AICE Media Studies

  Critical Reflection- Link • How do your products represent social groups or issues? Thriller films have consistently perpetuated the social issue of gender inequality, and continues to portray women as the helpless victims in need of rescue. By normalizing these types of plots, films fail to accurately represent women and contribute to gendered power dynamics. However, our short film challenges gender inequality by setting a female as the protagonist. Our plot follows two assassins, a male and female, sent to eliminate each other. Our product evens out the ground between the female and male character by giving them the same role. We depict her as being capable, as she figures out the ways the male assassin (Kyle Nelson) tries to deceive her. She is also portrayed asserting her dominance several times in the film, most notably by killing the male assassin in the end. Contrary to typical narratives, our film sets a woman as taking on the role of a n aggressor and ultimately asserti...

  Thank you all for staying tuned during process, I hope you guys enjoyer hard work! Website:  Website Link                               Postcard:  Postcard Link .                                                                               Movie:  Movie Link I loved our group's final product and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do!

  Hi again! Although it has not been a while since i’ve last updated everyone, we have made a lot of progress over the last 24 hours. Above, you can see a picture of the front page of our website! As you can see, I chose a red background since it would match the color theme of our short film. I just big text in order to emphasize the message. I also chose the white font to contrast the red background. Since wix didn’t allow me to use “maneater” as the website name, I had to think of alternatives. So, I came up with maneateronline since it allowed this name. Additionally, i created a separate tab that tells viewers about the cast and the crew. I had to insert pictures of all of us, and match the description accordingly. I also chose to add a picture of Noah, even though he isn’t in our group. However I found it fitting since he is the male lead character. I still need to add some more features to the website, including awards. I also have to double check that the links to our social...

Hi blog! We had a VERY productive last couple of days working on our film. Due to complications, Lauren and her boyfriend ended up being the stars of the film. Sebastian, who was supposed to be the lead male actor, had to cancel several times due to his busy schedule. So, we decided that we did not have enough time to figure things out with him. Instead, we asked Noah if he would be okay with filming with Lauren, and he agreed! So while Lauren and Noah were filming, we split the rest of the short film package among the rest of the group. I began progress on setting up the website. Let me just say, I did not like working with the platform to create the website, wix. Maybe it was just my computer, but every so often the website would lag and, me being very impatient, I would get very frustrated. However, I did the most with what I could. I inserted pictures of all of us into a "Meet the Team" section, and created a main page for the film. I decided to go with a red theme, since...

  Hi Blog! Since today was an A day, I met up with my group during first period and we talked about filming again. Unfortunately, Lauren was absent so she didn't get to take part in the conversation. However, we definitely made sure to fill her in after. Savannah showed us all the props she ordered, and we went over ideas on how to incorporate the props in filming. We are also trying to figure out a day to film next week. We are almost sure it will be Thursday, but we have a small conflict. Since our main lead character, my boyfriend, is part of the project, his schedule is a bit conflicting. He had communicated to me that he has no school on Wednesday, and that he would prefer us to start filming then. I wanted to keep Wednesday open in case I had dance practice scheduled for this day. Additionally, Savannah had a potential conflict on Wednesday as she may be getting tickets for a concert. Of course, I would prioritize fi...

As you can tell from the title, today was a very off day for me. Lately, I have been feeling very overwhelmed with work. This is also in part why I haven't been able to focus so much on creating the short movie. Today was a B-day, which means I have all my difficult classes in one day. To put it into perspective,I begin my day with AP Calculus AB and end my day with AP U.S History. I have been struggling a lot academically. This might stem from all the school days I have missed due to debate tournaments. Nonetheless, this has added so much stress. I recently failed my last AP Calculus test, and we are REALLY behind in my history class. Our AP exam is in two months, and we have not even reached the civil war yet. Somehow, we are supposed to get all the way through Obama's election? And typically, I am used to getting good grades. I have always been a straight A student, which the exception of math. But this year it has really been getting...

  Hi again! Long time no see! Joking, I posted yesterday. Anyways, there is some more news today. During first period, our group was able to meet and discuss our project. Since we all share the same period, we grouped ourselves together and gave updates. Most notable was Savannah, who told us she had purchased most of the props for our short film. This included several fake knifes and fake blood! We are all so excited to use these props since they are going to set us apart from other groups. The fake knives are essentially to be given to the lead actors, since they are plotting to eliminate each other. The fake blood will most likely be used in the fight scene to create more thrill to the movie. The only concern I have is that I am hoping the fake blood won’t stain my furniture. Since I don’t know the material, I am hoping it doesn’t stain my clothes or skin either. Additionally, Savannah and I further discussed our schedule for filming. Originally we had thought that next Tuesday ...

Hello again! I know that in my last couple of blogs I have been ranting about our busy tournament schedule. Well, nothing has changed. However, I did receive some very unexpected news today. It would be an understatement to say that today has been an emotional rollercoaster. If you recall last night, I was competing last weekend at our district's national qualifier tournament. I broke to finals and was placed as the second alternate after the three qualifiers and first alternate. Similarly, at our district's state qualifier, I also placed as second alternate. But as I was walking home from my bus stop this afternoon, I suddenly got a notification from my debate coach. I read it and I went int shock; someone had dropped the State tournament and a slot had opened for me. I immediately told my parents and called all of my friends! Everyone was very happy, and I was over the moon. This win helped me feel a lot better from the terrible school day I had. I had an AP Calculus te...

Although it has only been a day, some things never change. I finally got home after a long day of competing. From my last blog, I gave an update that I was competing at the national qualifier tournament. I ended up breaking to finals! It was a very thrilling moment as I worked very hard to be where I was. At the awards ceremony, I was sitting very anxiously as they announced the results, and ultimately the top three qualifiers for nationals. Although I did not make top 3, I did achieve fifth place. Achieving fifth means that I am instead the second alternate. So, if two people from the top three were to not make it to nationals, their spot would be replaced with me. Alternatively, if one person from the top three cannot make it, and the first alternate cannot either, then I could take over. I was slightly disappointed that I did not qualify, I am not going to lie. However, this was my first year competing in Original Oratory, so I am grateful for all of the success I have had leading u...

Hi blog! I’m back, and well not surprisingly, I’m competing in another tournament this weekend. This is probably one of the most important tournaments on the year, the national qualifier. The competitors who place top three qualify for the National Speech and Debate Tournament in June. Needless to say, I have had a very tiring day. I have been competing since ten in the morning and left the tournament today almost at six in the afternoon. I still have one more round left for prelims, and after, I find out if I move on to finals. This entire month has been back to back tournaments every weekend, so I am relieved to finally take a break next week. Since Brianna has also been competing in debate tournaments as well, we have not had much time to plan things out with our group. We usually spend the entire day competing. By the time I had arrived home, it had been twelve hours since I had left this morning. By the time we get back, we are exhausted. Knowing this, we decided to plan our filmi...

  Hello Blog! It has been a while, but I am finally back. This month has been like a rollercoaster, which might be an understatement. I have had debate tournaments almost every weekend. About three weeks ago, I had a debate tournament at Emory University. I ended up breaking to quarter finals! I had to miss a couple days of school, which affected my grades. I was able to pick up my grades, but the next tournament at Harvard University this weekend set me back again. It was a great competition though. I broke to double octofinals, but at the same time I was a bit disappointed that I did not pass to octofinals. Regardless, the whether was VERY cold. Since I am from Florida, this was not something I was quite used to. Getting across campus in thirty degree whether was not very pleasant. However, the University itself was really beautiful and I am glad I got to experience visiting this University in Boston. I also got to spend my birthday during the debate trip. My friends all surprise...

Hi blog! I cannot believe that tomorrow is already THE Harvard Speech and Debate Tournament. I am specifically very excited for this tournament since it falls on my birthday! But that aside, I have been prepping for a while for this competition. It is my very last chance to get a bid to TOC. What is that you ask? In order to compete at the Tournament of Champions, one must have 2 bids, or "invitations." These bids can be obtained by doing well at national circuit tournaments and breaking to elimination rounds. I got my first bid at Sunvite last month, when I broke to finals. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for a second bid at Emory because I broke to Quarterfinals. Due to the amount of entries, I needed to break to Semifinals in order to get the bid. So, this has motivated me a lot in preparation for Harvard. Since Harvard has 350 entries so far, I would need to get to Quarterfinals in order to qualify. Which is much easier said than done bec...

  After a lot of hard work and details with figuring out exact plot for our movie, here is our storyboard. ;) scene 1: establishing shot of a house scene 2: girl making breakfast when she gets a call scene 3:  she picks up the phone and knows who it is immediately  scene 4: guy walking to his house gets a call scene 5:  he picks it up and immediately knows who it is scene 6: both the boy and girl realizing they have a new task to complete scene 7: girl runs to her computer to search up the name she was given scene 8: she cant find anything scene 9:  she closes the computer scene 10: guy searches up the name he was given on facebook scene 11: he finds her immediately and finds out she lives in the same neighborhood as him scene 12: the next day the girl is getting ready for work when she hears a knock on the door scene 13: she goes downstairs to open the door but she sees a knife on the counter by the door, she puts it away. scene 14: she looks through the peep h...

  Hey blogger, welcome back! As it is getting closer to the filming period, we need to start planning.  • Schedule We will meet in person every 2 weeks to film. As we are in class we will see each every other day to discuss our plans. • Location We all live in different areas so we chose somewhere we all know we can go to. We will film in Sawgrass Mills Mall. We will find a designated drop-off area for all of us to go to. For the alleyway scenes, we will go to one of our houses and use the back alleyway to record.  • Participants As for participants, it will just be our group and 1 other guy who plays the lead role in the film. That guy will be a friend of Isa's who agreed to be a part of our production.  • Health and Safety The mall is a pretty public place and we all know to stick together when working so no one gets lost. we are all going to be dropped off by our parents at the location of the recording which will be discussed soon. Once we are all togethe...

  The short film Unleaded begins with a black screen, typical from a thriller short. The audience is only given the sound of what is revealed to be a person filling up gas at a station. A woman is shown to be sitting in her car as she looks inside the gas station. She then is shown to be watching two people robbing the gas station inside, one pointing a gun at the cashier and the other holding him down. Another car pulls into the gas station and the women watches the car very closely. What is going on in the car is then revealed. There are two men in the front and a third in the back. The two look to the back and at the third guy as he objects to going inside the gas station. It is not known if they are aware of what is going on inside, but the man who was objecting in car ends up going in, putting on a gray hoodie, and walks right past the robbers. The robbers notice and one sneaks up from behind the guy in the grey hoodie and points a gun from the back of his head telling him to ...

  The short film Oracle first begins with a black screen, only letting viewers hear the noise of, what is revealed seconds later, a carpenter machine. I think this had an eerie effect, which is typical of a thriller, as it gave the viewers a bit of information, but held back the rest. The short then moves on to showing several children, one sitting in the snow, another eating a plant, with a child playing in the snow in the background. What I have noticed in the first minute of the movie is the lack of background noise, which also adds to the eerie effect of the short. By choosing to omit the music, viewers like myself pay full attention to what is going on. This actually almost feels unsettling. The short then moves on to showing a boy go up the stairs, while the noise of the carpenter machine plays in the background. However, the noise is now distorted, which really made me anxious as to what is going on. The boy seems to look at the door, as the distorted noise grows more intens...

  In this film it begins with flashbacks of this women when her husband was alive to the present after his passing. This is a common thing used in thrillers as it shows important events in the storyline and increases thrill or suspense. Next in this film, they incorporated the sound of the intruders scheming to break in and rummaging through things. A tracking shot is used to show the women going to her window to see what the sound was. Once she hears more, they used a close-up to see her peaking through the window once again. Multiple times midway through this film the camera cuts from the women on the phone with 911 to her baby crying. This is commonly used in thrillers to show multiple things going on. It also creates lots of activity. A lot of over the shoulder shots are used. It shows the door and the women on the phone and the sounds of banging are heard all the while. Extreme closeups are used to show the womens fear as the intruders are continuing to try the door. Yet anoth...

  For further research my group and I decided to watch Amber, an award winning thriller short film made in 2021. In the establishing shot, we noticed that the filter and coloring was very summery and chill. There were also birds chirping in the beginning, making it clear that it was a chill day in the film. There wasn't any talking for the first couple of minutes in the film. In the film, the barber realizes that the guys hair he was cutting was a child abductor that the police were looking for. When we found out and the sound effect of realizing made us know for sure that this was a thriller. In almost all thrillers there are the same sound effects of the sound of  "realization." Then the guy looked out the window and saw the teddy bear the girl he abducted also has. When he saw, there was more scary sound effects. There was also common editing we've seen in other thrillers such as when the barber was cutting the abductors beard, he was getting quick flashbacks to pi...