AICE Media Studies (A Level) Pitch

 Pitch:

Friends go on a trip together and the world is suddenly shut down by a deadly virus. The virus is much more powerful than expected.

Attached Media Ideas:

Meet the Team!

Today is September 19th, 2020 and today we were instructed to officially begin planning for our final task. This initial step even included selecting team members for our Final Task! As a recap for those who may not have followed my previous blogs, last year for my Final Task I worked individually. The main benefit of choosing to work individually was time flexibility. During last years spring season I played for Fort Lauderdale High's baseball team in which we practiced 6/7 days of the week. Additionally, I would not know it yet, but the ongoing global pandemic would begin to spread and any outside activates would be cancelled because a Stay at Home Order was in effect. In hindsight, this choice of working individually was likely my best option as I could trust myself to complete the work objectives by the deadline, however, it proved to be a large work load at times. Thus bringing me to the largest downside of working individually, the large workload in a relatively small time frame. The opening sequence needed to be 2 minutes long, however, the actual filming, editing, re-shooting, and re-editing processes took a lot of time and I only had myself to conduct the videography, actors, lighting, and editing techniques used. Thus this brought me to a realization of why movies in real life are produced usually using multiple personal, even teams, as the workload and cost in time would simply be too much for an individual. As such, this year I have decided to work with a group to ease the workload and to complete the Final Task in a time efficient manor. The group that I have chosen to work with has proven to me that they have a strong work ethic and match the quality of work that I produce. Their names are Chloe, Hillery, and Tess. Furthermore, beside their strong work ethic, they also bring videography/photography equipment and editing software's to the table. I believe with the work ethic and combined technology that these members contribute, it will greatly assist myself - and the team - in producing a high quality product, worthy of a film festival or studio. With this being said, as a team member myself I need to bring something to the table to contribute to the progress of the Final Task. Specifically, I want to mention the equipment that I will have access to use during the filming/editing stages of the Final Task. For instance, I have access to a DJI Mavic Pro 2 Drone, a professional Nikon camera with video capability, a GoPro Hero 7, and Final Cut Pro. These technologies combined, as stated previously, should allow my group to produce a high quality product worthy of the audience's time. Stay tuned as I continue to blog through my journey of the class and producing my Final Task with my new group!

Intro/Welcome Back

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! My name is Blake Booysen, and I am now a Junior at Fort Lauderdale High School. Last year I was enrolled in the class AICE Media Studies AS Level. However, I am excited to join the AICE Media Studies A Level class this year! As a recap, last year I individually produced a short opening to a film, called the Coastal Killer. It centered around the idea of a young man being put in harms way as he is circled by a Great White Shark. The film ended with blood in the water, as the audience can visually see the shark lunging at something in the water. Prior to AICE Media Studies AS Level, I had never enjoyed reflecting or documenting my progress as I typically liked having free-formed thinking and open options. Despite this reality, blogging and reflecting on my work taught me the value of scheduling myself and setting my expectations for my work. Additionally, I can now reflect on my work and visualize my though process as I was working through each stage of the Final Task, and other assignments. In regards to my opinion of the film, I believe I produced and edited the opening section to the best of my abilities. I was able to incorporate different forms of camera angles/shots, simple transitions, color correcting, and so much more. With this being said, this new found time freedom, has promoted growth in myself regarding my filming talents that will serve as an improvement to the prior year's project. Specifically, over the summer I have conducted drone footage of yachts that my dad lists in his brokerage. This has taught me to incorporate action, lighting, and editing to convey a message of subtle strength, yet pleasant and comfort. I can add dramatic filters, animated strokes, and so much more techniques that has just come with experience. But I must not forget my roots, and it all began with this class. Overall, I am satisfied with the work that I produced on the AS level, including but not limited to the Final Task. Despite this reality, self-promoted growth in my skills this summer has left room on the table for this year's project to expand on my skill sets and be a well-produced short film. So stay tuned, as I document my journey with this Final Task with blogs, in addition to other media platforms!