Short Film Vs. Feature Film

     Hello. In this blog I will be comparing the short film "9" to the feature film "9". Out of the two, I  think I liked the short film more than the feature film. I just think that there was a lot more mystery and it felt as if the characters had more emotions. The short film had no dialogue in it at all while the feature film did have a lot of dialogue between the characters. There was also a lot more characters and character development in the feature film than in the short film. The audience was introduced to around 9 new characters that include the stitchpunks that we didn't get to meet in the short film along with the fabrication machine and the scientist. We also got to learn more background of how the world got the the point that it was at in the film whereas in the short everything is a mystery. Another difference that I noticed were the tones of the film. The short film seemed much darker than the feature film. I assume this because the sense of loneliness that the short gives off. The feature film also had a hopeful ending while the short didn't.

The movies were similar because they both had the post-apocalyptic theme to them. They also had the same mystery/sci-fi/action genre to them. They both also had 9 as the central character obviously. I really liked both of the films a lot more than I thought that I would. I would actually love to see a follow-up film for this story. I thought that the characters were very unique and that the animation style was also very unique. The animation was very cartoonish but also very life-like at the same time which I thought was very cool. I still really liked the feature film a lot but I do think that the short was superior. To be able to tell a story with no dialogue is very impressive. I also just love the animation of the films a lot. I would love to see other film like this in the future.

 

Research 9, Feature Film

     Hello. Today I will be writing about the film "9". In my previous entry, I wrote about the short film "9" and now I'm gonna be focusing on the feature film "9". I remember seeing this movie a really long time ago when it first came out but I didn't remember anything that happened in the movie. The story of this one follows a scientist who created a machine called the B.R.A.I.N. which is turned into a  fabrication machine that is able to create other machines that help to wipe out enemies. The fabrication machine malfunctions and begins to attack all life forms from plants and animals to human beings. As all of humanity is about to be wiped out, the scientist transfers his soul into 9 rag doll like people through a talisman. These rag doll people are called "stitchpunks".

    We then see 9 waking up in the scientists laboratory. He takes the talisman and begins to wonder outside. There, he is spotted by 2, another stitchpunk who is an inventor.  2 gives 9 a working voice box that allows for 9 to speak. 9 and 2 are attacked by a cat-like machine and 2 and the talisman is abducted and 9 collapses. When 9 wakes up, he is in a place called the "sanctuary" located in the tower of an old church, He is surrounded by other stitchpunks. The stitchpunks are all named after the numbers on their backs. 1 is the leader of the stichpunks, 2 is an inventor, 3 and 4 are twins, 5 is an engineer, 6 is an unstable oracle, 7 is the only female of the stitchpunks, and 8 is a big but dumb stitchpunk who acts like a bodyguard for 1. Over the course of the movie, the fabrication machine captures stitchpunks and steals their souls. It is up to 9 and the other stitchpunks to retrieve the stolen talisman and defeat the fabrication machine. 

    I actually really liked this movie. I liked the post-apocalyptic nature of the movie and it was surprisingly scary and kind of sad. I thought the ending of the movie was great and very poetic. Even thought the movie was a cartoon, there were many times where it felt like I was watching a live action film.

 

 

Research 9, The Short

     Hello. In this blog, I'm going to be writing about a short film that I recently watched. This film is  called "9". The film was around seven minutes long. This film was later turned into an actual feature length film. When I first watched the short film, I was pretty confused as to what was happening. The film showed two rag-doll like creatures, one with a 9 on its back and the other with a 5 on its back. The film was through the perspective of the rag-doll marked with the 9. In the beginning of the Short, we see 9 hammering some sort of object that is connected to a light. 9 then moves the object and we transition into another scene of some type of large creature made up of scrap metal crawling around a barren landscape. We cut back to 9 and he is sitting down surrounded by lots of trash and junk. He is staring at some sort of compass and through a flashback we see 9 and another rag-doll marked with a 5. 9 and 5 are are seen taking a lightbulb out of a rusty lamp. They connect the lightbulb to something and it begins to light up, 9 and 5 seem to be happy about this. 5 then pulls out a glowing green compass and his facial expression shifts from a smile to a scared look. He gives the compass to 9 and tells 9 to hide. We then see a scrap metal creature take 5 and suck his soul out while 9 watches while hidden. 9 is able to escape and we cut back to actual time. While 9 is looking at the compass, it begins to glow. He realizes that he is in danger and he begins to run from one of the scrap metal creature after it jumps out at him. He is chased by the creature into an old building. In there 9 is able to trick the creature into falling to its death. After this we see 9 examining the compass again and he connects it to another similar object. Once these objects connect, multiple green ghosts appear. Among these ghosts is 5. 5 looks at 9 and nods his head and that is how the short ends. I liked this short because I think that it had a unique animation style. This short was also silent which I thought was cool as well.

Genre Choice For Film

 Hello. After conducting research on action, thriller, and horror genres, my group and I decided on the horror genre. We believe that our ideas more accurately represent the common elements of the horror genre. Also, we find the horror genre to be a very diverse and big genre with many sub-genres within it that will allow us to be more creative. We knew from the get go that we didn’t want to work in the action genre. We thought that it would be hard for us to be able to come up with a original plot and that the practical effects would be difficult to create. After removing action from our list, we were stuck with horror and thriller. At first my group and I really weren’t sure if we should do horror or thriller. We went through our research together and shared thoughts and ideas for our we want in our movie. Overall, the ideas of gore and death that we came up with leaned more towards the horror genre. We believe that this would be a good genre to choose because we already had previous experience working within this genre. Last year when we were in AS level Media Studies, our final project was the opening to a horror movie. We worked really well during this project and we had a lot of fun creating and sharing ideas for it. Also the pitch that we came up with works better with a horror genre rather than thriller. Our pitch was gonna be based on a supernatural element which commonly seen in horror. My group and I love horror movies and we get a lot of inspiration from horror movies. For example, last year, when creating our final project, my group and I took inspiration from famous slasher films such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Scream”. Since we created a slasher film last year, we wanted to try something new this year. This year we want to take a more supernatural approach to horror. I’m very excited try something within the supernatural realm of horror because it will allow us to much more creative and unique. Experimenting with these sub genres in horror will allow us to become more flexible while still working with a genre we love. We are all very excited to start working on this project!

Genre Research-Thriller

 The thriller genre like many others have common camera angles, movements, and shots, common lighting, Mis en scene, editing and sound. We thought that this fit our theme of our new movie really well. For the Mis en scene there are many different aspects that go into it. Like the lighting in a thriller the lighting tends to create shadows to create tension within the audience. Another aspect that goes into this thriller is the props the props for thrillers tend to be spaced close together to create a claustrophobic affect to portray the entrapment in the characters mind. The setting tends to be in dark places such as alleys or haunted houses. The makeup also takes a huge roll in thrillers. Usually in thrillers there makeup tends to be slim to none to make the character seem more relatable for the audience. The clothing in thrillers tend to be normal clothing. Like casual wear thrillers use these type of clothes to create realism within a film so it makes the audience believe that it could happen to them. The most common camera angles seen in this genre are high angles/ bird eye view. These shots are used to give the effect that whatever is being looked down on appears powerless and vulnerable. Another one they commonly use are low angles. They use this to show how powerful of intimidating the villain is. For thrillers some common shots the use are the close up shot.They do this to show the characters reaction. Another one they use are over the shoulder shots. They use this to build up tension and suspense between the characters.The lighting for most thrillers are dark to create a eerie affect. The common sounds for thrillers are non diegetic sound. This is usually the sound they hear when something bad is going to happen. The editing for most thrillers are flash backs, cutaways, shot reverse shot, and action match. Example of films in the thriller genre are: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Black Swan (2010), The Call (2013), and Seven (1995).

Genre Research-Horror

 The horror genre like many others have common camera angles, movements and shots, common lighting, mis en scene, editing and sound. The most common camera angles seen in this genre are high angles to show superiority, dutch angle to give the feeling of tension and to show that somethings wrong, and low angles to show inferiority. Some common camera shots and movements are long shots, close up, zooms, point of view shots, tracking and pan shots, over the shoulder, wide shot, establishing shot just to name a few. For lighting, some common scenes are introduced with dark lighting to emphasize the feeling that something is going to happen, usually something that's not good. As the movie progresses there are usually some scenes that are more brightly lit to break up the feeling of suspense and horror. Which are then followed by the darkened scenes which radiate the feeling of horror. Horror genre film also have common sounds such as non diegetic sound, usually the eerie sounds that the viewers hear when somethings about to happen. Also diegetic sound,dialogue, ambient sounds, incidental sounds and internal diegetic. Common Mis en scene can be shown through the abbreviation C.L.A.M.P.S. C for costumes has a very big spectrum. Usually the costumes can consist of normal clothing normally seen in movies like Annabelle and Scary stories. Along with normal clothing some more obscure costumes can be used for the antagonist of the movie like in movies like the Scream trilogy. L for lighting is usually connected to the tone of the movie usually it’s dark lighting to make the feeling of horror. A for actors  can be anyone, any gender, ethnicity, nationality. M for makeup can be anything. In some movies like  Scary stories  they use effects makeup or normal every day makeup. P for props can be anything from a knife to a stick. S the setting can be anywhere any location. Common editing techniques used in this genre are flashbacks, cut always, fade in/out, shot reverse shot, action match, jump cut etc. Horror is a very big genre in film and a lot of the films have very similar elements. The elements in a horror film are designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. While captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and it’s fears:our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsion, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, or loss of identity. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when earth is threatened by aliens. A couple examples of horror films that show these elements are: It (2017),  The ring (2002), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Wolf Man (2010), and Insidious (2010). Within these elements I really like the jump scares they add into these horror films, I also like the monsters they create. However I don’t like it when different horror films have the same story line I think that it’s annoying. 

Genre Research-Action

 Action just like any other genre has common lightnings, camera angles, mis en scenes, editing, and sound. In action films lots of accent lighting is used to enhance certain scenes and the mood intended for that particular scene. Some common situations for the lighting in the beginning of the movie is low lightning with shadowing. Then as the movie picks up to more action packed shots the lightning becomes brighter in cases of victory or back to gloomy in times of loss. Common camera angles in action movies include high angles to show superiority or low angles to show inferiority. Tilts, aerial shots, over the shoulder shot, establishing, and medium close ups are also common. Action genre films also have tend to have common sounds such as ambient background sounds like explosions or lots of digetic and non-digetic sounds. Sounds from vehicles is present in a lot of action movies and of course dialogue. Common Mis En Scene can be shown through the abbreviation C.L.A.M.P.S. C for costumes has a very wide spectrum that could go from gowns and tuxes in a film like James Bond to superhero costumes in the Avengers. L for lightening is usually correlated with tone so it could be bright or low. A for actors is people from all genders, ethnics, and nationality. Makeup usually isn't too dramatic and a lot of times used to show cuts or a rugged look. P for props in action films could be cars, weapons, or practically anything retaining to the plot. Setting is also very vague, they could be shot anywhere but the location is usually established very quickly and states when it changes. Common editing techniques used in the genre Action consist of jump shots, flashbacks, etc.

   Action is a very big genre in film. Many of the films in this genre have very similar elements. The elements for an action film include high impacts, continuous high energy, lots of physical stunts and activity, and many times there are extended chase scenes, fights, escapes, and races. Action films also have a lot of non-stop motion and great rhythm and pacing in order to keep the audience entertained. Action films also have great potential to cross-over into other genres of film such as: Science fiction, thriller, crime, and westerns. Many times in action films there is usually some type of love interest between the protagonist and another character. Another character element in action films is that the hero seems to always have some dark and depressing backstory. Action films will always have the main protagonist struggling against some kind of life-threatening situation such as facing an evil super villain, trapped in a deadly scenario, or in a dangerous chase but in the end, the hero always wins. A couple examples of action films that display many of these elements are: John Wick (2014), Spectre (2015), Mission Impossible-Fallout (2018), and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Within these elements I really like the overly dramatic fight scenes as well as the prolonged chase sequences. I find these elements to be very entertaining and fun to watch. However, I don’t really like some of the character and plot elements of actions films like the love interest or the dark backstory. I find these elements to be very cliché and overdone.

Genres I Would Like To Research

 Hello! Today my group and I in class had a discussion about researching genres for our upcoming movie. We began to brain storm about the different options we had and discussed which ones we thought would best fit our pitch. Due to the fact that it's about teenagers mysteriously disappearing in a creepy house on Halloween night, the first and most obvious genre that came to our mind was horror. I would like to further my knowledge of the genre and research it because it is one of my personal favorites. Additionally, I think the elements that go along with it really creates a memorizing movie that can really catch the attention of audience and have them on the edge of their seat. The next genre our group thought of was thriller. I think this genre is super intriguing and it really involves the audience as well. As a third option, we thought of action. Action incorporates lots of elements that would be fun for the creators to make and for the viewers to watch. My group and I already a pretty well rounded background knowledge on the genre horror. Last year while prepping to film our movie title sequence we spent a lot of time together in and out of the classroom doing research about this genre. We have a pretty good understanding of things like lightening and other misenscene involved. However, it never hurts to do more. So that's exactly what we'll do. As a group, we are going to conduct further research on the genre horror along with thriller and actions. Afterwards we can go over and discuss what we learned to see which genre it is that will be best fitted for the movie that we want to make. I'm super excited to begin this process and this journey of creating this short film. We want to make our movie look professional as possible, and the only way to do that is to make sure we know what we're doing. So, the research begins!

Action

Thriller

Horror