Mise-en-scene blog post

 Mise-en-scene blog post

With this activity, our goals were very simple: fun, clear, and creative. We tried to communicate as clearly as possible that our character was a single dad and a librarian who loved helping and volunteering at libraries. While doing that, our goal was to make our station the most fun and creative of them all. We wanted to think outside the box and create something that people would remember and enjoy. We knew teens love video games, so we decided to involve them. We felt our storytelling was interactive, as Samuel, the character, was talking to our classmates the whole time. 

Samuel Samson, our character, was a single dad who worked as a librarian. He enjoys working with kids and is always willing to help. He reads books to them every day and gives them candy to comfort them. We actually gave our classmates at our station candy to make it realistic and enjoyable. He spends all his time in a library since his son went off to Stanford and his wife died. He is lonely. 

To illustrate Samuel, we had comfy blankets on the floor and a "Cat in the Hat" book that he was reading through audio for our classmates to hold and read along. After they read, they were instructed to take a candy to truly feel like they were part of Samuel's library. Samuel was talking to our classmates the whole time for an extra touch of interaction. For our mood board, we showed pictures of what Samuel actually looked like and some things that represented him, like a library card. 

For our station, we had 4 tabs open in order, and our classmates were instructed to open them in order. The first tab was a mood board. This included visual representations of him and things that were related to him. The second tab was an audio of Samuel introducing himself and giving a background of who he is. He finishes it off by saying to follow him to the library. The next tab is a tour of his library, and it is a very big and cozy place. Samuel realized that it was story time and told our classmates to take a seat behind them on the floor with the cozy blankets. This is when he reads them the story via audio, and students have an actual copy of "Cat in the Hat" so they can read along. 

We constructed our character as a lonely guy in his 50s who loves children and does not have anybody to spend time with since his wife is dead and his child moved away. We believed this is the most typical stereotypical way the media represents librarians. 

Overall, I believe my group and I did a really good job of representing our character, Samuel. Everything went very fluidly overall, and we created efficient and fun ideas. We were very happy with our result, and it came out just like we wanted it. We did talk about adding more tactile items for next time and making it feel more like a library.

For a link to meet Samuel, click here 

Romantic comedies

ROMANTIC-COMEDY

The romantic comedy, or rom-com, is a classic and a favorite genre of movie. Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron, and Richard Curtis are just a few of the top directors who have made some of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, including The Holiday, When Harry Met Sally, and Love Actually. The target audience for this genre is typically teenagers and young adults between 15 to 35 years old, although many older viewers also watch them for their sense of humor and wit. Rom-coms are what people like who love light-hearted, sentimental love stories and relationship drama, together with the comedy that comes with them.

Romantic comedy content usually revolves around two people who are brought together by circumstance, fate, or chance. They could start as opposites and not like each other, or there could be some kind of obstacles that hinder their love. But ultimately, they end up realizing they are meant to be together. These films are full of witty conversation, cringe but cute moments, and silly miscommunications that lead to emotional growth. For example, in 10 Things I Hate About You, the two protagonists, Kat and Patrick, are at each other's throats to start with but eventually fall in love with each other realizing they're not as different as they first thought. Similarly, in Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel has to break family and cultural barriers when she tries to prove her love, showing how even in gilded settings, love needs to be told through honesty and courage.

In terms of production style, romantic comedies make use of warm lighting, rich colors, and upbeat music to create a cheerful and inviting, yet loving mood. Close-ups are used by directors to focus on facial expressions during emotional, romantic or comedic scenes. The pace is typically light and innocent, with scenes switching between comedy and sentimental emotions. The settings and costumes are also in accordance with the personalities of the characters, which include stylish city flats, cozy cafés, or nostalgic outdoor spots like beaches or parks. The soundtracks usually involve pop or smooth acoustic tracks that portray the emotions of the characters and make big romantic scenes even more memorable and iconic.

The institution of the institutional romantic comedy are about how and why they do get sold. Trailers play up the funniest and most charming scenes, showing both the romance and the comedy. Posters usually have the two main characters standing back-to-back  or looking at each other or having them caught in a laugh, with tension and chemistry implied. My favorite example of this is The Proposal, whose poster has Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds (who is one of my favorite actors) in a teasing, light-hearted pose that gets the tone of the film perfectly. Promotional campaigns aim at the stars of the film and slogans that show a balance of romance and comedy.

A great example of an acceptable romantic comedy is Crazy Rich Asians (2018), directed by Jon M. Chu. The film is about Rachel Chu as she discovers her boyfriend Nick comes from one of Singapore's richest families. It is filled with beautiful settings, lavish parties, and bittersweet moments showing the thread of love, identity, and familial expectation. The film comes full circle for the rom-com genre with its dash of humor, emotional authenticity, and glamorous love. One more example is The Proposal (2009), in which Sandra Bullock is a demanding editor and Ryan Reynolds is her assistant. Their fake engagement becomes real, and the film makes do with traditional romantic comedy corny—awkward situations, silly misunderstandings, and an ultimate "I love you.".

Other popular romantic comedies include When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, The Holiday, 13 Going on 30, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Love Actually. Each of these films captures why romantic comedies are so enduring—they make us laugh, believe in love, and remind us that even the most awkward situations can lead to something beautiful.

Sound Blog

 During my time learning about sound i had a lot of fun. I realized how much sound really affects a film. Sound compliments visuals and can make a really big impact on the viewers perspective. An cool part i learned about sound is that all types of sound is recorded after filming other than words. 

For the first sound project we where told to make a scene between 1-2 minutes using only sounds. We where told to foley at least 4 sounds. We downloaded sounds from websites provided and me and my partner Marat did a basketball game winning shot. We believed that we used sound very well and expressed our ideas clearly. On the other hand, i wish we where more creative. It was a bland idea but executed well, i will for sure be more creative in the future.

At first we thought of a construction sight and liked it a lot. We then realized there was not much we could do with that idea, and that is when we decided that a basketball game would be more exiting and fun to create.

For sound project number 2 we where assigned to add audio to our one word project. The sounds are meant to be realistic and and make it more interesting. This was project was more challenging for the first one. Timing up sounds is a lot harder than i thought. Me and my partner Ethan have to turn in different copies with the same sounds.

Our outline gave us structure, organization, and made the process a lot more fluid and it took a lot less thinking.

For editing clipchamp was used for both. I really liked it because it is easy to use and makes layering very simple.