Genre research ( The Call )

Cams- The camera angles, movements, and shots includes: The establishing shot to start off the movie, arial shots to give the view of the helicopters, tracking shots to track the kidnappers car, the trunk shot when the kidnapper tries to talk to the girl, The two shots to show cops talking, and many close ups. 

Editing- The editing in this movie includes: Many Jump cuts, cross cutting, cutaways, graphic matches, eye-line matches, many shot reverse shots and reaction shots.

Sound- The sound in this movie includes: Eerie and suspenseful music, diegetic sound like dialogue, non diegetic sound, ambient sound and a couple sound bridges.

Elements: The elements include: A lot of suspense and tension in scenes with a good good plot. Used a lot of fast motion scenes and had fast pacing.

What I liked: I enjoyed the fast pacing and the intense plot points and ending. Another thing I liked was how the main character Jordan had an emotional connection to the kidnapped girl.

What I didn't like: Theres not much I didn’t like. I think it was a really solid watch. But pretty much the only thing I didn’t like was the repeated extreme close ups, it was just too much and weird.

The C.L.A.M.P.S in this movie include:

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Costumes includes: Since half of the movie took place in a police station, most of the people wore uniform for the operator desk and police uniforms. The kidnapped girl wore regular attire and the kidnapper wore regular attire too.

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The lighting includes: Natural lighting in many scenes like the mall, Dark lighting in the trunk and the basement, and bright lighting in the hive.

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The actors include: Halle Berry as the main character/operator, Abigail Breslin as the girl who gets kidnapped, and Michael Eklund as the kidnapper. There were many other actors like Morris Chestnut who played the cops.

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The makeup include: Regular day to day make up, fake blood, fake bruises, and make up to make someone look dead.

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Some important props include: Guns, police, shovels, paint buckets, phone, flashlight and tools.

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The settings include: The police station to show where the call took place, the original kidnapped girl house, the mall, the freeway and the basement where the ending takes place.

Genre research (A simple favor)

Cams- The camera angles, movements, and shots included: lots of tilts that showed the characters after big events. There was also lots of tracking shots and one aerial shot that was very dramatic. 

Editing- The editing in this movie included: Many inserts of the main character’s youtube channel as well as lots of cross-cutting and flashbacks. 

Sound- The sound in this movie included: Suspicious and suspenseful music. At the introduction of the antagonist the music gave hints towards who the ‘bad guy’ was. 

Elements: The elements include: A lot of suspense and tension in scenes with many plot twists at the ending.

What I liked: I enjoyed the complex ending and the character development of one of the lead characters, Stephanie.

What I didn't like: The beginning of the film developed slowly but at the end everything moved so fast it was hard to comprehend all of the important details at once. 

The C.L.A.M.P.S in this movie include:

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Costumes included: The two main characters costumes were opposite in the beginning, one wore brightly colored clothes making her seem very cheery. But the other character was very elegant almost eerily elegant. By the end the first characters brightly colored clothes turned into a more sophisticated and neutrally colored outfit. 

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The lighting includes: Natural lighting in many scenes, in one scene, where a house is lit on fire the lighting is only the fire making everything look very realistic. 

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The acting included: lots of dramatic scenes and good acting inside of acting when the characters had to deceive each other. There was many big name actors as well like, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. 

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The makeup included: very similar style as the costumes. The suspicious seeming character had darker music while the cheery one often wore bright colors. 

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Some important props included: a fake gun, a real gun, a nanny cam and a wrench. 

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The settings included: a rainy setting to start off the movie followed by a homey house and a very clean, pristine and elegant house. 

Genre decision

     After lots of research about genres, action, thriller and horror. We decided as a group to make our kidnapping pitch into a thriller film. Not only does a thriller genre go best with our pitch but the resources are easiest to access. In a horror film weapons are utilized and realistic looking fake weapons can be very hard to find. Action films also usually require large sets which is not possible for the time and budget that we have. Thriller films often have kidnappings because they are very suspenseful especially when the victim escapes. Our film will include a very suspenseful kidnapping and escape(s) making thriller the best genre for us.

Thriller And horror Genre research

For this blog we have to pick two other genres, we picked thriller and horror. For thriller there are many common themes. Many films themes include: mystery, crime and revenge. For the C.A.M.S. Many camera angles include birds eye views for a way to look down upon something and dutch angles to show suspense. Camera shots, topically the use Close ups for the characters reactions, shot/reverse shot to show consequences, extreme close ups to emphasize objects and long shots to show the atmosphere. For movements, they’re usually be pans, or zooms that show a character, and a lot of tracking shots in a chase.

For clamps and sound, The costumes, they can be as basic as normal clothing, or regular work clothes like a doctor gown. The lighting can be very dark or really bright to add suspense. The actors vary from very famous to not that known. The makeup is usually basic because its normally regular people being acted. For props it can be anything from a gun to a pencil, there are an immense amounts of props in thrillers because they are either used to move the story along or just a simple everyday object. For setting it can be anything from a store to an airplane. For sound it’s mostly diegetic like dialogue or intense background music to build tension.

For the elements, there has to be a good story. Without a good story the movie will flop. With a good thriller there also needs to have some sort of suspense. A viewer can't really get anything out of a thriller if there is no suspense. Suspense brings tension, and tension keeps the viewer at the edge of their seats at all times. Another thing that helps the plot is the actors, without good actors the story will just feel rushed or simple in ways. Those two things makes up a good thriller. Some ways a thriller can be bad is, if it’s rushed or drawn out. A lot of thriller movies are a little too drawn out or too rushed and have a very shallow scripts, were it makes the movie uneventful and dry, making the movie almost funny. Besides some of the damp plots, We really think that the the thriller genre holds up well. 

For our second genre to research, we chose horror. There are a lot of twisted and unusual camera angle in horror films. Many films use low angles to show how terrifying the villain is or a Dutch angle to intense the unusual feel of a scene. For the camera shots, topically the use Close ups for the characters reactions, and tracking shots for the escape/chasing scenes. For movements, they can be usually be pans, or zooms that face a character, which make the camera shot into a close up.

For clamps, the costumes, they can be as basic as normal clothing, and as intricate as a detailed monster costume. The lighting can be very  dark at times to increase the scare factor. The actors are all usually indie actors because horror films are mostly low budget films. The makeup is also as complex and important as the costumes because for the monster/villain, it can bring out the scariest parts of the actor. The props are usually murder weapons, which includes, nives, swords pistols, and other harmful objects. The settings are mostly in dark and scary areas which includes: forest, a haunted house, sewers, cemeteries and carnivals.

To continue with, the sound usually contains, goosebump giving noises that are very erie and other unearthly sounds. For the elements, there are two prominent ones. The first and more important element of a horror movie is suspense. A viewer can't really get scared of a film if  there is no suspense. suspense is what keeps the audience on the edge on their seat, keeping their attention making the movie interesting and not boring. for the next element of horror, it is what causes suspense, and it is mystery. Mystery causes suspense and it is the main drive of most horror movies. The unknown can be very terrifying, and most, or not if all movies use mystery as something for the viewer to be scared off. With all of these ideas together, us as a group really like horror movies. The simple and raw energy of fear can be really entertaining and something different compared to other types of emotions you get from other types of genre of film. Although we like horror films, they have some problems. A lot of horror movies are a little too corny and have a very shallow script, were it makes the movie not scary anymore, making it not even a horror movie more. Besides all of the corny horror movies, We really think that the horror genre is one of the best.

Action genera research

A few assignments back, my team and I were assigned a project that had us make a power point in relation to a random genre. We were assigned the action genre which we felt pretty lucky to get. We felt that together we can make a good looking PowerPoint and get reliable information since the genre is so common. We made sure to include pictures throughout that came from well known action movies like Fast & Furious and John Wick. Another thing we did was watch a few short clips to get a sort of idea of an action film and what’s in it. Our Power Point focused on not only the genre itself, but also the different camera angles and movements used when making this sort of film. Clamps was an acronym that we stuck to which helped to organize our slides when talking on costumes, lighting, actors, make-up, props, and setting. This was very important because most action films have these things in common. Finally, we added in some slides that had more info on action films and it’s history. Our class is now referring back to this power point which proves its usefulness even past it’s due date.

Choosing the right pitch

      We have narrowed down our movie idea options from three to two. We decided to not do the deadly paintball game idea. It would be to expensive and could be unsafe. It is also in a location that is far, so filming at a time when everyone is available would be very hard. Reshooting would also be very hard to do because of the paintball park’s location and admission fee. Our other ideas are stronger and more interesting. They are also much easier to film and edit. There are two remaining pitches, the one about a mystery kidnapper and the one about a ghost. It is very hard to decide which one we should use as our final. Both have many pros and cons and our group is not unanimous.

   For our first pitch, we feel like it would have the most interesting plot. But it’s not perfect. The cons of this pitch is that we would have to film at night, making it harder for us to get good lighting or shots. Since it’s also late at night, where we would need to shoot it in downtown Hollywood may be packed. The Pros for this pitch how ever is about how much we can make out of it. The costumes are really easy to make and the location is really close to where we live. 

For the second pitch, it is probably one of the easiest for us to do. The pros are that the plot is simple and the part that we are  shooting is only in a house. We are not going to film any scenes with someone driving, like one of the other pitches so we won’t need any adult Supervision. On the contrary the story might be a little to bare-bones and might be somewhat boring. Another con is that the story we have at the moment has to much of a short story feel, not like the first 2 minutes of a movie like it should have

Our final decision was tough but we ended up coming to a conclusion that we feel will be the most beneficial towards giving us and that A level grade. With careful consideration, we decided to create the kidnapping pitch. There was something about this pitch that made it stand out from the rest and as a group we can really make this idea into an awesome clip. Now that we’ve decided that this is a definite pitch we can really get to working out the critical parts. Another benefit when choosing this pitch is that we use a truck for effects. This will enhance our clip and make it more unique. The inclusion of the truck makes the pitch far better then the others. All of our previous projects have prepared us so we can do as good as we possibly can on this one. It’s between Cambridge and us now. It’s just a matter of meeting all our deadlines and making the best video we can.

Start of final task

   This is the beginning of the final project and i have changed a lot since our first, but i am relatively the same. I still go the the same school, still talk to the same friends, made a couple new ones, but nothing like that stuff really changed. I am still a A/B student (besides that one algebra 2 quarter) I still try to get good grades mostly get them. i still haven't learned a single word of Spanish, even though i am  in Spanish. I just realized that i haven't really changed since the first blog but i grew a couple inches since. My group changed a Little for these projects. The first Project it was Me, Paige, Zeke ,and Elijah. The second project it was just me and Paige. For this project the old team came back together and it's the same as the first project, witch is Me, Paige, Zeke ,and Elijah.

   Besides the stuff outside of class i have learned a lot inside our class. I really enjoy any types of film and how they are made, and the stuff that i have retained from this class really sparked my interest. When watching some movies i am always puzzled on how they did these shots and from the stuff i learned i found out how i did this. The camera angles that we were shown, were very interesting and cool. on the other hand, the stuff that I learned from the project film making was I thought was even more interesting. I learned how to be a cameraman, and my camera skills evolved. I can actually use a camera now too and not use it like a buffoon. My storytelling has gotten greater too, and i can actually create a story with a deep plot, not a shallow one.

   For the our pitches, i think they are pretty creative. For our first pitch, we decided that we are going to do a self discovering type of film. This pitch is about the main character wakes up to find out that he is a ghost he goes on a journey to find out how he died. This is a pretty good pitch in my opinion (because i made it). The second pitch that our group made is a crime, abduction movie. The pitch is were the main characters find themselves involved in some dangerous business and go on trying to escape their captures and keep themselves from life in a cell. This is probably the most likely Pitch we are going to pick for our project. For the last pitch it is a horror film. This pitch is a friendly paintball game turns into a deadly situation once all of the paintball become toxic. Players go on a quest to save their teammates.