Week 23 in AICE Media Studies; Continued

Introduction

    Today we had a class discussion and lecture on the syllabus.

What I Did

    My teacher handed out the official Cambridge syllabus to the class so we could take notes. We started off by reviewing the foundation portfolio, command words, the film opening video, processes, and the creative critical reflection.

    Then, we moved onto reviewing component two. We discussed sections A and B, along with AO1 and AO2.

What I Learned

    I already knew everything for the foundation portfolio because we had already reviewed it as a class. However, for component two, I learned that AO1 is about demonstrating knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts, and critical debates, using terminology appropriately. I then learned that AO2 is about analyzing media products and evaluating your own work by applying knowledge and understanding of theoretical and creative approaches, supported with relevant textual evidence.

    Next, I learned that the media text will be shown four times, and the screening time will last a total of 30 minutes, including the note-taking. For section B, we learned that we have to start studying case studies to be able to answer one of the questions. 

    Lastly, we reviewed the technical elements needed to correctly analyze the unseen media for section A. They are camera shots, angles, movement, composition, sound, mise-en-scene, and editing. We have already been taught these individually earlier in the year.

Week 23 in AICE Media Studies

Introduction

    We did a final review of what the film introduction entails before finalizing our film intros.

What I Did

    On Monday, we reviewed the outlines of the film introduction again, ensuring we were all on the same page. Then, we watched the first two minutes of some famous movies to make sure we understood what was expected of us. This helped me clarify if our introduction would be interesting enough. 

    Next, we finalized the scripts for our film introductions with Ms. Pistocchi. She approved ours on the first try. Some other groups had to retry a few times. We spent the rest of class on this.

What I Learned

    I learned how to make the introduction to your film interesting. After watching clips of famous movies, we realized we needed to end the introduction on a hook, so we added one. I also learned that the first two minutes of a movie can be one of the most important parts. This taught me that if you do not trap people within the first few minutes of your film, then you will lose them.

Week 22 in AICE Media Studies

Introduction

    We worked on some troubleshooting and designing blogs.

What I Did

    Firstly, we had to do some troubleshooting with our blogs because all of ours had a "read more" button, but Ms. Pistocchi told us that we cannot have that.

      Then, we decided to focus on making our blogs more personalized. I personally added nicer colors and a new background. 

What I Learned

    I learned how to remove the "read more" tab on Blogger.com posts. To do this I just had to make the "available posts" a higher number. 

     I also learned how to customize my blog. My group member Vivienne taught me how to change the header on my blog. All I had to do was go into "layout" and click edit. After clicking edit, I just pressed add image and shrink to fit.

Week 21 in AICE Media Studies

Introduction

     We created a poster for our film and discussed our creative film reflections. 

What I Did

    We started off Tuesday's class with a discussion on our creative critical reflections. Ms. Pistocchi
went over everything we need to include in them and her expectations of us. 

      After we broke off into our groups. we decided to make the poster for our film introduction since we could not work on our creative critical reflection.

What I Learned

     I learned about the creative critical reflection. The reflection is made up of four questions;

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

     I also learned how to isolate a subject in Photoshop and darken the background. Then, I used the paintbrush to lighten part of the subjects face, creating a spotlight effect. 

     

Week 20 in AICE Media Studies

Introduction

    We started off class with an informative video and then worked on our scripts for the final project.

What I Did

    We watched a tutorial on how to write an elevator pitch, logline, and an outline. Then, we had a class discussion on loglines since Ms. Pistocchi wants us to write one for our film finals. After the class discussion, we got into our groups for the final and started writing our loglines.

What I Learned

    I learned what a logline is and how to write one. A logline is a brief two-sentence summary of a television program, film, short film, or book that states the central conflict of the story. Our film introduction logline is "17-year-old Pearl Williams takes a seemingly innocent jog along the coastal path but is abducted due to family history and must fight for her final breath in the C-10 Canal." 

    I also learned that an outline is a scene-by-scene breakdown of the entire story of your screenplay. I also learned that an elevator pitch is a 30- or 60-second summary of your film that explains the concept in a way that any listener can understand it in a short period of time.