Mise-en-Scene Project!

 Hey there Cambridge!

I have not been super excited about a project until now. Recently, each group presented their mise-en-scene projects. For this project, each group received a unique prompt describing a persona. Then, the groups had to create a station where other classmates would be able to experience and understand the persona in 7-8 minutes. This project ended up being super cool since everyone put their full dedication and creativity in their work.

My group's prompt was: "Quiet and enigmatic, this character keeps their past hidden and observes from the sidelines. As the story unfolds, their secrets come to light."

Using that prompt, here is the description of our character I wrote for the presentation: Violet Smith, a shy 17 year old girl, just transferred to her new school in Alabama from her small hometown back in Florida. Secretly, Violet is a masked singer named Scarlet, who is most popular in Florida. As Scarlet’s popularity continues to grow, Violet fears her secret identity will come out. Once her schoolmates dressed up as Scarlet (as fans), Violet realizes she must move away before someone finds out her secret identity. Now, Violet is a mysterious high school senior in Fairhope, Alabama, hiding her secret past to avoid attention, stalkers, and threats. To the other students, Violet is just a secretive, new girl who shies away from the rest of the world.

To illustrate our character Violet, we created a mood board. Since they were living a pop star and normal life, we made two mood boards representing each life. One side was bright and colorful with singer elements (like a stage), while the other side had dark elements symbolizing mystery and our character's timid behavior. Multiple items, or Violet's belongings, were left at the station (also known as Violet's bedroom): a microphone, since of course a pop star has one; a mask, since it is a part of Scarlet's signature look; and Harry Potter books, since people who seem shy are stereotyped to be people that read in their own quiet place. The most important item at the station was Violet's diary and newspapers (images for both below) written about her. We created a guide (images below) that will aid our classmates in navigating through our station. It took them through the diary and newspapers, so they can learn of our characters secret past and current life, while sharing Violet's inner thoughts. It also had a video of Violet in her pop star life so that people can see her life when she is not just a school girl.

Developing our character was, of course, the most important step. So how did we do it? First, construction. Violet, a shy/mysterious character, evoked us to use certain colors at our station. The whole table was covered with a dark bedcover to channel the mystery of who Violet is. This is the same reason Violet's diary is black. The mood board also has meticulous color manipulation: the front side of the mood board was filled with colors to represent her fun, bright pop star life, but the back is all dreary, with symbols like the moon, to represent her mystery as an unknown, quiet girl at school. The Stage Life Video had eerie/scary music and black and blue colors to represent Violet's pop star career taking a bad turn (in this case, she had to run away from threats and stalkers). As classmates went through the visual guide, a mysterious sound played. This sound was to make them really feel like there is something suspicious and alluring happening. Next, is selection. Our character's name is Violet because purple is usually linked with emo people. The name was actually inspired by The Incredibles character, Violet, who is very timid and observes from the sidelines. Nowadays, no one reads newspapers, but since newspapers are usually in detective and mystery films, we decided to go with a newspaper to share the spread of information. At the end of the guide, we still choose to reveal Violet's secret past through social media, though, since it is the fastest way information spreads. Thus, it emphasizes the fast spread of information and makes it clear Violet's secret is definitely, for sure, out, and that her mission to run away from popularity and fame is over. Finally, stereotypes: Because the prompt says our persona is "quiet and enigmatic", we had to carefully select what traits of her we would show. By that I mean disregard her awesome personality and follow the stereotypes. She is a girl who does not socialize with other students and reads books... and a lot of them. The only way to really even learn about Violet, since she barely talks to anyone other than her manager Cassandra, is if we could read her thoughts; hence, the diary.

My group did a very well job in bringing creativity and meticulous thinking into this project. Our choice in how to represent Violet was pretty good, through her name, the newspapers, colors, and a diary. Splitting up the parts of our project (creation of the guide/diary, newspapers, mood board, Stage Life Video) was well split, so everyone was able to contribute equally and present their own work. The outcome was really fun and how we got to follow on Violet's journey made it interesting for anyone who visits our station. Next time we do something like this, I would love to incorporate more online activities.

Mise-en-Scene Project Guide:

Violet's Diary:

         

Newspapers:

Violet's Stage Life Video:

Yours Truly, 

Macie 💗

The Love in Romance (Genre Research)

Romance Genre 

What makes it Romance?

Stories of romantic relationships and love are known to be classified under the romance genre. It usually contains feelings of passion and emotional connections between two people as it features their whole love story from beginning to end. 

Content

The most important part when illustrating a romance is the central love story, or how the main characters meet and fall in love. The other big part of a romance is a happy ending. Majority of the romance movies and books have an exciting ending where the main couple officially dates, shares a kiss, or gets married. It is uncommon for a romance to not have an optimistic ending, but some romances may feature the tragic end of a couple. There are also many tropes repeatedly used by the romance world to build a couple's story, such may be: a love triangle, opposites attract, forbidden love, and love at first sight.

Production Techniques

Generally, warm or soft lighting is used to film a romance in order to make a dreamy and warm feel. Many close-ups are used on a character's face to highlight their emotions. Close-ups are also used to emphasize a feature of love; a close-up of holding hands or a kiss is utilized to emphasize this feature of love and depict how a relationship is moving forward. Longer takes are used to convey a slower, more natural path when building the main characters' relationship together. The use of acoustic melodies also brings a dreamy feel to a romance film, enhancing the romantic energy and tension between two characters.

Institutional Conventions

82% of romance readers are women; 18% of that being men. Most of them are aged in their 30s, but the younger population is increasingly showing more interest in the genre. To target the younger audience, sneak peeks are posted on social media. Additionally, trailers would show the emotional tension and drama, while film posters generally have a picture of the two main lovers of the film, along with any others involved in the love triangle. They also usually are marketed with the color red, which is the color of passion and love. 

Film Sample #1: She's the Man (2006)

In She's the Man (2006), Viola's girls soccer team at her high school was cut. She really wants to continue playing, and gets the opportunity to by her twin brother, Sebastian, who is skipping his time in college to go to a band contest in London. So, Viola impersonates Sebastian and attends his college. Her experience there includes rooming with Duke and trying out for the soccer team there. Now, she struggles to maintain her real identity as she hangs around college guys. As Viola helps Duke win over Olivia, this all becomes more complicated as Viola realizes she has fallen in love with Duke and Olivia has fallen in love with fake Sebastian. Of course, during the soccer scenes and in school, high-key lighting is used to make the energy feel fun and bright. However, in romantic scenes, soft lighting is used. This pattern is also seen in the choice of music, where pop/rock songs are used in soccer games, but acoustic/orchestra melodies is present during romantic scenes. Close-ups are utilized often to show Viola and other characters' reactions to interesting situations. While two-shots show Viola and Duke's tension and Viola's secret interest in Duke. The red shades in the poster are meant to represent the romance, and the complications of it, as seen in the film. Presenting the characters who fall in love in the film as a faded red in the background introduces the subjects that fall into this complicated love circle.

Film Sample #2: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

In this film, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Andie, a writer, wants to write an article on how to make a new boyfriend fall out of love within 10 days of the relationship. However, a man, named Benjamin, already made a bet to make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days. Andie and Benjamin end up meeting and use each other for their secret plans. After continuing with their plans, they realize they actually fell in love, and now they need to share their secrets and lies from the beginning of their relationship. Two-shots are used to show Andie and Benjamin's flirtations and chemistry. There are also a few close-ups to signify the character's feelings and reactions. Moreover, the color palette tends to flip in this film. When there are romantic scenes, there are warm colors, of course to develop a sense of passion and love. During more playful, friendly scenes, vibrant colors are used to create a more exciting energy. Similarly, music choice flips based on the scene as well. During romantic moments, acoustic melodies begin to play. This is unlike how more upbeat music is heard during playful scenes. The poster has a yellow background to convey the two main characters' intimacy and closeness while representing their playfulness as well.

More Film Examples...

Love Actually (2003)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

The Notebook (2004)

27 Dresses (2008)

Anyone but You (2023)

A Cinderella Story (2004)

She's All That (1999)

Yours Truly, 

Macie 💗

Sources:

About the Romance Genre

The Romance Genre in Film and TV (Definition and Examples) | No Film School

Comprehensive List of Romance Genres and Subgenres | LostinRomanceBooks.com

How to Film Romance: A Complete Guide for Filmmakers | Literary Inklings: Book Marketing, Awards, Publishing Trends & Production

Sound Projects 🔊

 Hey there Cambridge!

We had a lesson on sound in my AS Media class! In summary, we learned about soundscapes, purpose of sound in films, synchronous/asynchronous sounds, diegetic/nondiegetic, and narrations and voiceovers. Of course we also learned about music, sting, and sound effects. What really shocked me from the lesson though is that all sounds from film are lost and only the dialogue is recorded??? I still think about this, even after hearing of that weeks ago; it sounds so crazy to me. Anyways, this brings me to the final part of the lesson: foley artists.

Since then, we had two sound projects. For Sound Project #1, my partner and I had to create a 1–2 minute soundscape for a scene. For Sound Project #2, my former partner and I had to go back to our One Word Film project and add sounds to the film to enhance its sense of curiosity.

All about Sound Project #1 (link)

Brainstorming was tough in trying to come up with a scene idea that is not too bland, but will allow me and my partner to get creative and make this soundscape an interesting one. We came up with a dog that ends up in a dog fight during their walk. After coming up with our scene idea, we wrote down sounds that would be heard in that scene, sounds that are easily heard and ones that are barely noticed. Afterwards, we chose four of the sounds that can be our foley sounds and planned how those can be recorded. For example, I recreated the sound of stepping on grass by crumbling a paper. Next, we divided our scene into three distinct parts (Going outside, during walk, and encounters enemy dog) and completed a nice outline. This outline helped us better visualize all the sounds that make up the scene by breaking it into sections. Making it easier to not only understand what sounds we are looking for and where in the scene they belong, but as well as in figuring out what sounds we may be missing, as we can see all the sounds together in an organized fashion.

Now that we were organized, we began finding digital sounds from the internet and creating foley sounds to create our soundscape. We used ClipChamp to edit all our sounds together. I was super happy with how the beginning and end parts of the scene turned out! The layering of sounds clearly expressed a door opening, and at the end, the dogs ending up in a fight. However, the middle may have been hard for some to figure out what was going on since it included diverse sounds, such as the dog sniffing, peeing, and walking around. Thus, the middle part could have been confusing. Yet, I still think our soundscape turned out perfect, from beginning to end!

All about Sound Project #2 (link)

Next, we were assigned this second project for the Sound lesson. This one was a lot easier since we did not need to come up with a scene idea. We already had our idea: the scene from our One Word Film project. Now, what we had left to do was create an outline of our soundscape and find sounds to layer. Once again, I must share that the outline worked well to help me visualize the sounds and see how they will fit into the film. This outline was also organized into three parts: writing note, note passing, and searching/understanding note. My partner from the One Word Film project and I rewatched the film and paused it multiple times throughout to write down the sound that would be heard at the moment in the film. We rewatched it again to go back and find sounds we may have not noticed would be there. Next, we figured out which sounds had to be created by us and channeled our inner foley artist. I enjoyed recreating sounds like the iPad typing and paper crumbling/passing sounds for this project. I felt like a true foley artist as I watched the screen and followed the movement in the film simultaneously with my object! We split up the responsibilities on who finds which sound and shared our favorite sound files in a folder. Once we finished, we went onto ClipChamp and added the sounds on our own, each creating our own soundscape for the film. The music I added in worked so well! It definitely developed a more curious tone! It was my favorite part. I’m also proud I caught sounds that would have otherwise been forgotten. It would have been cool though if I added some sound effects that would enhance the sense of curiosity.

Pictures of both projects' outlines below!

Yours Truly,

Macie 💗