Genre Research: The Purge- Election Year

The Purge- Election Year is just one of the many terrifying Purge films. Camera angles included in The Purge- Election year are high angles, low angles, and wide angles. Camera movements used were zooms, and tilts. Camera shots used in the movie were close up, wide shot, extreme close up, and long shot. Many different creepy costumes were used in the movie. Some of those costumes include The Purge Mask, clown costumes, bloody clothing, American Flag covered clothing, and more creepy and murderous masks. The lighting in The Purge- Election Year is always dark and eerie. Some actors in the movie are Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, and Betty Gabriel. Makeup used in the movie included clown makeup, bloody makeup, and other horrifying masks and faces. Props used in The Purge- Election year were guns, chainsaws, drones, and knives. The setting is Washington, D.C. 2020. Common sound used in the movie was dialogue, creepy music, screaming, gunshots, and engines revving. Editing used in the movie included cutaway, special effects, and flashbacks. Elements of horror films are dark lighting, eerie music, suspense, creepy setting, and the fear of death. I like the elements of the dark and the fear of death. I do not like the element of suspense.

Genre Research: A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place was an extraordinary film that was almost completely silent. This was quite obviously an enormous challenge. The costumes were meant to be almost torn into rags as this movie took place post-apocalyptic. The lighting was dim and was meant to make the audience uneasy. The casting was exceptional as one of the stars of the film is deaf in real life. The film also featured Emily Blunt and John Krasinsky as partners, who are actually partners out of the movie. Many props were used to create an eerie sense of danger and unknowing at any point. The crew added in "emergency lights" which stood out creepily. They were to guide the family back to there home, without needing to use words. A water tower was also used and played a large part in the movie. The setting consisted of a post-apocalyptic world where the family thought they were the only living people left.
While camera movements barely occurred in the film, camera shots were immensely ranged. From extreme closeups to landscapes, the movie had it all. There was not a wide variety in angles, but most shots were taken from either an eye-level angle or a high angle. Sound was not very common in this movie. Apart from occasional (scripted) slip-ups from the actors, the only sounds came from times before the monsters roamed the world and eerie background soundtrack. The absence of sound, however, was not only a phenomenal idea but a very peculiar one as well. It truly made the story stand out from all the other horror movies when released. The concept that an apocalypse would force survivors to remain mute in every way without medical disorder is almost profound. As if society would be doing this to minorities metaphorically. Common editing techniques used include jump cuts and fades. The use of fades increases suspense significantly.
A Quiet Place uses relatively few elements of horror but nonetheless conveys the story without strain. The elements that it does include are the malevolent creatures and intensity. The malevolent creatures are those that now roam the Earth. They do not have eyes, so they listen very closely to see when prey is nearby. They eat anyone who gets in their path without mercy. This shows that they intend to harm. The silence in the movie increases the intensity as the audience can pick up better on what is not being said.

Genre Research: The Turning

The Turning was a paranormal thriller surrounding the idea that a house was haunted by its last, sexually assaulted, keepers. Its mis-en-scene was kept in the same range as many others in its same category for the most part. The costumes were more based on the 1970s to 1990s fashion, although taking place in the present day. However, a few characters were dressed more conservatively and victorian. Every main character was white and pale, adding into that victorian theme.  All main characters (characters that were living in the aforementioned house or had previously lived in it) were made up of even paler makeup, however, given dark and almost bruised eye bags. They all had a sickly look. The props included rusted, old mirrors, vintage furniture, and frightening porcelain dolls. The setting was a scary, rotting old house, with the nearest town being miles away and very small.
The camera techniques did not vary much throughout the film. The camera angles mostly consisted of close-ups, extreme close-ups, and medium shots. While sometimes a pan movement was thrown in, the only other camera element that was in the movie was jump cuts. However, sounds were used widely throughout the movie. There was an excellent use of waterphones that induced anxiety almost every time they were played. The background soundtrack was very eerie, as expected and many creaking sounds were highlighted. In some instances, a split-screen was used to show a telephone call. This occurred more than once in the film. Jump cuts were almost overused in an attempt to induce anxiety. Fades, however, were placed expertly throughout the story and created suspense.
The film included many common elements of the horror genre such as eerie music, dim lighting, paranormal phenomena, arousing disgust, and a sudden plot twist. The dim lighting highlighted shadowy figures, created tension, and made a blind spot for the audience to question what was happening. Paranormal phenomena is technically a subcategory on its own but is also an element of a wider range of horror movies. While paranormal phenomena should have been the plot, a different one arose when it was revealed that the main character who had seen the said ghosts had actually imagined the whole thing due to her mental illness. The paranormal section of the movie consisted of ghosts and dolls who would come to life. There were just two ghosts in the house though, a rapist and a rape victim. The plot twist raised many questions and left the audience members thinking even after the movie had ended. Although some might disagree, this was a very good addition to the film. The music had truly made the movie much scarier and was also a very nice touch. However, invoking disgust was unnecessary.

Opening Sequence

Our opening sequence will be of the horror genre. We chose horror because we both like to watch horror movies. We are also both interested in how horror movies are made. We find horror movies extremely interesting because there is a lot of effort and aspects that go into creating a horror movie. We believe we are going to be doing a sort of kidnapping horror movie. We chose this because we think i'll be fun and interesting to film. We are excited to learn about and be able to create part of a horror movie.

Two Genres

For the first genre, I chose comedy. Common camera angles in comedy films low angles, high angles, eye level, or dutch angle. Some common shots in comedy films are extreme close ups, long shot, medium close ups, and wide shot. Some common camera movements include tilt, pan and zoom. Common costumes in comedy are normal, everyday looking clothes, clown costumes, and other-worldly costumes for space films and such. Common lighting in comedy includes bright lighting and dim lighting as well. Common actors in comedy films usually include famous actors who have been in previous comedy films, such as Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart, and Jim Carrey. Some common makeup in comedy is normal, everyday makeup, and space or costume makeup. Common props in comedy films could be funny glasses, phones, and other comedic and entertaining objects. Common sets used in comedy films are schools, homes, malls, etc. Common editing used in comedy include zoom, flashbacks, cross cutting, and cutaway. Elements of comedy films include humor, laughing, falling, awkward characters, mean characters, "comedian" of a group of people, in a school, home, or other place. Some comedy films include Daddy's Home, Deadpool, Step Brothers, and Superbad. Common sound in comedy is funny sound effects, laughing, and dialogue. The elements of comedy that I like are the humor and dialogue. An element of comedy that I dislike is that it is sometimes corny.

For the second genre, I chose science fiction. Common camera angles in sci-fi include wide angles, high angles, and low angles. Common shots are wide shots, close ups, and long shots. Common camera movements include tilt, pan, and zoom. Common costumes in sci-fi are space suits, alien costumes, and metal suits. Common lighting includes dark light, colorful lights, and lighting from stars. Common actors are Tony Stark, Scarlett Johansson, and Carrie Fisher. Common makeup could be space makeup, alien makeup, or natural makeup. Common props are space ships, later guns, and labs. Common sets are space, Earth, or other planets. Common editing is flashbacks, zoom, and cross cutting. Elements of comedy are wars, fighting, invasion, and a mission. Science fiction movies include Avengers, Star Wars, and The Martian. Common sound is yelling, dialogue, war sounds, and loud explosions or bangs. The elements of science fiction I like are the intergalactic fights and the mission to save something. An element of science fiction that I do not like is that often many good characters die in the movies.

Powerpoint Blog

At the beginning of the year, my group did a project relating to a genre given to us. The genre my group go was crime. We created a powerpoint for this project. We had to create slides talking about different aspects of the crime genre. The first aspect was Common Lighting in Our Genre. The second aspect was Common Camera Angles in Our Genre. The third aspect was Common Movement in Our Genre. The fifth was Common Mis en Scene in Our Genre. The sixth aspect was Elements of Our Genre. The seventh aspect was Films in Our Genre. The eight aspect was Common Sound in Our Genre. The ninth aspect was Common Sound in Our Genre. The last aspect was Elements of Our Genre That we Like/Dislike. For each of these slides we included bulleted lists of each aspect.

Genre Research: Us

Us was an absolutely terrifying psychological thriller by Jordan Peele. It is hard to explain the plot as it left almost every audience's head spinning. The costumes ranged vastly. From all red suits to fashion from the 1980s to present-day fashion. Lighting was also ranging highly. There were scenes at night, during the day. Some scenes had mood lighting. Other scenes had harsh, artificial lighting. The significant difference between the natural lighting and the artificial lighting highlights the completely different worlds the clones live in. The makeup was a very interesting aspect of the movie. In horror movies, it is very common to have the makeup of the actors progressively become more intense or tired. However, Us took a new perspective on that. Towards the end of the movie, you find that the person who you thought was the original copy the whole time, was actually the clone. What an audience might not have noticed is that the "original copy's" white shirt became more and more red as she was killing more people. While this might seem normal, an easter egg in the movie was that her shirt was turning red, just like the red suits that the clones wore. The setting was almost pre-apocalyptic, however only in the United States. The experiment was never tested in other parts of the world, so there were no clones anywhere else.
Camera angles used mostly consisted of eye-level angles and high angles. The only recognizable repeated camera movement was panning. Camera shots included close-ups, medium shots, landscapes, and long shots. Common editing included jump cuts and eyeline match.
Some elements of horror that the film included are wicked or malicious characters and a shocking plot twist. The wicked characters are the clones who attempted to kill their original copies. While they were seeking revenge, it was not reasonable. Everyone but the character that Lupita Nyong'o had been unaware of the clones' existence and had not done anything to hurt them directly. The clones were simply following Adelaide/Red. The plot twist was the fact that Adelaide was Red and Red was Adelaide the whole time. This was shocking despite the clues that were dropped throughout the movie. It was an unnecessary but beautiful detail. Both elements enhanced the film.

Pitches Blog

   For our final task, we had a few different ideas. We narrowed down our ideas in between a horror movie and a drama. For the horror movie, we would want to make seem as eerie and creepy as possible. For the drama, we would want to make it as dramatic and extra as we could. We knew that whatever pitch we decided on, we wanted it to be the best it could be. We want whatever we create to be entertaining and eye-catching for the audience. We had a hard time choosing between these two pitches because we liked the idea for both. We thought for a while about our decision. After some good, long thought, we decided on one of our pitches. We are happy with out choice.

   For the drama, we would have done something like High School Musical. A typical high school drama movie is always entertaining and could be fun to film and edit. We could use our friends to help us create background characters for the film. We could use my mom's car for scenes. We could also use each others houses to film dramatic scenes. This pitch would be good because since we are in high school, we could accurately replicate real high school drama. But, we knew that this pitch could also be difficult to create. For this project, we are not allowed to film at school. So, it would be very hard to create a high school drama film without being able to film in school. Plus, although we thought it would be fun to do a drama, we liked our other pitch better.

   Our second pitch was a horror movie. For the horror movie, we decided we could do a kidnapping film. A kidnapping film could be entertaining to watch, as well as for us to film and edit. We wanted to do a topic that we would really enjoy making since this is our last project. Although we do not know about how kidnapping works, of course, we could do research. We would do the research by watching other films that have a kidnapping storyline. We would film the scenes in a variety of places. Both of us have our drivers licenses, so we would be able to use my group mates car to get to each location we would film at. The only downside to this idea is that it would probably be a little more work to create. But, we actually look at that as a good thing because it gives us more experience  and is more fun for us.

    The pitch we chose was the horror movie one. We chose this because we felt more interested and excited to film it. We also feel because it is more exciting, it is a better pick for our final task. 

Starting Final Task Blog

   My name is Jordyn. For my final task, my group mate and I will be creating a horror movie. I am sixteen and in tenth grade. I took AICE Media Studies because I thought that the class sounded interesting and fun. I figured it would be intriguing to learn about the technicalities of film production. I wanted to also learn more about the editing stage of the process, since I have enjoyed editing fun videos in the past. I love to watch shows and movies, and have always kind of wondered how they were made and the behind the scenes aspect of it all. I am glad to have chosen AICE Media Studies as one of my classes this year. My group mates name is Mila. We will be creating a horror movie scene for our final task.
   So far, I have learned a lot about the process of film making. I have learned the different camera angles, shots, and movements used in filming. I have learned how movies are editing and the different types of editing techniques used. I have also learned how movies are released and targeted to a specific audience to attract the most viewers. As of now, I believe I am best at the filming and editing processes. I have known for a while how to edit videos to make them entertaining, but I now know so many more techniques to help me improve my editing skills. I really enjoy filming as well. Finding the right angle can completely change a scene, and I enjoy doing so. My skills have improved in editing and filming a lot since I started AICE Media Studies. I still hope to improve even more during this final task.
   For our final task, we will be pitching three ideas to our teachers. A pitch is a Hollywood term used to describe an idea for a film. A pitch is typically encapsulated in 25 words or less. It is usually one or two sentences. A pitch is meant to capture the interest of a person in a short statement. A good pitch is the deciding factor of whether a film will be created or not. Our three pitch ideas were a horror movie, an old-time film, or a drama.

Pictures of my group mate and I: