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

Pitch Perfect

 Hello! This week my group and I were assigned to figure out our pitch for our project. After a couple of days of sharing ideas, we came up with “four kids on Halloween night walk into a mysterious house where one by one each of them disappear only to find out who was behind it all”. I think this is a good and interesting story that we can have a lot of fun with!

This is a screenshot of the group chat that my group and I have for our class where we discuss our ideas. 

The Group

 Hello! For this entry I’m gonna write about my group. As said in the last entry, I am working with the same group that I had last year. The names of the members of my group are Avalon, Alexandra, and Morgan. I think that this is great because we all became very close with each other since the project. We also all worked well together last year. I really liked working with them last year because we all had a similar mind set. We all wanted to do a horror movie for our final project and we were all happy with our assigned roles on the film. We had lot of fun with each project that we worked on together. We were always very reliable and would always do our assigned job for the class. Ava and Morgan really like to act in our projects. Alex and I like to edit our projects. We all contribute to help filming our projects. We also all help writing our projects. Writing our projects as a group allows us to share all of our ideas and contribute equally to the story that we were trying to create. Our group will have to work even more together this year in order to get a good grade on this project. I don’t know exactly what we have to yet for our class. I only know that we have to create a short film with a website and social media. I think it would be smart for us to take turns running the film website. I also think that we should only have one person in our group to run the social media. I’m very happy that I get to work with my group again. And I’m very exited to start working on our project. 

I'm Back!

    Hello! After a long time of not being active, I am finally back! It's a new school year and I'm now in A level Media Studies. Continuing where we left off from last year, America is still in a pandemic and we are still doing class online. A level already seems a lot more different than AS level. We have less filming projects and we have to create an entire film package for a short film we have to create. The short film is going to be very different compared to anything that we did last year. In AS level, we only had to create a commercial, a music video, and the opening to a film. Now, we have to create a five minute long short film. We must accompany this short film with a package that includes a website that is about our film, social media that represents our film, and a flier for the film.

    A good thing about my class this year is that I can work with the same students that I worked with last year. This is gonna be very beneficial for us because we all are already friends and have worked together before. This will allow us to be more comfortable around each other which will help ideas flow out of us. Since we all worked together before, we know what each of us like to do and what are main specialties are. Last year, Morgan liked to act and help film the scenes. Ava liked to help film the scenes. Alex and I liked to do the editing for the film. I am really happy that I will be able to work with the same group as last year. They are very productive and reliable and we all share a similar creative mind. I don’t think that we’ll have any trouble working together again this year. Also, my group and I are all comfortable working together during this pandemic. It would be really hard trying to film something while having to stay six feet apart from each other. Luckily, we’re all safe and healthy and will be able to all be together when we film our short movie. 

    I’m not sure what we’re gonna do for our short film yet. Last year we created the opening to a horror film and that was fun. I don’t know if we’re gonna create a horror film again or if we’re gonna try to do another genre. If we do decide to try another genre, I would like to try a drama coming of age style film. I think that since we’re all teenagers in high school, that would be easy for us to do and more natural for us. I also wouldn’t mind a romance genre. I don’t think that a lot of students choose to do romance. This will benefit us because it will allow us to create a more original project. I think it would be hard to create a comedy movie. Comedies seem hard because you have to think of jokes to put in the film and humor is very subjective and it may not land well and it may make the movie awkward. Whatever genre we choose, I’m sure we’ll think of something great.  

The image that I inserted is of a group chat that my group and I created for this class.