A Brief and Very Acedemic Update

We've been really busy in media these last couple of weeks. So here's a brief rundown of two projects that we've done!

 First, we worked on our dystoipian trailers, which we just finished. As I mentioned before, our group's trailer was called "Barcode". A full summary for it is here under The word Barcode. It also has a link to the video, but I'll embed it in this post a the end as well.

This was a pretty fun project. I had a lot of fun filming, making props, and acting. I got to make the really creepy masks that we used. We got some strange looks, but they turned out awesome. There were a few roadbumps along the process. For one thing, we were going to film at the Silver Spring library, but the librarian at the front desk told us that we couldn't film in a government building. This turned out to be false, but we found another place where we could film that actually turned out better.

Another problem was that my group's schedules were really uncooperative. We only got in one or two filming sessions together, so we had to film some of it by ourselves. This turned out fine as well.

Actually, we had a lot of little problems with music, clips, and voice overs, but we managed to pull together and really do a good job. I'm proud of it.


After the trailers, we were assigned a quick independent video assignment called Capture the Fall. We had to edit together at least 10 clips and use transitions and music to create a film about what the fall means to us. I decided to  make mine have a story. I was just going to film my sister raking a bunch of leaves and then jumping into them, but then she started to dance around, and I decided to use that in my project. She did really well, skipping and waltzing around, and I got it all on camera.

The movie was essentially about a little girl who goes outside and spends a really long time raking leaves, which is just as fun as actually jumping in them. 

The only problem was that we decided to film this at around 5 or 5:30, and after a little bit, the sun started to go down. At first, it was okay, but the last few shots are in complete darkness, except for one lone lamppost. But that was okay too, because the early nights are another of my favorite parts of fall (along with leaves, of course) and it also sort of made it seem that my sister had been raking leaves for a comically long time.

 I used my little point and shoot digital camera for this project, an iMovie to edit. At first, when I edited everything together, the time was about 2 minutes and 50 seconds. I edited it down to a minute, but when I added in the transitions, it messed up the lengths a little. Now, it's more or less a minute (plus title and credit slides).

The music that I used I got off of freesound.org. I think it makes the video more light and playful.

Overall, this was also a fun project. I would have changed my shooting time, but otherwise, it went well.


Barcode trailer

Capture the Fall

Barcode

Is the name of my group's dystopian trailer!!!!

Yeah, I know, we're really cool. And by we, I mean Samantha, Martha, Milena and I. On a completely unrelated note, I learned how to link text! Pretty cool, huh? I think it adds infinite meaning to this post.

What? Oh, right, the assignment!

Our dystopian trailer is called Barcode, and it's about a society where people have to wear paper bags over their heads and use pre-written cards to communicate so that they can all be equal and they can't express themselves. They also wear earpieces so that they can't hear anything except their leader's voice. Their names are barcodes, which further limits any inkling of individuality. Hence the title. Yup.  I can hear you thinking, "Of course, Sarah. You are brilliant!" Yeah, that's right. I can hear your thoughts. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Sorry, everyone, I'm feeling exceptionally schizophrenic today. I should know better, especially now that actual people are reading these blogs. So hello to all my new and adoring fans! Congratulations for finding this blog!  I'm sure reading it was a constructive use of your time.

But again, I digress.

I'm in charge of scriptwrting, which is going okay. We're using dramatic text slides and actual scenes from the movie to tell the story, so no voiceover. We have the concept and the characters down, but our main problem is the plot. We know we want the main character to somehow try to overthrow the government and take a stand, but what we have so far is sort of similar to a lot dystopian movies and pretty generic.

So far, we have seventeen scenes. The scenes at the beginning are pretty short and layered on top of eachother, but as the action gets more intense, the scenes are longer and more complete. It starts out more or less a montage of the premise of our society, and then shows longer scenes of the catylist and main rising events. Towards the end, the story switches between the protagonist trying to infiltrate the leader's office and her trying to take over the broadcasting system so she can contact the general public. The final scene shows her taking off her mask in between shots of the crowd, of the leader, of her enjoying being individual, etc.

The script is still subject to change, if we hit a problem during production or if it's not clear, but this is what we have now. I'm really excited about production, because I'm going to be the main protagonist and it'll be fun to act that out. My only fear is that we won't have enough time to finish shooting, but I think we'll pull through. This is CAP, after all.

The Matrix

Trailer


The Matrix. Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski . R. 1999

Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Keanu Reeves) discovers that what he thinks is the world is actually a virtual simulation called the Matrix designed to enslave humans. He must discover what the Matrix truly is and free the world from it once and for all.




The trailer for the movie The Matrix is exemplary because it develops the dystopian premise of the movie through artfully arranged clips, well-chosen words, and music. The director uses different speeds to illustrate the intensity and contrast of different clips. For example, when showing how unreal the world of the Matrix is, there are several short clips featuring the impossible feats that one can accomplish in the Matrix. These clips gradually increase in speed until they are incomprehensible, creating a very dramatic build up effect. This effect is repeated just before Neo breaks free from the Matrix, which also helps add to the intensity of the story. In contrast, at the end of the trailer, there is a clip of Neo dodging bullets by manipulating the Matrix that goes very slowly. The speed captures the audience's attention to this clearly illogical thing and draws them in. These elements are important to the premise of the story, because The Matrix's plot is based on the fact that what Neo perceives as the real world is not real. Another element that helps this is the director's choice of lines from the movie. The only words in the trailer are a few lines from different scenes in the movie that perfectly capture the essence of Neo's society. For example, Morpheus' line, "the Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth". This shows that the world Neo lives in is not the truth without going into too much detail, which keeps the trailer understandable and straightforward. Another line is one of the evil Agents', "Human beings are a disease. They are a cancer of this planet. And we are the cure." This demonstrates that their are the antagonists, and they reinforce the dystopian society of the Matrix. Lastly, the music and sound add to the clearness of the trailer. The music starts out relatively simple, and is mostly in the background. As the trailer gets more intense, the music builds and becomes more dramatic. It also punctuates important lines with rhythm and pauses. In our dystopian trailer, I would like to use different lines from the movie instead of a voice-over to convey the premise of the dystopia, as I think this makes the trailer more enticing. I also would like to use the music as this director does to create a build-up effect and punctuate important lines and actions.