Audience and Institution Practice Essay

1. Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

Marketing is very important to a film being successful. A film needs to be marketed for potential viewers to promote interest and gain an audience. There needs to be strategies to how the film will be marketed. The more effective the marketing strategy is, the more viewers the film is likely to get. The marketing of a film is a large factor in determining whether the film will do well or not. If people don't know of the movie or don't like the way it is promoted, it can seriously hurt that film's earnings. How well a film does is almost completely dependent on how well it is marketed.

The film “Furious 7” made approximately $384 million worldwide in its opening week. One of the main actors, Paul Walker, died November 30, 2013. As a great marketing strategy, they put him at the forefront of the global marketing campaign which was as a key element in the franchise making a gross total of $1.515 billion USD. Evey time I went out with my friends, we would see posters up marketing for Furious 7 which attracted me because of the late Paul Walker. It made me wonder how they continued filming for the movie if he died which made me interested and I’m sure others had the same thought.

The film “Black Panther” made approximately $361 million worldwide in its opening week. Marketing played a huge role in the successful movie. To appeal in a different form of art, Marvel Studios hosted a New York Fashion Week event, where outfits inspired by the movie were showcased. It was a well put together show which promoted positive reviews before the release. I could feel the connection between the film and the characters; it was iconic. Also, the use of cross promotion with the NBA was a good strategy. During the NBA Finals game, the trailer was played which caught many viewers attention. They also partnered with Lexus to reveal a special commercial for the 2018 Lexus LS 500, a new car that drew inspiration from the movie.

The film “Beauty and the Beast” made approximately $490.6 million domestically in its opening week. Their use of cross media convergence and synergy with different companies played a significant role in the success of the movie. Working with apple, they released special iMeassage stickers to send to people. This was a great tactic as it got many people excited for the movie when they got to use the stickers. I like seeing my friends send them which made me laugh and look forward to the movie. Also, they used synergy by hosting a special edition of ‘The Bachelor’ on ABC with a couple of the actors to promote the upcoming release.

Marketing is very important in the success of a movie. Careful planning and great strategy will play a major role of how well it turns out.

TEA Essay

                The extract that has been provided to me is from Game of Thrones. There are two scenes, and in these scenes, the theme is revealed: power. Two men are on a journey to speak to someone in the kingdom. When they arrive, they speak before the most important man who will determine their request. Their request is to become a leader, but the head man declines. So, the two men try to convince him.

                In the first scene, an establishing shot is used. The boat going under the statue shows that they are on a journey. They have gone a long way and traveled very far to speak to someone with the power to carry out their desire to be the leader.

                In the second scene, most of the dialogue takes place. This is where the two men officially talk to the man in charge. The setting is the room where the men meet with the head of the kingdom to discuss their request. The use of the two-shot of the men shows that they are anxious to talk to the head of the kingdom. They wait together impatiently waiting for him. The use of the diegetic sound of the footsteps of the men entering the room shows how powerful they are when they walk in the room. Also, their costume shows that they are a part of a group of royals. The use of the dialogue between the men is a conversation about why the man should be a leader. A shot reverse shot is used multiple time in this scene. It is mainly used to show that they are discussing with each other about the request. The reaction of the man’s face after hearing “decline” shows that he is shocked that the head man declined their request.

Both scenes show that the two men on the journey to the kingdom are waiting for approval by the man in charge. He has power to accept or decline their request. The men try to get him to change his mind as the decision lies in his hands.

TEA

CCR Interview

Final Task

Re-shoot cancelled

Due to the coronavirus, I have to self quarantine. This has impacted my group and I movie. We are limited on things we can do. I can’t leave my house which means I can’t reshoot any scene. We wanted to reshoot the garage scene and maybe the diner if we had time. In the raw footage of the garage scene, there’s a cell phone in the shot that’s not supposed to be there. It look very unprofessional so we wanted to redo that scene. Because we couldn’t reshoot the garage scene, I told Kaliyah to crop the video a little and cut it down by a few seconds. This is so the cell phone doesn’t show up on the screen.

I was in charge of titles and background music like before. I created titles on my phone through this app called PicsArt. I put “SNATCHED” in all bold and red. I couldn’t choose between 4 different fonts for the “CSKS PRESENTS” title. I took a screenshot of all and sent it to my group. They voted on the ones they preferred. The bold but subtle title is what we choose to go for. I only wanted snatched to be in red so that it could grab the readers attention. I left the “CSKS PRESENTS” in all white. Next, me and Shania searched online for suspenseful background music to download on our phones. I couldn’t find any good ones that allowed me to download for free. However, Shania found one and Kaliyah edited it into the movie.

Re-editing at home

After Florida had been affected by the corona virus, my school district went ahead and shut down schools starting on Monday the 16th. Last Friday, we, as in students, left school thinking that we will be back the following week. As soon as I get home, our superintendent goes on the news to announce that he will be closing down schools to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. At first I was excited to hear that we will be starting spring break early until I realized my group and I didn’t export our movie. We didn’t even get the chance to finish adding the transitions. With the last minute decision, me and my group was stuck on what to do. All of our work is on the school computer. We were nearly done with the movie. All we had to do was wrap it up and move on to our ccr. I decided that we had to start over the editing process at home.

We decided to download all of our footage again on our phones. I was in charge of creating a google account where we could drop all of it into google drive. This is so that everyone could access them. Also, I looked up editing software for free that my group can use. Everyone in my group has iPhones and luckily Apple preinstalled an editing software for free. Its called iMovie and many students used this software so I decided that this app is what we’ll be using to edit. I looked up on google if there’s any way that I could share a movie with my group and edit all at the same time. I didn’t see an option in the app so I watched a YouTube video on how to do it. None of the videos were helping as they only showed me how to share it. Kaliyah found out a way and we split up the tasks equally on editing. 

Editing once again in class

Today in class my group and I decided that we have to finish our movie before spring break. We don’t want to spend month working on this movie. That would be wasting time. So today, I was in charge of making a split screen. The split screen consisted of Shania, Kaliyah, and I on the phone. I searched on google “how to make a split screen.” Many tutorials popped up so I watched a few. I decided that I wanted to make it on my phone because I thought that it would be easier. The computers were moving too slow for me. I found a tutorial on YouTube that showed how to do a split screen on an app for iPhones.

I didn’t have the app on my phone so I asked one of my group member, Chad if I could borrow his phone. He had it already installed so I didn’t have to waste time waiting for it to download on my phone. The video showed me that you had to turn the phone sideways to get the settings. I did not realize that so I spent a few minutes being clueless. After flipping the phone sideways, the video showed me to press the settings button and click on split screen. After pressing the split screen, it gave me the option to add the second video. The app was running smoothly so making the split screen was not difficult. After making the video, I gave Chad back his phone. I told him to watch it and made sure it look good. Then, I instructed him to send it to Kaliyah. This is so she could import it to the computer and clip it to the movie.

Last class

Today in class, we edited our movie. I was in charge of looking up background music online. Because of copyright issues, I had to specifically look for free music I can download. It was hard looking for free music as a lot of music online was copyrighted. I went to YouTube and searched up "copyright free suspenseful background music." I searched through many videos. The first one I found was good to me. My group mates didn't like it so I had to keep looking. The second music, me and one other classmate thought it was really good but the other two didn't like it because it sounded like it came from an action movie. Our movie is really subtle so a hype background would throw it off.

My group realized that “SNATCHED” should be the only bold title. It would look weird if all titles shared the same font as the title. We decided to change the font and the color. I liked white better on a black ground. I told Kaliyah to make the font bold but slim. The best font I could think of was serif. Pinnacle studios did not have that font. I let Kaliyah change the font and edit. I told her to show me what she came up with when she was done. I told her I liked the titles she did for the rest and that we were done with the titles so we could move on to the next task of editing.

Peer Review

It was scheduled for my group and I to peer review each other on days 03/03 and 03/04. I waited the whole class period for the girl that was supposed to review our movie. She never showed up. I also waited for the boy who movie we was supposed to review. Neither classmate showed up. Knowing that we had two days to get this review done, I knew it wasn’t a big deal. I just knew that both of them were going to show up the next day. In the meantime, I searched for different fonts for our titles. We decided we didn’t like the dripping font so we looked for other ones. I found a font on a website that my group really liked but it wouldn’t upload to the computer.

With the help of our teacher she told us that the way we were uploading it wasn’t gonna work. So, instead of uploading it as a jpeg, I searched for a font on the computer. We found a similar font on this website called free-fonts.com. I downloaded the font on to the computer and imported it to Pinnacle studios. On the editing software, I clicked on T(Title) and searched through the file for our font. I then selected it and typed up “SNATCHED”. Towards the end of the class, we realized that we had the girl’s number, the one who was supposed to review our movie. I texted her and asked if she had to peer review rubric and if she wanted us to send her our movie for her to do at home. She agreed and I proceeded to send her our movie. None of us had the boy’s number so we weren’t able to peer review anyone.

Didn’t have the chance to edit

Today, none of my group members came to class on time. Since we’re editing only on one computer under Kaliyah’s login, I wasn’t able to edit right away. In the meantime while I waited for Kaliyah to show up, I imported the videos to my computer. I watched all of our footage looking for mistakes. I deleted the ones that weren’t good. The ones that we redid and was good, I saved them to a folder. I imported the footages that we needed into Pinnacle Studios, the editing software. I then started to clip them in order of our movie. I didn’t plan on saving it. I wanted to see how it would look and notify my group if any clips were missing and how we could fix anything before reshooting.

Kaliyah shows up the last 20 minutes of class so I knew I wouldn’t have time to edit on her computer. I grabbed her computer and signed in with her login so I could begin editing. The computer had to update so 10 minutes was lost from the computer starting up. In the last 10 minutes of class I selected the raw footages that were good and imported them to Pinnacle Studios. I didn’t want to forget which ones I selected so I decided to export the movie. In a rush to pack up, I accidentally closed the laptop before it had the chance to successfully export. I’m not worried about it because all I did was import clips. Next class I’m definitely going to try to edit. I must finish before next week so I am able to get criticism from my peers. I plan to clip all the footages together without any transitions.

Filming in the car on our way to the diner

My group and I decided to film this scene on our phones since it was easier to place on the dashboard than the camera. Because Kaliyah was driving, I placed the phone on the dashboard and pressed record. With all the turns and acceleration of the car, the phone kept dropping. I had to keep picking up the phone and placing it on the dashboard. I recorded the scene of us girls in the car at least 5 times because we had to keep starting over. I didn’t want the video to be shaky so I waited until we stopped at a red light to shoot the following scene. In this scene I called Shania from Kaliyah’s phone. The call was very awkward so we decided to do another take. I stopped recording and I discussed with the group how the call should go. I started recording again and called Shania. After she hanged up I stopped recording.

In the next scene, Shania gets in the car and I started recording. I filmed us greeting each other and talking a little bit. I plugged in her phone and started playing some music for our background. Then, I filmed us singing and dancing along to the song. Once again, the phone kept falling from the dashboard. We were making sharp turns so it was hard for me to get a perfect footage. I continuously picked the phone back up and filmed. I thinking having a car mount would’ve helped me shoot this scene better. Also, I filmed us all arriving at the diner. When we got out the car, I told Chad to film us from the back walking towards the diner.

Filming at the diner

Last Monday me and my group filmed at our local diner. Since it was President’s Day, there was no school for us students. I spent that whole morning going over my script. I never acted before so I was pretty nervous. I mostly acted and other times I pitched in ideas to help our scenes look good. For example, I told Chad to film me and the girls from outside the diner. That wasn’t originally in our plan but I thought it would look really cool. I think I played my part very well. I said my lines correctly and I, sometimes, went with the flow to make the acting seem more natural. Also, I filmed some shots of us in the car.

I waited almost half an hour for my food to arrive. We couldn’t start filming again without my food so the filming process took longer than expected. After shooting inside the diner, we started filming outside for our final task. It got so dark the lighting was bad so I directed Chad to where he could find the best lighting for our scene. Also, I turned on my flashlight to brighten up the inside of the car. I got in the car and pretend to start the car. That scene was the hardest for me because it was difficult trying to make it look realistic without actually turning on the car. I popped open the hood for Shania so that I could quickly transition to the next shot. I then opened the trunk for Kaliyah for our final scene.

Storyboard "SNATCHED"

Below are images of our story board. The story board contains the images of the scenes that we are going to do and shows what will be going on in the scene. This will help us tremendously. It will help us because it will be an easy tool to use when doing the film. We only will have to follow the story board directly as it is, which will help with the filming process. It will help in the filming process because we can just look at the story board to know what scenes that we are doing and to see if we forgot anything. This makes the story board a significant tool that aids us in making the film perfect. Also this makes us have more fun with the film because we know what we are filming and we would not stress on what we should do for the film. This helps us be able to make our film the exact way that we planned it. The story board is the most significant part of our planning process and it will help us make our film more perfect.

Planning our Title design

This power-point will help us remember the design more easily. We put the design in a power-point format in order to obtain the information better and to make it organized. The reason we did this is so that we can keep looking back at the text in order to either remember how we are styling our title or to make sure that we styled it in the correct way. In order for that to be the case we put all the information on how we are doing the titles and the different aspects of the title as well.

Planning LSHP

This week, we decided to organize our location, participants, health and schedule. We created this by using google slides. Planning ahead is very beneficial to our group. We can always refer back to the google slides if we ever forget about the original plan we had before. Come filming day, we hope that things can run smoothly. For starters, we decided to set our location. It was easy for us to decide on how to start a film. We each came up with great ideas to start the beginning of the film in the garage. We also, researched diners to film at for the film. As the planning continues, we cannot wait to start our project.

Sound Script

This week, we created our dialogue/sound script for our film. We used google slides in order to create the script. In the script, you will see that each slide is titled with the scene number. The information on each slide describes what is being said during the scene and the sounds that are going on. For example, we included the dialogue between the actors in the scene along with the background noises. We created the script carefully so that it can be accurate for when it's time for us to film. Creating the script will be beneficial on filming day! We will already have the plan on what the actors need to say and what sounds are going to be made. Now that we have a plan on the audio being used for the film, it makes us more excited to start the project! Hopefully, we can film less than two weeks from now.

Shooting Script

For the script, we created a power-point that entails all of the scenes without the words. It shows what is going to happen in every scene and also the camera movements and angles. This power-point will be almost exactly what we are doing for the actual film. We plan to follow the script we created 100%, but we have also planned for any deterrent that may interfere with what we planned. The power-point of the script also shows the editing techniques that we plan to use for the actual film. This script is the tool that we need to help make our film a success. It will help us make our storyboard and also help us come up with ideas for the dialogue that will be in the scenes. Not only will it help us with the dialogue, but it will help us further illustrate our scenes on paper for the storyboard that we are going to do. With this power-point at our disposal, it will make planning and filming the rest of this film uncomplicated and less stressful to do. With this being the case I believe that it will make the film making process more fun and exciting instead of just something that we have to do.

Title Research: Underwater

They are 25 titles in the opening scene of underwater. At the beginning the titles start descending down the screen which correlates with the title under water. Those titles are just the companies that collaborated to create underwater and the title underwater. After the titles just start to appear on the screen in a smaller font ranging from executive producers to star actors. Images that are prioritized in the opening scene is the subtitles and words in a newspaper. An example would be "worlds deepest drill under construction.” This obviously makes the audience assume that a main plot of the movie will be the drilling being that it was one of the boldest worlds during the opening scene. Another image prioritized is the large map of the ocean. This tells the audience that the main setting will be the pacific ocean or the Marina trench because the camera begins to zoom into as the opening scene continues.
The connotations that the images carry are a feeling of seriousness and suspense as well. It brings these feelings out by the images themselves. The images are different documents and facts that tell certain things that are important to the film. These images show some of the facts, but leave the audience wondering what importance the images have in the film. Not only does it have the audience guessing, but it brings out a level of seriousness cause of the different official documents that are shown. This brings out the importance in the film by the audience knowing that official documents such as those shows something significant happening. The genre is reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset by the director using different the titles as a way to represent the film. The titles are presented in a going down manner to represent that the film is going to be taken place underwater. This hints to the audience that the film will be taken place underwater. The title of the film also gives some hint to this as well. The director also hints to some of the details to the film in the documents shown by including statements like “under water drilling project”. This reinforces the mysteriousness of the film because it leaves the audience wanting more. 
The film establishes enigma from the outset by leaving the audience wanting more. It does this by having the documents have words on them that hints to the details of the film, but they move very quickly. This makes the audience want to know what the document says and leaves them wondering what hints does the documents give them. 
The strategies that are used to ensure the film appeals it’s targeted audience is the editing techniques that they use and the sound as well. The sound and the editing techniques make it seem like something is about to come out of the screen. These types of effects attract people who like to adventure and people that are curious. The images of the documents talking about drilling underwater also attracts marine life enthusiasts and people interested in the environmental factors of the drill. Technology was used effectively by the editing techniques and the transitions. The transitions were very fast portraying a sense of urgency for the film. This helped let the audience know that this was important as well. Not only were they fast, but the transitions were going downwards to connect with the title underwater, which enhances the suspense for the movie. Also, since some of the documents shown were newspapers it gives off the sense that the incident was so important that it was in the news. This is an important technique using technology because the audience knows that things in the news are major events that the world needs to know about, this means that if this was in the news then it was a very important event. Not only was it in one news paper, but the sequence shows that it was in many newspapers across the world. This makes the audience even more eager for what actually happened and in the process shrouds the incident that took place in more mystery. 

All of these things that I have said combined reinforces and enhances the mystery aspect of the film efficiently.

Title Research: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

There are 29 titles displayed during the title sequence of the movie. The images that are prioritized during the opening sequence of the film are many dark images portrayed as being tortured. The shapes are shaped as human beings and you can see some of the features. Some of these features that you can see are the human mouth, eyes, hair, arms, legs and the rest of the body. Some of the torture things that you see are the people being bounded by a mouth gag, people being burned alive, and also eyes being burned. These images bring out the audience's curiosity. It does this by showing some of the torturing devices being used and having the audience wondering what is going to happen in the movie. It makes the audience wonder what leads to such devices of torture and it also has the audience questioning what the movie's details entail. Not only does it bring out the curiosity of the audience, but it also creates a sense of suspense through the way the titles are being displayed on the screen and the gory images on the screen. These things combined brings our the mystery genre of the film.

The genre is reinforced through the symbolic and technical codes from the opening sequence through the ways the titles were placed on the film and by the font the titles were in. The titles seemed to be slammed on to the opening sequence and were moving sort of fast like they were running away from something. This leaves the audience with a suspenseful attitude, thinking about what is going to happen in the film. Not only are the way the titles are placed giving a suspenseful feeling to the audience, but the font the titles are placed in is a font that would be the titles of newspapers. Mystery genres usually have something to do with finding out something through the use of news articles and then investigating it which gives the film this mysterious feel. The images are another way that shows the mysterious nature of the film. The torturing of the people show that there is going to be some type of crime in the film that will be investigated. This connects the font of the titles to the pictures showing that both of them work together in order to give the film the mysterious sense to fit the genre. Not only does the fonts and the titles play an important role reinforcing the mysterious side of the film, but the music does as well. The music works well with the titles and the images by enhancing the feeling of mystery from both the title and images.

The film establishes an enigma of the film by the images. The images of the film are very difficult to understand. They start with an eye burning and goes on to show people splitting apart and looking like they are screaming. This leaves the audience puzzled because they do not know what is going on in the film. Not only is enigma established by that image, but the image with the shadowed figure blindfolded has the audience questioning why the image is blindfolded and what purpose does this show in the film. The techniques that that is used in the opening sequence of the movie that attracts the attended audience are the lighting of the images being displayed and the music of the title sequence. The lighting the images are being placed in is a very dark lighting. This lighting causes a ominous feeling that attracts a more adventurous audience that would want to explore the things that the images portray.Technology has been used effectively by the different editing techniques used. The editing used includes the fastness of the images coming on and off the screen, the way the music goes along with each image moving along the screen. The effects of the eye burning and the people splitting apart also enhances the genre of the movie. The bodies melting away like candle wax and then re-emerging from the ground into a solid form give the movie that mysterious and suspenseful sense. It makes the audience wonder what’s about to happen in the movie. 

All of the these things that I have spoken about enhances and brings out the mysterious genre of the movie.

Title Research: The Conjuring 2

There are 29 titles that are displayed in the opening sequence. The titles range from producer to costume designs by. Images that are prioritized are of tape recorders, families, and houses. Also, crosses, damaged couches and beds, and a dead looking nun are shown. Some images are side by side of actors and pictures of the real characters. Since the movie is based off true events real pictures are displayed. The images create a sense of mystery and thriller. Most images are dark. This creates a suspenseful atmosphere. There's a happy family but damaged goods in some of the images.

Genre is reinforced through symbolic and technical codes by some of the images being black and white. It shows something has happened and there will be an investigation.

The film establishes an enigma by the footages used. The footages have no direct connection to each other. The opening sequence shows a couple of families and then a nun. The nun looks dark and scary. This could mean that the nun has something to do with the families. 

Strategies that are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience is by the suspenseful background and sound. Dark, lowkey lighting is used throughout the opening sequence. This creates a suspense that’ll interest audiences. Audiences that like mystery movies enjoy the inauspicious that’ll keep them on the edge of their seats. This creates a gloomy mood. 

An old projector showing film stock video footage is used. Each footage that pops up is a key element to the film. An example would be the families and the nun. The nun has to be connected with the family. Also, each footage was edited to have vignette. This creates importance to the photos. The opening scene was effectively created to produce interest.

Title Research: Get Out

They are 22 titles displayed during the opening sequences to the film. The titles range from executive producers to important actors. Images such as a white car driving away and the pictures taken by the camera are prioritized during the opening sequence. They are prioritized because they are emphasized on the screen by having a longer screen time. Such as the driving away of the white car uses about 40 seconds of the man getting in the car and driving away. While all the black and white pictures are emphasized because they are so many different versions. This makes the audience assume that they're from the camera showed in the next shot which will connect to something. Conclusions taken from these images is that in some part of the film they will become important to the plot of the film. The genre is reinforced throughout the symbolic codes by the images are all black and white or dark colors which makes someone try to figure out where the images would be placed during the film. The technical codes shown is the story being told throughout assuming that they're going somewhere and something might happen when they arrive. I assume that because the male charterer is shaving and taking a shower while the female is buying coffee and breakfast pastries. However, in the beginning, the white car makes the audience assume that it had something to do with main character either packing something in their trunk then leaving. The genre is definitely reinforced because it makes us question everything that is happening. This film establishes an enigma because first it begins when someone gets out a car and then packs something in it and then drives off which makes the audience question what the person is actually packing. Another enigma the film is establishing is the question of “where are they going?” The strategies used is having the audience question their every moves. Such as the pictures all we were wondering was what would happen with those. I even wondered whether the white car was important or not. Maybe it was just there to throw us off the questions about the pictures. The technology use was efficient such as how far the camera was when the guy was packing the car one technology strategy was the camera being so far. We didn't know what he was packing however we assumed it was important. Get out titles were efficient because we payed attention to each title that appeared. The opening scene had me questioning the next scene.

Title Research: Watch the Titles Website

While continuing the research on title sequences, we came across another website. This website was called "Watch the Titles". I learned how to navigate the website and where to go to find title sequences. This website was very similar to the "Art of the Title" website that we discovered. It had various title sequences from different movies. However, they included interviews from famous actors and included title sequences created by students. They also provided examples of title sequences used in video games. One cool thing about this website was they they provided title sequences from french cinema. On my free time, I watched those videos as well because I was interested to see what they were like in France. My group members and I have been researching title sequences so that we can create on for our film. On this website, we watched title sequences that were in the mystery genre. We utilized this website so we can get more examples of title sequences. I saw that many movies used sound and visuals in the title sequence to make the sequence more interesting. They also included the names of the cast members, production team, and etc. Now that we watched many example of title sequences and how they portray the genre of the film, we are excited to create one on our own!

Title Research: Art of the Title Research

The other day, we came across a website called "Art of the Title". On this website, it had a variety of title sequences from hit movies. They included movies from certain studios. For example, pixar animation studios. I realized that the website organized top ten movie title sequences through the years. For example, they had the top ten title sequences from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Not only that, they also included title sequences from binge-worthy tv shows. One thing I liked about the website is that they included movies from different genres. While exploring the website, we watched multiple title sequences. Most of the title sequences were very interesting. The visual effects that were used added Title sequences are the opening sequence of movies and tv shows. Often they would include the title, key production, cast members and etc. They would utilize cool visuals and sounds to make it more engaging. I learned that the editors of the film will use music and titles that will help the viewers infer the genre. As for the mystery genre, we realized that the music would be suspenseful. The website was very beneficial because it gave my group members and I and idea of how we want our title sequence to be.

Get out

Movies similar to our genres are easier to spot being that a mystery genre typically has a plot of solving a mystery.Some noticeable camera shots in the specific movie is the use of close ups . When a film maker use close shots it makes the audience focus on that subject.One of the films i focused on was "Get Out" Produced by Jordan Pelee. An example in get out of a close up shot is when Chris face is zoomed when being hypnotized , this gives audience the ability to feel his emotions. Another camera shot Jordan Peele uses is the point of view shots. When we take the place of Chris eyes and see the Gardner running towards him. This also makes the audience focus on the gardener and have a curious mindset on what will happen next. Another aspect of this film is the use of low angles . Such as when Chris explains his concerns about him being uncomfortable and Georgina responds. This is also used to emphasize the emotions of Chris concern. However Movements in mystery genres tend to vary. However in this movie they're a lot of tracking shots. Such as when their in the car driving to their parents house. It made the audience feel as if they were driving along side of them. Another movement was the zoom as They closed into Chris face it felt as if we felt his emotions and hurt more and more.

Movies such as Get out tends to use the same editing strategies.One editing strategy i took note of is the jump cuts. Such as when the camera cuts away when Chris looks at something. During the scene of the Gardner running away the camera cuts away as he turns. Which emphasize the curiosity of why the man is running. Another editing strategy i saw was the insert of the pictures during his hypnotism. They inserted the pictures to show his memories. The sound of the movie had typical scary movie music. Which included the taunting sound of having the audience believe that something is happening.

I love mystery movies, it keeps me on the edge of my seat . Get out especially kept me on the edge of my seat with the different camera shot tactics. Being that I learned about all the reasons why movie producers use different angles and shots it made it more easier after watching it another time. The movie became clearer as i understood the emphasize of the angles, movements, and sound and editing. However there are somethings that i dislike about this genre. I dislike how a mystery genre tends to have the same plot. I also dislike how the conventions tends to be a dark setting rather than a a sunny or lighter. A lot of mysteries happen during the day so for our project we will hopefully twist the conventions a little.

It wasn’t many customs in the film. They were just everyday clothing and job attire. However the lightening played a significance in this film such as the darkness during the hypnotism which made us connect the dots during the hypnotism. Also the actors even tho they were plan regular people if the maid and garner didn’t act in such way we wouldn’t have been curious of the workers. The close up of the maid showed the audience her make up which made the audience question her character. Another aspect of the film was is the props being used such as the axe or even the tea cup during the hypnotism. The setting made the movie which every different idea was in a different science which made us connect all pieces of the story together.

Death Day blog

The film Death day is a top example when it comes to the mystery genre. This film utilizes many of the conventions that we see in the mystery genre now. One of the many conventions that the film utilizes is the camera shots. In this particular film they use close ups to capture the emotions in the character's face. These emotions range from happy to fear. The movie also utilizes another camera shot convention called a two-shot. This shot will help portray the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist in fear while the antagonist comes off as violent towards the protagonist. Not only is the two-shot and close up convention used in this film, but they are the most used conventions in this film. Another convention that this film uses is the camera angle convention. This film does this by using an Ariel shot in order to show the girl being followed to her dorm from the party. This shot was used in order to produce suspense and engage the audience more with the film. 

This film also utilizes the movement convention. It does this by using a tracking shot. This is shown in multiple scenes. These scenes include when the girl was running away from the killer in the street and  on the stair case, when she was running to find the killer, and when she chased the killer. These scenes were used to enhance the film and show the transition of her fear throughout the film. She went to just being afraid, then to trying to figure out what is going on, and then chasing after the killer in order to learn the truth. The film also takes part in using the sound convention as well. This sound includes the dialogue that is used to figure out who the killer is. They show scenes of her speaking to students around the campus and her friends going through their connections to find out who the real killer is. Suspenseful music is also used throughout the film. The director utilizes this music in order to enhance the scenes where something is about to happen. This is used to engage the audience more aggressively. 

The props in the film was another convention that the film matched. The props in the film that was used was a mask that the killer wore throughout the entire film to hide his identity. This enhances the film by adding more mystery to the killer of the film, having the audience have more interest into the film wanting to know the identity of the killer. The killer also uses a knife to kill the main character. The costumes that everyone wears are causal clothes. The natural lighting that is utilized in the film is also meeting the convention as well by the dim light. This film was amazing and the plot kept me on my seats throughout the entire movie. The only problem that I had with it was in the middle of the film a lot started happening at the same time that threw me off. In our film we will not have so many things happening at once in order to make it the best film.

Maze Runner movie blog

The Maze Runner is a movie about young men who are trapped in a maze with no knowledge how they got there so they work together to escape. At the beginning of the scene there is a black screen and all you hear is the sound of movement of a lift/elevator. The use of this diegetic sound is very effective because it creates a tense mood because there is no visual on what is happening. Low angle and high angle shots were used in order to make Thomas look weak and the surrounding characters superior. The POV shot used further on in the scene is effective in building tension. From Thomas’ point of view we see the speed of the elevator cage rising faster and faster, building more tension as the speed increases. This allowed the audience to see things from everyone’s perspective. Wide shit was also used to establish setting and emphasize Thomas being isolated from everyone else. The use of diegetic sound makes the film seem more realistic as the sound that is created both the audience and the characters can hear, such as when Thomas and the boys could hear the creatures from outside the maze. This allows for the audience to be able to relate to the characters surroundings and engages them further. Also, it makes the mood more tense and further dramatizes what is happening in the scene. 

When Thomas and few of the boys went inside the maze and got stuck in there for the night, low key lighting was used to make the maze appear dangerous and to build up suspense. Tracking shot was also used to follow Thomas as he was running around confused and did a 360 turn. A very wide shot was used throughout the movie to show everyone entering the maze when they had a chance. A two shot was used to show Thomas and his friend sitting at the campfire having a conversation. The lighting that was used was three point lighting, key point and also low key lighting. The transition between all three helped create mood for the feelings the characters were portraying. An example would be when Thomas ran into the maze, the lighting changed from three point lighting to low key lighting as the creatures came out to hunt. This effect gave the feeling of fear and horror during this part of the scene. Also, natural lighting was used the most through the movie because most of the scenes where outdoors. The Maze runner used scenes of nature as their Mise en scene. 

This movie was a great example of a mystery movie. Actually paying attention to the camera angles and movements create a deeper understanding of the movie. I understood why each aspect was used. This made me see the movie even clear. However, there were a couple of things I disliked about the movie. The use of low lighting was too dark that I sometimes couldn’t see anything. During our filming, I hope we film during the day so this doesn’t happen to us. We wouldn’t want to make a great project but its too dark for viewers to see. I did like the use of diegetic sound. It created a connection between the viewers and the characters.

Us movie blog

The movie "Us"is another prime example of a great mystery movie. This movie includes most of the conventions that we found as we researched the mystery genre. The movie Us has the usual camera shots represented in a mystery movie called a wide shot. It shows the back ground of the scene. This happens when the family is at the beach. The shot shows the sand, beach towels, and beach umbrellas showing that the family is at the beach in the beginning of the movie. The movie also follows the conventions with the camera angles. In the movie there are multiple close up angles showing the faces of the tethered. This was in order to create intensity in the film. When the tethered first showed up the camera angle went into a close up to show one of the main mysteries of the film. They also used the close ups in order to instill a little bit of fear and interest in the audience in order to keep them engaged with the mystery of the film.

Another camera angle that the film used to go along with the conventions was the Ariel shot. The Ariel shot was used when showing the house the family was running to when being chased by the tethered. This established a sense of location as to where the family was headed. Us continued to meet conventions by using tracking shots in their film as well. The tracking shots showed all of the characters in the film running away from the tethered. This shot was used the most because of the amount of running in the film. Not only did the film meet conventions by camera angles and movements, but they also met it by the costumes. The film had the tethered in prison uniforms which matches the genre precisely because in most mystery movies the mystery that they are trying to solve is murder and some of them take place in a mystery. Not only was the prison costumes a good match to the conventions, but the casual clothes as well. This is because the costume convention ranges from casual clothes to detective uniforms.

The lighting was another convention that the Us film captured. They used natural lighting for the film. This made some of the scenes dark and some of the scenes light because of the time of day. This is done in most mystery films in order to enhance certain parts of the film and in order to show that time is flowing in the film. The props in the film also match the conventions because they used knifes, scissors, masks and other killing tools. They used these in many scenes trying to kill the family and killing different people. The settings in the film match the conventions as well by some of the scenes taking place in the woods, dark places and everyday places as well. The film also used jump cuts between the tethered chasing the family members to show what happened in each of the scenes affected the other. The film also meets the conventions with the sound used in the film. The film uses a low scary sound in order to put the audience inside the movie and keep them on their toes for whats to happen next.

I love mystery movies like this. They keep me engaged with the movie and have me thinking I am in the movie as well. After watching it another time I was really able to analyze what was happening in the movie and the different shots, movements, camera angles, lighting and effects they were using to enhance the movie. I love how the movie had such a unique plot, because this plot was different from other plots I have seen before in this genre. However, I dislike how much information this movie left out at the end. It left me on so many cliff hangers to the point where I was kind of confused, saying what the point of all the twists were. For our project we will be sure to keep the plot good, but not too complicated to the point where we get our audience confused.

Genre Research PowerPoint

This PowerPoint was done by me and my group. The genre of the research is musicals. We researched common lighting, sound, mis-en-scene, camera shots and camera movements. In common musical films, characters are singing and dancing. Also, characters are in costumes and wear makeup. To create a happy spirited mood, high key lighting is used. An example of a classical all time favorite musical of mine is “The Lion King.”

Final chosen genre

Previously, my group members and I researched three genres. These genres were Crime, Mystery, and Musical.  After researching all of those genres we decided to go with mystery. We went with mystery because when we were brainstorming ideas for the genres mystery was the best idea out of all. Not only was it the best idea, but the idea was rational. We have the tools and means capable of doing this idea more than the others. We also liked the different clamps and conventions in this genre as well. The movies that we watched that fell under the mystery genre fit well with our movie idea.  In the mystery genre, they use close-up shots and naturalistic lighting. We felt like mystery was one of the best genres that engages with the audience. As people watch our film, we do not want them to get bored.

Genres we researched

The first genre that we are researching is musicals. In common musicals, to show actors dancing, pan movement and tracking shot is used to keep up with the dancing. By using eye-angle, audiences can experience the actors dancing like front-row seats. The lighting is generally bright (high-key lighting) to create a bright mood. Also, cinematic lighting is used to show drama between actors. Bounce lighting is used to reflect soft light onto an actor. Wide shots are often used to show locations especially to show where actors are singing. In pop-themed musicals, subtle props such as flowers are used. In action-themed musicals, props such as swords and shields are used. In most musicals, costumes are used to match the mood of the scene and role of the actor. Sound elements typically used are ballad and live music. I don't like musicals where every scene actors sing. However, I do like the lighting used. It creates a happy atmosphere. With all these facts, this is why we chose this genre.

One additional genre we're researching is Mystery. The mystery genre is typically when a mystery is being solved. The usual Camera shots in a mystery movie is wide shots to show the background. While camera angles have a large range. Some camera angles are an Ariel shot which establishes their location and close ups which exaggerate the close object. Movements in a mystery thriller usually have a tracking shot to show the moving of a person. Usually Customes range from detective outfits to everyday casual clothing. The lightening in mysteries are typically dark dim lightening or sometimes bright if it's being solved during the day. The actors are all a different type of people. Props usually used knifes, guns, ski mask, and other killing objects or even just plain note pads. The setting is typically woods, dark areas, or even just everyday places. One of the most important editing tactics is jump cuts from scene to scene to emphasize the correlation between the two. The sound is typically dark scary music to make the audience feel inside the movie. I love how this genre keeps me on the edge of my seat, it is so interesting. However, I don’t like how it tends to have the same plot twist. All in all, I hope we go with this because this is one of my favorite genres .