AICE Media A Level introduction "Dating Profile"

 Hello my name is Maven Lebron and I am back for my second year of AICE Media Studies but this time I'm in the A level course. I am excited to tackle the new year of media studies and learn more about how media works.

1.  What were some of the important lessons you learned last year about the process of producing media?  What was harder than you thought?  Easier than you thought?

- Some of the important lessons I've learned was the steps to the filmmaking process like production, exhibition, and distribution. Another important lesson that I learned was the importance of using cinematography, editing, sound, and mise-en-scene to help develop meaning. The entire process of producing media is very complex and to learn and remember all of it is quite difficult. I am ready and expecting to go back and study up on anything that I may have trouble remembering or even just understanding. From the producer to the distributor I believe the entire process is very important to know so you can truly understand how media works and I’m glad that I have taken much of that knowledge and understanding with me to this new year.

Filming the movie and editing everything together was much harder than I thought thinking back to when I worked on my film opening. When editing you need to be so specific when you cut or how you match up the sound because if you mess those up they are extremely obvious to catch and can really hurt the production value of the media piece. I also had a hard time filming as I continued to do draft after draft of my film opening to where the story changed over and over which then led to more complications. These complications included things like where are we going to shoot now or what equipment do we need now. Those things together make the creations of a media piece such as my film opening much more difficult than I ever would’ve expected.

Although yes I did change the film opening over and over the story was always easy to recreate. I was always very excited about the story as it is something that I would want to watch which helped me gain that excitement from making the film opening. Obviously though this year won’t be as easy as last year but I don’t think it will be as hard as I suspect. Another thing that was easier than I thought was the writing. Being able to see how all the four production values come together to create meaning was much easier than I thought it would’ve been when entering the class. I hope the skill will transfer over this year although I may be a bit rusty but it’s okay because I will get a feel for it again as we begin this new year in the A level course.

2.  What are some of the important social issues being reflected in our media today?  (Make sure you provide examples and explain how those examples reflect a social issue(s) of the day.

- One of the social issues that I have seen be reflected in today's media is neglect. The show that comes to mind when thinking of this issue being represented in media is the popular American comedy drama show Shameless. In this show a character Frank Gallagher is a father of six children which he entirely neglects. In the show he is seen to be an alcoholic and is just a generally selfish person always looking out for himself and no one else. This relates to a real type of family dynamic in the world nowadays with neglectful parents and troubled children. When thinking of this question this was the first example that I thought of, although very specific the meaning behind this is very important as in our media today problems with mental health aren't shown as much as some people believe they should be and this show I believe shows a dark corner of the American nuclear family.

Another example of a social issue being reflected in media is the idea of problems with mental health effecting someone’s life and in this case especially their physical health. This is shown through the movie “The Whale” starring Brendan Fraser which came out in 2022. This movie follows a character who’s mental health is so bad that the main character basically hides in his home and eats himself to death. This is a social issue in the United States because as I said before mental health hasn’t been represented in media as much as it should and this is another example of how it is. This is also an example of the weight epidemic in the United States as about 1 in 3 American adults have obesity as stated by the American cancer society. This is a huge problem because obesity can lead to many health problems such as heart disease. I believe something like this is important to be represented as I believe it is an important social issue not only in the United States but in the world so representing this in the media helps gain awareness.