Extract Practice: Game of Thrones

The extract I looked at was the Game of Thrones extract. At the beginning, there are two man who seem to be traveling from somewhere far since they have journeyed by water. They are travelling to another land to meet with the other three men, in this extract, at some sort of bank (we are introduced to the bank in the second scene). After a conversation between the men and one of the bank people, it appears that the two men are denied what I believe is a loan. However, one of the two men decides to argue his and his companion’s right to receive the loan. If I were to make a prediction, he seems to try and create an alliance between their kingdom and the bank. 

The first scene opens with an aerial shot of a sailboat. Then the audience is presented with a two-shot of two men. The two-shot in the extract of the two men standing on the boat recognizes that the two men travelled together and are allies. The two-shot is also a medium shot. The medium shot allows for the audience to witness the body language and costumes which signify a serious tone and wealth. In the background of the first scene, you can hear a little bit of dialogue and non-diegetic sound. The non-diegetic sound, shown by the sound of seagulls, helps convey the idea that the two men are travelling by water and nearing shore. The dialogue in the background signifies that there is a crew on board of the ship which could also add to the wealth idea or leadership since then men aren’t doing anything. The lighting in this scene is very cloudy which signifies a serious or ominous mood. Overall, this scene gives a serious mood possibly meaning that the boat is sailing to this other land for business.  

The first scene then changes using a cutaway which signifies that time has passed and they are now inside of the city. We first see another two- shot of the men. They are in a large room that seems to be a real set. The large room can also go back to the theme of wealth in this extract. It also feels somewhat ominous because of how empty the room is. The only things inside of the room are a long table, three large chairs, and two benches on the opposite side of the chairs. The lighting in the room seems to come from the outside, matching the serious and gloomy tone from scene one. Then, the audience begins to hear dialogue from the two men and soon from one of the three men that enters the room. The dialogue signifies interaction between the two different parties and can be identified as business inquiries. When the men are talking, a medium shot can be identified. As stated, the medium shot helps to identify their feelings through body language. In this scene, they are all standing tall and looking one another in the eye which adds to the serious tone. With these medium shots, there are also shot reverse shots that show the conversation between the two men and one of the bank people. Similar to the first scene, this scene also gives off a serious, business tone.  

In summary, the vision of the extract was to create a serious tone in relation to business. In many circumstances, the different camera angles, shots, and movements along with editing, sound, and mis en scene have contributed to the creation of this tone. The overall use of dialogue two-shots, and shot reverse shots helped convey the interaction between characters. The mis en scene in this extract helped with the serious tone and the idea of wealth among the characters.  

Final Task: CCR

For our final CCR, we were tasked to find a new creative way to create it. We decided we were going to film a talk show a few weeks ago. However, schools began to close and our parents wanted us to social distance from one another. For this reason, we decided to set up our talk show like a video call. We had each chosen a question and answered it in about 2 minutes and 30 seconds each. We also had a friend record herself answering the questions. Overall, this project was challenging but in a good way. It allowed us to improve on different aspects of our filming process. One big thing we learned was time management. Especially with the stay at home orders in play, we had to manage when we wrote blogs, when we could all collaborate, and when something needed to be completely finished. Another thing we learned was to plan far ahead. By planning far ahead, we were given more time with one another to film without on of us having something else planned. Lastly, we learned it's easier to work together on everything including blogs. Instead of working on blogs alone, it was better to share each others ideas. The process of  creating this movie took lots of time and planning but it worked out in the end. From designing titles to researching our genre, the preparation was definitely an important step. Then came the filming and editing which would put the whole thing together. Although this process was a challenge, we had so much fun creating it. It's a great feeling to see the final movie after working so hard on it. Now presenting... Misconstrued.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SGwgd0j7Et-3Jx6B4CLbx9ZOvGq7Q7z1/view?usp=sharing

Final Task: Our Movie

Our final task was to create the 2 minute opening to an original movie. This was by far our most difficult project so far. However, it was also a lot of fun to see how it would turn out. Doing some real acting scenes and actually creating a movie concept was so fun. We did run into a few problems though. Our original movie concept that we first picked happened to be already made into a movie so we had to start from scratch. When we created our new concept, we knew it was the perfect match for us. We went through the process of researching thriller movies to find different conventions that were common amongst them. Then we planned but then re-planned when we found our new idea. Next, we began to storyboard. Storyboarding was a bit of a tough process for us. There were a lot of scenes to plan out and draw. We had to do some of it over the phone which made the drawings different. Especially since only one of us can draw good. Then, we began our filming process. We started filming on the beach. After that, we filmed for about four more days. We edited as we went but officially started to edit after the fifth day of filming. In between these filming days, we also had a peer review where we received feedback from other classmates. Some of our filming days were dedicated to reshooting and re-editing.

Music Video: CCR

For this project, we had to make a powerpoint CCR. This was different from our last one for this reason. We also decided to make it more of a six question reflection rather than four questions. The first two questions of the CCR have two parts which we decided to split up creating the six questions. We made sure to make this reflection as creative as we could. We added transitions and animations to give the google slides presentation a fun approach. We also included an introduction to present the reflection. Pictures and video clips were also added throughout to give the presentation color and humor.

Music Video Project: Final Copy

     This music video was the second video we made as AICE Media Studies students. We were told to chose any song of our choice to use in this video. The lyrics had to be clean and the overall story of the song had to be appropriate for school. My group and I chose to make a music video to one of our favorite local artists . With this, we decided on the song and continued to plan our video. We explored  the type of video effects in the actual music video. We realized that we didn't know how to use all of the same editing as the video so we decided to take a different spin on it and have different lighting throughout. During the process of creating this project, we had to overcome a few large obstacles. Our first one was having enough filming time outside of school. We only filmed on one day for a few hours at night. We had to worry about closing times of the stores and if we were gonna get the cool lighting we wanted at the mall. Also, I was injured during the process of filming this video. It was difficult to navigate the busy mall. My teammates had to push me around in a cart! We also had a lot of stores turn us down when we asked to film inside their store. We ended up only filming in one store but we also got to film in a video game place. It was also around Christmas so there were plenty of lights to give us cool lighting. Overall, this was my favorite project. It was so fun to make a music video to one of our favorite songs. This was our last project before our final task.

Commercial Project: CCR

      Below is the Creative Critical Reflection for my commercial project. We've had to answer these questions after each of our projects throughout the year. In this CCR, we answered our questions in writing formant. We were assigned these questions and wrote a few sentences to answer them. Each question explores a different aspect of our filming journey. This project was the very first project we did. With this, came a lot of trial and error. Our editing and filming skills weren't very good. However, we worked with what we had and we were able to produce our video. When going back to reflect, we noticed our strengths and weaknesses and made sure they were improved in our next project.



Commercial CCR:

-      Question 1: How does your project use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

-      In this project, my group and I decided to use the company McDonalds but only focus on the Happy Meals they serve. In Happy Meal commercials, a family with children is usually featured along with whatever toy is being given out in the Happy Meal. In our project, we decided to follow these conventions by using Barbie dolls as our toy. We also acted like a family. Since one of Barbie’s main sayings is “You Can Be Anything”, we decided to base our Happy Meal commercial on what children want to be when they grow up. This aspect of Barbie features career dolls to show that girls can be anything they put their mind to. These commercials represent the children in society and what is popular to them. What this means is that it shows what they enjoy in this day and age. It catches the children’s eye, making the child want what’s being advertised so the parents will go and buy it which profits the company. For example, when I was younger, the company Kidz Bop was popular among kids my age. McDonalds took note of this and began giving out CDs in Happy Meals.

-      Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

-      Our commercial follows the conventions of regular McDonalds commercials, including the addition of a popular toy. By doing so, it brings the audience’s attention to what’s being advertised. For example, in our commercial we included “You Can Be Anything” Barbies which are popular among young girls and since we used them, it draws their attention to the Happy Meals. With that being said, this commercial is marketed towards young children who like to play with Barbies or dream about a future career whether it’s a doctor, astronaut, etc. 

-      Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

-      Starting from the research process to figure out the codes and conventions, I definitely believe my knowledge and skills in relation to film making have improved. Before starting this project, had no knowledge of the filming process. First, I learned what codes and conventions were and how to identify them. Then, my storyboarding skills improved because I was actually able to apply it to the recording process. Also, my editing skills improved because before I did not know how to edit correct and I only knew how to edit on the IMovie software.

-      Question 4: How did you integrate technologies in this project?

-      In this commercial project, multiple props and tools were needed to bring the whole thing together. The tools needed to film included a camera, a tripod, and an SD card. To edit, we used the software Pinnacle Studio on a laptop and a SD card reader to dump the footage. For props, we used a McDonalds Happy Meal and Barbie dolls.

Commercial Project: Final Copy

         This commercial was the first video we made as AICE Media Studies students. We were given different categories of companies that we could make a commercial for and chose from there. We chose to make a McDonalds commercial. With this, we went even deeper and focused on the Happy Meal aspect. We explored the collaboration between Happy Meals and toy companies. With this we decided to use the advertise Barbie toys. We followed certain conventions when making this commercial. We used a family and we had the theme music for both McDonalds and Barbie. During the process of creating this project, we had to overcome a few large obstacles. Our first one was having enough filming time during class at school. The class only lasts for 90 minutes and the last 30 minutes is lunch for some students. This meant that we had around two hours to fully film since we filmed for two days. We managed to finish and then faced our new problem. We began the year editing on Pinnacle Studios, a Microsoft editing software. Towards the deadline of the project, we hadn't finished editing. We decided it would be best to finish editing at home. We then transferred the clip that was already edited to my computer. However, we had to try and use a different editing software. We switched to using iMovie and continued to use it throughout the year. We had two more projects after this including the final task.

Re-Edit Blog: Movie Titles and Creative Reflections

After our peer review, my group and I had a bunch of editing to redo. Our final product for the peer review didn't have all the scenes or titles which was frustrating. After our reshoot, we quickly went to work to fix the movie. We made the decision as a group to erase some of the clips and titles and start fresh. All of the erased scenes were reshot and replaced. All of the titles were erased and then put back in order when the scenes were finished being edited. In class a few weeks ago, we began re-editing as a group. My team member Anishka and I worked on reviewing the clips and figuring out what needed to be improved. We also decided to find new music. We looked for the perfect score for a while and we found the one. It's called "The Disappearance" by Emmett Cooke. Unfortunately, the website we found it on placed an audio recording every few seconds that announced the website's name. We figured out a way to work around these without drastically altering the music. About a week and a half later, we were sent home due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We decided it would be easier if I finished all of the editing since the software was already on the computer and the movie. Over the next few weeks, I edited the new clips and put them all together. I also added all of the titles, in order. Between all of these new edits and starting from scratch, the editing for this movie took me about a week and a half. The movie ended up being 1 minute and 55 seconds. Lastly, I sent the movie to my group members for their opinions and they approved it.

Re-Shoot Blog: Lockdown

Currently, the world is still panicked due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread everywhere. The school district where I live has kept students at home for almost a month now and most sources say that we won't come back till next school year. With the pandemic going on, we have had to social distance from one another. Although we had one day to re-shoot during the quarantine, we weren't able to film everything exactly how we wanted. We also couldn't film our creative critical reflection together. To solve our problem of not recording some of the scenes that needed to be fixed, we decided some of them could be filmed separately. Our two main characters are actually related in and outside of the movie. We figured if there were any interactions between them the needed to be fixed, they would be able to film it. Also, since we weren't able to have cameras for the reshoot, we had to film on an updated iPhone. Lucky for us, three out of the for of us have this updated phone. This includes one of the main characters, which makes it easy to film what she needs. For example, there was a scene where the main character touched a door knob to enter the house but then is taken back when she gets a flashback. My teammate filmed this on her own and we figured out a way to integrate it back into the movie. We also faced one more problem. We planned on filming another scene with the fiancé to make him more significant. However, we weren't able to film with him again after the peer review because of transportation issues and now this quarantine. To fill this time that we lost, we decided to lengthen the scenes where the main character is being chased. We did this by adding different angles and camera  movements. We also decided to elongate the end where the two sisters are struggling. Overall, the reshoot process was successful. Even if we didn't get to redo all that we would have liked, we did get most of the important stuff done.

Editing Blog: Adjusting Titles

Since we were able to find a day to film the remaining scenes we needed for our movie, our main goal was to get it together and get the titles in. Due to the fact that we weren't completely done by the time of our peer review, all of the titles were there but not in the places we wanted. Instead of just moving the titles around, my group and I kept the few that were good and deleted the rest to start off on a clean slate. We decided to keep the same theme of contrasting memories with the present by using different styled titles. During the present moments, the titles are bold and a dark, blood red to show the killing aspect of the movie. Then for the past moments, we put white tiles in a pretty font that's appealing to an audience. Lastly, for those moments where its in the past but it's still the same day as the present scenes (a short term flashback) we mixed the two styles. I've been editing the movie on Movie from my personal laptop. This is because laptops with editing software from school couldn't be distributed to specific students. For this reason, I have been the only person editing and it's been a lot. For previous projects, I have done the majority of the editing. However, usually my group mates could easily help me. Now, I have to download every rough draft of the final project and send it via email or text message which can take a while. This has made the editing process very tedious. It has also been a bit different because I can usually get my work done for this AICE Media class in school. The school district in my area is currently shutdown until May, but it's possible we won't go back until the fall. We are on an online learning setting. I've had to start balancing this work with my other online classes. So far, since I began working on this earlier in class, I've been able to keep up with fixing our movie and other assignments. Below is a picture of what the opening of the movie looks like.

Filming Blog: CCR

Today, my group devised a plan for how we would shoot our creative critical reflection under quarantine. First off, we decided we were going to mimic the virtual talk shows that have been happening recently. Then we needed to find a host. One of my neighbors offered to be our television host in person a few weeks in advanced. I asked her if she was still okay with the idea of it and she agreed. I sent her all of the questions she needs to ask and she plans on record herself asking each one. In between her questions, each group member will answer as if they were talking directly to someone else. There are a total of six questions on how we created the movie and how it bettered our skills as creators of film. After all of the clips of the reflection have been collected, one of my group members will edit the video so that it looks like we are talking to one another. We planned on having the video done by tomorrow, however I think it will be done by Wednesday. This gives all of the participants in the tv show time to work on their personal blogs as well as other school work. 

The current update to our situation with COVID-19 is that we should be back around May 1. Before the date was April 15. However, some sources say that we could possibly not go back until fall. The majority of our exams have been cancelled for the May/June 2020 sessions. This includes AICE exams and statewide exams. Advanced Placement exams are still scheduled to be taken online. We are also taking current classes online. So far, teachers have been assigning work online and having online conferences with their students. Although it is not an ideal situation, it's still good that we are continuing our education to be able to move on to the next grade.