AICE Media Studies

  How does your short film represent social groups or issues? I would not consider addicts to be a social group or marginalized community, but people in addiction and recovery are all over. There is a massive stigma surrounding addiction, and that is an issue. In my short film, I challenge that stigma. When I began writing my script, I wanted my actor playing Jim to be a little older, as I had a preconceived notion that a majority of the people who suffer from addiction would be older, but this turned out to be wrong. I utilized “Addictioncenter.com” to do my research, and it was there that I discovered that people in their early to mid-twenties are the most likely age to suffer from alcoholism. Upon realizing this, I cast my younger brother to play Jim, and although he is physically 13, his youthful look represents the issue that is alcoholism in young people. A lot of people don’t see the younger side of addiction, but it is a very real issue. Another issue I challenge is the sti...

 https://alexrosenblum201.wixsite.com/my-site

 While filming, I had to make a lot of changes. When I wrote the script, I now know I didn't account for a lot. My biggest issue was that I didn't write enough to fill the time, and didn't want to do too little. I added whole scenes into the script mid-production and mostly improvised. Admittedly, I am proud of my quick thinking but I'm not happy it had to be so last minute. I added three big scenes and took one short one out. I also had to change loads of lines. My family wasn't great with lines. Lots of them were similar to what I had scripted, but very few were word for word. That isn't an issue in my eyes, but it is something I wanted to make known. Editing this project was a doozy. I liked using larger shots in terms of length, instead of a ton of short shots. There are a couple of shorter shots but those were easy to edit. In particular, I had trouble with the title cards. I ended up having to leave it in, but there is this weird scroll on almost all of my...

 Today, I worked on the titles for my short film. I began with brainstorming, where I came down to two ideas. The first was to use poker chips. I would use pictures of a poker table from the internet and affix our names and position to each chip. SO I followed through with the plan and I had one issue. It was only about 20 seconds of time because there were so many poker chips on the table. Combined with my actual footage, it stood in at about 4:20, which wasn't quite enough. I stretched it out a little, and did some creative reworking, but it never worked. So, I began with my other idea: use cards. I went online and picked a bunch of cards, trying to keep their visuals similar but not from the same deck. I used various decks to symbolize how frequently and widespread Jim's gambling issue was. He was gambling all over, and I wanted to show this from the very start, as I can't bring my 13-year-old brother into a casino. So I began: I use a handful of cards. For my studio, I ...

 To make this movie work, I had to utilize some help from those in my life closest to me: My mom and my brother. I am very close with both of these people, so filming with them was challenging in the best way possible. It was a nonstop stream of laughter and new memories. This came at the detriment of taking 30 minutes to shoot a 45-second scene. This is one example of how having fun can be a party pooper. Another massive issue was my access to shooting locations. I had to shoot this film around my house. People live in my house. That being said, this was really annoying. There was also the issue of my dog. She adores my mom and hardly leaves her side. My mom played one of the two main characters and I had no intention of the therapist having a dog. I had to chase the dog around the house a bunch, had to put her outside for a few minutes, then she started barking so I had to let her in. It was a dog-day afternoon for sure. I had a lot of fun filming this year. It was really nice to...

  At this point, all I have left of this project to do is edit. I am at another fork (4-pronged to be specific), as I was with my postcard software. I did some research and found four possible software: iMovie, PowerDirector, DaVinci Resolve, and Vimeo Create. I had to focus and weigh the pros and cons of making movies with iMovie, Davinci Resolve, Vimeo Create, and PowerDirector. Vimeo Create: Pros: Vimeo Create is simple to use. It provides a large selection of templates and presets to pick from. Editing seems really straightforward, with tools for stuff like chopping, dividing, incorporating audio and visual effects, and modifying color. Cons: It lacks a lot of customization, such as the capacity to design unique transitions and effects. A lot of people say that upload speeds are so slow, they can take DAYS. The free edition offers few features. If I Don't pay, I need to have a watermark in the middle. PowerDirector:  Pros: PowerDirector seems easy to use going by online re...

 As decided in my last blog, I will be using Canva to design my flyer. I found canva to be incredibly easy to use. The interface is the perfect amount of drag and drops to please me. They also have some great pre-made templates. I found one that I liked through their template search, where I looked up a movie coming soon and used what I found there. I found that Canva had hundreds of thousands if not millions of options to choose from. This actually proved to be challenging, because, with the other sites, I didn't have enough. With canva, I had way too much to choose from. This turned a 15-minute design process into a 90-minute internal back and forth. I decided to color the background black, which would contrast the white and yellow/gold text I would use. The font selection provided me with hundreds of fonts to choose from. I use four fonts in my poster: Raleway, Raleway Heavy, Canva Sans, and Mr. Dafoe. As for the colors, I had the option to go with something they call "Docu...

 My phone camera was acting up when I woke up to shoot my first scene. It was completely black. Nothing I attempted, including rebooting my phone, deleting the cache, and even resetting it to factory defaults, seemed to work. I had to take it to the Apple Store to get it fixed as a result. It was estimated that there would be a wait of more than an hour when I got to the store because there was a huge queue of customers waiting to have their phones mended. In order to avoid having to wait too long, I chose to schedule an appointment for the following day. I went to the store the following day for my appointment, and an Apple person helped me straight away. They took my phone for some tests, and the results showed that the camera was broken and needed to be replaced. However, I had to wait for a new phone to come in for four days because they didn't have any cameras in stock.  I couldn't make any progress in my film for four days, which made me realize how much I relied on...

 Today, I began working on my postcard for the short film. I put in about 30 minutes worth of research to find my poster-making site. I narrowed it down to three different sites: Adobe, Canva, and Vista, through the Vistaprint service. I liked Adobe a lot, but I found its interface challenging. It seems to be that their software is familiar to users who might have other Adobe experience but isn't good for newcomers. I also didn't like that I would be required to download fonts when writing, as it added an unnecessary chore to designing my flyer. Vista was a lot better regarding user-friendliness, but it was very limited. There was a lot on there that I liked, but there was very little to choose from in terms of customization. Regarding fonts, I faced the same issue as with Adobe. The fonts I had to choose from were very limited, and the added chore of downloading fonts didn't do me any good. My biggest issue remained to be the limited design features.  Canva came to be my f...

 I had to redo my website today. This was incredibly frustrating. After remaking my website once already, I had to do it again. This is the third website I have made for this project. I am coming to my wit's end with this portion of the assignment but prevailed nonetheless. For this website, I used the Movie Coming Soon template. I like this template a lot more. It's a smaller layout and isn't as all-consuming or enveloping as the portfolio one. This template is a short page with 5 buttons: Information, Cast and Crew, Story, Home, and Contact Information. Home Page: The home page is the first page that visitors will see when they visit the website. It includes a header with the website's name, and a menu bar with links to the other pages of the website. Cast and Crew: Under the cast and crew section, I highlight the three people who worked on my short film: My brother Andrew, my mom Jennifer, and myself, Alex Rosenblum. I am credited with writing, directing, executive p...

 Today, I will finish my website. Yesterday, I started with Wix. It was today that I faced my first problem: a custom domain. Wix says they're free, but they have a lot of hidden fees. I wanted my domain to be AlexRosenblumProductions.com, but this was unavailable. Instead, I had to go with a website that was my username. I was a little upset, and admittedly this gave me a little hang-up. I actually tried remaking the website on another site that claimed to be free, but produced the same prompt when I tried to set a custom domain. This proved to be an incredible waste of time. It took 6 full hours to make the website on wix. Seeing as I was familiar with the very very basics of designing the websites, I was able to remake it in another 4. I would have been far better off if I didn't waste 10 hours doing this part of my project when It only really took six to finish. I'm 99% done with the website at this point. All I need to do is attach my short film. As soon as I finish it...

 In order to properly market my short film, I need to design a website. After doing some research and watching a couple videos on youtube, I settled on using wix. I was able to complete half of my website today. I started out with my foundation, which Wix was very helpful with. They provide users with a handful of themes and templates to choose from, which knocked off a lot of the starting work. I chose a portfolio template, with the only entry being my short film. It allows me to create a production company and set it up for potential future projects. This leaves me open to making changes if I choose to make more films. I created a fictional production company called "Alex Rosenblum Productions". The main entry on the website is my short film. If you scroll down, you find my portfolio. The only thing in the portfolio is my short film. Wix was amazing to work with, and in a short time, I was able to finish half of my website. I was able to configure all of the basics today, a...

Working on this short film has taught me to be prepared for the unexpected. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the misery I was about to experience on the day of our park shoot. I went out to shoot a scene in a park on a gorgeous day with the sun shining brightly. I had assumed that we would have plenty of time to travel to the destination, but I had not anticipated how awful the traffic may be on this particular day. My heart sank as I realized that we would be significantly delayed as we sat in bumper-to-bumper gridlock. We had an hour and a half to set up, get the actors ready, and shoot the sequence, plus 30 minutes for traffic. We finally made it to the destination after what seemed like a lifetime. Despite the setback, we were still able to resume our plans and complete the shoot on schedule. In fact, the delay gave us the chance to reevaluate some of our images and develop fresh, original concepts that improved the final product. on this day, we shot the ...

 As indicated by differences in my pre-script blogs, there were some changes made in my script. One big thing I failed to notice was that it is hard to access a casino. Most casinos don't allow filming on their casino floors. I am only 17 and in my state, Florida, one must be 21 to play casino games, much less enter the casino. This caused me to need some rewrites. I kept the recovery concept in the script, but changed it away from alcohol. I realized that portraying alcohol on screen without the ability to blatantly show bottles with labels was rather hard. I removed the alcoholism part of the story so I had a recovering gambling addict who reverted back to his old habits in order to pick up the pieces. I also used more therapy as a means of moving the story, which was inspired by the way "The Sopranos" uses Dr. Melfi to advance the story. I also thought that using Gambler's Anonymous would be interesting, even though Jim is the only one who speaks at it. I think tha...

  Plan for shooting the script: Locations: Therapist's office (My kitchen) Jim's apartment (my room) AA meeting (My garage) Everything in this short film will be shot indoors, eliminating a lot of the risks associated with filming outdoors INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY: Shot during the day. Specific date not mentioned. INT. JIM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT: Shot during the night. Specific date not mentioned. INT. AA MEETING - NIGHT: Shot during the night. Specific date not mentioned. INT. JIM'S APARTMENT - DAY: Shot during the day. Specific date not mentioned. INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY: Shot during the day. Specific date not mentioned. Costuming:     Jim should be wearing casual clothes, jeans and a T-shirt or buttondown, boots or running shoes, nothing too special Linda should be dressed slightly more professionally. My thinking is closer to Dr. Melfi from "The Sopranos". I see Linda wearing a grey or black pantsuit with a white button-down and maybe the t...

  INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY We open on a close-up of JIM, a disheveled, middle-aged man with bloodshot eyes and a heavy five-o'clock shadow. He sits in a plush chair in the office of his therapist, DR. LINDA WELLS, staring blankly ahead. Linda sits across from him, notebook in hand. LINDA: So, Jim. It's been three weeks since our last session. How have things been going? JIM: (sighs heavily) Not great, Linda. I thought I was getting better, but I'm starting to realize I'm still pretty messed up. Linda nods sympathetically. LINDA: It's okay, Jim. Recovery is a process, and it's normal to have setbacks. What's been going on? JIM: Well... I started gambling again. Linda's eyebrows raise in concern. LINDA: Illegally? JIM: Yeah. I owed some money to some... not-great people. And I thought I could win it back. But I lost everything. My savings, my job... everything. Linda leans forward in her chair. LINDA: That's a really tough situation...

 a. Common Sound in your genre The quiet soundtracking in the back was a good touch. I feel as though it made the awkward last goodbye good. It made it clear that neither character really wanted what was happening to happen. It casts a little playful doubt on the character's feelings, which makes a nice dynamic. b. Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS) in your genre I thought the costuming of the characters was befitting to their characters: The guy, who was a little more reserved was covered in clothing, showing little skin. The girl, who clearly is a little more outgoing and expressive was wearing a crop top, which shows she is freer than he is. c. Common Editing in your genre In th very beginning, there was this zoom-in as the main character was fidgeting with her knees and clothing. I thought this set the course of the events well, as made for just a cool visual. I really also enjoyed the subtitling. The subtitles didn't reflect a single word stated in the short, but seems to fit wh...

 a. Common Sound in your genre This short was scored by a very annoying few songs. I must say though, the soundtrack was very befitting of the nature and meet-cute concept of the story. I also liked that the soundtrack/score wasn't all-enveloping and that I could hear diegetic sounds of the office building's everyday happenings. b. Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS) in your genre I liked the man's first suit. I happen to like the colors the director used on both, as it represented their character. I also like how clearly Wes Anderson-inspired this was. The symmetry was on point, and the development of the characters was similar plot-wise to Wes Anderson's. c. Common Editing in your genre This was very full of jump cuts, as it made the moments look "at-a-glance", which made the film actually feel more immersive. It very well framed the romance between the two coworkers. There were also a couple really cool pans I saw that I liked. d. Example films of your genre Hotel...

a. Common Sound in your genre Diegetic sound- the best thing about this short film is that I was immersed in it. The sounds of the pianist in the lobby, the phone ringing, and the shower pitter-pattering, it made for a great experience. When Natalie Portman's character turned the glass with the bug in it, opened the suitcase, and grabbed the toothbrush out of the cup, they made their respective rubbing, clunking, and clinking noises. b. Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS) in your genre Jack's costume changes from pajamas which were not befitting of the time period to a suit. The woman moves opposite to him, starting off in more formal wear and digressing to a non-time-befitting set of pajamas, the same as Jack wore in the beginning c. Common Editing in your genre My favorite thing ever about Wes Anderson is his focus on symmetry. It seems so annoying and repetitive to get right, but it looks incredible and makes for a great viewing experience. d. Example films of your genre Hotel Desi...

a. Common Sound in your genre This animation was scored with a dark and heavy violin. The somber aesthetic of the music helps to illustrate the woman's inner conflict, as she is torn between her husband and lover. The dietetic sounds of rain also help to frame her sadness and fit it into a box of the convention: rain=sad. b. Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS) in your genre As this was an animated short, none of the traditional mis-en-scene will have the same conventional application it would with real live actors. The biggest thing for me is the way that the artist played with light. They created a very somber and dark world made of shades of black, white, and grey, which I haven't seen the likes or beauty of since I went on a 1920's movie binge. c. Common Editing in your genre The editing in this short was mostly comprised of cutaways/flashbacks to when the woman was with her lover. There were also a lot of Closeups, which showed the tension in the short. The woman's inner c...