David Le's Final Project Blog

You will reflect on your skills as a filmmaker (using a camera, setting up a scene, and editing). Please discuss your experience you have had with these skills prior to this course. Then explain how this has potentially changed having been in this course. Finally, discuss whether or not you need to develop your skills further to be able to complete your Film Opening Sequence that you will create next semester. My skills as a filmmaker (at this time) could be said as virtually next to nonexistent, as I have little to no knowledge or skills on considering the different elements of filmmaking (such as lighting, blocking, mise-en-scene, etc.) as deeply as the course required compared to just filming a video just for the sake of filming a video. I do not have experience using an actual camera (with a lenses, buttons, that type of camera) to take photos, as the only experience I have had are using a mobile phone and simply clicking the shutter button on the screen to take a photo (which in i...

1. In a few sentences, describe what you will photograph to respond to your photo prompt. (Note: Your photograph should have a human subject.) Also briefly discuss the overall look/feel/mood you are attempting. Prompt: You committed a serious offense on the school grounds, and have been called into the principal’s office for questioning. You are terrified about getting in trouble. The idea for this prompt is to use the Principal's office, and the assistance of the school's principal as the principal who will be yelling at a student (and possibly an assistant principal/police officer standing behind the student with arms crossed and a stern expression of seriousness) who is seated at the principal's desk. The principal's face is not seen, but it is visible and could be discerned the principal's hands and palms flat on his desk, leaning over the desk and presumably yelling at the seated student (or least the principal's shoulder and head is seen). Outside the door...

     In AICE Media Studies AS, it has been interesting to learn about how complex movies and films can be analysed in so many ways, such as how they are made, the types of shots, genres, cinematic invisibility, etc. My outlook on how I see films have changed in the sense that watching a movie now and/or clips from a movie, and realising how so complex and tedious it can be to create a single shot with factors such as mise-en-scene and planning out shots, angles, and cinematography to achieve a desired result for the film. I think this course has helped me appreciate how films are made and how complex they are as audiences go to movie theatres and sit down to appreciate works of art and creativity. I feel that in some ways, I have thought about how scenes were possibly made before when viewing a movie, but this course has helped nail down specific details and methods that could have been used to further understand film analysis.     One of the topics that has pea...

In the trailer for "She's All That", it portrays a potential issue of gender representation in the trailer with how males and females are stereotypically depicted. It is evident from the start how males are portrayed as strong, confident, and attractive qualities, where a main character is shown as popular, is a captain of one of the sports team, and everything is going well for them (until it doesn't). The females are presented as attractive with emphasis on beauty and appearance, as a female character who is popular is shown with shopping bags and staying in touch with the latest trends.  The representation of groups are arguably somewhat accurate, but some aspects may be exaggerated. For example, it could be accurate how the males and females interact in ways that are generalised to popular students, but may be overblown to clearly show intent and meaning to viewers such as the trailer showing scenes depicting students on spring break. I feel there is proper gender...

     AICE Media Studies, quite an interesting class it is when you consider that it is not your average curriculum class. A type of movie I would like to make could be something along the lines of a mystery, and probably toss in some elements of suspense in the process. Mystery movies are quite interesting when you consider how everything can be unexplained, hidden meanings and trivial elements in plain (or not) sight, and the potential for action. Let's face it, we have probably seen a movie (or book, or TV show, I guess) before that starts off with someone or something missing, and the piece of work proceeds and slowly but surely reveals more details, clues, and suspense along the way. Mystery movies with some action and suspense could (theoretically) keep an audience engaged and making it easy enough to follow (and not be too confusing to understand, or unless the film was deliberately made that way) and could appeal to wide audiences. Now, you could probably throw in ...