AICE Media Studies

Link to document:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OBDvf01qB954cjyt4wOMdKxOVawnoJrfM8FqoeAr7rM/view?usp=sharing How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social issues or groups? This film is an inspirational story where a fantasy-themed short movie in the form of a fairytale addresses real-life issues such as environmental conservation and social media obsession and misuse through interactions between humans and a fairy, who is a mythical being.  In the film, the fairy does an excellent job of portraying that our society must be considerate and aware of nature and how we interact with its resources, knowing that they are scarce. She does this by helping the surrounding nature, waving her wand over bushes to bring new flowers to life, and in that way, helping accelerate the development of the natural resources of the tree trail. The film also addresses the issue of social media obsession and misuse. Character 1 portrays how society has d...

After several days of planning, a couple of days of filming, and several days of editing, the unique short lo-fi music video, Abigail, is here! Thank you for following along during the production of this video. Enjoy!

The finalizing of the music video is here! Soon would be the debut of the long-awaited music video. There is still plenty of editing work needed before finally exporting the video. But before further editing, I have to reveal the name of the music video. Title Reveal For a while now, the music video has been left unnamed, and I have referred to it as "Music Video" throughout much of its production stages. That has been the case until today. I have finally decided the title of the music video. Introducing "Abigail", a 1 minute and 15-second music video featuring the lo-fi song "Ballads" by ENRA and dr. niar. I named the film after the fairy in the video, who is named Abigail, who just so happens to be my little sister in the video. Set 2 Filming Filming on Set 2 was a rapid process. All clips were POVs of Character 1 (myself). A screen-recorded clip of the post composition page of the social media app "Instagram" was displayed on the prop phone. A...

The editing process was able to start after filming the required footage from Set 1.  Before opening the Premiere project, I needed to import the footage into the editing computer. As mentioned in an earlier blog, Owlfiles was selected to establish an FTP connection with the editing computer. The transfer process between the iPhone and the editing computer was seamless. I transferred the footage from the Blackmagic Camera app. All I needed to do was tap the "Share" button, select the "Save to Owlfiles" option, and select the appropriate folder. I then copied the clips into the drive of the editing computer. To start with editing, I dragged the clips into the Premiere project and sorted the clips for approval. I omitted 19 of the 48 clips shot on Set 1 since there were deficiencies with those clips, which rendered them unsuitable to add to the video. The approved clips were next added to the timeline. Select clips required stabilization, so I used the Warp Stabilizer...

The filming process for the music video has begun! The iPhone 13 with Blackmagic Camera was used to film all of the shots.  All of the footage recorded was saved into the onboard flash storage. Forty-nine clips were loaded into the editing computer's drive.    Below is a screenshot showing the white balance adjustment: The recording of all clips took place on the day of filming on Set 1. All filming accounted for almost all the footage needed for the music video. The filming was all done in a specific portion of a publicly accessible South Florida park with a forest trail. A rather lengthy distance had to be traveled to get to the desired location. Some ground obstacles, such as flooding and horse manure, were present along the way to the filming place. All cast and crew involved made it to the set and back safely. Some B-roll shots were taken to accompany the required scenes as directed by the storyboard, and the selection of all final shots will be done during editing. ...

It's almost time to start filming, but first, the props and costumes must be selected before filming can take place. There are two characters to find costumes and props for and a set to find props for. As of the publication of this blog, all props and costumes are ready to be used on set. Before the costumes and props are described, here is the current list of characters and sets in the music video as of now: Characters Fairy - Abigail Rosero The fairy is seen on Set 1 only. Character 1 - Juan Rosero Character 1 can be seen in both sets. Sets Forest - Trail Park in South Florida Forest (alternative) - Backyard of a house Props Unless otherwise noted, all props can only be seen in Set 1. Fairy The fairy will receive a decorated wand with ribbons attached to it. The fairy will interact with the flowers of the forest by waving her wand or tapping her wand on a tree to create the illusion of a growing plant.  Character 1 Character 1 will receive a Samsung Galaxy A52 5G smartphone as a ...

This blog post contains the storyboard that estimates what the scenes of the final product may look like. Changes from Planning Blog: The total number of actors was reduced to two (2). The park has been renamed as a tree trail. The story now ends with Character 1 realizing it was wrong to take and post pictures of the fairy, then helping the fairy rejuvenate the trail. Character 1 then takes a photo of the rejuvenated tree trail and posts it, trying to create awareness for the conservation of the environment. Fairy walks happily in the tree trail. Storyboard:

As part of the pre-production procedures, I will review some music videos from the same genre as my chosen song. I will list the conventions of some Lofi music videos, shots, mise-en-scene elements, editing elements, and sound elements found in the music videos.  Recall that the chosen song is Ballads by dr. niar and ENRA. This type of song falls under the Lofi hip-hop genre. Video 1: Sam Hansen - FEEL SO (live action only) Shots: Point of View shot Two-shot Three-shot Medium Close Up Medium Long Shot Wide Shot Medium Shot Over-the-shoulder Shot Zoom shot Insert shot Editing: Jump cut Cutaway Sound: Sound Motif Non-diegetic Sound Diegetic Sound Mise-en-scene: Costume Lighting/Color design Acting Props Set Video 2: beabadoobee - Coffee Shots: Zoom shot Wide shot Point of View shot Close up shot Extreme close up Two-shot Medium close up Editing: Dissolve Picture-in-picture Clips with varying opacities Jump cut Sound: Sound Motif Non-diegetic Sound Ambient Sound Mise-en-scene: Acting...

Recall from the planning blog that I had listed the use of a certain camera in the production. The main camera for this project is an iPhone 13. Phone cameras have been rising in video quality in recent years, and while I may not be filming with the most recent phone, the camera in the iPhone 13 still outputs good-quality video to use for production. I listed that I would use the Blackmagic Camera software to film the video. But what exactly is Blackmagic Camera, and why use it to film the video over the stock iOS camera app? What's special about Blackmagic Camera? Blackmagic Camera is a third-party camera application developed by Blackmagic Design for iPhones as an alternative to the stock iOS camera app. Compared to the stock iOS camera app, Blackmagic Camera allows for expanded manual control of the iPhone camera. You can manually control standard aspects of the camera that one would expect to gain control of in a professional camera, such as focus, exposure, white balance, shut...

After selecting the song, it is now time to create a story for the video that will complement it! Before getting into the draft synopsis, here is some of the basic information about this production: Locations: Park in South Florida Backyard Song: Ballads by ENRA + dr. niar Props: Wand Wings Flowers Cameras: Apple iPhone 13 (running Blackmagic Camera) Note that this information is subject to change at any time. Changes will be noted in future production blogs. Costumes and a schedule are currently TBD and will also be noted in a future production blog. All of the final basic information of the production will be organized in the last production blog. For actors, I am going to have my 3-year-old sister take the role of the main character. I am also seeking to involve some friends of mine as actors. Draft Storyline Synopsis A toddler-sized fairy, age 3, is found in a flowerless park and is rejuvenating it with flowers. One day, she is seen planting flowers in the park, and a person spots ...

This is the first production blog for the project! Before we get started with filming on location, I need to be able to organize the project on the computer that I will use for all of the editing work. I don't think anyone would want to work on a project of such scale without first having some organization! How will I be organizing? There are four subfolders in the music video folder. For context, here is what each folder will contain: Audio - the song itself and any future SFX that may be added later on. Cameras - video sources from the cameras used in this production. Docs - any documents related to the production of the video, including a local copy of the storyboard. Project Files - the folder that will contain the Premiere Pro project file and its autosaves. Note that this folder may also contain some After Effects project files if a decision is made to add some graphics that may not be possible to add using Premiere Pro alone. In this case, another folder will be created insi...