AICE Media Studies

 After getting back all the footage from the refilm it was time to reedit. This would be difficult as I have to make the new scenes flow with the old ones. I first started by reviewing all of the footage, new and old. I wanted to see what would fit in well. I then laid out the scenes on the timeline, replacing or extending the existing sequences as required. The biggest bit of feedback was to get better pacing for the film. This was difficult to juggle with the time limit being so low on the film. I tested out different cuts and adjusted to help make everything flow smoother and make more sense narratively. I continually watched back the film as if I was the audience to see if everything looked good and made sense together. Another very difficult part of this process was getting the old scenes to look the same as the new scenes. With them being filmed on separate days and times there was a visual difference in light and color. To fix this issue I spent time color grading the footage to

While in the planning of this film several ideas came up. After several hours of bouncing ideas off my group I picked one. I wanted to film inside somewhere abandoned. Now, finding an abandoned place to film isn't simple. I started doing research. Several website came up in this search. The one I started on was abandonedfl.com. It had a variety of places to pick from. I showed my team and we went over the options together. A couple of the places listed piqued our interest. After doing further research on one place we liked a lot, an abandoned theater, it turned out to have already been torn down. As I continued to look through the website the same issue seemed to be shown on the rest of the places. Another place on the website did look interesting as it was an abandoned missile silo. Although, after doing additional research it seemed to be fairly dangerous and very illegal. The next place I searched was reddit. There were several posts about abandoned places but not many details a

After being told what to change, I planned to refilm with my group. The first issue to address was making the scene transitions smoother. This would give it a more cohesive narrative flow . I started with the opening scene, reshooting it to include bett er introductions for each character, to provide context. During filming, I paid attention to the lighting and camera angles, to match the suspenseful feeling. Next, I changed the ice rink scene. This time, I added dialogue that explained why the characters wanted to split up for a natural flow that felt less forced and made more sense to the plot. I also decided to reshoot scenes that we re rushed, giving more time for the storyline to develop more naturally. I w as careful to keep the camera steady and to avoid unnecessary movements that could distract from the narrative . When I w as doing the chase scene, I decided to add more suspenseful elements, reshooting it with different angles and pacing to build up tension. I

After finishing our film, I decided the best way to get some feedback was to simply send the video to a few friends. I wasn't looking for anything professional, just honest opinions that could help us make the film better. So, I uploaded the video to a private link and texted it to them, asking for their thoughts. The first reply came back quicker than I expected. My first friend, thought the suspenseful music we picked really set the tone right from the start. But, he also said that some of the transitions between scenes were a bit abrupt, making it hard to follow the story at times. Then, my next friend responded, saying she loved the creativity of using fake blood for the titles and thought it was super cool how we incorporated it into the film. However, she mentioned that the scene where everyone splits up at the ice rink could use more explanation, as it felt a bit sudden. Another friend, said he thought the film was pretty good but suggested we could have used the retro camco

 Before I wanted to make any decisions on what needed to be changed I need to pick out music first. In anticipation of this I went and researched. I looked at many other opening titles and what music they had. It varied based on the genre and most music in the genre of thriller had suspenseful music. With this in mind I had a basis of what I wanted the background music to sound like. At first I went through my Spotify playlist to see if anything would match well. I ended up finding 3 or 4 songs that I really liked and thought would fit in. Afterwards though, I realized all of these options weren't copyright free. I went to my teacher to ask if I could still use them. She answered that I needed to get permission from whoever owned the rights to the song first. This would take far too long as I need to finish this video in around a month. Now I was back to square one. After asking around one of my friends offered to write and play a song for my group to use. This sounded perfect as I

Before I could begin editing there were several things I needed to do. To start, I needed to decide which software to use. Last project I used Capcut but this project may take more heavy duty editing than something done by a free software. The first choice I looked at was Filmora. Filmora had several factors I enjoyed like its color grading and audio editing. Another software I looked at was Adobe. Adobe had a lot less features than Filmora and even Capcut so I decided against using it. In the end the choice came down to Captcut and Filmora. Filmora ended up being the best option for me as I had many bold ideas for how the editing would look. Now that I had my editing software I had to get all the videos from when we filmed. First, I uploaded all of the videos that I took on my IPhone to my computer. Then, I connected my retro camcorder to my PC and added those files into a folder as well. Finally, I had to message everyone who showed up to help with filming to get various shots as we

Before going to film there were several things that needed to happen before we could go. First, we needed to bring supplies and proper clothing. This includes flashlights, cameras, and dark clothing. Once all of these were gathered we set a date and asked to see who could go. Two members of our original group, Gabe and Ayannah, and a few of my friends, had to cancel as the plans did not work for them. With the group lowering in size we had to make a few adjustments to our original script. After these changes were made we were ready for filming. On Saturday everyone arrived at the rink and we headed over to begin. The first thing we did was write our names in various locations out of fake blood for titles. We then went around and used a retro camcorder to take pictures of each of our names to incorporate them into the film. Next, we began filming the opening scene. This consisted of our group walking up towards the ice rink and making commentary in order to give some context of where we