Case Study

 So last week we were working on our case studies, and I am proud of the way it came out. We choose the movie "Den of thieves" and I will not lie, there was not a lot of information, but we kept having to change the movie and I did not want to change it again. For our case study we had to research production, distribution, marketing, history, target audience, and cross media convergence and synergy. Now my teammates and I split up the work so we each had to do a portion of the case study. One of my teammates didn’t do their part so it was left blank because I refuse to carry the weight of others when I choose to work in a group to make it easier for myself. Some of the things I found while researching the movie "Den of Thieves" is that this film was inspired by true events. It was filmed in the city of Los Angeles by Christian Gudegast. This movie took 15 years to produce and its budget was $30 million which presales covered over 50% of the budget. The movie is distributed by Netflix, and Amazon Prime video. Movie marketing is the way you promote your movie to the public. Movie marketers work to develop an interest in audiences to attract them to their production. There are different ways to  market something, ways such as posters, interviews, and movie trailers. Film producers may use techniques like target marketing to give greater value to their campaign. This film, “Den of thieves” used the technique called target marketing to attract an audience of Hispanics and African  Americans. This caused them to spend $25 million on  marketing alone.

Case study link:

CASE STUDY.pptx

 

 

Updates

 

Hello guys, It’s been a while. I know I promised that I would not be blogging on Sundays anymore but it’s so hard! It seems that my scheduled times to blog haven’t been working out. I’ve been all over the place, and honestly, I wish things can be better. I’m in a point of my life where I just can’t focus and it’s not a good feeling. I will be updating my blogging schedule and working at later times. So, to update you guys, we have found a film company called Blumhouse Film Productions. We think they are prefect to shoot our film opening with because they have previously made a lot of popular Thriller movies, which were big time movies, and they are in a similar category to ours. Now if you did not know, our movie is going to be called Decipher which means searching. Our movie is going to be based on a mother’s child goes missing and she hires a former detective that was fired for reasons that were always a mystery, to help her search for her child, but when they find the criminal that took her child it turns out that it’s an unexpected old friend with sinister secrets to be revealed. There may be minor changes in the future so be on the look. Our scripts are due today and honestly, that is a ridiculous. I may be overthinking, but we had 3 days to complete it but I’m a busy person and that is not enough time! My group members have yet to say anything about the script itself, and its due tonight! All I know is I’m submitting it late, and I’m praying that nothing goes wrong, but I will show you guys the finishing product. That’s all for right now, Bye Guys!

From Drama to Thriller

 Hey guys! It’s pretty late as I publish this but it was in my drafts, I just have to touch some things up. So I’m the beginning of this project I started off solo and researching about drama movies. Now, I am working in a group with two others and we have all agreed on the genre thriller. I took notes and looked up a couple of things about thriller movies which will be below.

Thriller Movie Genre

 

“Literary Terms.” Literary Terms. 1 June 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2016. <https://literaryterms.net/>.

 

A thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that’s common feature is to express strong feeling of excitement, anxiety, fear, tension, and suspense.

(Basically it thrills the audience)

 

Types of thrillers

 

Psychological Thriller

-Focuses on characters that have extreme psychological disorders (psychopaths, people with split personalities) this causes person issues that eventually lead to conflict in the film

 

Crime Thriller

-Thrillers have crime and justice as their primary focus. Topic like murder, kidnapping, drugs, robbery, mistaken identity, stalking, etc. characters may be cops, lawyers, detective, superhero’s …

 

Mystery thriller

-A thriller that begins with a mystery that needs to be solved, possibly with something at risk. Suspense and tension builds as the Audience gets closer and closer to learning the answer to the mystery.

 

Thriller Movie Common Conventions

Randall Follow, Chole. “Codes & Conventions Of The Thriller Genre.” SlideShare, 26 Feb. 2016, www.slideshare.net/ChloeRandall/codes-conventions-of-the-thriller-genre.

 

Shot types

• Use of closeups and extreme closeups used to show emotion or can be used to focus on a prop
• High and low shots will be used to indicate power
• Dutch angle shots may be used to make the audience feel uneasy or build tension 
• Tracking and pan shots used in the beginning to create interest in different characters

 

Editing

• Flashbacks can be used to confuse the audience, this also displays what happened in the past to give characters an insight on the characters past
• Quick shots are used to create suspense and tension
• Jump cuts and cross editing is used to build suspense 

 

Sound

Used to set the mood of the characters 

 

• High pitch music is often used to make the audience uncomfortable and it can indicate that something bad or unexpected is going to happen
• Many films use Diegetic sound to create more direct tension and to make it more realistic 

 

Common characterizations\ characters 

• Brave male who seeks to restore balance 
• Criminal on the run 
• Police or detectives
• Innocent victims 
• Lawyers

Final Project Proposal

Hello Guys, so I had a few blogs drafted and that’s what I will be posting this week. So we have our genre down pact, and it won’t be changing. As previously mentioned, we are doing a thriller. We want to base our movie opening on a woman who lost or “can’t find her child “ her child and hires a detective to help her find her missing child but all along it was the detective who had the kid. We also have a couple of ideas on how we can do this. We  have an idea that the setting can be in a store, and we can use my mom because she is pregnant as one of the characters. We also have an idea to insert the flashback technique, framing, and low and high angles.

 

The final project will be a film opening in the category thriller titled Decipher. The word Decipher means to solve, and project will include someone searching for another individual as well as investigating and looking for their lost person. In our project, we will explore the topic of someone going mentally crazy and is meek and in a vulnerable position. We will try to represent that as much as possible through characterization, lighting, framing, and camera angles. In regards to the AICE Media Studies syllabus, my project will fall under components 3 Advanced portfolio. This will help the development of objectives 1,2, and 3. I plan on using the internet, and YouTube for to research and make connections in this film. I also plan to use the “Looking at Movies” book, and other sources given by the teacher to help do things like add hidden messages in the film. This project takes a lot of effort and because of this I will be working in a group with Saneash and Gia.

Old things have passed away, all things are New

Hey guys, this week I didn’t follow any of the times I set to blog, so I know that this week I will be getting to work. I pinky promise that this will be the VERY LAST TIME I blog on Sunday. I was really busy this week and I didn’t have time to blog. The gender reveal I was planning for my mom was yesterday and it was fantastic, the baby is a girl! Anyways, I was stressed out to the max, but I managed. It was like this whole week I was worrying because I had school, Bible study, and a party to plan. I am proud to announce that I have a group to work with! Me, Gia, and Saneash. Honestly, we have to do a little better with communicating but for now we will fine, it’s only the first part of team work. Now below you will see the steps I will take to become on the ball. Also, we have decided to mix genres. Both drama and mystery so we will be making a thriller. Now that we have changed it I will have to go back and research about Thrillers. Below you will see the steps I will take to research about Thrillers.

 

Step 1: Look at a couple movie openings 

Step 2 : Take notes on Conventions and patterns I noticed 

Step 3:  The Characters and Setting 
Examine characters and their traits, and settings to determine where I want to shoot the film and how I want to characterize my characters.

Forrest Gump Shot by Shot Anaylsis

 Shot by Shot Film Analysis

Forrest Gump- 3 minutes

• Mise-en-scene- placing on stage, the described the overall set up of stage 
• Decor 
• Costume (Characterization)
• Props 

• In the opening scene to the movie Forrest Gump is a feather floating in the sky. This can symbolize freedom. Also, the colors blue and white can represent purity, and calmness. The film director uses natural lighting for this scene to make it more realistic. 

• The opening scene is one continuous shot. This can help the audience get a visual of setting, and a in person experience with the film. We can see that this scene will be taking place in a city, which is a common convention for drama films. Also, the music playing is gentle and low, this can indicate that this will be a romance movie.

• When the feather lands on the shoes it shows a close up shot. This can signify importance on this shot. I think from what we can see those shoes were once white and now they are dirty, so maybe something in the movie will happen where a person falls in love with another, and they just bring out the best of them. Meaning the one who was once tainted is pure again

• This shot helps us with characterization. We can tell that Forrest is a nice, and organized person also we can tell that he may be going to see a woman because he is dressed nice, and has a box of chocolates.

• This is the first shot we see, after the long take breaks. This is an establishing shot, that gives the audience an insight to where Forrest is.

https://youtu.be/7IIBp1HQlWQ

Common Conventions in Drama Films

Hello again! I have one more blog to do after this and I will be out of your hair, I promise! XD Never again will I wait this late to do THREE blog entries (I know I said this already, but I really mean it this time) Okay! Let’s get this train moving, and this party rocking! So, in my last vlog I touched a little bit on some things I observed while looking at opening scenes in the drama category. Here I will list some notes I took, as well as the links to the videos I watched but before we get into that here is a little more that I observed. The opening sequences in my genre vary, depending on the plot of the movie. For example, some would be one continuous shot, and others would be multiple shots. Some would foreshadow what the movie would be about, and some would be signifying something that is important later on in the movie. Like stated before, it depends on the style, and storyline of the movie. The opening sequence can reveal much meaning and tone without giving anything away by camera angles, costume, and lighting. For example, in the opening scene gifted, it began with a narration from the main character. He was explaining that he was different from the other kids, but we didn’t know in what way because his face wasn’t revealed until the later in the scene. We were able to get a little understanding from that scene and that opened up doors of questions.

Common Conventions in Drama films

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/coopermatt62/codes-and-conventions-of-drama 

Mise-en-scene

Lighting

-Dull lighting (Used to portray and put emphasis on dull moments)

-Normal lighting may be used to give realistic feeling in the atmosphere

-High Key lighting is used to show happy moments 

Costume and Makeup

-A representative of the character and their personality

Setting

-Takes place in real life environments

Tone of drama movies

-Tends to shift from both high to low moments

-Drama films exabits real life situations

-Most movies are serious

Cinematography

-Low angles used to portray strength

-High angles used to portray weakness

-Close-up shots allow the audience to see how the characters are feeling

-Framing also tells us the ranks and the power of each character

-Over the shoulder would give us a close relation with the characters

Editing

-Influences how the audience sees characters within the scene

-Shot reverse shot allows audience to see the characters reactions

 

Drama Movie Film Openings viewed

 

Forest Gump

Forrest Gump Opening Scene (Feather at the Bus Stop) - Forrest Gump (1994) - Movie Clip HD Scene

 

12 years a slave

12 Years a Slave - Opening Scene (HD)

 

Catch me if you can

Catch Me If You Can (2002) title sequence

 

1917

The first 2 minutes 

Parasite | The Best Picture Winner's Opening 10 Minutes | Now on Blu-ray, DVD, & Digital

 

Finding Forrester

Finding Forrester (2000) title sequence

 

Organization!!

Good Afternoon Guys,

It is another beautiful Sunday as I am writing this, and it is safe to say I am HORRIBLE with managing my time. This week was very busy and draining. I had so much to do and very little time to blog. Now it is Sunday, and I have 3 blogs to write. All have to be 300 words or more, AND they are due at 6pm which is in a couple of hours! That sounds like a lot and it is, but it’s not impossible. Now, in regard to my project, I have created some ways to manage my time better. I made a virtual calendar and alarms that reminds me to vlog four days during the WEEK including Saturdays, and not Sundays so that I may be able to relax on the short break from school I have. This is a start to becoming organized, because I forget things a lot.

Weekly Calendar Schedule

Alarm Schedule

Scheduled Reminders

 

In the images above you see the techniques I used to become organized. I plan on blogging Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, each in the afternoons. I have set multiple reminders, and now me and success are bound to cross paths!

 

Now, this week I have conducted research about what kind of movie I wanted to make. I want to make a drama movie or a comedy but based on the final piece of most projects, I haven't really seen much in that category.  I'm hoping to work with a partner for this project so in a couple of days I will know what genre to really look into. I won't say that the genre we choose will be our official genre but when things are looking stable, I will let you guys know. If I had to describe it, my vision for my production would be happy and vibrant or happy and surprising. I have established that I wanted to build my project on a rock, so by doing so I had to make observations. I have noticed that in drama films  they try to make it as realistic as possible. So, the setting are places such as parks, workplaces, buildings, and neighborhoods, and the character personalities are close to something we can relate too. Also, during the title sequences the common titles are soft colors, with medium word styles.

 

 

Drama Film? Yay or Nay

 Hey Guys! Today was a good day, I can’t complain. It is a Wednesday evening as I am writing this blog, but I have not managed to get organized just yet! hopefully in 2 days I am able to get a partner that will be much better with time management than I am! XD But without further ado I will being talking about my project. 

              Being asked what kind of movie film I wanted to make was pretty simple to answer. You ask, and I would say a Drama film, but its better said than done. Making this drama film would require ALOT of thinking and creativity; it may sound hard, but it isn't impossible. My vision for this project would have a soft style, colorful, bright, vibrant, and kind of childish. I want to do something that's storyline is based on a child. Something that involves an innocent child being fazed by family drama if that makes sense. Like a young child in the midst of  a toxic family. This choice of genre may change due to the fact that there can and will be setbacks during this project but its good to build a bridge on a steady foundation. The intended audience for the film is for kids, and young moms.

      

Common Conventions in Drama films

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/coopermatt62/codes-and-conventions-of-drama 

Mise-en-scene

Lighting

-Dull lighting (Used to portray and put emphasis on dull moments)

-Normal lighting may be used to give realistic feeling in the atmosphere

-High Key lighting is used to show happy moments 

Costume and Makeup

-A representative of the character and their personality

Setting

-Takes place in real life environments

Tone of drama movies

-Tends to shift from both high to low moments

-Drama films exabits real life situations

-Most movies are serious

Cinematography

-Low angles used to portray strength

-High angles used to portray weakness

-Close-up shots allow the audience to see how the characters are feeling

-Framing also tells us the ranks and the power of each character

-Over the shoulder would give us an close relation with the characters

Editing

-Influences how the audience sees characters within the scene

-Shot reverse shot allows audience to see the characters reactions

Research on a fine Sunday Evening

           It is Sunday, January 10th as I am writing this entry and I just got home from church. I have vowed to myself that I will never do an entry this late again because this is just not the move right now. I'm working to get organized, and under control because this is a long-term project and I am not trying to start it off slacking. In my next blog entry, I plan to show some things I tried to be more organized for the remainder of the project.

         Firstly, the purpose of the opening credits in the film is identical to the purpose of a hook in an essay. The opening credits can be utilized to attract viewers by showing famous actors or important people that may be playing in the movie or had a part in creating the movie. Based on the sound, imaging, and color scheme of the opening credits, this can help construct the overall meaning of the film. The style of the opening credit can help communicate the genre of the film as well. The difference between opening credits and a title sequence is that opening credits is when important people in the film are recognized, and a title sequence is when the title of the movie is being presented in a fashionable manner. One of the techniques that can be used in the opening sequence is foreshadowing. Sometimes the film producer may use the opening sequence to add significance to something that the audience may need to remember later in the scene. It can also set the mood and the tone of the movie by giving the viewers an insight on what they are about to watch. What makes up a title sequence is the sound, style, animations, and imagery. These things listed are what basically gives the title sequence meaning.

First Blog Entry!!!!

Thoughts and feelings

           Hi, My name is Serena Peeples and I am 14 years old. I never would have thought I would have to do a project like this... Honestly, all my life during elementary and middle school I would always do my projects last minute but with this one I know for sure I can’t do that. I'm most nervous about the people I might have to work with. I don't know who is going to be in my class, and I have heard that it won’t be many people. Hopefully I will know at least one person, and hopefully someone would want to work with me because I feel like if I do this alone it would be a huge burden because I have problems managing my time.

           Creating the blog wasn't really difficult, but I had trouble coming up with a URL. Once I created the blog that's when it really hit me. I have to make a movie opening scene in the time span of 2 or 3 months! I know that sounds like a lot of time, but I know I will blow through those couple of months quickly! This whole semester I have managed to get good grades and I refuse to let this bring me down. This project sounds hard, but my teacher says that all it takes is effort and I will start strong and finish strong too!  Uploading the assignment wasn't really hard. It was actually the fastest assignment I've ever submitted this year! Reviewing another people’s blog was both hard and nice. It was fun observing the different personalities in each blog, but it was hard for me to read every single word in the blog. One thing I noticed about them was they all spoke about their writer’s block, and how hard it was to come up with ideas. Reviewing these blogs were fun because it inspired me because even when things went wrong in their projects, they still made a way. They were persistent with uploading their blogs and they went in detail about everything.