Samantha Jarvis AICE MEDIA BLOG by https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog en-us 2022-08-23 14:24:07 UTC 2023-04-05 15:40:44 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f98b.png First Student Film/Reflection SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2269003758    This was my first group assignment in AICE Media Studies. I worked with Ashley, Ella, Ema, Johnny, and Dylan. We had to make a 3 minute short film that had an amusing plot line. We made a film about a murderer with super powers that killed his friend over an argument they had, and then came back to life and had super powers. In the end he got killed and there was a new hero. 
   There were many great things and flaws within the short film. After watching our film, we received feedback from the class and teacher. Some of the feedback was that we needed more medium and close up shots, we need a better plot so the readers are able to understand what is going on, we need better sound, and we need footage from different angles instead of the same angles. In the end, for our first short film, we did a good job but there is always room for improvements. ]]> 2022-08-23 16:37:29 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2269003758 Film Remake and Reflection SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2307304215    My group was assigned to recreate another groups short film about a student finding a cure for blindness to get into Harvard. My group rewrote the script and changed the plot line. Our story was about how a student applied to Harvard, but Harvard needed something impresses that the student did to be accepted. The student then created a cure for blindness, but another student overheard what the student wanted to create and stole the cure. The student that invented the cure got what was rightfully hers and got into Harvard. Some shots creating the film consisted of, medium close ups, wide shots, pan left/right, zoom in and out, look through, two shot, depth, over the shoulder, close up, long shot, high angle, three shot, and low angle. I was the cinematographer/actor in the short film when creating this.
   This short film was an improvement from the other film me and my group completed. In The Stolen Cure, the actors were more content and focused with the assignment. The story line was more understandable for the viewers, then the last time we made a short film. Unfortunately we had some flaws such as, the filming being shaky and in some shots the camera was moving when it wasn't supposed too. On the other hand, The Stolen Cure had positive feedback from my peers. They thought it was a decent film and better than the original. Some shots that worked perfectly were, the zoom in and out shots, high angle, and over the shoulder shots. When we were doing one of the zoom in shots on Ashley, it was easy to control on the camera. We could zoom in and out on her face in an instant. We also did a high angle shot of Johnny sitting down in the hallway by the lockers. That was an easy shot to accomplish because all we had to do was tilt the camera downwards and we viewed it over and it was a perfect high angle shot. The last shot that was easy to accomplish was the over the shoulder shot over Ashley viewing the classroom from the window. All we had to do was track in to shot the angle where it was over the shoulder. ]]> 2022-09-21 17:30:09 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2307304215 Genre and Presentation Reflection SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2363406296     For the project in class, we covered in depth, genres such as, Westerns, Shakesphere, Biopics, Sports, Sci-fi, Young Adults, Musicals, Romance, Comedies, Dramas, History, Wear, Superhero's, Documentaries, Fantasy, and Adventure. For the assignment, we were required to study conventions, codes, and audience expectations that each genre had to deliberate and express. We watched three movie clips from three different time periods that highlighted the genre that was being presented. Most of the films we watched were hybrid films and hybrid films are, films that have different genres in one movie. 
 
  Me and my group came up with Adventure and Fantasy genre. We conformed to conventions by, looking on how adventure movies are made and how they are played out. Same with the fantasy genre. My group also conformed codes and audience expectations by, viewing how producers and directors shoot movies and what the angles of the scenes are. I also feel different emotions when viewing the adventure genre. For my presentation I added what I felt when watching the genre for what the audiences expectations might be. My group and I broke down codes, conventions, and audience expectations with this genre by, talking about the characters and the goal of this genre and what the producers want the audience to learn and feel. I also talked about shots that the adventure genre does and the lightings of scenes. Audience expectations were another big things that my group talked about. We explained what the audience should feel and  react when watching adventure movies.
   
   A genre that is my personal favorite is the Horror genre. The horror genre has thrill and gets my adrenaline rushing. Its exciting to watch and keeps me on the edge of my seat. My potential synopsis for the final film project would be, "Two friends, One Dark Night, One Cave." I would be interested to explore, what shots cinematographers make, story narratives, and subgenres. ]]> 2022-10-31 14:30:02 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2363406296 Editing and Sound- Midterm Film SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2441598459 Throughout the months of November and December, I have learned a lot about the concepts on how editors and directors work together, and what happens behind the scenes on how movies are made. This year, I have studied film editing concepts and created documents featuring many kinds of editing techniques such as, match cuts, smash cuts, J cuts, and L cuts, and more. Our class has watched many documentaries such as, "The Cutting Edge" and "Making Waves", which are based on editing and cinema basics. Our class has recently read a script called, "The Incredibles". After reading the script and viewing how a script is created, I wrote a script on Arc Studio Pro, for my midterm film. I had to write a one to two minute film that was based on someone having a nightmare while being in a coma. 

My film called "The Coma", had to be a one to two minute horror film. It was more of an opening rather than a finished film project. The film had to have minimal dialogue with 90% sound effects and music. My company logo had to be on the title slide with a high quality graphic. I had to include many angles such as, a dutch angle, high/low angle, low key light set up, pan or tilt, zoom in/out, and the use of slow/fast motion. I have three crosscuts in my horror piece. In my film it cross cuts back from lacey getting kidnapped in her nightmare to her in real life in a coma.  My teacher allowed us to get extra credit if we included in our films the use of, split screens, quick cuts, montages, and reflection shots, etc. 

In the film I tried to come up with a way that would make my story scarier. I was thinking of audience expectations and the engagement they would have when watching it. I made my story about a girl getting kidnapped in her nightmare, a scary thing to think about, so I tried to film the concept of kidnapping and how scary it can be. Horror uses angles to create confusion and a feeling of uncertainty within filming. In horror films the lighting tends to be darker  and have more shadows, making the audience feel on edge and more unsettling. The use of sound is also a big convention that I had to interpret within the film. I used a lot of music and sound effects that would make the audience feel more suspense on what is going to happen next. I broke in horror conventions in my film by, having a main character with props such as clothing and food. I made sure that the audience would feel suspense when watching my film. I was hoping to interpret the character Lacey in the film, to live a boring life in her nightmare and then out of no where, she gets kidnapped. 

Filming the script was the easy part of this project, it was coming up with the script that wasn't so easy. When writing the script I had to think of how I was going to be shooting this in real life, and what settings I need to make this come to life. The settings I filmed in were a house and a parking garage. I also had to think of the types of shots and angles I was going to be using, which was difficult because the script had to go with how I was going to be shooting it. Editing was also a difficult thing because I had to cut some clips and add sound effects and music.  Even though I had some difficult moments when filming there were also successful moments such as, filming the project. After I had the script and everything planned out all I had to do was film it and get the angles which was the easy part and it only took a hour or so to do. For my script I used Arc Studio Pro which is an easy script writing website. For my editing I used I-Movie, and when I added the sound I just used YouTube to get the sound effects. After completing the midterm project I have definitely learned aspects of film I didn't know before. I am more comfortable editing and writing scripts even though it was a little tough. 





]]> 2023-01-12 00:49:43 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2441598459 Two Minute Film Opening Analysis SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2466065488 1. A one or two sentence description of the first two minutes.  What happens? Young Michael Myers stabs his older sister on Halloween night. Then the film follows Michael being hospitalized at County's Smith's Grove Sanitarium following the previous attack.
2.  What is the genre and who is the target audience for this film? The genre is horror, and the target audience is younger viewers.
3.  Describe the opening credits and title sequences, including any company logos or idents.  When do they appear?  What color/font are they using? How does it "align" with the opening of the film?  Anything else you notice? The film’s opening credits, are Halloween themed, showing orange text and bold font. The opening credits also have small pumpkins to make the audience have more of a earie feeling. The opening credits of the film fade into a POV scene of a house.
4.  Describe it visually -- a shot by shot breakdown that includes type of shot/movement, if any. In the opening scene, the director first does a pan to the right, then goes to a POV shot of someone looking into the house spying on two people. The two people in the house turn off the lights and run up the stairs. The person spying on them looks around and walks towards the front of the house too look at the window. The director continues to do a POV shot. The actor walks into the home and turns of the light to grab a knife from the kitchen drawer. The character moves slowly throughout the house. There are many pan to the left/right and up/down shots while the whole opening scene is a POV shot.
5.  Describe the sound -- another "sound by sound" of the entire two minutes. The is no background music, but there is minimal dialogue between two people.
6. Describe how you felt at the end of the two minutes.  Did you want to know more?  What was left hanging if anything?  What questions do you still have? At the end of the two minutes, I felt that the opening scene had good shots, and for the opening scene to be a long shot, I think that the cinematographer filmed it so the audience will feel the suspense and excitement to see what will happen next.
7.  How would you describe the editing style in this clip?  Any particular editing techniques you noticed, or length of shots? The conventions in the opening scene that I noticed was the low lighting in the scene, to create a suspenseful feeling for the audience. 
8.  How did these first two minutes adhere to conventions? Typica openings to horror films adhere to conventions by setting up perspective or location. 
9.  How did these first two minutes break with conventions? The opening scene did not break any conventions. 
10.  How did these first two minutes represent social groups or people or issues?  The first two minutes of the opening scene represented fear it can create around the opening scene, and how different people can react to the horror. 
11. Why do you think this film was distributed on this particular site? Halloween has been distributed on many sites, but one popular site is Amazon Prime Video. I think this film was distributed on this site because Prime Video is a very large streaming site. Prime Video has 71% viewers watching movies and shows on that site. 
12.    EXTRA CREDIT:  Any other thoughts or comments or realizations you had about film openings after viewing this clip? After viewing the film’s opening scene, I feel like I can now look at any opening scene and I would be able to analyze the scene better and determine the conventions and shots.


]]> 2023-02-02 12:50:10 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2466065488 Preproduction Requirements- Cinematographer SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2482153913 For my group film, I am the cinematographer. Our film is about a serial killer who approaches his victim by calling the teenage boy who is doing the dishes in his kitchen and he turns on the television and hears the news talking about a serial killer. He then gets a call but it is just his friend. He then gets a second call and he answers the phone and the film ends with a jump scare. Horror movies normally have low key and dark lighting with silhouettes. The editor will make the film look like there is low key lighting. For our horror opening film, we are filming in the afternoon, so we will be using natural lighting. I will be using our teachers equipment that she has provided us to use. She has provided the cinematographers, with a microphone, adaptors, headphones, light stand/boom pole, shock mount, and batteries. There will be a lot of sound effects in our film such as, ringing tones, that the editor will add towards the end along with adding earie sounds in the background that will leave the audience in suspense. I have to be careful when filming shots to make sure that there is no unwanted sounds in the background. We are shooting the opening scene in a house. The shots that I will take will be filmed in the kitchen, living room, and the house's hallway. For each location there will be a wide range of shots such as, zoom in and out, track in and outs, panning left and right, smash cuts, over the shoulder shots, wide shots, establishing shots, close ups, medium shots, spin around shots, etc. ]]> 2023-02-14 15:46:33 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2482153913 Independent Distribution and Market Plan- Next Caller SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2508498906 1.  If you were to distribute your film independently, how would you do it? 
- If I was to distribute my film independently, I would not try and get my film theatrical distribution because i believe that our film wouldn't go far with that. I would go to a film festival instead. I would go to the Venice film festival because there are many film being screened, which means that my film would be screened to all the directors and producers that are scooping out winning films. With going to a film festival, our film has a better chance of getting seen then streaming or theatrically distributing the film. 

2. What is the title of your film? Do you think your title works?  Why or why not (short and sweet, pithy, reflective of genre, aimed at target audience, etc.)?  How could it be improved and why?  Do you have a new title now?
 - The title of me and my groups film is called "Next Caller". The title represents the victim getting a call by their friends, but then the next call wasn't their friends. It was the serial killer calling to strike their next victim. The title is short and sweet because the viewer should be able to tell by the title what the movie should be based on. Next Caller, is a title that is for young adults. I believe that the title works because that is what our film is based on.

3.  Create a tag line for your poster.  Aim for familiar but fresh.  Remember your genre, and your target audience.
- Me and my groups tag line for our poster is, "Willing to pay for the price "of answering the phone?". This is a very straight forward tag line that our audience will read and will have a sense to watch the film to find out what will happen next. 

4.  Create a paragraph sketch of your target audience member.  Think about who would be interested in your film and why? 
- For the horror genre in our film, our main target audience is young adult males. I say that because, the film is based around young adults so our viewers will be mainly male young adults. People who view horror films are looking for that adrenaline that they get when watching horror films. They are also looking for a sense of euphoria when watching the horror genre. People who watch horror films mainly are into sports and go on social media a lot. The young adults probably aren't picky eaters and they don't normally hang around a big crowd all the time. Horror viewers tend to stay away from noisy areas and are more isolated from the world. They will find horror films as a sense of escape and isolation.

5.  Using your notes from number four above, think about how your could reach that target audience if you were self distributing your film on Youtube or Vimeo or a similar platform.   How can you use that information to REACH them?  Where will you advertise?  INDICATE, FOR EACH GROUP, TEN PLACES WHERE YOU WOULD PLACE ADS TARGET ADS/TEASERS/TRAILERS (six virtual, four nonvirtual), and WHY, and mention that you would do this if you had to SELF DISTRIBUTE.
- If I were to distribute my film on YouTube or other platforms, I would reach my target audience by social media. Social media is an everyday use. People from all around the world will scroll for hours looking at new things on social media. If I distributed my film onto YouTube and posted it on social media, the film would get some views. If people like the film, the film would get more popular because people would share it with their friends and others. Many young adults and mainly males use YouTube to watch videos. Ten places where me and my group would place ads would be on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, and then for posters I would place our ads in movie theaters, shopping malls, restaurants (fast food places), and gaming stores. I would distribute my film in these places because that is where I can reach my target audience. I would also do this if I had to self distribute too. No matter if I self distributed or not I would still distribute on social media and non-virtually. 

6.  How would you ENGAGE your target audience online?  How will you turn passive audience members into ACTIVE, ENGAGED audience members? This is in reference to pull marketing (or interactive marketing).  How will you get them to click on your ads?  What would you offer them in the form of promotions?  How would you incentivize them to repost/retweet/share/forward your ad?  Please INCLUDE SOME OUT OF THE BOX THINKING!  Audience engagement must be addressed in your critical reflections.  
- I would engage my target audience online by, distributing to the platforms that male young adults mainly use such as, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, etc. If my audience members were passive I would make them active and engaged in our film by creating our ads to draw them in and want to watch it to know what will happen next. 

7.  Can people deduce the storyline from the art? What is reinforcing the genre, and how is it different?  Will it attract my target audience?  What are the repeating elements you notice in films in your same genre, especially use of color?  
- My movie poster would have blood dripping down the sides. There would be a telephone hanging down in the front with the words Next Caller with the text set to an earie font. The colors of my poster would be black, red, and gray. The background would be a shadowy black background. The art on the poster will explain that this is a horror film from the blood dripping down the sides. Male young adults find this stuff interesting They will be curious and want to know more about the film. Most horror films tend to make there ads and posters relate to blood and will have spooky fonts and colors. 


]]> 2023-03-08 12:15:57 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2508498906 Production and Editing Reflection SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2530480485 Throughout the process of filming me and my groups final film, I have learned a lot such as, editing, filming techniques, lighting, etc. When moving through the process my group has modified things in the film such as, actors, the setting, and the editing. In our first cut our audio was lacking quality, we had to improve the acting, and we had to put a news story on the tv in the background. We changed those and now in our second cut, those problems were fixed. Overall, I have learned a lot through out the process of filming my final cut. ]]> 2023-03-24 14:04:05 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2530480485 Critical Reflection SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2541198738 2023-04-02 15:51:59 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2541198738 Final Film- The Next Caller SamanthaJarvis4453 https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2545161821 2023-04-05 15:40:05 UTC https://padlet.com/SamanthaJarvis4453/aicemediablog/wish/2545161821