Extract Essay Blog: 24

Kendrid Joseph
Period 5
AICE Media Studies
Extract Essay

The director’s vision or theme of the extract is “Patience is key”. At first on the CAMS, editing, sound and mis-en-scene worksheet, the original theme that I had was that “Rushing gets you nowhere”. I decided to change my theme becuase after watching the extract 4 more times, this theme better suits the true meaning of what the director is trying to convey. My original theme is still good but the new one is better. Patience is key is the message that the director is trying to convey, because the various camera angles, shots, movements, mis-en-scene and sound that he included really helped reveal it to me.

To convey the message of the extract, the various camera angles, shots and movements that the author added were there for a reason. For example, in the extract there were quite a few zoom effects in it. The things that were zoomed in on were a clock on the wall, the suspect and detectives face. The zoom on the clock helped show that time was running, and the detective needed to be patient with the suspect. The zoom on the detective while being quiet, really showed how patient he had to be with the suspect to get some answers. He was not being patient, which caused him to flip out and attack the suspect. Another camera shot that the author used to convey the theme of the extract is over the shoulder. The over the shoulder effect really help to show who was talking at a certain time. It showed how when the suspect was talking, she would avoid the question just to not give the detective answers. When the over the shoulder effect switched to where the detective was talking, it showed how impatient he was which led to him getting frustrated and attack her. Another effect that helped convey the message of the extract, was the shot-reverse shot that the author added. The shot-reverse shot basically kept on cutting between the commotion in the interrogation room between the suspect and detective, and the special agents watching them on a TV from the outside. The special agents were also being patient while watching them because they would watch and must wait for if any violence was about to breakout, which it did. The different camera angles and editing in the extract were well put in.

Furthermore, another thing that the director added to the extract to convey the message is the sound. The sounds overall really helped understand the gravity of the situation. All the sounds the director added helped to construct the true meaning of the extract. For example, the dialogue was a very crucial part of the extract. Without it trying to find out what is going on would be difficult. The dialogue helped show what it is that the detective wanted from the suspect, and her incompliant acts. The detective was not being patient with her and wanted answers now. If he were patient, maybe he could’ve break her, and she would have given in. Since he wasn’t his threatening dialogue and the way he went about the whole situation caused him to flip out. Another sound that helped convey the director’s message was the incidental music. The incidental music was added to identify how the impatience of the detective was going to lead to something bad happening. The whole time it was there indicating that no good was going to happen within the next few seconds or minutes. Finally, the sound of the clock ticking was very subtle, but was added to show that time was ticking and that with patience he could’ve gotten what he wanted.

Additionally, the mis-en-scene elements also helped convey the director’s message. The costumes, location, props, and lighting design of the extract were all just as important as the other. For example, the lighting of the extract for the most part was dim and dark. Although that detail does not directly have much to do with the message of the extract, it most likely indicated how serious the situation is, and that it was going to be long. If that’s the case, then that would’ve given the detective a reason to be patient with the suspect. If the dim lighting represents a long interrogation case, being patient with the suspect and not getting all hostile could’ve caused the suspect to go mad and just give in. Another mis-en-scene element that helped to convey the message is the clock. The clock has such small screen-time, but to me it represents a lot. What it represents to me relating to this message is that they could be there all day if the suspect does not give answers. It shows the elongation of how long the interrogation can go on. That being said, that’s also a reason to why the detective should’ve been patient to get what he wanted. Forcing the suspect with violence and threats could’ve worked, but it’s the wrong way to go about the situation. And finally, to convey the message of the extract, the director chose a great job on choosing the actors. The actors were great at playing their roles, Jack Bauer was playing the detective, and did a great job at being the impatient and aggressive detective. Maybe if another actor was casted then he or she wouldn’t have played that role right for the message to be clear.

In conclusion, “Patience is key” is the theme or message of the extract, because of the well put in camera angles, editing effects, sound and mis-en-scene in it. My theme is right because after watching it multiple times, what the director added really revealed the message that he was trying to get out. My original theme was that “rushing gets you nowhere”, to me its still partially the theme, but watching it over 10 times really opened my eyes to see the bigger picture. Overall if the detective was patient with the suspect, there is a great chance that he could’ve gotten what he wanted. Instead he chose option B which was aggression and violence. The director’s vision is for us to have patience, with patience you can overcome frustration and keep a positive life.

Final task:The Birch Slayer

So at this point now, the movie is complete and in it looks really nice. With all the complications dealing with the corona virus outbreak, I was the only one with the flash drive. This meant that I was the only one who could edit the movie. Editing the movie on my own was definitely a challenge but nonetheless the job is done. My group members weren't here to help me physically, but I would like to give them props for being there to help me through the group chat. What they did was constantly check up to see if i'm all good for that moment, and would help me if I got stuck somewhere. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to decide on certain things and they would give me suggestions. The final product looks good, but at the same time its different then from how the original idea was supposed to be. There were quite a few changes in the film for many reasons, but i'll just sum it up to 3 reasons to generalize them it. Some of the changes were completely agreed upon between us because it was better for the film, but the other 3 weren't. The changes we agreed upon was that the killer's costume would change and some of the dialogue would change. However,the three reasons are timing, transportation, and the corona virus. These three things are the reasons why the film doesn't look like how it was supposed to in the storyboard. The film still looks great, but our original idea was really good as well. None of the three reasons really had much to do with us because we can't control any of them. Long story short, the original script and storyboard had the killer killing the victims and he would see a sign that says "next city five miles ahead". He would then walk away in an unsettling way looking for his next victims. Obviously that didn't happen because when dealing with timing, it would've been too late to film at another park. And when dealing with transportation, all of us didn't live nowhere near each other. Overall, I think that this process was a bit long, but worth it at the end. From the filming to the editing, to the re-editing it was a great learning experience for me. To top it all off I get to look at a great horror film that i'm in, what average highschooler can say that.

                                                     https://youtu.be/SOj6WYVbmfA

CCR Blog: Live with Kendrid Joseph

                             When I was actually making the ccr, it took a lot out of me. Not only was it the first time that I would be doing something like it, but I had to do it considering the situation were in. Before schools were canceled due to corona virus, I was too busy worried about the actual film than I was on the ccr. It was never really on my mind until I was finishing up on the film. When I was closed to being finished with the film,  I thought about the ccr and realized that I had no game plan. At first my original Idea was to work with my group members, but obviously that did not go as planned. So after thinking for a couple of minutes I decided to do It in a split screen format, where I'm playing two people. I would be the host of the talk show and the person answering the questions. At first the thought of it sounded easy, until I realized that this was not like the short 30 second to 2 minute videos it was a long 12-15 minute video. I thought to myself I'll be able to knock this out if I just speak for 3 minutes on the 4 questions, therefore it'll make 12 minutes. I then decided to try it out with having all the answers come from the top of my head. So I used the camera from my computer and started talking. That is when I realized that I stutter a lot, and that 3 minutes is much longer than what it seemed. So, the best way for me to have done it was to write a script so I can know what to say, that same night I wrote it all. The following day I put on a nice, blue dress shirt and started rehearsing. When I felt like I was ready I turned on the computer, went on the camera and I started recording. It took me about 2 tries max per question before I got it right. When I finished answering the questions, I put on a nice, clean white dress shirt and started rehearsing for the lines of the host. Those lines were all easy because all he had to do was ask the questions and do the intro and outro. After that I went on Videopad and added all the files to the timeline, they were already in order. The next day all I had to do was edit, and that took a good 5 hours top.  To sum up the editing sequence all I did was add transitions and titles which consisted of the questions and the words in the intro and outro. Also I did the split screen effect between the host and the quest, and finally I added the pictures and clips from the movie. And just like that the ccr was done, the process took about 4-5 days to complete but now it's done.

                             

                                            https://youtu.be/5FFGvQ9w9uk 

Editing blog: Adding the titles

Finally, this was the last thing that needed to be done which was to add the titles. Adding the titles was possibly the hardest thing to do in my opinion. On the bright side though, it was the last thing to do so I was determined to get it done. So once again I open the movie file and let it load. Since the file was getting larger every time I added something new that was edited, the file took longer to load in. When it finished loading in I watched it again, and every time I watched it seemed to like it more and more. I think what I really liked is the progression of my editing. Before I actually started to add the titles I gave my partners a little update and told them how I was almost finished with it. So right when I was about to add the titles I remembered that they had to be in a certain order. I went into my backpack to see if I had the order, and for like a little minute I panicked because I thought I lost it. I am so grateful that I eventually found it because if I didn't that would've been really bad. So I clicked on the  add text button and at first it looked a bit confusing, but eventually I got the hang of it. The first thing I did was pick a font, the fonts that the editor had weren't really scary so I picked the closest one to scary which was Javanese font. I made it bold and I italicized it to make it look kind of close to scary. Next I picked the font size and I put them all between 15-24, it varies because some titles were longer than others.  Then, I picked the color of the titles, I chose red,yellow, black and orange. The last thing I had to do now was to put the titles in their place and put how they entered and leave screen, I made them fade entering and dissolve leaving. I then let the editor load everything in and after it finished I watched the final product. I really liked it  so I watched it multiple times over. I told my group members that I was finished and I recorded it on my phone to show them. Throughout this editing process I would like to give props to them because even tho they weren't here to physically help me, they helped via text message.

Editing blog: Adding the transitions and music

For this part of editing the film, I'd say that it  wasn't too difficult. So the plan was for me to get a good amount of it done so that the following day I wouldn't have to do much. Since that's what I wanted to do, I got right to it. I took out my flash drive and opened the file again, like I said before the editor took a few minutes to load everything. When it finished loading I watched everything again to decide where all the transitions would go. I honestly feel like out of all the editing I've ever done, adding transitions and animations were always the fun part. I just enjoyed seeing all the different transitions I can choose from, they were always unique. So when I decided where I wanted all the transitions to go, I went on the group chat and double checked with my group members. They told me to just do me but just make sure it looks good. When I clicked on the add transitions button I was a bit underwhelmed, there weren't as much transitions as I thought there would be. All the transitions were just like your basic fade, dissolve, blue cross fade etc. I guess the above average transitions were like checkerboard, horizontal lines, dissolve puzzle etc. After I added all the transitions I let the editor load the transitions in, I watched it and it looked nice. The last thing I needed to do for the day was add music, it was actually the easiest part of editing. What I did was click the add audio files button, and chose what songs/instrumentals I wanted. The ones I picked were "Curse of the clown" which is a creepy instrumental, and "happy days" which is the exciting and happy one. Last step was to put each instrumental in their place, the "happy ending' one went in the beginning where nothing is going on. And the "curse of the clown" went where the unusual starts to happen; I then adjusted the volume of both instrumentals and I was done for the day.

Editing blog: putting the footage together

The day after I found Videopad Video Editor, I decided to work on the film. The first thing I did was pull out my flash drive and opened the file with the footage. When it opened is when I would then realize that although this editor was good overall, it was a bit slow. Like it wasn't the slowest but it wasn't the fastest either, a great representation of a slow editor is Pinnacle Studios. Anyways when I was about to piece all the footage together, I saw that there were alot more pieces of footage than I remembered adding. The day before I guess I was just to tired to realize how many files I clicked to add. So to pick out which ones were actually going in the film, I pretty much had to watch all of them. Considering that the editor isn't really that fast to begin with, I knew that this would take a while. Just when I was about to start, in the group chat that my group members and I have, one of them asked me if I started editing. I said not necessarily because no real editing was going on. So I began watching the footage and when I clicked on one, it would take a little minute to stop lagging then I was able to watch them clearly. So as I was watching the footage, I'd say that 70 percent of what I watched was just different takes of certain scenes. About 30 percent was rather the actual footage or just things that we agreed on that could act as filler. After watching about maybe 30 minutes worth of footage I was actually finished. The footage that was short and was not going to be used, majority of them got removed from the pile that actually mattered. When I was done doing that I dragged the footage into the video timeline and placed them in order. When they were in order I had to wait like 1 minute to let the editor function and let everything load. When it finished I watch it and saw that some scenes had to be trimmed. After the trimming process which didn't take too long,  I watched it again and it looked better. I then decided I was done for that day.

Re-edit blog:Videopad Video editor

About 2 weeks ago when schools were actually open, my group members and I had most of the movie footage put together. This footage was put together in the first editing software that was used which is pinnacle studios. We didn't have all the footage, but we did have enough to work with. When the news came out that schools were cancelled momentarily, that's when things got complicated. At this point I had to edit everything on my own, because I was the one with the flash drive. So at home to edit I would've actually needed an editing software or editor, which I didn't have so that is what needed to be done first. At first finding the right editing software didn't seem hard to do at all, until I actually started searching. So I went on my computer and I first went online and typed in free editing software. I would find a couple and I downloaded the one with the best rating. After it finished downloading I ran into a problem, it turns out that it actually wasn't free. I guess what it meant was that it was free to download, but not free to use. So I deleted it and downloaded the next one I saw. When that one finished downloading, the editing on it was free, but when I needed to export it said that I would need to pay to remove the watermark across the footage. When I saw that, I deleted it and searched up free editing software's without watermark. The first one I downloaded did have a watermark, it was small but still noticeable. It was at this point that I realized that this was going to be hard. I would eventually go through about 5 more editing softwares and I still didn't find anything. I then went on the Microsoft store and typed in movie editors. The first one I saw was called Videopad Video Editor, I then downloaded it. When it finished it looked a lot less complex than the others and it was completely free. At that moment, I realized that this one was a keeper. I added a couple of sample files to see how everything works. I was going to edit the movie, but so much time had passed from looking for good editors previously. All I did that day was just add the footage, name the file and saved it on my flash-drive.