AICE Media Studies

My short film and project Alienated represents individuals who feel out of place in their society. Introverted individuals, for example have a hard time approaching others, feeling out of place, and therefore they tend to stick to a smaller friend group. This is precisely the situation of Alienated’s main character Terra. She stays with her one friend Mickey, and him alone, spending the whole film fretting over making friends with new people. Another way it represents characters who feel out of place is through the implication of Terra not being from the planet that the film is set in.  This is, or at least it can be interpreted as, an allegory for immigrants in general. Immigrants anywhere are a social group that often feel out of place in an unfamiliar society, whether it is due to how they look or even their mannerisms. This could cause things such as bullying, insecurity, and isolation, all of which get explored in the film to some degree. These sorts of situations are especial...

 Short film package for Alienated... Website link:  https://nh721715.wixsite.com/alienatedfilm Homepage screenshot: Postcard link: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFdmgIaC-I/oei-l5gdvGkL55Pgt01vbw/edit?utm_content=DAFdmgIaC-I&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton Front of postcard screenshot: Back of postcard screenshot: Short film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6yh3GJ120 Short film embedded: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Q6yh3GJ120" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 I showed the 'finished' film to an audience. At first I couldn't think of anyone. But, then I remembered my voice actors. They already knew I was doing this, so I asked them for reviews as one last favor. Believe it or not they hadn't seen the whole film let alone the whole film. They hadn't needed to until now. I only sent them the snippet of the script of the part they were voicing. Then they were on their way. It took a little bit to get them in their spare time though. I caught one of them during a lunch period during school. The other during a study period, and my last one gave me a text reaction.  All my actors were much more responsive than expected. Much more supportive, they mostly enjoyed it. Two actually remarked that the voice acting did translate rather fuzzy sounding. Nothing incoherent, but also something that's too late to change. So it's more a regret rather than something fixable at this state. One thing that was changeable was the filter....

 I am finishing up the last bit of editing. It's good to be nearly done with the film. There were things I had to sacrifice, however.  To meet the time limit, I had to cut scenes. Well, maybe not entire scenes, but lines of dialogue. It was mostly joke dialogue though. Thankfully the film as a whole still makes sense. They were mostly throw-away lines. Tone wise, the film hasn't changed much either. The funniest scenes I can think of are the black and white dream sequences. Therefore, I am not lacking in ridiculous funny moments. Admittedly, some of these lines were cut because the videos got lost in the sea of downloads and editing and saving. Some of the issues probably come as a result of recording on two separate devices. That or the content got corrupted somehow. At one point I got notified that it happened to every piece of content in the film. That was a scare briefly, when I was in the middle of editing. I closed the app and turned off my device in a panic. I set it do...

  When putting the text over everything, I decided to go with the “prism”. I used it for the title as well as the credits. It was a slight homage to sci-fi. At least I would say so. It kind of fizzles in and out. Some of the text letters are on frame for too little amount of time for effects though. As a result, they can only pop in and out. I did, however, put it in the same spot. And I put the letters that only quickly pop up in the frame within the same area. I did this because I figured if they’re only popping up, it would be overstimulating or distracting to look at.   I actually think the ones popping in and out go maybe too fast. This is a limitation of mine. iMovie allows text, but it’s limited to title text. You can’t have two pieces of text. Well, you can, but not within the same clip. You can have one after another by cutting the one clip up. I did just that. I cut up one clip into several, with no transition. This makes it look like it’s still just the one clip. Wi...

  I already spoke about how I found the music I liked. There was much searching, and I sent myself the files. However, recently, as I went to save it to my phone, there were issues. It was another downloading problem. Like with C’s lines, I couldn’t get it to my phone for a while. I opened the email links, and ran into a problem instantly. Apparently direct downloads aren’t supported by the type of phone that I have, an iPhone. I tried saving it to my phone from the laptop I had, to no avail. The laptop wouldn’t save things for literal ‘unknown reasons’, as the pop-up told me. Email, similarly, wouldn’t work.   At first I thought it was the file format. I tried putting it into a MP3 converter, but any laptop version of it was not working. I tried doing it from my phone by converting a YouTube video link of the music, but any version of a converter on my phone had to be online vs the reliable app that I had. I sifted through some of the online versions but they were all sketchy...

  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in past blogs, but I opted to work in iMovie. I figured I’d elaborate. Currently, filming is over and iMovie is where I’m working. I recorded a few takes of shots for this film on filming day. I wanted to be able to pick and choose. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I am in the process of selecting from these takes. It hasn’t been difficult as much as it is tedious. It helps that I filmed in chronological order. This makes the selecting process faster.   As I select them, I edit the individual clips. I shorten it so there aren’t any awkward pauses.  I also opted to do voice overs for Terra as well. So, I just do Mickey and Terra as I edit the clips that they’re in. I wasn’t planning on dubbing Terra at first. But the audio from the park was fuzzy, so I felt it was necessary. It’s time consuming, but the end product should be better. I will be putting in the voice lines for the other actors when the time comes. I currently have all the lines. ...

  I downloaded the lines for A. They were the easiest to download apart from my own. They were sent to me as a text. Downloading from text conversations is relatively easy. I just press the button and where to save it. For ease of access, I made a specific file to put downloads under. The file is titled “Alienated”, after the film itself, who’s title it always thought was quite cute. This file exists on my phone, it has voice lines and all my background music. I named all the files accordingly. However, when I was downloading Cs lines a while back, they had to be kept as their own file. It’s easy enough to find though. I never elaborated on the setbacks that existed for voice lines, it took a while for my to get all of them together. My first actor sent them almost instantly. The could have been better, but he sounded like Mickey Mouse which I thought was funny, and instant responses are ideal and much appreciated. My second actor took the longest getting back. They were asked arou...

  I finally gathered all voice lines. My voice actress for C had actually done them sooner than expected. There was the inevitable setback though. I had no idea how to download them. I was sent them via office365 but I couldn’t see them. I don’t frequent that application. Therefore, I wasn’t sure where exactly you’d find an audio file. I looked for a while. Eventually I moved on to filming, as per my last blog. I was given a bit of time afterwards though, so I sat down to look through the application.   The files were hidden away from me in Share Point. I was in an area with poor service, so I couldn’t download it to my phone via a laptop. I tried it a number or ways. Not to mention the time I wasted looking for the thing.    I had to do it on my phone by logging in on there, once I was in a different area that is. Doing that worked perfectly. The audio was a little fuzzier than I would like, unfortunately. However, my actors recording was a favor so I won’t be askin...

 Filming itself was completed over the weekend. The whole thing was done it one shot, in order of storyboards. The plushie I used for Mickey had less range of movement than it used to, as it's aged a few years. Because of this, I changed up his posing, deviating from the boards a bit. It did keep falling over though, specifically when I attempted to pose him upright, especially with the wind.  The plushie for A and C fell over more than a few times during the process as well, so I propped them up with water bottles. I did this in a way that isn't visible on camera. A fell down anyway though, so I had to fix that one in particular a lot. We filmed the glitter vomit scene last, as planned. It worked out nicely. I and my camera person also filmed some landscape shots and close ups for additional room to put in credits. This was something I hadn't accounted for the first time I attempted to film, so I'm glad it came to mind this time around. The weather was sunny, which mad...

Back in my research stage, I looked into drama/coming of age films and the common themes in their music. I noticed white noise, maybe some synth. Synth is also commonly included in sci-fi, I have come to find. I thought synthwave would make for a good nod to sci-fi. Sci-fi was one of the genres I was toying with choosing earlier on in this project. I thought it still fit the alien theme, so that's what I went with. I looked through music apps with not much luck. That went on for a bit before I started hopping around on Youtube. YouTube has original artists with great music, as well as some more well known artists. However, most of the music was copyrighted or not to my liking. I found a playlist by WhiteBat audio after a bit. It took longer than I would have liked, as the Wi-Fi in the place I was in was less than ideal. YouTube eventually let me listen after some refreshing the page. I found that the playlist had some variety, some of it could be actiony, some of it felt more drama...

 I had in mind for voices something cartoony, as I more than likely have mentioned already. I found voice actors, one of which has sent the entirety of their characters lines. I initially wanted voice memos, as iPhone provide you to send those to other iPhones. That didn''t seem to be working for this actor for whatever reason. Instead, I opted to just have him send me a video with no visuals and just audio. I legitimately laughed out loud upon hearing the line delivery. I liked it quite a lot. I did my own recordings in a voice I thought meshed well with this actor's character. The two characters themselves don't interact. However, I don't want to sacrifice consistency with voice-acted characters for the sake of having everyone sound varied. If one of them is comedically squeaky, the other character sounding like a normal person would be maybe a little jarring. So, everyone at the picnic blanket is silly, and for Mickey i'm doing an exaggerated boyish english a...

 I got ready to record actual film yesterday, gathering all the props I needed. The glitter prop wasn't the color I wanted, but the texture was the way I wanted. I got a ride to pick up the person assisting I arrived at the park to film. I forgot a couple of props, as it turns out. A, B, and C were meant to sit on a blanket, and have little food props, but I forgot those two things. They aren't integral to the film, but I felt it as though it would give the film a whimsical aesthetic. I was disappointed but decided I would film without them. I set up the little plates with the stuffed animals which was super cute actually, but it felt strange without a blanket. I did struggle in where to set everything up to have the best lighting. There was only one picnic table with a view that wasn't distracting. It also happened to have pretty good lighting, which, at first, seemed like the prefect stop, so decided to set up to film there. Once I began to finish organizing props and set...

I wanted to record voiceovers before filming, or at least before the filming was done, just to be able to get more done before deadlines. I was thinking that since there are no mouth movements for the majority of the characters, it wouldn't matter. This is still the case. However, the group I was meant to meet with, my DND group, ended up moving session and so I couldn't run anything by them let alone record. There's a good chance that I'll need backup voice performers. Ideally at least one character will be voiced by a guy, just for voice variation among the characters. In reality getting voice actors shouldn't be a problem though, as I really just need two. I myself will be voicing acting for Mickey. I have a solid voice actor ready to record or either A, B, or C. But, they couldn't record on their own time as of late, so I need to work on a time to go over lines and record several takes.  The plan for these recordings is to just have the actors record from wh...

  T: You're staring at me Mickey, I don't appreciate it M: Well. Pots and Kettles. T: That's not the full expression. T: It's, 'the pot calling the kettle black' M: Same difference. You're a hypocrite, mate. M: You gonna approach today? M: It's been a while. T: Nope, not in a million years. M: But you want to. T: But I won't. M: Because you- T & M: Don't want to embarrass my(your)self in front o people on a different planet and risk looking like a socially inept alien who has one friend. T: Yup, spot on. M: Am I the 'one friend' in that scenario? T: In every scenario friend. M: Gotcha. T: Although... M: Although? T: I would like to get to know these guys. They see to like everything I like: The same food, shows, music even. Which is cool, considering, you know, different planets. M: Weezer does transcend galaxies-wait you know this HOW? T: Same way I know anything, I stalk them on soial media instead of talking to them. M: Maybe you A...

Schedule February 3rd- Test filters/film angles//editing product/ideas for post production sounds February 4th- Filming February 5th- More filming if necessary February 10th/11th or 17th/18th: Voiceovers for A, B, and C February 11th- Voice overs for  Mickey as well as Terra if necessary February 12th- More filming to reshoot or even shoot for the first time if schedule goes awry. February 18th- Another back up filming day February 19th- A back up editing day Location I have several parks in mind for this film. One of them in particular caught my eye. I don't want to pick one with a playground, as they are often crowded with small children, who would be distracting in the background or potentially could touch or damage props. Participants I'm working in a group on my own, directing, producing, and editing, as well as updating these blogs. Believe it or not I do plan on playing the two main characters as well.  However, A, B, and C will be played by friends. I've got school ...

EXT.PARK PICNIC TABLE - DAY TERRA sits at the picnic table, staring off. She's just got her basket of food on the table, but she pays it no mind, too focused. She takes a glance to her side. TERRA You’re staring at me,  Mickey. I don't  appreciate it. MICKEY Well. Pots and Kettles. We pan over to MICKEY. Upon reveal, he's a stuffed animal.  TERRA That's not the full expression. It's "The pot calling  the kettle black." MICKEY Same difference. You're a hypocrite, mate. MICKEY looks at what she’s looking at. Several other stuffed animals on a blanket a little ways away. ( They are referred to  as A, B, and C ) MICKEY knows she’s staring at them, and now that TERRA know he knows, she stops staring, and begins awkwardly fiddling with something on the picnic table MICKEY You gonna approach today? It's been a while. TERRA Nope not in a million years. MICKEY But you want to. TERRA But I won’t. MICKEY Because you- They speak in unison now TERRA and MICKEY ...