Genre Research: Split

To further expand my knowledge of the thriller genre I decided to watch the movie Split. Split is a psychological thriller that is about three teenage girls who get kidnapped by a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means he has 23 different personalities and the viewer is constantly in suspense of who he is and what he is going to do. Some common camera angles are the low angle, high angle, close ups, long shots, and establishing shots. The low angles are used when looking at the kidnapped girls. The high angles are used when looking up at the antagonist named Kevin. This establishes a sense of dominance. The establishing shot isn’t until the end of this movie. When one of the girls is rescued the shot shows her walking out and being surrounded by animals. This establishes that she was being held captive in the maintenance area of a Zoo for the entire movie.
Common camera movements in this film are zoom, fade in, tracking shots, and jump cuts. When the girls are first abducted it fades in into a shot where it shows the room they are being kept in. The tracking shots and zoom are used in action scenes where they are trying to escape. Jump cuts are used throughout the film. The sharp jump cuts add to the suspense of the movie. Common sounds in this movie are non diegetic sound, sound bridge, incidental music, and dialogue. Non diegetic sound is used a lot in this film. It is used when the are kidnapped and they scream for help. A sound bridge is used when one girl finally escapes and the music gets louder and she nears freedom. Incidental music is used for many scenes in the film where the beat and music matches whats happening and increases anticipation and tension.
The Mis en Scene in this film helps make it more enjoyable for the reader and adds to the authenticity. The costumes are regular modern street wear. As the film progresses the customers get dirtier; one example of this is when one girl pees herself. The costumes also change as Kevin changes personalities. The lighting in this film is low when they are in captivity but get brighter when they are saved and outside. The actors are young teenagers who are abducted by one man who plays 23 different personalities. The makeup starts off minimal but towards the end of the movie it turns into special effects makeup as some of the girls are killed. The props include murder weapons like knives that are commonly found in thriller movies. Elements of a thriller movie include suspense, tension, anticipation, surprise, anxiety, terror, drama, and action. I enjoy the drama, suspense, and anticipation of the girls being rescued. I didn’t like the suspense, tension, or action that the movie had throughout.

Genre Research: Bird Box

To get a more in-depth understanding of the genre of my film, I decided to watch some movies that fall under this genre. The first movie is Bird Box.
Throughout the film, the director used a variety of camera angles most common were a high angle, close up and long shot. As far as camera movement the film included an abundance of pans, tracking shots and zooms. The mis en scene in this movie is what really ties it all together.
Costumes - The costumes of this movie start off as normal everyday clothes, however as time goes on in the “post apocalyptic” world their clothing becomes tattered, worn and dirty.
Lighting - The lighting of this film was mostly dim throughout the film, this is partially due to the fact that the plot of the film is not being able to see. However, the dim lighting adds to the eerie feeling the viewer gets throughout the movie.
Actors - The actors were in my opinion the most important part of this movie, because we never directly saw the monster of this movie we had to rely on the emotion displayed by the actors so get a sense of the affect this monster had on people. The feeling the viewer gets from this movie would not be the same if the actors could not portray this emotion efficiently.
Makeup - Similar to the costumes the makeup is very basic and natural, however as the movie goes on and the characters obtain wounds and are deprived of showers the makeup changes from everyday to dirty and special effect wound makeup.
Props - The most recognizable prop from this film is the blindfolds used by the characters to protect them from the monster. In addition to blindfolds the characters utilize basic survival props while occasionally yielding weapons.
Setting - The setting of the movie changed throughout however the characters were always in a dimly lit sheltered areas whether is was the house in the beginning or the shed in the woods towards the end.
The sound of this movie was very similar to what you would find in a horror movie. For example indistinct whispers and eerie music. Additionally, the dialogue is limited and when they do speak it is low to avoid exposure. What I liked about the film is how well the actors could portray the fear and the effect of the monster, without this component I do not think this movie would have been so successful in impacting my emotions. What I disliked about this film is the “incomplete” story line, while I know this is not directly connected to the way the movie was filmed it was something I found unfulfilling. Although the idea of the movie was intriguing the plot holes (for example the outcome of all the other characters) left me unsatisfied. Overall, this movie gave me a good idea of what to expect in this genre.

Genre Choice

We finally narrowed down our choices to one genre for our film; we chose the thriller genre. We chose this genre for many different reasons. One of them being we think our audience will like it more. When looking at audience sizes from different genres thriller has the biggest. Genres like horror might be much for certain viewers. Genres like animated have younger audiences. The thriller genre however, engages audiences from all ages and keeps the film suspenseful and action filled.

Genre Research: Get Out

To understand the thriller genre more I decided to study a thriller movie. The movie that I chose to study is "Get Out". I Chose get out because of its unique aspect on a thriller. To further inspect how it uses the thriller genre I decided to research the movie using CLAMPS. CLAMPS stands for camera angles, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and setting.
Camera angles- In "Get Out", there are a variety of types of camera angles. However, the most commonly used camera angles are a lot of close up shots. The reason for these close up shots is to limit the audiences perspective. This leaves more unknown areas making the movie more scary.
Lighting- The lighting in this film was bright. But it was bight with a strong dark contrast. That makes the movie more eerie. Which in turn makes the movie more like a thriller because the audience gets the sense that something is not right.
Actors- The actors in "Get Out" were majority white except for the main character who was black. The difference in skin color gives an intruding feeling. That feeling again hints to something being off in the film. Which further adds to the scare factor.
Makeup- The makeup is not that noticeable in the movie. Leading me to believe that they didn't use any that is out of the ordinary. That makes unorthodox compared to a typical horror film which normally uses a lot of makeup.
Props- The props in this film are everyday house hold items. Which allows the movie to hit close to home. Making it even more scary.  The costumes in "Get Out" are average white clothing. This helps power one of the underlining themes of racism because the main character who is black seems out of place.
Setting- The setting in this movie is in an average white suburban neighborhood. This also gives an intruding feeling being that the main character is black.

Genre Research (Action)

This was a project we created in the first quarter to expose of to the different genres. The genre we were assigned was action. We researched the elements that make up this genre. For example the common lighting, sounds, camera angles, etc. We did this by exploring a variety of movies labeled under the action genre and found what they all had in common. The importance of this project was to be able to more clearly identify different genres and how we can create a film that fits into it. I found this project beneficial because before this class I had no idea all the components that are needed to create a movie and how different elements can create a different feeling or mood.

The Pitch

     Our first pitch is “Finding my biological parents is harder than I thought.”  We chose this idea because it would supply our video with an element of suspense. It will leave the viewer wondering if the main character ever finds his parents and if he does what kinda of people they are. We had the idea of showing the parents and their decision to give up their kid. Then it would go forward in time to show the now grown up child and the challenges they went through to find their parents. The difficulty of choosing this as our final idea is making it clear to the audience the relationship that the characters have. We would need to find actors that would be able to portray this effectively. We lightly discussed using one of our parents but we haven’t planned any further. The positive effect of using our parents is we would not have to search for adults that resemble the actor we chose as the adopted child. However, if we were to use our parents there is the risk of them not taking in the character.
       The second pitch we considered was “I faked my death and I’m ready for revenge”. We decided not to film this pitch for multiple reasons. One of them being that it would be very difficult. The pitch statement, while suspenseful does leave a lot of room for explanation. In order to make a good movie we would need more than a 2 minute opening scene. The storyline would be too full. We would need to explain why they faked their death, why they want revenge, and who they want revenge on. Although this pitch would be a better thriller than the one we chose. While the other one is just part of the mystery genre. This pitch would be thriller/horror/mystery and the audience would enjoy it. But our two minute time limit wouldn’t do the movie justice.
      So, after debate we narrowed it down to the pitch that we wanted to do. We decided on filming about the child looking for their parents. My group and I chose that pitch because it is unique. We speculate that a lot of people will try doing horror. And my group and I want to add a unique aspect to our film. On top of that, we feel that a mystery theme will add suspense. And we feel that it will be easier to grasp the audience because it is an easy concept to get. With horror we feel that it wouldn’t be that realistic because of the limited resources that we have. We also feel most comfortable acting with a mysterious theme. Another reason we chose this pitch it that we think we will have the most fun doing this type of theme. So, for those reasons we chose that pitch.

Starting the final task

     Today we started working on our final task and I can tell that my group is excited for  this project. This will be the first project that is a movie meaning that we have more room to be more creative. That is because there are so many more genres to pick from. And another exiting aspect of this project for me is my group members. I have grouped up with Gavin, Maya, and Amelia. I am happy to be in this group because everyone is hard working and determined. Also everyone in my group thinks differently so different aspects to the film are added. And we have been in a group for the last two films so we all have chemistry working together. However there is a lot to think about for this film because it is our biggest project.
      However, before we talk about the film I would like to talk about how I have progressed throughout the school year. When we did our first project, the commercial, all of our group was inexperienced and had to learn how to film and edit. This was a painstaking process and consisted of a lot of trial and error. However, I persevered and in return I learnt a lot. I would say that the best trait that I have is editing. I’ve also became better at filming although Maya and Amelia are the best at filming so they primarily film. I have also gotten better at acting. Although I thought I was pretty good at acting I realized by watching myself that I had a lot of room for improvement. And that is something that I think that I have improved in. But enough about me lets talk about our pitches for the final project.
     Our group had to brainstorm for a while to find the perfect pitch that captured all of our ideas. But before I get to in depth let me tell you what a pitch is. A pitch is a term that describes an idea to a film in 25 words or less. So now that that is out of the way let’s talk about what my group has come up with. After netting up and talking to one another we came up with our top three pitches. Our first pitch is, “my biggest regret is befriending my stalker.” We chose that because it captures the horror element that most of my group members want to film using. The other pitch that uses horror is, “I faked my death and now am ready for revenge.” The final pitch that my group and I though of was, “finding my parents is harder than it seems.” In that pitch we are going for the mysterious element which we think will help engage our audience.