Audience and Institution Practice Essay

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

When it comes to the importance of marketing in film production, the importance can not be over-exaggerated. Often, the success of a film relies on two factors: the quality of the movie, and how much it was promoted. In this essay, the focus will be on the impact of marketing, and it will prove its importance without a shadow of a doubt. Marketing is extremely important because films utilize marketing strategies are often successful, while those that don’t are often not successful.

Our first example comes from two popular movie franchises fast and furious and juristic parks. We are starting with franchises because producers often use the fan’s support for previous movies to help promote the newer movie. The first movie example is furious 7, and they used the love for characters in previous movies to help promote the new one. Another marketing technique that they used was hosting special events such as creating a trailer launch question and answer session. Additionally, they used synergy or using other companies owned by a conglomerate to promote their product. They did this in the form of Universal Studios Hollywood theme park introducing a new ride called “Fast and Furious – Supercharged”. They also used cross-promotion in the form of partnering with cell phone company Oppo, magazine vibe, and video game Forza. All this marketing paid off in full when the movie made $384 million dollars on opening weak. Marketing directly lead to large box-office sails in another popular movie juristic world. The first marketing technique that they did was releasing 5 main trailers on tv and on the web. This lead to the creation of a Jurassic World website that was made during distribution had a countdown to the movie. Additionally, universal studios also created a trading card game and partnered with LEGO to create a video game. Finally, there was more cross-promotion with film company Sony and candy company Mike and Ike. This marketing once again paid off when the movie made over a billion dollars in sales overall.

Marketing is also extremely important to non-franchise movies. One example of this is Ugly Dolls, a movie which was in production for 20 years. This movie made less than 8.5 million dollars. Surprisingly enough though, there was a considerable amount of marketing done with this movie. This includes multiple posters, paid advertisements, and a series of tie in books. While this might be against my point, it actually does supports it. This is because what this movie lacked was synergy (with a large variety or resources), and cross promotion.

In conclusion, Marketing is extremely important because it can help boost box office sales. We can determine this because of case studies done on movies such as furious 7 and movies like juristic world. Additionally, we can conclude this because of a lack of sales from movies with less marketing.

Game of Thrones Extract Essay

The author of Game Of Thrones had a vision of creating a medieval world where iron and steel are the measures of a man, but gold and the banks are what runs the world. The author creates a believable world by creating impressive structures and including flawless logic in the creation of systems. While I have not personally seen Game of Thrones, by viewing the five-minute extract, all of these facts are apparent.  In this extract, there are a total of two main scenes, one on a boat and one in a “bank.”

              The the extract starts out with a ship (prop) sailing on a blue background of water. We are viewing this from a god’s eye view. In the background, we can hear the diegetic sound of seagulls and the ominous music of the soundtrack. As the scene progresses, we get a two-person medium close up shot of two main characters. They are dressed in old fashion cloaks and look angry. As the camera moves away, we are exposed to the whole of the ship, as well as the giant sculpture of a warrior “protecting” a great city. The lighting is bright, and the rays are linear. The only editing taking place in this scene is an action match, and later a jump cut. Overall, the world is genuine and can’t be distinguished from the real world.

              The next the scene begins with the two main characters standing in a dark room in Infront of a blindingly bright window. The camera angle is now medium two people. The soundtrack is gone, and there is a defining silence. As the scene progresses, there is a pan exposing us to the rest of the great hall.  On one side, there is light, and the other is darkness. As the scene continues, we are given an insight into the main plot of the excerpt, the king wants to fund, but he is a bad bet. We are introduced to another character/ system in this next part of the scene. This is, of course, the famous iron bank of Bravos. We are introduced to three of its representatives in the form of a long shot from the side. As the discussion continues, we come to realize that this bank is very much like any bank: smart and cold. As the conversation progresses, the editing is in the form of a shot-reverse shot for two minutes. Then the extract ends.

              I am right about the director’s vision because of the clearly extreme amount of effort it would take to create just these two scenes. As we move through this world, everything is as we would expect, and even knowing that is just a show, we can hardly tell.  First off, the lighting is different everywhere, especially in the bank. In the first scene, the world is bright and full of life and wonders, and as a result, sunny and warm. However, as we move closer to the discussion of war, the lighting gets progressively darker, something that often is a result of our subconscious. Additionally, the acting, as well as the camera angles, combine to create a real-world with conflicting emotions. This all adds up to a seamless world, which would not have been created without and an extremely frustratingly large amount of work involved.

CCR Blog

Attached is my response to the Common Critical Reflection questions assigned to me by my AICE Media class. In order to answer this, I created a fake interview with my Dad. My dad is interviewing me and this is the result:

Enjoy,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-_QRI1LsFc

Two Min Movie Final Project Blog

     Attached is my final Project. I am extremely proud of our group for what we came up with for our final project. After struggling with being separated because of Corona-virus we all came together to make sure we had a well-edited video. As we worked together we learned a ton of new things! It went really well and recordings were a blast. This video lets us explore our taste in movies and really make something that could make someone impressed. I think our movie may have been too fast-paced, but otherwise, I like it a lot. Due to the virus, we did not have extra time to talk together and be in the same room planning so we improvised. I was the main cameraman for this film. I was also the main music producer. I really enjoyed this movie-making process.

     I also learned a lot of techniques to make things more interesting and focused on getting close-ups of objects to put the titles over. My favorite part of the movie is the ending, I think it is a great cliffhanger that makes someone want to watch more of the movie to find out what is going to happen next. The music is also a perfect fit as it matches with multiple scene changes. It especially matches well with the end of the movie which is why I decided to use it. I think we did a good job in this movie and I hope I can watch some of my other peers movies. This project may have taken a long time, but with the virus it felt short. I think if I did it again I would have chosen a more simple plot though. We did have to change the storyboard, which felt unfair to do. I even edited a different version of the movie to see which one was better! These options let us choose the best movie we could have made. and I can speak for our group when I say we are all happy with the result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFDKN1TVE_w

Music Video Final Product

     This is the result of six weeks' worth of work and was ultimately my second project. For this project, I found a new team to work with, as the old one did not contribute to the workload. We were tasked with creating an alternative music video to a pre-existing song. The song that we chose was Garry come home, from the popular cartoon Sponge Bob. We chose this song because it would be easy to accomplish as one of our members has a cute dog that can look sad at times. Additionally, we believe that every kid of the 2000s' who didn't live under a rock would know this song. Our main actor was Jake, and his accomplice is his dog. I was the director. Tim was the camera man. Finally, Kyle was the main editor. Altogether, I enjoyed working with this new team much more than my old one, as we seemed to have the same feelings on certain issues with our movie, and they helped me with the workload.

     The basic plot of the actions in our video are of a young man ignoring his friend, and then missing him once he is gone. However, the story does have a happy ending as "Terry" man's best friend is returned. While searching for his friend, he remembers all of the good times that they had, and all of the love that they share. this was supposed to also have a deeper meaning as almost everyone will lose a beloved pet or family member. Having just lost my 17-year-old dog, I truly understand where the song can have a deeper meaning. When we were filming this project, we had a few mistakes that I would like to address. First off, the reason why we only have one actor is because of a scheduling mistake where the rest of us were outside of the state. Second, the editing isn't perfection, because when we did our first round of editing, the program corrupted the file. Overall, this was a great project and I really became a better person because of it.

Nike Commercial Final Product

     This is the final product of my first project. In this project, I worked with Freya, Joaquina, Lucas, and some volunteers. We were tasked with promoting the famous sports brand Nike. To do this, we had a series of sports and involvement clips. We did this to help support the idea that everyone is Nike. We planned this commercial with the intent to help promote the casual clothing department of Nike. In this commercial, we attempted to use several different combinations of gender and ethnicities. This was an essential part of our commercial because this will help subconsciously gain support from more people compared to the single-gender and race of other commercials. In this project, my first primary role was as the runner presented in the ad. My next task was as the chief editor for the project.

     The first scene is Eva studying, like a nerd, but this helps create the intended purpose, you don't have to be an athlete to be a part of Nike. The second scene is me meeting up with my friend Eva. This helps create the message that were are all connected, athletes, and others in our love for Nike. The third scene is just a simple promotion of the brand. The fourth and fifth scenes are different athletes playing different sports. This helps to connect more viewers to our message. The final stage connects all of our actors and all of our sports. This is also a close up of all of our actors, as well as the Nike lanyards that we were all wearing. Overall, this was a fun project, but as you can see, we didn't do a great job. Our next project is far superior and will be published tomorrow.

Kicked Out of School blog

So, Today was supposed to be the final day of re-shooting for our final project. However, due to the COVID 19 outbreak, we were unable to finish. This was a result of schools being closed without warning. This resulted in us not being able to sign out cameras and therefore not being able to film. to add to that, we also don't have an SD card, SD card reader, or copy of the editing program. Because of the fact that we have no clue when we are really going to return we are unsure when our final is going to be. Or if we are even going to have it. Most schools are now going to start online school and everything is now sealed off. This includes the fact that we are now only allowed to leave our homes for essentials. With all of our team members stuck inside, there is now very little chance that we will be able to refilm and re-edit. The virus has completely spread through Florida. As a result, I am only allowed to leave the house one day a weak. Additionally, on this day I am only allowed to walk around my backyard. This is what is making filming our reshoots extremely hard. We don't have an issue with editing lucky. This is because we have a copy of the editing software at home. We have also been training with the program and are now really good. As a recap, we can not meet anymore. We can not refilm with the same actors. Finally, we will still make an amazing movie.

Coronavirus Potential Plan Blog

As you must surely know by now, there is a deadly disease going around the world. This disease is called the Coronavirus, and it has currently killed over 135,000 people. As a result, the world has started to notice and now that it is in Florida, we are in serious danger of catching the disease. However, today was literally the first day that it personally affected my day to day life. The virus had the effect of closing all extracurricular activities at my school today which means no sports. This ban will be in effect for at least three weeks, which will prevent me from training before the county championships, an event that my school always wins. This is what made me realize that the coronavirus could potentially destroy any chances for my team and I to finish our final project. That is why we I decided to create this emergency plan.

In the case of mandatory quarantine, because of the government's plan to stop/slow the epidemic, or because of the potential infection of one of my fellow group mates, the workload will be split up in the following way. First, Jake will use his family as actors for any reshoots if they need to occur. This is the correct course of action because of his large family, as well as his access to the filming location (his house). Next, I will select which takes should be used, out of the many potential options. I will do this because of reasons that I will later explain. Thirdly, Tim will select music that he believes will fit our movie introduction. He will do this because he has the best taste in music out of the entire group. Finally, Kyle will edit the final project at home. To do this, he will add the new takes with the music to the original product. Overall, I am the one in charge of selecting takes because of the other's specialties. Once Kyle is done, he will send it to us, and we will all facetime to share opinions of what can be improved. After a final edit by Kyle to make the appropriate changes, we will submit us to Cambridge. As always this is just a precaution. Stay safe and healthy!!!!

Planning to Reshoot Blog

Last tuesday, we were peer reviewed. And we had a few main errors that we are hoping to fix with our new takes. As i reviewed in my previous blog (Peer Review Blog), we had three main issues. All of these were related so they should be easy to fix. First off, we had no titles. We can fix this by adding stock footage, that is related to the plot, and then placing titles on this. Our next issue was the fact that our video was not long enough. the previous idea will take care of this. Finally, our last issue was a sketchy plot. Apparently, our movie was lacking sound so we definitely need to add that.

The overall, we are planning to reshoot on saturday the 14th. We will again be at Jake's house for the filming.  This will hopefully prevent any changes in scenario from being noticed. The plan for when we will be getting the camera is as following: I will get the camera in class on the 13th, and then give it to Jake. Hopefully, Tim will be able to film this weekend, as he wasn't able to film on any of the previous dates.  Alternatively, he could help Kyle edit in the final edit. Personally, I believe that we should reshoot the scene where the mother was killed. Geo was unclear about what was happening in this scene so we clearly did it wrong. Overall re filming will be fun and I can't wait. Until next time.

Peer Review Blog

In class yesterday, we were reviewed by our pier Geo. In addition to this, we also peer reviewed another group's final project. When Geo viewed our project, he gave us a few suggestions. His first suggestion is that we expand the length of our film to the proper time. currently, without titles, our video is 1:39 in length and must be expanded by at least 11 seconds. We can easily do this if we add titles.  That was the second critique, we didn't have titles. However, this is an easy part of the process and will only take a few minutes. Our video's final issue was the lack of volume in our video. This is something that was actually planned as we are going to incorporate voice overs as I discussed in my previous storyboard blogs. Overall, we only had a few issues and we will be easily able to fix them.

In addition to having our our video graded, we also graded another group's video. I have to say, I was confused. The film started off with a couple fighting, and then them being called for dinner. At dinner they are not at all angry with each other as they previously were. Plot twist, they were eating human hands, eyes, and brains. Again how these topics are related I don't know. Overall, there video was filmed perfectly but their storyline was not present. Attached are pictures of my rubric for the video that i graded as well as half of the rubric from Geo.

Editing Blog for Final Project

 This week, we had another recording session for our film. I was unfortunately unable to film. however, the new clips boosted our ability to make a final product. With this we went into choosing clips. As we expected, there were some bad clips from our first session of filming, manly bloopers of me doing weird things and trying to figure out the camera.like any good group, we wanted to start editing at school on Wednesday, but we had technical difficulties. exactly like last time. We knew we would have to edit a lot at school on Friday, and if not then, then Kyle would have to do the editing at home. As you can probably guess, Kyle did have to do some editing at home. This was because unfortunately when we got there on Friday,  the computer wasn't working again. So they decided to film on Friday after school. However only Jake and Kyle could do it because Tim and myself were out of town. So after they did the re-shooting, Kyle went home and started working on editing. I felt bad for both Kyle and Jake, but because especially Kyle as he had to edit the entire movie by himself. He needed to get it done before our peer editing on Tuesday, of the next week though. He was a little rushed because his computer at home kept crashing. However, he ultimately did do it. Unfortunately, he couldn't put in the titles because it was too late. I'm excited to see the final product. Though this may be what we have now, it's far from the final version of the project. Our project is looking to finish on time. 

Filming Recap Blog

     This Blog was not published on time because of technical difficulties. Attached is the blog I made on the 22nd.

     This blog is meant to be a recap of the filming that occurred on February 22nd, and a plan for future filming that occurred on February 28th. On the 22nd, we ran into three main problems. The first problem was the lack of a teammate Tim who was unable to film. The second main issue was a lack of oversight and planning regarding our child actor. As we found out on Sunday, making a 16-year-old with a beard to look like a 6-year-old is just not possible. Our final mistake was a lack of props. This made filming the video difficult because we had to then improvise and switch to movies as inspirations for our character. Alternatively, we had two main successes when it came to filming. The first success was with the murdering of the parent’s scene because during that shot clouds rolled in and made the take darker at the exact time of the murdering. This added to the intensity of the shot, and I believe that with the proper soundtrack, we can make this shot epic. Secondly, we realized a potential mistake before it became catastrophic. This mistake that I am referencing is the decision about who should be the main actor. If I was supposed to fill this role, we wouldn't be able to film next weekend. 

This weekend, we will be filming the rest of our takes of our project.  We will also be re-filming some scenes as we reviewed some in class. One of these scenes includes the scene in which I knock on the door and say I am a police officer. In addition to re-shoots, we will also be filming with new actors like an actual mom playing as the mom in the story. Unfortunately, Tim one of our main actors will not be able to film over the weekend, and I will not be able to either. This is because I will be in California, but I will be calling in from time to time to help with ideas. 

Final Project Filming Day 1

This weekend was the first day that me and two other of my group members could meet up. I arrived at Jake's house promptly on time at 11:15. From here, we proceeded to film some of our one person shots. While we were filming, before Kyle arrived, I was the camera man and Jake was the actor. we decided that this would be a good idea, because I will be unable to film next weekend. This is important because we realized that we didn't have enough footage at the end of the day to make a two minute intro to a movie. Anyhow,  at 12:00 we ran into some problems when trying to pick up Kyle. So, we left Jake's house at 12:05 and when we arrived we couldn't figure out which house was his and he didn't come outside. when we finally picked him up, we realized that we needed to re-shoot many scenes.

For example, we realized that having a teen wear and look the exact same as a younger version oh himself was just not realistic. To change this, we had Jake wear lighter colored clothing, and we also opened the blinds to let in more light. This was my idea and it is supposed to represent the lighter, and more insentient time. This time is also known as childhood. However, we decided that this still wasn't enough so next week, we are going to film the kid's scenes in first person perspective. This way, we won't see Jake's face as much. It would also be  much easier to film when Tim is there to film with us.

Overall, we spent about five hours of filming at Jake's on Saturday. We did spend some time attempting to try and finding props at target and Walmart, but this did not help at all. Overall, I had fun filming with my group and I am very sad that I can't finish filming with them.

Attached is a picture from one of our scenes...

Pre-Filming Blog

     Before we film this weekend, we wished to plan out when we were going to film. However, before we could pick dates, we wanted to insure that we took all safety precautions. This is important because in my opinion safety should always come first. The next topic on our checklist was to secure a date where we could all film on. After I spoke to Tim, Kyle, and Jake, we could all film in the afternoon but not the morning.  We also decided that Jake should be the one who gets the camera and bring it home. This is because we are planning to film at his house.
     In addition to discussing safety, we also started to discuss movies that have a similar plot to ours. specifically, we started to discuss the way that the titles were presented in these films. This will hopefully make filming go faster and more cohesive. We will probably not need to film over the course of two days, but if we do it will be during the afternoons. we will have to film at different times of the day because if we wish to show a passing of time, we will be utilizing day and night lights. I am particularly excited to film the night scenes because I believe that darkness is where the evil of humanity hides. If our actor Tim can capture that, I truly believe that our movie will be great. I am so excited to bring our creation to life. Our group's storyboard will be recreated. However, we will have to edit some parts. Lets hope that we won't have to change too much of our story board for the sake of my sanity. I believe that we will all have a great time filming this weekend. My biggest contribution will probably be helping to film, as well as being a director as well as a co-writer.

Final Project Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our final project for AICE Media Studies. This contains a thorough detailed summary of each scene showing what is supposed to happen in this scene. Accompanied with drawings of each events that happens in each scene. It shows the props, Digetic and non-digetic sounds and all of the angles and edits in the scene. Gives each and every one of these in detail showing what is happening to the sound or where its coming from. Or by showing what the props are and what happens to them. Also goes over the specific types of edits that are needed to be used and how to. This storyboard will be used as our guide when we are making our video. With its great amount of detail even showing the settings of each location it will make our jobs incredibly easy. Without this storyboard we'd be incredibly unorganized and during recording that would be a great problem. It will be a great help.

Filming Plan for Final Project

      This is the planning for our filming. We will follow this plan as closely as possible. However, some things might need to be changed if we need to change the plans, or if we change a scene or two. However, I think this plan will be able to stand up well. As stated in the plan, we will try to be very safe throughout the creation process.  This movie is going to be a long process, and we are looking forward to completing it. One of the few things we will need to alter is the font, as we haven't figured out what we want it to look like for sure yet. The roles are also finalized, but we may need more people for actors. We also don't know who is going to play what role at the current moment. It is going to be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it.

Title Designs for Final Product

         This is the plan for the Title Design I have so far. We will follow this plan as closely as possible but I will most likely add some changes. In my opinion, I cannot decide how to make them without having seen a finished short film first. However, I think these ideas will be able to stand up well. As shown I haven't gone super crazy with the ideas. I am also using the classic text you would see in a thriller. One of the few things we will need to alter is the Font spacing, as I haven't figured out what I want it to look like for sure yet. I am also unsure if I will stick to one font the entire time or have 2 or 3. I think the ones I chose at the end will make it in though. I am excited to see the final result and how the titles work in the film.

  

Sound Script For Final Project

     The PowerPoint below contains my group's sound script. This PowerPoint will cover all the Diegetic, Non-Diegetic, and silent moments of the first two minutes of our film. For each scene there is a title that corresponds to the same scene in our shooting script. All the events that are going to occur in our movie are in chronological time except for scene one that occurs in the future. The first scene is meant to be the lead up to the events of the film and will explain who is conducting the voice overs. All the scenes after the first one is meant to be flashbacks narrated by the convict. We be using an old Batman cartoon clip in several places, as well as silence to help built the tension. All our scene’s sounds are gone over in detail, and the music will play in the background. Now that we have both our shooting and sound scripts done, we are that much closer to making our own movie. Overall, we are all looking forward to making this movie and we hope that you will enjoy.

Shooting Script For Final Project

The PowerPoint below contains my groups shooting script. This PowerPoint will cover everything up to Angles, Movements, Edits, and events that occur in the movie. For each scene there is a title that slightly summarizes what is going just to give a taste of what happens in each scene. Also, for each scene the setting for what events are happening is shown. I also included all the events in chronological order with an exception of the beginning. The beginning is what is currently happening with the scenes ahead being a flashback leading to the characters arrest. All the events are gone over in chronological order as shown from top to bottom. All scenes are gone over in detail from the growing of the main character to the murder of the parents which occurs off screen. This power point completely goes over everything that is to happen in the first 2 minutes of our final exam movie. Now that we have our shooting script done, we must go over the Sound script of our movie. 

Title Research: Se7en

-How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences of the film?

There are 27 titles displayed in the opening sequence to the film.

-What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

Images are all crime related, they are prioritized to be crime documents, and things that look suspicious. There are flashing images back and forth to show the images are being done in quick succession.

-What connotations do the images carry?

The images have a negative connotation, like the person is rushing through the documents. They make you feel some suspense and haste in the actions of the title sequence.

-How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?

The thriller genre is reinforced by leaving a suspenseful impact, as it shows quick writing, crossing out of documents, and flashing names giving a 70's vibe. It is made to look old, with brown and black images giving it a grim feel. The actions in the title look like they are doing an something which has a consequence.

-How does film establish an enigma from the outset?

By only giving us flashing images of writing, tearing out papers, and crossing out names and faces we can understand that something mysterious is going on. It shows the seriousness of the situation and importance, with the quick scenes and the shaky camera work. It makes the viewer interested in what the movie will be like.

-What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?

Strategies that work on the viewer, are things like mystery. You can see that there is something the person is trying to hide, and the rushed scenes tell is this is important. This appeals to people who are interested in something that will keep them on the edge of their seat, like a thriller.

-How has technology been used effectively?

Technology has been used to give extreme close ups of documents and hand writing. Almost all angles are close ups, there are no wide shots or slow pans. All the pans and transitions are extremely quick, they don't want you to be able to think about what you are seeing. The editing techniques also fit in very well with the theme. They give shaky transitions, and flashing names to give off an "abandoned" or "secretive" vibe. They make it seem like you are right with the main character in the action and make you feel some of the rush. The editing and transitions show a little bit of a story also, by showing the process of the person creating the documents in the title sequence, it lets the viewer stay engaged.

Title Research: Get Out

-How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?

Get Out contained 31 titles each showcasing a person and their job

-How images are prioritized. The images focus mainly on the story showing all the main characters living out their lives but it also contains certain subliminal messages like the main characters girlfriend looking at black donuts hinting at the plot twist

-What connotation do the images carry

The images shown show us the main characters living normal lives in which it then cuts to images of a forest and a POV of a car driving by it this creates an eerie effect taking us from normal to something abnormal not even related to what were seeing it also creates suspense since we don't know why this is happening in the first place.

 -How is the genre reinforced

The genre is reinforced by first off giving spoilers in our first scenes through symbolic actions such as the main characters girlfriend looking at chocolate donuts hinting at the plot twist of the girlfriend looking for black people who suits her and her family's needs. Also by having a kidnapping in the first scene that then cuts to people living out their normal lives which makes you question whats going on and makes you feel uneasy.

-How does the opening create enigma

The movie creates enigma by providing us with eerie images and events that occur on the begging making us question what exactly is going on. First it shows a kidnapping then a forest and then people living normal lives without any context what so ever.

-What Strategies are used to make sure the movie is appealing to the audience

They make the viewer question whats going on making them to want to watch more and more to discover how all these puzzling events come together it makes them ask questions and try to connect the dots together.

-How was technology used effectively

The camera angles make it so the kidnapping is mysterious and the POV of the forest makes the movie seem mysterious and eerie but at the same time they keep editing simple and to the point as if to throw off all the mysterious and bad things going on.

Title Research: Split

-In this tile sequence, there are 26 titles featured in the time of 1:37.

-There are no images emphasized, however the title set includes eight short video clips.

-These images contain the connotation of a group of girls being kidnapped and potentially sexually      assaulted.  

-This genre of thriller is reinforced by the short flashes in the title scenes. This reinforces the genre        because it leaves us with questions in our head and sets up the movie.
-This movie sets up enigma by using jumpy, flashy, and time skipping scenes. This leaves us                  confused, exactly as we should be.
- This film uses bold high contrast titles and transitions is a echo way and when combined with the         jumpy video clips creates tension that you can feel, and this is what appeals to the target audience.
-The creators of the movie properly used the technology that they had at their disposal perfectly to        create a tense mood as well as a hook that captures the viewers interest. To do this they also include    low and high angles as well as a yellow hew to the shots to add suspense.

Title Research: Manhut

- There were 7 titles total, with some of the titles listing multiple names.
-Aside from the titles, there are pictures of members of terrorist group Al-Qaeda, this is setting up the story of the movie, which will be hunting these terrorists.
-The images are shown like they are on a board, there is writing next to them. This gives the connotation that they are wanted, and being hunted down. It also makes a sense of urgency and suspense.
-The genre is reinforced through the fonts the writing is in, the titles are in bold red font. There is also intense music playing in the background,, which creates suspense. Finally the pictures and the way they are organized make it feel suspenseful as well.
-The film creates enigma by not disclosing what will happen to the people in the pictures, or necessarily what they did to be hunted.
-The creators of the movie targeted the intended audience by making the opening scene very dramatic and suspenseful. The audience I think they're targeting is men, who were affected by the events of 9/11. They might want to learn more about the group, and how they were ended by the US. They do a good job of targeting this audience by showing members of the group who may be unknown to the common viewer.
- Technology was used effectively during to construct this whole opening sequence. The whole board was done on a computer, and the titles were added during editing.

Watchthetitles.com Research

My Group had the task of researching titles from varies movies in order to learn more about titles in movies.We used Watchthetitles.com in order to conduct our research since it is a cite that gives us everything we need movies to watch and titles to study. We decided it would be best to research thrillers and understand how they used their titles. Through our research we were able to learn many things. For example by watching the Heist movie we learned how to properly use titles to show story or to emphasize whats happening. We also learned how we should properly use the titles we should have them slide in and out showing different names every time but we must make each title different in its own way. I also learned which colors are mainly used for thrillers colors that are dark or if a bright beginning colors that are light but fade away darkening the color. Through our research we learned a lot of things about titles we learned how to use them where to place them and what they should look like. Now we will take what we learned and use it to better our final exam.

Artofthetitle.com Research

One of the most important things about making a movie is ensuring that you get credit for your work. This is what titles are used for, giving credit where credit is due. This is a crucial step in any movie, and as a result they are in almost all movies. Art of the title is a site in which most box-office movie credit scenes are logged. Wikipedia describes it as "an online publication dedicated to title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and video game industries. The publication is both an educational and historical resource and a contemporary publication, focusing on the creative process behind the design of title sequences." While this site can be used for more than just titles of movies, that is all we are planning to use it for. From this site, I learned which titles are crucial, director and editor being two examples. I also learned that each one needs to be shown at its own time and not in a group. Furthermore, I learned that the different colors and fonts are just as crucial as the background when setting up the mood of the movie. for our genre of thriller i learned that you should have a bright color for your fonts and then slowly have it fade into a dark background. By ding this you can create a jumpy mood for your watchers which can be a great hook. Through the research of this sight my group and I have learned a lot about titles. ow we must take what we learned and make a great movie...

Genre Research, Movie: The Equalizer

After watching the movie the equalizer this is what I picked up on.

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Many medium close up shots, and in almost every shot there were two people or three people. 

-A lot of track shots of the equalizer doing his thing. During the fight scenes, there were especially many birds-eye angles.
-I didn't see more than 1 or 2 establishing shots, I would have preferred to see more.


Mis En Scene:
-The lighting was really dark and I could not see a few scenes.
-Honestly, it was just casual 80s attire with the most costumes being suits.
-Areas recorded in were the city, a gambling room, a restaurant, a smaller restaurant, a warehouse, and a dock for boats.
- There were too many props to actually record all but the most prominent were different types of weapons. Also, many drinks and foods were eaten.
- The equalizer has one colorful scene. The rest are all taken at night or have tons of shadows.


Editing:
- In all the fight scenes they use a ton of quick pans.
-Eye-line matches between characters and objects are pretty prominent
- There are some fades in and out of scenes.
- Some zooming in at areas.


Sound:
-Heavy use of ambient sound, usually doors opening, background chatter, and busy streets.
- During fights, there is music and gunshots, screams, and the footsteps are extremely loud for some reason.


Elements of the movie:
-The main plot of the movie is a depressed man believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and starts a new and quiet life. But at a waffle shop, he meets a young girl being forced to work for Russian gangsters and can't stand idly by.
-The main conflict is between the equalizer and the gangsters. He goes out of his way to make sure none of them can live until he dies.
-The movie tries to create this intense tone throughout the entire movie which does well. However, I feel like I could not relax during any scene.


Elements I liked:
-A lot of interesting ways the Russian gangsters are dealt with.
-Good at building an emotional relationship and makes you care for the girl that needs to be saved.
-It makes you appreciate the directors work on the interesting ways he deals with villains.


Elements I disliked:
-Literally last 40 minutes was just completely dark scenes and it was annoying to look at.
- Some of the scenes were useless, providing nothing to the movie.

-The director made the gangsters so weak, they never ever scratched the equalizer. 

Genre Research, Movie: Bright-burn

After watching the movie brightburn this is what I picked up on.

Before I list them off, I must say I disliked the movie so I may have a little bias. 

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Many long shots in the movie, you can see all of these shots in the posters for the movie also. 

-A lot tilted close-ups of the protagonist's face. I guess they did this to show his expression, but they didn't need to tilt it so much.
-I didn't see any memorable shots. They were all pretty standard. 

-There were a few dolly shots used.


Mis En Scene:
-The lighting was really dark or really cloudy when they first started showing him do evil things. Before that, it was all bright light.
-No costumes other than the brightburn "superhero costume that was handmade." It was a good mix of creepy and realistic.
-Areas recorded in were the small town, houses, the school, an empty road, and a farm.
- There were many props but the most memorable was a lawnmower, the papers with his symbol, and bats.
- The movie is not really focused on a time of day.


Editing:
- In all the fight scenes there are shaky cams to help the viewer feel the pressure.
-Eye-line matches between characters and objects are pretty prominent
- There are some fades in and out of scenes.
- Lots of jump cuts everywhere.


Sound:
-Heavy use of no sound. It actually was really awkward during the scenes where brightburn was focusing on his target. They had no ambient noise and just the person yelling before they died.
- During the day, the ambient is pretty good, it was realistic enough, but I think the tones of some actors were off for their role.


Elements of the movie:
-The main plot of the movie is a boy is adopted after being found in a spaceship. Later on, when he's about 13 a powerful darkness manifests within him, and many people become scared of him. Once Brandon begins to act on his urge to use his power, he starts harming friends, family, and classmates.
-The main conflict is between the protagonist and his victims. I would say the main thing they try to do is show interesting ways people die.
-The movie tries to create a creepy tone, but many of the scenes where someone is getting attacked it feels unpolished. I think It was trying to keep the audience on the edge of their seat though..


Elements I liked:
-A lot of interesting ways people are killed.
-Really good acting on the part of the main character was able to keep me entertained.
-It was more of a "fun time" thriller than a serious one which is pretty hard to do. I thought that was the most impressive part.


Elements I disliked:
- Many plotholes that were not easy to overlook in the movie.
- Not enough of a soundtrack for me. The soundtrack and effects were almost nonexistent.
-The direction made these quick scenes take a while when most of the audience probably wanted to see horror right away.

Heist Thriller Common Convention Analysis

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:
-Establishing shot, crane shot that tilts down and out
-A lot of track shots and pans that follow the main charter in the scene
-Heavy use of close ups, especially in intense or emotional scenes


Mis En Scene:
-Very dark lighting
-realistic looking costumes and make up
-City. casino, warehouse, bus, hospital, etc settings, very realistic
-A lot of cars, guns and other realistic props
-Not very colorful, very dark as well, very little natural light, until action slow down.


Editing:
-A lot of jump cuts
-Eye-line matches for the main charter are common
-Slow motion during flashbacks
-occasionally uses fades
-Some graphic matches

Sound:
-Heavy use of background music to build the mood
-Good use of ambient sound (sirens, gun shots, screams)


Elements of the movie:
-The movie follows a desperate father whose daughter has cancer, and cannot afford for her surgery. He is brought an opportunity to rob the casino he works for. The heist eventually goes bad and they are forced onto a bus to make an escape. This causes a massive police chase as they try to solve their predicament.
-The main conflict is between the man protagonist and his morals, as he tries to trick those who want to ruin his journey to save his child.
-The movie tries and succeeds in making everything very action packed and suspenseful.


Elements I liked:
-A lot of very intense and engaging conflicts
-Good at building emotional relationships with some characters
-Unexpected ending


Elements I disliked:
-Some of the turns are a a bit ridiculous
- Some of the scenes were over the top
-Lighting too was dark at times

  

Spectral Thriller Common Convention Analysis

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Extreme use of eye-line match shots and over the shoulder shots
-Establishing shot, wide shot, and  shot reverse shots
-A lot of low angles and pans that follow the main charter in the scene
-regular use of close ups, especially in intense or emotional scenes


Mis En Scene:
-Very grey lighting with small amounts of high contrast
-realistic looking costumes (military uniforms) and fake blood/ death marks
-European city, research labs, warehouses, helicopters, etc settings, very realistic
-A lot of cars, guns and other realistic props
-Not very colorful, very dark as well, very little natural light, until action slow down.


Editing:
-A lot of jump cuts
-Eye-line matches for the main charter are common
-Slow motion during explosions or crucial action
-occasionally uses graphic matches

Sound:
-Heavy use of background music to build the mood
-Good use of ambient sound (plasma blasts, gun shots, screams)


Elements of the movie:
-The movie follows a head engineer who is sent to a warzone to help fix the “bug with his tech”. when he arrives, he discovers the specters are real and they start killing people. The city is overrun but the ghosts can be found when exposed to specific low frequency light. Using a new form of plasma weapons, they trace the specters back to the source and discover that they are a weapon created by the government. They disrupt the neural transmissions and destroy the facility. Happy ending.                                                                                                                                    -The main conflict is between the man protagonist and fellow team members as they battle to survive and free the city.                                                                                                                               -The movie tries and succeeds in making everything very action packed and suspenseful.

Elements I liked:
-A lot of very intense and engaging conflicts
-Good at building emotional relationships with some characters
-Happy ending                                                                                                                                                                  -when moments are confusing the movie explains in a dialog between characters


Elements I disliked:
-Some of the turns are a bit ridiculous
-Some of the plot twists were over the top
-Lighting too was dark at times

Genre Research Final Pitch

My group and I researched Dramas, Thrillers, and epics. We decided to pick a thriller since it correlates with our movie idea more. Since were making a movie about someone’s life changing, I figured it would either be a thriller or a drama. We decided on thriller since our movie will follow a boy whose life changes for the worse there won't be much fighting or arguing but more or so personal problems. Since it only involves our own character there is not much drama to be had instead it keeps the viewers uneasy about what could possibly happen to him. Therefore, we decided that our Final Exam would be a thriller.  

Epic and Thriller Genre Research

Epics:

Common Lighting: One common progression of light in epics is from dark and brooding at the beginning to happy and bright near the end. Another being the dimming of lights as the movie progresses.

Common Camera Angles: Wide shots, Establishing shots, and Bird eye views.

Common Movement: Zooms into wide shots are commonly used, and lots of tracking shots during fights.

Mis en Scene: Location: Somewhere historic or far in the past. Costume: lavish and elaborate costumes. Set Design: Usually high budget and quality.

Color Design: Tends to have a tinted or sunkissed look

Elements of Genre: Large Scale historical movies that use a lot of costumes and mix in drama.

Common Sound: Tend to be extremely dramatic in order to emphasize intense scenes using loud booming sounds or fast-paced music. When there is a scene where its supposed to be happy the music lightens up. And in scenes showing villains they use low pitch sounds.

Examples of Epics: Gladiator, Star Wars,  Lord of the Rings, Spartacus.

Thrillers:

Common Lighting: Usually have darkness in scenes that are emotional and near the end show the sun shining bright or have some form of bright light to show how everything is good now. Most scenes don't have a lot of brightness.

Common Camera Angles: They use wide shots to show the area, if there are fight scenes they use a multitude of shots like bird's eye view, medium shots, and two-person shots depending on what's happening.

Common Movements: They use track shots during fights and zoom-ins to show the importance of certain objects.

Mis En Scene: Costumes: tattered clothing, or dull-looking clothes they don't usually use anything to special. Actors: they use people who can really create emotion in people. Makeup: they use fake tears or blood to show physical pain or emotion. Props: They use breakable props in order to not hurt anyone. Setting: Usually dark and changes ending up being light near the end.

Elements of Genre: Tend to have a lot of emotional plot points and try their hardest to evoke emotion by using things like children or characters, you can relate to.

Common Sounds: Use songs that create emotion in people with things like violins or pianos. In fight scenes use upbeat fight music. And they sometimes use eerie sounds to create a sense of uneasiness.

Examples of Thrillers: Glass, Crawl, The silence of The Lambs, US

Genre Research Power Point Blog

These are the slides from a PowerPoint my team and I did early in the year. We had to do research on the genre, Drama.We looked at many elements of the genre. We also looked into a lot of different movies in the genre. Finally we looked at common camera angles, movement, and editing. Drama is a very interesting genre that includes a lot of realistic traits. They usually involve a story line pertaining to love and romance. However, I don't know if the classification of genre would be good for our film. We want more action than is usually included in a drama.

Final Pitch

We narrowed the three pitches to two, as requested. We decided to stick with the first and the second idea from the previous blog. I am of course referencing my comic hero obsessed kid, my personal creation, and the bank robbery gone wrong. We picked these two because these were the only ones that we could agree upon. Additionally, the third idea of having only one person in the world or town would be unobtainable. That and uninteresting. I mean really, who wants to watch a movie about nothing. Someone who slowly dies of starvation is not entertaining. Also trying to get the silence that would be associated with trying to shoot two minutes' worth of film without any human "movie bombing". Overall, that was just not an option.

However, the idea about the kid who is obsessed with a comic book hero is an idea that would be easy to accomplish. All you would have to do is simply get a set of comic books, an action figure, and maybe a mask. Overall the kind of thing that someone, four kids, could easily get their hands on. And for cheap. This is probably our best idea for our project, but just my opinion. Alternatively, the other option would be to try to stage a personal home robbery. That and fake shooting someone, hard to do with practical effects and not CGI. But we probably could accomplish something and fake money could be used as bait fo the robbers. In addition, we could also make a short montage of them getting ready.

Overall, we decided to go with the superhero superfan idea. Just to recap this story will be about a kid who is obsessed with a real-life superhero to the point where after his parents die in a similar fashion he starts to go insane. I am hoping that for this story one cool twist would be for the kid to have a split personality that planned the death of the parents. It would kind of be like in fight club but in a much cooler way. We could start out with a wake-up montage but with tons of hidden relics. This would end in a mirror shot with the kid walking by happy [innosent], but a replica smiling maniacally. from here things slowly start to go wrong until the assassination attempt. this should be both a fun project and a fin idea. I am looking forward to all of the excitement that we will go through. Now to just come up with a name...

Start of final project

     Hi, I am Carter, I am a 10th grader and I enjoy running. I am a good student with only one B+. I have really enjoyed AICE Media as a class and all of the friends that I have met in this class. I also love Classic rock. I have started my own club at this school and it is part of a national organization. Outside of this, I also work weekends. overall, I balance school with 1 sport, 2 clubs, and a job. I only mention this because I want to show that I am capable of balancing many projects at once.
Now introducing the dream team that I will be working with. First is Kyle, the editor, next is Jake the actor, followed by Tim the director, and finally me the filmier.

     Over the course of this class, I have had a huge change. I now can both understand and respect all of the efforts that goes into making producing and distributing films. Before I describe the new me I want to bring you back three months to the first day of this class. I am younger and hoping that this will be a free class. I was lazier and unfocused then. But then I went through the commercial and music video projects. now I am experienced with the camera, acting, and know most things about editing. I bring all of my experience and my wallet to the group. It is cheaper to split the cost four ways instead of three. I also am good at making storyboards and cohesive stories.

1)     Our first pitch is about a young boy who idolizes a superhero, so much that his split personality arranges the murder of his parents and the journey beguines. I personally came up with this one and I believe that we are going to use this idea as our final project.

2)     The infamous bank robber who recently retired returns for one last job. Only his family is murdered during the job. This could be easily acted out if we adapted the bank robbery into a private residence robbery.

3)     In a world where he is the only one left in his town, he must figure out where to go, how to survive, and how to save the human race. It would kind of be like a reverse kidnapping. Everyone else gone but one... how can he survive?????