Title Research: Splice

     Splice is a sci-fi thriller shot in 2010. The first five seconds, the screen is black, maybe to build suspense. Then letters fall into place that reveals the production studio the film is from. The letters falling gives us an idea about the type of movie it is. You can tell that it's a horror thriller because the way the letters fell gave off an eerie vibe. The start is very slow, probably to build suspense. This is a good way to get the audience interested in the movie. By giving them the feeling of uneasiness that would normally come with a horror, it's a good start to the movie. After the production, we see a green coloured screen with spooky, slow music playing in the background. The green has a type of pattern on it but the camera is so zoomed in that it's hard to tell what it is. This keeps the audience guessing and keeps them intrigued. The next words are showing the name of the director of the movie.
     After the director goes away, we are shown very vague shots of this green thing, which keeps us guessing. Then it speeds up, showing us much more of the green thing but not enough to figure out what it is. The music is still playing, but it sped up and got louder. Then we see the names of the actors, written in a type of cloth. It starts with the main actor then moving on to lesser known ones. After the actors, the shot goes to zooming through the green substance with the names of everyone behind the camera floating in white font. During the entire clip, the music continued to get louder and faster. This builds high suspense for the audience, giving us something to look forward to when the story-line starts. The green thing is slowly revealed throughout the shots but it's still hard to make out. This can be because it's a really big turning point in the movie later on, or because it is completely insignificant and it was just something used by the creators for a creepy feel.
     Two minutes and forty seven seconds in, and the green thing starts throbbing. Almost like there's a heart behind it. After the writers show up in floating letters, the letters fade and we're left with what looks like a beating heart behind skin and veins. Those veins then shift around to form the title of the movie, then it shows the directors. We are then presented with, what looks like a streak of light that the camera keeps pulling away from then pushing to. Every time the camera gets closer,the light gets bigger and brighter. Then we are confronted with a white screen which begins the start of the movie.

Title Research: Final Destination

 I went on Watch the Titles website to choose a thriller movie. I wanted to go on Art of the Title website, but couldn't because my computer wouldn't let me. When I got on the website, I clicked on the feature films and looked for a thriller movie. I found Final Destination and decided to watch it. When the movie starts the title immediately pops up with blood. The music sounds like music you would hear in a video game. The names of the actors that played the main characters showed up first. The font of the letters seem basic and all the names are uppercase. Then the names of who it was casted by showed up. The names were all uppercase, but the heading "casting by" was lowercase.
     Then came the costume designer, associate producer, visual effects supervisor, music supervisor, co-producer, edited by, production designer, director of photography, executive producers, produced by, written by, and directed by. The whole title scene has this x-ray effect. Just by looking at the title scene, you can see that the movie is going to be about a car accident. At the beginning of the scene it shows how a ladder from the side a building went straight into someones skull. Then it shows a person getting a pole through the skull. It shows a van blow up and then a person get cut into pieces by a wire. An x-ray of broken bones is shown and then one of the bone pieces turns into a car. It also shows a person reaching for a knife, but then the knife fell of the counter and stabbed the person straight on the chest. A skull with nails is then shown and then lights blow up then transitioning into a bunch of broken glass flying everywhere and an x-ray of a person with headphones that fell out. A hall blows up and then transitions to an x-ray of a skull. It then goes into a spine and makes it seem like its a roller coaster.
     At the end of the title scene a bus crashes into the letters to finish it off. The title scene is kind of give bits and pieces of what happens in the movie. You can already tell what the movie is about by what's on the title scene. The title scene shows that there is a lot of things that are going to go on in the movie. The title scene was suspenseful and exciting.

Title Research: Crash

  I went onto Watch the Titles website and went onto featured films. I scrolled down to look for thrillers. I found Crash which is a thriller. When I started watching the title scene, I saw that it wasn't anything special. The title of the movie didn't come up immediately. First the producers names came up and then who it was distributed by. The directors name came up next and after that the actors names came up. Finally the title appears, first from far away and then close up. After the title appeared the rest of the actors names popped up. Then the rest of the credits appeared and it looks like the credits are coming out of the screen.

     The credits are lined up and come forward to the screen. The music is subtle and gives it suspense. It isn't too loud, which makes it kind of creepy and suspenseful. The font has a blue shine, which makes it look like glass. The screen starts off black and then a blue light appears from a corner. The light moves across diagonally to the other corner to reveal the words. The blue light is kind of white in the middle. The middle of the light is white and gets a darker blue as it leaves the middle. The entire title scene is a black screen and then a light coming from a corner and then going diagonally to the other corner to reveal the words. This title scene is very simple, but still has the effect it needs.

Title Research: Dr. No

     Dr. No is a thriller movie that takes place in 1962. It starts with naming the producers of the film, followed by a short clip of a man walking through a circular lens, as if  he's being followed. The man stops and shoots a gun at the camera, which leads us to believe that this will be an action packed movie. Then the circle fades out into a white dot, soon filled with the name of the author who wrote the James Bond novels. Without knowing what the movie is about, we already know that it is one of the first James Bond movies, which is going to be filled with action and adventure. The clip then switches to show various types of positions of the title, Dr. No. Which can imply that the movie will be very fast or filled with action. We are shown the actors names next. It starts with a very high end actor. This is probably to get an audience, or to get the audiences attention or excitement. If this is one of the first James Bond movies, then using the name of an actor that people know and/or love, will give them a type of security and they can put trust into the movie.
     That name is followed by the other main characters of the movie. This is to give insight about who's acting in it and that they'll have important roles. They give three lists of names, probably to give more power to certain people. The first group of names were of the immediate main characters of the movie; the best friend; boss; etc. The second group of names is of the characters who James Bond had a good connection to, but not the main focus of the movie. The final group of names were of people who had enough lines to not be considered extras. The screen then started to show the names of the people behind the camera. Starting with the director of photography then to production designer.
     Then it cut to two silhouettes dancing, then three. Then revealed the production manager and editor. It showed the copyright notice, then continued with the names. While the names flash onto the screen, the people dancing in the background change. Almost to show the actual people dancing as silhouettes. After the dancers, the background cuts to men walking with canes in a line. There are two more groups of people that are noticed, then the producers and directors. The old men are then show as people actually walking on the road and the movie begins. During majority of the scenes, there was very spy like music, music used to build suspense in a movie. Toward the end of the credits, as the movie was starting, the music switched the upbeat.

Title Research: Watch the Titles Website

     Watch the Titles is another website that also shows the opening titles for movies, shows, games, and even projects. At first glance we are shown three second clips of featured films. When scrolling down we are shown interviews of creators and categories for the film titles that can be viewed. We decided to ignore the interviews and just look at the categories. The featured films category and the event titles category caught our attention. We went under featured films and noticed many horror/thriller movies. After glancing through them we switched to event titles. We didn't like the films under event titles, so we decided not to use them. Then we went to the search bar and looked up thriller movies. We were disappointed to find no results in the search. We went back to featured films and picked five of our favorite to review. This gives us leeway to pick our favorite two to blog about. To know what we are dealing with, we clicked on a random title. We wanted to find out what information they would give us. We were given the title; the date it was released; a summary fo there movie; the credits; and the clip of the title sequence.

Title Research: Art of the Title Website

     Art of the title is a website that shows the opening titles for movies, shows, games, and short films. We are looking at this website because we need to research professional title shots. This website will allow us to see titles from any genre and allow us to find our own. We started with the "Top 10 Title Sequences of 2019." We noticed that none of these titles worked for our genre, so we went searching deeper. We searched thriller, and got the titles of many thriller movies, shows, games, and clips. We were given titles sequences, designers who create thrillers, featured title screens, and news. After we got the chance to look through what they showed us, we decided to stick to the title sequences. We then had to decide what title sequences we wanted to look at out of the 34 that we were given. After realizing that not all of the title sequences were movies we decided to add movies to out thriller search. We were then left with 18 movie sequences to choose from. By clicking on a few title sequences that were chosen at random, we were given information about the title sequence and how it was created. We were shown the video of the opening scene, given a summary, and showed the credits. By seeing this information, we understood more of where to take our own film. Using this information we cut our choices down to 5 different movie opening to choose from.

Thriller Research: Creep

The camera angles, movements, and shots in the movie were: point of view shot, eye level, high angle, low angle, two shot, close up, extreme close up, hand held camera shots, mid shot, long shot.

     The costumes the actors were wearing in the movie were: jacket, jeans, wolf mask. The lighting in the movie was: practical lighting, high key. The actors were: Mark Duplass played Josef and Patrick Kack-Brice played Aaron, both are the main characters. There was no makeup in the movie. The props used were: camera, hatchet, money, phone. The setting of the movie was in a small town.

     The sound used in the movie was: diegetic sound, dialogue. There was sound of water when Josef was in the tub and sound of screaming when Josef was watching the CD at the end.

     The editing in the movie was: eye line match and cut scene edits. 

     The elements in the movie was intensity and suspense that are in thriller films. The plot twist about how Josef lied about having a pregnant wife and that he was actually talking about his sister. The movie was all hand held camera shots because Aaron was filming Josef the whole time.

     The elements we liked ware the intensity and suspense and the plot twist in the movie. The element we did not like was the fact that it was all hand held camera shots.

Thriller Research: Berlin Syndrome

The camera angles, movements and shots in the movie were: three shot, two shot, tracking shot, over the shoulder shot, aerial shot, close up, extreme close up, long shot, medium shot, establishing shot.

     The costumes that the actors were wearing were: jackets, jeans, leotards. The type of lighting in the movie were: key lighting, practical lighting, high key. The actors in the movie were: Teresa Palmer played Clare Havel and Max Riemelt played Andi Werner, both are the main characters. The makeup used was fake blood. The props in the movie were: backpack, camera, books, basketball. The setting was in a city.

     The sound in the movie were: diegetic sound, non diegetic sound, dialogue. There were cars honking to represent how busy the streets were.

     The editing used in the movie were: shot reverse shot, eye line match.

     The elements in the movie was the intensity and emotion the characters showed. The downside of the movie was the fact that they started speaking another language which made it hard to follow the story line.

Thriller Research: Venom

   

     The camera angles and movements used in this film, are tracking shots, wide shots, extreme close ups, eye level, and birds eye view. 

     The costumes are police uniforms, a basic robbery outfit, and the same two outfits the main character wears because he is barely shown in the movie. 

     The lighting is very dark because it is action packed, intense, and mainly takes place at night or in darker places. 

     The actors are Tom hardy who plays the main actor and the supernatural, alien like being who latches onto him. There is also Riz Ahmed who plays the main villain in the movie. 

     

The props used were cars, a gun, and advanced scientific machines that were used to portray the job of future technology used in high-end, secretive science missions. 

  

     The setting took place in a crowed city in the present time of the shooting, maybe in the early future because of the technology used. 

     Common sounds were screaming, over-voice, cars, and any sounds that would normally come from a busy city. 

     Common edits were editing in the venom character because that doesn't exist in our world; all of the cut scenes; and major editing when using a green screen like when there was a spaceship.

     The elements were suspense, action, and the main character facing death. 

     The element that was not enjoyable was the amount of cut scenes. I felt like the movie was moving extremely fast, going from one scene to the next, it gave barely any time to think about what just happened. 

     

     

Thriller Research: Unsane

     The camera angles, movements, and shots used in this movie were: extreme close ups, to show the characters in distress; wide shots, to express the panic or intensity in the scene; low angles/high angles to show the power imbalance; tracking shots to show the point of view of the main character; and birds eye view to show detachment from certain scenes.

     The costumes used were: professional work attire to show the main character at her office job; robes and plane clothing to represent the patients in the psychiatric hospital; and scrubs to represent the nurses and doctors working at that hospital. The lighting was more yellow toned to maybe show a non-welcoming and but not dangerous environment. The actors consist of Claire Foy as the main character who was submitted to a mental hospital under the name of Sawyer Valentini and the other main actor named Joshua Leonard who plays the stalker of Sawyer by pretending to work at said hospital. The two make-up looks were a light face of make-up worn by Sawyer when she was shown at work and no make-up when she was shown in the hospital. The make-up was used to show her in a humane situation and when she had no make-up on was used to show the stressfulness and intensity of the other parts of the movie.The props were the weapons used by Joshua to murder his victims and the needles were used to sedate the patients when they went crazy. The setting took place in a crowded city and a mental hospital. The time is unknown but considering there is nothing to suggest a future or past time, it is assumed that this movie took place in the year that it was shot, 2018.

     The sounds found in the movie were the cars honking and police sirens to indicate a busy street life outside, and the conversation of patients and nurses to show a normal setting inside the hospital.

     The editing wasn't as big as it would have been in a fantasy film, with the need for sounds and lights to represent magic. The movie had editing in terms of having to edit cut scenes and the opening/closing scenes.

     The elements are suspense and intensity shown in thrillers. There are also fight scenes which are also in thrillers to show the climax of the movie.

     Disappointing aspects of the movie were the plot line and the choices the director made about how to shoot a certain scene. The story-line was very boring and cliche, and the fact that it was a movie made only two years ago makes me question if the director was just trying to get his career up and running, which would also explain why the angles were so awkward.

The Last Three

     The first genre we researched was crime. We made a PowerPoint on it discussing all the elements, editing, sound, CAMS and mis-en-scene. Crime doesn't really fit with our movie because our movie isn't really about crime but more of a mystery or thriller type. The second genre we researched was fantasy. The reason we researched fantasy is because it's a genre for one of our pitches. The third genre we researched was thriller. Thriller fits perfectly with our movie since the movie is a stalker film it has a lot of suspense and excitement which is what a thriller is.

The Fantasy Behind the Mystery

     We chose the genre of fantasy because we knew that was genre of another pitch that we had. In movies like the 'Harry Potter' series, there are many shots throughout the movie that implies power over another character, or conversation. When there is a fight scene, there are many wide angles or extreme close-ups to show how severe the situation is. In action filled fantasy, such as Frozen and Frozen II, there are camera movements and angles such as tracking, zoom, pan, and tilt.

     In fantasy, there are many different types of costumes. For movies like Frozen, there are princess dresses. In Harry Potter, there are robes and cloaks. In The Wizard of Oz, there is a costume for a tin man, a scarecrow, and a lion. There are also fantasy films where the characters wear normal clothing with no special meaning. The lighting in most fantasy films are bright and open or dark and mysterious. The bright colours represent adventure, like the lighting in the Avengers films or The Hobbit trilogy. The darker lighting represents a fighting scene or darker times in the characters lives, which is also found in the Avengers and Harry Potter. Actors in fantasy films also very, although there is usually someone who: has a magical power or ability, is a super-villain, a quirky best friend or other main character, and someone extremely normal who was put there to question everything about the plot. This person can also be the best friend of the main character. For example, in Frozen, Kristoff was the normal person who questioned everything about Anna and why she was chasing after her sister in the mountains. Make-up can be very dramatic, which is only worn by someone who contributes a lot to the plot, for example, a fairy princess who starts the main character in their long journey will probably be wearing a full face of bright make-up. Props in fantasy will be something that holds some sort of magical ability; including wands, a staff, a hammer, or a crystal ball. The setting can be taken in any point in time as fantasy is an extremely old genre, although it is usually taken place in an alternate universe where magic or superpowers are a big deal.
   
     Editing for fantasy can range from editing a green screen to show an unrealistic shot of someone in space, to editing in special effects and powers like flying, or streaks of colour shooting out of a wand or hands.

     A few films in fantasy are the Hobbit trilogy, Frozen I and II, the Avengers movies, the Harry Potter films, any princess movie, the Barbie movies, etc.

     Common sounds found in fantasy are intense music, exciting music, sounds of magic leaving an object, the sound teleportation or flying would make, that woosh sound, and lots of dialogue.

     Parts of fantasy that are enjoyable are the characters and the setting. To see people living in a world that I could never be in and doing things that I could never do but feeling like I'm there with them is a great feeling in the moment. I really like the feeling of getting to be in their world for a few hours. The leave enjoyable part of fantasy, is probably the plot because they're always unrealistic, and even though that is the point of the film, sometimes the filmmaker goes out of their way to make it so unrealistic that it turns into a bad film.

The genre for the movie we are filming is thriller. The camera angles, movements, and shots in the genre are: low angle, tilted angle, zoom, pan, close up, point of view, tracking shot.

     The costumes that are in thriller movies: dark clothing, long jackets, hats, suits, dresses. Key lighting, back lighting, high key lighting, under lighting, filler lighting, low key lighting, and top lighting are all different lighting used in thrillers. The type of actors you will see in thrillers are: serial killer, stalker, victim, agents, cops. In thrillers is not type of specific makeup. Props in thrillers are weapons, phones, money, and brief case. Common settings in thrillers are cities and suburbs.

     The editing techniques used in thrillers are: jump cuts, elliptical editing, shot reverse shot, parallel editing, graphic match, match on action, fast paced editing, slow paced editing, focus, continuity, montage, transitions.

     The elements in thrillers are: the protagonist faces death, forces of the antagonist must be initially clever or stronger than the protagonist, main story-line for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that cannot be put down, each character is dragged into a dangerous conflict.

     Some examples of thriller films are: Parasite, Get Out, Us, A Quiet Place, Taken.

     Sounds used in thriller films are: silence, dialogue, music, sound effects, voice-over.

     Elements that we liked are: each character is dragged into a dangerous conflict, the protagonist faces death.

     Elements we did not like are: forces of the antagonist must be initially clever or stronger than the protagonist, main story-line for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that cannot be put down.

Genre Research: Genre PowerPoint In September

     This is a genre power-point that my old team and I created toward the end of September. It was the first project that we worked on together, which created slight tension between us because we didn't know how well we would work together. We decided to work together only because we were sitting so close to one another. When the teacher called up one person from each group, Kyndell went up and got a slip of paper with the word "crime" on it. This let us know that we were going to work together to make a power-point about the genre, crime. We split the power-point into thirds and worked on our separate slides. After creating the title slide, we picked apart the power-point in terms of what each of us knew we would be good researching. Which ended up which Kyndell working on the first three slides, me working on the middle three slides, and Camila working on the last three slides. When we were done creating the slides, we all judged each others slides to make sure it was good enough to submit for a good grade. Since we all worked well together, and did our part well, we knew we would be a good group for future projects. 

Never Give The Pizza Girl The Address To Your Past

     We are starting with our three pitch ideas. Our first pitch is a stalker film, our second pitch is a magical fantasy, and our third pitch is a dramatic love story. To figure out what film we don't have the most passion for we have to break down our three films. We have to put each film in realistic terms that allows us to have a flexible schedule and work with what we have. Our first idea can be filmed completely in one location which eliminates travel problems from the equation. Our next idea has a lot to do with magic which will need intense editing. Our last idea deals with two college students in realistic time. Taking into account everything that we would have to do for each project we are deciding to eliminate our second idea about the girl in a magical fantasy. Now that we have removed our second idea we can now dig deeper into the other ones.

     To begin, our first pitch the stalker film can be shot in one location. This helps with transportation issues. The film won't require many actors to act in it which eliminates the issue of obtaining people. Although the film can be shot in one place it will require lots of editing. The editing may not be that big of an issue because we are giving so much time to do it. We won't have an issue with costumes because we will already have everything needed. With very little problems with transportation, actors, props, and location the film will be a good choice to produce.

     For our second pitch we will have a dramatic love story. The film would need to be shot in several different locations. We would have to find a quiet cafe, an empty hallway, a crowded house for a party, and a lecture hall. Because of the fact that we are in high school we don't have easy access to a lecture hall or house party. Although we could work around that its would deter the film from being the best it could be. Since there will be many locations to shoot from it will also require a lot of editing. Unlike our first pitch we will need to find many people to play roles in this film. Unlike professionals we don't have the time, reliability, money, nor resources to get an abundance of actors. The props that we need for the film we already own because we are students.

     Comparing the pros and cons between each pitch. We are deciding to shoot the stalker film. Our reasoning is based off of the fact that the stalker films pros out weighs the romance films pros. We also feel that the stalker film will have more attention and will be more fun to produce. To end, we feel the production of the stalker film will enhance our directing abilities and prepare us for the possibility of working in the film industry.

Starting the Final Project

      I began the class after it already started, which put me behind in the notes. I only started taking the class in the beginning of the year because I needed another AICE class. At first, I was really bored because we weren't doing anything that I thought was good. After a few weeks, we were told that we would be getting our first project. I was excited but also worried at the same time because I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually really fun. Six months ago I would have been struggling to write a blog and figure out what I needed to do. Now, it's like, we're told what we're doing and what are limitations are, and I get to work. I started working with Camila when we got our first project and found out that she is a really good partner. I also found out that we came into the class on the same day and I found that really interesting. I can see her progression through the year and I have high expectations for her if she wishes to peruse a career in film directing.

     Throughout the year, I have learned an insane amount of information that I never thought I would have ever known or wanted to know. I learned about editing, and how to do it on a professional level. I learned how, when, and why directors shoot films in certain places and times. I also learned how much fun being a director is. Since I love to write stories, I feel like I basically took what I already love to do and I put it into real life. For our final project, I am very excited to be doing everything. I love the research because I'm basically watching a lot of television for homework. I'm excited to storyboard because I love planning everything out. I'm excited for pre-production, production, and post-production because the entire movie making process is so much fun and so interesting to me. 

     To define 'pitch'; "it's a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less, usually with one sentence." 

     Our first pitch is a story about a girl who stole another girls' boyfriend. What she didn't know was that, this now single lady holds grudges like no other. Now she will come back to ruin her life. 

     Our second pitch is about a girl named Lucy, a home-schooled, C-average girl, as normal as could be, never expected to be so extraordinary. She will have to battle her magical future while stepping back into her cursed past. 

     My group's final pitch is a story about a girl who starts college in a new state to get a fresh start. She soon falls for the 'bad boy' and struggles to balance school and work. She soon realizes that this could be her worst mistake yet. Will she drop her bright future for the bad boy'.