Genre research; Hereditary

In order to get a better understanding of the genre that we chose, my group and I watched and evaluated a couple of horror films. One of movies that my group and I researched for our project was the 2018 horror movie Hereditary. Directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary follows a grieving family being haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences. The reason we chose this movie was because Hereditary was one of the highest grossing horror movies of 2018 and was one of A24s most successful films. We noticed a variety of camera shots, angles, and movements throughout the film. For angles, there were eye-level angles, low and high angles, and oblique angles. The movie also used a variety of movements such as zooms, tracking shots, tilts and pans. The shots used in the movie were long shots, three shots and medium shots. Many times, throughout the film were close-ups and two shots used. Over the shoulder shots were used quite often during conversation scenes.
Hereditary also had a very interesting mis en scene. The costumes were regular street clothes and didn’t really stand out too much. The lighting in the movie started out bright in the beginning of the movie because many of the scenes were shot in the daytime but by the final act, the lighting was very dark, and it was almost hard to see. The acting was great in the movie. There were some very great and impactful monologues and the actors and actresses did a very good job at showing their grief. The make-up in the film was pretty plain and didn’t make much of an impact unless an injury was shown. The injuries that were created in this film were very bloody and gruesome. The make-up was also very well done and the injuries that were displayed in the film looked very real. There were many props used throughout the movie, the most important props were the dollhouses that the main protagonist creates that help to tell part of the story and a journal that helped to establish a malevolent entity. The settings were pretty basic. The movie took place in a house, a high school, a treehouse, and a couple of other less relevant locations such as a craft store. The main sound used in the film was dialogue but there were also a couple of other sounds. The movie had an amazing original score which made for a more impactful ending. A couple of non-diegetic sounds played throughout the movie such as the quiet mouth clicking noise that would occasionally be played as well as the sound of injuries being created or messed with. There was incidental music and ambient music played and, in some scenes, there was no sound at all which helped to heighten tensions.
The movie followed many of the common horror movie elements but also had a lot of original elements of its own. The movie followed the element of an evil force arriving to a family. The movie also had a fair amount of violence and tension throughout its run-time. Hereditary did an excellent job at provoking fear and creating an unsettling tone. An element of the movie that I did enjoy was the that the film kept a consistent tone throughout its runtime and I really liked that the movie didn’t and rely on jump-scares to create the feeling of fear and relied on the actual plot to create that feeling. The elements that I didn’t like in the movie was the violence. There was a lot of violence in the movie which is okay but a lot of it seemed unnecessary and prolonged. Overall, I think that this was a great horror movie and helped me to understand how to make a movie fall into the horror genre.

Genre research we decided

  Hello! My group and I have confidently made the decision to do our 2 min movie project on the genre Horror! We took time to research 3 different genres. Which were war, action, and horror. We dissected each of them and looked into how each of them are produced and were most drawn to horror. We believe doing horror will allow for us to be most creative. We just overall love watching the genre and want to create something as good as we've seen from other creators. We have a pretty clear set plan of the plot we want to do. I'm very excited to the next stages of this project.

Genre research action and horror

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

Genre research; Get Out

   Hello in order to get a better understanding of our genre, my group and I watched and evaluated some horror films. One of the movies my group and I researched was the 2017 horror movie Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele, Get Out is a Mystery/ Thriller that follows a young man who goes to meets his girlfriend’s family for the first time, but finds out that there something really wrong about her family. We chose this movie because it was one of the best selling movies in 2017. We noticed that there are some camera angles and shots, and movement throughout the film. For angles, there were eye level angles, high and low angles. This movie also used a variety of movement such as tracking shot, tilts, and pans. The shots throughout the movie were three shots, long shots, and medium shots. Throughout the the movie there were also closeup and some two-shots. There were also over the shoulder shots being used throughout the movie.
    The movie Get Out has a very unique mis en scene. The costumes in this movie were very casual clothing, the only unusual costumes were on the house keepers who wore what looked like old clothing for decades ago. The lighting in the movie started out light and towards the middle to end of the movie it started to turn darker. The acting was really good in the movie they really did a good job with acting. There was some really impactful moments in the movie that the actors portrayed. The makeup in the movie was pretty plain, the only time the makeup was over the top was when someone got hurt and they had to make a mark to show that someone got hurt. The injuries in this movie were very intense and gruesome. The overall makeup in the film was very good and the injuries looked so real it was amazing. There were many props in this movie but one of the main one was the house which everything went down. The settings were pretty basic, it took place at an old town and at a house. The settings were nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. The main sound in the movie was dialogue, but there were some other sounds too. A couple of non digestive sounds were in the movie too like clicking of the mouth which went on in the movie a lot. In some of the scenes there was occasionally no sound at all and that helped with the tension. This movie followed a lot of the common horror movie elements. The movie followed  the element which an evil force is in the family and they make it look like there normal but there not. The movie also had a lot of tension and violence throughout the movie. Get Out did an amazing job at making people feel fear and creating a unsettling tone. An element I really enjoyed was that the movie had a consistent tone throughout the movie. I also liked how scary and original this movie was. The elements that I didn’t really enjoy was the parts that had violence in it. There was a fair amount of violence in this movie but it’s ok because I closed my eyes. Overall this movie was really good and I would recommend this movie.

Genre research PowerPoint

 Hello! This is the PowerPoint that me and my group were assigned to do on the genre War. We were not allowed to choose which one we researched however I think I learned a lot about a genre I usually do not watch. We had to research different mis en scenes like common lighting and camera angles, along with common movement. In War movies there is a lot of gloomy lighting and wide shots. Then we researched the different elements of the genre and listed some that we favored and disliked. We also included some example films such as Dunkirk and Pearl Harbor. 

2nd final task blog

  Hello, these past  past few days me and my group have generated three different pitch ideas for our final task for our media studies class.  Not only did we have to come up with a simple patch but also have a whole plot plan out in our heads for each of them.  We knew we wanted to  work in the horror genre because we thought it would be the most interesting to create and thought we would have the most creative and original ideas for it.  We started off with some basic ideas and each of us chimed in to add in more details to make our pictures better and narrowed it down to two. The first being
about a character who has a dream in a POV perspective of different horrible events  and the last shot being of somebody who killed someone and them with blood all over them and then later after the person has woken up someone such as their mom quotes something exactly from the dream.  Our second option would have been a murder mystery which would be about a group of friends who were all together and realize that a friend was missing and when they went to go find the friend they were murdered and left with a note that had a clue of how it happened and the group of friends go on a journey to figure out what happened and who killed the friend.
   The first pitch is what me and my group decided on. We feel as though this would be the best option and best pitch for this assignment. We think we can incorporate a lot more diverse angle shots through this pitch and also use different editing techniques. We also thought that this idea was more creative and would be a lot more fun to direct and shoot.  Another reason why we thought this would be a good idea is that there aren’t that many movies that have a similar plot so ours would be more original.  There’s a lot of different ways that we can take this pitch and if we were to create the full thing throw in surprises and thrilling moments. Within just two minutes we feel as though we could accomplish in an intriguing piece of film that would want an audience to go out and watch the full movie.
   The second page about the murder mystery we believe definitely has a lot of potential and would make for a good assignment but not for the best assignment.  Things like murder mysteries definitely keep the audience is super engaged and feel like they’re apart of the movie which is important  of course but we just think if we did this one it would be less original and easier to accidentally copy off of somebody else’s work.
   overall my group is very excited to begin planning for our first pitch about’s the dreams that turn into a reality and believe that with all of our ideas coming together it can become something very special and will be easy to create cooperatively .  This pitch opens up many doors for us and gives us several opportunities to throw in whatever we want with different lighting and moods and camera shots and editing and whatever else we want to do.

Start of final task

   Today we started working on our final task and I’m so excited. I’m so excited to start this final task because we get to make a movie which is super cool. I’m super thrilled that we get the opportunity to make a creative film. I’m also excited that I get to work with my group. I decided to work with a group for this final project. In my group there is Alex, Jake, Morgan, and I, we chose to be in this group because we have worked together before , and we feel comfortable working with each other. This little group of ours we have done every project together since the beginning of the year. We have learned more about each other and grown as better friends. My group is really excited to learn more and get the chance to show off our creativity. And I’m really happy that I got to work with my original group of people.
     I have learned a lot in this class in the these past months, and a lot of the stuff I learn I use in real life. I have learned a lot about editing videos and the proper way to edit and what to edit on to have the best results. I’m really happy we learned so much about editing because today in our world we have to know a lot about technology and how to edit so it’s very important we learn it. I also learned about the filming process, and the terminology for the filming process. We also learned about how to use a camera, we learned how to work it what to do and what not to do with it. We have also learned the history of the film process and how it has changed a lot. I really liked it when we learned about how it has changed so much over time and how now we can just make a movie on our phone if we want to. That’s what we’re doing now making a movie on our phone I think that’s so cool. One thing that I learned that I’m excited to use is my editing skills. I’m so excited to use them because I feel like very professional and like I know what I’m doing. I’m also really excited to use the angles for the camera shot. I’m also really happy that we learned about all the camera shots because they are good to know. And I’m so excited to use them in the movie and also use the transitions that we learned this year.
   For this final task, the opening of a movie, my group needs to present a pitch. A pitch is a Hollywood term used to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. We came up with three different pitches. Our first pitch is a movie about a women walking out of the mall into the parking garage and walks past a car and sees a girl inside that was kidnapped and gory looking and goes over to see if she’s okay and attempts to call for 911 when the killer comes up behind to take her as well. Our second pitch is about someone who has a horrific dream about bad things happening and wakes up to realize that they will actually begin to start happening. Our third and last pitch is a classic murder mystery about someone who is killed a group of their friends find a clue and begin a journey to figure out who did it. We kept them in same genre of horror because we believed it would be easiest and the most fun.