Realizing what we need to fix; re-editing

Hello! So far I’ve told you about our filming delays with the coronavirus happening. Now it’s time to talk about our editing process during the pandemic. So far I’ve had a lot of time on my hands since school has been let out and everyone is practicing social distancing. Though these are key measures that are needed to be taken in order to get over this pandemic, I have realized how much time that I have accumulated. This pandemic Is getting really serious. Especially around Florida, that’s why it’s so important to practice social distancing. Though it’s very important it’s really putting a damper on all of our plans that have to do with reshooting and re-editing. Instead of having my group members over at my house so that we can re-shoot and re-edit we have been stuck in our houses with only FaceTime as a communication. Though we are very lucky to have FaceTime it would be better if we could communicate face-to-face with each other. This is so If we have any problems, our group member could be there to help guide us but instead we have to communicate through our phones. While in this break I plan on trying to edit what we do have for a Movie. I don’t have a lot of experience with editing but as I did before I’m going to try my best to make our movie look presentable and clean. Just today I was on my mothers computer trying to edit I Movie. I’ve came across some bumps in the road though. While trying to edit I was trying to put in the beginning titles and I can’t seem to put them at the right time. Instead of having a group member over at my house I had to FaceTime a group member. This made it very unclear because the group member wasn’t with me. Though this is challenging I’m going to try my best to push forward and re-edit our film.

Editing blog

Hi! In a few weeks we had to plan, film, and edit. We’ve covered all but one category, the editing process. My group and I really wanted to get our editing done for the holidays. I feel really bad about not having a part in the editing process. I have course put my own critiques in when asked. I’ve never been quite good at editing. I’ve always been better at filming. On our schedule that we made, we had our editing time a week during the holidays. While this was a good plan it didn’t end as well as we wanted it to. Instead of using a Camera provided by the school and pinnacle studios, my group chose to film on our phones and to use iMovie‘s for our camera and editing software. The problem was that our editor did not have the proper software which was I movies at their disposal. Our game plan had to be changed. Instead of editing our whole movie properly, we chose to do a quick edit for our peer review. This is why some scenes might have seemed choppy. The editor in our group decided to edit the movie on her phone using iMovie’s. For our final edit we want to use two different fonts and use better transitions. Along with this problem another obstacle occurred. This was that our film was too long. Well this seems like an easy problem to fix this is quite the opposite. We felt that all of the scenes we are vital to the story that we wanted to convey. To combat this problem we chose to cut some scenes in the editing process.Our new game plan is to use our critiques that our peers gave us and re-shoot some scenes then to re-edit as needed.

 

Movie titles!

Hello, we finally chose a name for our movie! My group and I came up with: “possessed”. We chose two fonts for the titles. The first font is called “Permanent Marker”. We chose this font because it had a rough and mysterious look to it that matched the aesthetic that we were going for. We chose to space this font out to make it more dramatic. With this font, we also decided to make it a dark crimson red color to add a more negative connotation to it and to add a more symbolic approach because the color that we chose as a strong association to the color of blood. The second font that we chose is called “Shadows into the Light”. We chose this font because it is closely related to our first font. This font also adds to our creepy horror aesthetic. We decided not to space this font out be we will be putting it in all caps to have it create a greater Impact on the audience. We will be keeping this font color white so that it will be able to contrast into our dark scenery. The titles that we want to prioritize are the film title, actors, and the director slide. The decisions that we made are not final because we may come up with better ideas along the road.

Some bad news :(

 Hello! Today I have some bad news to share. I have to have a big surgery that is come up. This surgery was a massive surgery that had to be done for my health. This means that I cannot contribute to some of the parts of me project. Most likely I will not be able to help edit and I might not be well enough to re-film some of the scenes. This does not come with an easy heart. I am very very sad that I could not help with any of the editing a re-editing that has had to happen for the movie. The surgery was a big surgery, in total it took 12 hours end it took a big toll on my body. If I feel well enough I have course will do my best to help my group mates film and edit our movie to make it the best that I can be. The recovery time for the surgery is very long very hard. Believe me, I needed the surgery and I put it off for as long as I could. I was so worried about the repercussions it had for the movie and the filming processes and editing Processes. With the surgery also comes check ups and doctor visits. This also takes away time for the movie. Though I’ve been in recovery and in surgery, I have of course still been maintaining the social media account for the movie. Since the time of my surgery I’ve had more and more people follow and like the social media platform that I’ve built for the movie. This makes me so happy to see that I at least have a little bit to give for this movie. Not to mention I am still in the movie, we filmed it before I had my big surgery. I will be trying my best to help out my group meets as much as I can throughout this recovery.

Social media update

 Hey! Today I’m gonna be talking about how my social media‘s for the movie Possessed I’ve been going. I have been in charge of maintaining the Facebook account for our movie. On this account I provide content such as sneak peaks, potential movie posters and more. Recently, I have gotten a lot more people requesting to follow our movie Facebook account. I’m so excited because this means we’re getting our content out to more people. Somethings that I don’t like about Facebook are pretty simple things. first, I am a generation Z so I have grown up not using Facebook as my main source of media. This shows to be extra hard when dealing with controlling the app. I especially have trouble with navigating to where I can post. I’m usually the one teaching people how to use different sources of media, but now I am in a whole new world with Facebook. I am also very confused about how people see our pages and how to look at other peoples pages. It seems that if I tap someone’s icon I can see their page, every day that I try to go on it I think I get better with learning how to navigate it. Some of the things I’ve been posting have been getting a lot of likes and shares which I’m so excited about. Another weird thing that has happened when I signed up for Facebook was the amount of notifications I’ve been getting. This is very strange mainly because I signed up for no notifications. Recently I’ve posted a couple of behind-the-scenes photos from the shoots that we have participated in the past few weeks. Another group member, named Ava, has had the job to manage the official Instagram for our movie. I can imagine that this job would be a lot easier for her then managing Facebook account. This is mainly due to our generation growing up on Instagram, therefore she would have no problem locating anything and knowing exactly how to post things. She has also said that there has been many people Looking at our posts and sharing car photos that are about our movie. Overall our social media‘s have been doing amazing!

Filming day 2

 Hello today I’ll be talking about the second Day of filming. On this day we got a lot a majority of the filming done. We filmed half way through film to the ending part of our film in the duration of this day. My job through all this was to act in the movie, help film, and also lighting. This day was especially hard due to the fact that we asked for help from some of our classmates and people that we know from school. This was a little bit of an issue due to Covid and trying to be safe and also we unnecessary noise that became A problem from these people. For the first situation, we all had to of course be 6 feet apart which is the standard feet to stay apart by Government instructed guidelines. We also kept mask on for people who were acting in the actual film. Along with both of these precautions we also quarantined before our time together just in case. For the second situation, it was pretty simple. We, myself and Jake (group mate), reminded the people who came to help us to stay quiet one the group was filming. This problem did become A bit repetitive but we got through it in the end. The scenes that we did film were mainly the scenes where the friend group were being murdered by the possessed friend. These scenes were very very fun to film mainly because we got to bring out some props and film some yelling scenes. The first murder scene we filmed was when Ava ( the possessed friend) kills another group me named Alex in one of the abandoned rooms in the creepy abandon house. For this scene we had to bring prop fake blood and put it on Ava‘s hand. After we did that We made Ava wrap her hand around Alex‘s neck to show the wounds that the “possessed“ friend did. We also had to prop up Alex and we had a whole scene of Ava moving Alex into a chair to make her seem alive to the other friends in the friend group. The next “kill scene” was Jakes scene. For his Ava kills him in the bathroom which is parallel from the room where Alex was killed. We used the same technique with the fake blood on the throat to show that he was killed.Overall this day was a very busy day, but I enjoyed every part of it.

Filming day1

 Hello! Today is a special day for my group and I,we get to the star are filming! With our movie are filming days had to be cut up into two due to the fact that there are two different locations where we will be filming. On our filming day one we had a majority of our filming actually done. When we first started filming we had to figure out what devices we were going to be using for the filming. To make it equal my group mates decided to use all of our phones that we had and just alternate filming on each others phones. The first scene that we filmed was the beginning scene where the group of four friends were walking down the street to the abandoned house. This scene was kind of hard to film due to the lack of light from the sun. For letting my group and I had to get a little experimental, we used our flashlights on our phones and physical flashlights that I acquired from my father for our lighting in our movie. For the beginning scene we had to use some props and costumes for our style that we wanted to convey in our film. We used Halloween costumes like a cat costume, a Harry Potter costume, a pirate costume and a hippie costume in order to show that the season was Halloween season. The second scene that we decided to film was the scene of us splitting up and searching the “abandoned house“. When filming this scene, production production was quite easy compared to the first scene that we decided to film. In this scene it also shows the character Ava Finding the haunted mirror and becoming possessed. Now this scene was quite intense when it came to lighting and vocals. My group and I thought it was a good idea for when the actor eventually became possessed that she would scream. The scream was very convincing and I was very pleased with the vocal stability that the actors had. Overall the production day for day one was very long and intensive. Also on day one we had to acquire the make up needed for the costumes, for example we needed black eyeliner for the cat costume, and fake blood for the victims in the movie. Overall the day was very productive and I’m very pleased with how everything turned out.

Filming planning pt. 2

Hello! Today starts the planning on our filming experience! Today was when we made a plan to film for this weekend. As you may already know my group and I are doing a possessed, thriller, horror movie for our project. While planning my group and I had a complication when it came to one of the scenes that we needed to film. While most of the beginning scenes are going to be filmed at one of the members house. Two scenes in particular needed certain aspects that this house did not possess. One of the scenes has a hallway in which the characters walk down to then later find the murdered character. The other scene includes a shot of the bathroom where one of the characters will be found dead. This seems easy to fix but the first house does not have windows that open in the way we need them to. So instead of filming in one house my group and I decided to film in two different houses. The first day of filming for the movie is on the 4th. We are going to film some of the ending scenes for the movie. This is because one of our members plan to have family over so we needed to film as soon as possible. For the scenes that we plan on doing tomorrow we needed some props and supplies to make these scenes more realistic. Theses props include a A mirror, fake blood and some Halloween costumes since the time setting is around Halloween and our movie. I’m really excited for what we have planned! This type of film is really exciting to film especially when I get to work with my friends. I really hope everything goes as planned.

Filming plans!

Hi! Along with picking our music and figuring out our website for our film, my group also had time to think about filming. While talking about filming one problem arose, one of our crew and cast mates were going out of town. This was a bit of a step back for our plan to film. All step backs can be fixed of course, that’s why we plan on filming in the near future. The group mate, Alex went to go visit her family during the Thanksgiving break. While the other group mates also were busy during the thanksgiving break. Instead of filming, my group and I made a plan. This plan consists of possible new dates for filming. Along with the props that are needed and costumes. We plan on filming our movie in two separate locations so we figured we could split one weekend on filming and the two separate locations. The Location Will of course need a makeover for our movie. We will use props to help turn the locations into a movie so it made for our specific film. Some of these props include cobwebs, white sheets to cover the furniture, this is to help give the locations a Erie, secluded, empty feeling. We would also get a mirror, probably hand held, for the specific mirror scenes. We would also need a lot of fake blood and some clothes that we wouldn’t mind getting ruined. This would be for the scenes that call for fake blood. Along with our Halloween costumes has our characters costumes. We already have a lot of these props. The only thing we need to do now is execute our plans.

Our music!

 Hey! For today my group and I had to decide on what songs we should use for our film. When thinking about the music choices, we need to always think about what genre we are doing and how the music could fit in with it. This past week has been pretty chaotic. Especially due to the busy holiday of Thanksgiving. Because of Thanksgiving and COVID-19, my group had not been able to see or really speak to one another. On our own we have came up with some potential songs to add into our movie. But first we had to do some research about what type of songs are usually in horror movies. My first thought was to maybe play some hard rock like Rob Zombie. Most of Rob Zombies music contain some creepy aspects. My vision is to play a song like ‘living dead girl’ in the beginning to help add to the eeriness of what’s to come. I honestly think it would help set the tone for the movie. We could both open with Rob Zombie and close with one of his songs. His songs has been used in movies like house of a thousand corpses and bride of Chucky. However we have not sent an email yet asking permission to use one of his songs. This is due to the lack of communication my group has had. Once school starts again, my group and I will come together to compose an email to ask his permission. Honestly I’m very excited to get the chance to ask to use one of Rob Zombies songs. Overall my group and I believe that his music will help take our movie to the next level.

Marketing campaign

 Hi! Today was a very important for the start of our marketing campaign for Possessed. When starting our marketing campaign my group had decided to “divide and conquer”, in order to get the campaign up in running. We each got a task to do. Alex was in charge of setting up the website ,Wik.com, where we eventually put all of our social media’s for the film and the Twitter account. Jake was in charge of setting up the YouTube account for the movie. Ava was in charge of setting up the instagram. While I was in charge of setting up the Facebook account. Each of the social media’s and website have a specific role to play when trying to reach out to the potential viewers. The website will be used to update our viewers on release dates and to share our other social media platforms. Our Facebook will be used to give teasers to our potential viewers and to get people excited for our film. The Twitter will be used to drop release dates and to talk about the cast and crew of the movie. The instagram will be used to share photos of behind the scenes and posters of the movie. Our main YouTube account will be used to post trailers for the movie. While making each of these platforms, our group had some challenges. When making the YouTube account, Jake had a difficult time due to the email address not working. While making the Facebook account I had a hard time because instead of using my own name, I wanted to use the title of the movie, in the end I had to use my name instead of the movie. Alex had some difficulty when creating the website because she could not figure out how to add the social media on the website. On the other hand, Ava had no problem when creating the instagram. After all the difficulties, my group finally succeeded and now have an awesome website and social media’s. 

Storyboard!

    

    

In these first few pages from the storyboard, the scenes start and it shows the group of friends fooling around, while stumbling upon what looked to be a hunted house. The group of teens start some trouble and decide to explore the hunted house.

 

In this sequence one of the group members finds a possessed mirror in one of the vacant rooms, she then gets possessed by the demon in the mirror and the friends notice that she starts to act weird. The friend group also splits up to explore the house and Alex gets killed by the possessed friend.

In these scenes, Jake goes to find Alex and Ava to tell them about the mirror and on the way he finds Ava killing Alex and then him himself gets killed by the possessed.

In the last scenes the last living friend named morgan, finds a way to defeat the demon and put it back into the mirror. On the way Morgan finds the dead bodies of her friends. In the end she defeats the demon.

Planning for movie: locations, participants, schedule, health and safety

 

Schedule:

09/18 - Picking our group 12/03 - Editing day 1

09/24 - Creating the pitch 12/04 - Editing day 2

10/05 + 10/06 - Researching genres 12/12 - Figuring out what we need to re-shoot or re-edit

10/19 - Researching short films 12/20 - re-shoots

10/30 - Writing the screenplay for our film 12/20 - re-edit

11/27 - Filming day 1

11/28 - Filming day 2

Locations:

Jake Lyon's house

Avalon Clem's house

Participants:

Alexandra Medrano 

Jake Lyons 

Avalon Clem 

Morgan Clem 

Others outside of group to help film: Savanna Nemmers and Katelyn Pustam 

Health and safety

During this difficult time, the group has put in extra precautions to ensure the safety of all who are going to be involved. When traveling from locations, the cast and crew of the movie will always be safely in seatbelts. We will also be sure to not use actual weapons and replace then with  fake knifes from Party City. Not to mention, in light of this global pandemic, each cast member and crew mate will have masks on and will be quarantined in advanced, to ensure that no one has the deadly virus. Lastly, the we will always have a first aid kit and a phone ready in case of any emergencies.

Props:

• Mirror 

• Haunted house decorations 

• Halloween costume accessories

• Fake blood 

• Haunted House sign 

costumes

Jake Lyons- Pirate Costume

Alex Medrano- Tin Man Costume

Morgan Clem- Cat Costume

Ava Clem- Harry Potter Costume 

Short film vs. Feature Length film

 Hello! The past assignments I’ve had to watch both a short film and a full length feature film of nine. Altogether it took me an hour and 37 minutes to watch. While watching both films I’ve noticed a lot of differences and similarities in both of the films. When watching the full film I’ve noticed that it gave more of a background to the characters. The director was able to give a Why for the concepts that was given in the short film. In the short film we the viewers were pushed into a conflict that had seemingly already been going on before the film had started. It showed doll light creatures having to defeat a mechanical monster. There was no background for the situation that they were in. I contrary to this, the full film gave us more of a look into Who the protagonist was as a character and it gave more of a character development mainly because it had more time. The short had more of a mystery to it. It kept The audience is guessing to why are these creatures in an Apocalyptic Area and what happened for it to look like that. One thing that was really different was in the short film there was no dialogue or sound. While in the full length movie there was a lot of dialogue and sound. The lack of dialogue in the short film I think helped amplify the effects of the animation itself on the viewer. The use of dialogue in the full length film brought more emotion into some of the Sad scenes that were made. Honestly I think I enjoyed watching the full length movie more than the short film. This is because it felt more inviting to watch. When I say inviting I mean I would watch it again. I really enjoyed how it gave me a lot of character development and emotions through dialogue and animation. I think the use of all of those elements really helped the film feel more watch friendly. I would honestly watch it again.

Research 9, the feature film

 Hello! Today I was assigned to watch a full length film of the short 9. When going into the watching process, I had an idea of what the general plot was going to consist of but I wasn’t sure how the that concept would play out due to the fact that the movie is longer than the short film. In this adaptation Protagonist of the movie is a ragdoll named nine who has been created into a world of chaos and an apocalyptic setting. The protagonist soon realized that he was not the only living thing left in this apocalyptic world. He found more like him (rag dolls) with different numbers on their back‘s, indicating what order they were made. Their main goal was to survive. But when trying to save one of his friends the protagonist ended up awakening an evil machine that takes their souls once captured. Throughout the movie more and more characters (rag dolls) had been captured and their life force has been taken from them by the evil machine. Nine knew that he needed to stop the evil machine in order to save his kind. The protagonist and his friends rule the courage to defeat the evil machine. To set his friends souls free, 9 held a ceremony in which he put five different sticks in a circle each with the fabric that the ragdoll’s were made out of. In the middle of the circle there was a big fire , I believe the ceremony was to help guide the souls from the soul trap back to themselves and finally be free. Throughout the movie I’ve noticed a big character development for the main protagonist, in the beginning he was so afraid of the world but throughout the movie we can see him progress and conquer his fears. We also get to see nines friendships with the other  rag dolls Grow and flourish into great friendships. When it comes to animation we can see that it was more thought out and more technical than the short film that was made prior to the full length movie. The animation was clean and precise. Although it’s not a traditional setting, the animators were very detailed for the movie. Another noticeable thing is that the movie was filled with dialogue and sound. Not only did the protagonist speak but also the other characters that helped the protagonist in the movie also had a voice. Overall I really enjoyed the movie and the style it had.

Research 9, the short

 Hello! For this week we were assigned to watch a 7 minute short titled ‘9’. Before watching the short I had no idea what it was going to be about. I soon came to realize, the short was very dynamic. When I first started to watch the short I wasn’t really sure what was happening and where the characters were. I also wondered what were the characters, “are they human? Are they some kind of creature?”.  Throughout the short I’ve realized that the setting is supposed to be in a deserted waste land and maybe during a post-apocalyptic time. Even thought I’m not quite sure what the characters are I do know that they have emotions and character development through the 7 minute short. From what I gathered the human like creatures can be told apart by their numbers on their backs. The main character which I can only assume is 9 seems to be the only one of his kind left. He also seemed to be hunted by a mechanic animal that takes the souls of its victims and wears their numbers on its back. In the short we are shown a memory of the main character that shows his friend dying by the mechanical animal. The main character figures out how to defeat the mechanical animal and helps set free the souls of his friends that had died by the mechanical animal. The really cool thing that I found was that it showed the main character conquering his fears and defeating the feared animal that defeated his friends. Some other really interesting things I’ve found was the animation that the director used. The director used really cool visual effects to keep the viewer interested. Even though the short was silent, the animation kept the viewers interested. This shows that the plot, which showed that a rag doll type creature  kill a mechanical animal that had previously killed his friends in order to survive a post-apocalyptic world, could keep audiences entertained even though there is no sound. I really enjoyed all of the dynamic uses of the animation and the plot to tell the story.

Genre Research: Our decision!

 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: 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.

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. Some examples of thrillers are the silence of the lambs (1991), American psycho (2000) and Jaws (1975). I like how in thriller movies the use of sound and light keep the viewers on their toes and create an uneasy feeling in viewers. I dislike how the producers create such relatable characters for the audience. Personally I get too scared at the fact that these movies seem real. 

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.

Research for our genre!

 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!

Our Pitch!

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.

Meeting the group!

 Hello today I’ll be announcing my group that will help me create filming movie magic. When I first thought about who I could ask to be my partner I had an immediate person in mind. More like three people in mind. These people are very special to me. They are also very good with Group work and they’re all team players. And of course the special people who I’ve been talking about our Alex , Jake, and Avalon. If you’ve heard their names before in my blog, it’s because they were my AS media studies level group. Each of these people have amazing qualities which I think when put together create a perfect group for this project. Alex is very gifted with editing. Jake is very very good at directing and knowing where to place people. Ava is really good at the teams makeup and she is is also good with filming. My talent is being able to draw up the Storyboard and helping co-direct the films. When working together on projects last year, our team worked very well together. We had some laughs, some frustrating moments, and some celebrations. All of these moments helped make our friendship and our production stronger. Another thing that made our group work so well was our backgrounds. Each of us were friends before filming our projects. That bond that had already been formed only got stronger while filming. I’m so grateful that I get to work again with these amazing people. I’m so excited to see how all of our projects are going to turn out.

Welcome back!

 Today marks a great day where I start my journey in media studies A level. Last year was so much fun, I loved getting to know all of the camera angles and movements in movies. But now with this new class I get to learn more about the marketing side of movies. I’m so excited to get together with my old media studies AS level group to film this new movie. Due to the outbreak in Covid I haven’t had a lot of time with my friends. On the bright side, I have had a lot of time to watch movies and analyze them using what I learned in media studies AS level. Though in the description, this class sounds like a lot of work, I am excited to delve deep into the marketing side of movies. The thing that I’m most excited for is the actual filming of the movie. That is something that I fell in love with last year and media studies AS level. The last “big movie assignment” we did was a horror movie called Signed the Watcher. This movie was about a group of teams that were terrorized by a serial killer. For this assignment we only had to do the first opening credits to the movie. Now this year we have to make a five minute short film. Before we start the movie we have to pick our groups and make a pitch. I’m super excited. I have so many ideas for what this five minute movie could be. Not only are we making a Movie but we’re also going to be setting up a website for the movie. Along with the personal website we will also be making some postcards to help promote the short film. All of this publicizing of the movie will be making a brand for ourselves. Overall I am so happy to be back in media studies and to be learning about the world of movies.

Audiences and Institutions essay

'Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied'

   In the film industry, making sure your film is successfully marketed is an important step in the distribution. The marketing step is essential for making a successful film. Film makers use many different types of marketing techniques to get through to potential viewers. 

            These different types of marketing techniques offer the film makers different ways to reach out to different audiences. One of these marketing technique is Cross promotion. An example of cross promotion is with the Beauty and the Beast film. The film makers had companies such as Kohl’s, offer exclusive items and merchandise to help the film. Along with Kohl’s, Morgan Taylor made a set of movie-themed nail polish colors. These products reached many different potential viewers. These tactics helped the film grossed $1.3 billion worldwide. Another film that used Cross promotion for their marketing is the movie Jurassic world. The makers of Jurassic world created video games and toys with Lego and even candy to help promote the film to a specific audience. Along with the toys and video games, using their parent company Universal Studios got Comcast’s television companies to get a run of earlier Jurassic Park movies and have marathons and sneak previews with Spielberg and Chris Pratt on NBC. This marketing technique help get through to all types of audiences.  

         Along with cross promotion, synergy is used by many film makers to help push their film out to different audiences. One film that used synergy to help promote their film was Spider-man-homecoming. In an attempt to promote Marvel’s film, the film makers paired up with a commonly eaten cereal brand called Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The cereal offered a free toy inside the box. Marvel’s film ended up grossing 800 million dollars worldwide. Another Movie that used synergy for their marketing tactic was Beauty and the beast film. Disney exercised corporate synergy when a couple of the movie’s stars hosted a special edition of ‘The Bachelor’ on ABC to promote the upcoming release. This technique proved to be helpful with promoting the film. 

            Social media is always a big tool used by film makers to promote movies. In todays’ day-in-age social media is big part of everyone’s daily lives. Film making and distribution is all done online so naturally the film makers are going to market it on social media. Through the internet anyone can reach and watch any film, whether it is by downloading it online or through a social media app.  One film that used social media as their marketing tactic was the movie Jurassic world. There were 4 main trailers distributed around the internet and TV and 4-5 other TV spots. The film makers also made an Easter Egg hunt that was given out as Easter holiday marketing strategy and was completely online. This appealed to many younger potential viewers. 

          An essential part of the distribution process is having the hard copies. Hard copies are the movie posters that are given to the public to peak the viewers interest. All movies no matter what genre uses this tactic to peak the interest of potential viewers. These posters give a little bit of an insight to what the movie might be about. For example, the movie Spider-man homecoming had a poster of the main character, Spider-man with the word's “homecoming”. This visual gave use an inside sneak peek into this movie. The audience could infer that the movie was going to be about the superhero Spider-man and maybe show his life as a teenager. Another movie that used hard copies as a marketing technique was Jurassic world. Jurassic world had posters with new dinosaurs along with a new character on the front of the posters. The viewers could infer that the movies were going to show dinosaurs as they have before with a new twist. 

Overall Marketing is essential to the distribution of films. Marketing helps get through to potential viewers. The way they do this is by using Synergy, Cross promotion, social media, and hard copies. Without a clever way of marketing a film would not be able to be successful film.