AICE Media Studies

  The film is done!!  I am so happy my group has completed this task. In my opinion the improvement from last year to this year is very evident. Lili, Angie, Hannah, and I have all grown together and had a great time filming. Now onto the reviews of this film. My mom was the first person I showed the film to. I was kind of worried about showing it to her because I didn’t know if I could trust her opinion. My mom is a great person but she loves almost everything I do. I really needed critics for the film though which is why I wasn’t sure about asking her. After I sat my mom down and told her I needed a lot of opinions on this both good and bad I showed her the film. The first thing she said was that the film was very interesting. She liked the plot switch and didn’t really expect it. I was happy with this comment as that was the entire point. She also enjoyed the fight scene and thought it looked real. I made sure to tell Hannah that since the group wouldn’t have been...

 Personally, I think that sound is one of the most important aspects of a film. I talked about this in my other sound blog too. So far my standpoint has not changed. Sound has the power to make or break a film especially one like a thriller. Sound in thrillers are so important for building up the suspense they’re famous for. Due to my opinions on sound my group decided I should be the one to edit the sound. I really wasn’t against the idea originally. In fact I was kind of happy. To me it’s much better then having to blend the clips. However, as much as I love sound I do realize that my task won’t be necessarily easy. A lot of our scenes were filmed in different places. This means there’s a wide range of background noises going on throughout our entire film. This isn’t a bad thing but I personally don’t like it. In a way it kind of makes the film look messy. I really wish there was a way to just mute all the background sound you don’t want. Unfortunately the only way I know how to ...

I’m so happy that filming is finally done. For a short time I wondered if we would ever get it done. Since filming is done it’s now time to move onto our final stage of production. My relationship with editing is very love/hate. I like seeing the film come together and seeing the vision come to life. On the other hand the work to actually get to that part is a little frustrating. Trying to smoothly align the clips has never been an easy task for me. Especially when there’s so many different scenes. A lot of the problems I run into is with the different elements in each scene. Some are kinda dark but others were filmed outside so they’re really bright. Some have a lot of background noise while others are silent outside of dialogue. There’s also the transitions from scene to scene. That’s not too bad but a seamless transition does take time. Thankfully I don’t have to do all of that. Today was just an intro to editing in a way. This means that all the takes of all the scenes were sent. T...

 YAYYY! Today this very long film journey is basically at its end. As I’m writing this blog all the scenes have been filmed. This means editing can finally take place very soon. The last scenes we filmed were the fight scene and the fire by the car scene. The fight scene was so much fun to film. But before anyone could film that scene everyone had to go through safety precautions. Hannah is the only one of us who does martial arts. I’m pretty sure she does judo. This means that the moves used in the fight scene were most likely judo moves. Hannah had to teach Lili how to throw her properly. And while the throwing was happening she also had to reassure us no body was actually getting hurt. It was pretty funny to see them practice the fight. It was just a good 20 minutes of them throwing each other on the floor. I’m very happy with how it turned out though. All the practice and Hannah being a martial artist add the scene look very realistic. I did feel bad for Hannah though because t...

AAAAH! I’m so happy right now. The group is very, very close to being done with filming. Before filming most recently it seemed like the movie would never get done. Being on Spring Break doesn’t make it any easier. Especially since I’m leaving soon. There were about 7 scenes left to do before filming this time. It sounds like a lot but it honestly didn’t feel that bad. I think it’s because most of the scenes were short. Either way it was a very long day of filming. Like usual everyone met at Lili’s house and Angie drove us to the mall. There was a quick Starbucks stop for props and then it was to the food court. This was the scene where Chloe tells her friends about her suspected stalker. This scene was a lot harder to film than any of us thought it would be. Unfortunately food courts play music and that caused two problems. One the music was loud and two we didn’t want to get copyrighted. It worked out though since you can’t really hear the music when the clips are played back. There ...

Due to having such busy schedules my group soon realized that we are not on track for filming. The plan was to film Friday. This didn’t work for me though since I had to volunteer that day. It also didn’t work for Angie but I’m not sure why. This left Lili and Hannah filming all alone that day. I wanted them to finish up the movie since they were the only ones needed for those scenes. The scenes I’m talking about are the one with the ones where a car is in the parking light with fire surrounding it aswell as the bulletin board scene. There are more scenes left to film but they aren’t long. Those are the scenes with Hannah, Lili, and I all together. It was planned to take place at Starbucks and the H&M but I’m not sure if that will happen. While Hannah and Lili were filming I had my first day volunteering at the hospital. It was pretty boring but I was able to get some work done while I was there. They weren’t able to finish the scenes we needed though. I left the yarn at Lili’s hou...

 Today my group and I are taking a break from filming. During this break I though it would be a good idea to thing about sound. Sound is a very integral part of any movie but especially thriller movies. Sound is used to build suspense throughout thrillers. This suspense is one of the things that make the thriller genre a fan favorite. Using sound to cultivate this suspense is a not an easy task though. Especially for a short film. With only 5 minutes the sound has to be timed perfectly to give the audience the proper experience. There’s also the issue of uniqueness. There are various popular sounds used to build suspense. Most of these sounds have been used in much bigger movies though. This isn’t a bad thing but it’s not something I personally am going for. I think it’s very important to stand out as a short film. One way of doing this would be with sound. Which is why the task of choosing sound is very important. With all the options it can also be a little tedious. Hannah gave a...

I’m filming with the same group I’ve had since AS level with the exception of Hannah. The thing is last year it never seemed this hard to film anything. Yes our projects were a lot shorter but the filming process was more efficient. Maybe it’s the fact that now Angie and I are juniors and Lili is a senior. Hannah is also a junior. This means the entirety of my group is in the most challlenging years of high school. Maybe it’s because of this that it’s so hard to find time to film. One day the group was supposed to film all the juniors had to take the SAT. Angie , Hannah, and I really tried to make it work but that test is so draining none of us could film after doing it. Lili is also going off to college soon. This means she’s working a lot and unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of time. The ironic part is everyone can make time to film just not when the other members needed can. Like on Friday after school, Lili and Hannah are going to film but Angie can’t come. I also can’t go since I’...

  Today we were finally able to film again! . Things were a little crazy and didn’t really happen like I had wanted but it is what it is. Usually everyone rides with Angie to go to Lili’s house but that didn’t happen together. My mom wanted my sister to take me there since she was already in the area so I couldn’t ride with Angie and Lili. Hannah also left with her mom since she needed to get her bag with her change of clothes. Lili ended up being the only one to ride with  Angie. Everyone also had to get food before starting to film. Since the group didn’t ride together it took a lot longer than it usually does. Due to this filming started later than it was intended. It also turned out that Lili had to babysit by six so filming needed to be done by around 5:40. In my opinion this was not enough time to film at all. There was no other option though so the group made it work. The first stop was Publix in order to film the first scene of the day. Once everyone arrived Lili got a...

It was planned for today to be the second day of filming. Unfortunately this didn’t happen. Lili has  an important chemistry exam to study for tomorrow, which means she won’t have  time to film with the group. It was decided that filming would just not take place today because Lili is the main character and her scenes are very important. I understood her reasoning since I took chemistry in 10th grade. Those tests are very hard and do require a lot of time. Instead everyone just decided to move filming to Wednesday and wished Lili good luck on her test. The scenes that were supposed to film tomorrow were  the Publix scene, and the Starbucks scene. Hopefully, Wednesday ends up being okay for everyone and filming will actually happen.  To do this, Angie proposed making sure the group is more than organized. Hannah will need to bring the right clothes, such as a black shirt, black pants, and black shoes. Angie and I would need to bring casual clothing, since both of us s...