Day 6: Mise-en-scene

Hello hello!! Welcome or welcome back to the blog! Today I'll be telling you about my favorite project so far in AICE Media Studies: the Mise-en-scene project.

For this project, we worked in groups of 4-5 and were assigned a one-line character description. The goal of the project was to develop a presentation about this character where we designed everything about the character. We had to create it's name, background, and develop it based off of the one-line description. For this project, my teacher gave us a lot of creative freedom. We were allowed to create the components however we deemed fit. The only components that were required were:

1.  Avatar: see paragraph 5
2. Description of the character: see paragraph 4
3. Audio element: see attached Spotify links
4. Tactile element: see attached pictures
5. Mood board: see attached pictures
6. Setting: see attached pictures

My group were assigned the description:

A high school athlete with a secret passion for poetry. Torn between expectations and self-expression, he learns to balance ambition with authenticity. 

For our character, we decided on the name Brady Beckham. He is a high school senior, who plays football and has had a passion for poetry since 7th grade. Brady seems tough on the outside but is secretly soft on the inside, once you get to know him. He struggles to figure out where he wants to go for college; whether he wants to go to one to focus on football or poetry. 

To make Brady come to life, we used a website called ArtBreeder. It uses AI to create the character, but as long as you choose the option of creating the character yourself, you have full control over the avatar. I will say that the website is a bit finnicky and I probably won't be using it again because I'm just not the greatest fan of it. We wanted Brady to have green/colored eyes and brown hair, and the other details we weren't too concerned about. This is how Brady turned out!

On presentation day, each group had a station and they set it up however they wanted. Each group would rotate to each station after 8 minutes so that we could experience all 6 other presentation. During the set-up, I was taking another AICE exam, so I'm not sure how my group chose to display everything at the station. 

To create Brady my group actually stemmed from stereotypes. The high school football player trope usually consists of having brown hair, being Caucasian, and are seemingly tough on the outside as portrayed by the media. Because us, teenage girls, were the creators there was surely bias on our part because we wanted to make our High School Musical fantasies come to life. 

The process of creating Brady and his world didn't take very long because we split the work pretty evenly among ourselves. One person worked on the setting, one on the avatar, mood board and so forth. Although we split ourselves up, we collaborated well with each other by checking to see what the other group members thought and making sure that all our voices were heard in making the final product. Our outcome was fantastic in my opinion. We had playlists that Brady would listen to either to hype himself up before football games or to gain inspiration for his poetry. Our tactile element was a journal that he used as a playbook as well as for poetry. One of our group member's older brother played football, so we used his jersey for part of our tactile element and made sure the their numbers matched. 

Below are the links and pictures for all of our elements!

Football hype playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0lz05rotWNidE2OST3vYS5?si=a134d0cf1beb47d4&nd=1&dlsi=2825aeb0e8df4bd7

Poetry playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3s8IaGIW3pkCyWddG7xhbO?si=85b86266fb5f4a8b&nd=1&dlsi=54fefa6436dd41cc

Tactile elements: We brought in a journal and made the pages look like it was Brady's personal journal where he jots down ideas and plays. Here is the inside cover, a sample of one of the pages and a love letter from his girlfriend, Gia, describing Brady.

Mood Board:

Setting: Brady's Room

Thank you for joining in on today's adventure of AICE Media Studies, and I hope to see you here again next time!! 👋👋👋

Day 5: Genre

Hello friends, welcome or welcome back to the blog! Long time no read! Today you'll read about my research of the film genre: Musicals. Since I was young, I have been fascinated with performing arts and once I went into middle school, musicals became a huge hit for me. I was in theater all 3 years, going to local and professional musicals at least once a month, and performing in my school's yearly musical; you could definitely call me a theater kid. Once we started to learn about genres in Media Studies, I thought it would be only fitting for me to research more in depth about musicals.

The Musical genre in film consists of music (as the name suggests), dancing, singing, and acting to tell the story in an engaging and entertaining way. It often features musical numbers with elaborate choreography where the characters break into song to show their larger than life problems.

Musicals- Content:

The opening number of a musical is a key element of a musical. This number sets the tone for the rest of the movie, introducing characters, their motives, and the setting. The opening number is the hook that grabs the audience's attention and lures them in to keep watching.

Example: Hamilton's opening number is "Alexander Hamilton", which introduces Alexander Hamilton (you guessed it), and the other main characters such as: Aaron Burr and the Schuyler sisters. One iconic lyric also introduces the setting, "In New York, you can be a new man".

Another key element is breaking the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is when a character acknowledges the audience to create a deeper connection with them, it is similar to a monologue, but can sometimes consist of a character singing to the audience. This also makes the audience more engaged in what they are watching, and makes them feel like they are on a personal level with the character. Breaking the fourth wall can add a playful or more dramatic mood depending on the overall tone. 

Example: In Dear Evan Hansen, Evan Hansen breaks the fourth wall during "Waving Through a Window" by singing about something that he cannot talk to anyone else about. This develops a deeper connection with the audience because they are able to understand his emotions better than any of the other characters.

The big finale is another key element to the musical genre. The finale will end the piece by resolving the problems and providing closure. The finale sometimes will also reprise an important song, and show the contrast between the original song and ending, showing character development and growth. The goal of the finale number is to end on a high note and wrap the show up.

Example: "Do You Hear the People Sing" from Le Miserables, is an iconic big finale that starts as an inspirational battle cry and ends as a hope for a peaceful future which provides emotional release for the audience. It reunites the characters back together for one final time for emotional unity.

Musicals: Production Techniques:

In musical productions, they often use cross-cutting to show action happening at the same time in different locations. Usually characters are breaking into song with similar verses to show the similarities of their different situations. It is usually used to show two characters having similar discoveries or going through similar situations at the same time. It is also used to show the moments leading up to the climax of the production, or the high point of the show. 

Musical productions are often formalist productions. They prioritize style over capturing realistic aspects of life. The formalist style presents the larger than life ideas of the production and gives the audience a sense of fantasy, which is a common theme among musicals. The set, costume, and lighting designs all work together to create different emotional responses from the audience.

Musical Marketing:

Musicals have a wide audience because there are many sub-genres within the genre. They are generally marketed towards women, from ages 15-50. Depending on what type of musical is being marketed, there will be a different target audience. People of all ages have fallen in love with musical theater, so it isn't hard to market it towards a wide range of ages and people. Live musicals gain popularity and have their own fandoms, so when there is a new musical film adaptation, that fandom immediately flocks towards the film.

This genre often uses snippets of the showstopping number in the background of the trailer, to hype up the audience for the specific number. On the movie posters, they use colors that will give viewers a specific emotional response that the movie will also give. For example, the Sound of Music (1965) uses a lot of bright blue, which has a positive connotation for most people. This shows that the audience will experience positive feelings while watching.

The Sound of Music (1965)

A short summary of a couple of my favorite musicals:

Dear Evan Hansen (2021) is a musical film about a high school boy named Evan, played by Ben Platt, who is struggling with social anxiety and ends up getting involved with a big lie after a classmate, Connor, played by Colton Ryan, tragically commits suicide. This musical has the key elements of a notable opening number, "Waving through a Window" which introduces the main character and setting to the audience.

Hairspray (2007) is set in Baltimore in the 1960's. It follows Tracy Turnblad, played by Nikki Blonsky, who auditions for her favorite show "The Corny Collins Show" and gets in. The movie brings in ideas that are larger than the production itself such as racial integration and inclusivity. Hairspray uses a plethora of bright colors to show the playful, positive connotation of the movie. It features a big finale, "You Can't Stop the Beat", which brings all of the characters together for one final time, giving the audience a sense of satisfaction.

Films in the Musical genre for you to check out!

Wicked (2024)

West Side Story (2021)

Le Miserables (2012)

The Greatest Showman (2017)

La La Land (2016)

Sources:

1. https://nofilmschool.com/musical-genre
2. https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-20-best-musical-finale-songs/who-lives-who-dies-who-tells-your-story
3. https://www.mandy.com/magazine/article/musical-genre-in-film-and-tv-79233/#section3
4. https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/media-studies/filmmaking/musical-films/

Thank you so much for reading and I cannot wait for my next adventure!

Day 4: Sound

 Hello!!! Long time no see (or read, in this case). In the time I haven't posted, we've learned about sound and how it impacts the viewing of a piece. We learned that sound adds dimension, emotional impact, makes the visuals more realistic and so much more. We learned about synchronous sound which like its name, is synchronized with movements, for example, opening and closing doors. There is also asynchronous sound, which does not match up with what we see on screen. We learned about voice-overs, ways of addressing the audience and much more. 

Something interesting is that sound effects are usually artificially created, using a foley stage. Foley is the term created by Jack Foley, and is the technique in which objects are used to create sounds, made by humans. When a piece is shot, only the dialogue is picked up, so the foley artists have to create every single sound on/off screen.  A foley stage is usually a large room or warehouse that are super quiet, have very sensitive mics and a plethora of props to create all of the sound necessary. The props can include anything from screws and hammers, to even vegetables. All these, to create sounds that match up with what we see on screen. When filming the sound effects, the artists start with the footsteps of the main characters, or whoever we see on screen, the background footsteps, then add all the other sounds with a prop pass. When foley artists create the sound effects, they put in as much energy into it as they are trying to convey in the scene.  

During this lesson, we had 2 projects. I'll call the first, "SP #1", and the second, "SP #2", which is short for "Sound Project #_". 

SP #1:

For SP #1, we worked with a partner to create a soundscape, which represents all the sounds in a scene. We had to brainstorm our own scene, and use only sound to create the scene. We also had to have at least 4 sounds that we create using foley. One of the challenges was that we could only use up to 7 words. The goal was really to not use words unless necessary, and to use the sounds of the environment as the way to tell our story. 

Here was our process: 

1. We started by choosing a scene that we wanted to create a soundscape for. My partner and I chose a scene where a woman rushes to get into an elevator, and it ends up breaking down. I'll leave the ending for you to listen to.
2. We then created an outline for all of the sounds we were going to use. It had the scene broken down into 3+ parts, and had a list of all the sounds we would use in that portion. This helped us organize the sounds so that we don't have something listed at the beginning which should really be at the end of the project.
3. Now onto editing. Instead of Adobe Express, which only allows you to stack 2 sounds, we used Microsoft 365's editing platform, ClipChamp. We also used Pixabay, which has a billion and one free sound effects, for a majority of the sounds that weren't foley.

I think I did a good job with utilizing the foley sounds. We recorded the banging on the door, clicking the elevator buttons, creaking of the floor, and a metal bar dropping. One thing I think I can improve on is possibly editing the sounds themselves. I think our project turned out well, but I don't feel like it tells the story as full as I wanted it to. During the breaking of the elevator, I think I could've added more sounds such as more gasps, heavier breathing, and the most important thing we forgot to add: AC. 

This is the link to the project if you want to check it out and leave your advice below!!

AydulunPerez_soundscape_per4 1.m4a

If you were curious, our timeline also looked like this:

SP #2:

Finally we're moving on to SP #2! Remember the One Word Film Project from Day 3? Well, it's back. For the OWF, we weren't able to use any sound, since we hadn't learned it. Now, we've learned sound, and this project was to add all of the necessary sounds into the project. For this, we could use any sound effects, use the necessary foley (no required amount), any words, etc. Really, anything to make the piece come alive. We worked with our previous partner to create the outline and any foley.

Here was my process:

1. Join with my partner for the OWF, to create our outline. Just like SP #1, we split the scene into different parts to help with the organization of our project. We had a school setting, so our outline mainly had footsteps, background chatter, unzipping backpacks, and of course, the bell ringing. 
2. After we had the outline completed, we started to do the foley. To start, just like the professionals do, we recorded all of the footsteps, and we added the voices.
3. Then, we started to add all of the sounds in, starting with the AC. My teacher said things like AC or wind sounds are environmental sounds that you kind of brush past if you don't think about it. 
4. Again, we used ClipChamp to edit and Pixabay for the other sound effects.

One thing I think I did well was the layering of sounds at the beginning of the scene, where the bell has just rung, that made it sound real. Something to improve on is definitely matching up the sounds to the actions. In some parts, the footsteps don't completely match the actor on screen and small things like that. Other than that, it wasn't horrible, but I know I can improve on the next project.

This is the finished project:

OWF Sound

I hope you enjoyed today's blog post, and I hope to see you next time!! 🫰🫰🫰