Mise-en-scene Project!

 

For this project we had to bring a character to life using mise-en-scene. We were assigned characters in class. My group and I got a movie lover. More specifically "A movie lover who enjoys social get-togethers with friends. They write a movie blog on which they post critiques of popular movies". Our teacher told us that this character was inspired by her friend. This got me thinking of my own friend and I who follow each other on Letterboxd and frequently watch movies together when we hang-out. Our relationship heavily inspired me when I was pitching ideas for the group. 

My group and I wanted to create a vast variety of things that, when presented to the class, would feel like a real person. When we initially started talking about the character, we had to come together and decide specific details about the character that were not mentioned. We decided that she would be a 'Wasian' 21-year-old aspirational college student named Cameron Lee that attends University of Southern California and majors in screenwriting. We came up with her name by brainstorming the last name of various film directors. We went through names like Greta Coppola, Sophia Spielberg, and Cameron Gerwig, before decided that Cameron Lee sounded the least fictitious; named after James Cameron and Spike Lee. We decided she majored in screenwriting to add more depth and realness as to why she would write a blog with her own personal critiques. It was very easy for us to bounce ideas off of each other to characterize Cameron as the entire group could relate to being a young woman and we all shared that common experience. 

We then decided what would be made to show our character. Marisa created the tactical board that followed a soundscape made by Christina. Christina also created a doll of Cameron Lee that was inspired by a mood board created by Debra. I created a decorated room and journal entry with a movie review to show how we visualize Cameron Lee's room and journal entries. I also created a playlist that Cameron Lee would likely listen to. We all helped on the google slide presentation and also helped each other which everything we did. It felt like a group effort towards a common goal rather than individuals doing different parts of an assignment. It felt like we all grasped the kind of woman Cameron Lee was.

Although I am extremely happy with the outcome, with more time I would have loved to add more meticulous details. Creating her bed room, a fake social media, and fake text chains with her friends as they plan hang-outs would greatly add more depth and make her feel like a real-person. 

Here's the google drive folder to experience Cameron Lee for yourself!

Mise-en-scene "Cameron Lee"

Soundscape Practice!

What's up buddies!

    In AICE media we learned about sound which was always something that interested me, but little did I know how insanely difficult it is to create an entire scene using only audio for both sounds projects we had to do. Before we did the sound projects, however, we learned all the different technical terms along with the reasoning behind different uses of sound. I learned what a soundscape is and all of the different parts that need to happen for it to be created. It was really interesting and I got to learn a little more about foley which was cool. Putting that knowledge into practice and making the foley was a lot more difficult than I imagined it would be though. 

    Sound project #1 was a such a blast. For this assignment, we had to create a soundscape where we used only sound effects to convey a scene that the listener could visualize. It was really difficult and challenging but in a fun way, like solving a puzzle. My partner Christina and I wanted to stay away from doing something uninteresting and bland so we opted to have our 1-2 minute soundscape be of a medieval wedding that gets crashed by a fire-breathing dragon that gets slain by knights. As one could imagine, this very fun concept was extremely difficult to bring to life only using audio and sound effects. It was a bit overwhelming at first but taking it step-by-step and slowly layering more and more sound effects in ClipChamp helped get the job done. 

    Sound project #2 was surprisingly a lot more difficult than sound project #1. For this assignment, we had to go back to our OWF film and create a soundscape for it. Although the concept for our OWF was significantly more grounded and less outlandish than a dragon crashing a medieval wedding, it brought new challenges. It felt much more limiting creating this soundscape as we had to use the video as a strict guide for what sounds had to be occurring at exact moments for an exact amount of time or else it would look completely wrong. Sound project #1 was a lot freer with expression and we controlled and could easily manipulate the storyline we were trying to follow. 

    I loved them both and learned a lot of value through the hardships I faced with each, but I think I might have a favorite.

Click Here for Sound Project #1 "Medieval Wedding/Dragon Soundscape"!

Click Here for Sound Project #2 "OWF Soundscape"!