AICE Media Studies

 1.  How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?      My music video was for the song “Brutal” by Olivia Rodrigo. This is a pop song, but it has the feel of a more punk pop or angry song. To research conventions of music videos similar to this type of song I looked at other Olivia Rodrigo music videos as well as music videos from similar artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Conan Gray.   The research showed me that the conventions of modern pop punk and Olivia Rodrig o music videos include use of editing to make it seem like they were filmed with a film camera, dramatic elements like rain or fire in the background, and a general storyline being followed that relate to the song.      My product challenged some of these conventions. It doesn’t use a film camera, and there is no rain or fire for dramatics. Some elements of dramatics were kept however, with the angles and transitions th...

 Here it is! My group and I had so much fun completing this process while learning more about how to film and edit. We hope you enjoy our music video to the song Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo. 

 With all of the filming done, it was time to edit! We finished filming all in one day and very early, so we had a long time to edit and finish up the music video. For the commercial, Noura did most of the editing so we assumed she would do it again for this music video. When Macy joined our group she showed a big interest in the editing so she did it instead. She got right to work the day we finished and even had the first draft by the time we got home. She had to find all the right shots and put them into the right order with clean transitions. As well as, sync up the song and make sure the video is the right length. This is a lot of work that she did so quickly, so it made sense that there were some problems that needed to be fixed. After me and Noura reviewed it we gave our notes, like to make sure the diligent noise was taken out so you couldn't hear it behind the music, Macy updated it. We did this process three or four times before we were all happy.  We also had to dec...

 Finally, after filming all day, we got to the last scene. For this scene we all had to change into our swim suits and go outside to film a fun day at the pool. This is the only scene that Noura, Macy, and I are all in, so to film we had to take turns and recruit Macy's brother Tanner to help. The first shot was the easiest to take, and Macy really got to show off her acting skills. The rest of the scene was more of a challenge. We had planned to just be having fun by the pool and film it, but we didn't know exactly what to do. We tried a couple of different things like playing volleyball, catch, and even just sun-tanning. This led to us having a lot of different shots to choose from in the end. Having so many shot options made the editing easier too.  A couple of problems presented themselves through the filming process of this scene. One is that it was cloudy out, and the other is that Noura and I had to leave before we finished. So, we had to figure out solutions to these p...

Contrary to the title of this blog post, this scene took the longest to film. After we finished planning and filming in the bedroom and bathroom we moved outside to the car. We realized that our original idea for the car scene didn't work that well, so we had to try a couple of new options. We knew that we had to incorporate a reflection, because that is how the masked figure is seen. Originally, we were going to use the reflection in the car window but when that wasn't working we decided to make the scene more like the main subject running away in a panic. This meant that she now had to be in the car and trying to drive away. This affected our choices for mirrors to use to see the masked figure. First, we tried using the rear view mirror. This would mean that I, as the masked figure, would sit in the backseat while the main character, Macy, rushes into the car and gets ready to go by adjusting her mirrors just to see me. This idea was good because then it would motivate her to...

     Once we got to Macy's house, figured out the changes we needed to make, and found all of our props, we officially started the filming process. We started in the morning by going around to all of the rooms we were going to film and planned how it would work. We started in Macy's room and planned how we would film her waking up and getting ready. The main character started in her bed so Macy laid down in her bed so Noura and I could get a realistic view. We then discussed ways to start the music video. We knew that we wanted a close up on Macy's face for the first line of the song but didn't know how to get there. Noura and I tried a couple of different options, first we thought about coming in from the door of her room and slowly closing in, but we decided against it. We tried zooming slowly from the corner of the room, but it just looked unnatural and plain. We then came up with the idea to slowly push in from a high angle down towards her face. This worked well fo...

Our original story board tells the story of a girl that is being followed by a masked figure who seems to only be around as a reflection. She first sees it in the morning as she gets ready, and then in a car window reflection in a parking lot, and finally she confronts it at the beach with her friends after running from it all day. We realized a couple of problems with this idea when we started filming.  First, we didn't have a way to get to a parking lot of the beach. We had originally thought we could walk or have one of our parent's drive us. The problem was that it was too far to walk with not enough time, and none of our parents were available. We realized this once we got to Macy's house to film so we started discussing what else to do instead. We could do the bathroom scene like we had planned, but had to adjust the other scenes. We wanted to still incorporate the car, so we decided to still do it, just not at a cafe parking lot. We used it as a way for her to be run...