Mia's A Level Blogs

Types of lighting for my film: hard/soft lighting natural/artificial ambient lighting exposure/ lighting placement  high key/lowkey overhead and under lighting Lighting techniques is a big thing I plan to improve on. Last year I didn't use much planned/staged lighting. I did research but didn't go through with much. This year, I have the lighting research and I'm more willing to apply them to my short film. My short film this year needs staged lighting since it will be dark. Therefore, the most important lighting for my short film will be hard lighting, natural and artificial, ambient, high/lowkey, overhead/under lighting, and then using the right amount of exposure alongside proper lighting placement.  Lighting placement ands exposure in lighting will depend on how the shot will come out. In my preliminary assignment I used a method of holding the flash with the overhead lighting technique. I held up the flash with my right hand over Olivia, my actor, to catch her facial e...

 Setting is important in film as it sets the mood, atmosphere, and an understanding of the situation at hand. The setting for my short film will be my home. As it will show the main characters safe space. I might do an outdoor scene, if this happens I will update my setting blog. For now, I will take place in my house. This way I can control lighting and acting will be more comfortable for my actors. My bedroom will consist of scenes where my character is trying to battle her disorder alone. Where she is struggling to depict specific events from dreaming or real life. Where she feels she needs to be alone because everything happens too fast. This will be her comfort spot where she calms herself down. The hallway will be where she hears the voices that aren't real. Where she battles this disorder the most will be the hallway. It will remain dark and secluded to remind the audience that this is the dangerous spot. It will signify that she isn't hearing real voices. Now, she is ju...

 To test my skills and get ready for filming, I took two images and two videos. Practicing my editing, sound, lighting, mise-en-scène, and camera shots/angles. I took this picture without an actor to enlighten the horror side. This shot shows the setting along with the dark atmosphere that is a convention of horror movies. I filmed this with a darkened lens and edited it as well. I overlayed a "warm" effect at 50% to create the contrast in color. This is a hand-held mid-shot camera shot. I wanted to prepare how to do a thriller type of shot. So, to achieve this image, I had the actor, Olivia, sway back and forth. In order to get the uneasy and troubled look, alongside her facial expression being worried. I held a flashlight high up to the right, facing down, to get the overhead lighting. I made the hallway dark and took the image as a low-angle to capture her expression and keep that uneasy appearance. https://youtu.be/s0u3stMCiN8 I filmed two different videos at different an...

 To represent the bond of my characters, I will compare a drama tv show to my project. This series being "The O.C". This series is about a troubled teenage boy that gets taken in by a wealthy family. He leaves his broken home and starts his new life at Newport Beach, California. The change in lifestyle is hard; Ryan learns to make new friends. He finds a best friend in his new home called Seth Cohen. Son of Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, Ryans adopted family. Ryan also meets his future girlfriend, Marissa Copper,  as she lives next door. Focusing on Marissa, she is an alcoholic.  Marissa has a bestfriend named Summer Roberts. Summer is there for Melissa through every rough situation. Her passing out, running away, getting so drunk she almost dies, etc. Summer stays by her side no matter what. This friendship of comfort, understanding and reliance is the relationship I plan to give to my main character just not through a friendship. She will seek comfort in her significant other...

As mentioned, my character will be suffering from a disorder where she confuses reality with a dream-like state. It is very hard for her to depict what is real and what is a hallucination. This state is a disorder called Oneirophrenia. Oneirophrenia is a rare psychiatric disorder that includes a dream- like state, disorientation, alongside vivid hallucinations. My main character will be a 17 year old teenage girl. Due to this, she will be trying to be a young girl while also struggling with this disorder.  Oneirophrenia can spark from many things. Including: Sleep deprivation Sensory deprivation Drug intoxication  Specific medical conditions such as dementia or brain tumors The treatments for this are various as there are many causing. Through a medical and psychiatric evaluation the cause and treatment can be determined. There are different medications and treatments to cure this but sometimes they are unchangeable. For my main character, I will have her disorder as...

 Storming ideas for my final project includes the audience understanding the genre of my film by watching it. When viewing my final extract, it should be determinable that my genres are horror, thriller, and drama. To do this, I need to find common conventions found within each genre. Typical horror conventions include a dark, unsettling atmosphere, isolation, mystery, ominous sounds, etc. To get inspiration, there's a few movie posters to view. "The Conjuring 2" poster immediately shows themovie is horror. It has dark imagery/atmosphere, isolation, black and white colors, the mystery of the large hand and lots of suspense just by the look. Seeing this, allows me to understand what I will need to include in my final project. I will be majority filming after dark to get the darker atmosphere. Followed by the main character being isolated and uneasy music to create suspense. Thrillers are similar; however, they add that engagement with the audience. Those feelings of excite...

 My final short film will be a horror/thriller/drama. Having three genres mixed together can be difficult. This type of method in media is referred to as Genre Hybridity. Genre Hybridity is the act of combining multiple elements seen in different genres within one text. This is a very common tactic within film. Typical ones seen are Rom-coms (romance, comedy), and sci-fi's (science and fiction). Since my film is a horror/thriller/drama I researched some films with this same genre hybridity usage. The Crow (2024) The Crow is a movie with many genres, consisted of horror/thriller and drama. The movie shows horror with the darkness, gore, and criminal activities. Thriller is represented with the suspense and attention grabbing action. Lastly, drama is incorporated by having a lost romance. Within this movie, "the crow" is trying to save his lover by killing everyone in his way. He ends up killing himself just to save her. The intensity of this movie won't be mentioned in...

 Supernatural is a television show that represents my horror/thriller/drama genre. There are two other medias that helped me decide. This being the tv series "Teen Wolf" and the movie "The Other Zoey". Specific elements of each made me realize I wanted a more drama aspect in my horror/thriller. Since I am a teenage girl after all. Season 3 part 2 of "Teen Wolf", Stiles could never tell if he was dreaming or not. The reason for this was a supernatural reason. Although, his symptoms were similar to his mothers disease, which killed her. He was closely monitored for this reason. In a particular scene Stiles thinks he is dreaming. Scott helps Stiles by counting all 10 fingers. The drama and camera work in this scene shows the close relationship between Scott and Stiles. Showing he has a support system. I want the storyline of built relationships in my short film, this being the reason for the drama aspect. Here's the specific example that made me want to i...

 I briefly mentioned I researched a few short films. So here are a few that really inspired my genre and overall ending idea. https://youtu.be/xm6NjBngIx0?si=bGUYMMCf4QJZwdxn This short film called "CLOSING TIME". It is about a woman who is meeting her boyfriend for a talk. She grows worried as he isn't arriving after a large amount of time passes. The waitress explains that there's a man at a separate table who has been there for a while. She expresses how worried she is that he might be waiting for her to close. The woman is kind enough to go to the man and talk to him. When there's a huge twist, the man is no longer alive. That man is her boyfriend. By the time she realizes the waitress is standing behind her with a knife. This short film is what made me realize I wanted to do a horror short film as it was a very good watch. https://youtu.be/ZFdyrVkliGQ?si=_esdf09Jto9uZkAR Now, this is the short film that gave me the idea of a girl who can't tell the differ...

 I was overall happy with my final project for AS media studies. When re-visiting, I see things I can improve on this year. I didn't use many camera angles and my wardrobe wasn't planned out. This outfit is an example of underprepared costuming. Her outfit doesn't fit the scene nor add anything. This year I will plan out outfits that match her attitude and the scene. I also didn't focus on makeup. Makeup is very important in filming, I never paid attention to it. I also will pay deeper attention to lighting. Lighting is difficult, especially when filming on an iPhone. I will research ways to get better lighting techniques on my phone.  With these outfits for my opening scene I did plan them out. They were really last minute. This year I will plan out my outfits, scenes, and have overall better time management. The outfits did the job, but there is room for improvement. The black jackets did fit but the blue jeans don't necessarily add anything. I will improve on mat...

 Hello! Im Mia Robinson. Currently, I am enrolled in AL media studies. For this years project I have decided to do a short film. This short film will be a horror/thriller/drama with a plot of a girl who can't tell the difference between real life and hallucinations/ dreams. The difficult part is going to be filming a horror setting. Trying to get schedules aligned and acting right.  Originally, I was going to do a crime documentary. However, the documentary requires props and connections to different places. Due to that level of difficulty, I decided a short film would be best. Still wanting to keep the thriller genre, I researched different thriller/horror short films. They seemed very interesting, then I decided this would be my final blog post idea. To make the short film more intriguing, I am thinking of adding a strain on relationships to incorporate a drama feel. This strategy will appeal more to my audiences. This image is from a "Supernatural" photoshoot. This sho...