Mise-en-scene: The creation of Avery Noris

 Mise-en-scene Project

About a week ago, my class and I were assigned the task to create a character with the help of a small description that was provided to us by our teacher. She called this activity the Mise-en-scene project. I had the privilege to work along side my group members Lina, Madison, and Ishaan. My group and I had to create/ bring content to bring our character to life.

Brainstorming

For our character we were told that they had many secrets and they had a dark past. At first, my group and I started throwing a bunch of ideas to the table. We started with deciding the gender and backstory for our character; then proceeded to looks. In order to get a good visual representation  to create her vibe and look, we created a Pinterest board. Each member of the group added the pins that they thought best represented Avery. This board helped us facilitate the process of creating the mood board and the character description.

Who is Avery Noris?

Avery Norris is a 23 year old student at NYU, studying English while working as a line cook in a cheap nearby diner. She came to New York in order to avoid the toxic past she left in her small hometown. Since the events that occurred all those years ago, Avery has closed herself off to friends and love, living as a loner majority of the time. However, despite this standoffish behavior, she yearns for company and companionship again. This leads her to adopt her cat, Poe, named after the poet Edgar Allan Poe. Avery cut off contact with her parents and almost everyone from her childhood, a difficult choice but one she had to make for herself. Still, nightmares about her past haunt her constantly, she turns to reading as a way to avoid sleeping as much. As she lives out her solitary life, she meets Evan, a fellow line cook with dreams of culinary school and his own restaurant. Evan is Avery's polar opposite with his lighthearted and charming personality, and he wants nothing more than to bring her out of her shell and into his life. However, in the end, Avery is a self fulfilling prophecy, she believes she is destined to be alone, and therefore pushes everyone away. She ends up packing her bags in the night and skipping town without telling Evan or anyone else her plans, always running from her own life.

Our Station

    Our station was comprised of 4 different screens and several pieces of tactile items.

We showed the mood board, her color pallet, her setting, her description, and her playlist.

Our group and I did our best to organize each part as best as possible in order for our peers to feel who Avery Noris is. 

 

Reflection

I am really proud of what my group and I have accomplished. I believe that this project was really fun to create and that my group members were astounding. I really enjoyed working with them and brainstorming ideas to bring this character to life. Something I wish we could have done better was bringing more tactile object for our station. Overall, I think we all did an amazing job executing this project.

Project Link

Genre Research- The thrill of Dystopia

 The Thrill of Dystopia

When I started to enter my teenage years I started to feel this urge to leave all the Disney Pixar films in the past and watch something new. I wanted to watch something different and something that I could relate to. Not only was this with film but with books too. I wanted to move on from Dork Diaries and read something exiting and juicy. This is were my love for Dystopia started.

Dystopia

Dystopia is a sub-genre that falls under the umbrella of Sci-Fi. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia. The definition of the word dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic. 

Content

Dystopian films/books usually contains an oppressive government. This government establishes unjust rules towards the population in order to "aid" society.

Usually there is a tyrannical figure or group that controls the society and gives cruel punishments when rules are not obeyed.

This is where the illusion of a perfect society comes in. These figures usually try to convince others that what they are doing is for the good of the people and that their society is great just as it is. 

 

The people in these societies grow tired and rebel against those in power. They find different ways to take back what once was theirs and the fight for what is right.  Scenes like these usually contain a lot of action and drama in order to develop the story without losing the audiences attention.

Production Techniques

Dystopian films are usually fast paced and they create a sense of excitement. The type of excitement that has you sitting at the edge of your seat. Dystopian films create this feeling by using a lot of visual effects. Visual effects helps convey something that might not be able to happen nor exist in real life or at least in our time. These effects are supposed to transport us into a different world and help us understand what type of film is being watched.

For example, in the movie Planet of the Apes a specific special effect technique is used to bring the characters to life. It is called motion capture. Motion capture is a strategy used by different teams that is composed of having actors wear specific suits with specific monitors to sense their movements and facial expressions. This is later processed by a computer and is then applied to an animation system.

This technique is very intricate and detailed. All of these small things that one doesn't even think about are very important to help convey that realistic image for audiences to enjoy.

Marketing

Dystopia is marketed in many different ways. However, the most popular way that it is marketed is by connecting current events to the theme. In many dystopian films there is always a connection of current events that occur in our day-to-day lives.

One good example is the movie and book series the Hunger Games. This movie illustrates the themes of wealth vs. poverty and how the rich will always benefit over the poor. This is specifically shown in a scene where the protagonist Katniss Evergreen (Jennifer Lawrence) walks into a room for an evaluation and then sees a room surrounded by glass above her. In the room there is a bunch of wealthy people having a feast and eating delicious food, while Katniss is below them and is trying to fight to get those type of delicacies to her people.

These types of scenes respond to the audiences and because they can relate to the characters and the content. That is why most of these films have raise millions and billions of dollars in the industry's market. 

Samples

The Maze Runner-Death Cure

The Maze Runner the Death Cure is the last film of the Maze Runner trilogy.

In this film the protagonist Thomas (Dylan O'Brian) is trying to find a cure to help cure his friend so that he can live. This movie is very fast paced and it keeps you on your feet. You never really know what will be the next move. In this movie you can see a lot reflections of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this movie the talk about finding a cure is constant throughout. People are fighting and battling a disease that is causing pain to their world. The citizens are in quarantine and those who have to work are constantly checked by officials. This is shown in different scenes throughout the film and it is very similar to what we were living a few years ago. 

                                                                                                                     

Divergent

In this movie the young protagonist Tris Prior (Shailene Woodly) is tested to see in which faction she belongs in. It turns out she belongs in most of them. She is Divergent. This means she thinks differently than others which could be dangerous. Tris is trying to cope with her special abilities throughout the film because she is afraid she will have to pay for being different. Despite this, she decides to fight back and use her abilities for good. This movie encourages young adults to use their abilities and to not allow to be put into a stereotype. People think in different ways and they have knowledge about different things. That doesn't make smart nor dumb nor tough. It makes you human and it makes you unique. Thinking outside the box and using your abilities for good will have a positive impact in the world.

More Examples

Fahrenheit 451 

The Electric State

The Book of Eli

 The Purge

Blade Runner 2049

Sound Project

Sound Project

A few weeks ago my partner Raina and I completed the sound project for our AICE media studies class.

We were required to create a 1-2 minute scene where we could only use sound to develop the plot. At least 4 of our sounds had to be created with the foley technique.

We used different digital sounds and foley sounds to create a Medieval jousting.

Brainstorming & Editing

My partner and I wanted to create a scene that wasn't typical for others to create. That is how we came up with the idea of creating a jousting for our scene. We first started by brainstorming our primary sounds. Sounds that are associated quickly by the audience like footsteps, the trotting of the horses, the metallic sounds of the armor, etc. Once we had our primary sounds we started storming out secondaries: medieval music in the background, the sound of the wind, the chattering of the audience, etc. Once we had completed our list of sounds we wanted to figure out which could be created through foley. After we had collected our 4 foley sounds we started scouting for our digital sounds. After we collected them all we started to organize them on Microsoft Clipchamp. My partner Raina focused on the primary sounds and I focused on the secondary. We both aligned it as best as possible and came up with what I believe was a win.

Reflection

I am really proud with what my partner and I came up with. I believe with did a great job on bringing this piece to life. We allowed our imagination to flourish and we had a lot of fun creating this wonderful project.

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