Mise-en-scene Reflection

 For the past few weeks, my class and I have been working and learning all about mise-en-scene and the different techniques that are used with it. A few days ago, I submitted my very own project about Mise-en-scene in which I had to create a character based off a given prompt. This is my reflection.

 Originally, I worked in this project with a group, and our prompt was based on a retired firefighter who worked at an animal shelter, but, I was absent so, to make it fair, I had to do a whole other project myself. But, I still had a blast. My prompt was centered around a high school football player who also had a knack for poetry, which was interesting. Immediately I wanted to center my project around the two polar opposites, drawing distinctions between them and making my character on the division between the two hobbies.

 For my project, I created a power-point in which the different slides illustrated different elements of his character. One of the first slides included a poem in which Ben wrote about the distinction between his two hobbies. Then, I created a mood board that was split on two sides. One side illustrated his sporty-side, in which I included images of a field goal, helmet, scoreboard, and more. The other side illustrated his love for poetry, in which I included images of writing utensils, notebooks, and more. The next slides included his appearance and clothing, as well as an image of his bedroom.

  Although my project was a make-up for the project everyone was supposed to do in groups and present through organization on physical items in stations, I still had a great time presenting my character, even if my presentation was a bit basic. Reflecting on my project made me realize how I developed my character. Constructing my character based on a prompt that exoticized a character, made me think deeply on how to portray that character. But, as it turned out, I leaned heavily into what made the character different since it is not normal to have a character who plays football to also write poetry, in which stereotypically people who play football have much manlier characterisitcs. But, someone who does both breaks the norm, creating a unique and distinct character. I am glad that I worked on this project as I realized the complexity that it requires to create a fully realized character. Creating a character takes much more effort than writing words down on a page, and this project made me realize that.

 This is the link to my project.

DierkingLukeMiseEnScene

The Conventions of the Horror Genre

Our society is driven a lot by fear. The fear of government, fear of unknown, and the fear of ourselves are just minor examples of this drive. Hence, media also portrays fear. One genre of media drives on fear for its storytelling. That genre is horror and is what I will be researching about.

 Audiences come to see the horror to feel a sense fear or unsecurity, through a form that does not directly danger them. In horror, fear is instilled in the audience through a variety of measures. For instance, the act of suspense creates an uneasy feeling for audiences. Suspense can be created through a rise in music, unesasy atmospheres, and more, but honestly just depends on context. Suspense is found everywhere in horror. Many horror media shows a negative side of humanity, often showing disturbing killers, clowns, aliens, dolls, ect. Fear may be felt in a scene not even intended to be scary, but the genre makes it easy to generalize fear as "bad". Horror films tend to be negative.

 

Typical horror productions use a variety of techniques to communicate their story. For instance, darker lighting is used to communicate their dark messages and create a sense of insecurity within audiences. Shots and angles which portray gore and disturbing content in a gruesome manner can be a way a director tells their narrative. In the world of sound, an overload or even a mute scene may create a sense of suspense or fear, making it a production technique used in some films of the genre. Other sounds like stings, screams, or blood splatter also create an increased sense of fear, a common trope for the genre.

 During marketing, horror films target a younger demographic since they may be more involved in the thrill of fear. Trailers for horror films typically include much more intense scenes from the movie to entice the audience into watching the movie since they see the film as much more intense than it actually is. Typically, trailers exaggerate the intensity of the films.

Nope (2022)

In this horror film by Director Jordan Peele, two siblings attempt to record and get evidence of a strange living creature in the sky. However, the creature is extremely dangerous and causes harm and trauma to characters in the fim. This film often uses its sound design to create suspense for intense scenes. Some shots also show the gruesome nature of how the creature kills. For instance, one shot displays a variety of humans being sucked up through the stomach of the creature, instilling fear in the audience through this disgusting scene.

A Quiet Place (2018)

In this horror film directed by John Krasinski, a family must survive in a post-apocaliptic world where any sound created by members alerts monsters to hunt down and kill them. In this film, the abscene of sound creates an uneasy atmosphere, since typical films create multitudes of sounds, but, this film does not, instilling fear into the viewers. The plot also amounts to a great amount of fear, as the mother must deliver a baby during this apocalyptic time. This film is a great example of unique techniques to create an uneasy atmosphere.

 Other examples of horror films include:

  

Hereditary (2018)

Sinners (2025)

Megan (2022)

The Purge (2013)

The Thing (1982)

Learning with Sound

  This year, I have already learned so much about the media sphere. But, for the last weeks I have learned more through sound. I have learned various strategies and ways media artists use to create sound. For example, the uses of synchronous or asynchronous sound used in creating soundscapes, the collection of all of the sounds presented in a scene. For the past few weeks, we have had two projects with dealing with sound in which we had to create two distinct soundscapes.

 The first of the two projects had me and my partner, Marcella create a soundscape from scratch. The soundscape had to be at least 1 minute in length, but could not be more than 2 minutes. No video was allowed, but, 7 words of dialogoue was permitted, which we used to our advantage. 4 of the sounds in the soundscape had to be created through a foley stage. The aim of this project was to create a soundscape through the use of layering in an editing software.

 To start with this project, we created a brainstorming sheet consisted of all of our ideas and sounds we wanted to use during the project. Immediately we came up with an idea of a tornado. Originally, we wanted to create a soundscape of someone rushing into a home, gathering supplies, and finding shelter, before getting swept up by the tornado. But, we realized that during the last part of the soundscape, there weren't many opportunities to layer sound, so the idea was scrapped. Fortunately for us, coming up with another idea was simple. Our next idea consisted of a tornado chaser trying to take pictures of the tornado, but ends up being killed by it, which we ran with. The 4 sounds that we created ourselves were stomping of feet on the grass, keys jingling, a man screaming, and a car door slamming. I edited the video, while my partner edited the foley video, which recorded our procedure while making the foley sounds. The link to the project is down below.

DierkingOliveros_soundscape_per4

 The second project had me and my partner from the one word film project return to that film to add a soundscape to that project. Members of the project had to work together to create a list of sounds used in the project. The project with the soundscape had to be created by each member, so there would be two different variations in the film since the original project consisted of 2 members.

 To start, my partner and I came up with a list of sounds from our original project. The one word film took place in a school setting, so we knew that we needed to have the film be surrounded with people talking, mimicking the setting of a school, throughout the video. Other sounds that were needed to be included was the chugging of water, throwing up sounds, plastic rustling, and more. Once we created a list of sounds, we then went on to create our different soundscapes. The link to the film with the soundscape is in the link below.

OWFSound_Dierking

 The use of sound is extremely important to create a quality piece of media. Originally, our One Word Film Project was extremely empty and souless, but, once we added sound, it started to feel like a cohesive piece. Throughout my experience learning sound, I have realized its importance in media.