Monday, May 4, 2020

Audiences/Institutions Essay


1.      Asses the importance of marketing in film
              Many filmmakers have trouble kicking off and being able to widely sell their product, and this majority of the time is caused by their marketing techniques. Marketing is essential to the success of any film. This is because the marketing has to appeal to a variety of audiences globally in order for it to become popular. This is what boosts the film to be distributed into a real media text seen by individuals as widely as possible. If marketing fails, the film usually does as well, or it gets little to no recognition.
              Initially, marketing comes in many different forms. One of the most common is cross promotion of the film on TV. This showcases the film in various ways so that it can be seen by a large amount of people. An example of this would be the cross promotion used in Beauty and the Beast. This movie was promoted on a very popular show called The Bachelor. This led people who watched the show to be interested in the film that was being promoted. This goes along with building an interest among these individuals, they also need to have the knowledge on where or how they could stream or go to watch the movie in person. So, the promotion of the Beauty and the Beast was put out to not only grab the attention of people but to also give information that could be easily searched up to find out how it could be viewed. This shows that cross promotion is one of the most important methods of marketing available, because it interests people who buy or watch a specific product to go ahead and watch the movie or film that is being promoted. Another amazing example of how cross promotion has been used was in the movie Black Panther. This was a very recently made movie, so there were high expectations as to what they were going to do to market it. They definitely exceeded these expectations when they had their movie encouraged in the NBA finals. This was an amazing use of cross promotion because the NBA finals had approximately 18.5 million viewers. When the trailer for Black Panther was debuted, the number of watchers were insane. Because of the large audience that had seen the amazing trailer, the Black Panther soon reached social media where it was retweeted multiple times around the world. It became a very popular movie, and many could not wait for it to be released. Because of the amazing use of cross promotion, the trailer racked up around 89 million views in the first 24 hours of it being released. This included the immense amount of the NBA final’s audience. This caused a large amount of people to watch the movie and contributed to the extraordinary success of it.  This leads to the movie getting more views and money, which is substantial for the filmmaker.
              Furthermore, another version of this synergy comes from films being promoted on products. A powerful instance of this was used in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. The main characters in this movie were displayed on Doritos chip bags. When Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 was released, it was in the year 2017. The number of Doritos chips eaten in that year made up about 1.48 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of sales. This shows that there is a very high consumer rate for this specific brand of chips, which means that when Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 exhibited there was a very high number of people that saw this synergy. Because of the extraordinary design of the characters in this movie, there were most likely a high number of people that were influenced to check out the movie of this product. Also, because many people love and trust the popular Doritos brand, the characters of this movie being displayed on the packaging suggested that the movie was very important and worth the views of these alleged chip consumers. This contributed to the mass amount of people that eventually saw the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Another prime example of this type of marketing was used in the movie Jurassic World. Because this movie consists of many different types of dinosaurs, the clever way used to market this movie was to make Lego toy dinosaurs. There is a wide variety of people that loved these dinosaurs from kids to paleontologists. Because of the amazingly detailed dinosaurs presented in this movie and trailer, the Lego toy dinosaurs were sold across the world before the movie was even done being produced. There were even individuals making YouTube videos on their collection and purchasing of the Jurassic world dinosaurs. This intrigued a colossal audience to view the movie Jurassic World when it was released on June 12th, 2015. For many movies, filmmakers are suggested to spend around 20-25% of their money on marketing itself. This is because it is dire to the audience that it collects, as presented by these two pure examples. Because of the shrewd marketing both of these movie example distributed, the success rate of the two skyrocketed.
              Marketing is one of the most important pieces involved in selling a movie. Without it, there would be no way to get a film noticed by a large variety of audience. If this were to be the case, it would be very difficult for the movie to gain popularity. Marketing is crucial to create a fan base and getting media exposure. There is so much work put into targeting an audience to see the presented film. The success of a movie undoubtedly relies heavily on the process of marketing, as it always has and always will.

Friday, April 24, 2020

24 Practice Extract Essay

24 Practice Extract Essay
              The extract presented was a film focused on the main genre: Drama. The clip that was provided was a scene that involved an interrogation between a detective and a suspect. The theme of the video was mainly about keeping your calm in a pressure-filled situation. It is very difficult to keep one’s head on straight if they are in a conflict that is not being easily solved. This was portrayed in the film 24 by the use of various camera, editing, sound, and mis-en-scene techniques.
              Clearly, the intention of the author was to create a suspense-filled film that easily captured the audiences’ attention. In the beginning of the extract, it starts off with a man walking into a room. As he walks, there is a use of non-diegetic sound that suggests the man has power. This proposes to the audience that he is a place of higher authority than the other actress who is also in the room. Before any dialogue begins, there is a shot of one of the props in the same room. This prop is a security camera. Along with the camera, there is also a table, chair, and papers which are placed in front of the suspect. This helps the audience to identify the scenery of the two actors contributing to the dramatic mood the author is trying to create.
              Furthermore, in the middle of the extract, it is recognizable that the man and woman are in an interrogation room. This places the actual setting and shows that the man is a detective trying to wring a name out of the suspect. After this is established, there are a series of close-ups showing the actors emotions towards each other. This also shows their reactions towards the type of dialogue being used. This contributes to the dramatic feeling of audience when they realize what situation the actors are in. The dialogue that they use shows the audience what the characters are talking about and why they have the emotions they towards one another. This also shows the depth of the conversation, specifying that there is tension between the two. This creates a sense of suspense in the audience, as it is a slight indicator that something bad is going to happen.
              Moreover, the last three unique elements used to create the overall theme were a jump cut, wide shot and split screen. When the detective was trying to get a name out of the suspect, there was a jump cut to three supervisors watching the security camera. They were making sure that the detective didn’t do anything harmful to the subject because she was a valuable source of information. They were intently watching the screen, as if they expected him to lash out with anger at the suspect. This created suspense because it showed the audience there was most likely going to be a conflict occurring in the near future. Shortly after this edit, there is a wide shot of that exact prediction. The detective got so furious that he flipped the table over and grabbed the suspect by the neck, pinning her against the wall. This created a large thrill because what was expected to happen actually did, and it was at risk of the detective’s entire occupation. This added to the drama of the scene. Right after the detective pinned the suspect against the wall, there was a split screen of him choking her and the supervisors running to stop him from killing her. This created a huge rush in the audience because it was almost unknown whether or not the three supervisors would get to the interrogation room on time. The scene shortly ends after the detective is escorted out, leaving the suspect smugly in the interrogation room.
              In conclusion, the main idea of the movie was created from the act of the man not being professional by the use of camera shots, angles, movements, editing, sounds, and mis-en-scene. Because the detective exploded with agony, he was unable to get the information out of the suspect and was taken off the case. This establishes the theme that not staying collected in a stressful situation can lead to more futuristic problems. Because of the amount of suspense and thrill, this action backs up the theme and proposes that the main genre of the film is drama.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Movie CCR

This CCR was by far the most time consuming project of all. We had to record ourselves answer our 4 CCR questions provided to us by our teacher. After making a 12-15 minute video of  ourselves elaborating on each question. We the had to insert pictures over our voice to show we could edit. I used two forms of inserts. The two I used were split screen and the a regular insert on top of everything. Making the CCR took a very long time. This was because there was so much footage that going through it all and inserting was the most tedious work I've ever done. I had to go through each clip and listen to the entire thing and insert pictures over it, trim unnecessary parts, etc. When I was finally done with this, I ran into a new problem: I didn't have enough footage. My video was about 45 seconds short and I didn't really know what to add on at that point. This meant that I had to go back through every single piece of footage. When I went back through the footage I had to split some apart to make a new video be put in between to add on more time. This was EXTREMELY time consuming. Then, when I thought I was finally done and that things were running smoothly, I ran into yet another problem. I could not transport my video anywhere because it was too large. The google slides on my phone wouldn't let me upload a video onto them, so I had no way of getting it onto blogger. This crushed me because time was ticking and I knew if I didn't turn it in that would be a 0 worth 20% of my grade. That would break my heart because of how hard I worked on it and how much time I spent making it as good as it could get. Then, I called in for some help. After trying to follow the Media directions on Canvas, I failed and called in for backup. I broke up my video and had my friend help me put it onto the slide. I finally finished, and now I can go to sleep :).

2 Min Movie


This project was where we had to make the first to minutes of an actual movie. In either groups or alone, we had to think of ideas to make a pitch for our movie. After finalizing my pitch, I began working on the storyboard to plan my shots out. This really helps when you begin filming because you have a constant reference to look at if you forget what you are shooting at the moment. When I began shooting with my phone, it was so much fun. My family likes to play around, so it was a very laughable experience. When we were shooting the hand coming up to grab my sister for instance, we had to retake that shot about ten times. This was because my mom was playing the hand, and kept laughing and being really dramatic wit it. This is when I realized that I was going to do a Comedy/Horror instead of just a plainly horrific movie. This made the experience much more enjoyable. I had to draw bruises onto my sisters leg using just markers and those turned out pretty well as well. I got some cool shots of them that you can see in the movie as a close up. I worked really hard on this movie. It definitely made me much better at Media as a whole. I developed many skills that I didn't have before by making this movie. I thought it was a very enjoyable experience, and I learned a lot from it. I hope that I was able to add enough suspense to it, so that it intrigued people after it ended. That was my main goal, for people wanting to end up watching more. To leave them on a good cliff hanger. I feel like I achieved this pretty well through the various techniques that I used throughout the video. 

Music Video

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EsmxI18SWF6g6ClrCZB5KYGb6130oXbLHHi-4NeiB-E/edit?usp=sharing
After I filmed my commercial, I was very excited that I was able to start working on my music video. The knowledge that I gained from completing my commercial made the filming and editing process much easier for me as I was more prepared. I was eligible to learn from the mistakes that I made in my music video to help myself improve on this project. Overall, I had a lot of fun filming this music video with two other people that I love spending time with. In the end, I created a very unique film that I am very proud of.

Gatorade Commercial

When my group and I began working on this project, we didn't think there would be more to come like it. We did out best to put together a commercial running off of the first knowledge we got from our Media class. This was a very fun activity, and allowed us to start getting creative with how we would shoot. I had a lot of fun making this video as we got to experience many things that would help us for the future. This project made us really start to think about filming and editing. Because I was in a group, we all split up the work. Adriana and I acted and filmed while Ben and Andrew took to the editing. Doing this project is what introduced us to filming and editing. WE were able to get some experience from it for future projects. This helped to build up all the skills that I have now. This was probably my favorite project out of all three. This was because it was a fun time. We got to go out on the field during class and play soccer! If you think about it, that seems pretty fun. And all we had to do was record me playing soccer. We had so many bloopers because when I shot the ball, Ben was supposed to be the goalie and catch it. However, he did not catch it. This led to some amazing memories as you can tell. All in all, making this was probably my favorite project of the year because it was lighthearted and fun.

Friday, March 20, 2020

Re-Editing the Movie

So today I re-edited the new clips into my movie. There was a lot I had to do because most of the reshoots were of clips that had titles on them. This made it so I also had to redo the titles. This time when I edited I used my computer. This made it so I had many more options. I used iMovie once again because it has a lot of features that are easy to use. I used this to put in the titles hat I had to delete. Then I began doing little things like working with the sound. I was able to turn up the background music or the sound of the actual video. This made it so that you could hear it much more clearly. It also made it sound more like an actual movie.
Then I worked with the lighting and made it good for all the videos. This also helped with making it look more professional because everything was more visible. Then I began working on the transitions. I am a perfectionist so this took a long amount of time. It was difficult to know which transition I should use by just looking. This made it so I had to test out each transition for each video because that’s how I am. Eventually I was able to finish with this. It really helped with the choppiness. I also was able to make it more clear for when a new scene had started. For these I usually used a fade to show the passage of time. This made it look SO much better to which I cannot emphasize. It made it so much more smooth. After I was finished with all this it looked like 10X a better product then the original. I was happy with the end product. I was even happier that I know that I had finally finished the video.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Actual Reshoot

So today (thursday) I actual did the retakes I needed for my video. Some were to replace scenes that were unnecessary. Most however were to replace the bad acting my sister was guilty of. It was another fun experience because some of the retakes my mom had to take. She loves acting and shooting and she was making it a really funny experience. She was the one who played the hand that grabbed Kellys leg in the beginning, and wouldn’t stop making it as dramatic as she could. It was hilarious and we had to get multiple retakes because of the amount of laughter bloopers there was. It was a good time and it made the video much better. It was more choppy before because the scenes wouldn’t flow together. So, we fixed that as well by taking more shots that would happen directly after the scene before. The reshooting messed up a lot of the titles that I had and the credits. All of that will have to be done when I reedit the video. That is going to take quite a long time but it’s worth the better footage. All of this helped to make the video much more professional. I’m surprised by how much it made the movie better. I also began watching the beginnings of horror movies for some inspiration before I took the reshoots. This made it easier for me to get an idea on what shots caused what reactions and so forth. This really added to the genre of my movie because it was slightly lacking the terrifying feeling. This will add to the suspense as well which is perfect. It will be able to hook cambridge more and I will probably get a better score because of it. I am glad that reshooting is over and all that’s left is the reediting! I’m going to do that tomorrow because i’m pretty burnt out today.

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Re-shoot Blog (Plan)

So today when I get home to school I am going to be re-shooting some parts of my movie. After watching a couple other peoples movies, it made it more clear as to what I wanted mine to look like. I want to make it more realistic because there were some bad acting done by my sister and mom. I also am going to make the video less choppy and more consistent. I didn't realize how weird it would look if a scene just cut to another until I saw the finished product. I will also be fixing this. I am slightly worried however because my film is already 2 min long and that's the max it can be so I don't know how I'm going to add more clips to make it smoother if we have a time limit. But that is something that I can figure out after I shoot more scenes. I also noticed that in some of my videos, there isn't enough variation of different shots and angles, so I will be working on this as well. I feel like my reshooting and reediting will make the movie look so much better. Because I know how to do it now, I already have multiple ideas in my head as to what I am going to shoot. There are going to be more close-up, POV shots, etc. These are cool and unique shots and if used correctly can influence the whole audience. I want it to also look more professional so I am going to go through it again and smoothly connect the videos on my computer instead of my phone. Using iMovie on my phone makes it have less options than if I were to do it on my computer. There is also many more things you can play around with like lighting, music, etc. That reminds me, I will also be inserting new music because I do not feel like the music I put into the video represents it or fits it well. So, that is going to change. I am glad to start thinking about all of this so that it can be written down for when I actually do the reshoots. This will probably be done tonight or tomorrow night depending on the availability of my family members.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Editing Blog (3rd edit)

After I was done shooting my film, I began to edit. All I had to do was put the videos together and then shorten them. This took some time because of the immense amount of footage that I had on my phone. Eventually I was able to clip everything to the length it had to be to make it 2:00 minutes. After I put all the videos together, I realized that I had way too much footage for the video. It had almost 4 min of footage, so I had to start cutting some off and deleting some unnecessary clips. After I was done with this, it was time to add the music and titles. This was a little difficult because of the selective options. I eventually found a title that could fit in every clip just right. Then I began to write every single title for the characters, director, etc.

When I was doing the titles, I wasn’t able to change the color of them. This slightly disappointed me because some of my backgrounds were too light and the titles would blend in. But I ended up figuring out how to make them pop enough to read. When i’m revising my video, I will most likely re-edit everything on my computer so i’m able to apply more changes to it. After I finished with the titles, I began working on the music in the background. I had to put an energetic sound in the beginning, where it showed my production names etc. But then because it was a horror movie I had to add in a creepy dramatic background music. This was easy to do as i simply recorded it on imovie off my phone and it was easy to hear but not too overpowering. It ended up being a pretty good video in my opinion. I will need revisions but that will be done in a few days. 

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Peer Review blog

In class on tuesday, we began to do peer reviews. I had to review Rigos. When I was watching his video, what really surprised me was the original storyline he had. It was about about a girl who gets in an accident and looses her memory. After it happens, she begins to start getting her memories back every once in a while. It was a really good storyline that I havent seen before. I really liked the way it was present in chronological order. The memories were very detailed. It was a cool video that I dont think I could have thought of myself. It was just very creative. There were very good qualities in the video, but there were something’s that could be fixed.

One suggestion I would make to improve the video would be to clear up the lighting issue. Some of the videos were difficult to see. This was because of the lighting. This made the video less enjoyable. You couldn’t really see what was going on so it made it so you missed chunks of the video. Even though it still followed the storyline, there was a lot left out just because of the lighting. That is a very easy fix because you can either edit them to make them brighter, or just retake the video. This would greatly help the appearance of the video and improve the quality as well. It would make it look more like a professional movie. Besides that, the video was very good and with the fix it could be a 10/10.


Monday, March 2, 2020

Filming/editing blog (final revisions)

Today I did the final films that I had to for my video. It was quite hilarious to make with my sister my mom and her friend. We had to improvise for the end because my dad wasn’t going to get home until very late. So, my sister called her friend over and we used her as my dad instead. It worked out well, I didn't even need to change any directions. So we began filming the end of the video. Tomorrow in class we will see if I need to make any revised videos or new clips. I can probably make it more suspenseful and creative after the peer reviews. I hope they give good feedback as to what I can do to make my video better. I hope they like it and I get scored well on it.

After I finished filming the rest of the video, with the help of my sisters friend, I began to edit. This was fairly easy. All I had to do was organize the videos I had made today and then clip them. Clipping them took some time and I had to redo it a couple times. This was because I had to match each video to the other to make them believable happen. This was difficult but I made it work. After I finished clipping and organizing all the videos, I loaded them onto imovie. This is where I began putting in the music, titles, etc. This was quite the project because I am a perfectionist. It will definitely have to be revised after the peer edits because I do not completely like the way it turned out. I wish it were more suspenseful and scary rather than humorous. But that cannot be done tonight.

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Editing Blog (clipping vids)

Unfortunately I had no time to film between monday and thursday. This was due to my teachers deciding to pile on work to sophomores who had never been taught to schedule or organize themselves. I had two major tests on the same day and it was extremely difficult studying for both and even when I did i’m pretty sure I failed. But enough about that, this caused me to have no time to film. So instead of filming, I decided to begin trimming the clips. This isn’t quite editing because when I think of editing I think more of doing the transitions and things like that. However I dont want to do any of that until I have all my clips. That would make it able for me to see how much I should cut the rest of the videos and adding transitions to see how much time I have. If I didnt do it like that I might cut the clips too far and realize I dont have enough time. Or vice versa I could have had too much time after putting in transitions and titles.

When I began to cut the videos, I had to think about the storyboard. Because we did too many storyboards for how long our video is, each box actually represents 2 seconds. This is quite annoying because how are you supposed to take a two second clip. Especially since my storyboard boxes have conversations in them and a lot of movement. When I am done with the video I will most likely have wayyyyyyy to much film. This is because each box on a storyboard is supposed to be 5 seconds. If this were the case for our final project we would have only had to do 4 storyboard but we actually had to do 10. I really don’t understand the reasoning for this especially because it’s making my video harder to film. But I cannot question my teachers ways so whatever they want us to do I will do. This made it so that when I was clipping the videos I tried to clip as much as I could. If each video I take has to be 2 seconds that’s going to be a VERY choppy video. We will see how this turns out.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Filming Blog (Beginning)

This weekend I was actually able to get some filming done. It was just the very beginning of the video because again we all had busy schedules. I followed the storyboard I created and it really helped me be more organized and quick. I first took an opening shot of my house. This was the easiest because it didn't require any props or actors. It was just a slow pan of the front of my house. This shot was just used to show the scenery. After that is when I had to wait for my sister to have time to film. She works on Sunday so we did it on Saturday after we were both able to clear time in our schedules. Then, I began shooting her.

We did not get that much filming done due to poor lighting and a busy day. However, it was nice to finally get a start on it. This is going to make it easier to get to work this coming weekend or any of the days during this week. Im slightly concerned because this week/weekend is the last days to film and edit before we have to turn it in for peer review. I do not want a bad grade on peer review, so I have to put together the film before then. This stresses me like every other project I have this week. I have many tests this week I need a lot of time to study for, lab reports, euro homework, english work, etc. All of it is making me very stressed and unmotivated making it very difficult for me to finish everything on time. Testing is coming soon which doesn't make me feel any better. I am just going to over-film this weekend so I don't have to after the peer review. I hope I am able to get the work done in time and I really don't know what to do if I can't. I really put my effort into all my classes and its making it very hard for me to finish anything on time.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Filming Blog (Or not...)

          For this blog, I was supposed to begin filming the first 2 min of the movie project. Unfortunately, I was unable to do this by Thursday. Almost everyday there has been an obstacle blocking us from filming. For instance, me and my sister go to my mom's school after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My film in the beginning needs to be with light outside, and having it be dark when I get home everyday isn't practical. On Monday and Wednesday we drove people home after school that live near Davie and I live near lighthouse point so that wasn't practical either. Then after dropping them, my sister and I would be starving so we would get food after. This took up all of our week time to do any filming, and the past weekend was a whole other story. Even though I could film the middle of the movie first, I cannot do that. My perfectionist mind has to have every video in order when I film or else it would make it way to difficult to edit and put them all together.

          Because I wasn't able to film yet this week, it will make this weekend more of a struggle. I will have to do twice the amount of filming that I prepared for. It will be difficult to get my sister to cooperate because she always goes out on the weekend. She is my main actor so I need her home in order to film. This will most likely make it so I film on Sunday, the night neither of us can go out because its a school night. Then I will have enough time to begin filming. I felt like it would take a long time to film the first two minutes but after thinking about it, the music video we did was about 1 minute and I had a lot of extra footage I could have put in. That whole video was able to be filmed completely in 2 days. So according to my calculations because this movie is 2 min then it should take 4 days at most to complete all filming. After that, I will put the videos together and clip them to see if we need any more or less footage.

         Because the project needs to be finished by the 3rd of March, I will have to finish filming in the next two weekends. This is perfect because I have 4 days which is what I need on weekends, and then any touch up videos can be taken during the week. The music video was slightly more rushed and for this project I am trying to be organized. Because of this, I am setting a specific day for my sister and I to complete most of the filming we did. I will make sure the weather outside is good, and hopefully there is a cool sunset I can add into the movie. Those shots are always nice and set a good mood. That will make me scaring the audience even better because they wouldn't expect it coming. I have recently thought about the type of music I will edit it in. In the beginning I am going to do a hype energetic sound to show my productions. Then it will change to a high pitched eerie sound when I present the movie title. I really think this movie is going to be good. I just have to get all the props to be able to do it correctly. This consists of things like fake blood, eye makeup, etc. I will need these to create fake injuries on the victim (Kelly). I am ready to begin filming this weekend and surprisingly a little excited.


Thursday, February 13, 2020

Planning Blog (Storyboard)


For this part of the final project, I had to make a storyboard. This is basically drawings and explanations for what if happening in the video with some camera angles. This makes it so when you go to film, it is very easy because you already know exactly what you need to do. Making this took a while because I had to do it by myself due to me not having a group. It all ended up taking a few hours. However now, when it comes to filming, it will be much quicker than if I did not have the storyboard to follow. Usually each box on a storyboard is worth about 5-6 second worth of film. In this case, that would have meant I did 5 min of filming. So for this, each box represented a couple seconds. In the end, I was glad to be finished and organized to begin the next step in the process: filming :).

Monday, February 10, 2020

Planning Blog (Titles)


For this blog I had to come up with all of the different titles that will be used in my title sequence of the film. Most of the titles just have my plain name. This is because I am not doing any group work. I will be the person behind the thinking, production, and editing of the film. The only names I had to come up with was MAC Productions and Doyle Bros. These both took some slight creativity but were relatively easy to think of. MAC productions is made because my sister calls me by that nickname. The Doyle bros was inspired by Warner bros and their famous studio. All of these titles were pretty easy to do. This just made it so that when i'm putting my title sequence together I don't have to remember the titles or come up with them on the spot. I will already have all of the titles that I need throughout the video. They are also in order of how they are most likely going to be presented. This just adds to the organization of this project. I am ready to edit in all of the titles to make a very delightful title sequence that has some creativity to it.

Planning Blog (Participation, Location, Health, Schedule)


This blog has to do with more planning aspects of the movie. I had to put together the participation of other actors in the movie, the locations the scenes will take place in, the health and safety of it, and a schedule. These all really help organize how I will attempt the movie. It made it much clearer as to how it will turn out in my head. Now, I have even better ideas for the film. There are a few different actors in the movie, all from my family however. The locations vary because the film has a lot to do with running away or getting away from a deadly creature. The health and safety isn't even a slight worry because there isn't really a scene that could end up in a bad injury. Maybe a scratch on the knee, a small bump on the head. But nothing too serious. For the schedule, that helped me to see how much time I needed to complete the project without having to stress. Now I will not procrastinate and I will stick to my guide so that my film can come smoothly together.

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Planning Blog (Shooting Script)

To make this shooting script, I used google slides again. This is the easiest to use because it automatically saves your work so it can never get lost. For this planning blog, we had to make a script of the camera angles we used and what is generally happening in each scene. When making this, I would look at all the scenes in my sound script and then play out what I thought the movie would look like in my head. I was able to make up the camera angles in my head as I went along, just by picturing what I would like to see it as if it were a real movie. It actually wasn't that difficult to do this because I had already made the sound script which gives a lot of ideas. These ideas helped me think of the descriptions on what would happen. It also helped with me deciding my final camera angles that I would use. I might have to make some tweaks once I am actually creating my video, but for now this is a good guideline as to how I should structure/go about this project. I am ready to get my hands dirty with filming.

Planning Blog (Sound Script)

For writing this script, I opened up google slides to begin a new power point. Writing out the script is a huge process for making the movie possible. After I was able to lay out ideas in my head, I quickly thought up of a script that would fit my scenery and camera abilities. I was not completely sure on how I was going to write the script, but once there were ideas in my head, the thoughts just kept flowing. My script had to be scary but also follow a story line. This was difficult to portray in a 2 minute video that includes a title sequence. This was challenging but I accepted it and kept writing. Overall, I think I made a pretty good script for the movie. Now I will be able to write out what will happen in the scenes much more easy. Now filming is going to be cake as soon as my storyboarding is finished. I am ready to get my hands on a camera to put these thoughts altogether.

Friday, January 31, 2020

Title Research (Godzilla: Final Wars)

- There are 17 titles used in this title sequence.
- The images prioritized in the opening sequence are ones of the actual Godzilla and the destruction it created.
- The connotation that the images carry is the mood of fear. It is created by the various screening it shows us.
- The genre is reinforced by the words popping out of and going away by Godzilla's electric fire breath.
- The film establishes an enigma from the showing of Godzilla destroying multiple people and buildings. It shows the combat between it and the military, but Godzilla looked like it was winning.
- The strategies used to appeal to audience were the ways they put the titles on the screen and the way they took them off. The background images also created a scared mood of the audience which was intended.
- The technology was used efficiently through various camera angles such as pans, tilts, medium shots etc. These all show the destruction of the city as Godzilla makes its way through. The editing of the words is done very nicely by a zapping method to show the words in the dark and a fire breathing method to get them off the screen. Very creative.

Title Research (The Final Destination)

- In this title sequence there were 21 titles.
- The images prioritized in this video are the ones of people being repeatedly killed or damaged by various weapons such as a nail gun, train. etc.
- The connotations the images carry are eerie dark ones. It was quite frightening to watch this title sequence.
- The genre was reinforced through the words and images of death. The titles went away by the destruction of them, like a screw driver twisting through the words.
- The film established an enigma from the beginning by showing a skeleton have repeated damage to it. The titles also would be smashed and turned into blood. This showed it was a movie dealing with some type of torture.
- The strategies used to ensure the film appeals to its audience is the way they put it together with the death of people and words. This created an eerie mood for the audience, which was directed.
- Technology has been used efficiently by the transitions they use of the words being smashed and blood splatter because of it. The words are also drilled, hit by a train, etc. This all shows the effectiveness of the technology.

Title Research (Twister)

- There were 6 titles in this title sequence.
- The images that were prioritized were ones of the tornado that the movie was about.
- The connotations that this title sequence carries are unnerved feelings because of a natural disaster. Because this movie deals with a tornado, it makes it more realistic.
- The genre is reinforced by the titles popping out of the dusty area around the twister. Then at one point letters get blown away by the tornado and then more appear in the debris.
- Twister develops an enigma by using letters that are in the midst of a twister. This shows the conflict that will happen later in the movie. At the end of the titles in the twister, there is a title of the dat eon a normal day.
- The strategies used to appeal to the audience was making the titles come out of the twister. It showed what would happen later in the movie and created the right mood for the audience.
- Technology has been used efficiently in this by editing the words to make them dissipate in the tornado and also reapear by the floating debris. It was very creative and probably took hard work.

Title Research (Manhunt)

- There were 7 titles in the title sequence of this horror movie.
- The images that are prioritized is a collection of people on paper with words written by them. In the empty spaces of the pictures with words, they put the titles.
- The connotations the images carry are a creepy feeling. It is showing people that look like suspects on a board.
- The genre is reinforced by the spread of red from title to title and terrifying background music. The words are in a specific font, almost italicized.
- The film establishes an enigma by setting an unsettling mood by the words and visuals used in the title sequence.
- The strategies that were used were creating a flow of titles that didn't make it seem like you were reading title after title but actually seeing a part of the movie with the titles because of the mood it created.
- Technology has been used efficiently because all of it was made with amazing editing skills. The camera doesn't really have various angles, it just slides over to each other title. It is smooth and looks the the camera is scanning a document.

What the Title Website

This website did in fact work (haha). It was very similar to the one before. As you can see, it has some very interesting title sequence photos in the picture. This really helped me think of the most creative way that I could integrate my titles into my video. When I clicked on the first box, it showed me the title sequence clip and it was amazing. Having the title sequence right can effect the whole video. In this clip, there were words coming to the screen and they formed the titles in the air. If I were to do a horror movie, I could really use these ideas to set the right mood for my video. Looking at this site makes me excited to plan out what my title sequence will be like. This taught me that the sequence can be whatever I would like it to be, and any ideas for it are good. I have already begun to think about what mine is going to look like and I think it will be very creative/cool. I may have words coming out of my sisters head to show she is going crazy. I could also have them be dropped out of her pocket when shes trying to get away from her killer when shes running and have the camera look down at them and it will be a title. I have many ideas popping into my head and I am ready to put them down on paper. Then sooner than later I will have them edited into my film. I really hope I will be able to make a cool title sequence with the materials that I have.

Art of the Title Website

When I opened this site, I immediately saw the screen I took a screenshot of above ^. After this, my computer would no longer let me go on the website because of a privacy error. I then tried on my phone as well, but it wouldn't work. It said that it had an expired certificate and could be stealing my information. Besides that though, this site is used to show the process behind the design of title sequences. It is an online publication dedicated to title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and video game industries. This would have helped me to create my two minute horror movie. It would have taught me how to start it out and tips and tricks that I could use. I wish that this website would work. It is okay that the site didn't work however, because there are multiple others as well. I will actually be using a different one in my next blog. That one I will actually be able to get some information out of. I hope that Art of the Title signs off on their certificate so they can continue to show people the process behind these films. This would have helped me with my title ideas so that my film didn't look jammed together. It also could have just sparked creativity as to what font or color words I would use. I will just have to use the other website, hopefully that one isn't expired.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Genre Research (Flatliners)

Costumes: The costumes used in Flatliners were normal clothes. However, when they are zapping their brains to see what its like to be dead they wear a medical gown.
Lighting: The lighting in flatliners is usually dim to give a creepy feeling to the audience.
Actors:
- Courtney: Ellen Page
- Marlo: Nina Dobrev
- Ray: Diego Luna
- Jamie: James Norton
- Sophia: Kiersey Clemons
Makeup: The makeup used in this video was to make people pale to look dead. There were also creepy beings that would show up in each individuals mind which all used makeup.
Props: The props that were used were the hospitals machine, the sensors to put on your body, a head set, etc.
Setting: There are many different settings in this video but the main one was in the room with their medical supplies putting each other to sleep so they could all experience what its like to be dead

Camera angles:
- eye level
- high angle
- low angle
- dutch angle

Camera movements:
- tilt
- pan

Camera shots:
- establishing shot
- aerial shot
- medium shot
- extreme closeup shot

What i liked about this movie was that it was unlike anyone I have ever seen. These students wanted to see what the brain did after death, if there was something alive after death in your head. They did this by putting each other asleep for longer and longer amounts of time but it made the people able to see the dead when they came back to life.

What I did not like about this movie was that it didn't follow a good storyline and it had a bad ending, if those elements were changed it would make it much better.

Genre Research (Carrie)

Costumes: The costumes used in are regular school girl clothes along with Carrie's overdressed self. She ends up wearing a dress in the end as well because its the schools prom.
Lighting: The lighting is usual in the beginning of the movie but at the end in the dance and at Carrie's house its dark and dimly lit.
Actors:
Carrie: Sissy Spacek
Margaret: Piper Laurie
Tommy: William Katt
Sue: Amy Irving
Billy: John Travolta
Makeup: There was a good use of makeup because someone ends up dumping pig blood onto Carrie in her white dress so there was a good use of fake blood right there. She also damages a lot of things and injures people so their injuries were made with makeup as well.
Props: The props that were used were a bucket, pigs blood, the room her mom traps her in has things in it, a knife etc.
Setting: The setting of the movie is mainly in Carrie's house and at her school.

Camera angles:
- high angle
- long shot
- two person shot
- over the shoulder

Camera movements:
- Tilt
- pan
- zoom

Camera shots:
- establishing shot
- wide shot
- aerial shot
- slow motion shot

The elements I liked about this movie was that even though it was an older film it still looked very realistic. It followed horror guidelines where there was a main villain that damages the things around her. What I like about what they did is that they didn't make a hero for the movie, Carrie just ended up getting over herself and becoming her own hero.

The elements I did not like is that the problem wasn't fully resolved. Carrie ended up destroying her whole house with her mom in it but saved herself because she was pregnant. That was an odd part of the movie and I didn't like it but besides that it was pretty horrific.

Genre Research (It)

Costumes: In it, the main villain is a clown. He wears a full clown outfit and speaks in a clown voice. The other characters are dressed as normal school children and parents.
Lighting: The lighting of the movie ranges from the sunny outside to the dark sewage.
Actors:
-Richie: Finn Wolfhard
-It: Bill Skarsgard
- Ben: Jeremy Ray Taylor
- Stanley: Wyatt Oleff
- Mike: Chosen Jacobs
Makeup: The clown has a lot of makeup to make him a clown with a scary face. The other people have no makeup. When one of the boys dies however his body becomes all deformed so he had makeup for that.
Props: The props that were used were a little sailboat. There were also rocks used against bullies. There was a knife used by the bullies. The clown has some weapons as well.
Setting: Most of the movie takes place at school but also in each boys house and the pipeline to find their lost friend who's assumed dead.

Camera angles:
- close up
- over the shoulder
- high angle
- low angle

Camera movements:
- Tilt
- Pan
- zoom

Camera shots:
- establishing shot
- wide shot
- medium shot
- two shot

What I liked about this movie is that it stayed on topic and didn't swerve from the storyline or become confusing in anyway. It was a horrific but easy to watch movie at the same time. There was a main killer who captured an innocent boy and this boys friends decided to go look for him after he disappeared into the sewage drain after the clown bit his arm.

I again did not have anything to complain about in this movie, I enjoyed every single part of it.

Genre Research (Hush)

Costumes: In hush, the costume that the predator uses is a white mask with a black beanie and a black jacket and pants. The prey wears a regular outfit.
Lighting: The lighting is dim because they are in the middle of the woods. The prey which is a lady lives in a house in the woods and her house is lit normally but she goes outside and it is dim out there.
Actors: The actors were:
Maddie: Kate Siegel
The man: John Gallagher Jr.
John: Michael Trucco
Sarah: Samantha Sloyan
Max: Emma Graves
Makeup: There is a lot of makeup used in this movie. When Maddie's friend comes over, she gets killed before Maddie even sees her but Maddie finds her later and she is covered in blood. She also tries to get away from the man and he ends up breaking her hand. Her fingers were all crooked and gross. Then, she ends up getting shot by his bow and arrow in the leg so she gets blood all over her leg. Then, in the end she kills him by stabbing a corkscrew into his neck and so there was blood there too.
Props: There was a good use of props in this movie. Maddie has a flashlight and a kitchen knife she uses to protect herself. The man has a crossbow. Everyone has phones, she has a laptop, etc.
Setting: The setting takes place at Maddies house in the woods.

(Camera)
Angles:
- Low angle
- Eye level
- Dutch
- Aerial
Movement:
- Pan
- Track
- Zoom
Shots:
- Two person shot
- Establishing shot
- POV shot
- Wide shot

Hush is a movie that I have watched several times and I love the scenery. It takes place in a wooded area so you already know its going to be a movie that has to do with isolation of the victim. There is a lot of violence and because the girl has a hearing deficit it makes it such a better movie because it does pov shots where you can't hear anything because that what its like for her.

I honestly don't have any complaints about this movie I loved all of its elements.


Genre Research (My opening sequence)

For my movie, it is going to be of my sister having a creature who follows her and she makes the smart decisions and does everything right and still gets killed by the creature in the end. I came to this conclusion because of many reasons. First, I have never seen a movie convey what I am trying to, and i’m excited to do that. Second, this is the most realistic thing I can do because of the lack of materials I have. And lastly, it’s just because I think it’s a really cool idea that i’m going to be able to wow cambridge with, and i’m ready to accept that challenge. I already have many ideas in my head for what I am going to do and what shots i’m going to use. I’m ready to begin filming as soon as I get a whole plan out for what’s going to take place.

Genre Research (Horror and Romance)

After doing the powerpoint on musicals, I decided to choose two different genres to explore the same common things that happen in those genres. The genres that I chose to do this for were romance and horror. These two genres are very different so I will get good insight on the different genres to help me put together my film I have to create. I will be able to use the common angles and lighting and sounds to make my video unique.

Common Camera Angles: Romance
-Over thé shoulder shot: This shot is what it says, a shot from over the shoulder usually facing another person. This is commonly used in romances.
-Two person shot: This one is quite obvious, as there are usually two people in a romance who fall in love with each other. Two person shots are when there are two people in the shot.
-Close ups: Close ups are shots that are close up usually of the face. These are used to show character emotions, and romances are emotional hence the shot.
-Long shot: These are shots that show full body. They can be used in romances for characters to show their body language towards another person.

Common mis en scene: Romance
-Lighting: romances typically have bright scenes that are beautiful to create a good mood in the people watching the film.
-Setting: there are many common shots for romances like being in a park or the beach. These are places of happiness and show freedom which is very commonly conveyed in romances.
-Props: there are many things to show that you’re watching a romance. There can be rose petals, heart shaped beds, two people getting it on.

Common editing: Romance
-In romances there are typically warm colors made by certain filters to portray a warm bubbly feeling.
-Inserts: there are many romance movies that have inserts of facetime, text messages, etc. These all show communication between the characters and relationship.

Elements of romance
-There is usually a strong hero who sweeps the other character off their feet.
-There is almost always conflict and emotional tension during some point in the movie
-There is a realistic believable plot
-And nevertheless, a happy ever after usually occurs within most romances

    Common camera angles: Horror
    -Aerial shot: these are shots from a birds eye view that make characters seem vulnerable and small compared to their opponent.
    -Close up: these are very often used to show the reaction on characters faces after something terrible has happened.
    -Track shot: these are also very often used to show fast movement and to create suspense. They are shots that look like someone is filming off a train, following the movement of a vehicle, person, etc.
    -Opening shot: these are used in the beginning of horrors to show the setting of where it’s taken place, a creepy building, castle, house, etc.

    Common mis en scene: Horror
    -Lighting: Usually horrors take place with dim lights to create a creepy affect on audiences.
    -Props that could be used are weapons such as axes, knifes, guns, arrows, etc. These are all very common because a horror usually has to do with someone killing another being.
    -Setting: there are many common settings for these movies, such as a creepy house, graveyard, the woods, etc.

    Common editing: Horror
    -Pace: there are many times in a horror movie where the pace has been sped up to create a sense of hurry and fear.
    -Cut away: these are commonly used to show the characters reaction of the situation they are facing.
    -Jump cuts: these are used to show the passage of time which can be used to scare the audience
    -Fade out: these are used to give a mysterious and tense feeling for the audiences, also leaving them on a cliffhanger.

    Elements of horror
    -There are almost always rules that people need to love by to survive, and the rules accidentally are broken and chaos breaks loose
    -There are usually an abundance of characters to make up for the ones who are most likely going to die
    -There is always the element of surprise
    -Proper theme music, suspenseful, fast paced, etc.
    -Sometimes there are cliffhangers that imply there could be a sequel 

    Saturday, January 25, 2020

    Genre Research (powerpoint)

    For the musical genre project, we had to draw a random genre from a hat and then create a powerpoint on it. The powerpoint showed all the key parts of the genre we picked, which ended up being musical. Me, Adriana, Andrew, ans Ben all decided to do the powerpoint on google slides so we could all work on it and it would update for all of us. That was the easiest method so thats what we did. We then each did about three slides each on thee common things that happened in a musical. This would be a movie like high school musical, a classic musical genre. We had to look at common lighting, angles, movement, and mis en scene. We also had to identify the elements of genre and musicals that we liked and disliked. The lastly we looked at example films, common sounds, and sound incorporations for musical genres. 











    Friday, January 17, 2020

    The chosen one

    After making my three pitches, I decided to narrow it down my favorite two that would be the best to film for my project. These two pitches were the one where the girl does everything a normal character wouldn’t, such as go towards the noise, or open the closet, and still ends up dying. The second is the one where there are crazy voices in a girls head making her go crazy and do wild things to herself and her family. These two are going to be deeply terrifying, although I probably know which one I am most likely going to choose to do.

    My pitch about the character being smart in a movie and still dying would be very captivating even in the first two minutes of the movie. It is a really horrifying thing because usually when watching a horror film people think to themselves “oh i’d be able to survive, I wouldn’t be this dumb if this was happening to me”. If I were to make the film like a character sprinting as fast as they can without falling and still being caught, jumping fences and still being caught. Staying away from the closet and just having the “creature” still come to you. This would mean there is no escaping the horrific things in life, which would really mes with someone’s head.

    My second pitch about the girl who has creepy voices in her head would be terrifying, but it would also be much harder to do and there would have to be a lot of voiceovers and props to make the perfect film. However, since it is only two minutes, I could probably make the video have a really suspenseful ending. I would have to think about what the creepy voices would say too, because that might freak myself out to be honest.

    After thinking more deeply about how I would film and edit my two favorite pitches, I would have to go with my first pitch. The character making every smart choice and still ending up stuck in a bad situation would be a horrifying film that I have never seen in any movie. Usually characters go towards a noise, open a closet, trip over a branch while running from their predator. But my character will stay safe, run fast, and still have the same fate. This will be a new and truly terrifying film for cambridge and i’m actually excited to begin creating it.

    Starting a final task

    I am excited for this final task because I actually enjoy filming and making videos. For this assignment, I will no longer be working with my group. This is because I don't want to end up doing the whole project by myself plus I am kind of controlling and I like the video to be perfectly how I want it. I also feel like this will make it easier to complete because I won't have to meet up with other people and agree on ideas, I can just choose what I want and then make it happen. I am going to be doing a horror, however I am not trying to be a typical horror. I want to introduce some new ideas to the horror films. I am very ready to get started on this project. I might base some of my ideas off of creepy dreams iv'e had, or just putting together a trippy unusual captivating film. I already have a few good ideas but I think I have already decided on the idea that I am going to go with. It's an idea for a horror film that I have had before I even took this class, a truly terrifying one.

    I have learned a lot that I am ready to put into the new film I am making. Most of these newly learned skills cam from making the last project; the music video. I learned how to film, the errors I made, how to do better, and how to edit. Some of these errors were things such as seeing the camera shadow or my own shadow while filming other people. This just makes the film look more cheesy and unprofessional. I will also work to keep the camera steady as possible, because a shaky camera doesn't portray a good video. I also will film every video as landscape instead of portrait because it always turns out much better that way once you begin to edit. I am ready to put my skills to the test to create the best film I have ever created. Coming up with a story line to follow throughout the video might be slightly challenging. However, I am prepared to overcome these challenges to make a scholar video. It is going to be VERY scary, trust me.

    A pitch is a hollywood term used to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. It is usually said with one sentence, sometimes two if there is an add-on suspenseful statement said at the end.. My three pitches are:
    - A regular teen girl starts having inner voices in her head making her do wild things which eventually leads to disaster all around...
    - A girl is in a regular horrific movie with unusual noises, she does everything the opposite way of regular characters and still ends up dead...
    - A girl who lives home alone with her dog can’t leave the house, is she does the outside-creatures will get to her...