AICE Media Studies

      WHAT'S UP PALS!!! I am superr hyped right now. Why? Because we're done with our opening sequence!      So, like with the music video, Charlize came to my house to edit. We used the same editing software, Movavi editor, to do our final project. First, she, Sabrina (who was on facetime with us), and I made a game plan. We went through all the scenes we already filmed and discussed which ones we'll use and what order they'll be in.      Then, we put them all into the software. The files were way too big to email, so I had to create a new Google account and back the videos up on Google Photos. This was the easiest way to get them onto my computer.      Getting them onto Movavi was a whole 'nother deal. For some reason, the videos downloaded in the wrong file format, so they didn't work with Movavi. There was no way to download them differently, so I had to screen record each one and upload the screen recordings to Movavi. Although it was tedious, it was necess

       Hey pals! What's going on? You guessed it! Time to choose the music we'll have for the background of our opening scene.      Sabrina originally had the idea to have a more minimal use of music, playing only at the end in the cafe. We also discussed having suspenseful music play throughout the film; it is a thriller after all. However, we didn't think the suspense music really fits the "normal" to "ohh that's kind of weird" vibe we're going for in our opening sequence.        We thought about meeting somewhere in the middle. Maybe start the video with chill, upbeat music that slowly turns more eery  as time progresses. Unfortunately, after lots of looking, we couldn't find anything online like that. To work around this, we talked about merging two different songs together, but that idea was also scrapped because it was too complicated.      So I was put to the task to find some other music to use. I scoured the internet, looking at lofi

      Good morning pals! GUESS WHAT!! We finally, finally, finished filming our scenes. There were many bumps in the road (when is there not for us?), but it's finally finished.      Soo what did we have left to do to finish? Basically, all we had to do was the cafe scene. After lots of phone calls, we finally found a place that would let us film.    We couldn't find a cafe that would let us film. However, we were able to make a deal with Sabrina's church that we could go there to film as long as there was no one else. Since it wasn't a cafe, Sabrina bought a plain apron that she can wear and brought a rag to pretend to wipe down table.      We made sure to go to the church first thing in after school, so that there weren't many people there. Charlize brought her laptop and some note pads as props, since she has to pretend she's working.       I filmed Sabrina walking in to the "cafe" and preparing for her shift and working. Then, I filmed Charlize wal

      What’s up pals? Happy Valentine’s Day!      Quick fun fact: Even though my first name is Ella, I was named after Valentine’s day! My middle name is Valentina, which is also what I usually go by, so if you see that name in my groupmates’ blogs, that’s me! I always joke that it’s technically my day, so happy Valentina day! ;)     Anyways, yesterday, we finished up our dog walking scene. We redid everything we did with the dog the other day, since we didn’t like the way it looked. After discussing what camera angles and shots we should use to film it, we got started.      It definitely turned out better than before. Originally, the camera was super shaky and had really weird angles that didn’t really look right for the scene. However, after reshooting, they look way more cohesive and “professional” in a way. I’ve noticed that I yap a lot about what decisions I make, but I’m going to leave some mystery so the whole this isn’t spoiled!     After we did this, we tried to go to the cafe

    Good morning guys. No exclamation point today because I’m very frustrated. I have some very sad and ANNOYING news.      This morning, we went to the Press and Grind Cafe, which is where we were planning on shooting our cafe scene, to see if they would let us film there.           Just to provide some context, I went there last week by myself to ask as well, but the manager said that he would have to talk to the owner and see. He said it should be okay as long as we come during a slow time, but he would let me know.      So, this morning we went back because he never got back to me. There was a different manager today, so we had to repeat our whole spiel. This manager was actually super rude and basically said absolutely not, even though the other one said it would be okay. We asked why, and she basically said for insurance reasons we can’t be behind the counter. Even though we mentioned we didn’t necessarily have to go behind the counter, she still said no.      We ended up getting

      Hey pals! How was your week? I’m very excited to tell you about what we’ve gotten done since I last blogged!      So, we basically picked up where we left off on our last filming day. We didn’t get too much done that day because Sabrina had a soccer game, so there was a lot to do!      What we had to do was finish up Madeline’s morning routine. This included getting out of bed, getting ready for work, etc.      First, we filmed Sabrina getting out of bed. As I said in the last blog, we did an aerial view of her turning off the alarm and getting out of bed. So the next clip we filmed was her walking to the bathroom. This shot showed her walking through the hallway and into the bathroom. It starts out full body, but as she walks toward the camera you can only see her upper half. Then, we filmed her washing her face. Rather than looking at her, I had the camera point at the mirror and show her through the mirror. I thought this was a pretty cool shot, and it made the scene a bit mor

      Hi pals! How’s it going? I haven’t written a filming blog in so long!       Yesterday, we began filming for our video. I know we had planned to start filming a little earlier, but the plan didn’t end up being convenient for all of us. So instead, we started filming yesterday since my sailing practice got canceled.      It was actually really fun! I picked Charlize and Sabrina up in the morning, and we went to get breakfast before we got started. We got to talk and catch up a bit, then went to my house to film.      We got to film a few scenes, but not too many because Sabrina had a soccer game. We basically just filmed the beginning of “Madeline’s” morning routine. This included shots of her alarm, her in bed, and more. We filmed it exactly like the story board. The first shot is of the alarm going off, then of her turning it off, etc. We tried to be super creative with the angles, so we tried a lot of different things.      One of these things included taping the phone to the wa

      What’s up guys! What’s going on? It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to blog without guidelines!      Sabrina, Charlize, and I had a talk today about roles in our final project. We don’t have a “team leader” or anything, so we need to decide who does what in order to make sure everyone gets something done. As in, who plays the characters, who’s doing the voice over, who’s actually filming everything, etc.      This is a really important step in the process since for our music video, we had some disagreement about it. We all agreed that we can’t let that happen again, so that’s why we did this.      So, to start, we determined our actresses. We talked about having me as an actress, but I honestly don’t really feel comfortable in front of the camera. So instead, Sabrina is going to play Madeline. Charlize said that she had a very specific way she imagined the voice over being done, so she wanted to do it herself. This makes sense, since she’s the one who wrote the script.