Title Research: Paprika

          The next movie is Paprika, an animated 2006 film. I got it from the website art of the titles. The first question is, "How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?" There were about 15 titles displayed in the sequence. The second question is "What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?" Images that are prioritized are pictures of just this lady moving around in strange ways, it's hard to explain. The third question is "What connotations do the images carry?" I'd say the connotations would be mystery, or just strange. The fourth question is "How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?" I don't really know, like the dive title sequence, it's hard to tell the genre from just the title sequence. Question five is, "How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?" It establishes this by showing the lady's questionable movements and actions. Question six states, "What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to the target audience?" Strategies used includes, animations, the woman's actions, and such. The seventh question states, "How has technology been used effectively?" Technology has been used effectively by I guess just the overall making of the film? Because of the film being an animation instead of a film with real people in it, you'd think the development of the film would be totally relied on technology. Though the quality isn't the best, you gotta keep in mind it was made in 2006. I mean, it's not just quality either, I wouldn't consider characters mouths not moving to the words quality.

          That's it, have a nice day.

Title Research: Colombiana

          Hello, I hope you're having a nice day.

          On the website Art of the Title, I found the title sequence for a crime film called Colombiana. I found it on the website art of the titles. We have to answer questions about what we saw in the title sequence. The first question was "How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence?" When I watched it, I counted 18 titles. I may or may not be wrong, I don't know. The second question was "What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?" The images that were prioritized were images of  the place they were in from above, (Mexico maybe? I have no clue.) people in cages, helicopters, wildlife, and such. The third question is "What connotations do the images carry?" I guess the image connotations would be trying to make you uneasy or excited, maybe. The fourth question was "How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technological codes from the outset?" Personally, I could tell it was crime from the title sequence. The main giveaway was the amount of guns and such. It's reinforced by the showing of the guns and other crime like film features. The fifth questions is "How does the film establish enigma from the outset?" It does this by I guess giving enough imagery to make the audience develop an idea of what the film is about, but not enough to give away the entire plot. I guess I'm trying to say that they get a sense of "oh heck what happens next" or a sense of interest. The sixth question is "What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?" Well, first you gotta think of who exactly the target audience is, and I'm pretty sure that target audience is an audience that enjoys the crime genre and its components (suspense, etc). The strategies that would attract them would be something like the aerial shots, the quick way the titles come onto the screen, the images of people counting money or just standing there, and such. The seventh and final question is "How has technology been used effectively?" Even though it's been 9 years since this film has come out, the technology has been used pretty effectively in developing the feel of the crime genre. An example is the various shots used to show soldier looking people, people laying on the ground, a shot of a guys eyeballs through a slit in a mask, etc. It also shows the setting, which is cool too.

Title Research: Casino Royale

          This title sequence thing is from a movie called Casino Royal made in 2006. I got it from the website art of the titles. The first question is, "How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences of the film?" There were about 29 titles in this sequence. The second question is "What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?" The titles prioritized were mainly shots of people getting shot/stabbed with different playing card suits.The third question is "What connotations do the images carry?" The images carry the connotations, mystery, suspense, and such. The fourth question is "How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?" I'd genre is reinforced by the showing of people fighting and getting shot and such. The fifth question is, "How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?" It shows this by giving enough information to where you have a slight idea of what's going on, it keeps you interested. It's mysterious to the point where you want to know more. Question six is "What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?" Well first off, the target audience would be people who enjoy crime films or just films like this one. Just in the sequence, there's fighting, guns, people getting stabbed, people in suits, all the stuff a crime liker would be attracted to. Question seven states "How has technology been used effectively?" The sequence is almost entirely seemingly animated, or looks to be animated. The technology would be animating tools and other tools to track actors movement. They've been used effectively by I guess the overall making of the movie.

          Have a nice day.

Title Research: Drive

          This title sequence is from a 2011 film named drive. I got it from the website art of the titles. Lets get into it. The first question is 'How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence?" There were about 21 titles in the opening sequence. The second question is, "What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?" There are images of this guy driving, his car, his hotel/apartment thing, and such. The third question is "What connotations do the images carry?" Connotations that the images carry are interesting, mysterious, selective, unique, and such. The fourth question is "How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?" I honestly don't know. Personally I couldn't tell if this film was a crime film from the sequence, so I don't know. The fifth question is "How does the film establish enigma from the outset?" The only enigma that the sequence gives off is why is that man wearing such a hideous jacket. The sixth question is "What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to the target audience?" I don't know, I guess the 3 minutes of straight driving.  The seventh question is "How has technology been used effectively?" Maybe again the horrendous amount of driving, the shots of the mans face, that strange scene where that man goes into the room to drop his stuff off just to go driving again, I don't know.

          That's it, have a fantastic day.

Title Research

          Hello, welcome. We're doing another title research, but this time another website.

          This is the same concept as the previous title research blog. But obviously, it's a different website. I just realized how many heads are in that screenshot. Then again, they're thumbnails of interviews where people are talking. Anyway, I've blocked out my email, sorry if that bothers you. This website is called Watch the Titles. In the process of finding title sequences, none of them came from this website. The website was harder to navigate than the other website, art of the titles. Like the other website, it doesn't establish if the sequence is of a television show or a movie (I mean, unless you press the very specific "TV Shows" button.), but that's pretty easy to go around. Unlike the other website, (and even though it's still hard to navigate) it's more organized layout wise. If I were to say nice, positive things about the site, I'd say the pictures near the top are pretty cool. For example, if you were to press Designers, there's a picture at the top of a nice green squiggly line, very nice. Also, there's so many different designers and studios? That's crazy? The fact that there's so many studios all having the same goal of making a film is a very nice thought. Also, I'm just going to say that trying to count the amount of sentences in these blogs are going to be the death of me.

          Well, that's it. I hope you have a nice rest of your day.

Title Research

          Hello, welcome. I hope you're having a nice day. We're now doing title research for the final video.

          This is a screenshot of the home screen of a nice website called Art of the Title. While going through the site, you can see a whole bunch of title sequences from different films. From this website, I observed how diverse title scenes are. There's so many. Even if two films are in the same genre, the title scenes can be totally different from one another. I think it's really cool how you can make a living off making people's name flash across a screen. (No, I don't mean that sarcastically.) I saw many interviews, summaries, and titles for different movies, some of which, dating back to the early 1900's. A downside was that what I was looking for was really hard to find. We had to find title scenes for different crime movies. That was difficult because it doesn't show what genre that film is or if the film is a show or a movie. So, it was just a back and forth researching what genre each movie was. Also, the computer was going slow so that was a plus. As of right, now, I haven't really learned anything having to do with the website. There's not really that much to learn, all there is is title sequences and a very vague description of what the movie is. Usually along the lines of "not like is seems" or something strange like that. Actually, now thinking about it more I guess I did learn something, title sequences are important to a film. 

Genre Research: The Joker

          The Third Movie is Joker. It was about the dark side of society and the people there rising up. The first thing to review is CAMS. Common camera angles were high and low angles. Common camera shots include, two shots, wide shots, medium close ups, over the shoulders, long shots, and close ups.

          Next are common CLAMPS. Common costumes include jacket, suits, and clown masks. These are all typical city clothing and the masks are for the movies theme. Common lighting is mostly dark, but but it's also occasionally bright. There's a lot of stage lighting, window lighting, lamp lighting, and ceiling light lighting. Common acting involves, physical violence, laughing, acting mentally insane, not being very happy, and strange dancing. Common makeup is natural, but near the end there's a lot of clown makeup. Common props include guns, signs, televisions, microphones, and clown masks. The most common setting is Gotham city.

         Common editing includes, slow motion, cuts, and cutaways. The common sounds are mostly digetic and ambient sounds. The non digetic sounds are mostly movie soundtracks. Examples of sounds include, gun shots, footsteps, intense music, clapping, laughing, and protesting. The common elements are violence, murder, and society. In this movie, I like the suspense of him slowly growing more and more unstable until he finally snaps, that's cool. I didn't really like the fact that in a way it kind of glorified mental illness. Like, at the end he got praised for being the crazy guy that killed many people and someone on live television. Overall, even though it was pretty brutal, it was a really good film.

Genre Research: Knives Out

          The fourth and final movie is Knives out. It's about a suicide, supposedly a murder, and the family members, including his day keeper, all have connection to his company will, and fortune. The first thing to talk about are the common CAMS. The common camera angles are over the shoulder, low angle, two shot, hand held, dutch, and high angle. The common camera movements are pans, tilts, zooms, and trucks. Common camera shots include, establishing shots, medium close ups, and three shots.

        Next up are common CLAMPS. The common costumes are formal and simple designed. An example of this are suits and sweaters. Common lighting is mostly bright, but sometimes dim. The lighting comes from the sun, through the window, ceiling lights, and phone lights. The common acting involves a lot of frustration, seriousness, and thinking. The makeup is mostly natural-looking and lightly colored. Common props include knives, letters, phones, mugs, and a baseball. The setting is an old mansion and an urban town.

          Editing involves cuts, cutaways, and action cuts. Common sounds include music, dialogue, non-digetic sounds, and ambient sounds. Examples of this includes screaming footsteps, and eating. The elements of Knives Out are suspense, confusion, comedy, anger, trust, and family. Personally , and as a group what I did like was how mysterious it was until the end. The main character was a good actor. It was comedic, intense, interesting, mysterious, and not too scary. However, I did not like the beginning with the long interview phase. The film was an all around that lived up to its genre, crime.

Genre Research: Don't Breathe

          The second movie is Don't Breathe. It's about a group of people that broke into a house, underestimating the strength and intelligence of the blind veteran that lives inside. Its genre is Thriller, Horror, and Crime Film. Now, we're starting off with CAMS. Again, it's going to get repetitive. Okay, lets go. Common camera angles include, High angles, low angles, and canted. Common camera shots include, establishing shot, two shots, close up, long shot, wide shot, extreme closeup, mid shot, over the shoulder, cowboy shot, and Aerial shots. Common camera movements include, zooms, trucks, pans, and tilts.

          Next, CLAMPS. Common costumes in this film include, Common lighting in this film is, dark, very dark. Or as the teacher said it, spooky dark. Common acting includes, fighting, running, holding their breath, and more. Common makeup includes, injury makeup, and regular makeup. Common props include, keys, guns, etc. The most common setting is the blind mans house.

         Lastly, Sound, editing, elements, and my opinions. Common Sound includes, Ambient sound, Digetic and Non digetic, Dialogue, sound bridges, scores, etc. Common editing are, cutaways, jump cuts, action matches, eyeline matches, split screens, and inserts. Common elements include, drama, foreshadowing, conflict, etc. Now for my opinion, the likes and dislikes. I really like the story line. I like the concept. The three people go in the house to steal, but two of the three die to a blind guy? That's cool. The ending was made me uncomfortable, you'll probably know if you watch the movie. I liked the parts where the blind man would walk in, and the people would have to be super quiet or he'll catch them. There were parts where they could've avoided what would've happened to them, but then again its hard to think about that kind of stuff when you're afraid. Also, there were those moments where a little common sense could've popped in. For example, there were parts where the blind man came up from behind them, you'd think they would be very observant for thieves. Overall, it was a really good film and I'd highly recommend it.

Genre Research: John Wick

          The first movie is the first John Wick movie. The movie's genres are action, thriller, crime film, and neo-noir. It came out in 2014, it was the first of three. It's basically about a guy that goes and kills a guy for killing his dog and stealing his car. The next couple blogs will be the filming elements (CLAMPS, CAMS, Sound, Editing, Elements, etc) and the film poster. So, it's going to be structured the same way as a previous blog "Genre Research: The Genres". Again, It's going to be repetitive. Here we go, starting with CAMS. Common camera angles in this film are, High angles, Low angles, and Canted angles. Common camera shots in this film are, Close up, Long shot,Two shot, Over the shoulder, Establishing shot, Medium shot, Point of view, Cowboy shot, and such. Common Camera Movement in this film are, Zooms, Pans, Tilts, and Trucks.

          Now, CLAMPS, Common costumes in this film include, Suits, Casual Wear, and other dark clothing. I'd say the most common lighting in this film would just be dark, the overall vibe is just sad or serious. Common Acting in this film include, fighting, crying, and such. Common makeup includes, injury makeup, regular makeup, and such. Common props include, the dog, weapons, and such. Common setting in this film is, Johns house, the mechanics shop, the big hotel, and such.
That's it for CLAMPS.

          Moving on to the rest. Common sound in this film include, Digetic and Non-Digetic sound, Dialogue, Ambient sound, Incidental, sound bridge, sound motif, and such. Common editing includes, Inserts, Action matches, Eyeline matches, Jump cuts, shot reverse shot, cutaways, and such. Common Elements include, foreshadowing, conflict, dread, drama, suspense, and more. Overall this was a pretty good film. I like John's dedication to getting revenge. The guy who killed his dog deserved every hit he got. Also, why did that woman walk into that pool with high heels on? That's strange. Also, this is kind of morbid, but almost everyone he kills seems to die instantly. Like, John held a guys head underwater for maybe 10 seconds and he died, that's not realistic. I'm not saying I know how fast people that drown die, I'm saying in a realistic sense that's not how it works. The things I didn't really like was the music in the club, that was atrocious. Also, You know how many times he injured other people's feet? Like 3 times but that's hysterical. The hotel is in Manhattan, New York, and the average serious crime police response there is about 4-5 minutes, how has there not been police? Throughout this entire scene, I've been thinking about how there's not police there. You'd think that hundreds of gun shots would bring the police right away, but no. Also, how does this man get shot and beat and is almost totally fine, but then he gets stabbed and immediately assumes he's going to die? That's wack. But yeah, overall John Wick was a really good film.

Genre Research: The Decision

          So, you may or may not know about one of the previous blogs. It was a whole lot of information about the genres we thought might fit our pitch. The genres were the Musical and Action genre. All of the genres that we had to choose from were crime, action and musical. After talking, me and the person I'm working with decided on a genre. We picked crime. We both agreed that making the genre crime would make it more interesting. I'm honestly excited to see how all of this turns out. There's so many possibilities, it's insane.


         I hope you have a good rest of your day.

Genre Research: The Genres

          Hello, I hope you're having a nice day. So from the other blog (Genre Research: The Power Point) you were given one of the three genres we picked for the movie we're doing. The three genres are, Crime, Musical, and Action. We picked these because our pitch could easily fit into any of them. For crime, A guy can witness people committing crimes while sleeping. For Musical, he's singing about having this ability and what he'll do with it. For action, an intense story of a guy getting beaten and getting vengeance, while he's sleeping. Very interesting, I know.

          You know the power point in the last blog? We're going to do that for the other two genres, except they're not going to be in power point form, it's going to be written. I want to apologize in advance for the repetitive sentence starting, it gets really old, really quickly and I'm sorry for that. The first genre is Musical. Common camera angles in Musical films are High, Low, and dutch angles. Common camera shots in this genre include, Over the shoulder, close up, establishing, extreme close up, mid shot, long shot, and aerial shots. Common camera movements are, pans, tilts, tracks, and zooms. Now moving on to CLAMPS. Common costumes in this genre are, very over the top, to say the least. A lot of musical films are about famous musicians, such as Elton John, And Freddie Mercury, but even then there's animated movies like Frozen, And all of them wear really fancy, shiny clothing, like Elton and his peacock suit thing. Common Lighting in musical films depend on the movie and the scene. If it's a happy part of the film, it's nice and bright, if it's a more upsetting part, the scene is going to be darker. Common acting in this genre is still, depending on the film. For example, Rocketman is way more over the top, or extra than a movie like Frozen. Common Makeup in the genre are also depending on the film and scene, But they have the usual film makeup, the makeup that makes their skin look smooth and not old looking. Common props in the Musical genre are still dependent on the film, if it's a film about someone preforming, those people are going to be surrounded by instruments and their on stage audience, but if it's just a musical film like Greese, they might have alcohol or cigarettes and stuff like that. Common setting in this genre are still dependent on the movie and the scene, But I'd say that the common setting would be a house or the characters home in the establishing scene. Common editing in this genre could include, cutaways, jump cuts, eyeline matches, action matches, graphic matches and cross cutting. Common sound in this genre could include, Digetic and Non-Digetic sound, Voice overs, Dialogue, and Ambient sounds. Common elements in this genre could include,  (Obviously) Signing and Dancing, Foreshadowing, Conflict, and more. I actually really like the musical genre. I've watched many movies in that genre and enjoyed it. I think the thing I enjoy most about the genre is the accuracy to the actual events. For example, the Live Aid performance in the Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody, that was pretty accurate. I don't think there's anything I don't like about the genre.

          That was a lot, I know. One more time. Now, we're doing action. Common camera angles in this genre include, high angles, low angles, and canted angles. Common camera shots in the action genre include, establishing shots, over the shoulder shots, point of view shots, close up shots, extreme close up shots, long shots, and such. Common camera movements include, pans, tilts, trucks, and zooms. Again, now we're moving on to CLAMPS. Common costumes in action films are casual wear, but if it's a superhero film, then they have really tight spandex-y clothing. Common Lighting in action films depends on the circumstances, if someone has died, it's going to be dark, if they're fighting it might be dark, but not too dark to where you can't see what's going on. Common acting in action films includes, fighting, being overall dramatic, and such. Common make up in this genre include, makeup that makes your face look smooth, SFX makeup, and other casual makeup. Common props in action films can include, weapons, (swords, guns, etc,) helmets, Armour, and more. Common setting in action films include, big cities, other planets, and more. Moving on. Common editing in action films include, eyeline matches, action matches, graphic matches, Jump cuts, split screens, and cutaways. Common sounds in this genre include, Digetic and Non-Digetic sounds, Voice overs, Ambient sounds, Dialogues, and more. Common elements in action films are, foreshadowing, drama, high energy, and such. Now my opinion. In all honesty, I don't really like action movies. Well, certain action movies, I guess. I don't really like the superhero aspect of the genre, I've never found that stuff really entertaining because it's been ruined for me. My brother overplayed it and it got annoying. I don't really like anything about action movies.

          Well, that's it. I hope you have a nice day.

Genre Research: The Powerpoint

          Hi there, I hope you're having a good day. This power point is a google slides presentation that I embedded with the assistance of a youtube video.

         This is the powerpoint. I'm sorry for the placement, it came out like that and I can't find a way to fix it. A small explanation for what exactly it is, it's an explanation of all the things that make the crime genre. I'm aware movement is very incorrect, apologies for that. Common camera angles in the crime genre are, High and low angles. Common movement in crime films are pans, tilts, trucks, and zooms. Common elements in this genre are conflict, foreshadowing and more. Common lighting in this genre are High contrast and low-key lighting. Common sounds (also kind of wrong) are Dialogues, Voice overs, Digetic, and non-Digenic sounds, and Ambient sounds. Example films include, The God Father, The Silence of the Lambs, Pulp Fiction, Zodiac, and more. for the likes and dislikes, I enjoy the actual crime aspects, like the crime being committed and/or solved. I don't like the other stuff, like the Dialogue, and avoidable drama.

Pitches

         Hello, I hope you're having a nice day. Our task I guess, for this blog was to pick two of the three pitches to move on. It's like one of those survivor game things on television, the elimination part. The three original pitches are, 1. a guy can predict or control his future, he tries to save his family from dying by using his abilities, 2. A guy (sleeping or coma) can move out of his body and tries to stop his house from being destroyed, and 3. a guys that's in a coma wakes up in his coma dream, to eventually find out he hasn't woken up. Now that I read those back, I realize, well, they don't make sense. They would if I could elaborate but I can't because it's supposed to be short. But I can promise you that they do make sense in my head, and hopefully we can bring what's in my head into the real world.

          Now for the narrowing down. We have to take 2 of the 3 pitches to move on. The pitches we're moving on with are, dun dun dun, Pitch 2 and pitch 3. We decided on these ones because we realized that 1 would probably be harder to film than the others. First, pitch 2. We chose pitch 2 because it's a cool idea, we have this guy that's unconscious in some way (dead or alive) and he's able to travel out of his body and mess with people, that's cool. Second, pitch 3. We chose pitch 3 because that's a cool idea as well. You have this guy, that's in a coma laying there surrounded by family and he's dreaming that he's getting kidnapped or something, all while he doesn't know that he's still in a coma. I'm not going to lie, all of these would be challenging to film. Not just because of the setting, but the way someone else would think about it. It would be confusing and you wouldn't know what happens so you don't know the relevance(?).

          Now, the grand finale. We have to choose which pitch we're actually going to do. This pitch will win the epic title of "a decent decision". Anyway, the pitch we're going to do is, dun dun dun, pitch number 2. Cue the applause, streamers, confetti, and other celebration necessities. Yes, we're going to do the pitch where a guy can travel outside of his body. Honestly, It wasn't that tough of a decision. We figured that this pitch would be easier to plan and film. As of right now, we plan on making it a comedy. He can go out of body and mess with people. That's cool, isn't it? There's so many options for things we can do with this one pitch, it's crazy. Just think of it, this film could be a comedy film, horror film, a thriller film, any genre you can name, this pitch could fit into it. Honestly, even though coming up with the pitches was difficult, it was kind of fun? Just sitting there and letting your mind flow is pretty cool.

         Anyways, I hope you have a good rest of your day.

Starting Final Task

          Hello! My name is Taylor, and I hope you're having a nice day. It's been a minute since I've done a blog, and I have to reintroduce myself so here we go. Hi my name is Taylor, and I take media studies (hence the blogs and recordings) and there's a lot going on right now. Not just in the class, but in general. I'm not going to go in detail, but stuff's scary. So, the final project as you may or may not know, is the first 2 minutes of a movie. Filming project equals, well filming. The difference between this project than the others is I'm working with someone. Yes, Crazy I know. His name is Peter, and together we came up with the ideas for the next project. He's pretty nice I guess, we didn't really small talk it was more of lets share ideas.

          So far in this class, we've learned a lot. We've learned stuff like how to use the camera and tripod, to the definitions of the important words to use on the final exam. Here are some things I can say off of the top of my head of what we learned. How to import and export footage, I learned how to use the TEA method, I learned the cruel, stressful reality of media class as a whole, I learned a lot of the different sounds, camera angles, shots, movements, editing, and stuff,  I learned about the various questions on the written task, and much more. A thing we were supposed to talk about on here was a talent um. A talent I would have having to do with this class is typing I guess? I can spell pretty well, I'd also consider myself pretty grammatically accurate. I'm just not illiterate is what I'm trying to say. I'd say I'm kind of good at filming but the spelling is better, I guess. Am I excited to learn anything else? Sure, I mean,  It's school we learn stuff and this class is cool. Wednesday, we learned about pitches. Pitches are a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. Basically a very, very brief explanation of an idea for a film. Wednesday, I was coming up with my pitches because I intended on working alone, when Peter asked if we could work together. We came up with pitches and it was pretty cool.

          Okay, pitches. I already typed the definition in the previous paragraph, so I won't bother typing it again. Coming up with pitches was very difficult. Coming up with original ideas in a short amount of time is hard. We came up with with pitches then the rest of the pitches would be in the same are I guess? For example, if I came up with a pitch where there was a stalker or something, then I'd be in the stalker mindset, and all the other pitches would revolve around stalking. We had to come up with 3 pitch ideas. Here they are, 1. A guy can predict or control his future and tries to save someone from dying by using his abilities, 2. A guy (sleeping or coma) can move out of his body and tries to stop his house from being destroyed, and finally, 3. a guy that's currently in a coma, has a dream that he wakes up, to later find out that he's not actually awake. Yes, very creative, I know. Especially the third one, that's a lot to take in. We were also told to insert pictures of us working, so here it is: I'm the person on the right, with the red jacket

    That's it, I hope you have a good rest of your day.