Aice Media Studies Blog

Creative Critical Reflection

After the group and I looked over the midterm submission we decided that we needed to get rid of certain parts because the sound levels were way too high. So as the editor I tried my best to match the scenes, when it went from me saying "no!", i tried to form the two scenes together with me saying "no no no please don't"when my brother brought up a boy getting thrown in the squad car. I believe that it worked out in the end.

4.How did you integrate technologies-software,hardware and online-in this project? When we filmed our final project we borrowed a Canon T5i rebel from Mr. Elsbree which was very effective as there was an excellent image quality and was very easy to use.We had one of the girls in my group to set up the camera where it needed to go. The first time we filmed our rough draft we didn't understand how the camera and the microphone worked. But luckily this time Mr. Elsbree got new cameras which were easier to use and had better quality. We also used a tripod during filming so the camera would not be shaky and provided stability especially with the wind. Once we finished filming I used Adobe Premiere to edit the entire film. This program was very helpful as it allowed us to cut certain scenes and to change the transitions between the scenes. It gave me the options of the sound levels and let me cut out scenes that we didn't want in the final submission. We also found a clip of seagull...

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? As the actor, my job was to create that dramatic effect on the girl when she was talking and moving. For example, I made sure to show when a moment was serious and when it was sad or scary. When talking about the missing girls and how the brother is trying to find them it created a dramatic sad affect. It was a serious moment that was sad because they were upset and in disbelief because of what happened. When I was kidnapped I showed how terrified I was and how i couldn't really talk when i got shoved in the trunk. Another production skill was that I did the editing on the film. it helped because i knew how to use the software and the editing process.

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? The Lost engages with the young generation from ages 15 to 25 because that is the average age of the horror film watchers. We are trying to aim for that generation because the plot of the movie is showing a young girl getting kidnapped. That is a somewhat relatable scenario because throughout our whole life we are told to watch our surroundings and be careful when we are alone because we don't know what people will do these days. Even when we were little kids we had to stay by our moms because we didn't want to get lost or taken by a stranger. And on the other hand the brother being overprotective and tells her that he would make sure that nothing happened to her and that he will find out who took those girls ,but know the scene is more tense because we know that the brother is definitely going to make sure that he finds her. The interest of our target audience would be the p...

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? Our product challenges many other products because the horror movies that are related to ours shows the different products. Many horror films also take place during night where it is dark and it is foggy making it dark and suspenseful at the beach but we changed it during the the day because it is still scary to be taken in plain sight. The movie 'kidnapped' shows that to the audience. When her son gets taken during the day and troughout the whole day she is trying to find him and it shows how the chase goes on and on. In ours the girl is kidnapped at Siesta Key Beach during the day where everyone can see them. The scary part is that she was just with him and then when he left she was grabbed. There had been girls that have gone missing lately and the brother is a cop so he has been trying to find them and then his sister goes missing too. It created suspense and fear to t...

For our film, there were many different distribution ideas. Since our film is a scary movie, the audience is going to mainly wanna see merchandise that they will relate to and like. The younger group of kids would want to see phone cases, posters, t-shirts, stickers, pop figures(character figures) etc. The more they can use it, the more reason for them to buy it. We would want a more of a younger audience to buy our merchandise and reply to our advertisements. If we were distributing our product to young teens and the audience then we would advertise our movie through social media such as snap chat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Those are the main networks that people use to communicate these days so if our product went through one of those four accounts then the distribution would spread. For example, people watch TV all day, every day around the world ,so the main target is to get the trailer in commercial form. When advertising on television, you don't want to give a...

The Conjuring 2 is an example of this as their film budget had a production budget of $40 million and was produced by New Line Cinema. The Conjuring 2 was released on June 10, 2016 and has a domestic total gross of $102,470,008. The film made $40,406,314 during opening weekend in 3,343 theaters. The film stayed in theaters for 11 weekends from June 10th to August 25th, 2016 and had a worldwide gross of $320,392,818 in 41 different countries. The movie then became available on streaming services such as HBO Go, Netflix, and Vudu.  Overall, The Conjuring 2 generated lots of money mostly from box office sales but continues to receive money from different streaming services.The New Line release nearly matched the first “Conjuring’s” $41.9 million debut, but its $40 million price tag is nearly double what its predecessor cost to make. It made short work of the weekend’s other contenders. With “Conjuring 2” dominating ticket sales, Legendary and Universal’s “Warcraft” settled for second ...

For our storyboard we had to revise it and change the layout of the scenes. Since I drew the first storyboard I resketched it and showed what we have decided to change our film to. In the first storyboard you can see the difference, it has a little bit different plot and climax because instead of me going into the water and getting wet we decided to have it where I get kidnapped instead because it was more realistic to be thrown in the back of the trunk instead of being called into the ice cold water. Not just that it was super windy again by the water and we didn't want to get that sound problem again and it was pretty cold. I believe that the scenes came out clear and better because the sound and the flow of the scenes are better. Before:  After: 

From watching the Super Bowl commercials in class, me and my group both decided that the new Doritos and Mountain Dew commercial, the Alexa loses her voice commercial, the Skittles commercial, and the Crocodile Dundee commercial targeted similar audiences as we are. The target audience for these commercials are mostly the younger generations. In the Doritos and Mountain Dew commercial, it is starring popular actors such as Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage; both are famous in many movies in all targeted audiences. It has Peter Dinklage lip singing to an older famous rapper, Busta Rhymes, and Morgan Freeman is lip singing to another famous older generation singer, Missy Elliot. Those that were born in the 1990s and up, grew up listening to the famous hits from those two singers/rappers. It targeted not only my younger generation but also 20 year olds. In the commercial where Alexa loses her voice, it has more well-known famous people, for example, it has big time chef, Gordon Ramsey; ...

We decided to re shoot our film because the sound quality and camera shots weren't that great. The film was still shot at Siesta Key but instead of doing it at the pier we decided to do it at the main beach area. there were a lot of people there but we still got some good shots that we got. the camera and sound quality was a lot better and believe that this one will turn out better than the first. We also changed the scenes and script because it was more improv and didn't want to go into the cold water that day so i was kidnapped instead of being drawn into the water. We even used the old plot about the girls going missing, but instead of going to the water and disappearing, I was kidnapped and thrown into the back off a trunk. This was a better area to film because it was more designated and ha more features in the background. And that day was not as windy and the sound came out.

The Lost Shot 1: Canted angle of girl hanging missing posters. Shot 2: Mid- shot of Rachel sitting at the table waiting for Shane. Shot 3: Mid-shot of Rachel hugging Shane when they meet up. Shot 4: Mid- shot of Shane and Rachel talking about school. Shot 5: High angle of girl giving them the missing posters Shot 6: Over the shoulder of Rachel looking at the missing poster and asking Shane about it Shot 7: Close-up of Lt. Daniels phone call Shot 8: Zoom out, mid shot of Shane taking the phone call and walking away Shot 9: Close up of Rachel playing on her phone and accepting phone call from Shane Shot 10: Long shot of Rachel walking to car Shot 11: Close up, mid shot of Rachel being thrown into the car

Since the first movie shot didn't go so well with the sound, we decided to re shoot the film to get a more clear sound. When we arrived to Siesta Key, we were talking and decided that we wanted to change a couple of scenes. Instead of dealing with the wind and the freezing cold water we just stayed at the tables in front of the pavilion so we were surrounded by solid objects. Instead of me going into the water because some thing called me in there, we made it more realistic and collaborated with me getting kidnapped instead. Since we didn't have another guy to shove me in the trunk of the car, my brother took off his hat and shirt so he could look different from behind and be the "kidnapper". The script also changed a lot , but we still had the same concept about the brother and sister not seeing each other for a long time and that they were catching up on everything at the beach. They talked about school, then boys. The brother is actually a cop that supposedly had t...

After revising the film, we decided that we had to make changes to the audio gain because the mic ended up being too close to us when we were talking. So when editing I made sure that the gain was down as far as I can put it without it making sound like there is no sound. When talking to me about the boys in the film, there was the two scenes that carried out that sound problem, because I didn't realize that I was so close to the mic when I was basically screaming so it sounds loud and muffled. Since the last film basically had no sound because of how windy it was, it was a big improvement. Personally wish it sounded normal but it has gotten so much better since I edited the audio gain. Hopefully when presenting it on the bigger screen the sound will balance out a little better.

Ever since his father died, young Kale has become increasingly sullen and withdrawn, until he finds himself under house arrest. With cabin fever setting in, he turns his attention to spying on his neighbors, becoming increasingly suspicious that one of them is a serial killer. However , he wonders if he is right, or if his overactive imagination is getting the better of him.  Later, as Kale and Ashley watch, Turner is seen dragging a heavy bag to his garage, on which Ashley claims to have noticed blood. Kale insists that Ashley and Ronnie assist him in spying on Turner, with Turner confronting Ashley in her car with a calm, but threatening manner, after she follows him. Meanwhile, Ronnie successfully receives the garage door code and breaks in with a camera after losing his phone in one of Turner's car. When Ronnie examines the bag, he confirms the bag has blood and hair in it, but the garage door closes, and Ronnie flees into the house. Kale leaves to rescue him but alerts the ...

When Rebecca left home, she thought she left her childhood fears behind. Growing up, she was never really sure of what was and wasn't real when the lights went out…and now her little brother, Martin, is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that had once tested her sanity and threatened her safety. A frightening entity with a mysterious attachment to their mother, Sophie, had reemerged. But this time, as Rebecca gets closer to unlocking the truth, there is no denying that all their lives are in danger…once the lights go out. this is similar to our film because it is targeting our audience that are younger and have watched alot of horror movies. the film also made good profit. The shaded area represents the expected performance range for a film, based on its opening weekend box office. 95% of films fall within the shaded area. If a film trends towards the top end of the shaded area, it has good legs compared to the average film; if it trends towards the botto...

The social group that would mostly watch our film is usually the people between 15-25 year old. The reason why we are aiming for the younger group is because they are the ones that are more involved with the scary movies/horror genre. Something about being scared is exciting to these people so we are going to focus on making it suspenseful and bringing in real-life scary situations. When the brother comes back and is freaking out looking for his sister it gives a sense of something that could happen anytime in the real world and that alone is pretty scary to think about. The bond between the two create a fun, relatable atmosphere that switches to a very intense, dramatic scene. For example, the movie "the call" with Halle Berry is a movie that focuses on a more of a younger group because it is based on a girl that gets kidnapped from the mall and has a burner phone on her, she calls 911 and all throughout the movie the 911 Operator was trying to find her, the intensity duri...

My group presented our film to the class for feedback and on the bright side we didn't get too many negative comments. We understand it is not perfect but other than a few flaws with the sound, camera movement, and a couple of spots in the scenes it only needs small changes, for example, we will have to re shoot the whole film and fix a couple of things like when the first scene of the clothes on the rocks and the missing posters on the ground we have to change that to where the missing posters are hung up and u can see them better. Another minor change is that the brother needs to have a better reason to leave his sister alone on the beach because there is girls already going missing on Siesta and him leaving to go to the bathroom is not a good enough reason. So we were thinking to change it to where he leaves because he has an emergency call from work or have the car alarm go off. For the camera movement we need to make sure that the image is not blurry or shaky. When we redo...

I have chosen to do the film because I am a very active movie watcher. I love movies and short film so it would be very interesting to do the film. As a group we have all decided to do this together because we will enjoy filming it and working together to finish it. Another reason is because in the other Aice Media Studies classes there is short films we have watched and seen them all come together pretty good. We are hoping that ours comes together better and works out.

Script:: *suspenseful music* (Shows bulletin board with missing people (insert shot) (Walking up showing all the clothes on the beach and in water.) (Show foot prints in sand.) *Go from feet up to the people’s face as they walk on beach* Boy: Wow I can’t believe all these people are still missing. Girl: It’s weird because they have no lead on what is actually happening to them. Boy: Do you ever think why they went missing? Girl: I never really try and think about it because there are so many of them going missing that it worries me… Boy: Hopefully they are found and everyone can relax on the situation. Girl: I’m hungry… Want to go grab me an ice cream? Boy: Yeah sure do you want to come with? Girl: No, I’ll just wait here. *Boy leaves* Voice Over: Walk into the water… You know you want to go away… Just keep walking…  Don’t look back… *Girl walks into the water and disappears* *Boy reenters with ice cream* Boy: Rac...

We have a six scene movie and these are the main shots for those.  The Lost Scene 1: Insert shot of clothes on the rocks and vertical tilt of missing posters Scene 2: High angle shot of the waves crashing against the sand Scene 3: Long shot of Rachel and Shane walking down the beach from behind Scene 4: Close-up of Rachel and Shane talking Scene 5: Over the shoulder of Rachel looking at the missing poster sign Scene 6: Long shot of Rachel walking into the water with a pan out looking around the water

The group decided to cast me as one of the main characters because I am outgoing and it was easier to stay in the group with the casting instead of trying to find someone else that will do it. There is theater kids we could of asked but we know that there is a lot of films and plays they are already doing so we did mostly our own group for casting. For the other character we used my brother, Shane, he is also very out going and didn't mind acting in our play. We were going to find a boy that goes to our school to play the boyfriend, but it was faster and easier for Shane to play as my brother. It took awhile to finally figure out the cast and scenes before we could start shooting our film. Another reason I was in the film was because I have always wanted to act in something, and because I am such a movie person and we all collaborated so well on the ideas for the film. And my brother is also a very active movie watcher and references some of the acting from actors of other films...