Genre Research - Making Our Decision!

After researching the aspects of three different film genres, my group and I decided to choose to make our film part of the science fiction genre. First off, we all agreed that it seemed to be the most unique, creative and intriguing genre. The movies that fall under the sci-fi genre are very well constructed and have incredibly unique story lines. Also, we decided to film under this genre because we believe it will be the most feasible. It would not require crazy scenes, such as scenes of extreme violence that a movie in the action genre would. It would also not require too many props. Some science fiction movies do require large pops, such as spaceships and light sabers, but our sci-fi film would not require props such as those. Because of the idea we have for the film, we will be able to use regular daily items as props. My group members and I are very excited to create a storyline and opening scene for a film that has a great conspiracy plot.

Genre Research - Looking Further (2 more genres)

A genre that my group looked at is the Action genre. Action genre is a film genre in which the protagonist or protagonists are thrust into a series of events that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases. Some blockbuster films that fall into this genre includes Avengers End Game, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dead pool 2, Jurassic World, Transformers: The Last Knight, and many more. The Action genre can deal with many different types of films like protagonist vs. antagonist or Action adventure, comedy, crime, drama, horror and thriller. To understand the genre more you could look at the genre's conventions. Camera angles normally found in the action genre are High angles, Low angles, Eye level, and Over the shoulder angles. Camera shots found in the genre are Close up shots, Long shots, Medium shot, Two shots, Three shots, Wide shots, and Point of- view shots. Camera movements in the genre include Pans or Tilts, and Zooms. These conventions are called the CAMS of media and this genre and are used in all types of media. In addition to those conventions here are the CLAMPS of this genre. The typical costumes in the action genre are super hero costumes, spy costumes, casual outfits, and many others. Lighting commonly found in this genre is Hard film lighting, Basic 3-point-lighting, Motivated lighting, and Natural film lighting. Types of acting found in this genre includes Classical acting, Method acting, and many others. Lastly the props found in this genre include swords, jet packs, guns, high tech gear, and many more. The most common sounds in the films of this genre include non-diegetic, diegetic, score, and incidental music. The most common editing types would be cutaway, burn ins, burn outs, and dissolves. Some elements in this genre includes stunts, chases, fights, battles, and races. Some things I like about the action genre are it’s mindless escapism. You don’t need to think about action movies much, you can just sit back, munch popcorn and watch it all unfold. Everyone needs that from time to time. It helps that action, unlike comedy, isn’t really subjective. There is not much I would say I dislike about this genre because overall it is very appealing and intriguing. However, if I had to say something it would be that sometimes the violence can be a bit excessive and become disturbing. 

Another genre my group looked at is the Sci-Fi genre. Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Some major films that are in this genre include The Star Was series, Interstellar, Inception, The Martian, and many more. To get a better understanding of the genre you would need to look the conventions of the genre. Camera angles normally found in the Sci-Fi genre are High angles, Low angles, Eye level, and Over the shoulder angles. Camera shots found in the genre are Close up shots, Long shots, Medium shot, Two shots, Three shots, Wide shots, and Point of- view shots. Camera movements in the genre include are Pans or Tilts, and Zooms. These conventions are called the CAMS of media and this genre and are used in all types of media. In addition to those conventions here are the CLAMPS of this genre. The typical costumes in the action genre are super hero costumes, spy costumes, and many others. Lighting commonly found in this genre is Hard film lighting, Basic 3-point-lighting, Motivated lighting, and Natural film lighting. Types of acting found in this genre includes Classical acting, Method acting, and many others. The elements that are in this genre include Interplanetary warfare, Parallel universes, Fictional worlds, Time travel, and Space travel and Exploration. Props used in this genre include Light sabers, Star ships, Alien ships, and many others. The most common sounds in these films are diegetic, incidental, ambient sound, non-diegetic, and score. As far as editing, the main types in sci-fi movies are cutaways, cross cutting, shot reverse shot, and action match. I enjoy the Sci-Fi Genre because it show the audience a new aspect on the world even though it's may not be real, it makes us feel as such. An aspect of this genre that I would say I dislike is the idea that sometimes it can be difficult to understand the scientific concept of the movie. One must use their brain to put the pieces of the movie together to understand.    

Genre Research - Epic Films

Looking back at first semester, my group and I completed a genre project. For this project, we were assigned a specific film genre and instructed to conduct heavy research on it. Being given the "epic" genre, we researched many different aspects of the genre. We researched the common camera angles, movements, and shots. We also researched the types of lighting found in scenes from different epic films, such as natural and dark lighting. Moreover, in our research we found that common elements of epic movies include heroic figures and figures of royalty, vast and extravagant settings, lavish costumes, and specific time periods and eras. The research also gave us insight on the typical sound effects and music in epic films, such as triumphant music and expansive music scores. Three examples of epic films are Les Miserables, Avatar, and The Hobbit. Finally, after this heavy research of the genre we came to conclusion of what elements are appealing and not appealing in epic films. The extravagant settings and time periods in the movies are very appealing, while the makeup of the characters is not so much.

Choosing Our Final Pitch

Having our three total movie pitches, my group members and I had to begin the process of choosing our final pitch. We narrowed our pick down to our two favorite pitches out of the three. Moreover, we eliminated our least favorite out of the three.

Eliminating our third pitch, we kept our first and second pitches. As we read them all out in respect to our project, we concluded that there are a few good reasons why pitch number three should have been eliminated the way it was. While it indeed was a good storyline, it was definitely the least interesting and creative out of the three. It had potential, should all of the other details have been added, but all in all it was a basic idea. Many coming-of-age movies have had similar storylines. It just was not wow enough.

After eliminating, we were left to choose between our first and second pitches. We all agree that pitch number one was very interesting. There are a few, but not many films about simulations. So, we thought it may be interesting to bring the idea to life with the opening scene. Our first pitch is good because it allows for a very interesting development of the plot. Viewers would be on their toes the entire film waiting to see what happens next. For our project, this page would be good because we could have a very effective opening scene. We would be able to introduce the problem, leaving the viewers wanting to watch the entirety of the film by the end of the two minutes. There are people our group have in mind to play some of the rules in the video.

As far as pitch number two, there are pros and cons. The idea of it is interesting because it is unique. The viewers would be interested to watch and see why and how the young girl fell in love with her kidnapper. The downfall of this pitch is the fact that we may not be completely able to make the opening scene understandable. A lot of details would fall into this film. It would be difficult to create an opening scene that would be understandable if so little details would be included.

With these analyzations of our main pitch, we came to a conclusion. The final pitch we chose for our project is our first pitch. From the beginning, that was mine in my group members favorite pitch idea. The idea of portraying an individual stuck in a simulation and having to find them self out somehow, seems so unique and interesting to us. We believe it will make for a very appealing opening scene for our project. It will leave any viewer wanting to watch what happens for the remainder of the film.

Starting the Final Task

     Hello my name is Jahzenyah. So far this year in AICE Media Studies I have completed two projects. This will be my third. My group members for this project will be Jada and Derek. Our task is to come up with an idea for an entire film: beginning, middle, and end. We must brainstorm three different movie ideas, and write pitches for each one. Out of the three, we must decide on one to be our final pick. We will film the opening scene for the movie idea we choose.

     As mentioned previously, I have completed two filming projects this year. Through these projects, I have learned a lot about film production and developed a great deal of skills that I did not have before. These include camera work, such as angles and movement, acting, editing skills, and many more. Of these skills, I have noticed that my acting has become my strongest. It has developed greatly. I have experienced what it is like to play the lead role of a film. Due to being under pressure, my skill to act has enhanced tremendously. First, I acted in a commercial, then a music video, and now I will be acting in an opening scene for a movie. I am very excited to see what challenges I face and have to overcome while being filmed. Aside from acting, I am also very excited to put my editing skills to use once again. With this being my third project, my skills are pretty well developed, but I hope to advance them even further.

     For this project, my group and I will propose three pitch ideas. A pitch is a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. Pitches tend to be one sentence long.

     In total, we have three complete pitch ideas. Our pitches are:

1. Boy wakes up feeling out of place and starts to question his reality. Realizing he’s in a simulation, he works to find his way out.

2. Girl held captive falls in love with her kidnapper. She knows it’s strange, but she can’t help it. Will she choose freedom, or love?

3. Friend group of five finally graduates high school. What’s next? Where will their paths take them? Will they remain the friend group they always been?

Editing Blog

So far with the footage that we have filmed, my group and I have begun the editing process. The footage that we have started to edit is what we filmed over this past weekend and a bit over the Thanksgiving break we had. The scenes that were filmed only consisted of me as the actor and no other group members. We have plans to film the rest of the footage tomorrow after school. We also plan to film the final scenes of the video on Saturday during the day. While we have dumped footage and began to place our scenes in order on the editing program, we have more that needs to be dumped and scenes that need to be selected in order to edit them along with the other clips.

As of the beginning of this week, I started to edit the footage my group and I have. My group and so have been using equipment that belongs to one of the members in our group. In class, my group member Jada brought her camera that we used to film so that we could start editing. She also brought her laptop because that is the computer we have used and will continue to use for the editing of our video. The first step I did was dump the footage we filmed from the camera onto the laptop. Once I did that, I imported the footage onto the editing program on her laptop. She has a MacBook, so the software we are using is iMovie. Once I imported all the footage, I looked at each scene and we decided which ones we were going to use in our final video. I deleted the clips we were not going to use to clear our work space on the program. Next, I placed the clips in order of how we want them to come in our video. I had to cut some because some of the endings of the clips were unnecessary and we had to make some shorter. The next step I did was add the song on top of all the clips. I had to import the audio first. Then, I put it into the layer above the footage layer. This allows for all sounds in the clips to be muted and only the song audio will be heard in the video, as how it is in most music videos. Aside from this, I added some effects to the clips. I also implemented certain transitions in between the clips. Some made the transition from one clip to another smooth, while others more abrupt. The transitions have specific purposes that build the video and help relay the message in the video.

As I stated before, my group and I have not fully filmed all the necessary scenes. We have discussed that we will all go together after school to the locations we must film at. There are only two locations we must go to and these include a coffee shop and Jada’s house. At the coffee shop we will be sure to ask for permission before filming, to ensure that it is ok with the coffee shop. There, we will film the scene of Derek and myself getting into an argument. At Jada’s house we will film the scene of me slamming the door on Derek’s face. On Saturday, we will have our last day of filming. The scenes will be filmed at the beach and a mall.

Once we have all of our footage filmed, we will dump all the footage from the camera to the computer, import it into iMovie and we will be able to complete the editing of all the footage and complete to production of our music video.

Filming Blog 2

In my last filming blog, I discussed how my group and I had planned to meet up to film the majority of our scenes. I explained that due to many issues that arose, we were all unable to make it to the filming meet up. From then to now, I can discuss something different. Over the break, Jada and I filmed a few scenes. We also filmed a few today after school. The time spent was productive and fun.

The scenes that we filmed over the break and today were scenes that only involved me being the actor in the scene. We did this because Derek was not able to come after school with us to film, nor was he able to film over the break due to family coming in town.

Today, we filmed a total of three scenes. Although it may not sound like many, it was an extensive process and had many aspects that played parts. Me being the only actor in those scenes, I had different costumes, props, and makeup for each in particular scene. Each scene also had a different setting, and one was at a different location. For the first scene, I had to wear comfy clothes such as sweat pants and a t-shirt.y hair was up in a bun and my makeup was a face mask. I was seated on the couch with a blanket, remote controller, and bag of chips as my props. This scene was meant to show me relaxing.

The next scene we filmed was meant to portray me coming into my house after a long day or hard work, wearing professional clothing. My costume consisted of a skirt, button up shirt, and heels. My props were keys and a bag. This scene took a few tries to film. We filmed it outside of Jada’s house. I walked up the front steps and into the house.

The final scene we filmed today was supposed to be at a gym. We asked Jada’s sister if it was okay for us to use her gym membership so that we could get into the gym to film the scene there. She agreed. Then, we left and went to the gym. When we got there, we were told that unfortunately we could not get into the gym because we were under the age of 18. When we were told this we quickly thought of another idea because we could not let the time go to waste without filming a scene. So, what we did was film me running on the side of the gym building, where there were no cars. We filmed a tracking shot of me running with use of the car we used to get there. Jada’s sister drove the car while Jada was in the back holding the camera and filming as I ran outside. My costume was an athletic outfit which was leggings, a sports bra, and running shoes. I had no props on this scene.

While we have successfully filmed a large amount of the scenes that will make up our video, there are still a few scenes left to film. These scenes include other actors, not just me. We have arranged to film these scenes on Friday and Saturday of this week. Derek will be in these scenes, unless he cannot attend and we should have to get a back up actor to substitute him. All in all, our filming for this music video is coming along well and we are almost done. Next we will begin to edit our footage, and complete the production of our music video.