AICE Media Studies

This short film is one of the oddest we've ever seen. None of us can seem to discern the message. We are between thinking the message is that the media vilifies marijuana too much, or that marijuana is genuinely bad. If it is a parody of an anti-drug campaign though it is genius. If it is an actual anti-drug campaign, it's still kinda genius. The plot is literally about a girl smoking weed in the car with her friends. As a result, she gets into a horrible fatal car crash. The visuals are very vivid and colorful. The shots, wide, long, close-ups, are amazing. The puppets are used very effectively as props. The dialogue is extremely weird though. It is fake conversation. Nobody talks like that. However, that's the point of it. It is very goofy for the most part until the grotesque puppet violence near the end. Even that is goofy, with the stupid non-diegetic music in the background and the dead bodies still moving and flailing about. Everything in this film is making fun of s...

The film follows the main character who just returned from studying away from home to meet with her father before he goes to prison. Her day is filled with loads of inconveniences and negatives. She wakes up  ravaged by the ocean. She recovers from a night of drugs and drinks. She picks up a cake that is too big. Her boyfriend acts weird on the phone. She drops the cake all in her car. Her conversation with her father turns sour as she questions his reluctance to appeal his court decision. Eventually, she goes partying and gets high and wasted. She discovers a camera in a room of a man she almost sleeps with. All of this leads her to question her life and have a more meaningful conversation with her father the following day. He confronts her on her recent behavior and she truly has a change in ideals in that split second. Her bond with her father is drawn tighter and she will wait for him until he gets out of prison. This film was very good. The close up camera work was very intere...

Music is important in this film. From the beginning we noticed the nice classical music to accompany the thematic camera shots. It accompanies the film for nearly the entire duration. The music picks up at appropriate times and settles at others. The main character owns his restaurant trying to bring customers in during a pandemic. It addresses the lives of immigrants in America. It covers the expectations saddled upon immigrant children. It also discusses the prejudices that minorities deal with in America. It covers the current events that influence these. The lighting and camera work is very effective. The action matches and eyeline shots are frequent and exciting. The lighting is very dark to fit the gloomy mood of the piece. But all the characters are fully illuminated to keep the film character driven. This film is very interesting and thought provoking. The statistic about half of Chinese restaurants closing during covid is very sad. It is disheartening. This film is perfect to ...

This film was very enjoyable. It observes the theme of home in a sense. It touches on coping with the loss of a lifestyle and home. He loves his home and accepts that he must move on. The plot is about Nego, the main character, who lives and works on a farm. He is told that the farm is being sold. He has to cope with his home being taken out from under him. But also, he has grown to love his work on the farm. This is a significant loss to him. The film comes full circle with him bathing in the water near the farm. This symbolizes his acceptance. He understands he must move on. The camera work is interesting. It mainly cycles between handheld and far-shot still frames for long periods of time. The lighting is interesting too. The characters are kept very illuminated, even at night. It fits the genre's character-focused theme. Much of the story focuses on the setting too, showing the beautiful surroundings and highlighting the peaceful noises of nature. Music plays a role too, with i...

We watched a video about making short films. They say that when writing, we need to keep in mind what we can pull off. We shouldn't write in things that we cannot create for our film. In other words, anything too expensive we should not use in the film. They also say that the theme should guide the story. Whatever we want out of the story should be kept in mind while writing. They also say that with stories where we want the audience to be surprised, go against our first idea. This way the obvious idea will not be given and they will be legitimately surprised by things. They emphasize that casting the right people is very important. They need to be able to look the part. They need to fit the character too. This will not be a problem for my group. We will have a member of our group play the main characters and we are confident our members can do so well. They also emphasize that sound is very important to capture dialogue and noises well. Our story will have important sounds. Howeve...

Part 1  We've seen how they have successfully transferred the original to a remake. It is interesting how they take the exact same ideas of the remake. They just broaden upon them. The language barrier is solved through translation. The original simply had a slideshow of sorts accompanied with a narration. This alone carried the story and plot. For the film remake, they used this to create real scenes. The editing was spectacular. We can definitely can certainly take a lot from the editing used. The confusion created through time jumping and unique editing with reverse shots and cross fades is something we can use in our film. Part 2 Reading about the differences between the films put it into perspective. The usage of memory in the original is fascinating. The plot surprise that this creates is masterful. The wide pans and editing of the remake help bring this eeriness to life too. The remake had many top actors. Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt to name them. The directors vision seems t...

          The setting of the short film is very dark. We noticed rather quickly that the genre seemed to not fit that of a children's film. The entire film was generally a thriller. There were multiple jump scares. There was lots of dark imagery and eerie settings. The plot of the film was short obviously, but to the point. It follows 9 as he retrieves the device to bring back his friends and evades the robot monster. There is no character development, which does not seem like that would even work for a short film. However, character traits are brought out a lot. Sound is a big part of this film, with tiny noises exemplified a lot. The full-length film is different. For one, it contains lots of dialogue which is not there in the short. It also seems to not be exactly a thriller, but more of an adventure story. It follows the heroics of the characters rather than harping on disturbing or dark imagery. The music plays a big role in the story, but sound not as...

  For our short film, we chose the thriller genre. This genre was mutually decided upon by our group. It fits what we have in mind for the film. The thriller genre is really a broad spectrum. There can be high stakes that make the film filled with action, or it can be more of an emotional thriller. This is perfect, as we are not constricted to adhering to the requirements of a genre.  We chose thriller over the other two choices, drama and horror because the others had more cons. While a drama genre is a decent choice for our vision, it does not fit exactly. We want more suspense and buildup than a drama can provide. Horror was also an option that was discussed. We discarded it as a possible choice after we realized that certain challenging aspects of horror, such as gore and intricate costumes, were not things we were equipped to include in our film.  Fortunately, our pitch is very open and can be interpreted in many ways. This doesn't back us into a corner with the genr...

 Common camera angles used in horror films: Hand Held Low Angle  Tracking Shot High Angle Eye Level  Close Up Aerial Shot Common Mis-en-Scene used in horror films: Dark costumes, including black and gray clothing Little to no lighting Actors are scared and frightened  Lots of mascara is used for women to emphasize their emotions Weapons are used very commonly in this genre Setting is usually in a dark or abandoned building Common Editing used in horror films: Jump Cut Common Sound used in horror films: Diegetic Sound Ambient Sound Sound Motif Examples Films of Horror Films: Scream It Silent House Midsommar A Quiet Place The Invisible Man Carrie A Nightmare on Elm Street What elements of the horror genre I would like to use: Dark and creepy setting Diegetic Sound Ambient Sound Sound Motif Tracking Shot Jump cut Eye Level Close Up Hand Held Dark costumes Elements of the horror genre I would not like to use: Aerial Shot High angle Weapons as props

There are many things that make a genre clear to what it is. For example, the genre drama has usually always has these factors to it. Camera angles: Close-up: Drama films often have close-ups to show the expressions of the actors.  The close-up makes it clear on how the actor is feeling through their expressions. It can make the scene more dramatic and express the intensity of the scene. Long shot: Long shots can set the scene for the viewer. They can show the background and give insight to what might happen in the scene, but they also keep some of the focus on the main character.  Over the shoulder: This type of camera angle can show the POV of the character which could be an object or another character. These types of shots add drama. Costumes:  Costumes depend on the setting and time period of the movie. Modern-day movies set in common society have typical clothes we would see day to day. For example, business wear, dresses, jeans, and t-shirts.  Lighting: The lig...

There are many things that make a genre clear to what it is. For example, the genre Thriller has usually always has these factors to it. Camera angles:  -High angle/ Birds view: This is used in thrillers to give the effect that whatever is being looked down upon looks vulnerable or powerless compared to what is behind the camera. -Close-ups: This angle allows the camera to give a clear view of the characters' emotions to the event happening. -Tilted angle: This adds tension to the scene at hand and sometimes signifies a supernatural occurrence. This also makes the audience feel like the character as they look up at the subject. -Over the shoulder: This angle is often used to show something standing behind the character and usually used in front of mirrors so the audience can have a view of everything. Costumes -Dresses; this can create a sense of purity and femininity to the character's role. White dresses make the character seem innocent which later gets colored red from blood...

   Based off the movie idea we chose we are going to research three genre types. The first one will be drama. since the movie has a serious tone and there is conflict in the film, this would fall under drama. We are also going to search up the thriller genre. The reason for this is because the film creates a weird feeling in the audience. Something feels off and almost as if they are in a dream. The suspense makes the watcher's feelings heighten and when they watch the end it all makes sense. Not only that but the two girls are trying to solve a mystery and when they are close to figuring it out, something happens. The last one is horror. If we decide to make the film scarier and more graphic we could choose this one however at the moment we aren't doing anything that would fit under the horror genre besides for the mystery they are solving. Since horror is about scaring the audience and maybe even repulsing them. This genre would be interesting to include to our film so that ...