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.

Movie CCR

https://youtu.be/fnO_NeUo_t8

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

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/104ok3JGnWovPJkTNLggRG5ofzoYkdgbrJQdAnBUj5VY/edit?usp=sharing

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

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12L2QzA-TMytW5o4XEXy_BGXJ9LMBu3hbGsLqRPlxb2c/edit?usp=sharing

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.