Title Research: The Exorcist

 I chose to do The Exorcist as my last movie. I found the opening sequence to the movie on the website, Art of the Title. This film was released in 1973 and was quite popular. The Exorcist has 5 titles, including the title of the movie. It ranges from the studio who made the film to name of the film. This movie has very few titles and the opening scenes are very short. 

 The images that are prioritized are a dark house, with a single street lamp. Two people are seen walking down the street that the lamp is on. Then, it fades to a close up of a statute and then to a sunset. The final scenes are in the desert of northern Iraq where some men are digging through the sand. 

 The connotations are creepy. The scenes are dark up until it shows the desert in which it is bright. The dark street is creepy due to the worn down house and the lack of people walking down it. The desert is where it becomes brightly lit and illuminated. This isn't creepy because it is just a bunch of men working in the desert and digging through the sand with pickaxes. 

 The genre is reinforced by the first few scenes. They make you uncomfortable by keeping it a darker lighting. Like I stated before, it shows few people walking on the street making it creepy and unsettling. Mostly considering how late it seems to be at night.

 The film establishes an enigma by showing the men in the deserts of Iraq. This would make no sense being where a horror movie starts, considering its bright lighting. There is also no music, just the sounds of pickaxes and men grunting. This is where the scene stops, leaving us to watch the rest of the movie. 

 The target audiences is horror movie fans. This movie appeals to them by dragging them in with dark opening and then switching to a brighter setting. This leaves us wanting to know the significance of the areas. We soon learn that this is where everything takes places, including the events of the movie. 

 The technology is used effectively by using fades to show transition of areas. They also use dark lighting to their advantage and make it creepier. The men in the last few scenes show this was in an earlier time, judging by what they are using to dig up the sand. 

Title Research: The Reaping

 For the third film we're going to be discussing the opening sequence of The Reaping. The film was released in the year 2007. I watched the opening sequence of this film on the website Art of the Title. I studied it based on our horror genre. I examined it due to the following questions.

 The amount of titles in the opening sequence are 20 titles total. It starts off with series of main actors and producers and closes out with company presented by which in this case is the Warner Brothers. The titles come in on a black background with a red text. They come in as a jumble of words but are soon rearranged into words. They stay like that for a little and then leave in the same way they entered.

 The images prioritized are very vague. They do not show clear imaging of what exactly is taking place. The scenes are a close of up a lady’s face, then it goes into the titles where there are red washed photos of things such as leaves. There are also some unintelligible pictures but they mostly flash onto the screen and then leave.

 The images has you feeling very intense, anxious and anticipated as to what's occurring and what's happening. The music that goes along with the opening makes it even more unsettling. Since they are extreme closeups, they are unsettling because we have no clue what they are. The feeling of not being able to understand what something is is a common fear in humans so they use this to their advantage.

 I would definitely say the genre is enforced through the score in the opening sequence. The bumps along the music takes you on a roller coaster through emotions. The pictures changing goes along with the music in perfectly timed switches to other close ups.

 The enigma established in the film is very intense and dramatic. The way that it was established was through the use of different elements of filming, such as sound: the extremely suspenseful instrumental. There are flashes with the use of editing, and lighting also contributing to the mood and theme of the genre.

 The target audience of the film are horror fans. The film uses a certain aesthetic throughout the film, and the color design is very dark themed. The font used was a red font. These are inherently creepy due to the previous mindset of horror. Which is, as I said before, unsettling images and creepy fonts.

 The use of technology was essential for the opening as it is entirely editing techniques. There are no camera angles of any sort used in the opening sequence more so graphics and mainly editing. With editing there were a couple of fade ins- and different sorts of transitions to move the titles along. The titles also had a floating effect, making a dramatic entrance each time through the sequence. There was also the ability to change the colors of the images to make them all one color.

Title Research: Get Out

 For this title research, I decided to look at Get Out. I found the opening sequence on the website Art of the Title. This movie has 26 title cards, once again, ranging from producer to co producer and the actors. The titles fade in and out. They are a light blue color and never really change. This title sequence has a lot to talk about.

 The scenes that were prioritized were pretty normal. Two different people getting ready in the morning, one getting dressed and the other grabbing breakfast. There was a scene of trees passing by, perhaps the woods or just a patch of trees. There were some scenes of the man looking at black and white pictures, presumably that he took. It then cuts to the woman knocking on a door, though her hands are full so she knocks with her head. When the door opens, its revealed to be the man on the other side and he lets her inside.

 These scenes don't give away the fact this is a horror movie. They seem almost mundane, every day tasks people would do, not like someone who was in danger would do. Unlike in Split, they don't seem to be in any danger at the moment. They were both completely different stands on horror. Split was horror from the beginning, an obvious horror too, but this one is subtle. It shows the horror in other ways than just being straight up scary.

 As stated in the previous paragraph, this movie doesn't define it's genre in the first minutes. It instead, makes this movie seem like a normal comedy or drama movie. They use everyday activities to open this movie with, such as getting coffee, shaving, driving or looking through photos. There was no music in this opening so nothing suggested horror.

 The target audience is horror fans, though it doesn't seem to be like that. The activities displayed in this part almost seem too mundane, though. Since you expect this to be horror, you expect something scary to happen. Though nothing too scary happens in the first few minutes, they make it seem like something scary would happen, and maybe thats the effect they are going for. Sometimes horror uses these types of techniques to give the viewer a sense of relief, even before anything scary has happened.

 The technology that they use in the movie makes it seem a bit scary. Since this doesnt seem like a horror at first, they use some filming techniques that make it seem like a horror, such as the hand held motion and pans. They also jump back and forth from character to character, showing one doing one thing and another doing something else. This might just be a something I’ve observed in horror, but I have always associated horror with hand held cameras. They use warm and black and white colors while filming. They use tons of close ups and a few two shots in the first few scenes.

Title Research: Split

 For the first movie title, I looked at Split. I found the opening sequence for the movie on Art of the Title. Split had 22 title cards, ranging from the name of the studio who made it all the way to the director. This includes the title card along with every other title card, producer, co-producer, assistant director and everything in between. It ends with the director as every opening sequence does.

 The first few scenes are of the main girl being captured by our story's main antagonist. It shows a little hallway for two scenes and then goes to our main character. She is being pulled down a hallway while strapped to a medical bed of some sort. These are prioritized by showing how urgent this situation is. The scenes are short clips, giving it an anxious vibe too.

 The connotations for this are supposed to be urgency. Between the quick cutoffs of the scenes and the dark lighting. It makes the viewer feel nervous. The music also helps with the feeling, it's a kind of intense music choice. But this goes with the whole theme of the movie, urgency.

 The genre is defined in the first scene by not really letting you know whats happening fully so you dont get the whole picture. They do this by giving you a sense of dread and splitting up the scenes in a way that gets you nervous about whats happening. The music really helps with defining the genre because its intense. Music in horror films typically are intense music to help make you feel nervous or anxious about the situation.

 The target audience is fans of horror. This opening does all it can to make sure you know this is a horror movie. They use lots of dark and moody lighting and a cool color palette in almost all the scenes we see. The actors also help express this is a horror movie. The actor we see has a terrified facial expression as she is strapped to the medical bed and carried away.

 The use of technology effects the movie properly by cutting away at the perfect time. They cut away to the title card which is just a plain black background with bold white text. The titles appear first in a repetitive manner but then switches to a single, enlarged title. This is the same for all the titles for all of the movies producers, actors and others. The tittle is presented when it just appears on the black screen along with the signature, bolded white text. The movie typically used close ups and pans just to give it more of a scary vibe. The edits were just cut aways, nothing very special.

Title Research: Watch the Titles Website

 As I was researching different topics, I found a website called Watch the Titles. I encountered it while researching titles of horror movies. The website has multiple features that were extremely helpful when trying to come up with a title sequence for my project. The website has opening sequences from a wide variety of movies and shows. These cover all genres and styles of film. The site also has the opening sequences of video games which was interesting but not particularly needed for my specific project. Finally, it included interviews of title designers for popular franchises, such as Spiderman. Within the interview they talk about how they came up with the titles that they have made and discuss typography. Typography is the art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it. This information was nice to look at as it showed the process and ideas the title designers encountered while making the opening of the films. While the interviews were helpful, I focused on the horror movie opening sequences as they were the most beneficial to my research. From the sequences, I could record common elements among the films. I also could take note of how the openings were able to portray the genre of the film with imagery. This information that I was able to collect would then come in handy for making my movie opening. Especially when deciding on what the opening sequence will look like.

Title Research: Art of the Title Website

 While researching my genre and how to make a title, I visited a website called Art of the Title. The website shows the opening sequences of a variety of films and shows. The films and shows are from a range of genres, including comedy, horror, romance, fantasy, and mystery. They showcase openings of films and shows that are both from long ago and more recent. On top of that, the website included detailed articles about the events of movies. It includes very detailed descriptions of certain scenes and describes the opening credits in an easy to understand way. It also assesses the costumes and setting of the movies. These articles included movies that also ranged widely in genre. The site was also very easy to navigate and use. I chose to visit this website to get an idea of what is common in horror opening sequences. The range of movies meant there was ample choices of horror movies to collect information from. This meant I could record how films in the horror genre represent and establish their genre in the opening credits. I also was able to record the amount of titles used in the openings and what imagery was used in different films. This information would then help me when I make my own opening for a movie. All in all, the website was very beneficial when planning and getting ideas for the opening sequence of our own film for our project.

Genre Research: The Babadook

 The Babadook was a film made in 2014. The movie was released in various film festivals until it was put onto the internet in November of 2014. The movie was released onto netflix and hulu around the same time too. The movies ratings were overall good, all around a 4 or a high 3. This movie was directed and written by Jennifer Kent.

Camera Angles
The Babadook did some typical horror movie maneuvers with lots of low angles, point of views, close ups, medium close ups, over the shoulders and tons of two shots. They mostly shot things using a close up or medium close up but sometimes shot it in a two shot, just to get someone else in the shot.

Movements
The movements, once again, are the stereotypical tracking shot, zoom in, zoom out, tilt and pan. The most used movement was pan, mostly to reveal what was on the other side of the room or what the mother was looking at.

Costumes
The costumes include the Babadooks coat and top hat which he wears for the entire movie until he turns into the dad, in which he wears a suit. The mother wears a pink night dress for most of the movie. She then changes into her work uniform. The boy wears his usual gray shirt with a blue coat. When he goes to school, he wears his school uniform. At the end of the movie, he changes into a striped sweater for his birthday.

Props
The boy uses a crossbow, a catapult backpack, and various other weapons he claims are to fight monster with and save his mom. The mother doesn't use props, aside from the bowl of bugs she brings for the babadook and the babadook book itself.

Lighting
The lighting in The Babadook is poor. They use this lighting to their advantage and make it creepy, though that was the purpose. They also sometimes keep it bright, only in certain scenes such as in the hospital. In the more intense parts, however, they use harsh lighting with bright shadows and dark areas.

Settings
There wasnt too many different settings in this movie. They mainly stayed in the house but sometimes they would change settings. In a few scenes, the mom is in the nursing home, or the son and his mom are at the park. Though they never really left those areas.

Editing
The editing was just as any other horror movie with jump cuts, fade in and fade out. They rarely used it but they had used a match shot for one of the scenes.

Actors
Some of the actors are Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, and Hayley McElhinney.

Makeup
There was no significant makeup aside from some sick looking blush around the eyes and nose. There was however, some black liquid coming out of the moms mouth along with some rope burns along her collarbone area.

Sounds
The sounds they used were varied. Kids yelling, the rustle of people shuffling about, the sounds of things hitting the floor, the bed banging, and the Babadook yelling into the phone or at the mom.

Common Elements
The common elements in this movie were that something is coming after the main characters. They also had a basement trope where there is something down in the basement and the characters need to stop it. They also did a possession trope where the characters try to get rid of said spirit, they end up getting rid of it but something goes wrong.

Elements I disliked
Some things I disliked about the movie were all the screaming in it. Though that seemed to be a big part in the movie, the loudness of it just bothered me. There were also some points that I didn't like so much such as the boy being dragged up the stairs. So nothing really too bad, just a few pet peeves.

Elements I enjoyed
The idea of something coming after the main characters but turing out to be their own demon, aka the fathers death, was an intersting concept. The characters seemed to develp nicely in the movie, as we see them grow into the antagonist or the protagonist. The idea of the book coming back all torn up and taped together was interesting too, it was a nice attention grabber in the entire story.

Genre Research: Us

 Us was a film released in March of 2019. The movie was pretty popular, receiving good ratings by many people. The film was directed and produced by Jordan Peele. The movie's budget was around $20 million USD. When producing, actor Lupita Nyong'o had to play two characters. Both characters having an individual script with all different words.

Movements
There weren't too many different types of movements. The movements all repeated throughout the film. The movements that they used in the film were a tilt, a pan, a tracking shot, a zoom in and a zoom out.

Angles
The angles also didn't really have too much variation. They used most of the typical horror movie angles including headshot, closeup, over the shoulder, point of view, two shot, and low angle.

Props
The props consisted of some stereotypical horror things like bats, golf clubs, fireplace iron, and scissors. There weren't many props in this movie that weren't used as weapons at some point.

Lighting
The lighting was typically dark and had very sharp lights and darks. But in some scenes, it became hard to see with how dark it became and how limited the light was used. In other scenes, they had very high lighting, like in houses and cars.

Scenes
Some scenes in the movie were inside the house, a hall with bunnies, a friend's house, a car, a classroom, a sea side carnival, and a hall of mirrors.

Editing
The editing was your typical movie edits such as jump cuts, matchshots, fade in, fade out. The most used editing technique was jump cuts and match shots. Though they didn't use as many match shots as jump cuts, they still used them a lot.

Actors
Some of the actors include, but are not limited to, Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elizabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Even Alex.

Costumes
Some costumes used in Us are the sleepwear of the original family and the jumpsuits of the doppelgangers. All the doppelgangers wear the same thing to match, also carrying the same weapon.

Makeup
The make up they used is very minimal. They do a few special effects like blood and gore but thats it. Though some of the gore might have been CGI, I still put it under make up.

Sounds
The sounds include birds chirping, chatting in the carnival, waves crashing into the shore, the noises in the mirror house, along with the noises of the other doppelgängers copying their originals. There were some splats of blood or bodies falling as noises too but these weren't very prominent throughout the film.

Common Elements
Horror relies on a dark mood and suspense, which Us used to its advantage many times. They also use aspects of comedy to lighten the mood when it gets serious or just because the story is meant to be a horror comedy.

Elements I enjoyed
I liked how Us followed the stereotypes of horror movies, but in an original way. Though they went with typical horror tropes and conventions, they made it work. It was an original idea. The fact that they had an actor playing two roles with totally different personalities and characteristics was also impressive.

Elements I disliked
There wasn't much I didn't like about this movie. The only thing I didn't like was the whole "every double is against the original" story plot.  Though it was interesting, it would have been more interesting if it was the Red and Adelaide. There were also some confusing parts such as the ending where Red and Adelaide switch places. That wasn't really explained until the ending of the ending and still, even then, it was a bit confusing.

Genre Research: Happy Death Day

 During my research, I decided to watch multiple horror movies to get a better understanding of what characterizes the horror genre. One of the movies I chose to watch was Happy Death Day. Happy Death Day is a horror movie that was released in 2017 and was quite successful. I decided on this film as it is both recent and popular, which makes it a good representation of current horror films. Throughout the film, I recorded the editing, sound, camera angles, and Mis-En-Scene that was used in the movie.

Camera Angles

Common camera angles used in Happy Death Day include medium closeups, which were often used when showing the antagonist. Other camera angles that were often used over the shoulder shots, two shots, long shots and close ups.

Movement

Very commonly used movements in Happy Death Day were zoom ins and zoom outs. Pans and tracking shots are also used heavily throughout the film to show scenes in which the protagonist is running or being chased.

Costumes

An over the top mask was used by the antagonist and was paired with a sweater. The main character remains in the same outfit for the majority of the film except for a brief amount of time when she was in a hospital gown. The rest of the characters wear casual outfits and remain in the same outfits throughout the entire movie.

Lighting

The lighting was bright and well lit during the vast majority of the film. Quite a bit of the movie is outside during the day where’s a lot of sunlight. The only few exceptions are scenes in which the antagonist is after the main character. These scenes have either no light or very little light on the characters.

Actors

Jessica Rothe played the main character and protagonist in the film. The character she plays is a college student and she was able to portray the character very well. Other important characters included the love interest, who was played by Israel Broussard. The antagonist is played by Ruby Modine, however, she is in a mask and her character is unknown for most of the film.

Makeup

The main characters makeup is simple and remains the same throughout the film, only changing by becoming messy and returning to clean through the events of the film. The other characters either where simple makeup, or no makeup at all. The antagonist where’s a mask during almost all of the movie, therefore their face can not be seen, along with whatever makeup they may be wearing.

Props

The most prominent prop seen in Happy Death Day is a simple kitchen knife which the antagonist has in a lot of the scenes they appear in. One very important prop is a “poisoned” cupcake with a single candle. This cupcake is ultimately what helps the protagonist piece together the events of the movie. Other props include a baseball bat and an axe.

Setting
The first setting in the film is a college dorm room. This same setting appears many times during the duration of the film and is important to the plot. The other settings in the movie are a hospital, a college campus, and a cafe.

Editing

Commonly used editing techniques in Happy Death Day are jump cuts, cut aways, and cross cutting. These techniques add a suspense to the film and amplify the horror in the film. There is also a montage towards the middle of the film.

Sound
The film does not have a lot of background noise in most of the scenes and focuses on the dialogue. However, when the antagonist is on screen and after the protagonist, there is intense music to add a fear factor of the scene.

Elements of the genre I enjoyed
I enjoyed the repeating day concept used in the movie which is not used very often in the horror genre. It added an interesting element to the film and fueled the plot well. Although misdirects are used a lot in horror films, I also like the use of misdirection in the film.

Elements of the genre I disliked
During the movie, I wasn’t very fond of the constantly bright lighting as I felt it made the film less scary. I also felt the mask that the antagonist wore took away the fear for me.

Genre Research: IT

 While researching the horror genre, I decided to watch IT to get an idea of common techniques that are used in popular horror movies. IT came out in 2017 and was widely successful when released. Therefore, I thought it would be a good representation of horror films and the techniques applied in them. While watching the movie, I took note of common camera angles and sound that was used in the film. I also paid attention for specific editing techniques and elements included in the film.

Camera Angles

Common camera angles used in IT include eye level shots, low angle shots and hug angle shots. It also includes long shots, over the shoulder shots, and two/three shots. The variety of shots keeps the person watching interested and the angles help add to the scenes, especially in the more scary scenes.

Movement
There was also an array of common horror movement techniques used in IT. These movements consist of pans, tracking shots, zooms, and tilts. The use of these movements is crucial to the horror aspect, and are used in the majority of scenes with the antagonist on screen.

Costumes

The majority of the characters are wearing normal everyday clothes for the time period that the film takes place in (The 80’s). There is a character that wears a cast that says “loser” on it but the “s” in the word is scratched out and replaced with an “l”. One of the characters where’s a yellow rain jacket and matching yellow boots that has now become well known for their character. The antagonist wears a dirty clown costume during the entire movie.

Lighting

The lighting in IT is a mixture between brightly lit scenes that take place outside, and low lit scenes that are inside. The low lit scenes are very suspenseful and often are lit with spot lighting to add to the fear factor.

Actors

The main characters are played by Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Wyatt Oleff, and Jack Dylan Grazer. They all portray their characters very well and fit the characters nicely. The antagonist is played by Bill Skarsgård who is able to make the antagonist as creepy and scary as intended.

Makeup

The makeup is minimal for the characters who are wearing makeup. The antagonist wears the most makeup as they are wearing a full face of clown makeup.

Props

The props used in the film include a lot of small props that aren’t extremely significant and a few important props that drive the entire plot. The less significant props are things such as a lighter and can of hairspray, a knife, and an inhaler. One of the very important props is a small paper boat that begins the conflict in the film. Another important prop is a letter that one of the characters writes to another.m

Setting

The setting is a in a fictional town called Derry, Maine. The town is supposedly haunted and is quite small. Settings inside the town include a library, the school the main characters attend, the characters different houses, and the sewers where the antagonist lives.

Editing

Common editing techniques used in IT include cutaways, jump cuts, and point of view shots. These add to the fear and suspense during the more tense scenes in order to captivate the viewer.

Sound

The sound in the film relies on dialogue and has very little background music. There is quite a lot of ambient sound in the film. Even in more tense scenes, it is still relatively quite to create more suspense.

Elements that I enjoyed
I enjoyed that the main characters were all young teens who are working together to defeat a supernatural entity. The use of kids as the main characters makes it more intense and makes the viewer more fearful for the characters well being as they are still just kids. I also enjoyed the comedic aspect of the movie which was always a nice break from the more scary scenes.

Elements that I disliked
I disliked how predictable the scenes tended to be, an often occurrence with most horror films. It took away the element of surprise at times and therefore made the movie less scary during some scenes.

Deciding our pitch genre

 The movie genre we decided would be best for our movie is Thriller/Horror. We decided to go with to go with this genre because, it matched best with our pitch idea. In our pitch idea our plot contains some very suspenseful scenes. In our pitch a young girl is addicted to social media. The horror and suspense comes in later on. In the film she follows a sketchy account leading her into trouble because she later goes missing and is forced into actions leaving her in torture and has her feelings terrorized.  The horror genre leaves you in fright which is the main goal/purpose for the viewers of the audience. It's better defined as "an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust".  We want to leave our viewers, shocked, and anxious. Due to most of the scenes in our film, horror is the best genre our film would fit in. Also, we may have come up with a name for the film "Socially Trapped".

Comedy Films & Musical Films Research and Conventions

 So, we’re diving deeper into different genres of movies. But today we are going to be researching the two specific genres we've selected which are Comedy, and Musicals.

  We'll begin with comedy, one of the most popular genres, because who doesn't love to feel satisfied with a good laugh every now and then. The comedy genre comes with different elements of filming that make up comedy movies such as the common camera angles present. For example, in comedy films as in Night School that recently came out in 2019, common movie angles include many wide shots, and tracking shots, and several medium close ups. Mis-En-Scene of comedy includes a variety of elements for example costumes in a comedy the prior goal is to get a good laugh out of you sometimes the actors are put into interesting costumes sometimes the'd even go to the extreme level of nudity. Anything out of the ordinary that would make an actor's appearance intriguing results in a level of humor for the audience. Such as in the original Netflix film, Naked, where the plot is where the man wakes up naked one morning, running late for his wedding. He repeatedly goes through the day several times stuck in a deja vu.

  The next several factors of a comedy film are lighting, editing, and sound. With multiple other elements such as costumes, makeup, props, and sets. Common lighting in comedy films usually includes: high key lighting, or natural lighting for when filming scenes outdoors. I've also noticed that comedy's contain multiple scenes outdoors rather than indoors, that may fit in the category of common locations in the comedy genre.

  For example, films such as Peter Rabbit, Night School, & Naked take place in an outdoor setting, whether it be outside of a home where a wild goose chase is taking place, in front of a fast food store where there's a fight going on with the store's mascot, or even running a marathon in complete nudity. What they all have in common is they take place outside. Sound contain a dialogues filled with hilarious jokes, mainly sarcastic humor. There's usually a film score, and several sound effects. There isn't usually a lot of editing taken place in comedy most of the scenes just flow through.

  Moving forward to the next genre, musicals. Common things within movie musicals are dramatic lighting. Common lighting in film musicals include high key lighting and three-point lighting. Low key lighting is also used quite a bit. The common camera angles are high angles and occasionally close-up shots, emphasizing character's expressions.

  In movie musicals, characters often express themselves through song and dance, only musicals violate the classic narrative cinema. The set designs of movie musicals are exaggerated, color design usually are a theme of bright colors of the warmer tones. The scenery often changes because of the variety of different time periods and locations. Resulting in a variety of makeup, costumes, and props.

Horror Genre Research PowerPoint

 My PowerPoint is about the common techniques used in the horror genre. Specifically, it details common lighting, camera angles, and movement used in horror films. It also describes the Mis-En-Scene, elements, and sound that is commonly used in the horror genre. To collect this information,  my group mates and I searched through ton of different films and recorded the techniques they shared. We also used video clips from horror films to do so. We observed that horror typically uses an array of sound effects to get its point across. Although, often it is the opposite and the films have very limited sound to create suspense. The films tend to use darker lighting to create a more mysterious tone. There is usually an actor dressed in an elaborate and scary costume, paired with scary makeup or a mask. Jump scares are also very common in horror films to frighten the audience.

Narrowing down the pitches

 Over the past two days, my group and I have worked together to finalize our pitch for our final task. We collectively narrowed our pitches down to the two best ones. The two we thought were the best included the one about social media addiction and the one about the short girl. We decided to make a pro and con list for both of the remaining pitches to help us decide on one. Doing our best to take everything into account when making the list, we were able to decide which would be best.

There are quite a few pros and cons of the social media addiction pitch. The cons include that it would be easier to film. It would also be more fun to film. It wouldn't have as much of a "coming of age" story as the short girl concept would. Another pro would be that horror is the easiest genre to film. That would make our work load even less and therefore would be less stressful. Cons are that it would be a little hard to make the film have enough of an eerie feel. It might also be a bit hard to find locations to film at. The final con would be that we would have to find a good spot to cut it off. This would be difficult because we would need to get the story to a good point where it doesn't appear like a short story. The best spot would probably be before the main climax so you get all the tension in the story, only to be left with a cliff hanger.

 There are also many pros and cons of the short girl concept. Pros would be that it would attract more of an audience to watch it. The story would be relatable so people would be able to sympathize with the main character. It would also be a bit easier to film with all the good angles we'd get. Cons are that it would also be hard to film due to certain issues. For example, it would be harder for us to make the main girl seem shorter than she actually is. Another con would be that it would be harder to come up with dialogue and a better story. It would be odd if it wasn't filmed at school or at least have one scene in it with school. Considering we cant film at school, it would be pretty difficult to get the typical "short girl school scenario." Though this idea would be pretty fun to film, its not the idea we were aiming for.

 After assessing the pros and cons of each pitch, we decided to choose the social media addiction pitch. We’ve decided to name the movie “Socially Trapped” and the genre we have chosen for the movie is horror. The finalized idea is about a girl who has become addicted to social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. She goes about her life stressing about not getting enough like, views and followers. Eventually she comes across a sketchy account that dives her into several challenges and troubles that she then faces throughout the movie. She then goes missing and it ends on a cliff hanger.

Starting the final task

 Hello! My name is Emma and I am in 10th grade. I attend a high school in Florida and am taking AICE Media Studies this year. So far the class has been incredibly fun and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the projects I have done so far. I’m writing these blogs to record my process throughout my AICE Media Studies class. On January 14th we began our final task. My teacher informed us that the final task would be to film the first 2 minutes of a movie that we came up with. My first step was to decide who I would work with. After finding people with similar ideas for the project, I formed a group with Hailey and Deedi. We all were interested in making a movie that was either a horror or drama so we decided to group up. 

 During the first semester of the school year, I have learned a lot in AICE Media Studies. In my first project I learned the basics of filming and editing. This included figuring out how to use the cameras, which was relatively easy. As well as all the camera angles and terminologies that are essential for filming. I also learned how to set up the tripod and attach the camera to it. One major thing I learned during the first project was to film each scene multiple times, since we had lost more than half our footage. Throughout the second project I learned how to use the effects and settings on the editing program. This included all the techniques that made the process a lot simpler. I also learned how to direct while filming. Since I was an actor in the first project, I hadn’t had a chance to direct. Therefore, I had fun learning how to direct during the second project. Lastly, I learned a bunch of valuable skills for working with a group and with teamwork. I’m also looking forward to editing as it is my favorite process in each project.

 When it came to what we wanted to do for the final task, we chose to each come up with a pitch for the project. Now you may be asking “What is a pitch?” Well a pitch is defined as an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. They usually are one sentence and supposed to leave whoever the pitch is being presented to interested and wanting to know more. The first pitch we came up with was a movie where the main character is below average height and will showcase the challenges and struggles that they encounter on a day to day basis. The second pitch we came up with was a plot where someone has become addicted to social media and the repercussions of the addiction. For example, maybe someone begins to stalk them or they’re peers become concerned for their well being. The final pitch we formulated involved one person being stalked by a group of people at all times but they are completely oblivious that they’re being followed. Overall, I am incredibly excited for the final task and can’t wait to begin filming!