AICE Media Studies

      Unfortunately my spring break has ended. I choose to be child and enjoy my break by not completing any work. This mental break allow me to gather myself and come back ready to work... or at least so I thought. In all actuality, I worked out everyday of spring break from 3 to 6. This was in an attempt to train and build the muscles in my body. I feel as if I accomplished this goal as I gained 3 pounds in muscle. Returning from the break my body was physically tired but mentally ready for any task. So with that I attacked this project head on. I filmed all of the scenes that were technically challenging on Good Friday. Then on Easter Sunday I watched Godzilla v. Kong. From there I realized that a lot of my shots could’ve been composed better. So I took that into account and made a mental not to revisit the scenes I shot on a later date.

      FREEDOM AT LAST! Finally, after three months we have arrived at our next break from school. Spring break couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Unfortunately, for my school, I will not be completing any work. As of Thursday, March 18th, precisely at 12:20 p.m., I do not consider myself a student at Fort Lauderdale High School. Until March 31st, at 7:40 a.m., I am a carefree teen with no responsibilities. Throughout this break, I indulge in carefree activities such as sleeping, watching tv, and more sleeping. On a serious note, I’m choosing not to complete any work for my mental health. This is one of the few times students are given a break to just be kids. Throughout the school year, society has groomed us to be students first and kids second. With that being said, I believe that if I spend this time as a student, there wouldn’t be any balance to an already unbalanced equation. I have already started to plan activities I will complete with my friends and family...

      After last week’s break for my mental health, I was eager to film. I had even considered filming throughout the week because I became so anxious. Ultimately I realized I had created a filming schedule for a reason. It was made because it fit my daily schedule perfectly. So I told myself, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” On Wednesday, I had competed in a track meet and while there, I gained a new idea. I had decided to change the timing of my opening to be set during our COVID-19 pandemic. I thought to do this after seeing all the students warming up and running with a mask. The announcer had a hard time differentiating the students with their mask on. And then it hit me, the intruder can wear a mask, a ski mask specifically. So the day after, I ordered a ski mask off of Amazon and it was delivered Saturday. Sunday morning I woke up early to get my hair cut and braided. Then I invited my cousins over to my house to film. Being able to film in my intended location h...

After last weekend’s failure in filming, I needed to make sure that my schedule was set in stone. I understood that life is unpredictable and things happen out of my control but what I could control I would. Not only would I control it I would do so with a tight grip to ensure that nothing could stand in my way. Last week I was faced with hospitalizations of important characters in my film, location problems, and an overall lack of enthusiasm to film. My mother was hospitalized from Friday to Monday, meaning that I wasn’t able to film any of the scenes involving her. Not only that, my father was by her side for every part of her hospitalization, which meant I couldn’t film any of his scenes either. I was stuck at my cousins' house for my filming day was forced to shoot scenes that were trash in comparison to what I wanted to film. I was forced to improvise shots so that they didn’t reveal my true setting, which played a large role in my story. With everything gone wrong considered,...

      This blog will be split into two days, the day of the films and the day after. I completed this blog this way because it allowed me to compare how I felt things were going on the day of and what I truly thought them to be the day after. With that in mind, we begin this blog on Sunday, March 7th, 2021. Unfortunately, the matriarch of my household was hospitalized this weekend and the patriarch decided to never leave her side, spending the days and nights at the hospital with her. Because of this, the house that filming would’ve taken place was left with no parents, which meant we couldn’t film there. Therefore, I improvised a plan to film at my cousin's house and edit the background to make it similar to my house. My mother, who was the head of the safety team for this film head decided that the safest option for all parties involved would be to spend the whole weekend at our cousins and film as much as we can. With that, I spent Friday and Saturday night at my cousi...

      There was a combination of reasons as to why I haven't started filming as of the date of this blog (March 4th). From the least complicated to the most complicated, I would list my reasons as date, time, and preparation. Date: I didn't plan on filming until March 7th as stated in my schedule blog. Time: My schedule for activities that take place after school is set up in a way that accommodates the activities that I complete now so suddenly adding another activity would throw me out of balance. Preparation: There is a lot that goes into making sure that everything and everyone is ready, but personally I deal with my own struggles mentally when it comes to stress-inducing work. In a way,  am a perfectionist, so when it comes to filming, I prefer to have everything done correctly rather than done in general. This causes me to reshoot many scenes and alter the smallest of deletes which when spread out over weeks of filming can become extremely stressful. With that ...

I found it extremely difficult to draw for so many scenes. The sheer amount of storyboarding was a bit overwhelming. But with the right push from my teachers and the realization that it could've been way worse, I completed this assignment. I feel like I should've entered in more scenes but due to my time limit of 2 mins, I knew that I had to limit my scenes to what will b able to fit in the opening. I hope that that isn't the same for filming and that my opening is over 2 min when filming. 

Working Title:  STAND YOUR GROUND The opening titles of my film will appear in a digital font at size 17 for the titles and 14 for the names. Titles will be bolded but not fully capitalized with a few exclusions. Names will be written in black font with last names in purple font.  Titles will be faded in and out from the bottom left quarter of the screen. Titles will be present for 2-3 seconds before fading away.  A few of my credits will take place in the setting. --- First 2 Title Cards Smithsonian Studios Shattered Productions --- Next Title Cards: Tamara Smith Darryl Smith Thomas Smith Jalil Bivens STAND YOUR GROUND Music By: Infraction Costume Designer: Thomas Smith Edited By: Thomas Smith --- Final 4 title cards Producer: Thomas Smith Story By: Thomas Smith Written By: Thomas Smith Directed By : Thomas Smith

- What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? During the opening sequences, the only three titles shown are the Blumhouse productions, Universal Studios, and Ma title card. These are the studio, production company, and title, which is standard in every film to be shown in the opening scene. But what is unique to certain genres including the thriller genre is the lack of credits that appear in the opening sequence. This film follows this formula by only showing the title along with the film and production companies and nothing after. - What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? The images prioritized in the opening sequence are the setting, the characters, and the ones overlaid music. From the very beginning of the film with the first two scenes, you can tell that the town that our actors are in, is very rural and undeveloped. The sky isn't too saturated and the grass isn't too green. All f the houses are painted similarly and because it's fall going in...

- What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? The titles displayed in the opening sequence are the studio title, the production companies, and the movie title. These are Universal, Blumhouse, Platinum Dunes, and The First Purge respectively. Like Ma, these are the only titles displayed in the opening sequence, meaning that the actors, producers, directors, etc aren't shown until the end credits. The font of the title is extremely and colored with the colors of a moving USA flag, red white, and blue.  - What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? The First Purge has a relatively long opening sequence, therefore there are many images prioritized. Going in chronological viewing order, the first image prioritized as the scar of one of the movie's antagonist. The second image is the face of another one of the movie's antagonist. The third image prioritized is unemployment rates on the news. The fourth image is the stock markets going down by large percents. ...

- What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? Similarly to Ma, the title sequence is very short and only shows three titles. These are the production companies and the title card. The companies that worked on this movie are Blum House, Intrepid Pictures, and Hush. The font used for the title is a black, bolded version of Verdana. The title appears with no transition and disappears with a three-second fade.  This is the fourth and final appearance of Blum House as a production company for thriller and horror films, they have truly become a staple in the film industry especially since Get Out. Due to Netflix being the studio and the movie only airing on Netflix services, there was no need to include it as the studio in the title. - What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? The images prioritized in the opening sequence are the dense woods, a car in front of a nice-sized home, food being cooked (specifically the noise created by cooking), the main character, an...

- What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? The first few titles displayed in the opening sequence are the studio title, the production companies, and the movie title. These are Universal, Blumhouse, QC Entertainment, and Get Out respectively. The studio and production companies title appear in a light blue, thin font (most likely Arial), and only appear on the screen for 3 seconds. An additional production company (Monkeypaw Productions) appears but it's only on the screen for 1 second. The final title to appear before the title of the movie is the title card for the creator of the film, Jordan Peele. All titles are introduced and taken off-screen with a fade lasting one second. The title of the film is shown and it appears abruptly on-screen with no transition. Its font is bolded, it stays on screen for 5 seconds, and disappears with no transition. After the title disappears, the names of the actors appear in the same format as the studio titles. Following the actor...

 Opening Sequence Script Dialogue and Sound ONLY by scene Scene 1 - No Dialogue. - Lighting: Naturally light by sunlight.  Scene 2 - Mom: "THHHOOOMMMAAASS!" - Lighting: Bright light. Scene 3 - Incidental Music: The tv playing in the background. - Thomas (Thinking in his head so Voice Over):  "I just gonna pretend like i didn't hear her." - Lighting: Dim light . Scene 4 - Mom (To Dad): "I know this boy hears me." - Dad (To Mom): "Maybe the kid is sleep, give him a break, he's been busy all week." - Mom( To Dad):"That doesn't give him an reason to ignore me. THHHOOOMMAAS!" - Lighting: Bright light.  Scene 5 - Thomas: "UUGGGH, I'M COMING!" - Lighting: Dim light.  Scene 6 - No  Dialogue. - Lighting: Bright light.   Scene 7  - Thomas(Thinking in his head so Voice Over): "Do I want a snack? Nahhh I'll be fine." - Lighting: Bright light.   Scene 8 - Mom (To Thomas): "Your dad and I are leaving the h...