AICE Media Studies

  Name:  Isabel  Reyes   Creative Critical Reflection 1.       How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?  Our music video uses conventions as p op songs generally make references to money or wealth. Our music video is almost entirely based on the concept of wealth and the materialistic lifestyle. Throughout the video, we flash the audience with expensive objects, like designer stores and jewelry. Another conventions is our use of close-ups, which are frequently utilized in music videos because they make it easier for the viewer to recognize the musician. This is challenged however as the artist of the song is not present in the video. Instead, our close ups are of Hailey, the actress pl aying the material girl. It represents social groups and issues as it challenges the idea of patriarchy in a way. In our video, our material girl is the character with the wealth, and eventually ends up going out with the poor boy. This challen

Through this project, I improved my production abilities in a number of areas. I had no prior knowledge of film or the media at first. However with this being my second project, my I've learned so much that not only am I familiar, but I feel like my understanding has deepened and I've started to make connections. Even while watching TV I now see the different angles and characteristics of the shots and actors. This being my second project, I feel like I have improved and I am excited to share it with the public. 

So this weekend has been really busy and I haven't had much time to do anything. Yesterday, we had my entire family and some of my friends come over to watch the World Cup. They were over since eight in the morning, and we had activity all up until eight at night. Needless to say, I went to bed right after. My group began editing and we are planning to finish tonight. Although I couldn't help out yesterday, I am planning on joining the zoom call tonight in order to finish editing and submit by tonight. Yesterday was a very busy day for me, however I kept up with our group chat to be sure I was up to date on everything. It seems like our group had technical problems because they kept remaking the zoom meetings. Prior to that tho, I was sent to the rest of the takes that were filmed for review. As I was looking at them, a few thoughts ran through my head at first glance. For one, the transitions might be a bit difficult. We need to smoothly transition Hailey spinning in a chair.

 So, today was honestly not very productive at all. I left this morning to go out of town and I am actually typing this blog two hours away from where I usually live. Lately, I have been trying to get all my assignments done and study before all my midterms next week. Needless to say that has been distracting me from focusing on this project. However, I do not want to say I didn't put in the effort. To recap on our last group meeting, all of our schedules were very busy. With me going out of town and everyone worrying about midterms, it has been hard for anyone of us to find spare time. Tomorrow, I am going to my friend's birthday party, however she lives far. So, getting ready and driving to the venue will take up almost all of my day. On Sunday, my family anticipated a barbecue to celebrate the world cup finals. This goes without saying, but my schedule is pretty packed. Because of this, it was very unlikely that we were going to have the time to physically regroup and contin

 So, it turns out that everyone in our group, including myself, have very busy schedules. With a due date of next Monday, we don't have much time to waste. Today, I was able to regroup with my teammates in order to figure out the editing situation. Although we planned what we want to have edited, we still haven't started the process. As we regrouped, we discussed each of our schedules for the weekend. Unfortunately, I would be out of town starting tomorrow. In fact, I am even missing a whole day of school so I wouldn't be able to physically regroup with my team. On Saturday, I will still be out of town and attending my friend's birthday party. I come back Sunday, however my parents are throwing a gathering to all watch the finals for the World Cup, so I most likely will not have time that day to regroup. With midterms coming up, I also need time to study and get all my assignments in before the quarter. Especially with how dance has been taking up so much of my time, I

 So, to recap from yesterday, the plan was to meet today during study hall to sort out our plans for editing. Needless to say, this turned out more difficult than we hoped. Since we all have different study hall periods, it was hard trying to group together. As of now, most of the teachers are hesitant about letting students in who do not belong to that class. This proved to be challenging, and instead we decided on communicating through text to plan out editing from our own study halls. This proved to be helpful, since for the past couple of days, I've been really busy trying to tackle school and dance. There is also the fact that midterms begin next week, which has me a bit stressed out and distracted from this project. With the load from school getting heavier and the demands from dance practice increasing, its been exhausting trying to keep up. However, I am grateful to have this team full of hard workers and people who plan ahead of time. I am the type of person who generally

 So, to recap from my previous blog, our team finally has all the takes we need. All there is left to do is edit and put the pieces together. Because I couldn't make it to filming due to my strained hip, I wanted to contribute more towards the editing process. I didn't want to neglect my team, nor make them feel like they have a heavier load. Therefore, I communicated this to the team and we decided we needed to regroup to work on editing. However, there is a bit of challenge. Everyone else on my team, besides me, has 5th period media studies, while I have 2nd, which makes communication a bit difficult for me. This is also why most of our communication has been over the phone, whether it be through call or text. I've also had a hard time when it comes to putting time into this project. As I mentioned in my intro blog, I struggle with juggling school and dance practices at the same time. Lately, it has been affecting my grades and my motivation. Often times, I get home from

 Unfortunately...things did not go as planned. The original plan was to meet last weekend, December 3rd. However, we were not prepared so we decided to push the filming day back one week. We took this week to plan everything out and finally, we were prepared. All of our amazon orders came in on time. Specifically, the props that were to be used in the video, such as the fake money. We organized with our guy friends an appropriate time to meet at the sawgrass mall, as well as went over the process and attire. Although we mostly planned on using our phones for recording as it had better quality, we rented out a camera and tripod just in case. We were hesitant on using it due to the experience we had with our last project, where we found out the battery life was not ideal. With all this in mind, everything was set for Saturday. Unfortunately, things had taken a turn for me. Last Friday, the day before filming, I had a dance performance scheduled at an event in Miami. At said performance,