AICE Media Studies

 I don't know why I have this tendency to act like I need to do every single thing for a group project, but of course, here I am. As I have made clear, I am a very busy student. I think I was a little too ambitious with my workload, but I've made it this far and have learned my lesson. Putting my workload aside, I realized that it wouldn't make sense for me to do everything for this project by myself and that I honestly wasn't supposed to. Now, I understood it rationally and knew that Naliah would be there to help me, but for some reason I just kept acting like I needed to do everything. I realized this today and realized that I desperately needed to remedy this issue.  I figured a simple delegation of tasks would cure this. I realized that I wasn't sure where to go with the sound effects for this project, nor the social medias. Even though I am a teenager and therefore should be on Twitter and Instagram 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I actually don't have socia

So, I needed to refilm a shot. Here's how I came to realize that. I was just wrapping up editing and trying to get through some final touches like I mentioned last blog, but I then too a closer look at the shot of the dog trainer looking at an email. Apparently I caught too much in the shot and it just didn't look right. I wanted the audience to get the impression that this dog trainer was big and important in her community and it just wasn't coming across. So I decided that I needed to re-film it and this time, make it better.  First things first, handling what was bothering me. I decided that my room looked too much like an actual room and decided to switch things around. I took some non-fiction books from my makeshift shelf and placed them on my desk, making the desk area feel like a study of sorts. I then needed to remove some scrap sheets of paper, water bottles, and other items from the desk to make it seem more professional. I then added my iPad and had it opened, wi

So, last time I was here, I mentioned the fact that there was a pretty big issue when it came to my editing software, or just my computer in general. Apparently, I can't view the videos I edit after I export them and save them to my computer. The stated error message was "file type unsupported." So, cut to me, having a mild breakdown over this issue, when I finally decide to calm down and just Google it. In my personal opinion(even though it's clearly the truth), Google and YouTube hold every single piece of knowledge that humanity has discovered, making them great resources. So, I decide to Google this error code and see what I should do about it.  I was confronted with the fact that I  would need to download some software and tweak some aspects of my computer using the control panel. Now I am no computer scientist(even though I do need some coding under my belt), but I figured that the process wouldn't be too difficult. Of course, fate hates me, and I think I sp

So, today I got home from school, made some tea, sat down, got out my laptop, put on some music and began to open some shots to edit. I first start of with just ordering the shots in sequential order. I really like this technique of editing, because it helps me work in "layers." I used to edit by hyperfocusing on one shot for almost 10 minutes, trying to get everything perfect and account for any mistakes made in filming. Now, as you can probably tell, that was not an effecient way of editing. I tend to have issues with perfectionism, which is likely how I got myself trapped in this kind of editing style. Since then, I've had to force myself to not do that and focus on the whole scope of the film first, then focus on the more intimate editing(like transitions, color-correct, and fade-ins/outs) later on.  So after editing everything into sequential order, I now needed to focus on transitioning. Thanks to ClipChamp's intuitive interface, this was pretty simple. I just n

  We officially have a winner! However, before I reveal the editing app I chose I’m going to go through the criteria and the testing process for each of these apps.  The first app I tested was OpenShot, because as I said, I’m not paying for videopad or any other sort of editing app. Upon opening OpenShot, I was greeted with a familiar interface, a bit crammed, but nonetheless familiar. I input a test shot into the app and attempted to find a way to shift the color balance, exposure, color temperature, or something that would enable me to create the look of night. I looked for a length of time so long that it would be embarrassing if stated exactly how long, so i’m not going to go into specifics. Needless to say, I was not going to use OpenShot for this project.  Next I moved onto ClipChamp. It was so simplistic and intuitive, it was honestly a dream. I managed to create a fairly realistic effect of the video being filmed at night. To be more specific, I first decided to lower the expos

Guess who needs to research editing apps again? Rhetorical questions aside, I need to figure out which app I'm going to use for this project. However, I need to go through what happened last year with all my other editing apps to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes twice. I went back through my blogs in chronological order and found a lot of useful information.  I recall using VideoPad for my music video, but upon looking at some of my older blogs, I remembered that it required payment to export the video after a certain period of time. Considering the fact that I refuse to cram all the editing into one day, means that I can’t really use this app. I remember it being really effective in terms of its capabilities, but I refuse to pay for any editing app. Honestly, speaking of payment, it’s like that in my everyday life too. I enjoy creating digital art(with whatever spare time I have, which is slowly but surely shrinking) but I refuse to pay for any app that enables me

  So, 3/5/23 was the day we began to execute our new film plan. I was honestly excited to film and didn’t expect us to be done so quickly either. As I stated before, I would be the dog trainer and so I was going to be speaking a lot in the film. My lines included things like “Oh no, there’s bears in here” and constantly yelling for Chico to come. I honestly really enjoyed the experience of acting and I think the shots came out great. I’m not used to being on camera, so it was an odd experience at first, but I eventually got the hang of it.  Additionally, I’m hoping that the lines I said will bring the irony aspect of our film to fruition, but in a subtle way. I had a lot of hope in the original idea of our film being a horror comedy, with irony and a slight parody of many horror tropes being present, and I’m hoping that these aspects can be seen. I was honestly in love with the idea when it was first brought to my attention and I still have full hope in it.  I will say that our change

  I received a call from Naliah yesterday, and she had some concerns.. Essentially, she felt like we weren’t moving fast enough with filming, and that this was caused by it being difficult to get our actors together. This prompted her to have an idea, which I found really interesting. She thought that instead of having a film about three teenage boys going into the forest and getting tormented by a chihuahua, the film would focus on the origin story of the evil chihuahua and eventually shift to a lone dog trainer trying to find the chihuahua, not realizing it’s pure evil.  I am very grateful that Naliah came up with this idea and I honestly think it will work. Firstly, the reason she suggested it is because it requires less actors and she could easily film Chico’s backstory. It will only require me to act as a dog trainer searching for Chico in the forest, while the actors we already have can act as dead bodies and voice some screams for us. I also like how the idea still sticks to the