Media-en-Scéne

 For our Multimedia Mise-en-Scène project, our goal was to bring a fictional character to life using different creative elements like visuals, sound, and interaction. We made a digital “station” that represented a character’s personality, interests, and environment through media. My group’s main goal was to make the station feel like you were actually stepping into the life of our character, Alice Rose.

Alice Rose is a 14-year-old middle school student who’s super into technology, video games, and music. She’s a total tech-savvy girl who loves building things, especially robots, and experimenting with gadgets. She’s creative, curious, and spends most of her time coding or tinkering with stuff. We designed her to represent a generation that’s really into and interested digital media and self-expression through technology. To illustrate Alice’s character, I made an interactive Scratch game where players can click on different objects that reveal parts of her world. Some of these items include a robot she built, a desktop computer, a broken monitor, a sticky note with the character description, and a picture of her and her friends. Each object gives a small glimpse into her life, for example, the broken monitor shows how loyal she is to her friends and fix things for them, while the robot shows her creativity and skill. We also had music playing in the background to match her vibe and make the whole experience feel more alive.

When setting up our character station, we arranged everything to look like her workspace. The Scratch game was the main focus, with the robot and the computer near the center to show her passion for technology. The music helped set the mood and represented her personality, chill but full of energy. In terms of representation, we used signs and symbols like the robot and tech setup to show Alice’s identity as a young inventor/creator.

As a group, we worked together by thinking of what a person like Alice would be interested in and what objects would best show that. Everyone added ideas, from what kind of music she’d listen to, to what kind of technology she’d build. The process went smoothly because we all shared ideas and helped each other out. When coding the Scratch game I added a bunch of sounds and small texts. In the end, we were proud of how everything turned out, our character felt believable, unique, and relatable. It really showed how different media elements can work together to represent someone’s personality.

Here’s the scratch game->  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1232512039

Genre Research Blog

 

🎬 Genre Research Blog

Genre: Psychological Horror

Genre Conventions – Content:

Psychological horror focuses on the mental and emotional states of characters rather than just physical fear. Instead of monsters or gore, it uses isolation, paranoia, guilt, hallucinations, and the breakdown of sanity to scare the audience. The tension usually builds slowly, with mystery and unease instead of jump scares. Characters often face their own minds or dark truths rather than an external villain.

Genre Conventions – Production Techniques:

Filmmakers use low lighting, eerie sound design, and distorted visuals to reflect mental instability. Camera angles are often tilted or close-up to make viewers uncomfortable. The editing tends to be slower and more disorienting to match the psychological confusion. Sound plays a huge role like quiet ambient noise, whispers, or sudden silence heighten suspense. Color palettes are often dark, muted, or grayish to create a bleak mood.

Institutional Conventions – How the Genre Is Marketed:

Psychological horror films are often marketed with mystery-based trailers that reveal very little of the plot but focus on creepy atmosphere and emotional tension. Posters usually highlight a single face or unsettling image rather than monsters or violence. These films target an audience that enjoys intellectual suspense and emotional storytelling. Typically older teens and adults who prefer thought-provoking horror instead of just blood and gore.

Film Sample #1: Get Out (2017)

Jordan Peele’s Get Out embodies psychological horror through its mix of social tension and paranoia. The film slowly reveals that the protagonist is trapped in a horrifying situation, not because of monsters, but because of the disturbing intentions of people around him. The suspense comes from psychological manipulation, eerie silence, and the sense that something is deeply wrong even before the truth is shown. The movie uses close-up shots and unsettling sound cues to make the audience feel trapped in the same fear and confusion as the main character.

Film Sample #2: Black Swan (2010)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan explores obsession and the psychological breakdown of a ballerina striving for perfection. The horror doesn’t come from supernatural elements but from the collapse of the main character’s mind. The distorted mirrors, flickering lights, and sudden hallucinations represent her crumbling reality. The film’s use of tight camera angles, intense music, and color symbolism (like white vs. black) are classic psychological horror techniques.

Other Film Examples Within the Genre:

1. The Shining (1980) – IMDb Link
2. The Babadook (2014) – IMDb Link
3. Hereditary (2018) – IMDb Link
4. Us (2019) – IMDb Link
5. The Others (2001) – IMDb Link
6. Midsommar (2019) – IMDb Link
7. The Sixth Sense (1999) – IMDb Link

Sound Projects

 

Sound Projects Reflection

During our sound lesson and assigned videos, I learned how sound can completely change the way a story feels. Sound is more than just background noise it creates mood, tension, and emotion, and it can even tell the story on its own without visuals. I especially learned how layering, editing, and organizing sounds carefully makes a project feel more realistic and engaging.

For this unit, we worked on two sound projects. The first was creating an original audio story using only layered sound effects, while the second was enhancing our One Word Film Project by adding sound to the visuals.

Sound Project #1: High School Party Raid

For my first project, I decided to create a sound story about a high school party being raided by the police. During brainstorming, I listed out all the sounds that would be needed to make the scene realistic, like loud music, people talking, laughter, doors opening, police sirens, and the sudden silence when the raid happens. My outline helped me keep these sounds in order so the story made sense from start to finish, starting with the fun party vibe and then shifting to chaos and fear when the police arrived. I used clipchamp for editing, which allowed me to layer the sounds and adjust the volumes so nothing got lost. I think what I did well here was creating contrast between the loud, energetic party atmosphere and the serious, tense moment when the police came in. If I could improve, I’d like to add more natural crowd noise to make the party sound bigger and more realistic.

MendezNavasGimenez_soundscape_per4.m4a

Sound Project #2: One Word Film with Sound

For the second project, I took my One Word Film, Serious, and added sound to bring the visuals to life. In brainstorming, I thought about what the classroom would actually sound like during a test, quiet scribbling, papers moving, a clock ticking, and even the nervous sighs of the unserious student. My outline helped me match sounds to each scene in the storyboard, so I always knew where a sound should go and how it should connect to the next shot. I edited this using ClipChamp, adding subtle details like footsteps when the boys walked in and the sound of tapping when the unserious student tried to cheat. What I think I did well was using sound to emphasize the differences between the two students: calm, steady sounds for the serious one, and fidgety, awkward noises for the unserious one. If I could improve, I’d want to make the room feel even more immersive by adding background classroom sounds, like faint coughing or chairs squeaking.

OWF_Sound_Mendez.mp4

Overall, these projects taught me how powerful sound is in storytelling. From brainstorming to editing, each step helped me build something that felt more realistic and engaging. Project #1 was more chaotic and exciting, while Project #2 showed me how sound can make even a simple scene more intense and meaningful