AICE Media Studies

  Hello, my loyal listeners! I’m back again, reflecting on the wild ride that was our filming process. It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come, from gathering costumes to finally wrapping up the last scene. Filming wasn’t always easy, but every challenge brought us closer together as a team. One of the biggest moments was when Sophia and I finally compromised with Jaydon about killing off the second German soldier. It was a tough decision because we all had different visions for the storyline. But after a long discussion, we realized it made the plot more impactful. I’m grateful we could come to an agreement because the final scene turned out so powerful. Watching it play out during editing made me realize how important it was to make that choice. The camaraderie we built on set made the long filming days worth it. Even when the weather was rough or we had to deal with pedestrians, everyone stayed dedicated to making the film the best it could be. Once filming wrapped, I couldn’t wa...

 Hello, my loyal listeners! I’m back again with another update, and this time it’s all about the website for our war film. Let me tell you — making a website is way harder than I expected. I thought it would be as simple as dragging and dropping elements, but it quickly turned into hours of trial and error. The first challenge was figuring out the design. We wanted the site to match the gritty, historical feel of the movie, so we spent a lot of time looking at color palettes and fonts. It was tricky balancing that vintage war vibe without making the site feel outdated. I also had to learn a bit of coding, which was a whole adventure in itself. There were moments when the layout completely broke, and I had no clue how to fix it. But after some late-night research and a lot of YouTube tutorials, I slowly started piecing everything together. One of the coolest discoveries during this process was the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. While researching ways to promote our mov...

  Hello, my loyal listeners! I am back with some amazing news — the editing process is finally finished! After all the long hours, discussions, and trial-and-error moments, we’ve wrapped up post-production, and the film is looking better than we ever imagined. If you’ve been following along, you know the fake blood issue was a real struggle. But guess what? We fixed it! With some creative problem-solving and a lot of patience, I managed to get the fake blood effect to look realistic. CapCut turned out to be a lifesaver with its easy-to-use effects and layering options. I played around with the filters and motion tracking to make sure the blood appeared naturally in the scene, even as we moved around. It added that gritty, war-torn feel we were desperate to capture. The team was thrilled with the final result. Everyone agreed that the added visual effects helped elevate the emotional impact of the film. It felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders to see their reactions. We even ma...

  Hello, my loyal listeners, I am back and it is post production time! Now if you have been following along, you probably know that we did not have fake blood for the filming. We were never able to fix this during reshoots cause no one could make the reshoot sessions. Come on now, you can't get mad at us, we are very busy high schoolers who are about to be college students soon. We have things to do, people, and one of those things is editing. So I have been putting in work in the post production time, and let's just say it's always easier saying I'll edit it than you do it, and it's a whole different story. I am trying to make sure the movie is running smoothly first. That is a big thing the group discussed that is important for this film. I still believe we are discussing sounds that we want for this film. I also know there was some music ideas thrown around that others might add when it is their turn to leave their mark on this film. We still want to maintain the...

  Hello my loyal listeners and welcome back to another exciting blog. For those that are just joining us, I strongly encourage you to go back to part one of this adventure packed filming story. So where were we? Ah yes, little actors improvised dialogue and disagreement. After reviewing the footage, Jaydon did not know how much my character had been in the story. He said it did not make sense for the plot, and he was supposed to be captured alone, what was going to happen to my character? Was I going to get captured with him? What was supposed to happen to the structure of this short film we had created together? Plans change and the low amount of actors really hurt us. We were still staying true to the source material and the storyboard for the most part. For Sophia and me that's what mattered. We had a solid two minutes of filming and it was getting quite late. I could not keep up with being on the floor with rats for much longer. Make all the fun you want, people, but I was wear...

Hello my loyal listeners, today was the day we have officially filmed. Now let's start with the first problem we faced, time management. You know how teenagers are, we all agreed to meet at a certain time, but that went out the window real quick. It was touch and go for a second because even though I had scouted the area before, I forgot where I was going to put my car. After driving around for 20 minutes, I found the perfect place, but still no one was near. I waited long and hard... nah I'm just playing I drove around a bit more and listened to music, it was really relaxing. But it was starting to get real because Sophia was the second one to arrive. When she arrived, I had to help her by dropping a pin at the park I parked at. Since she was in a car, she took the long way there and I waited for her to walk down. What was really 15 minutes felt like an hour. I was starting to question my apple map pinning skills. But now it was just the two of us, and of course Jaydon was not...

 Hello my loyal listeners! I am here to share my latest adventure — scouting the cemetery and forest alleyway for our upcoming World War 2 film. This was a critical step, as the locations needed to feel immersive and authentic. As I wandered through the cemetery, I found a small, overgrown corner that perfectly resembled an abandoned warzone. The gravestones were weathered, and the ground uneven, adding to the eerie atmosphere we needed. The forest alleyway was equally promising, with dense trees and scattered clearings that could serve as intense battle sites. I stumbled upon a small stoppage in the alleyway where the terrain naturally sloped, giving the impression of a bombed-out trench. It was as if nature had created this spot just for our film. I immediately snapped a bunch of pictures to share with the team. Despite the promising locations, I had some concerns. The cemetery, being public, might attract pedestrians who could accidentally interrupt our filming. I could already ...

  Hello my loyal listeners! I wanted to give you all a little update on what’s been happening with our film production. We’ve had a change of plans regarding our filming location, which has shifted things around a bit. Originally, we planned to shoot in an open field, but since we’re borrowing equipment, gear, and props, we had to adapt to the location approved by the loaner. The new location is a long road next to a cemetery, which still carries that eerie war vibe we’re aiming for. Even though the cemetery itself won’t appear in the film, the somber atmosphere adds an extra layer of realism. It’s a bit of a setback, though, since the field would’ve offered more versatility for different scenes. We’ll need to get creative with angles and set dressing to make the most of the space. One of my concerns is safety, especially when using prop guns in an open area. Even though they’re not real weapons, they look very authentic, and we don’t want to alarm any passersby. We’re planning to ...

 Hello my loyal listeners! I am here to discuss our plans for filming with you. Jaydon has been a great help when gathering costumes and items for our set. This will be a World War 2 film, meaning that there needs to be some authenticity folks. We can not have random high schoolers running around in our normal clothes. Lucky Jaydon has a secret weapon. His really good friend who has signed up to be an actor for us, Camilo has a bunch of World War 2 costumes. We have soldier gear for Germany, America, and Spain. We have fitted it out and it fits me perfectly, as I will be playing two characters, one dead man with a pancho and the other a German comrade whose fate takes a wild turn. No spoilers ofc for all you true movie watchers who skipped the script part!. The costumes must look authentic, as that is a major component in all war films, they have realistic props and costumes. We are probably going to have to use fake blood as it is a war zone, so again, another goal is to make sure...

  Hello my loyal listeners! I am back again here to bring you updates on the short film progress. Today we had an essential meeting. The group and I discussed how we were going to split roles amongst ourselves. We had already planned a lot of our movie, obviously, but there is still a lot more to put together for this project. First we discussed our roles in the filming process. Jaydon, Myles, and I had signed up as actors and we agreed we would need more actors for this film. Jaydon would be playing the lead role and a director role alongside Sophia. Jaydon also said he had a friend who has all of the costumes and would be more than happy to sign up as an actor. We all agreed someone had to film and the best camerawoman would be Sophia. She has the best phone out of all of us and what she is able to capture on it is truly incredible. It filled us all with confidence that our film would be shot using her phone. Now Sophia also signed up to do the postcard and make our Instagram. Th...