideration, I have decided to change the song I will use. I did this since I felt that the old song was too distracting and used less of the deep bass I wanted in the title card. I was specifically looking for a low, soft wave bass. Finding any fitting song is not feasible, since I will have to get the rights to re-use the song. This still applies even if I am not making the video for profit. As I previously mentioned, I will solely use music with Creative Commons licenses from YouTube. The allow for reuse without needing to credit if the new work is an original artwork. After some more browsing, making sure to use the correct filters. After some searching, I found a new song that I will stick with for my opening sequence. It is coincidentally called "Night Road" and has soft parts in the song that I can cut together to play over the title and more expansive shots. It is a similar genre, but is longer and does not sound. I figure that even if some parts are ...

After looking at my room, I realized that there is simply too much space. It seems empty and gives off the impression of a set, rather than an actual room that someone lives and works in. I am trying to think of and find more natural props that can fill up space. However, these objects must also serve meaning within the context of the film. I think that I can add something as simple as using plants. This still, cool toned objects could give my setting a modern feel. I managed to find a leafy green house plant. It is contained by a rounded metal bowl. I then had this resting upon a stool from the living room. This filled up the corner nicely, but I felt the contrast of the yellow stool and the plant was out of place. As a result, I moved my desk closer to the wall to get rid of the space shown towards the corner. Next, I used a 4 foot green beanbag to cushion the whole space. Not only does this fill the whole space nicely, but it maintains the same cool tone with its deep green color. S...

As of now, I need to have my project criticized to find room for improvement. Naturally, I went to my mother, who I planned to show my progress leading up to now. I was very concerned with this, considering that I don't have much completed. The only thing I can present is the recovered footage of the previous week's filming. I was worried even before showing the footage. However, I know that the best way to improve the quality of my work would be to have any early mistakes fixed. This way, I could avoid having to re-shoot entire parts for a simple mistake. Even a small error or overlooked detail could cost me many hours that I do not have to spare. I presented what I had to her. It was quite awkward having to scroll between the discontinuous footage. As predicted, she was dissatisfied with the shaky camera. Even as I looked from my most biased perspective, is was incredibly distracting. It jut shocked me of how long it took for me to finally realize to use the tripod I had orde...