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!