Mena Guy's Blog

During my trip to the MoMI, I witnessed a demonstration of voice overs and dubbing. My tour guide brought us into a sound studio and taught us how the dubbing process worked. He made four students in our group record themselves speaking some lines from a Marilyn Monroe film. We saw how the tone of the voice can change the mood of the film. Another thing that can change the mood of the film is the sound effects. My tour guide also allowed us to choose the sound effects for a car chase scene in one of the Terminator movies. The students voted on sillier sound effects, which made the film seem like a comedy. Another thing I found interesting was practical effects used in films vs CGI and digitally produced effects. Films like The Nightmare on Elm Street used props, makeup, and close up camera angles to make the film come to life. In one scene of The Nightmare on Elm Street , my tour guide told us that the production team used a giant sweater to film a scene. With the use of cinemati

In the film "Old Boy" at about 13:33, a scene begins with a close up of the protagonist's hand. He is tattoing a tally mark into his skin. There is a cut to the corner of his bed where he puts the needle back. Another cut to him digging into a wall with a metal chopstick. This is a series of cuts is related to his daily routine and shows the viewers how his life is with the juxtaposition of the images. The next few cuts are an example of the Kuleshov effect. There is a close up shot of his hand with some tally marks tattooed onto it, then there is a cut to a close up shot of him digging into a wall, another cut to his hand with more tally marks, and then a cut to the hole in the wall that is now evidently much deeper. Having the images put together, the viewer can assume that over the years that the hole in the wall gets deeper. In this last portion of the scene, there is a cut to a wide shot the other side of the hole. The protagonist's head emerges from the hole thi

This is an interview I did with my classmate Elba. I interviewed her about her fear of rats, and we dug into the root of her fear back to her childhood.

It's 12pm in the afternoon, and I am on my way through Times Square. There are multiple languages in the air. A typical landmark of New York City, especially Times Square. The mixture of multiple languages spoken at such a high volume that it sounds like gibberish. That's the beauty of Times Square though. The sound of diversity made me smile, but I also groaned to myself at the feeling of claustrophobia emanating within me. Two Spanish women passed me by, then a man with a thick Chinese accent. The man with the Chinese accent was yelling on the phone as he dragged a large, dirty backpack of goods across the pavement. The bag scraped against the street, making a loud brushing noise as it slid past me. The brushing noise of the bag wasn't as loud as it could be, because it was masked by the whistles and screams of the policemen. Construction tools clanked against the ground as workers were busy fixing the roads. There seems to always be some sort of construction going on. Si

project1_final from Mena Guy on Vimeo .

My name is Mena Guy. I’m from South Florida, but I moved to New York when I was fifteen. When the recession hit, my father lost his job and we moved in with my grandparents for a while. I fell in love with New York and it’s diversity of people and cultures, so I never left. As a child, I constantly found myself conjuring up stories; making up new worlds, people, universes in my head. I’d write them down as fast as I could, refusing to let a single drop of the story escape me. Like an artist, I was painting a picture, but with words. I have always been captivated by the film industry, because I believe we all have a story to tell. My goal as a writer and a filmmaker is to continue painting those pictures, and help other people bring their stories to life. I find inspiration in my daily life. Through other writer’s work on the internet, through music, through casual conversations with people. I enjoy reading fiction books and screenplays. I also watch films and documentaries about